By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 11, 1998; Page B01

RICHMOND, March 10—Tiny Manassas Park is renovating its entire school system -- all four buildings. Under a new school construction program advancing in Virginia's legislature, the school system would score $1.7 million, or more than $900 per student, to help pay its bills.

Fairfax, the largest school system in the Washington region and the self-dubbed "classroom trailer capital of the world," also is on a construction spree, spending about $100 million a year. But the state program's funding formula -- which gives preference to rapidly growing areas with relatively low incomes -- would bring only $12.6 million to wealthy Fairfax, or about $86 a student.

That disparity is one reason why Fairfax Sen. Warren E. Barry (R) is dead set against the Democratic school-building plan that a House of Delegates panel passed late Monday as part of a compromise package that also advanced the cornerstone plan of Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) to cut the car tax.

The two-year school plan would give Gilmore $447 million to finance most of his tax-relief plan, while calling for $350 million in bonds that could be turned into school construction grants to localities.

It would be the first time since 1954 that the state would shoulder part of the burden of local school-building costs. Democrats and moderate Republicans have hailed it as a huge step forward for Virginia schoolchildren. But it would also be the single largest new bond authorization in the coming two years, creating an annual debt of $35 million.

While the school-building plan is likely to pass the House soon, there were indications today that Senate Republicans were lining up against it, reasoning that lawmakers would look silly if in the same session they approved a massive car-tax cut along with a plan to go into debt to build schools.

"It'd be the biggest mistake we ever made," said Barry, rejecting arguments that the school program's favoring of poorer jurisdictions would balance the impact of the car-tax cut, which would send more relief to wealthier people. "It would be totally irresponsible. It's all being done for political gain."

Regardless of whether the proposed state program would have much effect on their particular building plans, school officials across Northern Virginia expressed support for it today. In districts big and small, rural and urban, any state contribution would be welcome, they said.

In Manassas Park, the fastest-growing city in the state, School Superintendent Tom DeBolt is mulling over the $13.5 million in debt the city has incurred to build a high school, plan an elementary school and replace or renovate the other schools.

"We have maybe the largest single school building program per capita in any city's history," he said.

What of the $1.7 million proposed for his system under the school-building plan? "Shoot! That would be great!" he said.

Each school system must put up some of its own money to receive state funds for school construction; the wealthiest districts pay 80 percent of the grant total, the poorest 20 percent. That means Fairfax, at the more affluent end of the spectrum, would have to put up $32 million to receive its $12.6 million under the plan.

"I would think that $32 million would not be a problem for us," said Fairfax School Superintendent Daniel A. Domenech, noting that the county already is spending $100 million on school capital needs each year and has $500 million in capital projects awaiting financing.

"So $12 million may be considered a drop in the bucket, but a drop we'll gladly take," he said.

The plan's funding formula generally takes into account a locality's wealth, enrollment growth rate and number of pupils. A city such as Virginia Beach would make out well because it is growing quickly and is less affluent than suburbs such as Fairfax. With 78,000 students -- about half the size of Fairfax -- Virginia Beach would draw $15.4 million, about 22 percent more money.

Prince William County, also not as wealthy as Fairfax, would fare quite well under the plan. It would get $9.7 million -- enough to build an elementary school, said Robert A. Ferrebee, the system's associate superintendent for management.

With 51,000 students, 66 schools and 150 trailers, Prince William -- where hallways in some schools are so congested that school officials have designated one-way corridors -- is a poster child for the state's school construction crisis.

The county has a list of $100 million in capital projects it wants to finance in the next five years; Ferrebee said $9.7 million would be "a heckuva lot more than we're getting now. I'd never turn that down."

Ferrebee argued that issuing bonds is an appropriate way to pay for buildings that will be used for 40 or 50 years and whose costs will be paid off over 15 to 20 years.

"You can justify doing it from the standpoint that the money, the building, is used by more than one generation of students," he said.

Del. John H. "Jack" Rust Jr. (R-Fairfax), who helped craft the compromise linking the car-tax cut with school construction, said that even if the school system from his district were not affected as much as less wealthy ones by the school-building program, it's the right thing to do.

"It's only just," he said. "We have a responsibility to make sure that we have quality schools throughout the commonwealth, not just in Fairfax County."

Staff writer Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.