WILLIAMSBURG — The city of Williamsburg is exploring the idea of severing its longstanding agreement with James City County to operate a joint school system.
On Thursday, Williamsburg City Council voted unanimously to proceed with a feasibility study that “would consider and explore the possibility of forming an independent city of Williamsburg public school division,” said City Manager Andrew Trivette.
Currently, the city is in the second year of a five-year contract for the joint operation of the Williamsburg-James City County school system.
According to the school system’s website, there are more than 11,000 students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade across the system’s 16 schools. Just over 1,000 students enrolled in the system this past school year were city residents, according to the 2024 Williamsburg city budget. Over 16% of the city’s budget for this fiscal year was slated for Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools.
The study will take place through the fall of 2023, with any implementation of recommendations taking place at the earliest in the 2025-2026 school year, a city news release said.
“I hope for anybody watching that they don’t see this as an indictment of the current education that is being provided to the children,” Mayor Doug Pons said. “We have an outstanding school division. The people that work in our division do an outstanding job so there’s no criticism involved in this at all.”
In a message shared with the school system’s staff on Thursday, Superintendent Olwen Herron said that at the moment, the city’s action doesn’t mean anything for Williamsburg-James City County Schools.
“While we may wonder what the results of the study will be and what action, if any, will be taken, any commentary on those outcomes at this time would be speculative,” Herron said. “As the study unfolds and we learn more about the city’s findings, I will update you. In the meantime, we will continue to deliver the finest instruction, support, and services to our community.”
The study comes as a result of the city’s most recent Goals, Initiatives and Outcomes document, which includes an initiative to “consider alternatives to the traditional K-12 education model for improved pathways to higher education and certificate programs through coordination with local institutions.”
During each contract negotiation, which happens every five years, “we’ve asked ourselves as a body, ‘Will this deliver the best outcome for our students?’ and we really didn’t have the information,” Pons said. “The message is clear that we owe it to our citizenry to have this conversation.”
Pons added that there is no predetermined outcome involved with the study.
“There could be some concern in the community that all of the sudden next year there’s going to be major changes and that’s not the case,” he said. “When we get the study back, then we’ll know better how to proceed.”
Sian Wilkerson, 757-342-6616, [email protected]
