Two boundaries options, both of which would move students from the Bennett Elementary attendance area into the upcoming Nokesville K-8 school, were discussed last Monday at a public meeting held by Prince William County Schools at Brentsville District High School in Nokesville.
Prince William County School’s Dave Beavers, Supervisor of the Office of Facility Services, explained that the Nokesville K-8 Planning Committee, comprised of parents and citizens, chose Bennett Elementary district because other adjacent districts to the Nokesville attendance area are already scheduled to be served by new schools designated within the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP.) Those students will join students already zoned for the Nokesville Elementary School.
The CIP currently includes Vint Hill Road Elementary School to help with Cedar Point Elementary’s population in 2018; Ferlazzo Elementary to alleviate Coles Elementary in 2016; and Devlin Road Elementary School in 2015 to serve the Bristow communities north of Linton Hall Road. There is also a middle school listed on the CIP for 2018 to serve the western end of Linton Hall corridor in Bristow and Gainesville, and Parkside Middle School is scheduled to have a 16-room addition completed by summer of this year.
As such, the decision comes down to two similar boundary plans that would each take students from Bennett Elementary. Boundary Plan 1.1 would move Bennett students into Nokesville K-8 if they live south of Route 234, along Brentsville Road and near Lucus Road, whereas Boundary Plan 1.2 would additionally take students from the Westchester community in that area.
Because of the additional students, Boundary Plan 1.2 would equally balance students between Nokesville K-8 and Bennett Elementary in the first years of opening. However by the 2016-17 school year, Nokesville K-8 would already be beyond capacity. In comparison, Boundary Plan 1.1 allows both schools to grow more congruously, and as such, both schools will exceed their capacity simultaneously in the 2018-19 school year, according to attendance projections.
While the changing boundaries affect elementary school attendance, it will also affect middle school attendance areas. Plan 1.1 helps to reduce the number of students at Stonewall Middle School by 55 students in the school's first year of opening, while slightly increasing students at Parkside Middle School by 20 students.
Parkside will lose some of its Bennett students who will, in time, be attending Nokesville K-8, but in turn, Parkside* will gain students from Loch Lomond Elementary School. Boundary Plan 1.2 has a similar effect on those boundary areas.
Students attending the new Nokesville K-8 School will be zoned to attend Brentsville District High School in their ninth grade year; they will be joined by a number of students graduating from Parkside Middle School. Beavers said he was unable to answer as to which areas the 12th high school would take its students, since that has not yet been officially determined.
Parents were concerned as to the length of the morning and afternoon commutes and some spoke out in favor of their children being zoned for whichever school would reduce their commute time on the bus. Brentsville School Board member Gil Trenum said that with the combination of middle school and elementary students attending the same school, more buses will be zoned by neighborhoods and thus commute times will be shorter than they have been in the past.
Trenum also shared his knowledge on the K-8 School. Currently, Nokesville K-8 is not planned to have any specialty programs, but parents are still welcome to apply to send their children from areas outside of the attendance district for the purpose of attending a K-8 traditional school.
Responding to parents' concerns, Trenum said that, generally, K-5 students will remain separate from the middle school age students, but they will share some facilities. He said that at other traditional schools the junior high school students often act protectively towards the lower school students because of the great difference in their ages. Trenum also clarified that the Nokesville K-8 School will run on a middle school bell schedule with an earlier opening and dismissal times than elementary schools.
Additionally, since the K-8 School will not have the population of a typical middle school, it will only offer an intramural sports program for its 6-8th grade students.
For Marsteller Middle School students, the final boundary decision should have no effect. Marsteller will see relief of approximately 200 students regardless of which boundary plan is adopted as it will lose its students coming from Nokesville Elementary School.
Trenum said that students attending Marsteller as eighth grade students in 2013-14 year will likely be grandfathered in to remain at that school provided they can find their own transportation. The same will apply to students zoned for Parkside Middle School and Stonewall Middle School as their boundaries are adjusted; however, while Trenum said this has been granted in the past, it still requires approval from the School Board.
Because of these children choosing to remain in their old attendance areas, populations at affected schools are not expected to completely even out until 2017, meaning older schools will remain overcrowded for a few years, while Nokesville K-8 may operate under its capacity.
The boundary committee was composed of parents from the attendance areas considered, stretching from Bristow to the Coles and including parts of Manassas near Loch Lomond Elementary.
The criteria for creating new boundaries involves trying not to separate communities as well as trying to equally serve low-income and minority populations throughout all the schools in the district.
More information can be found on the Prince William County Public Schools website. Those wishing to provide their input on the boundary decision can still do so by contacting Matt Cartilidge at 703-791-7312 or CartliMR@pwcs.edu.
*Correction: In a previous edit we wrote that Bennet would except students from Loch Lomond when we meant that Parkside Middle School would accept students from Loch Lomond.
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