By Jennifer T. Wall
Prince William County School Board, Gainesville District
Over the past 18 months, I have repeatedly heard the statement to the effect that it is the western end of the county’s turn to feel the pains of development. This statement ignores the fact that over the last two decades, the west end of Prince William has in fact experienced explosive growth.
Anyone who knows Prince William County and has lived in this county for the last two decades will agree that many areas in western Prince William have been completely transformed from what they once were.
That transformation continues to this day, and the notion of the Rural Crescent was, and continues to be, a smart-growth tool to prevent the practical and aesthetic issues that accompany overdevelopment.
The location of new schools is a dependable indicator for where residential growth is happening. Over the last twenty years, Prince William County Schools has opened 37 schools. Of those 37 schools, 22 have been on the west end of the county–in either the Gainesville or Brentsville Districts.
If new schools are a barometer of development, the western end of Prince William has borne 59% of that growth. More recently, in the past 11 years (since 2011) Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) has opened 18 new schools. Of those 18 schools, 12 have been in just two districts–Gainesville and Brentsville–accounting for 67% of all schools opened during that time period.
Clearly, not just some–but a significant portion of the growth has been in the western end of Prince William County over the last ten years.
If we look at the largest aggregations of PWCS students–our high schools–of the five PWCS high schools built over the last twenty years, 3–Battlefield, Patriot, and Gainesville–are in the Brentsville and Gainesville Districts. The last high school to open in the eastern end of the county was Freedom High School, in 2004.
Over the coming decade, the PWCS’ Capital Improvements Program (CIP) includes plans for new schools located almost entirely in the eastern part of the county. Of the six schools currently in PWCS’ CIP, all are in the eastern portions of the county: Woodbridge ES in 2024, Occoquan ES in 2025, the 14th Woodbridge High School in 2026, Potomac Shores ES in 2026, Route 1 South Area ES in 2029 and a Yorkshire Area ES in 2030.
If the 2040 Comprehensive Plan passes as written, PWCS’ plans for the east end will likely be affected. The 2040 Plan as currently written opens Brentsville and Gainesville to further development–not just for data centers and tech/flex–but to residential growth as well.
Gainesville and Brentsville will once again see explosive growth in the former Rural Crescent, resulting in overcrowded schools, gridlock on local roads and dilution of resources currently earmarked for the eastern end of the county, at a minimum during the first decade of the 2040 plan.
The 2040 Plan as currently crafted will only fuel the existing divisive rhetoric about the flow of money and resources to the western end for spacious, modern schools and roads, while the east end of the county continues to wait for much needed improvements. Lest you think my analysis is speculative, we need only look at recent history.
Prior to my joining the school board, during the last west-end development boom, the divisive east-west arguments vilified the west and victimized the east because of the need for new developments’ schools that were built at the expense of addressing the needs of older infrastructure in the east.
The east-west rhetoric was again on full display in 2019 during boundary redistricting for the newly built Gainesville High School. Gainesville High School was built where it was because of explosive growth and development–and to relieve overcrowding at Battlefield and Patriot, the two most overcrowded high schools in the county. The need for the new school was directly related to residential growth, and yet the negative east-west rhetoric contributed to a pervasive sense of aggrievement and stoked negative perceptions of Prince William county itself.
We build schools based on need, and for the past 20 years, the development-driven need has been on the west end of the county. Your data, PWCS data, and the location of the new schools themselves bear out the fact that much of Prince William County’s growth in the past two decades has been on the west end.
It’s time to put an end to that false narrative of “It’s the west end’s turn.” Whatever reasons the BOCS may have for developing the rural crescent, “it’s the west end’s turn” should not be one of them.
Please exercise judicious forbearance when considering the proposed 2040 Comp Plan. I am ready and willing to talk through any of these land-use policy issues as they relate to our county’s schools.
Thank you for your service to the citizens of Prince William County.
