Saying it was time to move the process forward, the Williamsburg-James City County School Board again voted Tuesday night to recommend the construction of a fourth middle school at the site of the district’s James Blair administrative offices.
School board members voiced their frustration with a process that has been beset by both political and procedural delays before voting to recommend Superintendent Steven Constantino’s plan to turn the former middle school site into the newest secondary school.
The plan would transform James Blair into a fourth middle school over two phases. Phase 1 would add a three-story wing onto the building to accommodate a 650-seat middle school by 2018. Phase 2 would include the demolition of the existing central office structure and its replacement with an additional wing, expanding the school’s capacity to 950 seats after 2024.
The three existing middle schools are expected to exceed capacity by the 2018-19 school year.
Although board members voted to recommend the proposal, they uniformly agreed it was not an ideal solution to the district’s needs.
“We all know that the most fiscally responsible thing to do is to build a 950-seat middle school because we have been here long enough to see that we get ourselves in a pickle when we have not planned accordingly,” Board Chairwoman Ruth Larson (Berkeley) said. “In my mind, the days of 600-seat middle schools are over just because of the economic realities.”
Last year, the board considered an alternate plan that would have built a 950-seat middle school in one phase on the James Blair site and relocated central office to a new building on a municipally owned piece of land near the Williamsburg-James City County Courthouse at a total cost of $49 million. Though Williamsburg’s City Council would have funded its share of the cost to build the new middle school at the James Blair site, the James City County Board of Supervisors did not allocate funding for the plan.
The supervisors sent Constantino back to the drawing board in June 2014 after their approved budget reserved only $28.5 million for “classroom expansions.” Constantino returned in October with the two-phase plan for the James Blair site. With a total cost approaching $61 million, the two-phase plan is more than $10 million more expensive than Constantino’s original proposal. However, by deferring the estimated $29 million for phase two until 2024, it fits the fiscal framework established by the Board of Supervisors.
“I believe the message we heard in June was, ‘Here’s the earmarked figure, so I got the idea to kind of reverse engineer this thing,” Constantino said. “Saying, ‘This is all the money we’re going to have at the moment, what are we going to do with it?’”
The board voted 6-1 to recommend the plan with Heather Cordasco (Roberts) the lone dissenter, but each member expressed reservations about it.
Joe Fuentes (Powhatan) said the plan was not the most cost-effective option, and the single-phase approach to the James Blair site was superior.
“Down the road, it all comes back to us,” he said. “What’s probably more important to us is the public knows we do what we can based on what was handed to us.”
Jim Kelly (Jamestown) and James Nickols (Stonehouse) both said the plan had major drawbacks, from its higher cost to its small initial size. Both men agreed, however, that it was the best option given the financial circumstances enacted by the Board of Supervisors.
“At some point, leaders have to make a decision,” Kelly said.
Larson also said the plan was not ideal but noted the longer the process took, the more expensive it would become.
Cordasco said she was not satisfied with the plan, referencing what she considered the site’s small size. Instead of using James Blair, Cordasco said the district should consider building a new school on a different piece of property located somewhere else in James City County or the City of Williamsburg.
“I think there is land [available],” Cordasco said. “I have been contacted about four or five properties that are options. I feel like this is not the right decision.”
In a March meeting, Supervisor Michael Hipple (Powhatan) suggested building a new high school on a 45-acre plot near Jolly Pond Road and transforming one of the existing high schools into an additional middle school. That same meeting, Supervisor Kevin Onizuk (Jamestown) suggested building additions onto Lois S. Hornsby Middle to increase its capacity by up to 500 students. That discussion led to the supervisors’ vote against allocating the funds WJCC requested for a new middle school.
Constantino reiterated Tuesday night that no other viable sites had ever been identified during the years-long middle school discussion.
“I’ve heard discussions about all kinds of land, but I can’t say to the school board, ‘Hey, here’s what we ought to do because I think there’s a piece of land out there,” Constantino said. “I can’t do that. So until someone says, ‘We want to purchase land,’ or ‘We have purchased land,’ or ‘Please evaluate whether or not this particular piece of property we have under consideration’ — that has never happened.”
Before any work can be done, the Board of Supervisors must approve the plan — a move Larson said she did not think was assured.
New James City County Administrator Bryan Hill previously called for better communication between the School Board, Board of Supervisors and the Williamsburg City Council regarding the new middle school plan. Larson said she expected the School Liaison Committee would convene to discuss the plan before any official decisions were made on the plan.
Related Coverage:
- JCC Administrator Proposes Process for Supes to Give Feedback on Latest Middle School Plans
- Latest Proposal for New Middle School at James Blair Tops $50 Million
- WJCC Staff, Consultants Working on Short-Term Option to Accommodate Population Growth
- WJCC Schools Tasked with Developing New Short-Term Middle School Option
- JCC Supes Change Fourth Middle School Funding Placeholder, Pass Budget
- WJCC School Site Selection Committee Members Announced
- City Council Adopts Lower Budget Than Originally Proposed
- JCC Citizens Voice Concern for Stormwater, Schools Funding in Proposed Budget
- JCC Budget Proposal Focuses on Schools, Public Safety and Stormwater
- James City County Faced with Covering Increased Stormwater, School Costs
- JCC Committee Includes Fourth Middle School in List of Priority Projects
- Funding, Site for Fourth WJCC Middle School Still Uncertain
- JCC Supervisors Want James Blair Kept as Central Office, More Options for New WJCC School
- WJCC School Board OKs Preliminary Budget with Placeholders for Middle School, Central Office
- JCC Supes to Wait Two Weeks Before Offering Opinion on Fourth Middle School, Central Office
- James Blair Still Recommended as Site for Fourth WJCC Middle School
- WJCC Superintendent’s Proposed Budget Gives Raise to Employees, Hires 16 Teachers
- WJCC to Wait on Population Projections Before Creating New Plan for Fourth Middle School
- JCC Committee Includes Fourth Middle School in List of Priority Projects
- WJCC Schools Plan to Keep James Blair as Office Space – For Now
- WJCC Board Asked to Delay Decision on Fourth Middle School for Further Planning
- City, JCC Outline Growth Areas to Help Determine Fourth Middle School Location
- WJCC Schools Seeking Public Input on Fourth Middle School
- WJCC Superintendent: Fourth Middle School Likely on James Blair Site
- WJCC Committee Has Started Researching Middle School Options
