No action on proposal to close 2 Virginia Beach schools

VIRGINIA BEACH

More than a year after consultants recommended Virginia Beach City Public Schools reduce excess capacity by closing two elementaries, there has been no movement on the suggestion.

In April 2007, consultants hired to study the division's building plans said they would name schools to cut within weeks. They also said that they would be back in the fall to help pick the schools. That didn't happen, either.

"You have to be careful you don't do something you regret in 10 years," said Tony Arnold, director of facilities, planning and construction for Beach schools. A future expansion of kindergarten and preschool programs, for example, could reduce the amount of excess space.

Two fewer buildings to maintain would save the division $2.5 million a year, Arnold said.

Virginia Beach is the state's third-largest school division, with 70,000 students and 89 buildings. It has been losing students for 10 straight years, a trend that is expected to continue until about 2014.

The process of closing schools, however, could take years and anger thousands of parents and community members.

"It will not be an easy conversation," said Superintendent Jim Merrill.

The division could have excess capacity of more than 9,000 seats by 2016, mostly at the elementary and high school level, according to consultants HBA/DeJong.

Although some Beach high schools are overcrowded, the number of high school students citywide is dropping by a few hundred each year. The division can avoid empty classrooms by replacing its aging high schools with smaller ones, the report said.

The situation is less straightforward in elementary schools. Enrollment is expected to begin rising gradually in 2009, but there could still be 4,200 empty seats at the kindergarten through fifth grade levels in eight years. That's the equivalent of about seven elementary schools.

The Beach wants to save some space for full-day kindergarten and preschool programs. If the division replaced half-day kindergarten with full-day programs and offered preschool to about 1,150 children, it would fill most of the desks. However, Beach schools are not planning to undertake either expansion anytime soon.

The task of managing the declining school enrollment falls to a group called the Building Utilization Committee.

This year, the division's elementary schools may dip 10 percent below capacity. After decades of booming growth, it's a major change for Virginia Beach.

"We've never been to this point," said Donald Greer, division demographer and chair of the committee.

Redrawing new boundary lines has kept school populations relatively balanced, which means no elementary schools in the city are sitting half-empty.

"There's no glaring opportunity out there to make a change," he said.

Carolyn Weems is one of three board members on the committee. "At some point, it probably needs to be looked at more," she said of closing schools. "We just haven't put a whole lot of discussion into it."

The topic likely will come up at the next meeting in November.

"We need to keep our eye on the ball," Arnold said.

Beach administrators are hesitant to make fast changes.

"It's too easy to give your space away," Greer said. "It's too hard to get it back."

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com