After several years spent planning and building the new James Blair Middle School, a consultant has released drafts of the long-awaited redistricting maps to determine which students will attend the new school.
Redistricting consultant Cooperative Strategies presented the Williamsburg-James City County School Board with three options for redistricting middle schools and five for high schools at a board meeting Tuesday night.
The maps suggest reassigning certain neighborhoods in James City County to new schools, including Fords Colony, Grove, Kingsmill and several others.
The release of the maps comes just days before two community discussions are slated to take place regarding the proposed maps. The consultant will be at the meetings to answer questions and explain the redistricting process to Williamsburg and James City County residents.
The sessions will be held at Warhill High School Thursday and Lafayette High School on Dec. 5. Draft maps for the middle school redistricting will be shown from 5-6:30 p.m., and high school maps will be shown from 7-8:30 p.m.
While redistricting middle schools is unavoidable – the old James Blair school’s district was divided up among other schools when it closed – the school board has not officially committed to redistricting high schools.
The School Board was hung Tuesday night when Chair Kyra Cook took a straw poll, an unofficial vote, on whether the board wanted to proceed with considering redistricting high schools, school division spokeswoman Betsy Overkamp-Smith said.
Board members Holly Taylor, James Beers, Jim Kelly and Sandra Young voted against proceeding, while Chair Kyra Cook, Lisa Ownby and Julie Hummel voted in favor.
Redistricting middle schools and high schools will appear on the Dec. 12 agenda under proposed items. Depending on School Board action, the items could then appear on the January meeting’s action agenda, Overkamp-Smith said.
In July, the school board voted to pay the consultant to draft redistricting maps for high schools in addition to middle schools, to see if overcrowding at the high schools could be reduced.
Jamestown High School is currently at 111 percent capacity, Lafayette is at 86 percent and Warhill is at 91 percent, according to board documents.
Middle schools are also close to or over capacity. Berkeley Middle School is at 112 percent, Hornsby is at 97 percent, and Toano is at 106 percent, documents state.
One goal of redistricting is to get all three existing middle schools down to 85 percent capacity, Overkamp-Smith said at a previous School Board meeting.
Redistricting also aims to diversify the schools and balance the student population’s socioeconomic status, a current issue both school board and community members have pinpointed.
WJCC Schools has redistricted twice before — in 2007 and 2010 — but the final maps did not result in balanced student populations.
School board member Julie Hummel said at an April 11 meeting that she felt the last consultant in 2010 “clearly did not know our community” when they redistricted the division.
Final redistricting maps will be approved by February, according to agenda documents.
To see how redistricting may impact you, visit the school division’s redistricting website and enter your address.
