A new proposal for a fourth middle school and lingering uncertainty James Blair is the correct site could delay movement on a yearslong process Superintendent Steven Constantino says should have concluded years ago.
Though the Williamsburg-James City County School Board voted Tuesday to recommend a plan that would transform James Blair’s administrative offices into a 950-seat middle school in two phases — with a capacity of 650 students ready for 2018 — some members of the James City County Board of Supervisors are intrigued by a proposal from a local developer that would put the school at a different location.
Chris Henderson, a local developer with CBRE Inc., sent an email Oct. 17 — four days before the school board’s vote on the James Blair site — to Supervisors Kevin Onizuk (Jamestown), Mary Jones (Berkeley) and Michael Hipple (Powhatan) with a proposal for a middle school on a 115-acre tract on News Road in James City County. Henderson also sent an email to Constantino with the plans that same day.
In the email, Henderson states he is submitting it under the Public-Private Educational Facilities Infrastructure Act (PPEA), which allows municipalities to accept unsolicited proposals from the private sector, opening the process to other bidders to submit proposals on a public project. However, for it to be a PPEA proposal, Henderson must make the submission to WJCC.
Supervisors John McGlennon (Roberts) and Jim Kennedy (Stonehouse) did not receive Henderson’s email, though Onizuk did inform the entire board through email he heard a new proposal but did not offer specifics. McGlennon and Kennedy learned of Henderson’s plans through media reports.
“Whatever the intention was, it conveys an image that is not a very positive one,” McGlennon said. “It suggests Mr. Henderson thinks he can do business with just some members of the Board [of Supervisors], when it really should begin with the School Board.”
Henderson’s plan — a 650-seat middle school that could be expanded to 950 seats to be built on the 115-acre Warburton tract on News Road near its intersection with Centerville Road, and includes a residential component — has not formally been presented to the school board for consideration, and the board’s official recommendation continues to be Constantino’s most recent plan, which would build a middle school at the James Blair site at a total cost of more than $61 million.
“In the past, we have made decisions because of time pressure,” said Onizuk, who added he hopes the school board discusses the unsolicited proposal despite their recent vote on the James Blair site. “I think it’s better to make a right decision than a quick decision.”
WJCC first expressed its need for a fourth middle school in 2008, and more than 40 meetings, work sessions and joint meetings between the schools, city and county regarding a new school have since occurred.
Onizuk said he has not yet examined the latest James Blair plan, which County Administrator Bryan Hill sent to all the supervisors after it was first presented to the school board in early October, so as not to taint his views before it is formally presented to his board.
Both Jones and Kennedy said they have not reviewed the plan from Henderson — with Kennedy still not in possession of the full proposal — but are willing to consider sites other than James Blair despite school officials’ urgency to have a fourth middle school in the district before overcrowding sends students into classroom trailers.
Jones added she has not studied the latest James Blair proposal. Kennedy said he prefers to build a 950-seat school, whether at James Blair or elsewhere, rather than use a phased-in approach.
Hipple did not return requests for comment.
McGlennon, who also has not yet received details on Henderson’s PPEA proposal, said he is ready to support James Blair as a site for a new middle school. He said he had studied Constantino’s presentation, and suggested the discussion moving forward should focus on the current phased approach to the James Blair site versus a single-phase construction of a 950-seat middle school.
“My feeling is, when presented information of this kind, it’s useful to understand that information before making a decision,” he said after being informed other supervisors had not yet studied the latest school board-approved plan.
The James Blair plan approved Tuesday is the second proposal from WJCC that uses that site. The school board decided last year James Blair would be the most suitable area for a fourth middle school and approved a proposal to build a 950-seat school in one phase late last year.
Hipple, Onizuk and Jones questioned WJCC’s process in arriving at that decision during its consideration of the school board’s funding request in March, which resulted in the county asking WJCC staff to reconsider the district’s options for a new school. Constantino, with the help of a new committee this summer, again chose James Blair as the most suitable site. The proposal approved Tuesday was first presented to the school board Oct. 7.
Constantino said Henderson had approached him about the proposal in April, but heard nothing further until Henderson emailed him the plan last week. Echoing his remarks from Tuesday’s school board meeting, Constantino told WYDaily multiple properties in the city and county had come up in the fourth middle school discussion, but they had never been formally presented as serious proposals.
“We’ve had lots of discussions about lots of land,” Constantino said. “The conversations never really got to the level where we were asked to evaluate something. They were kind of informal chats, like, ‘Hey, I think there’s a parcel here, maybe.’”
If talks of a new site became serious, several steps would be necessary before any land for a middle school could be acquired, potentially delaying the process for months. The school board would have to direct Constantino and staff to evaluate a parcel’s viability for a school, and county staff would determine the larger impact of a building on the surrounding area. If the site were deemed viable by both, the responsibility for obtaining the parcel would pass to the county, as the school board has no power to purchase land.
The nature of Henderson’s proposal presents potential delays of its own. The proposal is structured as a PPEA, or an unsolicited bid by an outside party, to address the middle school issue. For the school board to take action on the PPEA, it would also have to address its current endorsement of the James Blair plan.
If the school board accepted the PPEA, it would open up a bidding process of at least 45 days, during which any party could submit a plan for a middle school. The board could then choose any of the proposals or none of them.
School Board Chairwoman Ruth Larson (Berkeley) said any consideration of land acquisition as it related to Henderson’s plan were county issues at this point, and reiterated the school board had officially recommended the James Blair plan.
Constantino said the delays on making a decision have consequences: the district would have to turn to trailers for temporary classrooms, as well as cluster the middle school need with the approaching demand for elementary and high school expansion.
The school division first recognized the need for a fourth middle school in 2008. The original discussion projected a new middle school opening in time for the 2016-17 school year, but Constantino said delays in the process prevented a building from being ready in that time frame. He said the earliest a building would be ready for students would likely be 2018 — if the latest proposal receives the proper approvals from the county Board of Supervisors and Williamsburg’s City Council.
“If we have further conversations or we don’t get financial approval, in all likelihood, we’ll pass the window for 2018-2019,” Constantino said.
City officials allocated WJCC’s full funding request in its original budget proposal last spring, but reduced its contributions after the county did not fulfill the request to conform with the funding agreement between the two municipalities.
Though city officials, including City Council members, have shown support for both the urgency of building a new middle school and the choice to build it on the James Blair site, they have largely been bystanders in the back-and-forth between the county and WJCC.
Mayor Clyde Haulman credited the disparity in the contribution of funds between the city and the county — with the city pitching in less than 10 percent — for its lacking influence on the discussion.
“[The county] is really in the driver’s seat,” Haulman said.
The Board of Supervisors will meet Oct. 28, but the fourth middle school does not appear on its agenda for that meeting. Until the Supervisors act on the recommended James Blair plan, or the School Board officially considers Henderson’s plan, the fourth middle school issue remains uncertain.
Related Coverage:
- WJCC School Board Gives Reluctant Support for Latest James Blair Middle School Plan
- 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
