At times, the seven minutes between class periods seems a little rushed. Students weave their way through crowds that often come to a standstill when approaching hallway intersections. At the root of this problem is overcrowding, an issue that the school board has tried to rectify with boundary changes that will take effect this fall, yet that is expected to grow even worse in the coming years.
On April 29, the school board, recognizing that further action is necessary in order to alleviate overcrowding at AHS, authorized a planning study, called the Annandale Regional Planning Study Committee, to look into all possible solutions.
“AHS is very overcrowded,” said junior Rebecca Hoehn. “Class sizes are so big that there are problems get one on one attention from the teacher.”
Last year, the school board passed an interim redistricting measure designed to provide temporary relief for AHS. Beginning in the fall of next year, students living in the Ravensworth neighborhood will be moving to Lake Braddock Secondary School next year, while a portion of students residing north of Little River Turnpike and west of Colombia Pike will be moving to Falls Church High School.
However, these moves are not expected to fully compensate for the massive overcrowding that AHS has experienced in recent years. According to county documents, AHS currently has the ability to serve 2,209 students, yet provides an education for 2,649, meaning that the school is at 120 percent capacity. Without another change, the number of students attending AHS is expected to rise to 2,800 for the 2014-2015 school year.
On the other hand, nearby schools such as Falls Church, Stuart, Woodson and Lake Braddock currently have populations well below their capacity, making them prime candidates to receive former AHS students.
“We definitely need redistricting,” said Hoehn, who has a younger sister who will likely be affected by the potential boundary changes. “AHS has a lot of diversity, so it’s sad that my younger sister will not experience that, but overall the school just needs to be redone.”
However, many expressed reservations about the changes.
“I would like to see us keep the socioeconomic and racial mix that we have here,” said history teacher Joe Valenino. “We’ve got something working here and we really do not want to mess up the chemistry.”
In addition, many of AHS’ feeder elementary schools, along with Poe Middle School, are severely overcrowded. In order to help with elementary and middle school overcrowding, the Lacey Center, an administrative building near the intersection of Gallows Rd. and Annandale Rd., will be reopening as an elementary school, potentially changing the boundaries for neighboring schools such as Beech Tree, Woodburn and Annandale Terrace.
The school board will take the results of the planning study into account when it decides what the next step is. Depending on the initial study’s findings, redistricting may not be necessary and another solution, such as enlarging the school or adding a larger trailer complex, may in fact be more effective.
