The City is postponing the public hearing that was scheduled for Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. at James Monroe High School. It is the hope of the City that this public hearing be rescheduled as soon as possible.
The City recently received a letter from Mary Washington Healthcare (MWH) seeking to gauge the interest of the City in acquiring the 2300 Fall Hill Avenue building, which may have potential to be renovated for school purposes. Under this potential scenario, the City would swap some or all of the Idlewild land that is currently being evaluated for a school site with MWH for the 2300 Fall Hill building. The City would then work with the City Schools to renovate the 2300 Fall Hill building to meet the long-term school capacity needs of the system at that 280,000 square foot building.
“The City Council is committed to meeting the capacity needs of the City Schools, and wishes to evaluate this revived proposal as a potential alternative to meeting those needs,” said Tim Baroody, City Manager.
The original purpose of the public hearing was to approve an Interim Agreement between the City Schools and the team of First Choice, LLC for the construction of a new middle school on the City’s Idlewild property. That may still happen, but only after this new alternative is more thoroughly evaluated. It should be noted though, that regardless of when the public hearing is rescheduled, the City Manager will recommend that the monies in the current Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for school capacity needs will be included in his upcoming FY 2023 City Budget recommendation.
