FCPS seeks parent feedback on Glasgow boundary study
Fairfax County Public Schools are asking parents to consider options for changing school boundaries to relieve overcrowding at Glasgow Middle School.
At a meeting at the school on Aug. 29, groups of parents pored over maps and statistics to explore the pros and cons of moving some Glasgow students to Poe, Holmes, or Jackson middle schools.
The objective of the meeting, FCPS officials explained, is to gather feedback on which schools should be involved in a Glasgow boundary/capacity study.
There will be a virtual meeting on the boundary study on Sept. 11 at 6:30 p.m. An online feedback form is available through Sept. 26.
Glasgow enrolled 1,783 students in the 2022-23 school year, making it the largest middle school in Virginia.
The school has a design capacity of 1,959 students and a program capacity of 1,887. FCPS projects it will have a 107 percent capacity utilization in 2027-28 without accounting for its 10 modular classrooms.
FCPS policy calls for middle schools to have no more than 1,300 students.
At a meeting at Glasgow in June, parents complained that overcrowding was partly to blame for behavior issues, such as pushing and fights in the hallways and chaos at dismissal.
FCPS projects 2027-28 capacity utilization to be 85 percent at Holmes, 94 percent at Jackson, and 74 percent at Poe.
Related story: FCPS to address overcrowding at Glasgow
At the Aug. 29 meeting, parents were asked to consider which schools should be involved in the boundary study, the strengths and challenges of various boundary options, and what other issues should be addressed by FCPS.
A boundary change would be complicated by the fact that not all of the schools have the same programs. For example, Glasgow is the only one of the four middle schools in the area with an Advanced Academic Programs center. And while Glasgow, Poe, and Holmes have grades 6-8, Jackson only has seventh and eighth grades.
FCPS anticipates the new boundaries will take effect for the 2024-25 school year.
The next step is a staff recommendation to the school board. After that, there will be a community meeting on the boundary study, a public hearing, and a school board decision. FCPS hasn’t set dates yet for those actions.
Shifting around boundaries and grades won’t change the inevitable, it’s just kicking the can. We need at least one new set of elementary, middle, and high school. I prefer that to making existing ones bigger and definitely more than adding trailers. More housing is coming to Annandale (mixed use where the block is) and baileys xroads (huge apt opposite Trader Joe’s and office space conversion). I would like our leaders to start thinking about the future and not just next school year
Exactly. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that building large apt buildings is going to result in more kids. More kids equals more schools. The ones we have are overcrowded. Adding more trailers doesn’t really solve the long term problem. It just puts a bandage on an existing one temporarily. The leaders of this fine district should really use common sense and start planning for the future. Build more schools, instead of more vape shops and title shops.
If you look at the FCPS capacity dashboard, in the 2022-23 school year, Glasgow had 124 students who lived within the Poe (21) or Holmes (103) attendance areas. It seems likely that most of these students were at Glasgow for AAP, but even if they were at Glasgow for some other program it would seem to make more sense for these kids to attend Poe and Holmes rather than change Glasgow’s base boundaries (which are aligned with the boundaries for Justice HS).
It’s bad enough that Holmes has only one ES feeder (Bren Mar Park) that feeds into Edison rather than Annandale – it would be even worse if FCPS redistricted a small number of kids to Poe or Holmes, but still then expected them to attend Justice (where the vast majority of kids would still come from Glasgow). So if they do change the base boundaries, they should consider whether anyone moved from Glasgow to Poe or Jackson should also move from Justice to Falls Church, or whether anyone moved from Glasgow to Holmes should also move from Justice to Annandale.