Come this fall, the student population at Brentsville District High School will look way different than it has during the last decade.

That's not only because about 40 percent of would-be attendees are now heading to Patriot High School south of Vint Hill Road.

The approximately 920 students left at Brentsville will actually have (are you ready for this?) room to walk in the hallways.

And no trailers.

Well, there's one, but considering it's attached to the sewer system, it's safe to assume that facility is not exactly classroom material.

According to incoming principal Katherine Meints, the smaller population will still keep Brentsville a Group AA school but also foster a stronger sense of community in a close-knit way.

"I think the biggest challenge is just making them feel like Brentsville is as great a school and full of pride (now) as it did when it was chaotic and a little bit crazy with 1,600 students," said Meints.

The Iowa State University alumna took over from Dr. Robert Scott in July after serving the last two years as an assistant to the principal-turned-fiction writer whose books are now internationally distributed.

Scott did not respond to multiple interview requests prior to deadline this week.

Meints earned two masters degrees and is now completing her doctoral one at George Mason University.

"So when (students) come and complain to me about a five-page paper, I say, 'Look, I have to write a 25 page one almost monthly,'" she said..

To her, even a downsized Brentsville is still a big deal with over 900 students considering that she graduated the small Iowa high school of South Hamilton in 1980 with about 65 total students.

Meints lamented the idea of competing with a state-of-the-art school in Patriot given that it is a "new school that looks good and has the technology built in and all the perks."

The school's opening was necessary, however, given the chronic yearly overcrowding at Brentsville.

With that in mind, Meints highlighted a number of areas in which congestion will be mitigated for the fall semester in Nokesville.

Traffic-flow along the staircases will no longer resemble the one-lane bridge on Aden Road open to only one set of commuters at a time.

Instead, faculty and students alike will actually be able to walk up and down whichever one whenever they need to go somewhere.

Lunch will actually be held in the lunch room and the four periods (down from five) will be long enough for students to actually eat without having to worry about the trek across campus.

Of course, all this extra breathing room means that instead of six minutes between classes, students will have five minutes.

Buses will no longer need two lots to drop off students; all of them are scheduled to pull around to the main entrance to the school.

A significant drop-off in student population also means that there will be fewer buses and the ones still coming may have more riders, according to Meints.

After buses arrive, the first bell is set to ring at 7:15 a.m. with the tardy bell five minutes later. School exits at 1:50 p.m.

Specialty classes for students will still exist this year but the lack of students means certain electives are going to be competing heavily with others for students, such as music, art, horticulture, technology and business among others.

Meanwhile, Brentsville will continue to focus on its scholastic Cambridge program with 22 classes being offered and a Cambridge coordinator is being hired.

Faculty are encouraged to share community printers this year instead of having one in every classroom as a way to cut down on cost and increase efficiency. The school's operating budget is just above $6 million and the school as a whole will include about 60 teachers.

Instead of two assistant principles, there will be only one. Some teachers will be performing administrative duties too while others will be splitting time between two schools.

New students will have a chance to tour the high school with Meints on August 10 at either 9 and 9:30 a.m. Orientation is set for August 26 at 9 a.m.