CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – It’s back to school Wednesday morning for most area schools, including Albemarle County, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Louisa, Nelson, Augusta.

Schools have shifted overall to earlier start days, according to Albemarle County Schools Spokesman Jason Grant, to align with end of year testing cycles and allow planning for emergency closures such as weather.

“SOL testing typically runs from March through May,” Grant told Cville Right Now. “Having an earlier start date allows more time for preparation and also reduces the number of days for instruction still required even after testing is completed. Also, for high school students taking dual enrollment or AP classes, those courses and exams typically are completed by mid-May. So, again, having an end date more in alignment with those testing schedules increase the amount of valuable instructional time that can be provided to students and provides a more consistent end of the academic year aligned with the testing schedules.”

School schedules have skewed earlier across the board since the state repealed what some had referred to as “the Kings Dominion law” in 2019, in which school divisions had to start classes after Labor Day unless they received a waiver from the Virginia Department of Education.

New schools in Albemarle, Charlottesville

In Albemarle, students will be walking into Mountain View Upper Elementary as the first students in 24 years to walk enter a new county school building.

“So, it’s built with spaces where students can have a little bit more independence,” Principal Seth Kennard told Cville Right Now. “It’s the way we designed our cafeteria, or all these extended learning spaces you see as you walk around, let’s students know they’re a little bit older. They have a little bit more freedom and the school is designed in a way they can feel it’s for them.”

The opening means Mountain View Elementary students will go to school in a building that used to be crowded but now has plenty room.

Although the Albemarle Career Exploration Academy (ACE) Lambs Lane was scheduled to open Aug. 12, those students will have to attend classes at the Boys & Girls Club Lambs Lane for approximately the next three weeks.

“We are deeply grateful to the Boys & Girls Club for opening their doors to our students,” Acting Superintendent Dr. Chandra Hayes said in a statement. “This is exactly what community partnership looks like.”

County set for bus routes

As for the bus situation, Director of Transportation Jamie Gellner told Cville Right Now on Monday about 10,000 students requested bus service for the upcoming school year. On average, anywhere from 6,000 to 7,000 students actually ride county buses.

Ideally, the county would like about 50 students per bus, but with a shortage of drivers, this year’s headcounts will range from 54-78, Gellner said. Over the summer, she sent an email to families warning that the shortage could impact service, possibly resulting in earlier pick-up and later drop-off times.

But in the end, Gellner said the department was able to largely make the route schedule work out.

There are five stacked routes, where students will be picked up earlier and dropped at home later to allow their bus to make a second route run. Gellner said, on average, the difference will only be 10-20 minutes.

In the city, “every student who has requested a bus seat has a bus seat,” said Amanda Simalchik, CCPS Supervisor of Community Relations. “That’s about 2000 students we have routed.”

Charlottesville Middle School welcomes full student body

CCPS’s first new school in more than 50 years was opened last year with the ribbon-cutting at Charlottesville Middle School, which is a rebuilt and refurbished Buford Middle School.

This year will be the first year all students will be going where they need to go as the reconfiguration that started in 2021 is 100% complete.

However, the idea has existed far longer than that.

“This is something that we have been talking about as a city and as a school community for decades now. Really the conversations began in earnest in the early 2000s,” said Simalchik. “Having students do two transitions in their tween and teen years just was not the best fit as we had as students after 4th grade went to Walker Upper Elementary for 5th and 6th, and then they went to what was Buford Middle School for 7th and 8th, and then they went to Charlottesville High School for 9th through 12th.”

She noted the new configuration allows those in key developmental years to have more time to build relationships in a school community where staff can really get to know them and support them.

“Here we are,” Simalchik said. “We have Charlottesville Middle School which has completed a massive renovation and expansion to be able to serve 6th grade in addition to 7th and 8th.”

SROs return to city schools

Also new in the 2026-27 school years is two members 0f the Charlottesville Police Department officially becoming part of Charlottesville schools.

“That program fills gaps in our previous safety model, but it also contains essential guardrails aligning with our division values to protect the rights of students and staff,” Simalchik said. “So, we’re welcoming Officer Arron Arreguin at Charlottesville High School and Officer Tyree Kirby at Charlottesville Middle School.”

Arreguin has been a CPD officer since 2016, while Kirby has been with the CPD since 2023.

The city’s SRO program was discontinued in 2020 but talks to bring officers back into city schools resumed in 2024.

In March 2025, the Charlottesville City School Board voted 4-2 to bring back the division’s SRO program, a joint venture of CCS and CPD, starting with the 2026-27 school year, placing an officer in each the high school and the middle school.