Stafford Holds First of Three Community Meetings About Upcoming High School Redistricting
New boundary zones will take effect in August of 2026, when high school #6 opens.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Right now, there are three possible scenarios for redistricting Stafford County’s high schools, but School Board members said Tuesday night that they wouldn’t be surprised if there are eventually seven or even more.
“This is a starting point,” said School Board member Patricia Healy, who represents the Rock Hill district, at the first of three planned community engagement sessions on the redistricting process. “It’s our job as your representatives to make a decision. The best thing to do now is make your feelings known.”
She also asked audience members not to “shoot the messenger”—in this case, Lionel White, director of facilities, planning, and GIS for the school division, who presented the first three scenarios—which differ only on minor points from each other—on Tuesday evening.
A good portion of the 40-some audience members who attended the meeting represented the neighborhoods of Arbor Glen, Amyclae, and Marshall Estates. These neighborhoods are currently zoned for Colonial Forge High School but would be redistricted in all three scenarios, either to North Stafford or Mountain View.
“Why are we on the chopping block again?” asked a parent, referencing the targeted elementary school redistricting that took place in 2022. “We are small. All of our families have multiple kids. You are trying to fill schools south of us. It doesn’t make sense for us to move. I really want to be heard. Can we have a scenario that doesn’t touch us?”
Redrawing the boundaries for all of Stafford’s high schools is necessary because the division is opening a sixth high school in the southwest part of the county in August of 2026.
The attendance zone for the new high school, to be located off Truslow Road in the Hartwood district, will pull from Mountain View and Stafford high schools and incorporate an island that attends Colonial Forge high school.
In addition to filling the new school, the county needs to ease overcrowding at the other five high schools. Without redistricting, all of these schools will be operating at between 98% and 108% of capacity by 2026.
“We don’t do this thing for fun,” White said. “We have to do what we have to do, but we want to do it with as little impact as possible.”
After redistricting, the five current high schools are projected to be at between 85% and 92% capacity in all three scenarios.
The new high school will be between 75% and 77% full. It will open without a senior class, since no rising seniors will be required to change schools for the 2026-27 academic year.
White said two of the goals of the redistricting are to move as few neighborhood planning units as possible and to keep neighborhoods together.
In the three proposed scenarios, the majority of planning units in the county—79% or 80%—would not be reassigned.
Another goal is to minimize major changes in the school’s demographics or the socioeconomic background of the student body.
“As a planner, I look at, is the change [in the percent of students eligible for free or reduced lunch] more than 5%? That’s too significant,” White said. “Here we don’t see a significant demographic shift.”
White also said that in preparing the three starting scenarios, another goal was to fill high schools in the northeast quadrant of the county—North Stafford and Brooke Point—more quickly, because that’s where the division plans to put high school #7.
The approved 10-year capital improvement plan calls for high school #7 to open in 2033.
In addition to the concern about Arbor Glen, Amyclae, and Marshall Estates, families in attendance on Tuesday asked if the School Board would consider allowing siblings of rising seniors to stay at their old high schools and whether pending major roadwork and road safety would be considered when drawing new attendance zones.
The school division has more information and detailed maps of the three proposed scenarios, as well as a feedback form, on the new redistricting section of its website.
The School Board will discuss current and newly proposed scenarios at its next meeting on September 10. There will be a public hearing on redistricting options on November 12, and the board will vote on new attendance zones on December 10.
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