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At least one member of the Guilford County Board of Education wanted to reconsider hanging on to Braxton Craven Elementary School.

But in the end, the board voted for a second time Thursday night not to make Craven available for preschool nonprofit, Guilford Child Development.

The vote came a week after Guilford County commissioners approved a resolution stating they would only sell the school and property to Guilford Child Development, should the school board vote to list it as surplus property.

The school board also voted 6-3 Thursday night to increase school lunch prices by 50 cents for elementary school students and 30 cents for middle and high school students. Sandra Alexander, Carlvena Foster and Deena Hayes were the “no” votes.

The price increase means an elementary student will pay $2.30 for lunch, up from $1.80; middle school students will pay $2.40 and high school students will pay $2.50.

The increase is an effort to make up for a $3.2 million cafeteria budget shortfall.

Two weeks ago, board Vice-Chairman Amos Quick voted against making the Craven school surplus, but he said he wanted to reconsider his vote Thursday based on information he had received.

Quick made a motion to make the property surplus as long as the county sold it for $1.16 million and it was used as an educational facility.

But another motion was made not to mark the property as surplus. That passed 6-5 with board members Sandra Alexander, Amos Quick, Jeff Daniels, Deena Hayes and Carlvena Foster voting against it.

The members who voted with the majority generally agreed that their concern is that the system could still use the property as a school.

That thought was bolstered by hearing from school staff that the system is eligible for $34.2 million in federal stimulus bond funding. The school system would be required to repay the bonds but they would be interest-free.

The school board would not need to have the bonds approved by voters.

Leo Bobadilla, the district’s chief operations officer, said the money could be used for various construction and possibly maintenance efforts.

Guilford Child Development operates 12 preschools and serves more than 1,000 children up to 3 years old.

Robin Britt, the group’s executive director, said he believes Guilford Child Development could serve about 170 students at Craven, employ about 30 people and invest about $2 million to fix the building. The plan would depend on the group winning $5 million in federal stimulus funding.

Britt said his organization felt Craven was the best fit and they pursued it hard. That pursuit may have ruffled some feathers .

Board member Darlene Garrett, attending the meeting via telephone for this issue only, said selling the school would be irresponsible and expressed frustration about how things were handled behind the scenes.

“I find the whole way this has been handled has been reprehensible,” Garrett said. Cooke said she was pressured by several different groups, even having her political aspirations questioned.

But she said she had spoken with Greensboro College President Craven Williams who told her he was in talks with Guilford Child Development to lease the J.C. Price School for up to 20 years.

“So I know that when we say 'no’ to this, we’re not putting Guilford Child Development out in the streets,” she said. Britt said his group is in talks with Greensboro College but that location is not as favorable as Craven.

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