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Frederick County school officials have shaved $222,000 from the cost of the $16.7 million central office building now under construction, but the money is not going into the operating budget to be spent in classrooms.

Instead, school board members voted 5-1 on Oct. 26 to spend the money on other improvements in the new central office.

School board member Donna Crook was the lone vote against that idea. Board member Angie Fish was absent.

Crook, who brought up the issue for discussion, said she was disappointed. "I thought that if we have any savings from this, it should go into the operating budget, not back into this project," Crook said.

Funding for central office project has been a recurring source of controversy because the school board is using its operating budget, instead of its capital budget, to repay the construction loan.

Governments usually use capital budgets to pay for construction projects and other large, one-time expenses, and operating budgets to pay for ongoing expenses, such as salaries and utility bills. The school board years ago decided against using its capital budget to pay for the project so it would not compete for funding with school construction projects.

But Jean A. Smith, president of the school board, said the school system is paying interest on the $222,000 because it is part of the $16.7 million it borrowed from SunTrust Leasing Corp. to pay for construction.

Paying interest on money used for operating expenses makes no sense, Smith said. "It was money earmarked for that building," Smith said. "It is still money that we have borrowed. We have to pay interest on that money. It is mortgage money."

The $222,000 now will pay for other improvements to the building, such as a second emergency generator and air conditioning for the new TV studio, said Ray Barnes, the school system's facilities director.

"Some of them we could have lived without, but some of them were important," Barnes said.

Installing air conditioning in the new TV studio, for example, will raise the value of the new building, Barnes said.

School system staff was able to save the $222,000 after finding a better offer for new cubicles and desks for the building, Barnes said. The initial budget was $897,100, which was reduced to $675,000, Barnes said.

The school system has some cubicles and desks in its Hayward Road building, but those will not be enough for the new building. Useable ones will be sent to other buildings across the system, he said; the new office building will have all new cubicles and desks.

Administrators will not get any other new equipment, such as chairs, fax machines or computers, he said. "Every other piece of furniture in the new building is coming from an existing building," he said.

The new 90,000-square-foot central office building is under construction on the corner of East and South streets in Frederick. If construction moves smoothly, school administrators will move into the new building in the summer. The project aims will consolidate 251 school administrators from five locations across the county into one location.

The school system plans to pay for the new central office over the next 25 years out of its operating budget. In June, officials set $2 million aside from the adopted $497 million fiscal 2010 budget for such payments.

Eventually, school officials hope to offset $8.6 million of the project's cost by selling four existing buildings — two on Hayward Road in Frederick, an office building at 115 Church St., in Frederick, and a warehouse in Middletown.

If the buildings are not sold, the school system will have to pay $1.1 million every year for the new building. The first payment for the new building will be due in fiscal 2011, which begins July 1.

E-mail Margarita Raycheva at mraycheva@gazette.net.