"Dozens of Charlottesville residents spoke out Monday night about the Jefferson School, just as city officials are set to vote on the aging building's fate.

The newly formed Citizens for Jefferson School approved a platform urging the Charlottesville School Board to halt the transfer of the building's deed to the City Council. School Board members voted to transfer the property last summer and are set to finalize the deal this month.

The board is expected to vote on the Jefferson Preschool program's placement Jan. 17, with the likely result of splitting the 4-year-olds among six elementary schools.

City councilors also are set to vote on a request for proposals for the reconfiguration of the 70-year-old Jefferson School. Ideas include an African cultural center and the refurbishment of the gymnasium.

But the city residents at Monday's meeting, many of whom attended Jefferson when it was an all-black grammar and high school, weren't ready to give up the idea of Jefferson remaining a facility for education.

The platform, passed by consensus, also states the School Board should conduct a 12- to 18-month study on the school's use - considering clear-headed criteria rather than emotional pleas.

The Jefferson Preschool program should remain intact, although possibly outside the historic building, the group voted, and the school should be preserved as an educational institution.

"Jefferson should become a class-A educational center, said Eugene Williams, a Jefferson High graduate.

Despite the school being seen as a landmark in the black community - the only remnant of the old Vinegar Hill neighborhood razed in the 1960s - the meeting was racially mixed, a rarity in Charlottesville, some said.

Some white attendees had children go to Jefferson when their home schools were being renovated, and others had children in the recent preschool program.

"It's where we've been segregated," meeting organizer Nancy O'Brien said of the school, "and it's where we've been desegregated."

Several speakers slammed the City Council and the School Board.

"We cannot allow the city School Board to abdicate their role," said Leah Puryear, director of the University of Virginia's Upward Bound program. "They cannot give up the deed to Jefferson School until all the necessary studies have been done."

Residents acknowledged that city officials have discussed what to do with the school for 10 years, but some said the time was used unwisely.

"The decision-making process really doesn't make any intellectual sense, said Kenneth Martin, a Jefferson alumnus who suggested the platform items.

Emotional public meetings over the years have failed to make progress, he said. Others noted that little was known about Jefferson-housed programs --- such as English as a Second Language and family literacy classes - that are beyond the preschool's scope.

"It is a hopping building all the time," preschool director Nancy Gercke said.

The meeting also involved a discussion of funding, which is key to the city government's plans.

Group organizer Alexandria Searls said a federal grant for urgent school repair has not been explored by city officials, nor have numerous other funding opportunities.

Donna Goings, a retired teacher who worked with Gercke, was blunt about the City Council: "They've got money for anything they want money for."

City officials likely will hear more from the group at future meetings, organizers said.

The School Board meets at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Charlottesville High School's media center." (Kate Andrews, The Daily Progress, January 8, 2002)