On the heels of the School Board announcing four options to alleviate overcrowding, the community will be invited to attend a meeting at Wakefield Forest ES tonight. This is separate from the series of PTSA community meetings designed to inform and spark dialogue among parents, business owners and students. Among the four options that will be discussed includes a non-boundary proposal, where AHS would have 10-12th grades only, Poe would have 8th and 9th grades and Holmes would have 6th and 7th grades.
The affected neighborhoods in the three boundary options would be Bren Mar Park, Parklawn or Wakefield Chapel. Option one would move the Bren Mar Park neighborhood to Edison HS, with the purpose of moving the smallest amount of students possible.
In option two, students in Bren Mar Park would go to Edison HS, students from Parklawn HS would go to Stuart HS and students from Wakefield Chapel would go to Woodson HS, in order to elminate split feeder elementary schools that send students to different middle schols.
The final boundary proposal, option three, would move Bren Mar Park to Edison HS, Parklawn to Stuart HS and Wakefield Chapel to Lake Braddock HS, with the purpose of focusing on elementary schools that are K-6.
Option four is a non-boundary proposal that would reconfigure the grades offered at AHS. As previously mentioned, AHS would offer 10-12th grades, Poe would offer 9th and 8th grades and Holmes would offer 6th and 7th grades.
AHS would possibly start later, so that ninth grade students from Poe could attend after school activities. It would require about 12 new buses to accommodate the students coming to AHS after school.
Many students are proponents of the grandfathering idea, that would keep students who started at AHS at the school. “I don’t think it’s fair because we have already started school here so it should only affect incoming freshman,” sophomore Brenda Velasco said.
However, this solution poses a huge problem for families with multiple children. An AHS student that would have been moved, but wasn’t because they were already attending AHS, could have siblings that would have to go to another high school. “I have future family members that will attend AHS and that are looking forward to it,” sophomore and Wakefield Chapel resident Jonathan Pratt said.
If the proposed plan is put into action, Pratt’s sibling would have to attend Woodson High School. The “grandfathering” idea causes problems for both parents and the schools. “It would cause a lot of stress for parents and for the kids also if they were going to separate schools at the same time,” freshman Emily Villatoro said.
The main issue that seems to be plaguing students’ mind is the social aspects of the redistricting. “I don’t want to change schools because I’ve already made a lot of new friends and moving to a new school would be disappointing,” freshman Katie McCann said.
Not only are the students who will have to switch schools upset, but also the students who are staying. “It’s not going to affect me, but it will be really sad because I know a lot of people who will have to move,” junior Wicksie Tu said. Tu lives in North Springfield, but has many friends in the affected neighborhoods.
Students agree that redistricting is necessary, but nevertheless are still upset about the possibility. “My friends would move and it would hurt sports and it doesn’t make sense to me even though I know it is necessary,” junior Sammy Takele said.
Some just want the School Board to think of a new idea. “It’s a bad idea because they’re just choosing the most highly populated areas to get rid of,” freshman Tyler Hohenstein said. He believes that there are different ways to help overcrowding without moving whole neighborhoods.
Students aren’t the only thing the proposed plans affect. Sports will lose many participants because the majority of them live in the affected neighborhoods. “It will make our sports teams, like baseball, have a lower amount of people,” Pratt said. Pratt, like many other baseball players on both varsity and JV will have to leave the program. The majority of the proposals will cause a major blow to AHS’s athletic program that will not be easily remedied.
If you are interested in attending a future community dialogue meeting, two are coming up. The first one is on May 23 at Falls Church HS and Lake Braddock HS from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The second one, geared specifically to towards speakers of other languages, is on June 6 at Annandale Terrace ES from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Those interested must register on the PTSA website and translators can be requested. In addition, there will be a School Board meeting on June 23 and two School Board public hearings are scheduled for July 11 and 12. The School Board is scheduled to decide on July 28 according to the School Boards website.
