Norfolk School Board won't promise to meet City Council's school closure plan deadline
Instead, Board chairwoman Sarah DiCalogero said she plans to try and set up a meeting with Mayor Kenny Alexander to inform him of where the board is in the process.
Tuesday, the board received their first formal presentation of what their Educational and Facilities Planning Advisory Committee came up with to meet a goal of having newer and fewer schools.
Student enrollment has been on a steady decline since 2015, dropping 21% between 2010 and 2025. Meanwhile, the city's aging buildings have more than $900 million in needs.
A consultant hired to guide the process stated the plan would eliminate an estimated $211 million of the nearly $900 million in current school facility needs.
Over the next eight years, the committee recommended 10 schools to close, five to be repurposed and three to be rebuilt.
However, DiCalogero and other board members said they feel the process is moving too fast.
Many not pleased with NPS preliminary list of possible school closures
'I'm not going to promise to meet the deadline,' DiCalogero said. 'I understand that we need to make decisions quickly, but we need to involve the community, and I feel like the Aug. 1 deadline is a little arbitrary, considering that today was the first day we've been officially presented with the plan.'
It was in March when City Council passed a resolution officially requesting the school board deliver a plan close and consolidate 10 schools in five years. However, the request for downsizing dates back at least six years.
In a 2018 survey by the School Board's consultant, it was said the school division has, since 2013, operated at three to 17 schools above its need based on population served, with more than half of the city's schools at less than 80% capacity.
Two years ago during a joint-meeting between the City Council and the School Board, Vice Mayor Martin Thomas pleaded for a plan to close and consolidate facilities, saying 'over the last 10 years, that surplus capacity has cost the taxpayers of Norfolk $81 million.'
City Council's resolutions threaten to provide consequences to the School Board for any delay, including changing the city's appropriation to Norfolk Public Schools from a lump-sum one to a directed appropriation to give council more control over school division appropriations 'in order to ameliorate the estimated loss of funds due to surplus capacity of school buildings.'
DiCalogero is confident the City Council and School Board can work together.
'You know, one thing I'm going to ask the City Council to do is, where they told us to 'be bold,' and they would support us, to ask them to come out to some of these community meetings so they become aware of the issues in the communities, the concerns in the community as well, and realize that it's not just a quantitative, hard data decision,' DiCalogero said.
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