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Resident urges Frederick County supervisors to withhold $200 million school request pending firm cost estimates
Summary
At a Board of Supervisors meeting public comment period, James Mulder of Back Creek District urged supervisors to delay or re-evaluate a roughly $200 million school board funding request he said contains "fluff," and called for architect-based cost estimates before advancing county funds.
A resident urged the Frederick County Board of Supervisors to withhold or re-evaluate a roughly $200 million funding request from the school board until the figure is supported by firm, architect-produced cost estimates.
James Mulder of Back Creek District made the appeal during the meeting’s public comment period, saying an unspecified vice chair at a prior school board meeting had "mentioned that she knows that there's fluff in that number." Mulder asked the supervisors to "go back and make them come back with the real number," arguing that an architect would provide a building list and labor-and-material cost that would show the "true cost."
"I believe if the zoning wouldn't have had the data centers you wouldn't have had to push back," Mulder said, linking recent debate over data center zoning to broader budget tensions in the county. He added that, while he acknowledged "there's a need for the overcrowding problem," county funding should come from a "reasonable factor" and not from an estimate he described as padded.
Mulder cited past project overruns to illustrate his concern, referring to a long-running road project that he said required "another 400 and something thousand dollars" to finish and warning of future shortfalls that could require substantially more funding. He urged the supervisors not to advance the school board’s request until a contract is signed and costs are guaranteed and recommended the board consider spending cuts, including within the school budget.
The board recorded no public votes on the topic during the meeting. Later in the session a board member moved to adjourn, another seconded, and the meeting was ended by a voice vote with the moderator announcing "Aye." No further board discussion or formal direction on the school board request was recorded in the transcript.
Mulder’s comments were made during the public comment portion of the Board of Supervisors meeting and represent a resident’s perspective and recommendations to the board; the school board did not respond during this meeting, and no staff cost estimates or formal fiscal actions were presented on the record.
