Though members of the James City County Board of Supervisors have urged school officials to look beyond James Blair’s administrative offices as the location for its fourth middle school, a committee tasked by the county with identifying alternative sites has sat idle since June.
Williamsburg-James City County Schools’ second attempt to move forward with a plan that would transform James Blair into a new middle school to alleviate overcrowding may not get the support it needs from the supervisors, as some continue to decry the site as unsuitable and costly.
Last week, local developer Chris Henderson emailed an unsolicited proposal to construct a middle school on privately owned land off News Road near its intersection with Centerville Road.
At least three supervisors and one school board member — Supervisors Kevin Onizuk (Jamestown), Mary Jones (Berkeley) and Jim Kennedy (Stonehouse) and school board member Heather Cordasco (Roberts) — have publicly expressed support to continue to look at other options despite school officials’ insistence to move the process forward before more classroom trailers are used to accommodate the growing middle school population.
In May, the county’s then-acting Administrator Doug Powell appointed a School Site Selection Committee to explore potential sites for future WJCC schools, including a fourth middle school.
The committee consisted of seven members: JCC Assistant County Administrator Adam Kinsman, JCC Planning Director Paul Holt, JCC Director of General Services John Horne, JCC Director of Financial Management Services John McDonald, City of Williamsburg Deputy Director of Planning Carolyn Murphy, then-WJCC Chief Financial Officer Terry Stone and WJCC Deputy Superintendent Olwen Herron.
In its news release announcing the committee, the county said the members would give each site “extensive technical and practical evaluation, including its location, ease of access, size and the cost of acquisition and development.”
The release said Powell expected to have a recommendation ready by fall 2014, but that report has not been released nor is it on its way to completion, according to committee members.
Powell did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The committee met for the first time June 23 in an informal session. Herron said Kinsman, as chairman of the committee, led the discussion that was limited to an overview of the committee’s goals and how its work would be undertaken.
“Everyone came out and talked about potential land,” Herron said. “Terry [Stone] and I were just there to listen.”
Herron said the meeting was driven by the county, and she took no notes because of its preliminary nature.
Since that initial June 23 meeting, the committee has not reconvened. Kinsman said county staff had finished preliminary work on several potential school sites, but no full site studies were completed and no reports were produced for committee members.
Kinsman said he chose not to call additional meetings after June, as it appeared the school division was interested in pursuing a reconfigured James Blair plan. Constantino had been sent back to the drawing board in March when the Board of Supervisors declined to fund his original proposal for the James Blair site, but he did not unveil an updated James Blair plan publicly until the Oct. 8 school board meeting — more than three months after the committee’s first and only meeting.
The school board voted 6-1 to recommend the latest James Blair proposal at its Oct. 21 meeting. Cordasco cast the lone dissenting vote, saying she had been contacted with “four or five” land options that might be more suitable for a new middle school.
“The committee that was put together to acquire land represented one of the two most significant delays in this process,” Constantino said.
He said the second significant delay was when the county asked WJCC staff last fall to map out where the city and county would experience the most growth in population.
The school division first indicated it would require a fourth middle school in 2008. Since that time, more than 40 meetings, work sessions and joint meetings between the schools, city and county regarding the proposed new school have taken place.
Original projections for a new middle school envisioned a completion date by the 2016-17 school year. However, Constantino said delays in the process prevented a building from being ready by that time. If the most recent proposal, which would construct a middle school on the James Blair site over two phases, receives approval from the city and county, the earliest it would be operational would be 2018.
JCC Administrator Bryan Hill, who started in the role in early September, said nothing went forward with the committee because the sites identified as potentially viable were not municipally owned and the Board of Supervisors had not issued an instruction to purchase land.
“It’s really screwed up,” Hill said of the Site Selection Committee’s process thus far.
Kinsman said he would reconvene the committee if the Board of Supervisors expressed interest, but the committee will remain in limbo until he receives further direction.
Related Coverage:
- Another Proposal Poses Setback for WJCC School Board’s Fourth Middle School Plans
- 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
