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For a decade, thousands of Virginia Beach's gifted students have gone to class in two schools that consultants have described as deplorable - the worst of all 85 buildings in the school division.
As the Virginia Beach School Board has studied and then delayed decisions on how best to serve these students, a new academy for alternative education has gone up. Four elementary schools have been replaced. Two middle schools are under construction.
Last December, the building committee studying which schools to close because of declining enrollment wisely asked school leaders to make a decision on the old buildings housing gifted kids.
Should Old Donation Center, which holds 500 gifted elementary pupils, and Kemps Landing Magnet School, the middle school for 600 gifted students, be replaced? Or should they simply close, with students sent to gifted programs at other schools?
On Tuesday, the School Board will hear the administration's recommendation: Replace the two schools, built in 1965 and 1957, with two new ones on one site, saving about $5 million in construction costs. The schools would share facilities such as a cafeteria, gym, library and performing arts center.
The recommendation is a mixed blessing for parents who have lobbied to keep the gifted schools. It gives them some peace of mind after years of fighting to keep Kemps Landing students separate from other middle schoolers. But it's many years away from reality.
The School Board won't vote until 2010, after Superintendent Jim Merrill presents his capital plan. But even if it's approved then, construction won't begin until at least 2015 - likely later because other building projects are being delayed for lack of money. So the second-graders who enter the gifted program next fall will be in high school, too old to benefit, by the time the new facilities open.
Virginia Beach is widely known for its gifted programs. Last year, nearly 1,800 students applied for 400 entrance-level spots in the two gifted schools that together house 1,100. The others - Virginia Beach has 9,700 students identified as gifted - are enrolled in gifted clusters, classes at other schools around the city.
No one disputes the need for better classrooms for the Beach's gifted students. School leaders have talked about it long enough. Put the plan in place and build a school. Virginia Beach needs its brightest kids engaged in learning, not distracted by leaky roofs.
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Elitist? Really?
For all of those who think that Kemps Landing Magnet School and Old Donation Center promote elitist ideals, please open your eyes. There is nothing elitist about them. Consider this: when applying for a job, employers tend to pick those most suited for the work they will be doing. They pick the smartest, or the strongest, or the most trustworthy, etc. If this exclusivity is socially accepted, then why would picking students who are the brightest and most gifted be elitist?
Furthermore, being surrounded by other students like them brings out the best in gifted students. An alumni of multiple levels of gifted education in VBCPS, I understand this fact. I entered ODC in fourth grade, after a year of gifted cluster with normal classes at Alanton Elementary. The difference was remarkable. At Alanton, even while in my cluster group, I was not comfortable expressing myself completely. I felt that I could do more, perform better, reach higher, yet I was held back by the fear that the other kids would make fun of me for being smart. After going to ODC, I didn't feel that fear again for five years. I went on from ODC to Kemps Landing, where again I was not inhibited by others holdi
MattO, there is at least one
MattO, there is at least one other middle school that uses a cafetorium for performances, as it has no auditorium, either.
Is the new proposed combination gifted school going to have a higher capacity than 1100?
As far as crime rate, well, look at the demographics of KLMS. Note how the demographics are far different than the city as a whole. Any comment on that? KLMS cherry-picks their students; higher academic achievement correlates with higher income; note the extremely low level of free/reduced lunches. Any surprise that the crime level is low and the extracurricular talent ($ for private music lessons) high? No surprise to me.
I remember the outcry five or so years ago that the KLMS students could simply NOT have their education watered down by sharing their school with the (horrors!) non-gifted students zoned for VB Middle. So now the parents got their way -- their darlings are still segregated. They chose segregation over modernization.
For Your Information...
Kemps Landing Magnet School was supposed to be rebuilt in 1996. Now in 2008, it behind at least five other schools again. The school was built in 1957 as an elementary school and it truly is dilapidated. I can tell you because I go to the school and I am an eighth grader there. The outlets are coming out of the walls, the heaters are falling off of the walls, we share a cafeteria with a performing arts center, we have no gym lockers or showers so we are forced to go to gym in our normal clothing, we have no decent sound systems, we have never had a brand new school as we have gotten two old ones, the hallways are 89 inches wide, a little bigger than 3 students side-by-side, and we have awful equipment. Thank you No Child Left Behind Act. We are always last be thought of because we are gifted students after all, we will do fine no matter what, right? That is what everyone seems to think and so we are forgotten. I have gone to normal schools, one of which is a school that I went to two years ago in sixth grade and it is in much less need of renovations than ours is. I am glad that they have finally decided to do this but it will be a long time before anyone can benefit from
KLMS Orchestra
I'm with you. But do you want to know what makes me sit back and gives me a slight tickle in the back of my throat? That the KLMS orchestra basically won festival (A city wide competition) by playing the hardest music in Virginia Beach Middle Schools. Most seventh/eigth graders play grade 3 or 4 tops. We played grade five. The scale for all music is 1-6, with six being the hardest known. And in all categories of the music they played, they recieved a one, a superior rating, wehich is the best grade achievable. And here is the funny part, we practice in a portable behind our school everyday. Only middleschool who is forced to use cafateria or gym for performences in Virginia Beach. But this is just a shining eample about how KLMS students persevere. I think after all these years of quote "Dilapidated" that perhaps the future for KLMS will be brighter. I trust in the city council to make he right decision. But I don't trust them to do it in a timely manner...
Missed opportunity
Had it not been for unrealistic parents/students throwing obstacles in the way a few years back, KLMS students would be getting ready to make the move to a new state of the art middle school on 25th Street... Oh wait, that would mean sharing space with those mean, non-gifted students. Perish the thought.
Gifted Education
I think people are underestimating the amount of damage that occurs to a building over sixty years. And it is rediculous to prosecute parents for wanting their children to be in a safer learning enviroment. No offense, but Kemps Landing does have the lowest crime-rate in all Virginia Beach Middle Schools. And Plaza middleschool, an academy program, is ahead on the list because they happen to have more students!? If there were more capacity at ODC and KLMS, then more children would be able to get a higher grade of education. And it is not right for the few parents from ODC and KLMS rejects to get a little irritated, and cause gifted eductaion's downfall!! It is time for action!! Its been 13 years since they have been on the list!!! 2nd graders from ODC were promised a better middle school by the time they were in seventh grade. That second grade class is now in 8th grade, yet you still think we shouldn't do somthing? Not only is that imprudent, but risking the very future of America over a few bucks. You decide...
But It's OK for the rest of the Students......
To attend school under less than optimal conditions?
The "brightest?" How elitist. Should my average kids be subjected to classrooms of disruptive students? Are kids who were labeled gifted the only successful adults?
This school division still has too many portables behind too many buildings. The school division has had an elementary art and music program for decades, but many of these teachers still teach on a cart, in a portable, or in rooms not designed for art or music.
A $65M committment at this juncture when funding, by all accounts will continue to slide for the next several years, when other options are available would be irresponsible.
At what cost? Larger class sizes for everyone else? Teachers picking up the cost for more of their classroom supplies? Increased employee deductions for flat-lined salaries? Yes..it is a different fund, but it all comes out of the same pot of money.
I agree
This editorial smacks of elitism. At the public meeting in spring 2008, it was clear that the public wants the School Board to do more for the average students. How is building this "public" private school accomplishing that?
What about the rest of the Beach schools that are in need of renovation? I can name many schools off the top of my head that are in disrepair and are outdated. And these schools educate many more students than the ODC and KLMS elitism enclaves.
P.S.
The public meeting in 2008 was the public input meeting for the Compass to 2015 project.