February 3, 2010

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday morning to approve a renewal of the lease agreement between the county and the Field School of Charlottesville to lease part of the Old Crozet School.

Supervisors said the Field School is the perfect tenant because they take care of the property, pay the lease and help students.

The Field School is a small middle school for boys. Its mission is to develop well-rounded boys of character and accomplishment.

The head of the Field School said the lease extension gives them stability -- they know they can be there.

"We've been able to serve a wide variety of boys and very happily," said Head of School Todd Barnett. "I think we've got a lot of very happy families, but we'd like to continue to grow. We're graduating our first class this year of eighth graders, so we've got room for boys for next year.

There is an arts organization called Old Crozet School for the Arts that has a couple of classrooms in the building, too. Barnett said that organization and the Field School both happily occupy different parts of the building.

Barnett said said they would be interested in actually buying the school in the future. They'd like to put down roots at the Old Crozet School for a long time.

In other county news, the Crozet community is halfway there in its fundraising effort to renovate and update the Crozet Park and Pool.

Crozet residents are looking to build a removable dome at the existing swimming pool so it can be open year round.

They need to raise $200,000 to get that bubble off the ground.