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Suffolk City Council and Suffolk School Board gathered for their second joint meeting of the year held on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at City Hall.

Highlights of the meeting included the Proposed SPS FY 2026-2035 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) request, City Financial Policies and Debt Limits, and residential development among others.

SPS Superintendent Dr. John B. Gordon III reviewed the School Board FY 2026-35 CIP request. This included major system repairs, the John F. Kennedy Middle School project set to open in 2026-27, removing mobile units from schools such as Northern Shores Elementary and Elephant’s Fork Elementary, school renovations, the School Administrative Office and more. The council approved total for 2025-26 was listed as $11,324,500 with the 10 year total being $426,249,480. Gordon discussed the School Administrative Office while detailing the CIP request.

“The board still wants to have additional discussion topics on potentially using existing space or school board property or other property within the city before they confirm a look at using Phase 2,” Gordon said. “The Operation Center Phase 2, the board did agree that because we have Bright Ln that’s now in place with a long-term lease there, we were looking to potentially use those funds to be transferred to build a new school administrative office that the city currently pays the lease.”

Director of Finance Charles Meek provided a presentation reviewing key financial policies, Suffolk’s AAA bond ratings, and the CIP FY 2025-2034 detailing a five-year subtotal of $88,245,388 of school replacements and additions. Meek also gave the tentative timeline of the CIP development calendar, with Feb. 19, 2025 being the CIP Public Hearing and City Council adoption.

“So we have a lot of work ahead of us, a lot of factors in play,” Meek said. “A lot of good projects out there and [I] look forward to working with everyone to put together the best plan possible.”

Director of Planning and Community Development Kevin Wyne gave a presentation on School Residential Development, showcasing approved residential pipeline development along North and Central Suffolk. Wyne says that they maintain pipeline information and use it as a tool to identify what residential development may generate from a student generation perspective.

“We identify that in our Unified Development Ordinance exactly what those numbers are, however, I think what can get lost some time[s] in looking at that information is the build out from these developments – how long it takes often from rezoning to final certificate of occupancy on a structure,” Wyne said. “A good example of that is Hillpoint. Hillpoint was originally approved in 1986. They continue to built in Hillpoint today in nearly 40 years later as it relates to that original unit total that was approved. Harbour View is another example, a large master plan community, took quite a while to get from first construction to ultimate build out, over several decades.”

Wyne also presented maps showing capacity hotspots of elementary, middle and high schools. Each map showcased the northern and central growth areas, showing the most students generated. Wyne highlighted the River Club Development, which had 377 family units.

“That originally began in 2003 and they just began construction here within the last two years. So that is going to be several phase[s] built out that will certainly take them another five to seven years,” Wyne said. “On the right-hand side of your screen, that same orange-yellow colors really concentrated on near Kings Fork High School and Middle School, and that is the Godwin Park development. That’s a mix-use development that has some phasing associated with it too. But that’s primarily where those students are coming from, as well as the Gallery at Godwin, which at this point is largely developed and those are a mixed-use product as well. Once again, those do not generate school students from what we have seen in the same way that [a] traditional family does.”

Discussing previous trends, Wyne said 500-600 new residential units come online, based on the certificates of occupancies the city issues “year over year,” and have seen a “very stable trend for the last decade or so.”

“During that time, and for a variety of factors, whether it’s couples having children later in life or shrinking household size…new development is just not creating students like it once did, but it’s still important from a consideration standpoint when we look at these rezoning applications that we analyze and ultimately present to city council for consideration,” Wyne said.

Noting student graduations, Board Member Dr. Judith Brooks-Buck expressed the importance of looking at student calculations when planning for development.

“So while the single family homes may generate 200 students a year, we somehow manage to replace those 1000 students who graduate every year and add some. So they are coming from somewhere, and I know that there’s a formula for housing and I know people are misunderstanding, because they think that you only get a few hundred kids or maybe less than that each year. And they forget that we lose a thousand each year,” Brooks-Buck said. “… So I think we need to look at our calculations when we look at some of these developments that are being approved and built.”

Board Vice Chair Heather Howell says her mind was “blown” following the residential development presentation.

“To say new development isn’t creating student increase as it once did – I sit in a different seat, and I see a very different picture. You also have to recognize we live in a military community, so while we don’t have new development always, we always have families PCSing in and out, constantly. And they may leave with their two children and they’re replaced with five,” Howell said. “As it’s already been mentioned – due to the economy, families are doubling up, so to look at ‘I’m only building this many houses and everybody should traditionally have 2.5 children and a dog’ is not realistic.”

Howell continued.

“And what’s frustrating to me is, so you’re saying the River Club was discussed and planned and approved and whatever back in 2003, so what money has been set aside to prepare Florence Bowser or Creekside and John Yeates and Nansemond River for the growth that is happening and is coming in the next couple years? That this was planned 21 years ago?” she said. “And I’m not just talking about building space. It’s obvious we have old buildings, we have small buildings, I am talking about the fact that we need more teachers to staff the classrooms because we have more kids in the classrooms. We need more bus drivers. We need more buses. There are so many factors that are not being calculated here when we are approving and discussing new development and I feel like the burden is on us – all alone.”

Howell expressed how appreciative she was of the city approving the operating budget, but notes how it only deals with the present.

“It does nothing to help us prepare for tomorrow,” Howell said. “And as these 10 things on the CIP eventually get addressed, you do realize we’re going to be starting right back over with the ones you fixed yesterday.”

Serving in her last joint meeting with Suffolk City Council before retirement, Brooks-Buck was honored for her work on the Suffolk School Board by Vice Mayor Lue Ward, Council Member LeOtis Williams and her grandson. Board Member Phyllis C. Byrum, who was not in attendance, was also commended for her work in her last year as a Board Member. Both of their board terms end in December.