Change has been a long time coming for AHS – its hallways have been crowded for years, new trailers appear each fall and lunch lines seem longer than ever. There is no question that the school is overcrowded, but what to do about it is an entirely different matter.

The middle and high school subcommittee of the Annandale Regional Planning Study (ARPS), a group charged by the School Board in April 2010 with exploring potential overcrowding relief measures, believes it has come up with a solution.

In its final report, presented to the School Board on Jan. 10, the committee examined twelve different scenarios, which range from changing boundaries to changing grade configurations.

“What we really have are two choices,” AHS PTSA President and Chair of the Enrollment and Capacity subcommittee of the ARPS Emily Slough said. “We could do a boundary change or we could find a more creative way to keep the Annandale community together.”

The non-boundary options focus primarily on using all of the space available in the AHS pyramid. In one scenario, Holmes Middle School, which currently holds grades 6, 7 and 8, would be converted into a grades 6 and 7 middle school, while Poe Middle School would change from a 6,7,8 school to an 8,9 junior high school. This would take ninth grade out of AHS and reduce enrollment to below capacity.

“To the committee’s knowledge, both Holmes and Poe have the capacity to house the entirety of two grade levels,” Slough said.

This option would also keep the AHS community intact and allow eighth graders to participate in high school activities.

Several other scenarios also explore removing ninth grade from AHS. In one option, Poe and Holmes would both become 7,8,9 junior high schools and sixth grade would move back to elementary schools.

The search for an overcrowding solution has been complicated by the differences in school configurations that the AHS pyramid currently experiences.

“Part of the reason that this is so difficult is that some elementary schools are K-5 and others are K-6, which means that we run into all sorts of problems with boundaries,” Tessie Wilson, the School Board representative for the Braddock District, said. “It would work if we could just home school the sixth graders for that year, but we can’t do that.”

In fact, the ARPS’s report states that the underlying cause of AHS’s overcrowding stretches back to 1985, when Thomas Jefferson High School became a magnet school and AHS took over much of its former territory.

Some are concerned that implementing a unique grade configuration for the AHS Pyramid could lead to problems down the road.

“If we are concerned that something we did 25 years ago is causing significant problems today,” Wilson said. “I worry that if we make the solution so unique that in ten to 15 years, when we might have to take another look at AHS’s boundaries, we will have closed the door on any kind of option.”

Sandra Evans, the School Board member representing the Mason District, takes a slightly different view of the non-boundary solutions,

“We have a lot of unique schools, particularly in this part of the county,” Evans said. “We’re already not uniform with the rest of the county with our elementary school configuration. Some might value uniformity, but I believe that uniformity takes a back seat to doing what is right for this area.”

Although the School Board tends to use boundary changes in order to relieve overcrowding, many community and committee members hope that the school board will take the more “out of the box” solutions seriously.

“History tells me that a boundary study is likely,” Slough said. “But I am very hopeful that the School Board will take into account the past and current success of AHS and work to maintain it well into the future.”

While the committee spent a lot of time and energy exploring non-boundary options, they also took a look at the boundary changes that would have the least impact on the AHS community.

“At this point, it’s hard to move anything around,” Poe PTSA President and ARPS co-Chair Jennifer McGarey said. “We’re down to moving areas that are around the edges – there are simply not many easy options.”

Several scenarios revolve around the Bren Mar Park neighborhood – in one, all AHS students residing east of I-395 would move to Edison HS, while in another, AHS students living west of I-395 and inside the beltway would move to Lee HS. Another solution would eliminate the split feeder currently at Parklawn ES and move all Parklawn students to Holmes MS and Stuart HS. The report also proposes that North Springfield students living outside of the beltway attend Lake Braddock SS or Lee HS instead of AHS. Finally, the report also considers moving the Wakefield Chapel neighborhood to Woodson HS.

Along with outlines of the options, the report includes some pros and cons for each, including the potential impact on IB and honors classes and the effects on each community.

Many also hope that students that begin high school at AHS will have the opportunity to stay.

“If a boundary change happens, we will really push for the grandfathering of students,” Slough said. “Preferably any student who starts ninth grade at AHS could stay.”

The Annandale Regional Planning Study Committee held community meetings Jan. 13 and Jan. 18, to discuss the report.

The report has been given to the School Board’s staff, who, according to Wilson, will “look at all kinds of information, from pure boundary configuration to balancing the Free and Reduced Lunch groups.” The School Board will look at their staff’s report in March, determine the scope of any study in April, carry out the study and vote on the matter during the last School Board Meeting in July. For more information, visit http://www.fcps.edu/fts/planning/annandalestudy/index.htm.