STAFFORD — School officials in Stafford County are running out of room.
By 2022, the school division anticipates will run out of seats at its schools, the School Board to call for more funds to build new schools and renovate existing ones.
In North Stafford, officials now want to renovate Moncure Elementary School located on Moncure Lane and easily seen from Route 610 and Doc Stone Road.
In 2006, officials formulated a plan that called the rebuilding of Moncure Elementary at a nearby site on Juggins Road and then demolishing the old building. Once the new school opened, the Board of Supervisors would pay $1.7 million for the land.
Less than a year ago, the property with the school was valued at $11 million. The plan then was then to sell the property, located on one of the county’s most commercially successful corridors.
Now in the wake of the retail collapse where large retail stores are closing, what seemed like a good idea 12 years ago doesn’t seem like one anymore. Members of the Stafford School Board are now pushing for a $24 million renovation of the existing school and for the construction of the county’s 18th elementary school on the site of what would have been the new Moncure Elementary School.
Last year, officials said a new Moncure would cost about $18 million to build.
If a purchase of the old Fredericksburg Christian School near Route 610 and Shelton Shop road for $10 million is approved and opens by fall 2019, it would add 20 classrooms and would delay the need for a new elementary school in the northern part of the county for about two years.
There’s also a need for more elementary school seats in the southern portion of the county, and school officials are calling for the rebuilds of both Ferry Farm and Hartwood elementary schools. The school division says it needs the two new schools by 2025 to keep up with demand and would provide 250 and 366 more seats, respectively.
The county is also in need of a sixth high school at an estimated cost of $142 million to $160 million. Officials said it should be located in the southwestern portion of the county to help alleviate overcrowding at North Stafford, Brooke Point, and Colonial Forge high schools which are all operating over capacity.
