Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors Chairman William McCarty has been named to the Virginia School Boards Association’s task force on school construction and infrastructure funding.

The VSBA, which boasts 100% membership among all Virginia school divisions, established the task force in 2022 for the stated purpose of advocating best practices for improving school infrastructure.

The Virginia Commission on School Construction and Modernization, a 17-member body of state legislators, government officials and three non-legislative citizens, previously reported that more than half of Virginia’s school buildings are at least 50 years old, and had estimated the cost of replacing over 1,000 aging facilities at $25 billion in 2021 dollars.

McCarty, who was named second vice president of the Virginia Association of Counties in 2022, will represent that body as well as Isle of Wight County on the task force as its only non-school-affiliated local government representative.

Isle of Wight County has two public schools dating to the 1960s. Hardy Elementary is slated to be replaced by a larger, two-story school by September. The other, Westside Elementary, is also slated to be replaced, though the project isn’t yet fully funded and a timeline has not been finalized.