Previously proposed 13th high school failed to win sufficient votes from the school board three times.Editorial Opinion
New communities proposed for the Brentsville District provide further evidence that the larger hybrid design for the 13th high school was a necessity for the children of Western Prince William County.
At this Wednesday’s school board meeting, Prince William County School Board members discussed sending a letter to the board of county supervisors, saying they disagree with new residential communities coming into the Brentsville District where schools are already over capacity or will be within a few years.
The opposition of certain board members seems disingenuous considering they chose not to support a larger high school that would accommodate the students they knew would be coming to Bristow and Manassas in future years.
That proposal failed three times despite constant growth and overcrowding in Western Prince William high schools.
The proposed communities include a ‘Devlin Road’ community, Innovation Town Center and Innovation South. Neither the Planning Commission nor the board of supervisors had the opportunity to approve the communities yet; however, they are on the county’s comprehensive plan, and thus school board members should have been aware of them.
The Proposed plan for Devlin Road community.The Devlin Road community is basically a scaled back Stone Haven. It may have up to 670 homes mostly single-families whereas the Innovation communities would consist of mainly multi-family units.
In total, these three communities could bring up to 2,800 new families into the area of north Bristow and southwest Manassas, and a projected at least 300 new high school students, plus elementary and primary students.
School board members Lillie Jessie (Occoquan), Alyson Satterwhite (Gainesville), Willie Deutsch (Coles), Shawn Brann (Brentsville) and Chairman Ryan Sawyers all spoke in opposition to the new communities, at Wednesday’s meeting. They also advocated for more school proffers should the communities be built.
While that message is consistent with the school board’s usual stance on new communities, it belies a lack of planning on their part to anticipate these new communities and correct a “failed formula” of always bringing in more students than they have room for within the building proper.
When Sawyers and Jessie had the chance to support a bigger high school to accommodate more students, they voted against that motion. Jessie even voted against it three times, arguing that she would focus on needs on the eastern end of the county.
Meanwhile, Satterwhite and Deutsch, Justin Wilk (Potomac) and Gil Trenum (Brentsville), whose seat is being held by Brann in his absence, have been consistent in their message that as there continues to be growth in the west, a bigger high school is necessary.
These members should be recognized for putting the needs of the students above politics and for advocating for all students regardless of the location. The others need to reevaluate their priorities.
This in no way should be interpreted as meaning that the school board does not need to do more to increase equity in education across the county. However, to deny growing student populations the facilities they require does nothing to promote equality, rather it achieves the oppose.
It appears that students at Stonewall Jackson High School will bear the brunt of students moving into these new communities as Patriot and Battlefield high schools are already bursting at the seams.
Stonewall will be nearly 700 students over capacity by the time the 13th high school opens in 2021. Without any relief from that school, it will reach 150 percent capacity by 2015, according to PWCS projections.
As Stonewall is a much older building that houses a more racial and economically diverse population; their students desperately need the support of their school board. Members who advocate for progressive politics should especially care to support that school.
Further, let’s be clear, these communities have been publicly discussed at supervisor meetings since at least 2014. Thus, when Mr. Gil Trenum requested a larger school at a lower cost per student, it was a legitimate request, and not as some have said, just an excuse to get a more expensive, grander high school.
Had the larger Devlin Road community of Stone Haven been approved, there would have been even more students that school district would have to accommodate. Shouldn’t the school board have planned ahead for such growth?
Now, will these incoming students find a place in the 13th High School, or will the school board need to redistrict across the county?
Now, on top of the mess of unequal school capacity, the county may be unable to get the proffers they need thanks to the Virginia General Assembly limiting the proffer requirements that jurisdictions can set.
We can’t even blame our local representatives for this. We can only blame representatives of predominantly rural districts who do not care about Northern Virginia’s struggle with growth.
As most of us know, there are many serious issues that the school board and board of county supervisors must consider.
I applaud those school board members who are following their conscience and striving to make Prince William County Schools a more equitable place for all students, and I doubly applaud them if they can do so in an inclusive fair and transparent way.
However, board members should also carry out the fundamental responsibility the community has tasked them with doing, providing a seat for every student.
I fear they have played politics with an issue that should have never been politicized, and as a result, the children of families in Brentsville District will suffer the consequences.
It is my hope that board members will realize their mistake and correct their future actions, no longer pitting east against west, Democrat against Republican, but coming together for all our children.
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