Here's our side of the story, JCC supervisors tell school board members

Good morning! County supervisors invited only the county members of the school board to an unprecendented closed door meeting Tuesday night; they say the city is stalling on an agreement.

Jul 30, 2025

Clockwise from left: James City County Supervisors Jim Icenhour, Michael Hipple (standing), John McGlennon, Ruth Larson, Barbara Null, county school board members Randy Riffle, Daniel Cavazos, Sarah Ortego, Superintendent Daniel Keever (Williamsburg Watch photo)

James City County supervisors met in a rare special session with only the county members of the joint Williamsburg-James City County school board Tuesday night, giving their side of the two-year-old standoff with the city on a school agreement.

The unusual nature of the meeting, which left out the two school board members appointed by Williamsburg, caused some discomfort for School Board Chair Sarah G. Ortego.

“This is something that this school board – that the five of us – have never done before,” she said before the two boards closed the doors to the meeting room. “We are also members of the seven-member school board, we are here to listen and to have a conversation, but we won’t be making any decisions on any agreements.”

The two boards voted to go into closed session and met for just over 90 minutes to discuss the situation. As with many marriages, finances are a stumbling block between city and county.

“Unfortunately, as the party that has not normally been directly involved in this, (school board members) haven't had that much input from either side,” Supervisors Chair Jim Icenhour told us. “And that's why I think the value of this meeting was they at least got the input from our side.”

Several supervisors expressed frustrations before and after the meeting with what they felt was stalling on the part of the city.

We reached out to a city spokesperson Tuesday morning for comment but had not heard back as of 8 Tuesday night.

“Until we get to the point where somebody lays out on the table a written contractual agreement that we can then pick apart” it will be hard to agree to a new contract, said Icenhour. Icenhour said the county presented a written proposal to the city, and it was not accepted. He said the city has not produced a similar proposal for the county to review.

The standoff began in June of 2023, when Williamsburg City Council voted to study running its own school system. County supervisors, who said they were taken by surprise, retaliated a month later by unanimously voting to terminate the joint operations contract at the end of the 2025-2026 school year.

The two sides made their own separate decisions on how they would fund the school system budget for the new fiscal year that begin this month. The majority of the system’s 11,000 students come from James City County.

“But if we're going to do it effectively going forward, especially with some of the needs they're going to have to have -- like those pay raises for their teachers --we're going to have to have an agreement… as opposed to working at cross- purposes with each other,” Icenhour said. “Right now, we're sort of a joint school district operating without a joint school district agreement.”

James City County has said Williamsburg is underpaying its share of the school budget. Icenhour said it might be difficult for the city to pay what the county wants, given its smaller budget, but “we need to establish a relationship that has each party paying its fair share.”

picture of buses aand WATA executive director (WATA and Williamsburg Watch) — WATA buses at Williamsburg hub; executive director Michael Scalia

Our regional bus system is planning to expand service next year on two routes that are important to the area economy.

Matthew Scalia, executive director of the Williamsburg Area Transit Authority, told us he’s been rebuilding his ranks of drivers to replace those who dropped out during the Covid pandemic. He plans to start running buses every half hour every day from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., on Route 1 serving Lee Hall and Route 2 on Richmond Road.

The Lee Hall route serves as a connection hub for the Hampton Roads regional bus authority, used by local service workers who cannot afford to live in the Williamsburg area and ride the bus to work from the lower Peninsula.

The Richmond Road route transports service workers who are critical to the restaurants and hotels along Route 60.

The service’s busiest Route – 15 – serves visitors to Colonial Williamsburg.

WATA has come a long way since it began operating in 1977 as a fledgling service for James City County and later Williamsburg. In 2006 the general assembly approved a regional transit authority for Williamsburg, James City County, upper York County, William & Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

The authority was renamed, and now operates 12 routes with 30 buses, two trolleys and seven paratransit buses that provide on demand service for people with disabilities. The service has 81 employees, most of whom are drivers. It pays an outside contractor to service its buses, which can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million.

Federal grants pay nearly 40% of its $10 million operating budget, the state kicks in another 24%, 19% comes from the local governments and the rest comes from payments by William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg, fares and advertising sold on buses.

Scalia said bus service is critical not only to the lower paid service workers who are the mainstay of the area’s large hospitality industry, but also for younger generations who don’t want a car or those who can’t afford one.

“You may not use public transit, but chances are you know somebody who does,” Scalia said.

“There's this this perception of Williamsburg as an incredibly affluent community …But there's also another side, that a lot of people don't see,” Scalia said.

He said WATA should be viewed as a tool to drive more business to the area, ease road congestion as the population continues to grow, and provide alternatives for Gen Z residents who would rather not drive.