The U.S. Department of Education rescinded its recommendation that Charlottesville City Schools acquire the site of the former Federal Executive Institute. In a May 9 email to CCS, the DOE said it will instead recommend the U.S. General Services Administration move forward with the University of Virginia’s bid for the property.
“Upon further review of the applications submitted by CCS and the University of Virginia (UVA) for the FEI campus, it has been determined that the Department will recommend to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) an education public benefit conveyance to UVA,” reads an excerpt from the email. “This decision was not reached arbitrarily; the Department believes that UVA will meet Presidential Executive Orders and that the University best meets the Secretary’s priorities for property reuse.”
CCS and UVA both say the reversal came as a surprise.
“When we received this email, the assumption was … that it was going to be next steps on how this process was going to continue forward,” said CCS School Board Chair Emily Dooley at a May 12 press conference. “All of our stomachs dropped in just absolute shock when the letter was absolutely not that and was instead a complete reverse course.”
UVA, CCS, and at least one other institution applied for acquisition of the FEI site through the Federal Real Property Assistance Program, which allows the transfer of surplus federal property to organizations, including educational institutions, on an application basis.
“When UVA was approached by the General Services Administration, we inquired about submitting a joint application with the City of Charlottesville. The GSA indicated that they would not accept such a proposal,” said UVA Deputy Spokesperson Bethanie Glover in a May 12 statement. “In addition to responding to the GSA’s request for a proposal, UVA submitted a letter in support of the city’s proposal. Once we heard that the federal government had accepted the city’s proposal, we congratulated the city and moved on, fully expecting that the matter was closed.”
CCS hoped to use the space primarily for its centralized preschool, with a secondary utility as the district’s consolidated administrative offices. UVA’s application outlined a proposed expansion of its School of Continuing and Professional Studies and ROTC at the site.
When there are multiple applicants for a single surplus property, the site is generally awarded to the application with the most public benefit, as determined by total public benefit allowance calculations.
Prior to the award of the FEI property, Livable Cville and other local organizers called on UVA to drop its bid for the site.
According to the DOE, the change in award recipient resulted from process changes to the Federal Real Property Assistance Program amid staff reductions and work reassignments.
“The notifications that were sent out from the Department on April 29 did not include full consideration of the applicable regulatory factors,” said Madi Biedermann, DOE deputy assistant secretary for communications, in an email. “Upon further review, the Secretary determined that the University of Virginia’s proposal to the use the [sic] FEI building as a permanent home for their ROTC program provides the greatest public benefit from among the applicants who expressed a desire to utilize the property.”
For CCS, the loss of the FEI site has led to a domino effect, impacting its plans for spaces well beyond the 14-acre campus.
By moving its planned centralized preschool to the Emmet Street property and consolidating administrative offices on the campus, currently occupied spaces were made available for use across CCS. Early considerations for these newly freed-up spaces included expanded alternative education programs and space for students with special needs.
“At this juncture, we are reverting to our previous plan to put our preschool at the Walker [Upper Elementary School] campus and keep our administrative offices where they are,” Dooley said. “What that means is that we can no longer expand our alternative high school, Lugo-McGinness Academy, to Walker. We can no longer expand the alternative middle school, New Pathways Academy. We can no longer free up space at the high school for career and technical ed classrooms, and we can no longer expand facilities for special needs students. What we want to convey today is just how shocking and disappointing this decision was, but that said, we are committed to doing the work on behalf of our students in this community.”
While CCS and UVA have reached out to the DOE for more information following the surprise change of course, the district says it does not plan to fight the reallocation given the emergent needs of its students and the August 2026 opening date for the preschool center.
“Being selected to acquire the Federal Executive Institute at no cost was a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Charlottesville City Schools that has been taken away for reasons that are frankly not clear,” said Dooley. “What is clear are the huge negative impacts on our students.”
Community members are now calling on UVA to decline the FRPAP award, with a protest set for 5:30pm on May 15 in front of the FEI.
Charlottesville Education Association President Shannon Gillikin also penned a scathing letter to the university, adding the CEA’s support for the effort. She calls on local education institutions to hold UVA accountable for acquiescing to the Trump administration’s anti-DEI efforts at the expense of vulnerable community members.
“It is not a coincidence that UVA decided to cancel all DEI programming in accordance with the Trump administration’s orders and was then granted this property,” said Gillikin in a May 10 statement. “For far too long UVA has relied on the grossly underpaid labor of our public school teachers to train and mentor their student teachers, without investing in the very system they have taken for granted. It is time they feel the consequence of those actions. UVA continues to take from our community and our response is we will no longer work with them.
“We ask that UVA rescind their application for the FEI property and until they do so we are calling on all educators in Charlottesville City Schools to boycott hosting UVA practicum and student teachers for the next school year.”
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who rose to prominence as a World Wrestling Entertainment promoter, has championed Trump administration priorities, namely anti-DEI efforts, which may have contributed to CCS losing the Federal Executive Institute to UVA. Photo: Eze Amos
