The Education Department said late last month that it would give a 14-acre property from a shuttered federal agency to Charlottesville public schools, which the superintendent called “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to support preschoolers and disabled students.

A week and a half later, though, federal officials said they had changed their mind and would instead give it to the University of Virginia.

The reversal surprised officials at Charlottesville City Schools and U-Va., who say they learned of it in an email sent Friday afternoon.

Both had applied to take over the property after President Donald Trump eliminated the Federal Executive Institute and his administration determined it no longer needed the site that had housed the training center.

The back-and-forth highlights the fast-moving approach from the Trump administration to remake the federal government and cut what it sees as waste, sometimes resulting in whiplash for those at the receiving end of the decisions, even in wonky and often overlooked areas.

The university’s proposal to house its Reserve Officers’ Training Corps on the site “provides the greatest public benefit,” Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann said.

“This development was completely unexpected,” U-Va. spokesperson Brian Coy said in a statement. “We reached out to the U.S. Department of Education seeking to clarify the reasons for the unexpected change and to better understand the process to date and the process moving forward.”

The scramble began after Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 10 eliminating the Federal Executive Institute, a center that had provided management training to high-ranking civil servants for decades but that the new administration criticized as “a bloated system far removed from the needs of American families while wasting taxpayer money.”

In March, the General Services Administration determined the federal government no longer needed the FEI property and could sell or donate it to another entity. Both Charlottesville City Schools and U-Va. were interested - especially since the government was offering to give it to a local educational institution for free.

After U-Va. officials learned the school district might apply, university leaders reached out to the city to explore applying for a joint partnership and asked the GSA if that was possible, according to minutes from a U-Va. Board of Visitors meeting. But the GSA said it would not accept such a proposal, so the two entities “came to an understanding” that both would apply, the minutes state. U-Va.’s board supported the university’s bid to use the space for its School of Continuing and Professional Studies and as well as its ROTC program for future armed service members.

The Charlottesville district, meanwhile, proposed consolidating its preschools, currently housed at six separate sites, on the former institute site. Officials would do the same with administrative offices scattered around the district, improving communication and increasing productivity. They also planned to create a family welcome center, staff training facilities, space for alternative education and disability programs and a forum for school board meetings.

Superintendent Royal Gurley Jr. called the opportunity “a once-in-a-generation moment.” The property “would allow us to expand our educational footprint in ways that are otherwise impossible given the space constraints in Charlottesville,” Gurley wrote April 23 in a statement about the district’s application.

At the time, some Charlottesville community members called for the university to withdraw its application, so the award could go to the school district. But other entities also submitted applications, and there was no guarantee the city would receive the award if U-Va. pulled out, Coy said.

Jennifer Wagner Davis, U-Va. executive vice president and chief operating officer, sent a letter to the Education Department and the GSA expressing “full and enthusiastic support” for Charlottesville’s application. “Their program would profoundly impact the City’s entire student population, teachers, staff, and administrators at a time when budgets are tight, and efficiency is critical,” she wrote. “We consider either entity being awarded the FEI property a WIN-WIN.”

Both sides submitted applications by April 21, and the Education Department responded eight days later. Federal officials had “contingently approved” the Charlottesville district’s application and granted the property - for free - so long as it stayed true to its promise of using it primarily to educate students and secondarily as administrative offices. Gurley said he was “delighted.” Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders hailed it as an asset that would benefit the city for decades.

District officials started laying out their plans. The city had already allocated $30 million to consolidate preschools at another facility, and officials said they could be ready to use the institute property by August 2026.

The district also said it had reached out to federal officials to figure out the next step in the process and when it might acquire the property.

So when the Education Department sent another letter on Friday, Gurley thought it was going to explain how to proceed, he told The Washington Post. Instead, the government said U-Va. would now receive the property.

“I was shocked,” Gurley said in an email Monday. He had also called the change an “enormous setback” in a statement days earlier.

The Education Department letter said staff cuts and work reassignments over the previous two months “necessitated some process changes.” Upon further review, U-Va. “best meets the Secretary’s priorities for property reuse,” Barbara Shawyer, a management analyst with the department’s Federal Real Property Assistance Program, told the district. Shawyer did not further elaborate on the reasons in the letter.

The same day, U-Va. learned its application for the former FEI property had been “contingently approved.” The decision, the letter said, was based on the university using a “clear majority” of the property for two programs: the ROTC and Center for Public Safety and Justice, which is housed within the School of Continuing Professional Studies.

The university, which had thought the case was closed, began pressing for more details from the Trump administration about what led to the change. The university’s ROTC program trains commissioned officers of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

U-Va. had drawn scrutiny from the federal government in recent weeks after the Justice Department wrote a letter to the university saying it was not properly following through on an order from its governing board to cut diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The letter, dated April 28, demanded the university provide evidence that it was dismantling DEI initiatives.

Meanwhile, some local supporters of Charlottesville schools said they want the university to try to sell the old FEI property to the district as soon as it can for a nominal fee. The Education Department letter, though, requires U-Va. to meet certain steps over a 30-year deed, including submitting annual reports on how it uses the space and receiving visits from the department every five years.

Gurley said the district can’t wait to see how things shake out. Officials are now planning to consolidate its preschools at an elementary school. But he said the district’s goal of centralizing administrative offices, long needed, will once again be shelved.

At the end of Friday’s letter, the Education Department told the district it hoped to help in the future with a different surplus property.

“I’m not sure that’s realistic to expect,” Gurley wrote Monday in an email to The Post. “Acquiring the FEI was a truly rare opportunity - one that was slated to be a major benefit for public-school students in this city for generations.”