Second-graders from Ashlawn Elementary School walk past Reevesland, the original farmhouse that the Arlington County Board is planning to sell, on their way to visit the vegetable planting beds in May 2015. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Want to preserve historic public property in Arlington for the community? Better get your own checkbook or start fundraising. The taxes we pay aren’t enough. That’s the message the Arlington County Board sent recently when its five members voted unanimously to privatize a historic farmhouse and adjacent parkland — even after eight residents testified against this decision and none spoke in favor. The board also voted against the will of the hundreds of like-minded citizens who appeared at numerous other public hearings and the more than 600 citizens who signed a petition opposing the sale.

Two board members, Katie Cristol and Christian Dorsey, reversed strong public positions they took when they were candidates. When the board decided in 2015 to begin the process of selling the property, The Post reported that “Katie Cristol dubbed both the decision and the short notice ‘shameful.’ ” And “Christian Dorsey called it ‘a bad business decision. . . . We’ve allowed that resource to become dilapidated over the years and it could have been a destination.’ ”

But county board members voted to privatize the farmhouse because they felt the county’s estimated price tag of $2.5 million to $3 million for renovation was too high and a private partner had not stepped forward to pay for it. Even though some question the estimate, that investment to preserve the farmhouse for public use would have amounted to 0.25 percent of Arlington’s annual budget of $1.2 billion.

Nelson Reeves lived in the farmhouse for nearly 100 years and operated Arlington’s last dairy farm on the surrounding land. After he died in 2000, his family sold the farmhouse and the remaining 2.5 acres to the county so that the county could preserve the property.

In 2010, Arlington County allowed the all-volunteer nonprofit Reevesland Learning Center, where my mother is president, to establish a modest learning garden on the site of Reeves’s famous vegetable garden. It’s been a huge success. Thousands of Arlington children and teachers have come to the historic site, planting organic greens while conducting lessons in math and science and living history every time they till the soil and gaze at the iconic farmhouse, now boarded up. Hundreds of neighbors have made this a community-wide effort, growing organic greens in their yards and gardens. After the student and community harvest, a Fiesta Salad celebration at lunchtime is held at the nearby Ashlawn Elementary School for more than 700 students and staff. A portion of the harvest is also donated to the Arlington Food Assistance Center.

The next logical step to expanding this unique, successful program is keeping the farmhouse in the public domain and renovating it so it can be used year-round by children, teachers, parents and the community. The farmhouse could become a local, much more accessible version of another Arlington treasure, the Outdoor Lab, located 40 miles away in Fauquier County. Many current and former students, including me, fondly remember their infrequent trips to the lab, but all Arlingtonians could visit the farmhouse regularly by walking or biking through the Washington and Old Dominion or Four Mile Run trails and up Reeves hill at Bluemont Park.

The Reevesland Learning Center has already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in in-kind contributions by engaging a major pro bono general contractor, architect and other donated services and labor. Perhaps most important for the community and its values, the plan includes a key role for Arlington Career Center students as apprentices, providing Arlington’s young people with a chance to gain life-changing job skills and employment opportunities.

By ignoring this proposal, the board is effectively telling Arlingtonians to find $3 million if we want to preserve our history for public use. Most of us don’t have that kind of money. But that’s the point of government: working together with members of the community to invest our tax dollars for the greater good.

The good news is that the County Board decision can be reversed. Indeed, several of the board members, including Dorsey, expressed unease with the decision and were assured by the county attorney that it can be undone.

Two years ago, then-candidate Dorsey said of the prior decision to move forward with selling the farmhouse: “This decision is beneath Arlington. We can do better.” His words were right then, and they are right now. Board members should live up to those words and the values that we elected them to represent.