Following a move by the city more than a year ago to study a school system split and the county’s subsequent termination of their joint contract, the Williamsburg-James City County school system is on target to separate prior to the 2028-29 school year.

But now, county officials want to know by Oct. 1 whether the city has at least a preference.

“The apparent lack of an anticipated decision date is causing unnecessary concern in the community and is hindering the county’s ability to adequately plan for a separation,” Ruth Larson, chair of the county Board of Supervisors, wrote in an Aug. 12 letter to Williamsburg Mayor Doug Pons.

Williamsburg City Council voted in June 2023 to begin exploring the feasibility of splitting the school system, which has been run jointly since 1955. Consultants hired by the city to study the issue found that a split would cost millions and disrupt thousands of students. The study also revealed a stark difference in achievement levels between city and county students.

Following an update at last Thursday’s City Council meeting, the city said in a news release it anticipated that “both localities will keep planning for what individual school districts could look like, while also working to potentially remain united.” Research continues by looking at joint operating models that govern other school divisions in and outside of Virginia, the release said.

Looking at those other joint divisions, along with their funding mechanisms, should provide the city and county with “the ability to collaborate on a potentially modernized joint operating structure that better serves both communities should the decision be made to remain in the current joint school district.”

The city said it’s aware of the need for finality.

“The council is anxious to resolve this issue and look forward to making the best decision possible for Williamsburg students and the overall community in the months ahead,” the city’s statement read.

James City County leaders, however, responded that the city’s intention “remains as unclear as the day it was released.” As of now, the county is planning to hold public meetings next month as part of its own study assessing the feasibility of operating a separate school system.

If a school split were to occur, roughly 1,100 students in a Williamsburg system would attend one of three schools — Matthew Whaley, Berkeley or a newly converted James Blair High School. It would mean the displacement of more than 600 students and likely require the construction of a new middle school.

A split would cost city taxpayers more per student than the existing arrangement with James City County. Then there’s also the matter of staffing, splitting up buses, equipment and other property and how to make student transitions.

Worrisome to both localities through the process has been findings showing that Williamsburg students have been falling behind in some academic areas. In July, the WJCC School Board responded to the city’s request for an action plan regarding student performance in part by pointing out that the underperforming numbers could also be a result of the learning loss that all schools saw after the pandemic, especially among vulnerable groups.

“That is precisely why tremendous efforts have been made day in and day out by our dedicated administrators, teachers and staff to make up for the learning loss that is evident in your study,” school board Chair Sarah Ortego wrote in her July 26 response. “The fruit of these efforts are just now coming to bear and more is expected in the coming months as we enter the next school year and beyond. These efforts and results simply cannot be captured by viewing one post-pandemic year of data that is now two years old.”

The school board’s letter further noted that the schools are already seeing improvement, particularly in Standards of Learning scores and other standardized assessments. In addition, the school board is still in the process of honing its strategic plan despite the “uncertainty of our school division’s future,” Ortego said.

“Rest assured, the academic growth and personal success of every child is paramount for our teachers, staff, and administrators, and we trust in their capacity to deliver,” Ortego’s letter added.

The Board of Supervisors is open to renegotiating a contract that more fairly distributes cost, representation and “provides an excellent educational system for the our students,” the county’s statement said.

According to Larson, agreeing to a new contract could take several months, but that the localities could have a new contract in place by Dec. 31. “To that end,” she wrote in her letter to Pons, “we stand ready and willing to enter into negotiations with you on October 2, 2024.”

The city’s feasibility study, along with other documents, can be viewed at williamsburgva.gov/feasibilitystudy.

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com

State police said Craig Adam Jowers was driving his 2006 Nissan Maxima west in the eastbound lanes on Lewis B. Puller Memorial Highway (Route 33) when he struck a 2005 Nissan Armada driven by Michael Scott Walker of Gloucester head on. The wreck occurred shortly before midnight just east of The Trail/Route 14.

Jowers was not wearing a seatbelt and died at the scene, police said in a news release Monday. Walker, 38, who was wearing a seatbelt, was taken to a hospital for treatment of serious, but non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The crash remains under investigation.

James City police responded just before 10 p.m. after an employee in the park’s France area called to report a fight going on, a police spokesman said Sunday. Those involved had left the scene when police arrived, but left several “items of evidentiary value,” spokesman Tayleb Brooks said in a news release.

As police were investigating, the 18-year-old approached officers at the park’s entrance and told them he had been stabbed. He was taken to Riverside Doctors’ Hospital Williamsburg with non-life-threatening injuries, Brooks said.

Police said Sunday they were still trying to identify the suspect and were asking for the public’s help.

The stabbing comes a week after police from three jurisdictions went to the park for a verbal dispute that escalated among two large groups during the second night of Busch Gardens’ annual Howl-O-Scream Halloween event. No injuries were reported.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 757-253-1800. Tipsters may also call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP or submit tips online at p3tips.com. Callers to the Crime Line and P3 Tips users may remain anonymous, are not required to testify in court and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,500 if the information provided leads to an arrest.

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com

This past week, as the day for opening the historic building to the public draws closer, the wrapping and its scaffolding came down, revealing the work complete so far.

The building once housed one of the first Black schools in the United States, and it is the only known one still standing. The building has survived centuries of use, renovations and enlargements and a move from its original site in 1930. It was even lost for a while, until a retired William & Mary professor’s research identified a non-descript building on the W&M campus in the early 2000s.

Since being moved near the original site of the Historic First Baptist Church, work has been going on to restore the building so that it can serve as a place to visit and learn a more complete story about 18th-century America. The plan is to have the Bray School open to visitors by Nov. 1, with the outside and a schoolroom completed.

The school, established in 1760 by an 18th-century English philanthropist, was intended to give Black children a “Christian education” — which included reading and possibly writing, but also encouraged them to accept slavery as part of God’s plan. William & Mary and The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation are working together to uncover and preserve the school’s history, which includes finding its descendants.

On Friday, the Bray School project was announced as the recipient of the Louis J. Malon Outstanding Preservation Achievement Award given by Preservation Virginia, a nonprofit group that supports historic preservation across the state.

With the scaffolding down, visitors will be able to more easily see “the project in progress, kind of a behind-the-scenes look at what we do, and why we do it,” said Matt Webster, executive director of Architectural Preservation at Colonial Williamsburg.

Webster’s team is leading the project with assistance from members of the Historic Trades department and the modern Building Trades department. There are many different skill sets being put to work on the biggest restoration project Colonial Williamsburg has undertaken in a long time, CW Foundation spokeswoman Ellen Peltz said.

“It’s an all-foundation effort,” Webster said. I don’t think there’s any group that’s not involved.”

Now, the public is able to see the restored exterior for the first time, including a new roof.

The roof of the Bray School had been altered in the 1930s when the building served as a dorm for William & Mary, which actually made the structure look bigger, according to Webster. To stay true to the 18th century, the gambrel roof has been replaced with a gable roof, so the building more resembles what it once looked like. Additions that were added over the years were not moved with the building.

“It looks a lot smaller now, but that’s the way it looked in the 18th century,” Webster said.

In the coming weeks, crews will be finishing off the chimneys, installing a bulkhead entrance and putting in dormer windows and exterior doors. Once the heavier work is completed, attention will turn to the details.

Colonial Williamsburg’s Architectural Preservation and Research Department maintains a Facebook page updating the progress, where people can see photos and learn about the different trades that are involved in the restoration. There, visitors can learn how the Bray School’s masonry work is split among historic trades masons, modern masons and contracted historic preservation masons. Or about how paint samples have been taken and analyzed to see if they might give clues to what existed in the 18th century.

CW’s blacksmith shop has also been involved. Little of the Bray School’s original hardware exists because of later renovations, so several thousand iron nails are needed, wrote apprentice blacksmith Broadus Thompson on the Historic Trades and Skills of Colonial Williamsburg Facebook page. There’s also the need for hinges and locks, which require extra detail, Thompson said.

“Historically, all these items could easily be gotten as imports from England, where they were made more cheaply by droves of specialized workmen, like Nailers, Hinge Makers and Locksmiths,” he wrote. “A Virginian blacksmith should still have been familiar with these forms, as jobs like custom made hinges or repairing locks were commonplace. However, they seldom worked to manufacture these items in quantity, as they charged more for their work than the cost of the English imports.

“Today we do manufacture all those items, as many of them are difficult to obtain from any modern merchant.”

On any given day, there are a dozen people or more at work on the Bray School, which already has been attracting more attention by visitors.

“These are exciting steps,” Webster said. “It’s been a long time since Colonial Williamsburg’s done a project like this.”

For more about the efforts of William & Mary’s Bray School Lab, visit wm.edu/sites/brayschool.

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com

The James City County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday backed a request from the police department for school speed enforcement, making James City the latest locality to use the technology.

The county will contract with private company Blue Line Solutions to set up cameras. The police department has already been researching the technology’s necessity and practicality by collecting data on speed violations, police spokesman Tayleb Brooks said.

The Blue Line system uses automated photo speed trailer systems to monitor and enforce speed limits. Cameras capture and process speeding violations automatically, “with a focus on education over citation where feasible,” a memo to the board said.

A draft agreement between the county and Blue Line would allow the collection of a civil penalty of up to $100 for speeding violations of 10 mph or more in school zones.

Blue Line would provide and maintain all necessary equipment in a program that aims for zero fatalities in the county’s school zones.

“The mission behind this initiative is to change driver behavior, protect our students and school staff, and engage and educate the community to comply with speed limits in school zones,” Brooks said.

At its meeting, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the agreement with minimal discussion.

Board Chair Ruth Larson described the program as “extremely important.” The board also voiced support for red light cameras.

After the agreement with Blue Line is finalized, the police department will research where the cameras would be the most effective in reducing traffic violations, Brooks said. The department will also launch a public education campaign to ensure residents are aware of the initiative “and their role in improving safety,” he added.

There will also be a 30-day non-enforcement period following the public information campaign and completion of installation, during which no citations will be issued to violators.

The Virginia General Assembly approved legislation in 2020 that allows state and local police to set up speed cameras at highway work sites and school crossing zones. Under that law, only motorists caught going at least 10 mph over the speed limit are ticketed up to $100.

Neighboring New Kent County introduced speed cameras in its school zones last year. Chesapeake, Suffolk, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton and York County also have speed cameras in local school and some work zones to deter speeding and enhance overall public safety. Hampton and York County’s programs started this fall.

As James City County began looking into the cameras, Blue Line Solutions conducted a five-day speed study from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3 last year at Stonehouse Elementary, Norge Elementary and Toano Middle schools, Brooks said. The study recorded “speeding” vehicles — those that exceeded active school zone speed limits by more than 10 mph, and the findings “were alarming,” he said.

Of 35,385 vehicles counted, 23,439 were speeding — nearly two-thirds of all drivers. At Norge Elementary alone, almost 91% of drivers exceeded the speed limit.

The police department plans to consider those three schools for implementation of the cameras, and will determine whether they should be used at other schools, Brooks said.

“Speeding in school zones poses unnecessary and significant risks to children walking, cycling, being dropped off by parents, or riding school buses. It also endangers school staff and others traveling in the area,” Brooks said. “Our goal in bringing this initiative to James City County is simple: meaningfully and significantly reducing speeding in school zones.”

Most of the schools in the Williamsburg-James City County school division are in James City County, with only three in Williamsburg — Matthew Whaley Elementary and Berkeley and James Blair middle schools. The city has not taken any action on speed cameras at this point, a city spokeswoman said.

In other business Tuesday, a public hearing on a proposed development on Monticello Avenue was deferred until next month.

The hearing was scheduled to discuss a proposal to put retail and office space called the Monticello Avenue Shops on an undeveloped swath of land between News Road and New Town Avenue.

Texas-based Verdad Real Estate Development Inc. wants to construct three standalone structures, each 4,000 square feet, that would occupy the 2.75 acres. Last month, the planning commission recommended the development, but on Tuesday, supervisors said the applicant had asked to defer its presentation until Oct. 8.

David Macaulay, Davidmacaulayva@gmail.com

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com

The League of Women Voters of Williamsburg area and the York-James City-Williamsburg NAACP are sponsoring a forum from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Williamsburg Regional Library auditorium.

Three seats are up for election this year. The candidates, who run without party affiliation, include incumbents Pat Dent and Barbara Ramsey along with challengers Lindsay Barna, Fraser Hudgins and Ayanna Williams. The winners will join Mayor Doug Pons and Council member Stacy Kern-Scheerer. Caleb Rogers is not seeking reelection.

Attendees will be able to submit questions that will be asked by the moderator Michael J. Fox, who is the senior assistant to the president and secretary to the Board of Visitors at William & Mary.

“Our organizations are pleased to offer this event for voters to meet the candidates,” Denise Koch, co-chair of voter services for LWV, said in a news release. “While voters hear from candidates through various media, there is nothing like seeing candidates in person and hearing them respond to questions.”

Williamsburg area league president Susan Bivins said she hopes many voters to take the time to hear “how these potential leaders plan to lead our community.

“The expression is ‘all politics is local,’ and this is a great chance to learn about local concerns,” she said.

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com

Last month, the York County Board of Supervisors approved a $1.8 million contract to design and construct a new dockmaster building at 425 Water St. The structure will replace two smaller existing buildings that housed public restrooms and the dockmaster’s office. Some county offices will be moved elsewhere.

The two buildings, which were built in the 1970s, were torn down this week, paving the way for a new 1,874-square-foot, single-story building that will have climate controlled, ADA-accessible facilities, including restrooms and a guest services area where county staff can accommodate waterfront visitors with information and basic needs.

Approval of the contract came years after the county first recommended replacing the two older buildings. The Historic Yorktown Design Committee rejected plans for a large dockmaster building three times before the current plan passed muster with the Board of Supervisors, which said a new modern building was needed to keep up with what has become a waterfront hub.

County Administrator Mark Bellamy has said the new building will be “an important addition to the waterfront.”

Prior to the demolition, preliminary work performed last week included the removal of several decorative trees, which prompted an outcry by some residents on social media who bemoaned the loss of natural shade.

A York County spokeswoman said, however, that the trees had to be removed, along with others that were at risk of impeding underground infrastructure.

“To maintain a symmetrical appearance, the remaining trees located between the Freight Shed and the old bathroom facilities were also removed,” spokeswoman Gail Whittaker said in a news release. “In addition, the trees were impeding the view of the Riverwalk Landing pier, which was a public safety concern.”

Once construction work is completed in late spring/early summer 2025, the county will consider landscaping options, including new trees, Whittaker said.

Whittaker also said that events such as Yorktown Market Days and the outdoor concerts will continue as planned. Fencing erected for the building project includes a small portion of the green lawn near the performance stage, but the remainder of the lawn area is available for public use, she said.

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com

Carter’s traveling exhibit, “Afrofuturism in Costume Design,” opened at Jamestown Settlement in May. It highlights more than 60 costumes from her career in film and television, including Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X,” Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” and Ava DuVernay’s “Selma,” as well as the television series “Yellowstone” and the 2016 remake of “Roots.”

Originally planned to run through Dec. 1, the exhibit has been extended to Jan. 5, 2025. And next month, Carter will return for a special program at the museum.

“The exhibition has already been a great success, with substantial visitation and wonderful visitor feedback,” Mariruth Leftwich, senior director of museum operations and education for the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, said in a news release. “We are excited to be able to extend the exhibition’s time at Jamestown Settlement to ensure that the region has an even greater opportunity to visit and become inspired by Ruth’s work and the intersection of the past and future.”

Carter visited Jamestown May 11 when the exhibit opened along with a sold-out “Director’s Series” program with Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Executive Director Christy Coleman. Carter has said Hampton Roads is where she first fell in love with intensive research into Black history, having spent a summer as an interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg while an undergraduate at Hampton University.

On Oct. 5, there will be an exhibit talk and tour from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., including a 2 p.m. gallery talk by Harvey Bakari, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation curator of African history and culture. During the day, “museum guests are invited to be inspired by the stories and worlds Ruth E. Carter brings to life through her costuming to create their own original designs with fabric dyeing and zine making, with materials provided,” the foundation said. Those programs are included with museum admission.

From 5 to 8:30 p.m., there will be a reception and book signing with Carter. Tickets are $15-25 and went on sale last week. Carter will be available to sign her book, “The Art of Ruth E. Carter: Costuming Black History and the Afrofuture, from Do the Right Thing to Black Panther,” beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Reservations for the evening program, “Symbolism and Storytelling with Ruth E. Carter,” can be made at jyfmuseums.org/events/special-exhibits/afrofuturism-crafts-and-stories. The book, along with other Carter-related merchandise, is available at the Jamestown Settlement museum shop. The book is also available online at shopjyf.com.

Admission to Jamestown Settlement is $20 for adults and $10 for ages 6-12. An annual pass offers year-round access to the special exhibition, along with daytime programs and events. Parking is free. Residents of James City County, York County and Williamsburg, including William & Mary students, receive free admission with proof of residency.

For more information, visit jyfmuseums.org/ruthecarter.

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com

The county was one of 45 recipients of the association’s 2024 Achievement Awards, which recognize excellence in local government programs. The association received 145 submissions in all.

Winning entries focused on addressing issues of housing, recreation and communications, as well as finding solutions to other challenges that counties face daily, according to a news release from the association. The awards recognize the “hard work, good decision making and problem-solving skills of county staffs and leadership,” said association director Dean Lynch.

In 2019, King and Queen County partnered with RiverStreet Networks to bring advanced broadband network services to residential and commercial customers. The project gave more than 3,800 county locations access to the fiber network, making King and Queen what is believed to be the first county in Virginia to undergo a comprehensive fiber build covering the entire locality.

“The King and Queen County Fiber-to-the-Home Project represented a monumental undertaking that made King and Queen County a leader in the commonwealth,” the county wrote in its award entry. “The now-complete initiative guarantees that every resident and business in the county has access to the RiverStreet system to obtain fiber internet comparable to that of major urban areas.”

According to the county, the “top-of-the-line” broadband service covers about 575 route miles of fiber and is utilized by more than 30% of homes and businesses in rural King and Queen. The expansion is considered a boost to the county’s economic and educational development and positions it for future opportunities, according to the entry.

North Carolina-based RiverStreet also worked with the Rappahannock Tribe to provide connectivity to the Tribal Center, located in King and Queen County. The project was funded with a combination of federal, state and local funds.

“We are very proud of the hard work and dedication our staff and partner, RiverStreet, to ensure all citizens of the county were able to receive broadband internet,” said Erin Lazar, the county’s director of community programming.

In 2016, the county won the Virginia Association of Counties’ Best Achievement award for its wireless broadband construction project.

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com

The incident was cleared by midnight with no injuries, thanks to a “significant multi-jurisdictional response,” police said.

Officers responded to the amusement park about 10 p.m. for a disturbance “within a crowd of several hundred park guests,” James City County police spokesman Tayleb Brooks said. It began as a verbal dispute between two large groups, primarily involving juveniles and young adults, near the park’s entrance at the France turn-around area.

The incident escalated, prompting the call for more police than the officers already working security. James City County police, along with officers from the Williamsburg Police Department and deputies from the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office, arrived to disperse the crowd, Brooks said.

At one point, some park guests indicated to police that someone had a gun, Brooks said. Another dispute broke out in the France parking lot “but quickly subsided as more law enforcement resources arrived,” he said.

Officers at one point detained a juvenile who was acting as though he might have a gun, but no weapon was found, Brooks said.

Brooks reiterated that “guests who fail to adhere to the park’s code of conduct disrupt the experience for others, create unnecessary safety risks and may face expulsion/banishment from the park and/or legal repercussions.”

“We are committed to ensuring Howl-O-Scream is a safe and fun event for all, and guests play a cooperative role in achieving this goal,” Brooks said.

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com