NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Norfolk Public Schools will continue to collect feedback on a plan to close and consolidate schools next month, even though it will be past the deadline set by City Council for the plan to be completed.
In a community engagement session held Tuesday, Interim Superintendent Dr. James Pohl announced there will be additional “listening sessions” on the school division’s “right-sizing initiative.” One will occur Aug. 9 during the “Unity in the Community” event at Scope Arena. He also mentioned school board members may schedule additional meetings out in the community over the proposal.
In recent months, the School Board has been more aggressively working towards finding a plan that results in having newer and fewer schools in a school division that is seeing declining enrollment numbers.
City Council wanted a plan delivered by Aug. 1 that would result in the closing and consolidation of 10 schools in five years. However, multiple school board members say they are “committed to getting feedback” and viewed the deadline as arbitrary.
During the meetings at Norview and Lake Taylor high schools Wednesday, the school division’s consultant from Woolpert engineering, David Sturtz, detailed how the circumstances the city found themselves in were a long time coming.
The existing school portfolio was designed for a larger student population in a different era. Beginning in 2015, there has been a “pronounced” decline in enrollment, particularly in elementary schools. The roughly 50 schools in the school division can handle a combined capacity of nearly 37,000 students. Enrollment is currently less than 27,000.
On top of that, 39% of schools are considered to be in poor condition, and overall the school division has more than $900 million in capital needs.
A 2018 survey stated the school division has, since 2013, operated at three to 17 schools above its need based on population served, and cited potential savings of nearly $71 million over a five-year period from 2018 to 2022 if action had been taken.
In late June, a School Board-appointed committee came up with a list of 10 schools to close, five to be repurposed and three to be rebuilt by 2033. Sturtz estimates this could save the school division an estimated $211 million.
However, Sturz is also aware there are people in those buildings. He has suggested not calling it a closure plan, but rather a vision. He said research suggests the plan could help improve the quality of education.
After studying school enrollments and conditions in NPS with a K-12 statistician, Sturtz said building conditions impact chronic absenteeism in NPS. He also said larger school enrollments across 10 years of data in other Virginia school divisions tend to have greater SOL passage and accreditation rates.
“I have seen towns that should do this plan and embrace it, not, and seen what it does,” Sturtz said at a previous presentation. “It just perpetuates the inequity. It perpetuates the lack of investment in kids when you avoid the inevitable.”
Yet, at the meetings, groups pushed back against some of the proposals. Specifically, several groups said they did not want James Monroe Elementary students moved to Larchmont and Willard elementary schools, all so that Ghent School students can be moved to Monroe.
“That was a concern for us because we don’t want any child to be displaced and moved away from their familiarity and their comfort zone,” one presenter said.
While several School Board members attended the session, Councilman Jeremy McGee said he also wanted to check up on the progress.
“I’m here to listen, learn, support the process to show the School Board that we support them in this very difficult task,” McGee said. “I’ve been here 20 years, and it’s without a doubt one of the most difficult things that the city and the School Board, and ultimately, City Council have to work through.”
When it comes to the missed deadline, he said its “too soon to tell” if an extension will be granted.