A handful of high schools and elementary schools are overcrowded in the area.
Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) experienced 1,200 new student enrollments in 2016.
A couple years later, that number was down to 300.
Willie Deutsch, School Board member, voiced “the county is finding ways to keep up with the growth of the county, and trying to get ahead of possible growth in the future.”
Currently, there are 200 trailers within the school system to account for overcrowded classrooms.
Due to the projected opening of John Jenkins Elementary School in Occoquan, elementary school boundaries were re-drawn. The new boundaries will eliminate about 40 classroom trailers at elementary schools.
The 13th high school is going to alleviate classroom sizes at Battlefield, Stonewall Jackson, and Patriot high schools.
Planning has started on the 14th high school, and is set to help overcrowding in the Eastern Prince William County district.
Together, these plans will eliminate about 80 trailers from elementary and high schools.
Deutsch emphasizes a few trailers are excepted due to building or extra students. He elaborated, “when you have double digit trailers at a school, that is a big problem.”
Deutsch also discussed an external firm was hired to examine special education in the county.
There were 30 recommendations brought to their attention, they are working to fix.
Recently, a new director of special education has been appointed. Deutsch said, “the new director is pro-active with parents and schools.”
This article was written by Contributing Writer Amber Dunn.
