by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Despite pressure from the Board of Supervisors and residents of Embrey Mill to build the county’s 19th elementary school in that neighborhood, a majority on the Stafford School Board is sticking with the Brooke Point site.
A motion by Griffis-Widewater representative Elizabeth Warner to rescind the board’s October vote selecting the Brooke Point site failed to garner the required two-thirds majority at Tuesday’s School Board meeting, and a motion by Falmouth representative Sarah Chase to pause construction on the school at the Brooke Point site also failed.
Both motions were supported by Warner, Chase, and Aquia representative Maya Guy, and opposed by Chair and Garrisonville representative Maureen Siegmund, Rock Hill representative Patricia Healy, George Washington representative Susan Randall, and Hartwood representative Alyssa Halstead.
“This board voted [on the Brooke Point site] and it was 6-to-1,” Halstead said. “For me to have to go back and re-look at everything and fight our way past this process when we have started building a school—I just don’t understand it.”
The road to Brooke Point
Members of the Board of Supervisors began asking questions about the School Board’s choice of Brooke Point for elementary school 19 earlier this year.
Supervisors approved funding for both elementary schools 18 and 19 as part of the ten-year capital improvement plan adopted last spring. Both schools are scheduled to open in August of 2026 as part of that plan.
Elementary school 18 will be built in the Hartwood district off Truslow Road, on the same campus as high school 6.
The school division began negotiating the purchase of that property for new school construction in 2021, but, as of last spring, did not yet have a site identified for elementary school 19.
Division staff recommended building elementary school 19 on proffered land in Embrey Mill twice last year, but the School Board voted against that location two times, by narrow 4-to-3 majorities.
Siegmund told the Advance that the consensus among board members was that the next elementary school should go east of Interstate 95 and not in the Garrisonville district, which already has four elementary schools within its boundaries.
School division staff scrambled to find a county-owned, ready-to-build school site in the northeast section of the county and identified the Brooke Point site as a possibility.
The elementary school will be built on top of one of the high school’s parking lots and will necessitate the relocation of the high school’s practice fields and tennis courts, according to the draft site plan.
The planned disruption to existing school facilities is what first drew supervisors’ attention in January. Since then, all seven supervisors and a growing number of county residents have expressed concern about increased traffic around the Brooke Point campus (which already contains Stafford Middle School), potential safety concerns, and the lack of communication about plans for the new school with residents of the area and students and staff who attend Brooke Point and Stafford Middle.
Embrey Mill residents also began advocating in the past two months for elementary school 19 to be built in their neighborhood on land proffered for a school that would be within walking distance for many children.
Last month, supervisors voted to direct County Administrator Randall Vosburg (who has since submitted his resignation) to write a letter to the School Board asking them to stop spending money on construction of elementary school 19 and vote again on locating the school in Embrey Mill.
Anger and frustration
The anger and frustration caused by this issue was evident on Tuesday. Some School Board members are upset by what they perceive as overreach by the Board of Supervisors, and others by what they perceive as a rushed and opaque selection process that didn’t take into account the best interests of students.
Explaining her motion to rescind last fall’s vote on the Brooke Point site, Warner said she is listening to complaints from constituents about the selection of that site.
“I know we need two new elementary schools, on the east side and the west side of the county,” she said. “But I also feel that we were not very transparent. I notice that this board sent out an email to members of Hampton Oaks to discuss a proposed dog park, but no one in Embrey Mill was ever contacted to discuss whether they wanted an elementary school built in their neighborhood.”
Warner said that the supervisors are the funding body and as such, “they do have a say in what goes on in this county.”
Guy, who represents the district where Brooke Point is located, said she only voted for the Brooke Point site because her understanding was that there were no other options. She said it’s “disingenuous” for School Board members to say they took their time on the decision.
“There was no time. That’s the facts,” she said. “I voted for it, but I voted for it because I was told, ‘This is it.’ … I didn’t have time. I didn’t have the opportunity to poll my people.”
Guy said School Board members who refuse to reconsider putting the school in Embrey Mill—now that the deed for the proffered land has been transferred to the county—are being “led by our ego and not by what is best for the county.”
Chase also said that a refusal to reconsider is a dismissal of valid concerns from the community and the supervisors and that it could erode trust between the two boards during crucial budget negotiations.
“Our relationship with our funding body is important,” she said. “I am concerned that if we blow up our negotiating power by dismissing valid concerns, our students are going to be paying the price.”
Healy appeared to take offense at the suggestion that supervisors would retaliate against the School Board by reducing funding for the school division, and also by Warner’s suggestion that as a partner in the law firm representing the Embrey Mill developer, she should have abstained from voting on the site.
Randall said she’s “not convinced that we did the wrong thing” in choosing Brooke Point and said her top priority is increasing capacity in the school division.
“I’m more concerned with opening the school in 2026 and not delaying,” she said. “I would like to be a proponent for seats for over 2,000 elementary school kids in 2026.”
Siegmund asked Jason Towery, the division’s executive director of facilities and maintenance, if they would be “on track” to open elementary schools 18 and 19 together in August of 2026 if the Brooke Point site is abandoned.
“No,” Towery answered.
Some Embrey Mill residents respond
Embrey Mill resident Jessica Pierce on Wednesday said members of her community feel the board has “failed our children and the constituents of this county.”
“Rather than listen to the testimony of parents and educators within both districts [Garrisonville and Aquia] who are directly impacted by the school site selection, four members of the board opted to play chicken with the board of supervisors, ignoring data and logic,” Pierce said. “We could not be more disappointed with our lack of representation by the Garrisonville School Board member, Maureen Siegmund. Our pleas to reconsider the placement of elementary 19 made no impact on her.”
She said the issue brought residents of the neighborhood together and that they will continue to advocate to “to improve the school district on many levels.”
Doug Van Sant, another Embrey Mill resident, agreed with Pierce’s assessment.
“I think they’ve awakened a sleeping giant in Embrey Mill and now we’re going to actively look to find better representation in this county,” he said.
Van Sant also noted that, “the biggest argument we hear is that [the area] east of I-95 should get this elementary school. Yet all three representatives from those districts east of I-95 voted in our favor last night. I just don’t see how that can be overlooked.”
According to the School Board’s approved capital improvement plan, elementary school 20 will be built in Embrey Mill, with a scheduled opening in August of 2030.
