Haymarket, Bristow Residents Oppose 12th HS Boundaries at Hylton Meeting

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Citizens from around the county expressed their displeasure for the school division's proposed boundaries for the 12th high school at a meeting held Thursday evening at Hylton High School.

While parents from the Benton Middle School attendance area approved of the boundaries since they would allow their children to progress from middle school to high school with their classmates, others voiced their concerns.

Representatives from the Prince William County Schools Planning Department said their goals were to balance enrollment at affected schools, allow students to progress with their classmates and balance minority and economically disadvantaged populations. Some residents felt they fell short of achieving those objectives.

Some parents were concerned that the boundaries map carved out certain neighborhoods, assigning them to schools that were neither closest to their homes nor in sync with the schools their neighbors were attending. Some small mid-county neighborhoods were divided about whether they wanted to send their children to the new school or have them progress with their classmates to an established school.

Affected Haymarket Communities 

Parents who attended from the southwest region of greater Haymarket in the Cerro Gordo Road area were in agreement that they wanted their children to remain at Battlefield High School. While shifting their attendance area to Brentsville District High School would help to alleviate some of the overcrowding at Battlefield, the parents exposed many flaws with the plan.

“First I want to talk about balanced enrollment. You can’t relieve crowding in the north of the county by building schools in mid-county,” one Haymarket father said.

He said Brentsville High School was too far for new drivers to travel and a bus ride would take over an hour. Other parents echoed his sentiments, saying there are just too many lights and schools along Linton Hall Road, so children would have to arrive at the bus stop before 6 a.m, and alternative routes are dangerous.

Perhaps, most importantly, the community located north of Route 29 identifies with Haymarket, not Nokesville.

Holding up a copy of Haymarket Lifestyle Magazine, one woman said, “I get a picture of Battlefield High School. I think of how we are in the Haymarket Parade. I guess we would have to go to Nokesville and be in the Nokesville Parade.”

If her neighborhood were to be redistricted, she said her children would lose out since they would not be able to participate in as many after school activities.

“We just can’t take both children back and forth that distance,” she said.

One resident questioned if his Haymarket community was being singled out for demographic reasons. He said they are one of the few communities not located on a golf course, and so he questioned if the school division was saying they were not wealthy enough to be zoned for Battlefield.

After listening to the citizens' concerns, Brentsville School Board representative Gil Trenum said he would not support a plan that would reassign the Cerro Gordon Road communities to Brentsville.

“I think we need to look for something different. I understand what is trying to do, but I don’t think it is a good decision.”

He said the plan does not really provide Patriot, nor Battlefield, with the relief those schools really needs as to do so would require redistricting bigger neighborhoods.

Criticism of How the Zoning Process Affects Bristow, Marsteller Communities

Others from the western end of the county used the meeting as an opportunity to criticize the entire zoning process.

Bristow resident and involved citizen Tracy Conroy criticized the school division for building a school to provide relief to schools that were only overcrowded because they had accepted too many transfers in the first place.

“My question to you: do you not understand yet, that when you move students out of their base school, out of their community, they will transfer to the schools they want to go to? Your boundaries mean nothing, if you don’t patrol your transfers,” she asked.

Naming Forest Park, Osbourn Park and Hylton, she said “every one of those schools is over capacity because of transfers. There are only two schools over capacity for reasons other than transfers, that is Patriot and Battlefield.”

Supervisor of Planning and Financial Services David Beavers said that because the high schools are bigger than middle schools, they have to accept students from other areas.

Kim Simmons of Bristow said, “I will say the same thing that I said last night. There are six days between now and when you have to make a presentation [to the School Board.] You need more time.”

She explained that, in her opinion, the system has failed the western end of the county and will continue to do so as evidenced by the 12th high school being built on the wrong side of the county.

“You have trailers (in Bristow), but since we’re not a title one school, we bring our classes up to 28. We’ve been doing that for 13 years. get older. The same kids that went to Cedar Point now go to Marsteller,” she said, explaining that at every step, their schools have been overcrowded.

Beavers said, Simmons said it herself that PWCS has built many schools on the western end from Cedar Point to Patriot High School to Gainesville Middle School, Piney Branch and the Nokesville School.

Still, Simmons said it is not enough. She said that by the time the 13th high school opens in 2019, her children and their peers will have already graduated. For the Marsteller students, it is too late because they will have always been in overcrowded classrooms.

“You’ve failed every single one of these kids,” she said.

“We’re trying to offer some measure of relief,” Beavers responded.

Offering a solution to what to do with the open seats at Brentsville, one woman suggested they be given to Victory Lake students, since that community wanted to be rezoned out of Stonewall Jackson High School attendance area. Trenum said he is already investigating this option by talking with the community’s HOA board.

While this suggestion might please some community members, it would not help to ease overcrowding at Patriot or Battlefield High Schools.

Simmons said that similar concerns as the ones heard Thursday evening were expressed at the Brentsville meeting Tuesday evening. She said that at that meeting everyone said they were opposed to the new boundaries.

Zoning and Demographics

However, some mid-county residents were also unhappy with the way their neighborhoods were zoned. Some residents felt as though their small communities were being separated from their neighbors.

Another thing that was said more than once was that the attendance area for the 12th high school did not include enough diversity.

According to the data provided by PWCS, upon opening, the 12th high school would become the school in the county with the fewest number of disadvantaged students. Additionally, it will tie for second place with Battlefield for having the second fewest number of minority student at 37.6 percent. Brentsville would still have the least at 32.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Gar-field High School is a majority minority school at 83.5 percent with 50 percent of its students being economically disadvantaged, but boundaries in the eastern end of the county were not being adjusted.

Schools will have to have varying degrees of diversity depending on neighborhoods, but parents hoped that the planning department was not zoning some schools purposefully to be less diverse than others.

Another complaint was that certain areas were being moved from school to school. A military parent and a psychologist/counselor explained that leaving friends so often leads children to withdraw from their peers and become depressed.

Approval by Benton Parents

Although many parents came out to express their disapproval of the boundaries, the Benton attendance area still made up the greatest number of students being reassigned. As those parents were happy with the reassignment, the base of the zoning would likely remain.

Changes will likely be made in and around the outlining areas and in how Brentsville is being rezoned.

Going Forward

The Planning Department will present their findings to the School Board at their May 7 meeting at the Kelley Center. Residents who wish to speak can sign up for Citizens' Time, either at the Kelley Center 10 minutes before the meeting or online.

The meeting was attended by School Board members Gil Trenum (Brentsville), Dr. Michael Otaigbe (Coles), Lisa Bell (Neabsco), Betty Covington (Potomac) and Lillie Jessie (Occoquan). Alyson Satterwhite of Gainesville attended the previous evening at Brentsville District High School.

Beavers and Dr. Matthew Cartlidge, Supervisor of Planning, led the meeting. They both demonstrated their willingness to be contacted by residents, and emphasized that the boundaries are not set yet, nor are they there to persuade anyone to accept the proposed boundaries.

At the School Board’s next meeting, May 21, a public hearing will be held. Community members can also sign up with the School Board to speak at that time.

Previously, community members had expressed disapproval when PWCS posted the boundaries on their website dated May 7 before citizen input was received.

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