No So Fast …
Council To Study Its Options Before Acting On Simms
Posted: January 31, 2013
HARRISONBURG — City Council wants to explore more options before forking over the Lucy F. Simms Center for Continuing Education to Harrisonburg City Schools for use as a prekindergarten center.
The Harrisonburg City School Board first brought the Simms Center into discussions about how to solve the division’s space problems in fall 2011. In December, the board voted to ask council for the building, a one-time city school.
While no council members seemed opposed to the idea Tuesday night during a joint meeting of the elected bodies at the School Board’s office, some did voice support for having more than one option on the table.
“Maybe Simms isn’t the answer,” Mayor Ted Byrd said. “[Let’s] make sure all the rocks have been unturned.”
Simms is a possible answer to just one of the school system’s space issues. During the past 10 years, the division has grown 2 percent on average each year. Over the last three years, the average is closer to 3 or 4 percent, according to city schools Superintendent Scott Kizner.
This school year, the division has around 4,900 students, up 850 from the 2003-04 school year. Some schools already are at capacity and others will be out of space in the coming years, Kizner said.
If the division did use the Simms building, it would give relief to city elementary schools that house the prekindergarten programs, at least through 2015-16, Kizner said.
The board’s proposal was to perform a $2 million renovation on the building to create 10 classrooms for prekindergarten students. Five other prekindergarten classrooms would be housed at Stone Spring Elementary School.
Board members were receptive to council suggestions of looking into building a new prekindergarten center on city- or division-owned land, or bidding for an expansion to the Simms Center that would bring all 15 classes under one roof.
“Ideally, it would be great to have them all in one location,” said board member Kerri Wilson.
During the meeting, Kizner went over the division’s enrollment numbers, building information and growth projections, stressing the time sensitivity of the “prekindergarten to [12th-grade] challenge that lies ahead.”
Kizner said the division has grown by 656 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and 723 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade since its two newest buildings — Smithland Elementary School and Skyline Middle School — opened in 2008.
“The trend is only going one direction and it’s going up,” he said. “There were trends back in ’08 demonstrating that we would have this conversation.”
While the division’s growth is ongoing, Councilman Charles Chenault said he did not want the discussion and planning for the growth to become a frequent topic.
“I think we’ve got to stop building elementary schools that are too small; we’re not getting enough bang for our buck,” Chenault said. “If we build the right size elementary [school], we’re going to be able to accommodate whatever that growth is.”
By April, the school division is expected to come back to council with a list of formal proposals to consider that will possibly include plans for a new elementary school and a middle school that could house some high school programs.
“[In] 2017, I hope this community has a ribbon-cutting ceremony and we’re opening up a new school,” Kizner said.
The renovated Simms building, erected in the 1930s for use as an all-black school, had been part of the city school division until 2001. That’s when the division declared the site surplus property and returned it to the city.
A $5.5 million renovation and expansion project was completed on the new education center in 2005.
Contact Emily Sharrer at 574-6286 or esharrer@dnronline.com
The Harrisonburg City School Board first brought the Simms Center into discussions about how to solve the division’s space problems in fall 2011. In December, the board voted to ask council for the building, a one-time city school.
While no council members seemed opposed to the idea Tuesday night during a joint meeting of the elected bodies at the School Board’s office, some did voice support for having more than one option on the table.
“Maybe Simms isn’t the answer,” Mayor Ted Byrd said. “[Let’s] make sure all the rocks have been unturned.”
Simms is a possible answer to just one of the school system’s space issues. During the past 10 years, the division has grown 2 percent on average each year. Over the last three years, the average is closer to 3 or 4 percent, according to city schools Superintendent Scott Kizner.
This school year, the division has around 4,900 students, up 850 from the 2003-04 school year. Some schools already are at capacity and others will be out of space in the coming years, Kizner said.
If the division did use the Simms building, it would give relief to city elementary schools that house the prekindergarten programs, at least through 2015-16, Kizner said.
The board’s proposal was to perform a $2 million renovation on the building to create 10 classrooms for prekindergarten students. Five other prekindergarten classrooms would be housed at Stone Spring Elementary School.
Board members were receptive to council suggestions of looking into building a new prekindergarten center on city- or division-owned land, or bidding for an expansion to the Simms Center that would bring all 15 classes under one roof.
“Ideally, it would be great to have them all in one location,” said board member Kerri Wilson.
During the meeting, Kizner went over the division’s enrollment numbers, building information and growth projections, stressing the time sensitivity of the “prekindergarten to [12th-grade] challenge that lies ahead.”
Kizner said the division has grown by 656 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and 723 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade since its two newest buildings — Smithland Elementary School and Skyline Middle School — opened in 2008.
“The trend is only going one direction and it’s going up,” he said. “There were trends back in ’08 demonstrating that we would have this conversation.”
While the division’s growth is ongoing, Councilman Charles Chenault said he did not want the discussion and planning for the growth to become a frequent topic.
“I think we’ve got to stop building elementary schools that are too small; we’re not getting enough bang for our buck,” Chenault said. “If we build the right size elementary [school], we’re going to be able to accommodate whatever that growth is.”
By April, the school division is expected to come back to council with a list of formal proposals to consider that will possibly include plans for a new elementary school and a middle school that could house some high school programs.
“[In] 2017, I hope this community has a ribbon-cutting ceremony and we’re opening up a new school,” Kizner said.
The renovated Simms building, erected in the 1930s for use as an all-black school, had been part of the city school division until 2001. That’s when the division declared the site surplus property and returned it to the city.
A $5.5 million renovation and expansion project was completed on the new education center in 2005.
Contact Emily Sharrer at 574-6286 or esharrer@dnronline.com