BEDFORD - The Bedford County School Board is expected in January to choose between two groups competing to build two schools: one replacing Jefferson Forest High and the second a combination middle/high school.

But the county's board of supervisors didn't appear any closer to agreeing to fund the two projects during a meeting with school Superintendent Jim Blevins on Monday night. For competitive reasons, the two developers working with the county, the Eastridge Cos. and First Choice Public-Private Partners, have requested that the costs of their projects not be publicly released until the school board signs a contract.

That request has frustrated supervisors, who have said that county residents should know how their taxes could potentially be spent.

"They've got to know what they're paying for," said Chairman Bobby Pollard, who represents the Montvale District.

Blevins said that Construction Dynamics Group, a consulting firm working with the school system, will recommend at the school board's Jan. 27 meeting which developer has the better proposal. The board likely will vote at the meeting whether to accept the consultant's recommendation, Blevins said.

A preliminary draft of the school system's capital improvement plan includes a projected cost of $32 million for building a 1,000-student-capacity high school to replace the overcrowded Jefferson Forest.

Also listed is a $43 million projected cost for building a fourth high school, which would be a combination high school and middle school. That school could be located along the U.S. 460 corridor and ease future overcrowding at the other high schools. School officials say that students from Body Camp, Huddleston, Thomas Jefferson and New London elementary schools would likely attend the new middle/high school.

Blevins said that the cost figures represented in the plan are working numbers and do not represent specific bids for projects received by the school system.

A majority of supervisors have said that they want to consider whether it is cost-effective to renovate Jefferson Forest, but they did not ask Blevins for any specific information on renovation costs at Monday's meeting.

Bedford County Administrator Bill Rolfe said that if supervisors favor renovation or aren't happy with projected cost figures, they need to tell the school board how they feel.

"At some point, the board of supervisors has got to give the school board some direction," Rolfe said.