School Board Work Session Held to Discuss Upcoming Middle School Boundary Process

On Thu, Sept. 12, the School Board held a work session to prepare for the upcoming middle school boundary process. Current middle school boundaries need to be revised as APS prepares for the opening of a sixth neighborhood middle school in September 2019. The boundary changes will impact students currently enrolled in grades 4, 5 and 6. (In 2019-20, these students will be in grades 6, 7 & 8).

The new middle school will be located at the Stratford building, the current location of the H-B Woodlawn and Stratford Programs. These programs will move in 2019, to a new building at the former Wilson School Site. The sixth middle school will add 1,000 new seats, resulting from a renovation and addition currently under construction at the Stratford building.

At the work session, staff gathered feedback from the School Board on the proposed methodology so they can prepare for the upcoming community engagement process.  Draft boundary maps and finalized data will be used in an iterative engagement process to shape the Superintendent’s recommendations. The community will be asked to provide feedback at community meetings and online at engage@apsva.us.

Early information about how to participate and the schedule of events will be posted on the Engage section of the APS website by the week of September 18.  Staff will also be available to discuss the process with community members at the Engagement Saturday event on Sept. 23 at Kenmore Middle School between 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Community meetings will be held during October. The following is the timeline for the upcoming Middle School Boundary Change process.

The work session PowerPoint is available on BoardDocs and the meeting also can be viewed online.