FCPS to address overcrowding at Glasgow
Glasgow Middle School Principal Victor Powell is planning to implement several strategies to address overcrowded hallways and unsafe bathrooms at the school by fall 2023.
Meanwhile, the Fairfax County school board and Superintendent Michelle Reid are exploring long-term solutions.
At a community meeting at Glasgow on June 1, several parents said their students are afraid to go to the bathroom at school because of what goes on inside, such as fights, vaping, and vandalism. In some cases, students rush to the bathroom as soon as they get home because they didn’t go all day.
Parents also worry about pushing and other incidents in the hallways and chaos during dismissal.
Glasgow is the largest middle school in Virginia. Current enrollment is 1,767, which is down slightly from 1,900 before the pandemic. The school is at 94 percent capacity, which includes the trailers and modulars. It was designed for 1,059 students.
Although the school is not technically overcrowded, it is above programmatic capacity, as it serves many students who need special services, including English language instruction and special ed. It also has an Advanced Academic Programs (AAP) center, which draws students from other middle schools.
The large number of students doesn’t affect learning, as the average class size at Glasgow is just 15 to 17 students, said Powell. The problem is in the hallways, bathrooms, and cafeteria.
School board member Ricardy Anderson (Mason) said Glasgow doesn’t conform to FCPS policy, which calls for middle schools to have no more than 1,300 students.
“It’s not about the numbers. It’s about how the school feels,” Powell said. It’s how do we navigate the physical space we have.” The school has 13 or 14 bathrooms, and sometimes there are lines to get in.
One change he plans to implement is removing lockers in the main hallways to provide more space. Powell said few students use them and most schools don’t even have lockers anymore.
Taking out the lockers isn’t going to solve the problem but it will help, said Anderson.
Powell also plans to increase supervision in the bathrooms and in blind spots in hallways and stairwells not covered by security cameras and possibly require hall passes. Currently, one parent said, students are often pushed or bumped into in the hall.
Related story: Police respond to gun rumors at Glasgow
Glasgow will become a Title 1 school this fall, which means more staff, more administrators in the modulars, and more opportunities for wellness programs and parent engagement, Powell said.
The school will have four security assistants next fall. It currently has two and most middle schools have just one. It will also have five assistant principals. Dismissal times will be staggered so everyone isn’t leaving from the same place at the same time.
Anderson, a former middle school teacher and principal, also called for a bigger focus on social and emotional learning and encouraged parents to volunteer at the school, as a way to build community. “Let’s walk the halls here and let kids know we care,” she said.
For a mid-term solution, Anderson plans to request the school board consider changing the boundaries of Glasgow, noting that both Poe and Holmes middle schools have smaller enrollments and are under capacity. If the board agrees, there will be a series of community conversations.
This summer FCPS will begin looking at the boundaries for the whole district, which hasn’t been done in nearly 40 years, said Superintendent Michelle Reid. When the boundaries are adjusted for a single area, there are usually unintended consequences, creating problems in another area.
At the meeting, some of the remedies offered by parents included moving sixth-graders to elementary schools, having a standalone school just for sixth graders, and having AAP centers in all middle schools.
Reid agreed with a couple of teachers who said sixth-graders are better off and are ready for middle school. Middle schools offer a larger variety of classes, including more advanced math. There aren’t enough AAP students in every school to justify having a center.
Even with all the improvements at Glasgow, “things are still going to happen,” Powell said. He noted many students at Poe have been traumatized by wars in their home countries and cope by acting out.
“If I need to sit in the hallway every day. I will do that to make sure your kids are safe.” Powell said. But there has to be a ”co-parenting relationship” with families.
12 responses to “FCPS to address overcrowding at Glasgow”
Leave a reply
I really like Mr. Powell and his dedication in trying to make Glasgow a better place. Can the same be done for Justice High School? The school has spun out of control and could really use support from the district. The school should also have new leadership…
Justice HS Principal Narcisse is a great leader, she has a strong point-of-view but she is also collaborative. Our students face so many challenges outside of school, yet they carry them into the building. I will sign my name, I am not afraid to make this statement. Schools can’t fix everything.
According to the latest Capital Improvement Program, Glasgow was designed for 1689 students, excluding the current modular, not 1059 students. Not sure where you got that number.
It seems like the best way to deal with overcrowding is to have full-time AAP programs at Holmes and Poe, each of which is well under capacity. If you change the base boundaries of Glasgow, you potentially turn Holmes into a three-way split feeder to Justice, Annandale, and Edison, and Poe into a three-way split feeder to Justice, Annandale, and Falls Church. Neither of those options seems good, whereas having full-time AAP means that students who would otherwise be attending Holmes and Poe attend those schools rather than Glasgow. Glasgow would then continue to have AAP for students in the Justice pyramid.
It also seems like this could be done expeditiously, whereas the broader review of all FCPS boundaries that Dr. Reid apparently mentioned will go nowhere fast. The last time the School Board mentioned something like this was back in 2019, and then they realized how unpopular it would be and shelved it well in advance of the fall 2019 School Board elections.
At the meeting, FCPS said there are only 30 students at Glasgow because of AAP boundaries.
And we let them have the excuse of misbehaving why? We need to send them back to elementary school if they cant behave. This “restorative justice” by the idiots on the school board is not working. We need a school board that is not full of people injecting their personal political beliefs into policy.
They should have the school board walk the halls of Glasgow during a class change. Then they themselves can be shoved to the ground or find themselves in the middle of a fight.
I agree that full time AAP programs should be in the other middle schools but that the middle schools need to move to a 7-8th grade set up like the rest of the county (or the rest of the county move to a 6-8th grade format).
The feeding pyramids are all messed up. Justice HS only gets kids from Glasgow. Minus the AAP kids, all kids in Glagow go to Justice. That makes no sense. Glasgow should feed into other HS as well. So redistricting is important.
Glasgow is going to remove most lockers to provide two more feet of space in hallways. Bell schedules have been modified, and will be again, to minimize hall traffic. There are only 30 students at Glasgow due to AAP boundaries. Dr. Ricardy Anderson has a student at Glasgow, she knows what it is like. A 6-8 middle school is preferable. 6th graders are ready for the academic rigor and the increased elective choice that comes with middle school. Our students face so many challenges before and after school. Sadly, the schools can’t fix everything. We need broader measures.
Until Fairfax County chooses to address the root causes of overcrowding (unregulated immigration, zoning enforcement of single family homes and apartment complexes among others), these quality of life issues will worsen. This is a Fairfax County deliberate, self-made problem and the primary reason our family fled the Northern Virginia Democrat Socialist Disaster Zone.
OMG. Where to begin with this. You can’t solve the school overcrowding problem by being anti-immigration or anti-affordable housing. You solve the school overcrowding problem by building more schools. I wish you’d attended some of the area high school graduations. The stories told by some of our immmigrsnt graduates would put you to shame (not to mention students who have recently arrived to this country who are joining the armed services.) . Finally, I challenge you to go one day without benefiting from the services of an immigrant. And something tells me you’re not talking about, say, the Irish or the Italians.
Two years gone and don’t miss it. Lived there 30+ years, raised two children and did see them graduate from one of the high schools mentioned. Sad to say I had to sit through the Principal go on for five minutes in a foreign language at one graduation.
Immigration that doesn’t strike a balance with assimilation risks loss of identity. With 25% or more of the county residents being foreign born, assimilation is next to impossible.
As to building more schools, where? Part of the long standing problem with overcrowding is the tax base that relies on property tax for funding is skewed. When you have multiple families in single family homes or apartments, the burden placed on the tax system for services exceeds the funds raised. Where does the money come from? Not from me anymore.
Good for you, Stephen. I can’t wait to get out of here, but my wife and kids want to stay until the kids go to college. I, for one, have my sights set on a lovely place that people like “Democrat Socialist CRT Woke Actual Resident” have never heard of, and wouldn’t be welcome. So if they do run out of places to burn to the ground and their electric scooters lead them to this area, it likely won’t be in my lifetime.
Good luck. We stayed for the jobs and the kids, but always had ties to southwestern Virginia. I didn’t truly realize how much the sensory overload and discord affected me until I left for good. Instead of the constant beeps and background roar of traffic, we joke about the occasional vehicle going past the house. Haven’t heard a siren in two years. There are trade offs, but so far, no word about gang activity at the local Middle School, as opposed to Poe MS or Holmes MS, or the two or three bodies dumped behind Glasgow MS a few years ago.