City, County School Officials to Address Overcrowding in Fairfax City Schools

Fairfax City and county school board officials will talk overcrowding at and at a meeting Monday afternoon.

Officials hope to outline a timeline and boundary study for dealing with increasing enrollment at Fairfax City schools. 

This isn't a new issue. It doesn’t look like it will go away like some blip in the demographic data. 2011 enrollment increased over the last school year, and 2015 enrollment for elementary schools is expected to continue increasing. Increasing enrollment will put strain on the middle and high schools as those students move up in their education.

Projected enrollment by school:

• Fairfax High School: 2010 capacity = 2,389; 2015 projected enrollment = 2,797
• Lanier Middle School: 2010 capacity = 1,200; 2015 projected enrollment = 1,408
• Daniels Run Elementary School: 2010 capacity = 743; 2015 projected enrollment = 883
• Providence Elementary School: 2010 capacity = 843; 2015 projected enrollment = 925

School board members have made short-term changes to help the overcrowding dilemma, like renovating FHS and Lanier. But officials note that the problem won't be easily fixed, even with longterm changes.

"We are surrounded by schools with similar problems, so there won't be easy answers," said Monday at a school board meeting last year.

The meeting will be held at 4 p.m. at 8115 Gatehouse Road, Room 1600, in Falls Church. Check Patch for coverage.