While Henrico’s West End schools work to alleviate overcrowding, Eastern Henrico schools confront emptier buildings

Overcrowding in schools in Henrico’s West End has decreased since last year, with only one school overcapacity. But the division still confronts capacity concerns, including the lack of students in Eastern Henrico’s school buildings.

Last school year, Henrico Schools had six schools at more than 100% capacity – three elementary schools and three high schools – all located in Western Henrico. This year, when accounting for high school students in the Advanced Career Education Centers, who follow a “day 1” and “day 2” schedule, only one school is over 100% capacity: Douglas S. Freeman High.

However, with Freeman currently between 100.2% and 101.2% capacity, according to HCPS’ preliminary membership estimates, the school’s students and staff are facing the impacts of overcrowding, according to Henrico School Board Vice Chair Marcie Shea (Tuckahoe District).

“This is untenable. It’s been on an upward trend since at least 2018,” Shea said at a school board meeting Oct 24. “The impact of the overcrowding at Freeman is obvious when you go in the building. You see impact on class size…A lot of teachers aren’t able to be in their classrooms during planning, but also lack office space to relocate to during planning because of overcapacity.”

(Click here to view changes in capacity rates at Henrico elementary schools.)
(Click here to view changes in capacity rates at Henrico middle schools.)
(Click here to view changes in capacity rates at Henrico high schools.)

With other high schools neighboring Freeman at lower capacities, including Mills E. Godwin High at only 79% capacity, Shea suggested that HCPS consider moving some students out of Freeman and into Godwin instead.

“I do not bring this up lightly, I know this is a challenging topic for all of us, but we have to do what’s right by our students,” she said. “I am not talking about a countywide process, I’m asking for a limited adjustment…and I would like us as we’re looking at this as much as possible to limit the disruption for any students who have already started at Freeman.”

Board member Kristi Kinsella (Brookland District), however, said that HCPS should look into other short-term solutions, such as adding trailers to accommodate students at Freeman, before moving students out of the school. She also suggested that the division consider adding more specialty programming to high schools with lower capacity rates in order to attract more students.

“As we’ve said numerous times before, we have the capacity, it may not be where we need it,” Kinsella said. “So then we get creative before we change boundaries and move students and disrupt things. We do have space at Henrico, Hermitage, Godwin, and Varina for additional programming opportunities that perhaps some of our Freeman Mavericks may be interested in.”

Fairfield District board member Ryan Young also encouraged HCPS to place more specialty centers or programming at schools with lower capacities – particularly at Henrico High, the division’s lowest capacity high school at only about 60% capacity.

“We have room for another 700 kids, and I know my principal over there, I know she wants more students,” he said. “My teachers want more students as well.”

The majority of Henrico’s schools are under 90% capacity – 23 schools fall into the 80-90% capacity range while 26 fall under 80% capacity. Ideally, schools should be close to 100% capacity, since buildings are built to function at or near full capacity, said HCPS Chief of Operations Lenny Pritchard.

This means that many of the division’s schools are significantly emptier than they should be, said Three Chopt District board member Madison Irving.

“We don’t really want our schools to be under 80% capacity,” he said.

Henrico Schools leaders have been looking into adding more specialty programs at schools that could accommodate more students, HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell said. HCPS currently has 23 specialty centers, which allow students from across the division to apply no matter where they are zoned, at all nine high schools and several middle schools.

HCPS data shows that most schools under 80% capacity are located in Eastern Henrico within the Fairfield and Varina districts. Of the 27 schools in Varina and Fairfield, only two had over 90% of their buildings filled.

However, both districts have also seen some recent new home developments that may lead to more students, with 1,500 new residences recently approved in Varina and around 800 new homes set to come into Fairfield. Although, what schools will be impacted is still yet to be determined, as some new homes in the Fairfield area are set to feed into Highland Springs High in Varina rather than Henrico High, Young said.

“There’s a new community in the Fairfield District and 0.2 miles away is another community that feeds into Henrico High School, but this new community is feeding into Highland Springs [High],” he said. “When looking at capacity, and Henrico [High] being pretty much the lowest enrolled school, I can’t understand how a new community could feed Highland Springs [High].”

With new developments planned for areas across the division – and as some families move into apartments and condos due to rising home prices – HCPS should work with the Henrico Board of Supervisors to anticipate new developments before they are built, said Henrico School Board Chair Alicia Atkins (Varina District), instead of “being reactive” to developments.

HCPS’ Department of Operations communicates with Henrico’s Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors at each step of the process for every new development about capacity concerns for nearby schools, said HCPS school planning specialist Rachel Thayer.

However, HCPS officials are not always able to anticipate when a developer will actually complete new developments, Thayer said, as developers can choose to push off construction even after the development is approved by the county.

“We are keeping on top of the capacity concerns, development is just a little bit difficult to track,” Thayer said. “As once it passes through our planning department, it is in the developers’ hands. So it is difficult to track when units will be coming online due to the fact that a developer can sit on it for however long they please.”

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.