Explosive growth puts squeeze on Albemarle schools

Some Albemarle County schools could exceed their capacity sooner than expected, thanks to rapid growth.

The prospect leaves local leaders with difficult choices that could include tax increases, higher building capacities or a division-wide redistricting.

A report by the school division’s 2011 Long-Range Planning Advisory Committee recommends nearly doubling the county schools Capital Improvement Plan to $85 million by fiscal 2015-16. The recommendation was based on the assumption that the county will keep its current capacity ratio of 20 students per classroom, and limits redistricting.

According to the report, Meriwether Lewis Elementary, Crozet Elementary, Monticello High School and Western Albemarle High School all will need expansions in the next five years. The cost of renovations to Western Albemarle, which the committee recommended accelerating by three years, could run as high as $15 million.

The committee’s recommendations were made using the School Board’s current building capacity guidelines and a plan for redistricting at Hollymead Elementary, Stony Point Elementary and Albemarle High School. Last year, the board faced significant resistance from parents to a plan for a division-wide redistricting.

According to the committee’s report, the $85 million recommendation is $46,724,243 more than the CIP that county supervisors approved last year. The drastic funding increase recommendation is the result of unforeseen population growth estimates, county schools Chief Operating Officer Josh Davis said. According to Davis, the western end of the county in particular is growing faster than expected.

“We do see accelerated population growth in the western feeder pattern,” he said. “We are now expecting [Western Albemarle High School] to go beyond its capacities earlier than expected.”

Five more schools could need expansions to meet capacity demands in the next decade.

According to School Board Chairman Steve Koleszar, the recommendations from the committee will need to be reworked if the board increases building capacities.

“The most important thing is [the committee] used our existing formula for school capacities,” Koleszar said. “If we stay with that capacity formula, these are the kinds of buildings that we’ll need to build.”

Davis agreed that an increase in school building capacity would help control the cost of the five-year plan.

“Taken in isolation, one could clearly see that some of those recommendations the committee has made would move into years six through 10, thereby taking some of the cost off of the five-year plan,” he said. According to Davis, increasing the schools’ capacity would require a policy change by the School Board.

Koleszar said the board will need to decide not only whether to increase building capacities, but how the increase should be implemented. How the schools use their space is different from building to building, he said, which could mean looking at different capacity ratios for each building.

“Some schools have bigger classrooms than others, and some have bigger gymnasiums and cafeterias,” he said. “I think the more important question is: What are the learning spaces of the future going to look like?”

Davis said the increase in capacity, while it doesn’t mean any physical changes to school buildings, won’t necessarily be an easy choice.

“It would be a change in School Board policy, but there are some other constraints,” he said. “We have some School Board members who are concerned about not only can the classrooms hold that many students, but are the cafeterias big enough, and are the hallways wide enough.”

For now, Davis said, staff has been instructed to put together a less drastic plan for the next two to three years to present to the Board of Supervisors. In the meantime, he said, School Board officials will do another 12 months of study to decide what path to take.

“We’re looking at other ways of conducting effective learning with our students in the learning spaces we already have,” Davis said. “I believe that the board is not prepared to send that $85 million bill to the local government. Instead, we’ll have a more acute plan for the next two to three years that is more modest.”

The last major expansions in the county school system were completed in 2009. Brownsville Elementary, Greer Elementary and Albemarle High School got additions budgeted at a combined $27.6 million. The projects included 10 new classrooms at Brownsville, a new gym at Greer and six new rooms and a new lobby at Albemarle High. The projects wound up being completed for about $2 million less than was budgeted.

Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd, of the Rivanna District, said there weren’t many options for where the money in the current CIP recommendation could come from.

“You have to take it from other projects,” he said. “The other way you get there is a tax increase — that’s the only two ways you get that kind of money.”

Davis said there were other ways to get the money, including issuing long-term bonds. According to Davis, there are other short-term sources for some of the funds, though he said he wasn’t able to elaborate on those sources.

Boyd said he’s behind adequately funding schools, but said the supervisors would have to look at the schools’ funding requests alongside the county’s other capital improvement projects.

“We’re committed to providing adequate educational opportunities in this county, but we’re going to have to look at what other capital improvement projects we have going on,” Boyd said. “We’d have to take a more holistic view than, ‘Gee, have we got $46 million more to spend on education?’”