Members of the School Board,
I support expanding early childhood education. That is not the issue. The issue is whether Norfolk Highlands Primary should be removed as a neighborhood school without the public seeing the analysis behind that decision.
I spoke with Chesapeake Public Schools today. I asked why Norfolk Highlands Primary was chosen for this preschool feeder program. The person I spoke with could not answer. I asked what the impact would be on average class sizes at the schools receiving NHP students. He could not answer, because that data was not available. I asked whether CPS had modeled what class sizes would look like if current NHP classes were merged into the receiving schools. Again, that data was not available.
That is a serious problem. The presentation uses declining enrollment and building capacity as major justifications, but it does not show current class sizes, projected class sizes, classroom-by-classroom impacts, or the instructional consequences for the receiving schools.
As an educator, I find that backwards. Declining enrollment is not automatically a problem. If schools are properly funded, declining enrollment can be an opportunity to reduce class sizes, especially in the early grades. The strongest class-size research shows that smaller early-grade classes improve outcomes, and that this can be more effective than simply adding another adult to a larger classroom. If the goal is student achievement, then smaller classes should be treated as an educational opportunity, not as a facilities inefficiency.
This also raises a tax equity issue. Norfolk Highlands families pay into the same Chesapeake school system as everyone else. Yet this plan would take away our walkable neighborhood school, bus our children elsewhere, and bus preschool students from other areas into our neighborhood. Meanwhile, Chesapeake continues to expand outward, with new development creating new tax base and new facility demands. Norfolk Highlands should not be asked to shoulder that burden by losing a core public asset.
The presentation also does not show the positive outcome for Norfolk Highlands as a community. It does not show that our children will be better off. It does not show that surrounding schools will be better off. It does not show that transportation will be better. It does not show that class sizes will be better. It does not show that this building is the best preschool site compared with other alternatives.
I also find it frustrating that the presentation does not link to the underlying datasets. I have worked as a construction contractor, in municipal finance issuing bonds and calculating debt service, and as a Kâ12 educator. If I can spend an afternoon trying to verify this presentation and still not reproduce the conclusion, then the average community member has no realistic way to evaluate the proposal.
Before this moves forward, CPS should publish the site-selection analysis, alternatives analysis, current and projected class sizes, transportation impact, building-suitability analysis, fire and evacuation review, and the source neighborhoods for the preschool students.
The Board should pause this plan until CPS has shown its work.