By Lauren Silverstein

Sentry Staff Reporter

Construction of a new elementary school on the Williamsburg Middle School campus will begin in January 2014, as part of an extended plan to alleviate the growing issue of overcrowding in Arlington Public Schools. Two new elementary schools will be built in the next four years, one at Williamsburg Middle School and the other on the Carlin Springs Elementary/Kenmore Middle School campuses. The planned elementary school on the Williamsburg site will cost about $35 million dollars to build, according to Arlington Public Schools’ website, and is predicted to be completed by the beginning of the 2015-16 school year.

Last year, current senior Hannah Morris chose the planned elementary school as the subject of a project for Yorktown’s Leadership and Diversity class. Hannah Morris was unavailable for an interview, but her brother Peter, who was also in the class, spoke on her behalf. They live near Williamsburg and objected to the addition of a new school on the site.

According to Peter Morris, neighbors of Williamsburg believe the addition of an elementary school will put undue stress on traffic flow. The Rock Springs Civic Association, a local community organization, has voiced concerns to the School Board about the possible negative impact a new school might have on the surrounding residential neighborhood. Traffic is the major issue for many Williamsburg-area residents, who are wary of the possible delays and dangers of extra buses, cars and young students. School Board Vice Chair Sally M. Baird and Director of Design John Chadwick both say that solving the traffic dilemma is a current goal.

Overcrowding in several schools in the area has been a growing problem since 2006, according to Baird. She attributes the trend to a rapid demographic shift: the county’s birthrate, roughly two thousand per year in the past, is now rising steadily and surpassed the three thousand mark last year. In addition, the percent of children born in Arlington who are enrolling in kindergarten has also increased—from about forty percent of children in previous decades to almost seventy percent.

“More people are having kids in Arlington,” said Baird. “…and they’re choosing to stay.”

The population swell is currently concentrated on elementary schools. According to Chadwick, Arlington has attempted to ease the strain by installing nearly one hundred “relocatable classrooms,” or trailers, at schools throughout the county. Such measures are temporary, however, and the School Board realized that a permanent solution was necessary.

The School Board chose to construct the planned elementary school on Williamsburg’s campus because of its strategic location: between Jamestown, Tuckahoe and Nottingham, where it will draw its students from each of these schools.

“It’s an available site, [and] it’s closest to where the overcrowded schools are,” said Chadwick. “It’s our biggest middle school site, so there’s ample room there to build another building and still preserve all of the open space and the fields as they’re needed for the middle school.”

Morris disagrees. He cited several concerns about the planned school’s location—on portions of what are now the middle school’s athletic fields.  Several sports teams utilize the Williamsburg fields for practice in the absence of completed practice spaces at Yorktown, and Morris says construction on the Williamsburg fields will force teams to relocate again. Hannah Morris’ project emphasized the importance of Williamsburg’s fields for casual recreation.  Peter Morris also expressed concern over the proximity of elementary students to middle schoolers.

“…Not only will there be less space, but there will also be intermingling between the age groups,” said Morris. “And that might not be beneficial.”

Baird believes the co-location of the two schools will offer opportunities for both sets of students: tutoring and mentoring relationships could be established between middle and elementary school children. In addition, some elementary students could take advantage of middle school-level classes.

“When you co-locate, you create lots of opportunities between those two schools,” said Baird. “…I always give the example: we have a whole lot of kids who are in fourth and fifth grade who really are ready for sixth and seventh grade math, and they can’t get it. If they were in a school next door to a middle school, they could get it.”

But Hannah Morris believes the focus should be on elementary schools in South Arlington. She proposed an alternative to the County’s long-term plan: promoting South Arlington schools to NoVa newcomers. She indicates that there is no difference in curriculum or quality between northern and southern elementary schools; the problem of elementary school overcrowding in North Arlington could be alleviated if incoming families chose to send their children to South Arlington schools.

Nevertheless, planning has gone ahead, and the school at Williamsburg is set to open in September of 2015.

As for how the new school will affect Yorktown: “In the immediate future, not at all,” said Principal Dr. Raymond Pasi.” …it would be nice to have another excellent Arlington education institution near us, that’s what I’d say.”