Push for new Suffolk school running out of options

SUFFOLK

The years-long process to build a new elementary school in the southern half of the city is at a standstill.

Thursday night's School Board vote against a City Council-recommended site in the village of Holland leaves the board with few, if any, options for where to locate the school. The new building would replace Robertson and Southwestern elementary schools, located in the Whaleyville and Holland areas, respectively.

A four-vote majority of the board has said repeatedly that it wants to put the school somewhere that's central to the two communities, even if it's on a side road in the middle of farmland. The council, on the other hand, has said that building in the "rural agricultural conservation area" between the two villages doesn't jibe with the city's comprehensive plan.

"Now we're at the dead end and no one wants to move," said board member Thelma Hinton, who supports the city's recommendation. "No one wants to give in."

Mayor Linda Johnson said Friday that the ball is in the School Board's court.

"They need to come forward with a plan," she said.

The city rejected the only site the school division has submitted thus far for approval - a spot on Copeland Road between Whaleyville and Holland. Several board members, including Vice Chairman William Whitley and Diane Foster, have suggested changing the comprehensive plan to make a central site amenable.

"If the city's comprehensive plan is so strict that it would require the School Board to build a school away from the majority of the students that it serves, perhaps it is time to amend this plan," Foster wrote in a statement e-mailed to The Pilot earlier this week.

Located in the heart of the Holland village, the 124 acres off Glen Haven Drive would be the ideal site for a school, Planning Director Scott Mills said Wednesday. The land, next to city-owned ball fields, is pedestrian- and bike-friendly. Plans for the new school include a city recreational facility.

"It would function as a center and anchor of the community," Mills said.

Opponents on the School Board say the site is too far for students who live near Robertson Elementary.

"It's certainly not fair to the people in the Whaleyville area," Whitley said. "That's my only concern."

Meanwhile, the owners of the Glen Haven property said they had no idea their land was being considered by anyone.

"All we know about it is what we read in the paper," said Martha Rountree, who co-owns the farmland with her uncle, Robert W. Holland.

"We're not happy about it as a family," said Holland's son, David C. Holland. "It's an extremely valuable piece of farmland, and it's been in the family for over a century. It would be wonderful to have a school back in Holland, but to just seize that whole huge farm without consulting or anything else, I can tell you right now, we'll fight it."

School Board member Enoch Copeland said Friday that he doesn't know of any other locations that the board has considered - other than one in the Holland area that it rejected in January - that would fit with the comprehensive plan.

"We have to begin some place. So why not begin the construction of the school for Southwestern and Holland?" Copeland said. "And we can look at renovating Robertson. It's a smaller community, of course. It wouldn't be as many dollars."