Albemarle Cuts Ribbon on Mountain View Upper Elementary, Its First New School in 24 Years

By Albemarle County Public Schools

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. — Albemarle County Public Schools celebrated a milestone Friday morning, cutting the ribbon on its first new school facility in 24 years.

Elected officials, educators, families and the teams who designed and built the school gathered at 1545 Founders Place in Charlottesville to celebrate Mountain View Upper Elementary School, which will welcome nearly 400 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders on the first day of classes Aug. 12.

It is the first new school facility to open in the county since Baker-Butler Elementary in 2002.

“That’s 24 years since we have opened a new school building,” Albemarle County School Board Chair Rebecca Berlin told the crowd. “In that time, our county has grown, our neighborhoods have changed, and our student population has changed with them. But a building like this does not simply come about because a need was noticed last spring. It comes about because the community recognized the growing need and chose to act.”

Berlin thanked the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, whose funding decisions made the project possible, along with current and former School Board members who shepherded the school through years of planning and budget cycles, the design and construction teams who delivered it through supply chain pressures and a demanding economy, and the families who turned out for meetings and surveys.

Families had the greatest impact on what the building would become, she noted. When the division asked the Mountain View community what mattered most, the answer came back plainly: “Don’t split us in two,” Berlin said.

The existing Mountain View Elementary School has been renamed Mountain View Primary School and will serve pre-K through second grade, while the new building will serve third through fifth grades. The schools will operate as two unique learning spaces but will share one campus, with many families likely to have children in both. A pedestrian path connecting the two buildings is part of the project and is scheduled for completion this winter.

“It’s a small piece of concrete, but it represents something much larger,” Berlin said. “The idea that a school campus is not just square footage, but a community with a shared identity. Two schools, one campus, one community.”

Acting Superintendent Chandra Hayes reflected on her experience opening schools throughout her career and noted the sense of anticipation that comes at this point, before students and staff bring the building fully to life.

“The whole place is quiet in a way it will never be quiet again,” Hayes said. “A school is not yet alive when we cut that ribbon. It comes alive when a nine-year-old walks in and decides this place is hers.”

Hayes said the weeks ahead will be busy ones, with building services staff finishing punch lists and commissioning systems, technology teams bringing the building online, custodial and operations crews readying spaces most visitors will never notice, teachers unpacking boxes, and transportation staff rebuilding routes for a campus that now holds two schools instead of one.

She also made the case that the building’s design is tied directly to how children in these grades learn.

“Third through fifth grade is when reading stops being something students learn and becomes the tool by which they learn everything else,” Hayes said of the upper elementary years. “Designing a building specifically for that stage, with spaces built for how upper elementary students actually work together, is not a cosmetic decision. It’s an instructional one.”

Principal Seth Kennard expressed his eagerness to welcome students into the new school building and see their excitement.

“Right now we’re unpacking boxes and hanging things on walls,” Kennard said. “But I can already picture what this place will be like with 400 kids in it. The joy in these halls, our staff greeting students at that door — that’s the moment we’re all working toward.”

Kennard praised the Mountain View Upper Elementary team and their eagerness to build something from scratch.

“We get to start the traditions here,” he said. “Every memory made in this building will be the first one. Not many school teams get that chance, and this team is ready for it.”

He credited the partnership between the Board of Supervisors and the School Board for making the day possible.

“This building is proof of what we can accomplish when we come together to meet the needs of our community,” Kennard said. “That’s exactly how we intend to run this school — through collaboration with the community.”

Following the ribbon cutting, staff led building tours for guests.

Classes begin Aug. 12.