The Norfolk School board is scheduled to vote Monday on an aggressive plan that would close eight buildings by the end of the 2027 school year.
The new proposal comes close to fulfilling a City Council directive to save money or face financial consequences.
The revised option was made public on Saturday. David Sturtz, the system's closings consultant, outlined the option in a memo to the board after a facilities and planning committee meeting on Zoom last Wednesday. Richard Fraley, Norfolk Public Schools’ chief operations officer, also worked on the plan.
There will not be a public comment period before any vote on Monday. Wednesday's committee meeting was not announced to the public.
The plan would close Ghent School, Tarrallton Elementary, Willoughby Early Childhood Center and Granby Elementary at the end of the school year 2026.
The Rosemont Academy of International Studies, for grades 6-8, would be repurposed for Ghent School students, and Lindenwood Elementary School would be repurposed as a professional development center.
In 2027, P.B. Young Elementary, Norview Elementary and the Berkley Early Childhood Center would close. Chesterfield Elementary would be repurposed for the Southeastern Cooperative Education Programs because that building will also close.
In 2032, Lake Taylor High School, which was at 72% of capacity according to a school report earlier this year, would be repurposed into a technical education center. Madison at Easton, a school that houses students with disciplinary issues, would close that year and move to Lake Taylor.
School board member Ken Paulson decried the lack of public input about the latest option in an interview, noting that the Rosemont repurposing was added without any citizen feedback.
"The current approach is not working," he said. "It's ineffective."
Paulson plans to propose a series of tiered votes on closings with the consensus -- closing Tarrallton, Willoughby, Granby, and Norview -- first, followed by public hearings on the other options.
Sturtz recommended in an earlier plan that the board consider demolishing Ghent School and invest in athletic facilities for Maury High School. A football stadium, track, swimming pool and parking have been proposed for the site. It has not been approved by the school board or city council.
The city pays for new school construction. The cost of a new Maury High School has risen from $150 million two years ago to $220 million, squeezing the city's debt capacity. A projected drop in annual revenue from the casino to $15 million would mean that most of it would be used to pay for the debt service on the new school.
After attending a Sunday meeting of civic leagues concerned about the Madison closing, board member Alfreda Thomas said she would support postponing the vote to hear community feedback.
“We need to take everybody’s needs and concerns into consideration,” she said.
Tiffany Moore-Buffaloe, another board member at the meeting, said “the community having a voice is important,” but declined to promise voting for a postponement, adding that she was only one of seven board members.
The latest plan is closer to options that Sturtz gave the school board. The board bypassed those at its Sept. 17 meeting and focused its discussion on a fifth option proposed by longtime board member Tanya Bhasin and the recently appointed Jason Inge.
That solution did not fulfill the directives of a resolution passed by the City Council in March, which required a minimum of two schools to close per year starting before the 2026-2027 school year, "until the number of school buildings no longer exceeds the amount needed."
Before that Sept. 17 meeting, City Council member Tommy Smigiel warned in an email that a delay in closing schools could lead to council reexamining the formula and the conditions under which the city funds the schools.
"That is a step I do not want to see us take or want to be forced to vote on," he said. "This is not a threat but will be a necessity in order to secure our fiscal future."
This second last-minute proposal in a month upset parents. The Parent Teacher Student Association for Rosemont Academy posted on social media, urging parents to contact the school board. "Our School, Our Say. Transparency Before Action," it read.
A hastily arranged joint meeting of about 50 people from the River Forest/Wayside Manor/Easton Place Civic League and the Lake Taylor Civic League on Sunday voted for a resolution calling on their school board representatives, Thomas and Moore-Buffaloe, to remove the Madison school relocation from any closure plan.
“The school and community stakeholders of these schools were never afforded the opportunity for public input as has been provided to other affected school communities,” the resolution reads. It notes the Madison building received more than $500,000 in renovations last year.
During the meeting, Moore-Buffaloe said she would oppose moving the students.
Calls for renovating and examining the utilization of school buildings go back to 2008 when school activists raised the issues during a City Council meeting.
Lucy Hall, who has two children at Ghent School, and became active informing parents earlier this year, learned about the latest proposal on Saturday.
"It's past time to make a decision," she said. "Let the chips fall where they may. Engage the community like you've supposed to have been doing since 2008."
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