The leaders of BUILD, one of the organizations pushing for $2.8 billion to fix dilapidated Baltimore school buildings, obliquely chastised Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake yesterday for backing off a pledge to work for the full amount.

“Baltimore thinks on a grand scale when it comes to Inner Harbor development,” said Bishop Douglas I. Miles, co-chair of the interfaith group Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD).

“It’s only when it comes to our children’s future, to the needs of neighborhoods and communities uptown that officials start talking about ‘fiscal responsibility’ and ‘limited risk taking,’” Miles said at a news conference held near the Excel Academy at Francis M. Wood High School.

Rawlings-Blake’s proposed bottle tax hike and other measures would, according to her projections, allow city schools to raise a first round of $300 million in bonds for new construction.

School chief Andrés Alonso is pressing for city and state funds to leverage four times that amount in the first round.

And BUILD wants to more than double Alonso’s plan based on a study by the American Civil Liberties Union of the needs of the school system.

In her State of the City address Monday, Rawlings-Blake called efforts to borrow $1 billion for school renovation financially irresponsible.

Yesterday’s news conference was BUILD’s response to her statement, saying the bottle tax increase was just one step to help fund school construction.

Help from Business Leaders

The activist group also said it would call on local business leaders to do their part for city schools by ponying up $10 million annually for 10 years.

“We know there are business leaders in the corporate community who also believe that children need to be at the top of our list,” said the Rev. Andrew Foster Connors, BUILD’s other co-chair. He declined to provide names, saying that the talks with business leaders have just begun.

Connors coupled that announcement with a warning. BUILD will continue to fight tax subsidies for private development at the Inner Harbor and elsewhere “until our children’s school construction needs are met,” he said.

The group said the mayor promised during her reelection campaign last year to double the number of youth jobs and double funding for after-school programs. “BUILD expects the mayor to fulfill those commitments,” the group said in a press release.