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Stone Bridge, the largest school last year with 1,917 students, dropped to 1,854 but still second largest in the 12-high school system which has 18,106 students total. Broad Run is third at 1,786 students, up 103 from last year, and Briar Woods, expected to jump, gained 162 students to rise to 1,762. All three schools -- Stone Bridge, Broad Run and Briar Woods -- are in the Ashburn area.
Second-year Tuscarora in Leesburg, which opened last year with 1,097 and no senior class, is already headed for capacity with 1,548 students this year. The other second-year school, Woodgrove in Purcellville, also rose, but not as sharply, from 1,104 to 1,488.
The two schools that lost students to Tuscarora and Woodgrove -- Heritage in Leesburg and Loudoun Valley in Purcellville -- are now the county's smallest high schools with 1,197 at Heritage and 1,082 at Loudoun Valley.
Both Heritage and Loudoun Valley are playing in Division 4 for football and basketball this school year as the Virginia High School League used enrollment figures from last spring to determine divisions. Tuscarora and Woodgrove are playing in Division 3, despite currently having more students than five to six others schools that are all classified as Division 4.
Heritage and Loudoun Valley had their appeal to the VHSL to move down to Division 3 denied recently.
The current enrollment figures will be key in determining classifications for the next two-year cycle: 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. A new two-year cycle (2011-12 and 2012-13) just started and was based on Sept. 30, 2009 enrollment figures. The VHSL will start a reclassification and redistricting process this fall based upon the enrollment figures from Sept.
Based upon these current enrollment figures, Loudoun will likely have three to four schools, and possibly a fifth, all playing at he higher AAA classification. Currently, Broad Run, Freedom and Stone Bridge are all AAA and the other nine Loudoun schools play in AA.
For 2013-14 and 2014-15, expect the three Ashburn schools (Briar Woods, Broad Run and Stone Bridge) to all be AAA. Freedom's enrollment numbers will likely be based upon a projected enrollment with John Champe opening up and may be small enough to fall back to AA.
Tuscarora, with 1,548 students, may find itself also in AAA as the cutoff in 2009 for AA and AA was between 1,531 and 1,535 students. The VHSL essentially takes the enrollment of all its member schools and divides them in third to gain the AAA, AA and A classifications so the rate of new schools opening up across the state and declining and increasing enrollment in other school districts will affect where the Loudoun schools end up.
2011 Enrollment Figures (last year/increase or decrease)
1, Freedom 1,908 (1,815/+92)
2, Stone Bridge 1,854 (1,917/-63)
3, Broad Run 1786 (1,683/+103)
4, Briar Woods 1762 (1,600/+162)
5, Tuscarora 1,548 (1,097/+451)
6, Potomac Falls 1,522 (1,504/+18)
7, Woodgrove 1,488 (1,104/+384)
8, Loudoun County 1,383 (1,411/-28)
9, Dominion 1,340 (1,335/+5)
10, Park View 1,303 (1,327/-24)
11, Heritage 1,197 (1,327/-130)
12, Loudoun Valley 1,082 (1,338/-256)
Which schools will continue to grow? A look at enrollment by freshman and sophomore class
1, Freedom 1,026
2, Briar Woods 952
3, Tuscarora 938
4, Broad Run 924
5, Stone Bridge 860
6, Potomac Falls 763
7, Woodgrove 753
8, Loudoun County 706
9, Dominion 675
10, Park View 655
11, Heritage 604
12, Loudoun Valley 561
Enrollment by Grade in Loudoun -2011
1st - 5,446
2nd - 5,558
3rd - 5,408
4th - 5,468
5th - 5,197
6th - 5,117
7th - 4,920
8th - 4,787
9th - 4, 714
10th - 4,703
11th - 4,490
12th - 4,178
And people can look at those numbers and state we spend too much in this county. This county is exploding with growth of younger population and we need to build more schools... NOT BIGGER SCHOOLS!
ReplyDeleteIf high schools get bigger than 1800 students, the kids will start to suffer from lack of opportunities for everyone to participate. Just ask those in Stone Bridge who miss out on activities because they have to limit participation size (drama, sports, etc.) Keep the sizes reasonable and everyone wins.