Outcomes for Low Income Students Still Issue in City/County School Board Talks
James City County Board Chair updates constituents at town hall
This story has been corrected to fix a mistake in the 8th paragraph to clarify that it was the county, not the city, that faced building costs for a middle school
Negotiations between Williamsburg and James City County on a new operating agreement for the joint school system, which has been going on for a year and a half, are still hung up over the city’s desire to focus more resources on improving outcomes for its low income students, County Chair Jim Icenhour told a town hall last week.
“They wandered a little bit into the school board’s lane” because the local government’s role is to fund the schools, and leave actual educational decisions to the school board, Icenhour told a Town Hall he held for his constituents last Thursday.
Icenhour said the city’s goal of helping its lower income students was admirable, but “how do you administer money that goes to (city students) but not the other (county students)?”
A feasibility study conducted for the city two years ago showed only 65 percent of city students met the standards of learning for reading, a double-digit gap from the 77 percent of county students who did.
Math scores for city students were nearly 20 percent lower, their on-time graduation was worse and so was absenteeism. More than half of James City County school students are white, compared to a third of Williamsburg public school students. Black and Hispanic students made up more than half the city’s school population, compared to 32% of the county’s.
But in absolute numbers, there are nearly six times as many black and Hispanic students who live in the county studying at the public schools . The city report showed James City County had 1,823 black students, 1,617 Hispanic students and 957 multiracial students. The city had 299 black students, 286 Hispanic and 119 multiracial.
When one constituent asked him how the two jurisdictions can prevent another crisis when it’s time to renegotiate in five years, Icenhour said the city’s actions caused bad will initially with its county counterparts, prompting the Board of Supervisors to announce they would pull out of the jont school system.
That viewpoint quickly changed as the county learned what it would cost to split up the system, including a $100 million cost to build a new middle school, Icenhour said.
He said this was not the first time the idea of separate school systems has come up, but the issue never got beyond the conceptual stage.
Eighteen months ago, “what surprised us is that…the city did a tremendous amount of behind the scenes work, they did a lot of lobbying with legislators and senators and basically…. they were told not to tell us,” Icenhour said, adding the county only found out through a city press release.
The two localities have jointly operated a school system since 1955.
Since that time, James City County’s population outstripped the city and it now pays 90% of the schools’ cost.
Icenhour told the 50 people present at his town hall that he thinks the county still needs a contingency plan for an economic downturn.
He is concerned about losing federal dollars that come to the county and its schools for social services such as food stamps and housing vouchers, school special education programs and pre-Kindergarten classes.
The county is working on cutting requests for construction money to zealously guard its AAA bond rating, which gives it the lowest possible interest rates when it borrows.
“We are the smallest county in the country that’s rated AAA,” Icenhour said.
A smoke alarm saved the life of the resident of a Williamsburg home that caught fire Monday morning, a spokeswoman for the Williamsburg Fire Department said.
Firefighters from the city and from James City County responded to a fire in a residence in the 100 block of Woodmere Drive at 2:50 in the morning. They had the fire under control less than an hour later, spokeswoman Nicole Trifone said.
Although the home was occupied, smoke alarms alerted the resident in time to evacuate safely, she said.
“This incident is a critical reminder of the importance of working smoke alarms in your home…and maintaining a well-practiced exit plan for emergencies,” Trifone added.
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Williamsburg/James City County School Board
The school board will hold a public hearing on increasing its operating budget by 9% to $197.1 million tonight (March 4) at 6 pm. Before the hearing, the school board will meet behind closed doors to discuss personnel issues and “plans to protect public safety” at 4 p.m. The meetings take place in Room 300 of the annex at the school board office, 117 Ironbound Road.
James City County Planning Commission
March 5. Regular Meeting. 6 p.m. Government Complex, 101 Mounts Bay Road Building F.
York County Board of Supervisors.
March 4. Regular Meeting. 6 p.m. 301 Main Street.
Passings
