Yes, our consultants at Woolpert created a video that discusses the process overview, the past options and feedback, the recommendation, and our next steps.

The purpose of the rezoning process is to rebalance enrollments among the elementary schools. Over time, populations have shifted within the community, causing imbalanced enrollments throughout the division. In addition, there are residential developments throughout the city that have the potential to produce a significant number of students, which would have a particular impact on Summit Elementary. Summit Elementary is not able to expand or support modular classrooms on their site, and the northern schools in the City have capacity to serve more students.

As Dr. Gurley noted in his announcement, “All students deserve to be in schools that have ample capacity to serve them.” Currently, our elementary schools have a very wide range in their percentages of economically disadvantaged students – it ranges from a low of 33% (1 in 3 students are economically disadvantaged) to as high as 76% (3 in 4 students are economically disadvantaged). We see similar differences comparing the number of English language learners, or the race/ethnicity of our students across our elementary schools. Socioeconomic status (or SES) also includes the level of parents’/guardians’ education, the types of jobs they work in, or their perceived overall “class” or “power” in the community. 

We have consistently heard that our community would like for all of our elementary schools to reflect the full diversity of our student body, for the benefit of all. We also know that at schools with higher numbers of economically disadvantaged students and English language learners, full accreditation is harder to come by, there is higher staff turnover, less money can be raised by the PTO, and fewer parents/guardians are available to assist the school. We send extra supports to the schools that need them most – and the staff, students, and families at these schools do amazing work. But even so, these disparities persist. Due to the social landscape of our city (and also due to planned real estate developments in the southern half of the city), a complete levelization of our socioeconomic status is not possible. But this rezoning recommendation represents the solution that gets us closest.

The predicted phasing by neighborhood in the proposed plan would be:

• As soon as possible: small parcels where no students live would be rezoned
• August 2027: Students who live west of Kindlewood (who currently attend Summit) would be rezoned to Burnley-Moran
• August 2029: All other rezoning recommendations would go into effect.
  • Students living at Kindlewood would move from Summit to Burnley-Moran. 
  • Students living north of 250 currently zoned to Burnley-Moran (Locust Grove and Park Street areas) would move to Greenbrier. 
  • Students living south of 250 currently zoned to Greenbrier (Rose Hill and Birdwood areas) would move to Trailblazer.
  • Students living in the Meadows neighborhood (homes west of 29 currently zoned for Greenbrier) would move to Trailblazer. 

In the proposed plan, if families could supply their own transportation and if space is available at the desired school, families could apply for the following exemptions:

• Any student who would be in 4th or 5th grade when the new school zone went into effect could apply to stay at their current school to complete their last 1-2 years. 
• Younger siblings could apply to remain at their family’s current school as long as their older sibling attends that school. 
• Future kindergarten families could make a choice – they could apply to begin early at their new school. Alternatively, future kindergartners could attend their family’s current school and then change schools when the official rezoning goes into place. 
  • As noted above, at the time of the official rezoning, students in 4th or 5th grade at the time of a school zone change could apply to remain in their current school
• Keep in mind that the timeline for implementation would be dependent on the progress of area residential construction projects; we would give annual updates to the School Board and families.

Families would apply using the Out of Zone application. (The deadline will likely be in mid-April). Once a rezoning plan is approved, the School Board will update our policy for applying to attend an elementary school outside the current school zone. The Board will add “minimizing rezoning impacts on a family” to the list of reasons why applications will be considered. The policy will prioritize families of students entering kindergarten, 4, and 5 during a zoning change, but other grades can apply, especially if it allows the family to move to their new school earlier. Again, this will be as space is allowed and if the family can supply transportation.

Yes, our consultants at Woolpert have a locator tool you can use.

As additional housing is built at Kindlewood, its future residents would have the single biggest impact on Summit’s student enrollment if this neighborhood remained zoned there. That said, we heard from current residents that they very much want their students to be able to spend their elementary years at Summit. To address these facts:

• We plan to give particular attention to residents who already live at Kindlewood to make sure we are meeting their needs. In many ways, this shift to Burnley-Moran will primarily impact families who do not yet live in Kindlewood and who will move in as new construction is completed. 
• All current Summit students in grades 1+ would finish out their time at the school before the anticipated transition in August 2029. Current Kindergarten students would have a priority exemption to stay at Summit (As a reminder, Kindlewood is in the “walk zone” for Summit.)
• Bus service will be provided as students transition to Burnley-Moran. (Kindlewood students are in the “walk zone” for Summit.)
• Future kindergarten students can apply to start attending Burnley-Moran early if space allows. If future school bus driver staffing allows, Pupil Transit will offer transportation as early as August 2025.
• As new families move into future phases of Kindlewood, they can apply to start attending Burnley-Moran as space is available. If future school bus driver staffing allows, Pupil Transit will offer transportation as early as August 2025.

We are very aware of the ways this proposal echoes a long-ago decision to bus Westhaven students to Burnley-Moran. The CCS leaders who kept Black students out of Venable (today’s Trailblazer) were deliberately trying to maintain racial segregation. Our intent is very different today: In fact, rezoning Kindlewood would make all of our schools more diverse. The intent is different, and we will work very closely with Kindlewood families to make sure the impact is different, too. The alternative – keeping Kindlewood zoned to Summit – would result in another kind of segregation, where a large percentage of our division’s low-income students were all being educated at one school.

For schools with higher needs, we allocate additional support. This ranges from a smaller target class size to additional specialists in the areas such as ESL, reading, math, and mental health. We will continue to monitor Summit’s needs (as well Burnley-Moran’s needs) during the upcoming years as this proposed rezoning plan unfolds.

In this proposal, students who live west of Kindlewood (and currently attend Summit) would be the first to be impacted, starting in August 2027. Moving students in this area would create critical space to alleviate crowding at Summit for a few years.

• Bus service would be available to Burnley-Moran no later than August 2027. (If staffing is available, bus service might begin as early as August 2025.)
• How would this change impact my child (by CURRENT grade)?
  • Current 3rd and 4th graders would not be impacted (by August 2027, they would have finished fifth grade.)
  • Current 2nd graders could apply to remain at Summit for their fifth-grade year if the family can supply transportation to Summit and if space is available.
  • Current 1st graders could apply to remain at Summit for their 4th- and 5th-grade years if the family can supply transportation to Summit and if space is available.
  • Current kindergarten and preschool students would make the transition to Burnley-Moran in August 2027 when they are in third grade (or younger). If they have an older sibling who is still attending Summit during those years, the younger sibling could apply to remain at Summit until the older sibling leaves Summit.
  • Future kindergarteners could apply to attend Burnley-Moran in August 2025 if space is available and if the family can provide transportation. (If future school bus driver staffing allows, Pupil Transit will offer transportation as early as August 2025.)
  • We want to help you make a plan that works for your family! Consider attending the Q&A at Summit on Monday, February 4 at 5pm.

With the housing development in the south of Charlottesville, some students – specifically at Summit – need to move north. As we add students to Burnley-Moran, the school is not big enough to take in so many new students without sending others to Greenbrier. (Additionally, rebalancing our student enrollment across all elementary schools means that Greenbrier will need to take in more students.)

All current BME students in grades 1+ would finish out their time at the school before the anticipated transition in August 2029. Current kindergarten students would have a priority exemption to stay at BME for fifth grade if the family could supply transportation for that year. Future kindergarten students could apply to start attending Greenbrier early if space allows (and if the family can supply transportation until the “official” rezoning).

• Best practices in rezoning call for school-zone edges to follow clear dividers that will not move over time (railroad tracks, rivers, major streets). In this case, the 250 Bypass is that divider.
• Using the 250 Bypass as a divider also reduces the number of buses that need to cross 250, which increases route efficiency.
• We recognize that this change would send a number of students who can currently walk to BME to a farther school.
• We heard feedback that students in the current BME walk zone should continue to attend BME. We understand this, but that decision would “overpopulate” BME. It would also divide the neighborhood north of 250 along the lines of where the walk zone officially ends.

Have More Questions about Locust Grove?

Find a Frequently Asked Questions document that we prepared for members of the Locust Grove community here.

• All current Greenbrier students in grades 1+ would finish out their time at the school before the anticipated transition in August 2029. Current kindergarten students would have a priority exemption to stay at Greenbrier if the family could supply transportation for that year.
• Future kindergarten students could apply to start attending Trailblazer early if space allowed (and if the family could supply transportation until the “official” rezoning.)

For the Rose Hill area: 

• This actually sends many students to their closest school. Some are even close enough to be in the walk zone.
• Best practices in rezoning call for school zone edges to follow clear dividers that will not move over time (railroad tracks, rivers, major stress). In this case, the 250 Bypass is that divider. 
• Using the 250 Bypass as a divider also reduces the number of buses that need to cross 250, which increases efficiency.
• This would create a more cohesive plan for the neighborhood instead of having a “peninsula” of students attending a different elementary school.

For the Meadows area (homes west of 29 currently zoned for Greenbrier):

• These students are not walkable either to Greenbrier or to Trailblazer. 
• Moving these students to Trailblazer is one piece of the puzzle that balances the enrollment at the schools.

This is the best sort of rezoning – it would clean up edges of the current zones and not impact any current students. We recommend making these changes immediately before students might move into these areas. In some cases, these changes would be made because they work better with how traffic flows.

As shown, below this incldes:

• a parcel at the corner of Brunswick Rd & Sunset Ave so that all of Brunswick Rd. would attend Jackson-Via.
• a portion of Shamrock Rd. that dead-ends into Beacon on 5^th appartments. This would attend Johnson.
• all homes on Ware St. & Robinson Pl (since there is no outlet except into Summit boundary). This would attend Summet.
• the Condiminiums at Walker Square would attend Johnson. The only outlet is onto Estes St. into the Johnson boundary.

That is a future possibility, but not recommended at this time. You may recall that the draft plans indicated that we would send all students at Greenstone on 5th to either Jackson-Via or Johnson. (Currently, they are divided between Johnson and Jackson-Via.) We see value in doing so and will consider this in the future as we continue to evaluate these boundaries. (To offset this change, this would also require families who live west of J.P.A. to shift from Johnson to Jackson-Via, something we had not previously shown in any of the draft proposals. It is not best practice to recommend a boundary change without giving advance notice to potentially impacted families.) Therefore, we are not including this option in our official recommendation at this time. This saves 70 students in those neighborhoods from having to change schools, and it contributes to balancing the socioeconomic diversity of our schools. If we pursue this in the future, we would follow a separate engagement process and Board vote.

We understand that this seems incongruous. But this rezoning opportunity is a chance to make zones that not only balance student enrollments and socioeconomic levels – it’s also a chance to create school zones that “make sense.” Some students who live along Rose Hill Drive would now attend a school closer to home (Trailblazer), and it unites these students with their neighbors. Using the 250 Bypass as a divider creates transportation efficiencies, and it is a clear marker that is easily understood. 

All of these dates would be dependent on the progress of area construction projects. Our consultant, Woolpert, will work with our Chief Operating Officer Kim Powell to annually review progress on upcoming residential construction projects and will make annual recommendations to the School Board and community.  

The advisory committee looked at this recommendation as well as an alternate recommendation that would not move Kindlewood residents from Summit (but which would increase the economically disadvantaged students at Summit up to 78%). By vote, the committee members more strongly favored the recommendation that we are presenting today, but the committee elected to submit both plans to Dr. Gurley and his Staff Working Group.

Feedback from the advisory committee about this final recommendation:

• We hired a rezoning expert, and after reviewing the data and the public feedback, this is her recommendation.
• Hearing from the Summit community convinced us of the value of leveling socioeconomic status (SES) across all schools, and this plan does that best. 
• Leveling SES was also a priority articulated by the Board and Dr. Gurley
• This plan leaves the most room for utilization at schools with the highest needs, which gives those schools flexibility for extra support staff to work with students in small groups.
• The idea of implementation may sound painful now, but the slow phase-in will give families time to prepare.
• The school boundaries of this plan are pretty clean.
• One centralized bus stop at Kindlewood would present good route efficiency. It would solve a problem for those Kindlewood families who have wished for a bus to school (although to be clear, everyone acknowledged that the longer distance from school would remain a challenge for families, and ongoing support should be offered to families at Kindlewood.)
• Cville Schools needs to hear/listen to Kindlewood families about phasing, transit plans, and supports for families getting to school events. What supports can be put into place for future Kindlewood families as they begin attending BME? Can we offer flexibility to existing Kindlewood families who wish to stay at Summit longer? 
• Can CCS offer enrollment/transportation to BME as soon as new Kindlewood families move into new construction in phase 2 or 3? 
• The idea of maintaining Summit as a school with high needs but sending in extra supports sounds simple, but it is not. 
  • As you send in more support staff, you need more space 
  • Furthermore, you can add staff support to a high-needs school so that it looks great on paper or in a budget, but there are a lot of intangible benefits that accrue to wealthier schools – lower staff turnover, higher PTO fundraising, more parent/guardian availability to volunteer in classes/buy snacks, etc.
• Having said this, 
  • Some committee members were uncomfortable recommending that future Kindlewood students be zoned to Burnley-Moran since it repeats Charlottesville’s past decision to move students who live in public housing away from their closest school. (For decades, students at Westhaven were zoned to attend Burnley-Moran instead of neighboring Trailblazer.) See more about this in a separate question of this FAQ.
  • The intent behind today’s plan is different now than when Westhaven moved to BME, but we need to make sure the impact is not the same.

This recommendation is largely based on “option 2,” but it was refined by community feedback and the work of our consultant from Woolpert.

You can find the results from the survey here. Other information is available on the project site maintained by Woolpert, our consultants for this rezoning process.

We agree, this is a lot to tackle at once. After decades of discussion and advocacy, we are thrilled that the City has invested in the modernization of Charlottesville Middle School, the development of Charlottesville’s early education center, and the return of 5th grade to our elementary schools. The timing of rezoning is driven by residential development in our community – and the schools have no control over that.

No! Most school divisions engage in a regular review of their school boundaries. As noted above, we see value in uniting all students who live at Greenstone on 5th at one elementary school, so we will be watching Johnson and Jackson-Via’s enrollment. In addition, as the City continues to add residential developments (or as school enrollment changes), we will continue to watch our boundaries. Finally, even these proposed changes may have their timelines changed depending on the rate of progress of upcoming residential construction projects. The one thing we can tell you is that we will keep you informed. If additional adjustments to elementary attendance zones are discussed, we will seek feedback and the Board would vote on those changes.

On February 4, we will hold a questions & answers event (5-6pm, Summit Elementary cafeteria). We especially invite impacted residents so we can answer questions and begin developing supports, such as allowing incoming residents of Kindlewood to make the move to Burnley-Moran upon move-in if that is the family’s choice.

You can also peruse our consultant Woolpert’s CCS project webpage, which has background, process, resources, and more. 

There are two ways to give feedback. (Note that the feedback event has been rescheduled due to winter weather.)

• Feedback Event: You can offer feedback by attending a special event in the Charlottesville High School media center on February 18 from 5-7pm. Come at any time to offer public comment.
  • The event will be streamed on the Cville Schools Facebook page.
  • Register to give public comment via Zoom here.
• Survey: Complete an open-ended survey here.
  • The survey will remain open through March 12.

The School Board will review, discuss, and take action on rezoning on the following dates: 

• Thursday, February 6, 5pm: The Board meeting will feature an overview of the proposed rezoning information to help inform the public.
• Thursday, March 6, 5pm:  Rezoning will be a discussion item for the Board meeting.
• Thursday, March 27, 5pm: Rezoning will likely be scheduled for a vote at this Board meeting.