Charlottesville United for Public Education Call on House Finance Committee to Support SB298

February 24, 2022

I am writing on behalf of Charlottesville United for Public Education in strong support of SB 298.

Our group formed over the course of the last year as a coalition of parents, grandparents, and community members committed to ensuring every child in Charlottesville City Schools receives a quality education. We advocate for student success from preschool through graduation through community engagement, family support and civic participation.

The driving force and current priority for Charlottesville United (https://www.charlottesvilleunited.org/) is a project known as “reconfiguration” that our community has been talking about for almost two decades. This includes the renovation and expansion of Buford Middle School (50 years old) to house grades 6-8 and the creation of a citywide preschool center on the campus of Walker Upper Elementary School.

After decades of talk, the architecture firm VMDO convened a community design team over the course of 2021 and developed a $75M plan to deliver on the long-promised vision of reconfiguration – a plan that City Council unanimously approved last fall.

Yet we are now told that the City does not have the budget to pay for it. Even with an increase in the real estate property tax, Charlottesville is limited to only 10 square miles of taxable property – a good chunk of which is occupied by UVA, a tax-exempt nonprofit.

It is clear that we’ll need a combination of revenue tools to address the significant building needs that have accumulated over decades of underinvestment, and the key piece would be the special sales tax addressed in SB 298.

We are simply asking for the opportunity to have local choice on local funding for our local schools.

Charlottesville has a project designed and ready to go, we just need to close the funding gap. We need to put the sales tax to voters this November. With inflation and other construction timelines and factors, waiting another year could sink this opportunity and send yet another generation of kids through outdated schools that we have long recognized don’t meet their needs.

That’s why SB 298 is so critical. We stand united with parents, grandparents, teachers, administrations, city and school board elected leaders and other community members in asking you to approve SB 298 and give Charlottesville kids a chance at being part of Virginia’s 21st century economy starting with 21st century learning environments.

Thank you for your consideration.