Richmond can build and open by September 2024 a new George Wythe High School and two other school buildings that also are top priorities if City Hall would just begin cooperating with the School Board instead of throwing up roadblocks.

That is the view of School Board Vice Chair Jonathan Young, 4th District, a key leader of a five-member School Board majority that took back control of school construction from the city.

But Mayor Levar M. Stoney, who believes the city should lead the construction effort in collaboration with the School Board, says the board is the obstacle. At a community meeting on Monday, he called the delay the School Board is creating “disrespectful.”

Richmond Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras has said a new Wythe would not be open until 2027 with RPS in charge.

Based on the city’s already approved plan to invest another $200 million in school buildings as of July 1, 2023, Mr. Young said there would be more than enough money to replace George Wythe, build a new Woodville Elementary School in Church Hill and develop the proposed 1,000-seat Career and Technical Education High School in a former Philip Morris factory in South Side.

Mr. Young said the School Board could beef up the city funds with a projected $15 million in proceeds from the sale of the current Richmond Technical Center campus. He also noted the cost to develop the CTE school in South Richmond could be reduced by as much as 30 percent through the use of historic tax credits.

“This is all doable if the posturing can stop and we can get down to business,” Mr. Young said. “All three buildings could be under design around the same time. They could all be ready to be put out for construction bids around the same time, as well. If we get busy, all three buildings could be designed, built and opened within three years.”

He spoke Wednesday about making the three new buildings a reality. On Tuesday night, the School Board held a two-hour public hearing at which students, parents, teachers, community leaders and others decried the decaying condition of the 61-year-old George Wythe building and pleaded for speedy action to replace the high school where mice, rats and structural problems are all too common.

Mr. Young said the speakers were preaching to the choir.

“Replacing George Wythe has been a top priority for the School Board since at least 2017, if not before” Mr. Young noted. “Everyone agrees.

“Yes, the push is on to get it done. But unfortunately, it will take more than a snap of the fingers to make it happen,” he continued. “No matter who leads this effort, it will take at least three more years to put a new building in place. The goal and focus of all of us is to make that happen as fast as possible.”

Mayor Levar M. Stoney, who has not mentioned the prospect of building anything else but a new Wythe, insists that only the city’s internal staff and its consultants could get a new Wythe done in three years.

Mr. Young said the mayor is right “about the need for speed.” But he said the mayor’s claim that the School Board would take three extra years to build a new high school is inaccurate.

“Henrico built two high schools in 33 1⁄2months,” he said. “It doesn’t pass the laugh test to contend that Richmond would need 72. Proponents of the six-year narrative know that.”

He noted that Mayor Stoney is now promising to deliver a new George Wythe in 2025 if the city is in charge. But he said that timetable can be speeded up.

He said at the School Board’s next meeting on Monday, July 19, he will seek board approval to set the capacity of the new George Wythe at 1,600 students and the proposed size at 260,000 square feet, a reduction from the previously proposed 2,000-seat high school of 300,000 square feet.

He said that the school’s current and projected enrollment indicate that the smaller size and seating capacity would be sufficient given that the proposed CTE school would pick up a significant number of students from Wythe and other city high schools.

He said reducing the size of the building should reduce the cost to $110 million or less, or $30 million below the $140 million the city has projected to spend.

School Board member Kenya Gibson, 3rd District, another key member of the board majority, echoed the need for stretching the dollars to get more buildings.

In her view, the city’s cost projection is justification for the School Board to retain control. She stated that the city is trying to spend too much on the Wythe building, while leaving thousands of other children to attend equally decrepit buildings.

“The students at Wythe have waited too long, just as the students at Woodville Elementary have,” Ms. Gibson wrote in a post. “So, if we can save millions of dollars, build more schools and truly engage the community in the process — that would be a win all around.”

Mr. Young said he also plans to propose that the School Board set up an evaluation committee that would include RPS facilities staff and city officials involved in building to review the responses from architectural firms from the request for proposals that Mayor Stoney issued to design the new George Wythe.

Mr. Young said he welcomed the mayor’s decision to issue the RFP to move along the process of securing a design team.

Monday, the mayor again called on the School Board to designate representatives to an evaluation panel his administration is creating to review the proposals.

The mayor said that if the School Board does not participate in his administration’s panel, the process would end since he also acknowledged again that the School Board is entitled under state law to handle school construction.