HAYMARKET — With the Haymarket Town Council’s 5-1 decision to rezone 9.94 acres from business commercial to “Residential Moderate Density” land use designation, schools in the Gainesville District will become increasingly more crowded.
“We don’t run the schools,” said Haymarket Vice Mayor Susan Edwards just before voting in support of a rezoning request that would allow 79 new townhomes to be built in Haymarket.
According to Alyson A. Satterwhite, Gainesville District School Board member, Battlefield High School was at 143.3% enrollment in the 2017-2018 school year, and Ronald Reagan Middle School was at 112.2%. There has already been an increase in student population for the 2018-2019 school year that will add to this overcrowding.
The 79 proposed new townhomes are estimated to add only 49 new students to the Gainesville District. But these students will have a major impact on an already overcrowded Prince Willliam County Public School system.
This over-capacity means that students must utilize trailers for classrooms. Battlefield will have 18 trailers for the start of fall classes. Ronald Reagan, for the first time, will have five trailers.
In addition to having classes outdoors, trailers also impact student activities, they could take up space on school grounds otherwise used for activities. Cindy Buckley, who is on the Band Support Organization at Battlefield High School told the members of the Haymarket Town Council that “one more trailer at Battlefield means the marching band has not practice area.”
Edwards told the citizens at the Town Council meeting that they should take their comments “to the School Board and put pressure on them.”
The School Board has no control over development in the county. At the June 6 meeting of the Prince William County School Board, the Board passed an Impact Statement for the Crossroads Village Center rezoning proposal that states “the School Board is not in favor of ay rezoning that increases student capacity at schools already at or in excess of 100% capacity or rezoning that causes student capacity at any school to exceed 100% capacity. At that meeting, Satterwhite advised people to talk to the planning commission, talk to the BOCS [Board of County Supervisors] and tell then we simply do not have pace in our schools for any more students right now.”
In addition to 79 new homes that will come as part of the [name of the newly rezoned development], 144 new townhomes will be built in Haymarket that was approved by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, and 55 new townhome units in Dominion Valley. [How many new projected students in total?}
At the June 6 Prince William County School Board meeting, Brentsville District School Board Member Gil Trenum said that “the cumulative effect is not taken into account.”
