WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Last September a feasibility study was ordered to see if Williamsburg split from James City County Schools to form its own school system.
Monday night, city council members were briefed on the results.
Former Hampton Schools superintendent Dr. Jefferey Smith, led the presentation. The plan lays out multiple aspects for a potential separation, including economics, school sizes and sports.
“It is not a recommendation as to whether or not a separation should occur. But to provide you with the framework and context should you make that decision," Smith said.
Williamsburg Mayor, Doug Pons, says conversations about the future of the joint school system between Williamsburg and James City County have been happening for decades. While no plans are in place to separate the two, the presentation laid out constraints, best practices and other considerations if Williamsburg ever decides to form a separate school system.
“We wanted to make sure that when we go into the next five-year contract negotiation, we had the baseline to understand whether or not it was feasible to have an independent school district,” Pons said.
The report shows Williamsburg students score lower than their James City County classmates in federal exams for math, reading and science. Something Mayor Doug Pons and other council members took issue with.
“It's disheartening to see that our children aren’t performing at the same levels that James County students are. Which is hard to fathom, because we are one school district and why aren't the performances, the same,” Pons said.
If the city were to go forward with this plan, Mayor Pons says a potential new district wouldn't start for a few years, due to a recently signed five-year, joint school agreement. Pons says this presentation was the first step in a long process.
"This has to be an extremely transparent process. We're looking forward to having people in our community attend the next public work session on this and providing some input,” Pons said.
City council members are pushing for public input going forward. The mayor emphasizes that will be a deciding factor.
There will be a public comment period on March 26 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at James Blair Middle School.
The full report and online public comment forum can be found here.