Brentsville District HS prepares for final year above capacity

One more year and the trailers are finally gone.

In the mean time, Brentsville District High School faculty, staff and students will have to continue dealing with a student body that is about 50 percent overcapacity and growing. That's forced school officials to turn the back yard of the school into a non-residential trailer park of sorts in order to have adequate classroom space.

The upcoming school year will provide more of the same for the Brentsville community as one more trailer is being added to the school property, bringing the total up to 23, according to principal Robert Scott, PhD.

During an interview this past Monday, Scott said the number of students projected for the upcoming school year to be as high as 1,685. That number is expected to drop off between 500 and 600 once Patriot High School opens up in the fall of 2011 off of Kettle Run Road in northeast Nokesville, off the south side of Vint Hill Road.

The eleventh high school in the county, Patriot, is designed to relieve overcrowding at Brentsville and Battlefield by bringing the schools back down toward their capacity levels. Patriot principal Michael Bishop, EdD, is working with Scott and Battlefield principal Amy Ethridge-Conti on transitioning students and teachers out from their schools and into the new school, according to Scott. Part of that transition includes receiving notice ahead of time about which teachers and staffers will be leaving Brentsville on their own whether for retirement, relocation or other reasons, Scott said. He asked the school's staff to submit to him their plans for the following school year by the end of this year so he can help Bishop plan better for 2011.

"I think we've known for several years that its coming but the difficult part is how to communicate with parents and teachers and kids," said Scott of the changes.

Now entering his fourth school year at the helm of Brentsville, Scott recalled how in the early part of the year, the budget situation for his school looked bleak but cleared up during the spring. Instead of layoffs, Brentsville will be hiring 10 more teachers this year.

Among the new positions available are ones for history, physical education, special education for learning disabilities and cogitative disabilities, and part-time spots for art and Spanish. Scott also hired another custodian this summer, he said.

The number of new positions is the same Scott added last year. Before the 2008-09 school year, Scott added 15 spots to the teaching roster. The year before that, 42 new jobs opened up, a rarity due to unusual turnover and growth, according to Scott.

"Brentsville was already crowded when I arrived and we've added 150 students in the years I've been here," he said. With just under 1,700 students fitting in a school designed for a maximum of 1,110 students, hallway traffic bottlenecks at times. The lunch room filled up with so many students Scott eventually had to set up a satellite cafeteria in one of the hallways just to be able to feed the teenagers.

"The satellite cafeteria has made it possible for us to continue serving lunch at the main cafeteria and I will be happy to close the satellite cafeteria," said Scott.

Even after Patriot opens, more changes are still in store for the greater Brentsville community as a K-8 school is planned to be built right next door in order to replace the existing Nokesville Elementary School. Scott said he does not expect traffic to be affected too much on Aden Road because elementary and middle schools start and end their days at different times than high schools.

In the mean time, 85 Brentsville seniors took proactive steps to easing up congestion at the school by taking either English, government or Algebra II classes this summer instead of during the school year. Because they already earned credit hours, that will allow those seniors to either come in later in the morning or leave earlier in the afternoon while still having a parking space guaranteed to them when they do show up.

"We've had to be creative to handle the crowds here," said Scott.