BUILD SCHOOLS NOW

Dear School Supporters,

The WJC Education Foundation issued this powerful statement (found at the bottom of this message) regarding the proposed new elementary and middle schools. The Foundation's assessment is "spot-on" and if you agree also please take a moment to contact the James City County Board of Supervisors (CLICK HERE TO SEND AN EMAIL TO THE JCC BOARD) to tell them so.

It is imperative to contact the JCC Board NOW because they will be discussing this matter on Tuesday, September 23.

To add a little to the WJCEF's statement, it must be understood that WJC’s class size guidelines are MAXIMUM guidelines: meaning that we don’t want classes in grades K-2 larger than 20 students; or larger than 25 students, grades 3-5. These are sound guidelines informed by research. If some in the community are disappointed that WJC is not “meeting its own standards” then they just don’t get that these class size standards are not ones to meet, but ones NOT TO EXCEED.

Following WJC’s class size guidelines, it makes sense that the formula used to calculate “effective capacity” in K-3 classrooms is 19. Some classrooms might have 20 students; others might have 18 or 19 because children don't often come in groups of exactly 20. In classrooms for students in grades 3-5, 23 students per class is used to determine "effective capacity" because there will be classes with 25 students and maybe some with 21 and many in between. This is how our schools actually work.

Now could we pack more students in each classroom? Sure, but is that what we really WANT to do? Wouldn't it be better to maintain those class size guidelines for the benefit of children, and for the teachers who need more time to be able to interact with them individually?

Some might choose to focus on "design capacity," which would provide a valid number of how many children could potentially fit in a building if they came in groups of exactly 25 or 30 students, and if no regular classrooms had to be used for computer labs, special education, gifted education, or preschool, but to do so would be relatively meaningless exercise because it would not take into account the class size variations and the actual programming taking place in the schools.

Please read the statement below from the WJCEF and contact the JCC Board of Supervisors.

Thank you for supporting our schools.

Mike Ludwick

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FROM MEMBERS OF THE WILLIAMSBURG/JAMES CITY EDUCATION FOUNDATION

With our local elected bodies currently pondering the second phase of funding for construction of two new schools for the Williamsburg-James City County School Division, there has been much public discussion about whether now is an appropriate time to move ahead with the project.

Public discourse on such important topics is always healthy, and the members of the Williamsburg-James City Education Foundation will always welcome it. We become concerned, however, when arguments being put forth and conclusions being reached are based on faulty and/or incomplete research.

As our community’s business leaders, we understand the critical need to maintain the quality of our public schools. We rely on them to provide us well-educated students who, when they graduate, are ready to go on to higher education, or enter our local workforce with the skills they need to succeed.

Recent public discussion in some quarters has led us to believe that some members of the community, while perhaps well-meaning, are looking only at dollar signs,and not our children.We question whether they have actually visited any of our schools recently, with students present, to see for themselves the space crunch that many of our schools are facing, and how it is negatively affecting our childrens’ education.

The time is now to begin building a new elementary school and middle school. We believe there are several compelling reasons to do so that recent reports suggesting the contrary have not taken into consideration:

• It will become immediately obvious to anyone who visits Stonehouse Elementary School, D.J. Montague Elementary School, Norge Elementary School, or Toano Middle School, that these schools are becoming severely overtaxed. They are simply too crowded. Trailers have been set up next to these buildings to accommodate the overabundance of students.
• Save money by putting a few more students in each classroom so you don’t have to build a whole new school, the argument goes. How can we, in good conscience, suggest that to the parents of the children at Stonehouse, Toano, Norge, and D.J. Montague, who are watching their children being moved into trailers with ever-increasing class sizes? Our community has told the W-JCC School Board on numerous occasions to keep student/teacher ratios as low as possible.
• It is true that housing starts and enrollment figures are slowing down with the current economy. But you wouldn’t know it by taking a drive around the upper portion of James City County, where home construction is in evidence everywhere, including one housing project well under way that has 500 homes planned for it. Families with children will move into these homes, and they will need a place to go to school. Not building schools now to accommodate this need is shortsighted, and invites an even bigger fiscal challenge down the road. And, while enrollment figures are slightly below original projections, W-JCC still expects about 150 more students for the 2008-09 school year.
• Using "spot redistricting" in an attempt to alleviate overcrowding would be a monumental and costly effort, as anyone who has participated in this process in the past can attest. To achieve a balance, students would have to be redistricted from one end of the county to the other; the Division’s transportation department does not have the resources to move children these great distances.
• In addition to quality of education issues, there also is a powerful financial reason to act now: the current downturn in the economy, which has brought with it far more favorable costs for construction. The original estimate for the total cost of the two new schools was $88.9 million, based on the bidding climate of about 18 months ago. A revised estimate is now $82 million (nearly 8 percent less), a much more favorable scenario. To further illustrate this, Matoaka Elementary School, if built today, would cost $236.65 per square foot. The current bidding climate would allow the new elementary school to be built at a cost of $209.99 per square foot or $26.66 less per square foot. No one knows what the economy will be like a year from now; but to stand aside and not take advantage of this favorable situation is not fiscally responsible.
• Students seem to have achieved federal standards of learning four years ago with our current facilities – why can’t they now? Because, notwithstanding the fact that our student population has grown since then, the federal government also has raised considerably the federal standards of learning through the "No Child Left Behind" Act.
  

This means that, while four years ago a score of 70 may have met the federal standard in a certain subject area, that standard is now 77 … and will rise again next year. Our students have performed admirably in recent years, increasing scores on performance tests and validating the vision and management of W-JCC schools.

This Tuesday evening, the James City County Board of Supervisors will consider the issue of whether to help fund the second phase of W-JCC’s two new schools. The WJCEF has unanimously passed a resolution in support of moving ahead with these schools. We encourage all parents, and anyone who cares to maintain the quality of public education in our region, to attend the Supervisors’ meeting to let our public officials know that now is the time for decisive action. As we have shown, dallying for a year or more to "see what happens" is not fiscally – or even morally – responsible.

DAVID BUSH, WJCEF President
Managing Partner, Witt Mares & Co.
And 17 additional Foundation members