WJCC schools agreement should come in weeks, school board chair says

Happy Friday! Also today: York residents love their schools, but hate housing prices...schools refund $1.2 million to localities... watch out for weekend triathlon traffic!

Sep 05, 2025

Partners in the Williamsburg-James City County school system should reach an agreement on how to operate and fund the schools within a few weeks, School Chair Sarah G. Ortego says.

Ortego told fellow board members that she, Vice Chair Andrea M. Donnor and schools Superintendent Daniel Keever met Aug. 29 with representatives from Williamsburg and James City County to discuss renewing the agreement. The two sides have jointly operated schools since 1955.

She said they met with James City County supervisors Ruth Larson and John McGlennon, County Administrator Scott Stevens, Williamsburg City Council members Stacy Kern-Scheerer and W. Pat Dent, and City Manager Andrew O. Trivette.

Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act allows such meetings to take place behind closed doors without notice to the public so long as there are no more than two elected members, or a voting quorum, of each body.

“They’ve spent many hours working through various scenarios in order to find the most fair solution that will ensure that various needs of both county and city students are met, and there are still some final details that all three boards are working through,” Ortego told her fellow school board members at their work session Monday.

“But we are extremely hopeful that a final agreement will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.”

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 schools’ joint operations contract at the end of this school year.

The city said it had a larger share of minority and poor students who were seeing worse results in schools than county residents.

But after both sides learned how much more it would cost them to operate separately, including the cost of new schools for the county, they soon returned to the bargaining table.

During the impasse the two sides made their own independent decisions on how they would fund the school system budget for the current fiscal year that began July 1. The majority of the system’s more than 11,000 students come from James City County.

County officials maintain the city, which is demanding better outcomes for its students, is underpaying its share of school costs relative to its ability to pay. Stevens told Williamsburg Watch that James City County is paying 85% more than what state formulas say it owes based on its ability to pay, while the city is only paying 25% more.

“I'm just trying to make a fair payment that we can defend to our residents…because right now we believe we're overpaying,” Stevens said.

Good schools attract York residents, but home prices are an issue in latest resident survey

York residents told pollsters they like living in the county because of its school system and safe neighborhoods. But those same factors drive demand for homes and push up their prices, driving resident dissatisfaction.

County supervisors heard the results of the latest community engagement survey at their meeting Monday.

Polco conducted the survey as part of its nationwide survey of citizen satisfaction with the places they live, said Timoty D. Wytt, the county’s director of information technology. The survey is the largest of its kind.

More than 80% of respondents gave very good to excellent ratings to the county’s schools and libraries, one of the highest satisfaction ratings in the country and Virginia, Polco officials said. They also showed above average satisfaction levels with police and fire and rescue.

But 70% of the residents polled said the county lacks affordable housing. Another 56% complained about the high cost of living overall, with 58% bemoaning the cost of child care and mental health care.

Several of the county supervisors said the factors that drive people to live in York also raise the cost of housing.

“It’s a supply and demand” issue, said District 4 Supervisor G. Stephen Roane, Jr.

“The county’s on the right path,” added Chair Sheila S. Noll.

The citizen survey took place April 17 through May 29, using a sample of 3,000 randomly selected households who were mailed the questions. Pollsters received 440 responses – a rate of 15%, which they statistically weighed to reflect York County’s demographics.

Another 140 residents took the poll online.

$1.2 million school refund recommended for Williamsburg and James City County

1 U.S.A dollar banknotes — Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Williamsburg and James City County should receive refunds from the school system, to the tune of more than $1.2 million.

That’s because schools finished their fiscal year in July with a $6.4 million surplus over what they planned to spend, Finance Director Renee Ewing told the Williamsburg-James City County school board at its Monday work session.

A higher school enrollment and higher than expected sales tax revenue, combined with the timing of impact aid payments from the federal government, raised school revenue to $183.` million, $4.1 million more than budgeted, she said.

At the same time the schools spent $2 million less than they planned, with more than half those savings coming because of open jobs they could not fill, Ewing added.

She proposed the schools use most of the surplus to seat aside a reserve for health care costs and for textbook purchases, and return the rest to the localities that fund more than half of their costs.

She proposed returning $1.1 million to James City County, which pays 90% of local contributions, and $127,000 to the city of Williamsburg.

Triathlon traffic jams this weekend in James City County

map of bike roads for weekend triathlon — Bike routes for this weekend's triathlon

Get ready to traffic delays this weekend at several roads and parks in James City County while the The Patriots Olympic & Patriots Sprint Triathlons take place.

The triathlon takes place Saturday, Sept. 6 and Sunday, Sept. 7 starting at 7 a.m., event organizers announced.

Motorists may encounter delays on the following roadways:

• Jamestown Road

• Greensprings Road

• Route 5 (John Tyler Highway)

In addition, several county parks and trails may be backed up during the event.

The cycling, running and swimming events will be held at Jamestown Beach Event Park, along Greensprings Interpretive Trail, Powhatan Creek Trail and the Virginia Capital Trail, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday.

The beachfront park, trails and off-leash dog area will remain open to the public during the event; however, beach visitors and trail users should expect heavy swimming, cycling and running traffic.