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New schools will bring much-needed relief to Nokesville
Robert Scott inflected his voice upward as if he was about to give a candid response about not knowing where the trailers at Brentsville District High School would end up once they're removed in 2011."I ... don't," he said, pausing ever so slightly after the first word.
Then, hardly containing his glee behind a smile, he dropped his final word like an Acme anvil: "care."
The bespectacled principal, who toured 17 countries as a classical guitarist in his youth, was only half-joking. He really wants those 22 trailers that are smushed along the back perimeter of the Nokesville school to be gone. Fortunately for him and BDHS students, teachers and faculty, they will be once the 11th county high school opens in less than two years.
"I will happily hold a community-wide barbecue when they haul those trailers out of here," he said.
Change is coming to western Prince William County in a big way during the next three years.
Elementary schools in Bristow and Gainesville are slated to open, Nokesville Elementary is about to be expanded and the Kettle Run high school (not to be confused with the new school in Fauquier County) will transfer more than 500 kids out of chronically-overcrowded BDHS.
Interviews conducted with principals of Brentsville District High and Nokesville Elementary revealed that transportation routes will be heavily impacted in the area, especially regarding bus travel.
At BDHS, Scott mentioned that the school population will drop from 1,610 to between 1,000 and 1,100 so the parking lot will not be full and cars won't have to line up on Fitzwater Drive on school days.
Also, students from outside the school boundary lines who want to be part of the school's highly-regarded college-prep Cambridge Programme may be accepted once again. Currently, Brentsville accepts no Cambridge-oriented transfer students from outside its boundaries.
Scott wrote in a follow-up email on Friday that 622 students are enrolled in at least one Cambridge class. That accounts for about 39 percent of the school's population.
Once the school's population decreases by about one-third in two years, however, the school's budget will decrease too. Scott said that "doesn't mean that I am willing to quietly give up Cambridge electives that we've added in the three years."
Those electives include environmental studies and international relations.
"One of my goals is to maintain the integrity of the Cambridge Program when enrollment drops," he said.
Bruce McDaniel of Nokesville Elementary mentioned that his 400-capacity school, which hosts 483 kids currently, is "going to have a separate drop-off zone for our buses and students. That’s going to be a big change for us.
"The change is going to be a positive change," said McDaniel.
If all goes as planned with the expanded parking lot, that means parents will be able to drop their kids from their own vehicles on the west side of the school while buses deliver children on the east side.
Nokesville Elementary is also slated to add 10 classrooms to its main building along with a new library/media center.
Classroom size will be about 22-23 students per teacher.
Pointing to the old computer lab, McDaniel said workers would be “taking part of that room and expanding our cafeteria."
That means more eating space for the kids, a problem shared across the street in a much more severe way at BDHS.
In his brief tenure, Scott has already been forced to install satellite lunch rooms in hallways just because the cafeteria is so overcrowded, especially on days when dining outside isn't an option due to weather.
"We have been bursting at the seams since I arrived 2.5-years ago," said Scott.
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