Budget woes stymie Charlottesville plans to reconfigure schools

A multimillion-dollar budget shortfall is forcing plans to reconfigure Charlottesville city schools to the back burner, School Board members and city councilors said.

“We cannot consider moving forward with it next year until the budget situation clears up,” said Ned Michie, board chairman. “I remain interested in moving the idea forward, but we have to be realistic in the current budget climate.”

Mostly the result of reduced state aid, the board is projecting a $3.7 million to $4 million deficit in the coming fiscal year, officials announced last week.

The news came a month after new figures placed the cost of reconfiguration at $46 million.

Plans to make Buford Middle the city’s only middle school and convert Walker Upper Elementary into a combination center for preschool and central offices were originally estimated at $36 million.

“It’s not going to happen in the immediate term,” said Councilor Dave Norris. “It’s going to take longer than people expected.”

In light of the shortfall, Michie said $1.5 million set aside for design work for the reconfiguration might have to be used instead to help overcome the budget shortfall next year.

“Everything is up the air because the budget is looking so bad,” he said.

While the schools’ fiscal climate makes delaying reconfiguration necessary, officials said they hope the project can still be implemented in the future.

“I don’t think this is going to end the project,” said board member Leah Puryear. “It’s not going to be off the table like we’ll never, ever do it. We have more pressing issues that we’re going to have to address first.”

Board member Amy Laufer agreed.

“Putting it on the back burner is a disappointment,” she said. “I think Buford definitely needs some updating and I think most of the board would agree on that. We just really need to get through this budget cycle.”

In a joint meeting in December, councilors and School Board members discussed forming a committee to investigate how other localities have funded similar projects while facing tight budgets in recent years. Michie and Laufer said they would still like for that study to take place. Michie said officials have also discussed breaking the reconfiguration process into phases to make the project more feasible.

“The conversation lately has been to divide up the project...handling the Buford part of the project first,” he said.

Norris said the scope of renovation work to make reconfiguration possible would likely have to be scaled back.

“The initial proposal included a high price tag,” he said. “Our focus needs to be on what’s essential to make reconfiguration happen and what needs to happen at the onset versus what things are more nice to have that we can put off until the resources are there to make them possible.”

While school administrators included closing an elementary school in a list of ways to reduce costs, School Board members and city councilors said they are not likely to support such an action.

“It would make reconfiguration impossible because then we wouldn’t be able to move fifth graders back to the elementary schools,” Norris said.

Board member Jennifer McKeever agreed negative consequences would likely outweigh any benefits of shuttering an elementary school.

“I don’t think it could be done well and it’s not something I’d want to do under the gun,” she said.

Since discussions first surfaced a year ago, officials have listed several potential benefits of reconfiguration.

Chief among those is reducing the number of school transitions for students.

“From grades four through nine, right now students move between four different schools,” Norris said. “That’s a lot of transitions.”

Moving forward, Michie said he’s unsure of how long the reconfiguration project will have to be delayed.

“I don’t have a crystal ball about the budget,” he said. “I hope the community can find a way to get it done within five to 10 years.”

The board plans to hold a budget work session at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in the Walker Upper Elementary School media center.

A final public hearing will follow Superintendent Rosa S. Atkin’s budget presentation at 5 p.m. Feb. 2 in the Charlottesville High School media center.