News: Loudoun to Likely Have Six Schools in 5A Under New VHSL Plan

(Aug. 7, 2012) - The March 31 enrollment figures released by the Virginia High School League show Loudoun with six schools at the 5A level in the proposed alignment plan which takes the state's classifications from three to six starting with the 2013-14 school year.

The Ashburn area has Loudoun's three largest schools with Stone Bridge (1,842), Broad Run (1,764) and Briar Woods (1,752) combining for 5,358 students in the stretch from Brambleton  to Lansdowne. Stone Bridge would be the fifth largest 5A school in the state, trailing only Freedom of Prince William, Thomas Jefferson, Manchester and Massaponax.

News: Freedom Has Largest Enrollment in Loudoun; Second-Year Schools Tuscarora and Woodgrove Filling Up Quickly

(Oct. 12, 2011) - Freedom High School has become Loudoun County Public School's largest secondary school with 1,908 students according to the Sept. 30 figures released by the school district. Overcrowding at the South Riding school will be alleviated next year with the opening of John Champe High School.

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

News: Loudoun County Public Schools 2010-11 Enrollment Figures Show Newest Schools Growing Fastest

(Oct. 29, 2010) - The Loudoun County Public Schools enrollment figures for 2010-11, as based on the Sept. 30 enrollment count taken annually, shows that the county's two high schools opened in 2005 -- Briar Woods and Freedom -- have become two of the largest and that the two newest high schools -- Tuscarora and Woodgrove -- will soon have more students than the high schools it primarily drew students from -- Heritage and Loudoun Valley.

Freedom at 1,816 students trails only Stone Bridge (1,917) in enrollment. Briar Woods is the fourth largest currently at 1,600 students, some 83 less than neighbor Broad Run. All four of those schools draw from a midcounty section of Loudoun running from South Riding in the south up through Brambleton, Broadlands, Ashburn to Lansdowne.

Freedom and Broad Run are slated to join Stone Bridge at the AAA level in the next two-year cycle that starts in 2011-12. Briar Woods will be one of the largest AA schools in the state, especially if you look at the school's two youngest classes and project enrollment out.

Tuscarora opened with 1,097 students and Woodgrove has 1,104 students. Those new schools lowered student population dramatically at two schools that have to play this entire school year in the larger AAA classification for athletics -- Heritage at 1,327 and Loudoun Valley at 1,338.

Looking at the fact that Tuscarora has 823 students in freshman and sophomore classes combined and Woodgrove 753, these new schools will quickly catch up to Heritage (565 underclassmen) and Loudoun Valley (515).

If Heritage and Loudoun Valley were in the smaller classification AA Dulles District this season for athletics, the two schools would be roughly the same size as Dominion (1,335) and Park View (1,327) and smaller than Briar Woods, Broad Run, Freedom, Loudoun County (1,411) and Potomac Falls (1,504).

Sept. 30 Enrollment Figures for Loudoun County Public Schools
Stone Bridge 1,917
Freedom 1,816
Broad Run 1,683
Briar Woods 1,600
Potomac Falls 1,504
Loudoun County 1,411
Loudoun Valley 1,338
Dominion 1,335
Heritage 1,327
Park View 1,327
Woodgrove 1,104
Tuscarora 1,097

Underclassmen (freshman and sophomore classes combined)
Freedom 971
Stone Bridge 959
Briar Woods 910
Broad Run 904
Tuscarora 823
Woodgrove 753
Potomac Falls 737
Park View 689
Loudoun County 674
Dominion 668
Heritage 565
Loudoun Valley 515