WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Williamsburg City Council members approved funding for a feasibility study into operating its own division.
It’s the latest in a series of moves pointing toward a possible split of Williamsburg-James City County Schools after the city first announced plans for the study earlier this summer.
The city will pay up to $135,000 to a study team led by former Hampton City Schools superintendent, Dr. Jeffery Smith.
The team includes former K-12 educators and administrators, retired superintendents, higher education faculty, a school counselor and other academic and financial experts.
“We recognize that it is certainly not the intent of the consulting team to determine if the separation of a jointly operating school division should occur,” said Smith.
Right now, Williamsburg and James City County jointly operate a school system.
In June, the city unanimously agreed to look into running an independent school system. Then in July, the James City County Board of Supervisors voted to pre-emptively end their joint contract in three years.
However, earlier this week, county leaders asked to delay the termination of the agreement until after the 2027-28 school year or the Fall of 2028.
County administrator Scott Stevens said that is if the city does not want to renegotiate a new agreement.
Stevens previously told 13News Now if the two school systems split, the county would have to build a new middle school, since two of the four sit in Williamsburg. He said 13 months doesn’t give them enough time to do that.
“We’ve got about [600] to 700 middle school students that need a place. It will take three years to build a place,” Stevens said.
Parents and teachers in the area have been vocal against the split.
“The uncertainty that this decision creates casts a distracting shadow over important planning at our school division,” one educator told the James City County Board of Supervisors during a meeting Tuesday.
Leaders on both sides have maintained breaking away from each other is only a possibility and not a definite decision.
“Even if this study comes back and says it's feasible, there’s still a lot of decision-making for this body whereas in some conversations it's already been projected as a decision,” said Vice Mayor Pat Dent.
Stevens said county leaders are open to negotiating a new contract.
Williamsburg’s feasibility study should be completed by January 2024. City officials said no changes to the existing joint school system will take place prior to the 2025-26 school year.