Virginia Beach School Board discusses options for Princess Anne High School replacement
The Virginia Beach School Board was asked this week to look for ways to cut costs in the plans for a new Princess Anne High School, including making classrooms smaller.
Chief Operations Officer Jack Freeman updated the board on the project before asking members to split into groups and explore ways to save money.
The replacement project is one of the division’s top priorities and has been in the capital improvement plan for about 15 years. It sought public input last year and entered an agreement with S.B. Ballard Construction Co. for Ballard to provide 30% of design plans. In the coming months, the board is expected to decide between this project and a joint replacement project for Bettie F. Williams Elementary and the Bayside Sixth Grade campus.
As presented, the new Princess Anne High is estimated to cost about $277 million. The current building is the division’s oldest high school — opening about 70 years ago. The plans include space for zoned students, academy students in the International Baccalaureate program and students with disabilities enrolled at the division-wide Special Education Center.
Though Freeman presented ideas that could shave more than 10,000 square feet off the project, he told board members to consider that the costs are based on the project going out for bid in 2026. Every delay past that raises costs because of inflation.
“So if we identified an additional 10,000 square feet of space, but it takes an extra six months to do that, it’s a net wash,” he said. “There’s no savings.”
Freeman also encouraged members to consider enrollment and the possibility of rezoning. He said projections show that by the 2031-32 school year, Princess Anne would have about 1,700 students. Neighboring Bayside and Kempsville high schools are projected to have between 1,900 and 2,000 students by then.
“It is in the best interest of our students to balance the populations across our high schools,” he said. The next high school in line for replacement is Bayside.
“We should strongly consider building schools that enable us to balance enrollment by rezoning over time, rather than building to current zoning.”
After the small group discussions, Freeman said the board consensus was to explore reducing the size of some classrooms, possibly trimming special education resource rooms from 800 to 600 square feet. Freeman said the board also agreed to explore raising the number of students per classroom from 25 to 27.
The administration will present an updated plan to the board next month.
Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com
