W. Townes Lea Elementary proposed for closure in Danville

During a teacher workday Friday, Danville Public Schools Superintendent Sue Davis announced to employees that W. Townes Lea Elementary School may close.

After facing $5.2 million in budget cuts from the governor’s budget proposal, the Danville City School Board is considering closing at least one school.

Students attending W. Townes Lea School would be allocated to other schools in the city school system, Davis said in an email to all employees. Some of the staff would also be moved to other schools to account for the additional students, but not all would be retained.

The closing of W. Townes Lea School would net an estimated $1.3 million in savings.

W. Townes Lea Elementary fifth grade teacher Jeff Cumbo said he was upset when he heard the news, but he didn’t blame the administration and he knows they tried to avoid this.

While he said he wasn’t worried for himself and his job, he had concern for the students.

“I’m really devastated about this,” said Cumbo. “W. Townes Lea is an amazing school. I’m really concerned about the message being sent to these children – that we don’t have any money so you are going to go somewhere else.”

In an email, Davis said picking W. Townes Lea was the result of several different factors: it’s proximity to other schools, the condition of the school, cost of improvements and the ability of other schools to accept additional students.

W. Townes Lea is on the outskirts of Danville, so students can be easily transported to other schools, and the building is in need of significant renovations. Yet, there are no funds to do this.

According to the Virginia Department of Education, W. Townes Lea had 325 students this school year.

During the first two weeks in March, the school board and administration will plan public sessions to receive input from not only from the W. Townes Lea School community, but other receiving schools.

The decision to close one of the schools comes from the drastic cuts from the governor’s budget proposal. But, the cuts are not final and the budget must go through several drafts.

However, Assistant Superintendent Kathy Osborne said Friday morning that not a lot of the budget is going to change. The health insurance increases and the loss of federal funding are set for a loss of more than $2 million. But the increases required to be put into the Virginia Retirement System — an additional $2.2 million — may be less of a burden on the school system if it is allowed to make payments over several years instead of all at once.

W. Townes Lea Elementary may not be the only school proposed for closure.

“The closure of a second school, yet to be determined, may be necessary for a savings of $2.12 unless City Council provides additional funding,” said Davis in an e-mail. “However, we have not yet formally requested additional funding from City Council.  Our formal request will be made in the next two weeks as they are also in the process of preliminary budget development.”