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Twenty committee and public meetings. Thirty-four boundary options. Thousands of written and verbal comments. A handful of newly formed community coalitions.
As it approaches its seventh month, the Henrico County Public Schools redistricting effort has been nothing if not exhaustive.
For many citizens, though, it’s also been exhausting. Elation or frustration about the boundaries proposed by one draft boundary map may quickly be reversed by the introduction of a subsequent map.
Uncertainty about which friends or neighbors may be moved to another school, which school feeder patterns may be adjusted and when it all might take effect has left some in the county feeling overwhelmed by it all and ready for a conclusion.
And with an expected late-May finish line beginning to come into sight, each new draft boundary map seems to carry extra weight in the eyes of those who may be affected by change.
The process is – by design – overly transparent. Many initial draft options created by the 67-member volunteer redistricting committee and consulting firm Cropper GIS never were likely to be adopted, much less seriously considered, but caused significant backlash anyway when released.
Last week, the committee simultaneously released six new maps – two each (Options D4 and E4) for the elementary, middle and high school levels – and eliminated from future consideration the first 10 draft boundary maps it created, leaving a total of 24 (eight at each of the three levels).
And though the more recent maps have massaged some areas of concern, they’ve created or carried over others. A handful of major sticking points seem to remain – at least several of which seem unlikely to be resolved in the way residents would like, since by its very nature the redistricting process is designed to shift at least some boundaries.
School Board weighs in
Last week for the first time, the five members of the new-look Henrico School Board made their first public comments about the direction of the process, weighing in about specific ideas they’d like to see implemented as it continues.
Board members had intentionally avoiding doing so last year – in part because three were cycling off the board at the end of December after choosing not to seek re-election – but the timing was right last week, board chair Roscoe Cooper (Fairfield District) said during the board’s Feb. 13 work session.
“We think it’s better to be clear about this now – instead of two months from now – in order to be proactive rather than reactive,” he said.
One of the primary remaining areas of contention in the county is in Cooper’s district, where residents of the River Mill/Magnolia Ridge/Greenwood Glen region near Virginia Center, are upset that none of the map options to date would keep them at Hungary Creek Middle School or Glen Allen High School; each would instead move them to Brookland Middle and Hermitage High. Cooper urged the committee to devise at least one plan that would keep them at their current schools.
A resident of the Greenwood Glen neighborhood, Yael Sheldon, has crafted her own “Option Z,” which she said would move far fewer students than any of the existing options.
A new elementary school on Winfrey Road designed to serve that region could open as soon as the fall of 2022, shifting the region out of the quickly-growing Greenwood Elementary zone, though funding for the school doesn’t yet exist and the Board of Supervisors has questioned whether the school would be needed that soon.
Cooper made it clear during his remarks that board members have been listening to community feedback.
“We feel now is the time to let our community know that every single board member in every single magisterial district, we hear every comment and concern that you have,” he said.
Tuckahoe District member Marcie Shea, one of three new members who took office last month, addressed arguably the most debated aspect of the boundary options in recent months: what to do with the Freeman High School zone.
Of the existing eight high school maps, all four of the “D” proposals would keep the Pemberton Road corridor together at Freeman but move the Crestview Elementary School zone to the new Tucker High School, while all four of the “E” proposals would reverse that scenario. Both sets of communities want to remain at Freeman. The Pemberton corridor moved from Godwin High to Freeman during the last countywide redistricting in 2009.
Shea encouraged the committee to examine the potential population totals of Freeman during the next five years to determine whether moving a large section of students out of the school’s zone is actually necessary.
“For a stable community like the Tuckahoe area, where we do not have a lot of development and we do not have a lot of growth to plan for, I’m really concerned about moving students unless we absolutely have to from Freeman High School,” Shea said.
During a meeting Shea and new Brookland District board member Kristi Kinsella hosted with members of the Crestview community in late January, one speaker raised the idea of at least partially addressing the high school population shuffle through voluntary means: by adding seats in specialty centers that are particularly popular, so that more students could enroll in the programs of their choice.
“That way, kids are going there willingly, actually applying and competing to get into a school instead of being told, or parents being forced to move kids,” he said.
‘Not about the squeaky wheel’
Three Chopt District member Micky Ogburn urged the committee to keep a section of the Church Road/Three Chopt Road corridor zoned for Pocahontas Middle School instead of moving it to Quioccasin Middle, as a number of plans would. The county is planning a widening of Three Chopt Road, with sidewalks included, that would allow many of those students to walk to Pocahontas, she said.
“This is not about the squeaky wheel getting the grease,” Ogburn said. “We just want to be sure that the . . . committee hears what we are hearing from our community.”
In her district, five of the eight high school options (all but E1, E2 and E3) would move West Broad Village from Deep Run High School to Godwin High School. All eight high school options would retain the existing eastern boundary line (I-295) for Deep Run High, sending students north of the interstate and west of the county’s landfill to Deep Run and those south and east of it to Glen Allen High.
Kinsella asked the committee to examine ways to reduce the number of middle schools (five) that feed to Tucker High School. She also asked the committee to take a closer look at the Staples Mill Road/Crossridge area and the Thomas Mill area for potential massaging.
Varina District board member Alicia Atkins, the third new member, suggested that the school system provide more simplistic summaries of the process to citizens. A number of her constituents have felt overwhelmed and confused by the sheer volume and complexity of information they’ve received to date, she suggested.
The redistricting committee held a joint committee Feb. 19 (after press time for this edition), at which it was expected to continue massaging boundary lines and potentially consider the creation of additional draft map options.
The school system will host two public meetings and gallery walks, at which maps will be on display and officials will be present to discuss them, March 4 at Wilder Middle School and March 5 at Hermitage High School, each beginning at 6:30 p.m.
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To view the redistricting timeline and draft boundary maps, visit henricoschools.us/redistricting.
