Last week, the School Board approved middle school boundary adjustments to relieve crowding and better balance enrollment across all middle schools. These boundary adjustments will be effective for students in grades 6, 7 and 8 beginning in September 2019 when the new middle school at the Stratford site opens. Families of students affected by the new middle school boundaries will receive notification in the mail by February 2018.

Earlier this fall, we announced that transfers to neighborhood middle schools for the 2018-19 school year were temporarily unavailable during the boundary adjustment process, and would be reassessed once the boundary decisions were made by the School Board. We recognize that families of fifth graders are interested in learning which neighborhood middle schools will be available to accept transfers for next year, and our staff is working now to assess the availability of middle school transfers.

We plan to send another APS School Talk update to all 5th grade families by Monday, January 8, with information about which middle schools can accept transfers next year. Because our transfer application process can now be completed online, this will still allow sufficient time for families to apply for a transfer before the January 19, 2018 deadline for transfer and options applications.

This information will also be posted on the website and shared through other APS communication channels, including the aps2016.apsva.us/engage site. In the meantime, the new middle school attendance zones for 2019-20 and related information can be found at aps2016.apsva.us/engage/middle-school-boundary-change/.

Thank you for your patience. We wish your family a wonderful Winter Break and all the best in 2018.