SchoolMatters Blog

Where is Albemarle Growing as of 4th Quarter 2005?

The Albemarle County Planning Commission recevied the 2005 Fourth Quarter Building Report this evening.  Thus I have updated my previous analysis of where new building permits are being issued in the County to assess the results for all of 2005.  These do not reflect ALL newly approved developments, but rather homes in developments previously approved where a building permit has now been issued.

NOTE: The County's report includes ALL types of housing, but my analysis is limited to single family detached (SFD) homes, as those are a leading indicator of future enrollment growth for Albemarle County Schools.

During Jan-Dec 2005, SFD building permits were issued as follows in Albemarle's six magisterial districts:

210 (37.8%) in White Hall
122 (21.9%) in Scottsville
89 (16%) in Samuel Miller
82 (14.7%) in Rivanna
43 (7.7%) in Rio
10 (1.8%) in Jack Jouett

From my website you can download a view of this data by magisterial district.
http://www.wheeleronboard.com/docs/2005Q4-SFD-Permits.pdf

NOTE: For SFD permits above, 51.6% were in rural areas.  However, for ALL building types, 35.6% of 2005 building permits were in rural areas, down from 46.9% in 2004.

During a longer period, from Q4 2003 to Q4 2005, Albemarle

* Approved 1,166 single family detached housing building permits

* 606 (52%) of these were for single family detached houses in the rural parts of Albemarle. 

The next largest areas of SFD growth during 2003-2005 were as follows

* 225 (19%) in Crozet (the designated growth area)

* 110 (9%) in Rivanna Village/Glenmore

* 77 (7%) in the Southern Urban Growth Area (Red Fields, Mill Creek, etc.)

* 73 (6%) in the Hollymead area (29 North)

* 30 (3%) in other parts of 29 North corridor

* 22 (2%) in Pantops area

* 18 (2%) in Piney Mountain area (29 North)

* 5 (<1%) around Bellair, Ednam, Farmington

Brian Wheeler

The King/Queen of School Start Dates

Who is the king/queen of school start dates?  Who decides if we start before Labor Day?  It is the time of year I get constituent emails asking when school will start in August.  Or is it September?!  Schools around the country are wrestling with when to set school start dates.  Many are starting much earlier than Albemarle.

The king is Kings Dominion (the amusement park).  The queen is Mother Nature.  I think they both live in Richmond at the General Assembly. I am not making this up... Virginia has what we call the "Kings Dominion Law" named after the theme park outside Richmond, which requires schools to start AFTER Labor Day (the thinking is that way theme parks will not lose their workforce).

Each year Albemarle County has to pray for snow from Mother Nature and hope the King in Richmond will grant us a waiver to start school in August.  If we get enough snow days (averaged over a number of years), we are eligible for a waiver from this law.  During the past decade, I don't believe we have ever started after Labor Day because Albemarle has always successfully gotten a waiver.

There was a recent attempt (which failed) to kill the law by the General Assembly. An article in the Hampton Roads Daily Press reported:

"A law enacted nearly 20 years ago requires schools to open after Labor Day unless they get a waiver from the board. The statute was informally called the "Kings Dominion law" because it was championed by summertime tourist attractions that rely on teenage workers through Labor Day. According to the state Department of Education, 79 of the state's 132 school divisions had permission to start this academic year earlier, mostly to compensate for days missed because of bad weather."

This year, because we have not had enough snow days, staff are preparing two calendar drafts.  One that has us starting before Labor Day and one after.  If we don't get another couple days of snow, we may be forced to comply with Virginia law and start after Labor Day.  I can tell you the Wheeler Family is not making any vacation plans past August 20th. 

Cub Scouts pack 492 have taken over this blog

This blog is being borrowed tonight for Cub Scout Pack 492 so they can work on their Communicator Award. These Cub Scouts are Internet Communicators!   Brian Wheeler

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Mom this is our Valentine's Day greeting to you!

Listen: Download cubscouts-valentine.mp3

BNSI helps County schools reach mailing list milestone

In November 1999, I started an experiment in school communications when I partnered up with BNSI to facilitate the creation of email mailing lists related to public education in Albemarle County.  More than six years later, the project is going strong with the launch this month of the Albemarle High School PTSO's "Patriot Progress" joining as list #17.  Now over 6,100 email addresses are subscribed to these school mailing lists.  Passing the 6,000 subscriber milestone presents the opportunity for me to provide a long overdue message of thanks to the Learmonth family and BNSI.

Whenever I have asked them for help, they have always been there to support improved communications in our school community. The Learmonth's generously share their technology platform because they sincerely want to give back to their community.  They have never asked me to promote their services beyond an easily overlooked tagline at the very bottom of our emails that says "Internet mailing list services provided by BNSI."

If you have benefited from these mailing lists, you can thank them publicly by posting a comment on this blog, dropping them an email (sales @ bnsi.net), or by purchasing their services for everything from residential DSL to website hosting. Great firm. Great family. Excellent service and support. Thanks BNSI!

Brian Wheeler

Update on Redistricting Policy Discussions

Those of you closely following the Albemarle County redistricting policy discussion may have wondered what happened after our January 12, 2006 meeting when the School Board last discussed Policy FB, the redistricting policy.  In November-December, the School Board was anxious to approve a new redistricting policy and it appeared a new policy was going to be fast-tracked to include specific enrollment triggers to guide future redistricting decisions.

My suggestion then was that we take our time and schedule a joint meeting with the School Board's Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC) to review how we could improve the redistricting process.  There was no support for that idea, so I drafted a compromise version of Policy FB for the board's consideration.  That proposal was received by the School Board for the January 12, 2006 meeting.  At that meeting, the School Board decided not to take action on any Policy FB proposals (mine or the version from staff).  Instead, Board members voiced support for having a retreat to evaluate the overall role of the LRPC.  Some members suggested the citizen LRPC should be eliminated, particularly in light of the fact some magisterial districts had few to zero applicants for open positions on the committee.  There was some support for having the work of the committee done entirely by staff and the School Board.

This retreat on facilities planning and redistricting is scheduled for this Wednesday, February 8, 2006.  The School Board's materials for this meeting include redistricting policies used by the following other school divisions: Chesterfield; Loudoun; Fairfax; Stafford; and Portsmouth.  Staff hope we will leave this retreat with direction as to whether the LRPC should retain its current role, have a modified role, or be eliminated entirely.

I believe we need a Long Range Planning Committee equipped with an improved redistricting policy.  There are elements of the approach taken by Chesterfield County that I believe could improve future redistrictings in Albemarle.

Brian Wheeler