Rapid growth drives frequent boundary changes in Northern Virginia schools

Even when they almost nail it — the projection came within 26 kids countywide one year in Loudoun — there are still bumps and dips at individual schools that throw things off.

And so they keep adjusting.

Graphic

A growing student population in Virginia

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“It’s like a Rubik’s Cube,” Carroll said.

Growing pains

Many school divisions in the area are rejiggering their borders now, or at least looking at the possibility.

Montgomery County Public Schools, which is growing by 2,500 students a year, is not undergoing boundary changes now but is beginning to study ways to relieve anticipated overcrowding in part of the county.

On Thursday night, Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Morton Sherman told the board that it’s time they begin talking about boundary changes. “That’s a euphemism,” he said afterward, “instead of redistricting — the R-word.” Enrollment has increased more than 20 percent over the past four years, and they’re projecting another 7 percent bump next year.

In Prince William County, the public schools continue to grow by about 2,000 or so students a year. What that means, said Dave Cline, an associate superintendent, “is every year you need a new high school, or one-and-a-half middle schools, or two new elementary schools.”

The school board is always trying to avoid situations that force families to switch to a new school and then, two years later, face another change, said Prince William County School Board member Steven Keen. “But we always hear from parents concerned about that. . . . Along the Linton Hall corridor, you see a lot of that.”

On Thursday night, the Fairfax County School Board approved a plan to build three new elementary schools and a new high school by 2018; the district has been growing by about 3,000 students a year for the last several years.

Change is hard, Rawat said, and schools officials hear that loud and clear. “But at the end of the day, after everything settles down, generally people are okay,” Rawat said. For the most part, people like their new schools.

“Or we go on to the next boundary study,” said Denise James, director of facilities planning in Fairfax, “and something even more controversial comes up.”

In Loudoun, administrator Sam Adamo has seen the system grow from 22,000 students when he started in 1997 to almost 70,000 today.

“When you have that kind of growth and you’re opening new schools . . . it creates a lot of angst,” Adamo said. “Particularly in growth areas, you’re constantly moving students, and schools become overcrowded, you construct a new one, and need to establish attendance areas so some kids are moving and some kids stay. You create a lot of turmoil in the community.”

Two new schools slated to open in the fall made officials look at 11 elementary schools, with about 11,000 children potentially affected by changes before they made their final decision.

On Tuesday, the Loudoun school board passed a measure that will allow parents to switch their children to schools outside of their attendance zones if the schools are under-enrolled and parents provide transportation. Proponents think it could ease concerns by giving parents more options. Board member Jennifer Bergel, who voted against it, said she doesn’t think such switches are an answer to boundary changes because if under-enrolled schools swell, the following year, the students might have to return to their original schools.