Cameron Fields was prepared to speak in front of the school board. He had his suit picked out. He asked to go to the barber beforehand. He practiced his speech.
At the Chesapeake School Board’s Monday meeting, the rising second grader stood at the podium with two other children. He spoke against a proposal that would use his school building to house the district’s first early childhood education center, sending current students elsewhere.
“Starting at a new schools can be scary for kids. We would have to learn new rules, meet new teachers and make new friends all over again,” Cameron said. “I know grown-ups have important decisions to make, but I hope you think about (how) these changes affect kids like me.”
He and about 300 other students who attend Norfolk Highlands Primary School in Indian River could be rezoned to Thurgood Marshall Elementary, Georgetown Primary or Sparrow Road Intermediate if the proposal was approved.
Cameron’s mom Crystal Fields said she first learned about the proposal before a school board meeting June 8. On June 10, Norfolk Highlands families received an email from outgoing Chesapeake Public Schools Superintendent Jared Cotton informing them of the proposal.
“There was no talk of it ahead of time; there was nothing put out to the school systems, and for the people who have grown up in the area, it’s a big deal,” Fields said.
The center is intended to support preschool learners to increase Chesapeake’s kindergarten readiness. A presentation at the June 8 school board meeting showed that 39% of CPS students did not meet kindergarten readiness benchmarks.
The first year of the program is expected to cost $2.4 to $3 million, though the district anticipates receiving grants to offset part of the cost.
The presentation cited Norfolk Highlands Primary as the ideal choice for the center due to declining enrollment in South Norfolk Schools and the site’s inability to accommodate a K-5 expansion.
At the Monday school board meeting, Cotton said Norfolk Highlands Primary had small class sizes that could be parceled out to different schools in the area. He said there were previous conversations about closing the school altogether.
“As we continue to modernize and build new schools, we are going to be utilizing some of our primary spaces for other purposes,” Cotton said. “I think that’s just a good, smart, efficient way to approach these spaces that we have.”
But Ozan Duran, a parent living in the area, questioned that logic. He pointed to Virginia Department of Education data showing Norfolk Highland Primary’s students passed their English and Math SOLs at a higher rate than the schools they would be rezoned to.
The school’s enrollment has also hovered around 300 students over the past ten years, though taking a dip during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Freedom of Information Act data obtained by Duran and reviewed by WHRO.
Plus, the building is three stories tall, which he and Fields argue does not seem sensible for a preschool program.
“We’re going to be disrupting this entire environment that is shown to be very effective, right?” Duran said. “And teaching, and learning, and that’s not something that we can necessarily get back when you close that school.”
Duran purchased a home in the neighborhood, hoping that his children would be able to walk to Norfolk Highlands. Fields moved to the area specifically for her kids to go to the school.
They question why their school was picked and what they say is a lack of communication to parents about the decision.
“Who is this helping? Why are we doing this? There’s that whole transparency part; now you’re breaking the trust of this whole community,” Fields said.
The pair created a petition with more than 300 signatures and a website to fundraise for yard signs and advocate for the school to stay open.
The proposed rezoning will be presented to and voted on by the school board in the fall, with the new education center’s suggested opening date as fall 2027.
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