Across Campbell County, members of the new facilities steering committee have begun meetings to discuss the future of the division’s school buildings over the next 20 years. Committee members include school staff, parents and other community members such as ministers and business people.
Brookville and Rustburg regional subcommittees met for the first time on Monday. Altavista and Brookneal area subcommittees are expected to meet today. Those committees are expected to meet five times over the course of this school semester.
At Brookville High School, Division Superintendent Robert Johnson and leaders from two consulting firms outlined the purpose of the committee and plans for further community outreach.
Committee members are expected to provide ideas and recommendations to school division staff, as part of a facilities study being conducted for the school division by Ohio consulting firm Dejong Richter, in conjunction with HB Architecture of Virginia Beach. A report is due in January.
Johnson told roughly two dozen Brookville subcommittee members that the school facilities study would be the first of its kind for the school division. Recommendations could include everything from when to rebuild or renovate a school to how attendance boundaries should be adjusted.
“It will drive everything we do,” Johnson said. “It takes out the guesswork.”
He speculated that the closure of Gladys Elementary might have been less traumatic for community members had a long-range plan been in place that warned parents the school might be closed under certain conditions.
Dejong Richter CEO Tracy Richter and HB Architecture principal Michael Ross said they plan to hold a “Futures Conference” to educate community stakeholders about current national trends in education. Additionally, they plan to work with committee members to hold mass community meetings to solicit opinions for the study.
“When you start talking about the idea, ‘Hey we might have to demolish a school and rebuild it’ … that’s when it gets tough,” Richter told the Brookville subcommittee members, going on to cite other examples of tough considerations. “It’s your job to make sure the superintendent is reflecting what the community wants to see.”
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