City Schools Face Overcrowding, Boundary Adjustments

Overcrowding and county student enrollment have Fairfax City School Board members looking for that critical point when city schools can no longer seat city students.

Superintendent Ann Monday spoke to city council members last night about the city schools budget, county tuition and an overcrowding problem echoed by surrounding county schools.

All city schools are expected to be over capacity in the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Lanier Middle School, Daniels Run and Providence elementary schools already are.

Projected enrollment by school:

• Fairfax High School: 2010 capacity = 2,389; 2011 projected enrollment = 2,580; 2015 projected enrollment = 2,797
• Lanier Middle School: 2010 capacity = 1,200; 2011 projected enrollment = 1,175; 2015 projected enrollment = 1,408
• Daniels Run Elementary School: 2010 capacity = 743; 2011 projected enrollment = 798; 2015 projected enrollment = 883
• Providence Elementary School: 2010 capacity = 843; 2011 projected enrollment = 916; 2015 projected enrollment = 925

More strain will be put on FHS and Lanier as the current crowded elementary schools graduate their students. But it doesn’t look like that strain will go away like some blip in the demographic data. 2011 and 2015 enrollment for elementary schools is expected to continue increasing.

The Fairfax City School Board would like to see all city students enrolled in city schools.

• Daniels Run has 773 city students and 10 (or 1 percent) county students.
• Providence has 634 city students and 295 (or 32 percent) county students.
• Lanier has 455 city students and 781 (or 63 percent) county students.
• FHS has the highest number of county students, just beating Lanier. City students are at 849, while county students make up 64 percent of the student body (1,526 students).

"About 300 students in Providence are county students," said Janice Miller, School Board member. "The city should be able to use those seats."

FCPS' Southwestern Boundary Study from Providence to Fairfax Villa Elementary. No city students will be transferred.

"We have enough seats for the [current] Fairfax City students in Providence and Daniels Run, but theoretically we should have enough seats for all city children at that level," said Monday. "And we are right there, right now."

Overall overcrowding issues won't be an easy dilemma to fix.

"We are surrounded by schools with similar problems, so there won't be easy answers," said Monday.

Fairfax City's School Board will monitor enrollment and projection changes over the next six to nine months and on.

"We're going to monitor kindergarten patterns," said Monday. "We're looking for that point when we don't have sufficient seats for our own kids. That's a critical point. We're not there yet but need to look at that closely in the next few years."

School officials will weigh the benefits of short-term solutions, like maximizing each school's current space and adding temporary classrooms as needed. Long-term plans could include a closer look at boundary studies.

Providence's enrollment numbers have consistently increased, but Daniels Run enrollment has been inconsistant, according to Monday. The school board may try changing the boundaries for both schools.

"It's a management problem, a challenge to staff," said Monday. "It's hardly the worst problem to face, and I think [our schools] are crowded because people want to raise their children here."