EASTVILLE, Va. — The price tag for Northampton County’s middle and high school renovation has climbed to an estimated $108 million — $27 million above the $81.3 million contract supervisors approved in late 2023 — as the Board of Supervisors considers borrowing tens of millions of dollars to see the project through to completion.
The figures came to light after the Board of Supervisors convened in a closed session Tuesday night, citing probable litigation tied to the construction project and warning that discussing the matter in open session could weaken the county’s legal position.
The school renovation has a long history of price shocks. What was once pitched to supervisors as a $50 million to $52 million project drew a stunning $98.8 million low bid in 2023, sending county officials and the school board scrambling to trim costs. After cutting a subcontractor and paring back scope — including postponing a planned career and technical education (CTE) building — the board approved a $81.3 million construction contract with M.B. Kahn Construction Company that November, funded in part through $53 million in county borrowing and a $16 million state grant.
Construction broke ground in the spring of 2024. Since then, the total project budget — which includes architectural, engineering and design costs on top of construction — has continued to climb, first to roughly $90.9 million and now to $108 million.
Perhaps more pressing than the total cost is the timeline for the money itself. Supervisors were told the county’s remaining construction funds are expected to be exhausted by late March 2027 — while the best-case estimate for finishing the school isn’t until late October 2027, months after the funding runs dry.
That gap leaves the Board of Supervisors needing to decide how to bridge roughly seven months of construction with no dedicated funding source in hand.
Davenport’s Recommendation: Borrow More Than Needed
To close that gap, Davenport and Company — the county’s longtime financial advisor — recommended supervisors establish a $30 million line of credit, even though the county’s own estimate shows it needs closer to $19.3 million to finish construction. The extra cushion, roughly $10.7 million beyond the stated need, would give the county flexibility if costs rise again or if a companion CTE renovation, estimated separately at around $10 million, moves forward alongside the main project.
No vote was taken Tuesday. County officials have indicated supervisors have a few months to weigh their options before a decision is required.
What a $30 Million Debt Load Could Mean for a Small, Low-Income County
For most Virginia localities, absorbing tens of millions of dollars in new debt is a significant undertaking. For Northampton County, it could be especially consequential.
Northampton is a small, rural Eastern Shore county of roughly 12,000 residents. Census data shows a median household income of about $61,600 — well below the statewide median of roughly $93,000 — and a poverty rate near 17.7 percent, close to double the state average. The county’s tax base is correspondingly thin: a small population, a limited commercial sector and heavy reliance on residential and agricultural property values mean there are relatively few taxpayers to spread new debt service across.
New borrowing on this scale typically has to be repaid through some combination of property tax increases, cuts to other county services, or draws on reserve funds that exist for emergencies. In a county where a meaningful share of households are already living close to the poverty line, any of those paths carries real weight. A tax increase lands hardest on fixed-income retirees and lower-wage working families who make up a large share of the county’s population. Cuts to services can strain an already lean rural government that provides fewer redundant resources than wealthier, more populous jurisdictions. And drawing down reserves leaves less cushion for the next emergency — a storm, a revenue shortfall, or another unexpected capital cost.
The stakes are compounded by the fact that school construction costs nationally, and on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in particular, have been driven up by pandemic-era material and labor shortages — a dynamic county officials cited as far back as 2023 when the first eye-popping bids came in. That means Northampton’s experience is not unique, but its capacity to absorb the shock is more limited than in wealthier counties facing similar overruns.
Supervisors are expected to continue weighing financing options in the coming months as they balance the need to finish a project already years in the making against the long-term financial burden any new borrowing would place on the county’s taxpayers.
— Local reporting compiled from Northampton County Board of Supervisors meeting coverage and U.S. Census Bureau data.
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Well, at least now I understand why the County just doubled the perceived value of my small house which also doubled my property tax.
I am now supporting a bunch of imaginary children with my entire September social security check.
And the beat goes on….