Last Call for WJC Redistricting, Mathews

By Amber Lester Wednesday, April 14, 2010

An overflow crowd came to the Stryker Building on Tuesday to share opinions about the Williamsburg-James City County school board’s redistricting plans.

In an extended citizens’ comment period, 13 people spoke before the board, many asking the members to consider keeping neighborhoods together and avoid moving students who were shifted in the last redistricting. Two of the speakers presented petitions to the board, one from Powhatan Secondary neighbors asking the board to return to its last redistricting map and one from Ford’s Colony neighbors asking the board to carry forward with its current map.

In addition, Gary Mathews also announced his intention to miss several weeks in the remaining semester of his tenure as superintendent of WJCC schools. Mathews said his wife will soon undergo a serious surgery in Louisiana that will leave her in recovery for weeks; he is also gearing up for a move to the suburbs of Atlanta, where he’ll become the next superintendent of Newton County, Ga. Schools.

Mathews’ contract will not be renewed after June 30. The school board has enlisted the help of the Virginia School Board Association for its superintendent search. In the meantime, Scott Burckbuchler will act as superintendent; Burckbuchler currently serves as assistant superintendent of finance and director of human resources for the division.

Redistricting Discussion
Parents criticized the board’s decision to draft a map based on an option proposed by member Joe Fuentes at a March 25 work session. At the session, the board reviewed three options previously unseen by the public, which were based on the numbers used by vendor EDULOG for its maps. The options used a map drafted at a Feb. 9 work session as a baseline; the board chose option 1 because it moved 163 additional students, fewer than the other options proposed. Read more about the newest version here.

Most speakers told the board to either slow down or hurry up with the redistricting process. The majority of parents wanting the board to return to its Feb. 9 map were from Powhatan Secondary, a neighborhood that would be split between Matoaka Elementary and DJ Montague Elementary. The portion of Powhatan Secondary that would attend DJ Montague is located behind Target on News Road.

In previous meetings, the board has said it would try not to split neighborhoods that weren’t divided by major thoroughfares. Aaron Small, president of the Powhatan Secondary Homeowners Association, told the board he doesn’t consider News Road a “major thoroughfare.”

“The neighborhood does not split along a major thoroughfare, but a two-lane country road,” Small said, adding that busier roads exist in neighborhoods that won’t be split, such as Windsor Forest.

Powhatan Secondary resident Marjy Friedrichs asked the board to reevaluate its capacity projections. She said the state plan to expand pre-K offerings would receive less funding in Gov. Bob McDonnell’s budget (not yet adopted) than in the proposed budget from previous governor Tim Kaine. Clara Byrd Baker Elementary, Rawls Byrd Elementary and J. Blaine Blayton Elementary are slated to have extra room for pre-K students, but Friedrichs said the extra room might not be necessary. If the room can be used to accommodate more elementary students, she said, the capacity would be lower at each school than currently stated.

Later in the meeting, board members asked Renee Dino, supervisor of the division’s early childhood program, why empty pre-K rooms were being included in projections. “In our long-range strategic plan, we built in some room for growth,” she said. “I think maybe what people are referring to are those classrooms we tagged for potential growth over the next two to three years.”

Dino said Clara Byrd Baker will have two classrooms designated for future growth, while Rawls Byrd will have one. All other pre-K classrooms, including eight at J. Blaine Blayton, will be used. The pre-K will be staffed with existing employees. Dino also said it’s hard to project pre-K enrollments since those students aren’t already in the system and some are served in community-based programs, rather than in-school classrooms.

School board member Ruth Larson asked Bob Becker, assistant superintendent of operations, to find out how the available rooms could be utilized and what impact that would have on capacity numbers, as suggested by Friedrichs. The board members indicated, however, they were not going to make changes to the district’s strategic plan for pre-K.

On the other side of the redistricting debate, several parents asked the board to continue forward with its newest plan. Suzanne Spirito, a Ford’s Colony resident, said she was frustrated the board delayed its vote. “I have seen first-hand that the process is not simple, but with each change came progress,” she said. “Please continue to focus on all the children and what’s best for the schools.”

Suzy Yeats, also a Ford’s Colony resident, proposed her own plan to avoid splitting neighborhoods. She acknowledged how tricky it is to move the “mega-neighborhoods” — Ford’s Colony, Greensprings Plantation and Powhatan Secondary — without putting schools over or under capacity. She suggested the school board place one mega-neighborhood in each school: Ford’s Colony at J. Blaine Blayton Elementary; Powhatan Secondary at DJ Montague Elementary and Greensprings Plantation at Matoaka. She said she based her idea on the capacity at each school.

Following the comment period, the board members shared their feelings about the redistricting process. Denise Koch and Jim Kelly spoke out strongly against the most recent map and what Koch called an “11th hour” move to split Powhatan Secondary. Elise Emanuel reminded the audience that WJCC was lucky to be opening new schools in a time when other districts are closing schools.

“Children are sometimes much more resilient than grown-ups,” she said. “Perhaps in this situation, why don’t we follow the children’s lead?”

Board Chair Jim Nickols said the location of the new schools and the unique geography of the county made redistricting especially difficult. “There will come a time when it will not be possible to avoid splitting neighborhoods,” he said.

The board will make its final decision at a special meeting on April 20. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the boardroom of Building F in the County Government Complex.