Opinion: Why is SCPS moving Park Ridge out of Park Ridge?

By Rosmary Goudyrev
Stafford, Va.

The Stafford County Public School’s current redistricting plans to move the Park Ridge community out of Park Ridge Elementary is a direct consequence of the poorly planned new development of Embrey Mill. A development that is not even done adding to the load of our districts.

Why should the longstanding, established community of Park Ridge (the obvious namesake of the school) be punished?

What appears to be an easy solution (grabbing the closest slice ‘Park Ridge’ and shoving it into another district) will end up causing a huge embarrassment to the county and the board members. This is because the proposed plan is a logistical nightmare, the effects of which will pale in comparison to the nightmare we experienced earlier this school year.

Lest we forget, the nightmares caused by the bus shortages and lack of planning. How can we believe that the need to shuttle kids who live across the street from Park Ridge Elementary all the way across town is going to yield no issues?

There will be more buses on the road, more driver shortages, more horrendous traffic that will affect the entire county. More stories of entire bus loads of children being unaccounted for as terrified parents wait for hours at the bus stops (this happened at the start of the year). We were patient. We believed SCPS would resolve the issues. But the current plan is going to make these scenarios likely yet again.

Can the board please acknowledge that moving children further from their neighborhood schools is a disastrous idea? Embrey Mill residents made it known years ago that they don’t even want to attend Park Ridge. They want to attend the school closest to them. As is logical!

I implore each School Board member to please imagine living across the street from a school but having to put your kids on a bus to attend a school that, with morning traffic, might take twenty minutes to get to. This is what your plan is proposing.

Our children having to wake up earlier and stay on buses longer. Why are you proposing to have our children suffer and pay for the lack of planning of poorly planned new developments?