An idea to turn Jefferson Center into a third Roanoke high school focused on arts and science education has garnered enthusiasm from City Council members.

Support from the purse-string-controlling Council would be key if the district is to alleviate overcrowding at high schools by creating a magnet school that could cost upwards of $30 million.

“I think it’s a brilliant idea,” Vice Mayor Joe Cobb said Tuesday at a joint meeting with school board members. 

School leaders say the intent is to keep Jefferson Center as a performing arts venue for the community while offering a one-of-a-kind opportunity for Roanoke youth. 

For about a year, the nonprofit Jefferson Center has sought funding from Council — proposing $6 million over the next six years — to make repairs to its 100-year-old building. 

Executive Director Cyrus Pace has said the city-owned building has only a couple years of “useful life” without an infusion of city cash.

“I think it’s almost a sigh of relief, because we have so much pressure on us to re-envision the Jefferson Center,” Councilwoman Trish White-Boyd said. “If you see a path forward, and also including the Jefferson Center and to continue the performing arts … I’m thrilled, because we have a lot on our plate right now.”

Superintendent Verletta White said the school district will further explore the magnet school option, among alternatives to address the crowded high schools, and bring more details before city leaders in February.

“This would complement our rich arts culture I believe beautifully,” she said. “This would allow us to complement, and not compete with, existing offerings and programs within the city,”

As Roanoke attempts to reinvent itself as a health and sciences hub, “this would allow us to create a pipeline of talented students for our local higher education programs,” White said.

White described the ideal curriculum at the magnet school as “truly interdisciplinary, for example, melding the arts and sciences” for programs such as architecture and artificial intelligence. Environmental science could also be a standalone program that is not offered elsewhere locally. 

School board member Natasha Saunders-Cotton noted “a restorative justice opportunity” if the city were to repurpose the Jefferson Center building.

“It’s my understanding that the Jefferson Center that was Jefferson High School, was an all-white high school during the time of segregation,” White said. “I think to have an opportunity to then make this school a beautifully diverse school that would draw from both high schools would actually be something that would be historic in its own way.”

The superintendent said the school division must keep the Jefferson Center’s current office tenants in mind and keep them involved in the planning process. She also said school leaders intend to meet with local leaders in the arts and sciences to get their input.

Councilman Bev Fitzpatrick said his father was heavily involved in saving the Jefferson Center in the 1980s, when community leaders formed the nonprofit to repair the dilapidated building. Once again, Roanoke finds itself at a similar crossroads.

“This is a very unique opportunity,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s a win for the city because we owe Jefferson Center big money right now.”

He also urged school leaders to consider acquiring some of the vacant land and parking lots around the Jefferson Center. Fitzpatrick said the school division could “build an additional space for a normal high school to be part of the Jefferson Center and to allow for Cyrus's tenants to have an opportunity to be part of it, no matter what.”

Other Council members also wondered whether a magnet school serving 600 to 900 students would be enough to address an anticipated rise in high school students in the coming years.

Mayor Sherman Lea said whatever route community leaders take, there will be bumps in the road, but they should stay the course.

“I hope we never get into a situation where we build two new high schools at the same time,” Lea said. “That was traumatic.”

Both Patrick Henry and William Fleming high schools — completed in 2008 and 2009, respectively — are more than 120 percent over capacity, according to a recent feasibility study.

That study says the school district could add classroom wings to both Patrick Henry and William Fleming that would accommodate another 450 students each. Another option would be to construct a third high school for about 1,500 students.

“I love all the ideas, but the one I dislike the most is adding on to the schools,” said Councilwoman Vivian Sanchez-Jones, who works at the district as a student support specialist.

Schools of about 2,500 students each would be too impersonal, she said.

“I applaud Dr. White and the staff are thinking about giving the Jefferson Center a new life,” Sanchez-Jones said, “and we also cannot wait three, five, 10 years for a new school or a new addition. We need to do something now.”