If Monday night’s work session was any indication, the Suffolk Public School Board will have plenty to talk about during its March meeting Thursday night.

The School Board will be asked to pass the proposed budget for 2009-2010 and to pass a request for a transfer of funds for capital projects.

Both matters were discussed for more than two hours Monday night.

Superintendent Milton Liverman advised the board Monday night to work with his original budget proposal that was announced last month, even though the General Assembly recently released its budget that trimmed the schools’ expected state revenue by another $400,000. Federal revitalization funds of $4.9 million are available for the next two years, but there has been no instruction on how to use those funds.

The only budget change discussed Monday night was to keep the lead teacher position for the International Baccalaureate program.

Following the talk of the budget, Liverman also talked to the School Board about changes in the capital projects’ budget.

Currently, the school system has roughly $1.5 million in capital project money, thanks to savings realized during construction of Hillpoint Elementary School and Nansemond Parkway Elementary School.

This money had been slated for the Southwestern Elementary replacement school. But two new projects are in need of that money.

At John Yeates Middle School, traffic from 7:15 to 7:45 a.m. on Bennett’s Pasture Road is stacked in both directions, as buses and student drop-offs cause cars to stop. The road has become “extremely dangerous” to students and parents who are dropping off the children, Liverman said.

“This is a safety issue, and it needs to be addressed,” he said.

The recommendation is to build a lane around the school property, which would eliminate the traffic-build up on the road. The project would cost approximately $300,000.

Additionally, the tennis courts at Nansemond River High School are cracked and unable to be played on. The recommendation is to resurface all the courts, which would cost about $160,000.

Liverman advised the board to use the money in the capital projects fund to take care of these two projects. When that is done, there will not be enough to begin the elementary school project.

Liverman said they have two options: either to ask City Council to allocate the necessary start-up funds or to phase the construction of the new elementary school. Phasing the construction is not the best option in this case for a number of reasons, he said, not the least of which is phased construction will not have the school open by fall of 2011.

The school board will meet Thursday at 7 p.m. in City Council chambers.