The Prince William County Office of Planning and Boundaries has published two new attendance area recommendations that would move the Victory Lakes community into Brentsville District High School (BDHS).
The Victory Lakes Community in Bristow is currently zoned to attend Stonewall Jackson High School (SJHS) in Manassas, but the opening of the 12th high school makes room for students from that neighborhood to attend BDHS. As the proposed boundaries for the new high school moves students from the eastern portion of the BDHS attendance area out of BDHS, it makes room for Bristow students.
To alleviate some crowding at Patriot High School, the school division has already recommended that New Bristow Village along Route 28/Nokesville Road be rezoned to BDHS. The community of Victory Lakes along Sudley Manor Drive in Bristow has also expressed interest in having their students attend BDHS.
Supervisor of Planning and Financial Services David Beavers noted that Victory Lakes students from Marsteller Middle School would attend BDHS with their classmates from Bristow Village. He said this is something that parents seem to like about the rezoning.
However Beavers said he can not speak as to the reason Victory Lake residents want to be rezoned, and directed Bristow Beat to a community representative. The Community Manager for Victory Lakes Community Association declined to comment.
While there would be some benefits to the rezoning, there would also be some drawbacks. One is a longer drive. BDHS is almost three miles further from Victory Lakes than Stonewall Jackson High School is. However, the commute would be against traffic.
The boundary change is also beneficial to the school division, since it would solve two problems: filling seats at BDHS and alleviating crowding at SJHS. Although Stonewall is not overcrowded to the same extent as Patriot, by September of 2018, SJHS is expected to be a 112 percent capacity.
Both Plan 2.1 and Plan 2.1a would help alleviate some of that overcrowding at SJHS by reducing the student populations to 102.8 percent capacity in 2018.
While PWCS numbers show that SJHS is predicted to increase to 146.3 percent capacity by 2023, those numbers do not account for the opening of the 13th high school in 2019.
However, Plan 2.1 had a major flaw. The inclusion of the Victory Lakes community increased Brentsville attendance to 120.2 percent in 2016-17.
According to Beavers, Victory Lake parents requested his office try to alleviate the overcrowding by better balancing enrollments among schools. In response, The Planning and Boundary Department came back with Plan 2.1a.
Plan 2.1a better balances enrollments by rezoning neighborhoods in the Brentsville attendance area located south of the City of Manassas and north of the 234 Bypass. It would rezone the Manassas neighborhoods Great Oaks, Mayfield Trace, Mayfair, Country Roads and Montrose, moving them into the Osbourn Park High School attendance area.
Additionally Plan 2.1a would not overburden Osbourn Park High School, but keep it within 90 to 100 percent capacity throughout the projection. In comparison, Plan 2.1 would have had Osbourn Park at 93.3 percent capacity in 2016 with that number continuing to decrease. In some of the following years, it would fall to around 80 percent capacity levels.
The downside to this plan is that moving Victory Lakes does nothing to help either the overcrowding situation at Patriot or Battlefield high schools. Those schools will likely have to wait until the opening of the 13th high school in 2019.
Plan 2.1a does reduce Patriot enrollment from 138.8 percent to 133.7 percent in 2016-17. The projections show that Patriot will remain around 130 to 140 percent capacity in the years preceding the opening of the 13th high school. However, should New Bristow Village not be moved out of Patriot, the expected capacity number would rise to more than 140 percent capacity.
Victory Lake residents met Sunday night for a HOA residents meeting to discuss boundary changes, but that meeting was closed to reporters and non-Victory Lake residents.
At the May 21 School Board meeting, there will be a public hearing in which residents can provide their input on these proposed boundaries.
The vote on the proposed boundaries will not take place at that meeting. It has been moved to June 4 to allow the citizens and school division more time to collaborate and dialogue about the proposed adjustments.
See the information for yourself on PWCS website.
What do you think of the new boundary proposals?
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