By PAMELA GOULD

The Spotsylvania County School Board gave Superintendent Shelley K. Redinger $20,000 to relocate from Oregon to Virginia to begin work here last July.

The bulk of that money--$18,890.47--was needed to ship her family's belongings cross country.

The rest went for her red-eye flight June 26--a one-way ticket that cost $311.40--and shipping her car to Virginia, which cost $957.

Redinger paid the $158.87 those three items cost above the $20,000 allowed by her contract, according to invoices obtained by The Free Lance-Star. But those out-of-pocket expenses were a fraction of the additional cost Redinger and her family bore in making the move from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast.

They lost at least $120,000 in the sale of their home in Boring, Ore., according to public records.

They also incurred the cost of temporary housing while searching for a home in Spotsylvania and had additional expenses in moving Redinger's husband and son to the county.

But with Redinger preparing to leave the division after just one year here, School Board members Amanda Blalock, Ray Lora and Dawn Shelley are suggesting she should reimburse the county some or all of the relocation money she received.

"It has been made crystal clear to me by my constituents that is an area they want me to approach," Blalock said this week.

"In weighing all sides, I do believe the right thing for the School Board to do is to ask for the relocation expenses to be reimbursed to the school division."

However, all three stressed that their decision is strictly about fiscal responsibility, not Redinger's performance, which they said has been stellar.

"Everyone has thought she has done a great job, and it has nothing to do with that," Shelley said.

Redinger, 44, signed a four-year contract when she was selected in February 2011 to succeed retiring Superintendent Jerry Hill.

She was expected to stay here because she and her husband, Darin, had been looking for a place to raise their son, a third-grader.

That is why she said they agreed to sell their Oregon home at a loss and move quickly to buy a home in Spotsylvania rather than renting on either end.