So much for quick approval.

By a vote of 8-1, City Council on Monday put off a decision to transfer $7.3 million to Richmond Public Schools for development of a replacement building for the aged George Wythe High School.

The funds currently are available in a city account that would allow RPS to proceed with hiring an architectural firm to design the new school building.

Only Councilwoman Kristen N. Larson, 4th District, a former School Board member, urged approval of the measure proposed by Mayor Levar M. Stoney.

The transfer is expected to come up again at the next City Council meeting on Monday, Jan. 10.

For the moment, the delay will not hinder the launch of the design work, according to RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras.

Mr. Kamras said his administration is still reviewing proposals submitted by nine design firms. He said a recommendation would not be sent to the School Board for approval until late January or early February.

For most of the City Council, the key holdup on the money remains their questions about the proposed capacity of the new building.

A five-member majority of the School Board, which has retaken control of school construction, approved building a new school for 1,600 students, or about 200 more than the 61-year-old George Wythe building was constructed to serve.

Mayor Stoney, along with Mr. Kamras and the majority of City Council, believes that a new school to serve 2,000 students would be needed to prevent overcrowding when the new building is opened, which is now estimated by the School Board for fall 2024.

“It would be irresponsible” to open a building that was overcapacity on day one, Council Vice President Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District, said Monday.

The School Board majority, led by board Vice Chairman Jonathan M. Young, 4th District, has noted that the new George Wythe is one of two new high schools targeted for South Side. The other is a career and technical high school that would absorb 1,000 students.

By building a smaller George Wythe than originally contemplated, money would be left over to invest in building a new elementary school in Church Hill to replace Woodville and Fairfield Court elementary schools.

At the City Council meeting, Councilman Michael J. Jones, 9th District, led the charge for delaying turning over the funds to the School Board. However, during his impassioned speech arguing for a larger school, he provided evidence buttressing the idea that a 2,000-student school would be oversized. He told his council colleagues that only 981 students are currently enrolled at George Wythe, which has a 1,400-student capacity. That confirms information School Board member Stephanie M. Rizzi, 5th District, provided in a statement of support for building a smaller school.

And despite claims from 8th District Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell of growth of families in South Side, school-age population projections tell a different story.

As of July 2020, Richmond’s population of children ages 5 to 19 totaled 29,219, according to the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center, which issues the annual projections.

Even though the city’s total population jumped more than 12 percent between 2010 and 2020, the Weldon Cooper projection represents a drop of 5,600 school-age children from 2008 and nearly 2,000 fewer school-age children than the center projected in 2012.

In other business, council approved a plan to allow neighborhood civic groups in areas that have to pay for parking decals to receive a share of the money to get rid of graffiti and undertake litter cleanups.

The council also gave the green light to allowing Commonwealth Catholic Charities to develop 55 affordable apartments on the former site of St. Elizabeth’s Catholic School in Highland Park.