Standing at a podium facing City Council, Charlottesville resident Ida Lewis unfurled a neatly folded set of papers and began to read. “I am here again to voice my concern for the progress of historic Jefferson School,” said Lewis early in the November 20 council meeting.
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She was far from the only one to express frustration over the nearly dormant structure, located on Fourth Street in the Starr Hill neighborhood. A black school from 1894 to 1964, the Jefferson School made an uneasy transition following integration. At times it served as a junior high, a preschool and as storage and office space, but was put on ice in 2003. The school was granted both national and State historic landmark status in 2005
after strenuous community
efforts, thus making it eligible for grant funding. The City followed suit, allocating $5 million for its restoration.
Yet as the building’s brick façade continues to crumble, concern mounts. “The appointment of the ‘general partners’ was delayed yet again from last month to this meeting,” Lewis said. “This process seems to be an endless movement of delays and little or no action on the part of the City Council.”
Councilors were quick to share in her frustration, yet as the City’s tax-credit consultant Dan Gecker explained, the selection of the “general partners”—the next step in restoring the school—is tricky. In order to take advantage of $8 million in tax credits, the City must be divorced from the actual appointment of “general partners.” That decision is left to Gecker, who will refine a candidate pool of 15-20 applicants to seven and then form the general partnership that will take over ownership of the building.
“What about community involvement in the process?” asked Councilor Dave Norris.
Outside the chambers, Ann Carter—who along with Lewis is among those calling for the school’s general partners to largely comprise African Americans—echoed Norris’ concern. “You have to remember those are politicians in there, and they are supposed to represent the interests of the people but sometimes they have their own agendas,” she said. “This is all about control.”