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GREENSBORO — School board members faced hostile questioning Thursday from Guilford County commissioners as they sought more money to repair schools. The exchange during the commissioners’ budget workshop could signal a worsening relationship between the two elected boards in what is shaping up to be a significant financial crisis.

School board members were focused Thursday on asking commissioners to keep a construction maintenance fund at $7 million. County Manager Brenda Jones Fox has proposed cutting it to $4 million.

At the same time, school officials also asked commissioners to pass an overall budget that is flexible enough to support additional money for schools if the state’s allocation is as bad as expected. Local legislators told school officials this week the House budget proposal could short Guilford County Schools as much as $36 million. The cuts could mean as many as 400 employees laid off.

If school officials expected any empathy, they received a cold shoulder at best. Commissioners broadly faulted the school board for wasteful spending and not tending to proper needs.

Commissioner Kay Cashion asked school board Chairman Alan Duncan several times why Hunter Elementary School has been on a list for repairs to its heating and air-conditioning system for eight years, especially during years when the school system had much more for maintenance.

Duncan said the school system has always had more pressing maintenance needs, even when the district had more money.

“That should be the red flag for everybody,” Duncan said.

Duncan noted that in the past 10 years, commissioners have decreased the district’s maintenance funding by

$5 million, not including the current proposed cut. Those cuts meant less money to fix issues other than the most critical, dropping schools down the list despite having serious concerns themselves.

Commissioner Bruce Davis suggested that schools were playing politics when it came to which ones got repairs.

“It probably gets political,” he said.

Duncan said the school system’s professional staff created the lists objectively and that every effort was taken to keep politics out of it.

Davis also asked if the school board had a plan for addressing the maintenance needs. There is a plan, Duncan said, but he blamed a lack of funding for not implementing it.

Commissioners Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston said the school board has continued to fail to provide details about those plans and why some schools have not had their maintenance issues addressed.

Commissioner Linda Shaw complained that the district is building schools that are too expensive, especially in terms of architecture. They’re beautiful, she said, but more expensive than schools built elsewhere. Duncan noted that the average cost of new schools for Guilford County is less than the state average.

The school board had at least one commissioner on its side. Commissioner Paul Gibson tried to move $1.8 million proposed for economic development and various civic group projects to the schools’ maintenance fund. Alston said that proposal should wait for a regular board meeting.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com