Petition Seeks to Delay Construction of Nokesville K-8, Favoring Avendale Elementary and Middle Schools
The lowest bid of approximately $28 million per construction cost was submitted by V.F. Pavone Construction. The School Board is set to vote on the proposal on Wednesday's meeting. (Credit: Moseley Architects)
Our Schools Facebook page is encouraging Prince William citizens to sign a petition that requests the School Board to delay the construction of the Nokesville K-8 School.
“On June 13, 2012, the School Board will be presented with the bids for the Nokesville K to 8 School,” begins the petition. “Please vote NO on these bids and delay the construction of the Nokesville K to 8 School until all options are considered and citizens concerns are addressed.”
The nonprofit organization CARE PWC (Citizens for Accountability and Reform in Education), led by Tracy Conroy and Dyanne Liga, created the petition. Conroy is also the administrator of the Our Schools site.
CARE does not oppose the replacement of the Nokesville Elementary School.
However they are questioning the logic of spending $28 million, on construction costs alone, for a K to 8 School that will provide 100 seats per grade level.
On the Our School’s site, Conroy refers to it as a “band-aid,” to the seating problem; because according to Prince William County student projections, after the building of the K to 8 School, Marsteller Middle School would still need one trailer by 2014 and two by 2018.
CARE is also questioning why a relatively large and expensive school is being built to house a relatively small student population.
“This school is 141,500 square feet and is larger than each of our middle schools and elementary schools. It is by no means a small building; it is very costly,” writes Conroy on Our Schools.
Conroy would prefer funds go towards building a school that would serve a greater number of students.
“For some reason it was determined that the K-8 would only hold 940 students, 40 of which will be special education students that will have to be reassigned from other schools.” Conroy said in an interview.
New middles schools in the county, such as Reagan, can hold over 1200 students, but the K to 8 school would barely hold more than an elementary school, which are now averaging 900 seats, CARE representatives explained.
Moreover, when the K to 8 was proposed in 2010, Prince William Schools projected that it would serve the Nokesville Elementary community alone.
However 2012 projections show that 50 percent of elementary and middle school students will need to be bussed in from Bristow communities to fill seats in the proposed school, and Brentsville Board Member Gil Trenum has expressed concern over which students to transfer into the Nokesville K to 8 District.
T. Clay Wood ES, which opened September 2011, has been built to house elementary students in neighborhoods closest to Nokesville Elementary. Therefore students attending the K to 8 probably will be bussed from even farther out in Bristow.
Conroy thinks parents might have a problem with this plan.
“People chose to move into a suburban neighborhood; not a rural area,” Conroy said, “That is where they want their children to attend school.”
Prince William County Schools has said that students could choose to transfer out of the school, but that choice may also leave them without transportation to and from school.
In addition developers of the new Avendale residential community have proffered land to build both a middle school and an elementary school.
For those reasons, CARE is proposing the School Board delay building the Nokesville K to 8 school and instead consider housing Nokesville and Avendale students in a newly built school on the Avendale property.
They believe building a full sized middle school would offerrelief to the overcrowding problems at Marsteller Middle School and Gainesville Middle School. Both schools would be at or below their capacity with additional seats available for future growth.
Another advantage of the Avendale site, according to Conroy, is that it is on the public water system, which is more thoroughly regulated through federal regulations.
CARE also questions what they consider to be an expedited decision to approve Nokesville Elementary on June 16 in 2010 which according to Conroy did not allow public comments after the presentation of the K through 8 and prior to the Board’s vote, because the idea was proposed and approved during the same meeting.
This accusation has been refuted by Brentsville District Board Member Gil Trenum.
CARE is determined to watch out for expedited agenda items, and try to slow down the School Board when it comes to important issues for which they feel citizens would like to speak out.
Although some citizens have questions the proposal of the Nokesville K to 8 School from the beginning, many Nokesville residents have expressed full support for the K to 8 School to serve their community.
Readers may visit the Our Schools Facebook Site, read more information and determine if they would like to sign the petition.
© 2012, Copyright 2013 Bristow Beat LLC. All rights reserved.
Category: Education
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“Those who plead their cause in the absence of an opponent can invent to their heart’s content, can pontificate without taking into account the opposite point of view and keep the best arguments for themselves, for aggressors are always quick to attack those who have no means of defense.” – - Pizan
Regarding the quality of the water in Nokesville, the well at NES is tested monthly. It hasn’t had a negative report for more than 20 years, which was as far back as I felt like looking. The quality of the water in the NES well was characterized by public drinking water officials as “exceptional”. By contrast, the public drinking water supply has had several “boil water” advisories in the past 20 years due.
Regarding the allegation that 50% of the K – 8 students will have to bused in from outside Nokesville:
(1) The K – 8 is supposed to open in the Fall of 2014, not the Fall of 2012. So you have to use 2014 enrollment projections, not 2012 projections.
(2) Nokesville elementary is projected to have 385 students in the Fall of 2014, which is 64% of the 600 student capacity for the elementary portion of the K – 8. I highly doubt the school division would bus in an additional 385 students, as that would leave the school at 124% of capacity. So the 50% busing line is patently false.
Regarding the allegation that students will be bused from outside Bristow to fill the school:
(1) T Clay Wood, which is the closest elementary school to Nokesville, outside of NES, is already overcrowded and projected to be 113% of capacity in the Fall of 2014, with rising enrollment.
(2) boundaries are changed every time a school opens. It is reasonable to expect that boundaries will change, again, when the K – 8 opens.
Regarding the Avendale school sites:
(1) Avendale is currently undeveloped woodland. There isn’t even a road to access the school sites. Avendale’s developer promised to build the road to the site because that road will be the main raid through their neighborhood. The developer hasn’t begun work on the road, and construction doesn’t appear to be imminent. The road alone isn’t going to be done anytime soon, and if you can’t get to the school sites, you can’t build a school.
(2) As Avendale is currently undeveloped woodland, there is no power, no electric, and no water at the school sites. The developer promised to provide these when it began developing the property, but, as the property isn’t being developed, those haven’t been provided.
(3) You can’t wave a wand and open a school, and new schools certainly aren’t free. A new school, with the necessary approvals, survey’s, funding, and construction takes 5 years, at a minimum, even schools for which sites have been proffered by developers. 5 years from now is the Fall of 2017 – three years after the K – 8 is scheduled to open. Maybe by then the developer will have built the road to the site and provided power, sewer, and water. Then again, in this economy, maybe not.
(4)I can’t imagine the inventive boundaries the school division would have to draw if it opened a middle school at Avendale when there are no houses there and Marsteller middle school is barely a mile away. Avendale is a 400 home housing development that is flanked by the rural crescent. To fill a middle school at Avendale you’d have to pull students from Route 28, Saybrooke, Braemar North Gate, old Braemar, Ashley’s Ridge and New Bristow Village, and all the other in fill developments in that area, and you still wouldn’t have enough students. The school division would have to look for walkers in “new” Braemar to bus to the Avendale site, and then, to fill Marsteller they’d have to pull from Gainesville, and bus kids further than they’re currently being bused.
(5) Growth in the area isn’t near Avendale. Growth is out towards Jiffy Lube live and in Gainesville and Haymarket. That’s where we need a new middle school, not in Avendale.
A new middle school is planned on the west end in 2018. It’s been planned for 2018 some time. Opening the K – 8 won’t change that, but it will provide 300 much needed middle school seats to relieve severe overcrowding at Marsteller Midde School.
Marsteller Middle School is currently 25% overcapacity. The school has nearly 1 full grade outside in trailers. In the Fall of 2014, Marsteller will be 31% overcapacity if the K – 8 doesn’t open. By 2017, the earliest possible date for a new Middle School, without the K – 8, Marsteller will be 39%, or 479 students overcapacity – in a school that was built to house 1,233 students.
If the K – 8 opens it will take a minimum of 300 students away from Marsteller, which will leave the school only 7% over capacity in 2014. Enrollment will be rising, but it is only projected to reach 115% of capacity by the Fall of 2017 the earliest possible date for a new MS to open, or 117% of capacity in the Fall of 2018 when the next middle school is projected to open in the county.
I’m not comfortable condemning 5 years of students at Marsteller to more severe overcrowding than they’re currently experiencing, which is what will happen if the K – 8 is stopped. I’m not comfortable doing that to the students at T Clay Wood, which is what will happen if the K – 8 is stopped. The K – 8 will give us 300 more much needed middle school seats and 150 + more much needed elementary school seats, and it will give them to us in the Fall of 2014, not 2017 or 2018.
Here’s the petition supporting the K – 8.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/build-the-nokesville-k-8/
To the editor:
Thank you for attempting to correct (albeit with a delayed 6/13 follow-up item on the pro-school petition) what looked to be very one-sided coverage in your June 11 article, “Petition Seeks to Delay Construction of Nokesville K-8…”
While focused on the petition campaign, the original article provided only claims with no attempt at balance of any kind. It would have been preferable to explore all aspects of the issue at once, rather than to present the views of one group unanswered, followed by an alternate view presented later and in the context of the first.
On the eve of School Board action on K-8 construction, your readers learned only later that there was another petition from local residents in favor of the school. Many readers of the first article may never have returned to find the second; consequently, they were left only with unanswered questions and allegations, but no information on which to base a sound judgment. The follow up article adds critical information from the prospective of a community advocate and reflects at least some of these important points:
•The K-8 is intended as an intermediate and flexible remedy, addressing in two years what would take four years to do with site acquisition, design, and construction of a new middle school.
•Demand from specific communities and grade levels are fluctuating, but the K-8 will serve both the immediate needs and the local demands tend to follow new school completion.
•Building size is driven both by the latest DOE recommendations and by the school’s intended population. Cost must be assessed based on these factors and on current market conditions. Objections are being raised by comparing apples with oranges.
•Inclusion of special education students serves the ongoing objective of meeting their special needs close to home. Assignments will be made to serve students, not to fill space.
•The well water for the K-8 is of the same quality and subject to the same regulations as the water supplied to Brentsville District High School.
These are just a few arguments that might have been better explored in a balanced article about a project that first added to Capital Improvement Program two years ago. The K-8 school arose from public demand and was broadly embraced by the community.
When the School Board acts on the K-8, it will be with awareness of these factors and more, not simply with one view of a complex issue. That is what the community expects of them, and what it should demand from the Bristow Beat.
Philip B. Kavits
Director of Communications
Prince William County Public Schools