Norfolk School Board will delay a vote on a plan to close and consolidate schools until the end of the month after several community members criticized members’ favored proposal.
School Board members voted 6-1 Wednesday to delay the vote until a special meeting set for Sept. 29. Board member Ken Paulson voted against the pause, saying it was too long of a delay to make the decision.
School Board chair Sarah Dicalogero said it was clear to board members that they still had work to do after hearing from community members.
In the public comment portion of the meeting, at least 20 people spoke out against a school board plan that would have closed nine schools. Some speakers were critical of the last-minute nature of the plan, which was drafted by board members Tanya Bhasin and Jason Inge and introduced at a Sept. 10 meeting. Others objected to the proposed repurposing of St. Helena Elementary School with students from the Berkley-Campostella Early Childhood Center.
A group of supporters of Ghent School pleaded with School Board members to keep the school open, while another group of Maury High School supporters asked to move the Ghent School program to make space for larger athletics fields. The School Board considered the possibility of replacing Ghent with a 4,000-seat football stadium, but Norfolk City Council did not approve the measure when it voted on a rebuild agreement in August.
Norfolk schools have been losing students for years. They also require more than $900 million in repairs, including $145 million in urgent needs, according to a consultant.
Norfolk City Council members had asked the School Board to create a plan to close at least 10 schools in March. In an email sent ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, City Council member and Granby High School principal Tommy Smigiel urged the board members to select one of several options presented by a consultant that had a definitive timeline for all closures. The previously proposed School Board plan only prescribed closure dates for two of the nine schools.
Smigiel said if School Board members did not select an appropriate option, the City Council might begin to dictate how city funding for the school system could be used. The consequence was also suggested by the original City Council resolution in May.
“That is a step I do not want to see us take or want to be forced to vote on,” Smigiel wrote in the email. “This is not a threat but will be a necessity in order to secure our fiscal future.”
Dicalogero said the email did not influence the School Board’s decision to delay the vote.
Under the School Board’s previous plan, the following schools would have closed:
Willoughby Early Childhood Center
Berkley Early Childhood Center
Tarrallton Elementary School
Norview Elementary School
P.B. Young Elementary School
Granby Elementary School
Madison at Easton
Norfolk Technical Center
Norfolk Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs Center.
The plan would have moved students into other schools. It would also have repurposed Lake Taylor High School into a full career and technical education center, turned Chesterfield Academy into a new SECEP center and turned Lindenwood Elementary School into a professional development center for the school district. Willoughby Early Childhood Center and Berkley-Campostella Early Childhood Center would have closed at the end of this school year.
The rest of the closures would have been determined after the school district completed a redistricting process in the 2026-27 school year. That would redraw attendance zones to ensure balanced enrollment, increase the use of underpopulated schools, deconcentrate poverty and improve student learning environments, according to School Board documents.
Tarrallton, Granby, P.B. Young and Norview would have closed some time between the 2027 and 2031 school years, according to an updated timeline. The remainder of the schools would have closed some time before the 2034 school year.