Stafford schools Chair on elementary school redistricting : ‘I hope common sense prevails’

STAFFORD — Faced with redistricting all of Stafford County’s 17 elementary schools, the administration has decided to rely heavily on the contractor they hired to do the job.

The School Board met Tuesday evening to discuss possible solutions for the school system’s eight-month-long elementary school redistricting process which began with the School Board’s request to purchase the old Fredericksburg Christian School to house the county’s Northstar campus in June and will conclude in late February.

The School Board still hasn’t narrowed down their wishlist and criteria from the original 17 bullet points from previous redistricting efforts. They also did not direct Arc Bridge, the redistricting consulting company to include different criteria while redistricting students.  Instead, Arc Bridge outlined the criteria that they were going to follow.

“We did not provide them with any direction or criteria,” said Scott Horan, Assistant Superintendent for Operations.

Under the criteria that Arc Bridge outlined,  the redistricting process should balance enrollment across the county’s existing 17 elementary schools and, as much as they can, keep children from the same neighborhoods in the same schools.

The school division is considering two plans for its redistricting process. A total of 3,195 students would be affected if Plan A were to be chosen and 3,800 students would be affected if the School Board chose plan B.

The redistricting plans will take effect during the 2019-2020 school year. The School Board’s main goal is to limit school capacity to about  85 percent for the 2022-2023 school year. The board wants to get close to the 85-percent capacity in order to manage the county’s expected growth in the next 10 to 15 years.

“We don’t have to meet the standard 85-percent capacity goal, we can try to find other ways to redistrict to reduce the families impacted,” Superintendent Scott Kizner said.

The School Board has stated numerous times that neighborhoods that have been redistricted in the past four years can still be subject to the redistricting process but the School Board will try their best to avoid moving those neighborhoods.

The neighborhoods that have been redistricted recently:

• Cabin Creekwood
• Colonial Terrace
• Falmouth Village
• Hamlin Hills
• Hills of Aquia
• Leeland Heights
• Liberty Place
• Patriot’s Landing
• Port Aquia 186
• Ridge Point
• Staffordborough
• Sunningdale Meadows
• Woodstream
• The Manor at England Run

School Board asked if the consultant was using common sense instead of just trying to achieve the School Board’s 85-percent capacity goal when redistricting students to different schools.

“I think the consultants were more focused on meeting the 85-percent goal rather than common sense,” Chairwoman Patricia Healy said. “I hope common sense prevails. We shouldn’t move different areas to get to the correct numbers.”

In both Plan A and Plan B, some subdivisions are split up and into small islands requiring passing two or three closer elementary schools to get their districted elementary school. According to Healy, some students in her district that live across the street in the Hampton Oaks subdivision will be taken from Hampton Oaks Elementary sent to Kate Waller Barrett Elementary.

“If [residents in] neighborhoods are able to walk to school we must keep those communities together,” Garrisonville representative Pam Yueng said.

Yueng asked about building a new elementary school, which would be the county’s 18th, but that discussion was quickly shot down by other board members because the School Board won’t have the funds for another 10 to 20 years.

Yueng asked about adding trailer classrooms to schools across the county. The Board of Supervisors appropriated funds for a trailer for Hartwood Elementary to relieve the overcrowding in the school but the School Board voted against the appropriation. Yueng was one of the dissenters when the School Board voted on adding the “learning pod” in July.

Currently, there are no trailer classrooms at any Stafford public school.

The School Board could ask for more plans from Arc Bridge if they don’t feel comfortable on voting for either Plan A or Plan B.

The School Board will host another work session meeting on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 9 am. After the work session, the board will host a special called meeting to inform the public, once again, about the redistricting process.

The School Board plans to approve the redistricting maps in late February.