The Albemarle County School Board voted unanimously to ask Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, to re-introduce legislation that would adjust the composite index for calculating state funding for schools. If passed, Bell’s legislation would take the revenue sharing agreement with the city of Charlottesville into Albemarle’s state education funding calculation.

The board passed a legislative packet that included the bill at its regular meeting Thursday.

School board member Diantha McKeel said the request came after failed attempts over the last year to collaborate with the city. Last year, she said, the board chose not to request the legislation to focus on working with its city counterpart.

“We brought it back to the table because there was an expectation last year that the Albemarle County and the Charlottesville school board would get together to have a unified project that the two boards could work together on … But that never materialized,” she said, referring to a city-county joint effort to open a virtual school.

The revenue sharing agreement between Albemarle County and Charlottesville isn’t going anywhere any time soon, but county leaders have expressed growing interest in exploring whether Albemarle can have a say in how the city spends the money.

Scottsville District Supervisor-elect Christopher J. Dumler called the agreement a “bum deal,” and said he hoped city officials would be willing to sit down and discuss it.

“I don’t think there’s much that can be said about it, other than it’s a bum deal,” he said. “I think that the city recognizes that the revenue sharing deal is something … that contributes to the difficult and strained relationships between the city and county. And in so far as they see that as a point of contention, I think they may be willing to at least sit down and talk about it.”

For the rest of the article, go to County seeks to revisit revenue sharing agreement

The lower level of 20-year-old Burrows Elementary will house the superintendant’s offices, and the upper level will become one of three hubs for an online DoDEA “virtual school,” McKissick said, adding that Ashurst Elementary would be turned over to the base for whatever use command saw fit. Russell Elementary and the existing middle/high school are to be demolished.

As of now, the plan is to build the consolidated elementary school where the middle/high school parking lot and sports fields are now located and to place the new middle/high school, along with new sports fields, across Purvis Road where Russell Elementary School now sits.

Base commander Col. Dan Choike said the base was working to provide space for the middle/high school’s sports games, most likely at Butler Stadium, as the existing fields will be unavailable after construction of the new elementary school begins and the new fields will not be completed for three years.

“The base wants to make sure their sports are not adversely affected,” said Choike.

Otherwise, he said, the base was supporting the project by making the process as easy as possible.

“The installation did not want to impose any kind of land-use restrictions that could add any cost to the construction,” he said, adding that the base would also host public meetings to discuss plans for the schools and would continue to work closely with school officials.

Choike said the base had a vested interest in the schools’ success.

“The number one reason that people want to live on the base is because of the education benefits of the school system,” he said.

Choike noted that one drawback to the new arrangement would be that some families would lose the ability to walk their children to school. However, he said the state-of-the-art technology, modern classrooms and improved education that would be made possible through the money saved by consolidating facilities “are all things that really to me are of a greater benefit and higher need.”

Gould said schools built for 500 to 800 students are more cost-effective than small facilities.

While the existing elementary schools are located in neighborhoods, allowing many of their students to walk, the only students who will be able to go to the new elementary school on foot will likely be those who live in the Thompson Park neighborhood, Gould said. Even those who now attend Russell Elementary will probably have to ride a bus because the consolidated elementary school is planned to be on the other side of Purvis Road.

For the rest of the article, go to Quantico base schools to place all students on one site.