PWCS Offers New Boundary Plans for Haymarket Drive School

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The Prince William County School Board will vote on boundaries for the new elementary school at Haymarket Drive* at their Jan. 8 meeting. They will be voting on three new boundary options for the school that is scheduled to open in September.

At a well-attended public boundaries meeting Dec. 12 at Gravely Elementary School, parents were almost unanimous in their requests to have their neighborhoods not included in the new boundaries as they said they were satisfied with their children’s current schools.

However, parents expressed other concerns about the new boundaries. These included the desire to minimize traffic congestion in the mornings, to keep students in close proximity to their schools, to keep neighborhoods together, to not transfer students without also transferring neighbors and to not rezone any neighborhood too frequently.

Tyler parents from the communities of Parks of Piedmont and Piedmont South were especially outspoken against being moved into the new school since their neighborhood is located nearby Tyler Elementary along Washington Street. According to most boundary plans presented, Tyler would keep students from neighborhoods north and east of the school. Some neighborhoods just west of the school would be moved to the Haymarket Drive school located off Old Carolina Road.

Parents from the Piedmont communities said they consider Parks of Piedmont and Parks of Piedmont South to be one community and did not want them to be separated. Some parents from Buckland Mills Elementary area worried that too few students from one community were taken from Buckland Mills, which would result in those students knowing very few other students on their new bus route.

Mostly, parents worried about the morning commuter traffic along Route 55, 15 and near the intersection for Interstate 66. They said from a traffic and safety standpoint, it would be better to have students attend schools closer to their homes.

Matthew Cartlidge, Supervisor of Planning, ran the meeting, presenting four alternative zoning plans for the new elementary school. He explained that his citizen run boundary committee first presented plans 1.2 and 1.3. Alternative plans S.3 and D.3 were added based upon input his office and the committee derived from their last public meeting.

Because the planning department typically presents no more than three plans to the School Board, Cartlidge told parents he would have to work with the boundary committee to narrow the plans down to three or fewer.

At the parent meeting, the plan that proved most popular was also the oddest in design. Boundary Plan 1.3 would have allowed many neighborhoods such as Piedmont South and Parks of Piedmont to remain at Tyler Elementary and would have also kept students from Carterwood attending Alvey Elementary School even though that neighborhood is closer to several other schools. The parents from Carterwood said they did not want their children to change schools again and did not mind staying at Alvey. However, some did worry that eventually they would need to be rezoned, and in that case, better that happen sooner than later.

While plan 1.3 was the most popular with parents at the meeting, Cartlidge said he was not simply going to present the least objectionable plan, but try to address the citizens' concerns. Since the Dec. 12 meeting, Cartlidge met one more time with his citizens boundary committee to consider the input they received. In response, they created the final three boundary plan proposals. Cartlidge said they are not completely new maps, but small variations of the previous plans already presented to the community.

The differences between the new boundary maps and the old is the new maps keep the region along Cerro Gordo Road at Buckland Mills Elementary thus satisfying parental concerns. The three new boundary maps differ from each other in that each offers a different alternative for which communities located near Tyler Elementary will be included in the new school attendance area. The moving pieces in these maps are the communities of Parks of Piedmont, Piedmont South, Crossroads Village and Carterwood.

New Boundary Plan 1.1B would not divide the two Parks of Piedmont communities, but rather send them both to the Haymarket Drive school. Carterwood and Crossroads Village, located just east of Piedmont, would see their students continue to attend Tyler Elementary School. As per 1.1B, Haymarket Drive would begin its first school year at 76.1 percent capacity. It would not rise to full capacity until the 2023-24 school year according to enrollment projections that includes new builds. At that time, the new school would be at nearly 112 percent capacity. This plan evens out most surrounding schools included in the transition: Tyler, Alvey and Buckland Mills. Gravely would reach capacity by 2016.

New Boundary Plan 1.2R is another option. This plan would take students from both the Piedmont communities and the Carterwood community for the new school, but leave students from Crossroads Village at Tyler. According to Plan 1.2R, Haymarket Drive Elementary School would be at 87.7 percent capacity in its first year and would rise to full capacity by the 2018-19 school year. Tyler would fall to 70 percent in its first year.

Third option, Boundary Plan D.1A, would keep both the Piedmont communities at Tyler, and send both Carterwood and Crossroads Village to the new school. This plan is counterintuitive since Carterwood and Crossroads Village are actually closer in proximity to Tyler than the Piedmont communities are.

This boundary plan would have the Haymarket School at 72.5 percent capacity in its first year; it would not reach full capacity until 2023 according to projections. However, it does not offer much relief to Tyler, which would be at capacity again by 2015. Gravely would also reach capacity by 2016.

While the Haymarket Drive school is intended to relieve other elementary schools in the area, more elementary schools are planned for coming years and they could further help rising student populations. These include the Devlin Road school and the Vint Hill Road school.

While each option has its own merits and drawbacks, the final decision will be left to the School Board. Parents can present their recommendations to the Prince William County School Board via telephone or email correspondence or by attending the Jan. 8 meeting at the Kelly Center at 7 p.m. and signing up to speak ahead of time. Information about how to contact the School Board members can be found at the PWCS website under "Leadership." Alyson Satterwhite is the School Board member from the Gainesville District and Gil Trenum is the School Board member from the Brentsville District.

 *The "Haymarket Drive School" has not yet been named. 

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