Guilford County Schools facilities director Joe Hill made an interesting comment during a recent meeting of the school board’s Construction Advisory Committee. Commissioner Steve Arnold, missing in action during a crucial discussion about construction of the new $114 million jail, just happened to be sitting in on the meeting and wondered why the proposed airport-area high school costs $20 million:

Arnold asked why he’d gotten the idea that the new high school would cost $80 million. Hill pointed to The Rhino Times reporter present and said it was because of the media “sensationalizing” construction costs.

Media sensationalism, huh? Note the Rhino’s Paul Clark sticks up for himself pretty well, but I’ll add it was school board member Amos Quick who voiced concern about the airport-area high school’s $88 million pricetag.

Allow me to ask another question: Considering the fact that voters passed almost half a million dollars in school bonds, and county commissioners put a sales tax on the ballot to help pay off school bond debt, and a county commissioner is directly questioning the school system about construction costs, shouldn’t we be reading about this in the local paper of record?