The five-year capital budget approved by Charlottesville City Council in April includes a total of $30 million for an early learning center to be constructed at the former Walker Upper Elementary School.
Charlottesville City Council has a work session scheduled for 4 p.m. today to discuss the early learning center. In early March, City Manager Sam Sanders announced that the Walker site would be used rather than a site in Fifeville.
The city’s Planning Commission learned on June 9 that that won’t be enough money according to one commissioner who is on the Charlottesville City Schools capital improvement committee which had met on May 13.
“The Walker Pre-K cost jumped from $35 million to $60 million,” said Lyle Solla-Yates. “Time has passed. Things cost more. We know more. We are expecting a 2029 completion.”
Solla-Yates’s information on cost estimates was not entirely accurate.
According to materials prepared for today’s meeting, VMDO has developed three options. A version from 2022 known as Scheme A now has a cost estimate of $42.5 million. Another version developed by the company last year has an estimate of $60.8 million.
John Shifflett, Community Relations Coordinator for Charlottesville City Schools, said in an email that one more scheme was shown to the School Board on June 4.
“The option that City and school staff are recommending is option C, which is estimated at $51.4 million,” Shifflett said.
More information from that June 4 presentation can be found here, including the total cost of conversion of Buford Middle School into Charlottesville Middle School. The final price is $92.1 million.
Before you go: The goal of Town Crier Productions is to increase awareness about what is happening at the local, regional, state, and federal government levels. Please share the work with others if you want people to know things. Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for this article which was originally published in the June 10, 2026 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. You can either subscribe through Substack or make a charitable contribution.
