I envision a day in 20 years when children throughout Charlottesville flock to their schools and bus stops with nearly all of their neighborhood friends because families have chosen our public schools and programs over private options.
In this vision, every young person in the city has opportunities to explore their interests and passions because of effective collaboration between our schools and community partners. Kids’ summers are filled with memories in our flourishing public spaces, including our parks and trails, because public-private partnerships allow for greater investments in our parks system.
We don’t have to merely imagine such a day because we have so many of the puzzle pieces already on the table. As a community, however, we do need to act to retrieve the pieces that are missing and collaborate to put them all together to make this vision a reality.
I’m a parent of three Charlottesville City School students in fifth, eighth and tenth grade. I believe that my kids feeling strongly connected to their community is foundational to who they will become. Our family has considered private schools many times, especially during the pandemic, and I have always landed on the benefits of the public school community. I recognize that isn’t the best option for every student and every family, but I also believe the public school system offers an incomparable opportunity to share diverse spaces and to connect to the broader community.
Strong community connection across zip codes, income levels and racial or cultural groups is foundational to what Charlottesville can become.
With continued investment, experienced leadership and our already strong slate of educators, Charlottesville City Schools will be the choice for more families in our community at every stage of K-12 education.
Our city schools have tremendous human resources, but historically there has been a lack of capital investment in school infrastructure, a pattern not uncommon throughout Virginia. VPM reported in 2024, for example, on the infrastructure issues that have plagued public schools across the state. While I was on City Council from 2018 to 2021, I participated in capital improvement planning for the schools, including a proposed new middle school.
We are now seeing the tangible outcomes of prioritizing investment in our schools and the continued support they require, despite rising costs. Phase 1 of the new Charlottesville Middle School opened in August, serving seventh and eighth graders, and a Phase 2 completion is targeted for August 2026, to include sixth graders, according to the school district.
Charlottesville City Schools will soon be centralizing our public preschool program, which will occupy current infrastructure with the construction of a new facility in the near future. The Charlottesville Early Learning Center will bring these youngsters together all in one place starting in Fall 2026, officials told Cville Right Now.
Kids also need meaningful experiences beyond the classroom. Sports and hobbies provide countless benefits for their physical, mental and social well-being, but opportunities to explore them are often hampered by constraints beyond their control. More effective collaboration among our public schools and community partners would benefit area youth.
Looking at athletics, when I was growing up in the 80s and early 90s in northern New York State, school-sponsored sports programs started in middle school. Unfortunately, the monetization of athletics undermines the public model, leaving far fewer students being served within the public system, especially in the middle school years. For example, there are limited organized soccer opportunities in our local public middle schools, as private entities like SOCA and Alliance meet the demand — for kids already interested and who can afford to pay and can get to and from the games and practices. This leaves little room for public middle schools to run successful programs. If kids have limited exposure to sports until they get to high school, it is challenging for all kids to be competitive with their peers.
The C-will Fund, created by the family of Calvin Ness in his memory, aims to address this issue. Its mission is to provide access to high quality, well-supported school sports activities through Charlottesville’s public schools. I am part of the committee that runs their programs, in partnership with Charlottesville City Schools, bringing elementary students together with high school student athletes to explore a range of sports. Expanding middle school sports offerings is planned to coincide with the completion of Charlottesville Middle School and for the years to come.
Efforts among our schools and community partners to engage more of our area youth in exploring their broad interests, well beyond athletics, are invaluable. But expanding these opportunities requires coordination and support.
And when school isn’t in session, our kids need welcoming places to gather and just be kids!
Parks and trails are some of the most important assets to a community. But they too require significant investment. I am a board member of the recently-formed Charlottesville Parks Foundation that aims to serve as a funding tailwind for our city’s parks, collaborating closely with the Parks and Recreation Department. Deputy Director of Parks Katie Lockhart told me that in Charlottesville, like many localities across the country, budget constraints often put parks projects on the shelf and maintenance is at times deferred due to ever rising costs. Lockhart is also an ex-officio board member of the Foundation, which is working to raise funds from the private sector to build and renovate parks and trails, while promoting volunteerism to further improve these public spaces with community support.
I am a firm believer that Charlottesville has the resources it needs, both human and financial, to foster a stronger community — a community where every young person has the opportunity to thrive. The capital investment in our public schools, the C-will Fund and Charlottesville Parks Foundation are just a few of the many initiatives our community is pursuing, and they make up the puzzle pieces we already have on the table.
Twenty years from now, I hope that my kids look back on their childhood in Charlottesville as one that provided a strong sense of belonging and broad opportunities for growth. Twenty years from now, with robust collaboration and unwavering commitment to making resources for youth publicly available, I hope every child in our community will have similar memories. By that time, we should have long finished developing the missing pieces of this puzzle, assembled them with those we have in hand and moved on to our next challenge with resolve.
The first step to creating our shared future is imagining it.
For Charlottesville Tomorrow’s 20th anniversary, we are inviting central Virginians to share their visions for the next 20 years.
