Roanoke City Council members responded positively Tuesday to an early proposal to establish a magnet high school at the city’s Jefferson Center as a way to alleviate crowding at its two high schools.
Opening a magnet school at the performing arts center — which started its life as a segregated high school a century ago — was one of three options that the Roanoke City School Board presented during a joint meeting with the city council.
Both of the city’s high schools, William Fleming and Patrick Henry, are at about 120% of capacity, and a feasibility study indicates there’s no quick fix on the horizon.
The options include building a third comprehensive high school, adding onto the existing schools, or establishing a magnet school that offers specialized education programs, according to the results of a feasibility study by Spectrum Design, which the school board received in late August.
At a school board meeting on Aug. 13 on the findings, Chris Venable, principal of Spectrum Design, said crowding at the high schools turned out to be more severe than initially thought.
Superintendent Verletta White advocated Tuesday for a magnet school to be created in or near downtown Roanoke, to serve up to 900 students pursuing academic programs such as the arts and humanities or science and technology. The cost to renovate an existing site would be $20 million to $30 million, while construction of a small new magnet high school would likely cost $40 million to $60 million.
The magnet school could open within three to six years. It would be Roanoke’s only magnet school; the division previously had 13 magnet programs but dropped them in 2006.
White identified the Jefferson Center as a potential site for the magnet school. The 100-year-old building on Luck Avenue near downtown Roanoke housed an all-white high school during segregation, White noted. Jefferson High School eventually desegregated and closed in 1974. The building later was renovated and reopened as a performing arts center. The city council was told last fall that it needs $6 million in repairs and upgrades.
“To have an opportunity to make this school a beautifully diverse school that would draw from both high schools would be something that would be historic,” White said.
City council members voiced support for creating a high school at the Jefferson Center but cautioned they’d like to see additional options discussed in more detail.
“I’m more for the magnet school, but I would like to look at how we can start to secure land for a third high school if that is in our future, because that is a more long-term prospect,” said council member Peter Volosin.
While the Jefferson Center may be best known for its performance venues, it also houses a variety of tenants including Roanoke Valley Television, a Montessori school and a number of private businesses.
White acknowledged the challenges in planning new uses for the building.
“We have to be careful in our planning and thinking and bringing the … Jefferson Center’s tenants into the conversations so that they are part of the process,” she said.
Another option is to put additions on the two existing high schools that would accommodate up to 450 students each. Doing so would take three to five years, according to the feasibility report, and would likely cost $30 million to $40 million total.
But there is limited space available on the campuses of William Fleming and Patrick Henry high schools, and there are concerns about permanently increasing the student population at each school. The school buildings are both less than 20 years old.
Fleming and Patrick Henry each have a capacity of about 1,650 students, and about 2,000 students are enrolled at each. The proposed additions would bring capacity up to about 2,100 students in each school.
The third option is to construct a new high school that could accommodate up to 1,500 students. It would likely cost $90 million to $120 million and take five to seven years to complete. Doing so could ensure a long-term fix to overcrowding but would require a significant financial outlay. It would also require finding and securing a piece of land on which to build.
Even if the city moves forward with the magnet school idea, there’s a risk it might not fully alleviate overcrowding issues, White said.
Though the city is not expected to see significant population growth in the coming years, there are about 12,000 people age 9 and under who are likely to move through the city’s middle and high schools in the coming years, according to census data cited in the feasibility study. It’s a larger pool of students than the 2020 population of middle and high school-age students in the city. And it defies previous estimates that predicted a decline in enrollment, White said.
None of the options presented at Tuesday’s meeting outlined additional staff costs, instead focusing on the capital outlays required.
“I wanted to see another high school, but I am also a frugal person,” said school board member Mike Cherry. “We don’t have pandemic funds like we used to have. The budget’s already stretched, in both city and school board’s.” He voiced his support for the magnet school option at the Jefferson Center, to alleviate overcrowding while being cost efficient, he said.
He has two second graders and said their future “relies on how forward-thinking we are.”
The school board will begin exploratory research on the three options and will present an official proposal to the city council at their next joint meeting in February.
Does someone in your family attend a Roanoke high school? What’s your experience with crowding and class size? Email Lisa: lisa@cardinalnews.org.
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Correction 10:30 a.m. Sept. 4: Roanoke previously had 13 magnet programs but dropped them in 2006. An earlier version of this story was incorrect on this point.
