Boundary change would hurt Annandale High School sports and activities
Changing the boundaries for Annandale High School, would result in much fewer students participating in sports and other programs at AHS, according to an analysis of 2008-10 data by the school’s PTSA.
For example, girls lacrosse would likely see a decline of 47 percent, the award-winning A-Blast student newspaper would face a 43 percent decline, and boys baseball would see a 29 percent decline in participation.
The Fairfax County School Board is reviewing various options presented by the Annandale Regional Planning Study Committee for relieving overcrowding at AHS. While the committee was charged with developing solutions for adjusting the boundaries of high schools and middle schools in the Annandale area, its final report recommends that the school board consider non-boundary options for addressing overcrowding by changing schools’ grade configurations.
The AHS PTSA report bolsters the argument for addressing overcrowding without changing the school’s boundaries. “We found that students who live within two miles of AHS tend to participate the most,” it states. “Therefore, redistricting students from neighborhoods that lie closest to the school would have the greatest impact across the widest variety of programs and activities at AHS and would also result in a significant reduction in parental and community support.”
Yes, but the point of the high school is education. How would it improve education at AHS? And maybe it wouldn't have an affect. Maybe different types of people would get involved.
I am not sure why the school board has seemingly stripped the remaining few predominantly white middle class neighborhoods from the Annandale boundary. When they take everyone west of the beltway, they will have effectively removed whites from Annandale High. It is not lost on me that the school board's actions are diametrically different from their words. Having white middle class kids attending Annandale is important for the diversity of the school, and that diversity is important to ensure the school stays effective for everyone enrolled there.
I would much prefer a boundary change to a crazy 2 years at a middle school, 2 years at a junior high school, and 2 years at a senior high school approach.
As a student I have a set choice of going to Frost for middle school to attend GT, and leave my friends to go into annandale high school instead of woodson. My school zone brings me to Poe middle school but as i mentioned i am in the GT program in Frost. Frost and Woodson share buses which means that nothing would change if i went to woodson. Maybe in the near future think about keeping an elementary school unsplit such as wakefield forest.