How diverse is the group overseeing school redistricting?
Given the potential to shake up school minority composition, a grassroots group asked how diverse the redistricting committee is. Williamsburg Watch took a look.
Good morning! It’s June 11. Today we’ll look at the makeup of the W-JCC schools’ redistricting steering committee and its senior leadership. Also, update on the sports and government center and its finances…Williamsburg Health Foundation announces $4.5 million in grants to local nonprofits and government agencies…and W-JCC schools collaborate on a Tony-award winning play you can attend tonight.
Given the potential impact of redistricting on schools’ racial composition, how diverse is the committee that has been steering redistricting at Williamsburg-James City County schools?
The question surfaced during school Superintendent Daniel Keever’s community meeting Monday, organized by The Village Initiative for Equity in Education.
Parents have criticized the first round of school rezoning maps, saying the changes would cluster more minority students in several schools. Lafayette High School’s student body would be 48.9 percent minority, compared to 27% at Jamestown High School. D.J. Montague Elementary’s minority enrollment would go up to 59.1%, and lower income students would comprise 42.3% of James Blair Middle School’s enrollment.
Keever said the map was a first pass, and a second set of options will be available for community review in August.
Jacqueline Bridgeforth Williams, who founded the grassroots Initiative group, asked Keever if the committee that has been leading the work since last year was sufficiently diverse and reflective of the community.
Keever did not have the information immediately available Monday night, so we took a look.
The schools sent us the list of all 19 committee members, who have been meeting twice a month since last year, but they are not identified by race. Based on our knowledge of some members, and a review of social media, we were able to put together a partial picture:
There are at least four Blacks on the committee and one Asian, representing 21% and 5% of the group, respectively.
As of Nov. 2025, 18.4% of the schools’ 11,146 students were Black, and 2.6% were Asian.
Based solely on names -- not a statistically accurate process -- we could not identify anyone who is Hispanic. That group represents 17% of the schools’ student population. Hispanics are an ethnic group, not a race, and comprise individuals of all races.
Nine of the committee members were women.
One committee member works for the city of Williamsburg, two are school board members, one works for James City County and one, Sara Ortego, is the former chair of the school board and is now a citizen representative.
The Initiative has also criticized what it says is the lack of diversity in school leadership and staff.
A spokesperson for the school system says it is not required to track staff race by either the state or federal governments, and she had no figures for us.
A look at the nine people listed on the senior leadership page on the school system’s website showed one Black – Operations chief Marcellus Snipes. The rest were White. The team is almost evenly split between women and men, with four women.
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