STAFFORD — The Stafford County School Board will be moving forward with its effort to change the attendance boundaries of all 17 elementary schools in the county.
After the Feb. 28 redistricting work session the School Board kept two of the three options available, plan C and E. School Board members made revisions to both plans.
The board held another work session, their fifth of the process on March 7. The School Board was presented with two different versions of plan E.
• Plan E-2-1: Affects 2,869 students and splits nine neighborhoods
• Plan E-2-2: Affects 2,252 students and splits nine neighborhoods
Both plans will be presented to the public during next week’s public hearings.
“I would like to avoid moving students who have had adverse childhood experiences,” Falmouth District School Board member Sarah Chase said when referring to moving students that live in Olde Forge, a lower-income neighborhood, from Rocky Run Elementary to Conway Elementary School.
Griffis-Widewater School Board member Jamie Decatur became dissatisfied with the plans that were originally presented and requested changes of her own after talking to her constituents.
Plan E-2-1 has some of Decatur’s requests while plan E-2-2 has all of Decatur’s proposed changes.
Decatur asked for the different versions of plan E to see how different changes would affect Widewater Elementary, Moncure Elementary, and Hampton Oaks Elementary.
Plan E-2-1 affects 2,869 students and splits nine neighborhoods while plan E-2-2 affects 2,252 students and splits nine neighborhoods.
The School Board’s main goal is to open and keep all 17 elementary schools within the 80 to 90 percent program capacity of each school during the next four years.
Plan E-2-1 has three schools opening under the 80 percent coal while just one school opens above the 90 percent goal.
The schools that don’t meet the opening are:
• Margaret Brent (69 percent)
• Garrisonville (68 percent)
• Hartwood (67 percent)
• Hampton Oaks (94 percent)
According to the tables given to the public at the work session, the following elementary schools will become overcrowded by the 2023-24 school year:
• Stafford
• Rocky Run
• Park Ridge
• Winding Creek
Each school will be above the 94 percent program capacity threshold.
Plan E-2-2 shows the same three schools opening under the 80 percent threshold while Ann E. Moncure opens at 96 percent. Hampton Oaks program capacity shrinks down to 84 percent. The same four schools that become overcrowded in plan E-2-1 are the same schools projected to become overcrowded by 2023 in plan E-2-2.
“We should be cautious with the way we’re redistricting these schools,” said Holly Hazard, Hartwood School Board member. “I’ve looked at the schools that really shoot up in between the second and third year after we redistrict.”
Garrisonville School Board member Pam Yueng was the only board member to fully stand behind plan E-2-1.
Aquia School Board member Irene Egan and Decatur both preferred plan E-2-2.
Chairwoman and Rockhill District member Patricia Healy, Hartwood District School Board member Holly Hazard, and Chase didn’t specify which plan they supported. George Washington District School Board member Dwayne McOsker didn’t attend the work session.
“I want to get a chance to look at both plans and the APU’s affected,” Healy said.
The School Board will host two public hearings where residents will be able to make a public comment about both plans. The first will take place at North Stafford High School at 839 Garrisonville Road on March 14, and the second at Stafford High School at 63 Indian Lane on March 15. Both meetings will start at 6 p.m.
The School Board has eliminated four original redistricting plans — Plans A,B,C and D — during previous School Board work session due to the number of neighborhoods it split and students affected.
The board doesn’t plan on making any significant changes to either plan after the public hearings. The board will have one final work session on March 21 and a final vote is expected during the School Board’s March 26 meeting.
The elementary school redistricting process began with the School Board’s request to purchase the old Fredericksburg Christian School to house the county’s Northstar campus in June 2018.
