Crozet Gazette: Field School Grants Spur Drive for New Campus
By Lisa Martin
Field School of Charlottesville has received a $1.5 million matching grant from an anonymous benefactor in support of the school’s quest to move to a larger campus on property east of Crozet. Currently located on Crozet Avenue across from Crozet Elementary, Field School was founded in 2007 by Todd Barnett with the aim of developing “well-rounded boys of character and accomplishment.”
Beginning with 22 students in the community building in Crozet Park, the school now has 87 boys enrolled in fifth through eighth grades in leased space in a 1920’s-era building owned by Albemarle County on eight acres. During his 13-year tenure as Head of School, Barnett continued to search for a more permanent home for the school, and in 2017 he found an idyllic parcel on Barracks Road that became available following the dissolution of the Rt. 29 Bypass project.
“Todd had been looking for property for a very long time,” said Bo Perriello, current Head of Field School. “The school’s leadership certainly wanted a bigger property that afforded us more outdoor spaces, but a lot of it centered on wanting our own campus. At the end of the day, we are still renters, and we would much rather be investing in a permanent future than paying rent every month.”
The Barracks Road property is zoned as Rural Area and Field School received a Special Use Permit from the county to construct a new private school on the site, contingent on the condition that construction would begin by February of 2022. Forward momentum on the project was stalled by 2020-21 pandemic conditions and shortages, and in 2021 Field asked the county to eliminate the deadline for groundbreaking while it restarted its plans and fundraising efforts. Although most members of the Planning Commission during their September 2021 meeting were amenable to the request (and county policy has since moved away from imposing start-by dates on projects at all), a few commissioners insisted that Field School be given only a 3½ year extension on its permit.
Commissioner Richard Randolph said that having done institutional fundraising himself, “nothing gathers the attention of a community like when a government steps in and says, ‘You need to get this done by this time period.’” Commissioner Julian Bivins commented that the school’s hampered ability to fundraise during the pandemic was an insufficient reason to extend its deadline. “That was only a hiccup last year [2020], not enough for me to eliminate [the sunset date condition],” said Bivins.
Perriello said at this point the school is on target to be able to meet the condition and break ground prior to August of 2025. “I think there’s a sense of urgency within the school community, and we have this nice matching grant that we want to be able to take advantage of,” he said. The matching grant means the donor will match all donations up to $1.5 million. “So, basically anyone who contributes toward this project will know that their donation will have a double impact thanks to the generosity of this benefactor.”
The school’s approved permit caps enrollment at 150 students, but Perriello said the limit should not pose a problem. “I think our sweet spot is probably closer to 120 students, which would be 30 per grade, sections of 15.” The new school will be built in several phases, including plans for an academic building with 10 classrooms; an administrative building with office space, a theater, and a cafeteria with a chef’s kitchen; a STEAM building with space for technology, engineering, arts, and science instruction; and a gymnasium/field house plus outdoor athletic fields for soccer/lacrosse, baseball, a basketball court, and mountain bike trails.
“With our site plan we are currently working off of an estimated $10 million figure for all phases,” said Perriello. “Achieving this initial [donor] match would ensure our move to this campus, because it would allow us to complete all of the site work, VDOT work, utilities, and grading, etc. to make the site pad ready. Phase two would include the main two buildings, allowing us to open the campus, and Phase three would be the gym. The full build-out will allow us to increase our classroom footprint substantially, because we’re also going to have classrooms built into the cafeteria space as well.”
Field School’s leadership is also enthused about the prospect of a more convenient draw for potential Charlottesville families. “We would certainly like to be able to reach a larger and more diverse population,” said Perriello, who is in his second year as Head and whose wife Maureen teaches science and Latin and coaches at the school. “As long-time residents we know it’s a challenge to get people to want to drive to Crozet twice a day for school. That’s compounded by the fact that we are rarely one-stop-shopping, because we only have boys from fifth through eighth.”
The school’s prospective home lives up to its name, as the tree-lined 21 acres include a 3-acre pond, views of the mountains, and plenty of room for the hiking and biking trails beloved by Field students. Dubbed “The Aerie Campus”—referring to the large nests of birds of prey such as the falcon (the school’s mascot)—the plans for the new location aspire to embody Field’s commitment to outdoor instruction and ethos.
“The outdoor space is ideal for us,” said Perriello. “Obviously it’s nice to build new buildings, and that will be great, but it’s going to be the trails, the access to the pond for recreation and for education, the outdoor classroom spaces—it’s going to have that feel of being very rural while still being less than two miles from Barracks Road [shopping center]. All of those things, I think, will have the chance to be pretty transformative for the school.”
