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District and city staff continue planning for Prince Anne High replacement; financing key constraint
Summary
A school board committee reviewed options for a Prince Anne High School replacement and for long‑range capital planning, identifying funding and debt service as the primary constraints and listing procurement approaches that could be used to limit price uncertainty.
Virginia Beach — A school board committee that spent the summer reviewing the capital improvement program told the board Sept. 9 that replacing Prince Anne High School is a high‑priority project but that the city’s and school division’s debt capacity and financing choices will determine the timing and scope.
“Determining how to fund the debt service needed to cover the cost of Prince Anne High School…will be pretty challenging,” Jack Freeman, the district’s chief operations officer, told the board. Freeman and Superintendent Mark Robertson presented committee findings and recommended additional work with city staff to quantify debt‑service impact and available appropriations before finalizing a CIP that includes a replacement school.
The committee identified several procurement options that localities commonly use and that the board may consider, including design‑bid‑build (the district’s historical method), construction management at‑risk (CMAR), design‑build, multi‑prime contracting and public‑private partnerships (P3/PPEA), and noted that each method carries different risk allocations and price‑discovery mechanics. Freeman said CMAR and P3 approaches can yield a guaranteed maximum price earlier in the process than traditional design‑bid‑build.
Committee work also examined program, site and partnership ideas. Staff said they evaluated whether program changes (for example, adjusting seat counts or leveraging seat‑time flexibility for internships) or partnerships with higher‑education or community providers could reduce costs or improve community use of the facility. “We wondered if the school is to seat 1,800, do we really need to build a high school that’s going to last 100 years for 1,800?” Robertson said, describing options for right‑sizing.
Board members pressed staff for more concrete financing scenarios and timelines. Several members said they want clearer numbers on the tradeoffs between spending on a new high school and continuing maintenance across the district’s roughly 84 school buildings. Staff said they will meet with city finance staff to assess debt metrics and will return to the board with scenario modeling in advance of the FY 2026–27 CIP adoption schedule; staff said a final CIP that includes a Prince Anne High replacement is the stated goal for the next cycle.
No board action was taken Sept. 9; members asked staff to return with financial scenarios, procurement options and more precise cost estimates.
