Maybe, just maybe, a solution for middle schools - Fauquier Now

The legacy of William C. Taylor High School — now a middle school — stands as a major consideration in continuing deliberations about a building program.

It must rank among the most vexing decisions in Fauquier County School Board history.

After 4-1/2 years of study — the most recent round of deliberations on an issue debated for decades — the five-member board remains undecided about how to address middle school building needs.

It seemed last spring that the school board and county supervisors, who control funding, finally had reached consensus, a compromise. Both boards unanimously adopted resolutions to spend an estimated $40 million. That included $10 million for expansion of Cedar Lee Middle School in Bealeton and $30 million to renovate and expand either W.C. Taylor or Warrenton Middle School in the county seat. The other school would get repurposed.

But, as this year began, the school board expressed second thoughts about that plan.

To achieve its goal of adding 300 seats, the Cedar Lee project would cost 75 percent more, coming in at an estimated $17.5 million.

A potential $9.9-million addition Auburn Middle School also came back into play.

This week, two members of each board met to continue grinding the sausage of government. School officials put four options on the table, with estimated costs ranging from $52.6 million to $57.4 million.

> Option summaries below

Any of those options would require a real estate tax increase of 5 to 6 percent for debt service, County Administrator Paul McCulla said during Tuesday’s “liaison” meeting.

The school board on Monday night, Feb. 3, will review the options and presumably pick one.

The board of supervisors on Thursday, Feb. 11, will review the options and (presumably) the school board’s preference.

A multitude of factors make it a very difficult decision:

• William C. Taylor Middle School in Warrenton represents “the third rail” for education decision-makers, similar to Social Security for Congress. Elected officials remain reluctant to touch it — for good reason.

Fauquier joined most of Virginia in its refusal to integrate schools before and for more than a decade after the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous Brown v. Board of Education decision.

Under the doctrine of “separate but equal,” Fauquier built Taylor, which opened in 1952, for the county’s black high school students. Despite the building’s no-frills — dare we say, inferior — construction, its students thrived, thanks to an extraordinary staff and support from Fauquier’s proud, tight-knit African-American community.

Fauquier finally integrated its public schools in 1969. Taylor became a junior high and then a middle school. But, the passion for William C. Taylor High School’s legacy remains strong.

Without question, the county must honor and maintain that legacy.

If that building on East Shirley Avenue no longer houses a middle school, how does that happen?

Does it retain the Taylor name and house administrative offices, the alternative school, Head Start and/or other programs?

Or, does the other middle school in Warrenton get renamed for the late Mr. Taylor? Would a statue of Mr. Taylor and a well-done interpretive display at the Waterloo Street school serve as a fitting, acceptable solution?

Or, is the Taylor campus hallowed ground, whose importance cannot transfer to the other school after the potential $35-million investment?

No public official publicly has talked about such an option. But, school officials and Taylor alumni have made clear their intentions and desires to keep the esteemed educator’s name in a prominent place.

• An incredibly complex and expensive bussing system.

More than 200 middle-schoolers from the Opal and Bealeton areas get bussed to Taylor in Warrenton, rather than attending the much-closer Cedar Lee.

Students from the Warrenton Lakes subdivision and from the Route 211 area west of Warrenton get bussed to Marshall Middle School.

Some students have 70-minute, one-way bus rides to and from school. For some, long trips to and from school will remain unavoidable, given the county’s size and scattered population.

School seats simply don’t align neatly with much of Fauquier’s settlement pattern.

• Redistricting. School boards hate it — as do parents and students. Few want to change schools or the boundary lines for their service areas.

In theory, the board could balance enrollment among the county’s five middle schools every year. But, as a practical matter, bus routes and, to a greater extent, passions make that very, very undesirable.

• Enrollment, which has declined from its peak of 11,263 students in 2007-08, will remain pretty flat for the next decade, according to administrators’ projections.

The school system has 11,100 students this year. That will increase by a projected 1,101 over the next decade.

Middle school enrollment (Grades 6-8) will grow by an estimated 150 in the same period. The five middle schools have space for 621 more students. Plenty of “capacity” exists. Of course, each of the four options calls for closing one of the five schools.

• Equity. Everybody wants schools to have the same features and course offerings, regardless of their location or enrollment.

• Under relatively new state law, the county cannot receive “proffers” (cash) for education from developers seeking residential rezonings if Fauquier has existing school capacity in the areas of proposed subdivisions. So, the supervisors will remain cautious about adding school seats ahead of population growth.

• Money always matters, especially in an aging community with large private school and home-school populations. And, despite Fauquier’s statistical affluence, thousands struggle to maintain property in their families for generations.

Since the latest building studies began in the fall of 2015, discussions between the school board and supervisors sometimes have grown intense, even angry.

That seems to have calmed, starting a year ago when Supervisors Chris Butler (Lee District) and Chris Granger (Center) met secretly school board members Donna Grove (Cedar Run) and Brian Gorg (Center), who has since left office, to hammer out the $40-million compromise.

With both boards fresh off November elections, having better understanding of each other and reams of information before them, they finally should resolve the middle school issue this spring.

It could happen in February, putting an end to repetitious debates — a la Groundhog Day — about the same basic issues.

The solution will take courage and compromise. And, it will require a tax increase.

Contact Editor “Lou” Emerson at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 540-270-1845.

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