Since a consultant recommended in January that Charlottesville City Schools close one elementary school, the schools have been putting the possibility to the public. As Superintendent Rosa Atkins explained at the outset of a meeting on Wednesday night at the South First Street Community Center, “We’ve known for some time that we need to discuss how we use our facilities. We have excess capacity in some buildings and overcrowding in others.”
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City Schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins told residents and parents that in the eventuality of a high school closing, the school system has no intention of altering current class sizes. |
The school system currently has six elementary schools from prekindergarten through fourth grade, an upper elementary for grades five and six, a middle school for grades seven and eight, and then the high school. Although CCS is open to other ideas, four concrete proposals have emerged: do nothing; close one elementary school; keep six elementary schools but make them extend through fifth grade, and create two separate middle schools for grades six to eight; or extend the elementary schools through fifth grade and make one large middle school. Altering the configuration of schools would also allow CCS to shift administrative offices and other programs to increase their efficiency. Each option for change is estimated to save CCS from $300,000 to $870,000 annually.
The lone parent at Wednesday’s meeting asked, “With closing one elementary school, how would that affect the number of students in our children’s classes?” Atkins assured her that in each scenario the school system had no intention of altering class sizes, which are currently well below state limits. When the parent asked about educational offerings at the current middle school, such as music or art, Atkins similarly assured her, “The programs we currently offer, we have no intention of taking them out.” Atkins further explained that if CCS returns to a two middle school system, as prevailed through the 1980s, “We want to ensure that we don’t revert to the previous configuration, where Walker was predominantly white, Buford predominantly black.”
Paul Vaughan of the nonprofit Public Housing Association of Residents mentioned that the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority was in the initial stages of redesigning all public housing in the city, a process that would likely conclude this fall and may affect the number of students in different parts of the school district. Vaughan said the simultaneous changes in housing and schools could be also “a real opportunity to redefine relationships.” The school board, meanwhile, will likely make a final decision about restructuring in December.
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