After weeks of delays and discussion, the Norfolk School Board finally approved a plan to close nine schools by the 2033-34 school year.
The plan was approved Wednesday in a 6-1 vote, with board member Tanya Bhasin voting against the measure. The plan closes nine schools, repurposes four schools and anticipates the rebuilding of three more.
“I know it will be difficult, but our kids are resilient and they will bounce back quicker than the adults,” said board chair Sarah DiCalogero.
Explaining her vote, Bhasin said she was concerned the process was not based enough on the goal of improving academic outcomes for students.
“We are changing neighborhoods, changing our school division,” Bhasin said.
Under the plan, the following schools will close: Ghent School, Tarrallton Elementary School, Willoughby Early Childhood Center, Granby Elementary School, P.B. Young Sr. Elementary School, Norview Elementary School, Berkley-Campostella Early Childhood Center, Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs Center and Norfolk Technical Center.
Unlike a previous school board-developed plan, it outlines a specific timeline for closures.
Willoughby and Norview would close at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year. Tarrallton, P.B. Young, Granby and Ghent School would close at the beginning of the 2027-28 school year. The Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs Center would close at the beginning of the 2028-29 school year. Berkley-Campostella Early Childhood Center would close at the beginning of the 2029-30 school year and Norfolk Technical Center would close at the beginning of the 2033-34 school year.
The plan moves the Ghent School program to the Academy of International Studies space at Rosemont Middle School. The Southeastern Cooperative Educational Program would move into Chesterfield Elementary School, with those students moving to locations determined by redistricting. Students from Willoughby would move into Oceanair Elementary School.
Lindenwood Elementary School would be converted into a professional development center.
The relocation of students from Norview, Oceanair, Tarrallton, P.B. Young, Granby, Lindenwood and Chesterfield would depend on a 2026 redistricting process that would redraw attendance zones to ensure balanced enrollment, increase the use of underpopulated schools and decentralize poverty, according to School Board documents.
Under the plan, Lake Taylor High School, Jacox Elementary School and potentially one other school would be rebuilt, with the plan listing St. Helena Elementary School and Suburban Park Elementary School as possible locations.
In public comments, one parent of a Tarrallton student asked the School Board to reconsider closing the school, which he said was a walkable distance from major military housing. Several more community members asked to keep the school open in responses to a public survey conducted before the meeting.
Other survey respondents spoke out against closing other schools, like moving the Ghent program to Rosemont. At a previous meeting, many more community members attended and spoke out against various aspects of a previous plan that moved students out of St. Helena.
The vote comes after Norfolk City Council asked the School Board in March to create a plan to close at least 10 schools, threatening to change how schools were funded if the School Board failed to do so.
Since then, the School Board has asked for a deadline extension, coalesced around and then abandoned a plan following community outcry then drafted the approved plan with help from a consultant and a system administrator.
City Council will still need to approve the plan.
Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, [email protected]
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