By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff writer
Beaufort County school leaders got their first look at a new athletics complex at Northside High School, a complex that has been the subject of criticism by a county commissioner who recently expressed concern about the escalated cost of the project. 
A Beaufort County Board of Education committee that oversees the school system’s buildings and grounds toured the 4,138-square-foot athletics complex Wednesday. It includes locker rooms, a weight-training room and an office for the school’s athletics director.
As committee members toured of one of the system’s latest construction projects, their focus began to turn to a five-page wish-list of the system’s capital projects for the 2010-2011 fiscal year and a three-page pared-down version of proposed funding by schools Superintendent Don Phipps.
Phipps said the funding estimates on his list of some 40 proposed capital projects are “true estimates.” He asked the committee to review both lists and be prepared to discuss them in the coming weeks with the goal of having a completed capital projects list sometime in April.
He described the list as “a sample” of small- to moderate-sized construction projects with a few larger expenditures.
Among the $1.5 million in projects proposed for funding in the coming year are an estimated $376,500 in expenditures for a new roof at Washington High School; $250,000 for a drainage system at Northeast Elementary School; $200,000 for systemwide technology upgrades; $150,000 for removal of two underground fuel storage tanks and replacement of one above-ground storage tank; $66,814 for drainage basin and roofing work at S.W. Snowden Elementary School; and $38,528 for roofing work on Building 1 at Chocowinity Primary School, among others.
The lists are scheduled to be presented to the Personnel and Curriculum Committee for its review and discussed in detail at upcoming school-board meetings.
The Building and Grounds Committee also turned its attention to long-range construction needs of the system, including the development of a long-range plan to address aging school buildings in the county — such as Eastern Elementary School, Chocowinity Middle School and John Cotten Tayloe Elementary School — in light of funds that should be appropriated to the system from the N.C. Education Lottery in coming years.
Board Chairman Robert Belcher said the board needed to decide whether it would be best to replace the buildings or renovate them in the coming years, and, if the board decides to renovate them, whether those renovations could be done gradually.
“We need a detailed evaluation,” Belcher said.
Following the committee meeting, board members and school officials toured the new Northside High School athletics complex, saying they are pleased with the work.
Belcher said he is particularly pleased with how well the new addition matched the existing school building, particularly the exterior brickwork and metal siding.
“It exceeded my expectations,” Belcher said in an interview after the tour.
The total cost of the project is $525,400, said Sarah Hodges, public information officer for Beaufort County Schools. 
Its construction has been the subject of much discussion by some members of the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners.
The school board initially allocated $175,000 from its building fund and planned to raise other funds from private donors. As time passed, the board realized that the school could not raise enough private contributions to pay for the project. The school board went to the commissioners to request additional funds to complete the project, according to published reports. 
That move, nearly one year ago, garnered sharp criticism from Commissioner Hood Richardson, who was quoted at the time as saying “Budgets are budgets. … You know what would happen if you tried this in American industry anywhere? You’d have a pink slip.” 
Richardson has continued to criticize the project — most recently when Phipps attended the commissioners’ meeting on March 1.
The school board’s Personnel and Curriculum Committee is scheduled to tour the complex following its meeting Monday.
Both committees plan to tour the new media center at John Cotten Tayloe Elementary School in April.