Dr. Matthew Cartlidge presented one Nokesville K-8 School boundary plan, Plan 1.2, to the Prince William County School Board on Jan. 8. The plan reassigns Nokesville Elementary students and neighborhoods from Bennett Elementary School.
The creation of the Nokesville K-8 School also affected middle school boundaries within the county.
“It’s not only an elementary school; it’s also a middle school. With this, we are not only adjusting the elementary school boundaries but the middle school boundaries in the Nokesville area,” Cartlidge said.
Rather than heading west to alleviate some of the overcrowding at western Prince William schools, the plan connects the Nokesville attendance area to the Bennett attendance area in the east. This is likely in response to the upcoming elementary schools on the Capital Improvement Plan including the Devlin Road Elementary School for 2015, Vint Hill Elementary School for 2018 and Linton Hall Area Elementary School planned for 2018.
The students from the Bennett attendance area that would be reassigned include students in the rural or “Brentsville” region of that attendance area. Reassigned communities include those located on or on smaller roads off Lucasville Road between County Route 619 and Route 234; neighborhoods on or accessed via Brentsville Road between Route 619 and Estates View Lane, or Westchester Drive; homes along the western right-of-way along Brentsville Road between Estates View Lane and Route 234; and those along the access to Estates View Lane and Boutilier Lane.
The Westchester community was included upon the request of community members.
The plan also keeps the students assigned to the Nokesville K-8 School there for the duration, meaning they would spend both their elementary and middle school years at the one school.
The plan would ease crowding the Nokesville Elementary School, as it moves students from that older school aligned with trailers into the new spacious K-8 school. Nokesville Elementary is currently at 110.5 percent capacity. By 2015-16, without the building of the new school, that number would rise to 125.8 percent. However, Nokesville K-8 will open at 87.2 percent capacity. It would reach capacity by 2016-17.
It also eases some crowding at Bennett Elementary School. Bennett is currently at 103.5 percent capacity with that number rising by approximately 3.5 percent points each year. With the opening of the new K-8 school, Bennett’s occupancy would fall to 89.5 percent capacity in the 2014-15 school year.
The Nokesville K-8 School will run on a middle school bell schedule; K-8 students at all grade levels will take the same morning and afternoon buses. Nokesville K-8 students will all be zoned for Brentsville High School along with some additional students.
The creation of this new middle school attendance area will ease overcrowding at Marsteller Middle School in Bristow, since that school gains all of Nokesville Elementary students. While Marsteller is currently at 124.6 percent capacity, it would be reduced to 102.4 percent capacity in 2014-15.
The plan would also affect those in the Loch Lomond attendance area, easing some overcrowding at Stonewall Middle School. Since Parkside Middle School added a 14-room addition, but would stand to lose some of its Bennett students, it will now take some of Loch Lomond’s students who were formerly zoned for Stonewall Middle School. As such, Parkside Middle School will have 87.7 percent occupancy next year, while Stonewall’s population would decrease from 122.7 percent capacity to 117.3 percent capacity.
When Brentsville School Board member Gil Trenum asked why not take more students from Stonewall into Parkside, Supervisor of Planning and Financial Services Dave Beavers said that any more and they would likely face opposition as those neighbors are located so close to Stonewall Middle. Students from the Loch Lomond attendance area are currently slated to all be assigned to Stonewall Jackson for high school.
The Nokesville K-8 School is not planned to have any specialty programs; however students may apply for entrance for the purpose of attending a K-8 school.
The planning committee unanimously approved Plan 1.2 by a 7-0 vote. Two out of the nine committee members were absent at the meeting.
Overall, the community was in favor of the K-8 School, and public meetings were not contentious. A few parents who were concerned with sending their children to Nokesville from the Brentsville/Manassas area, because it may be inconvenient for day care pick up, were told they could apply to remain at Bennett.
Many Nokesville parents said they like the idea of a K-8 traditional school, which some researchers have said offers a more nurturing environment than a larger middle school.
The School Board will vote on the boundary plan at their Jan. 22 meeting.
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