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New Housing developments across the city were presented to the Suffolk School Board and the City Council during their joint meeting on April 9. There are 28 planned developments with over 5,000 new single and multifamily units, which have the potential to increase the current Suffolk Public Schools student body by 750 students.

Using the current school enrollment numbers from the Virginia Department of Education and the “functional programmatic” maximum capacity numbers provided by SPS, four schools are already operating above maximum student capacity.

Elephant’s Fork Elementary has 653 enrolled students with a capacity of 526. Florence Bowser Elementary has 926 enrolled students with a capacity of 903. Northern Shores Elementary has 798 students enrolled with a capacity of 712. Nansemond River High School has 1,683 students enrolled with a capacity of 1,600.

With the additional housing developments, those schools would grow even more over the maximum capacity, and Hillpoint Elementary would also be over capacity with potentially 879 students at a capacity of 850.

In the northern part of the city, there are 10 residential developments, totaling 508 single-family units and 1,158 multifamily units. Four of these developments are in the Florence Bowser Elementary School division.

There are 18 developments in the central area of the city, totaling 960 mixed single- and multifamily units, 2,066 single-family units, and 372 multifamily units. The majority of developments are in the Elephant’s Fork school district. 

The potential impact to the elementary student body is as follows:

• Booker T. Washington: 0 new students
• Creekside: 30 new students
• Elephant’s Fork: 33 new students 
• Florence Bowser: 83 new students
• Hillpoint: 99 new students
• Kilby Shores: 32 new students
• Mack Benn: 39 new students
• Nansemond Parkway: 7 new students
• Northern Shores: 38 new students
• Oakland: 24 new students
• Southwestern: 0 new students 

The potential to the middle school student body is as follows:

• Colonel Fred Cherry: 19 new students
• Forest Glen: 26 new students
• JFK: 23 new students
• John Yeates: 67 new students
• Kings Fork: 73 new students

The potential to the high school student body is as follows:

• Kings Fork: 100 new students
• Lakeland: 41 new students
• Nansemond River: 99 new students

City Manager Al Moor and Director of Planning and Community Development Kevin Wyne both mentioned it’s important to remember that completing a development can take at least 5-10 years.

Wyne said nearly 2,000 residential units have been approved over the last three years, and in the last two years, Moor said the student population has grown by 45 students.

Board Members DawnMarie Brittingham, Ed.D., Kimberly Slingluff, and Board Chair Heather Howell all voiced concern about the growing number of SPS students and how they will fit into schools that have already reached or are approaching maximum capacity.  

Duman mentioned that school expansions have been on the School Board’s “to-do” list, but haven’t been given priority. He specifically mentioned an opportunity to expand Nansemond River by 300 to 400 students a few years ago that was not prioritized.  

Howell emphasized there are always more priorities than there is money available. She questioned if the city considers the school capacities before they approve residential developments. 

“You’re putting us in a position we have no control over,” she said. “But we’re responsible for fiscally responding to it, that’s why I’m frustrated … I think you need to pump the brakes on the housing developments until we recover from this crisis where we’re choosing between two bad options, either ignoring the crisis at Nansemond River or ignoring the crisis at Elephant’s Fork … The information just continues to paint a bleak picture with no hope for change in this process.”