School Officials Address Overcrowding

During Arlington Independent Media's (AIM) September Voice Box on Thursday night, Arlington's Public Schools Superintendent, Dr. Patrick Murphy; Assistant Superintendent Finance/Management, Mary Beth Chambers and Arlington County School Board Member, Sally Baird discussed the topic of Arlington County Schools with host, Christian Dorsey.

Dorsey, who is an American economist with the Economic Policy Institute, addressed many of the issues Arlington residents are concerned about such as: school funding, the planetarium, budget cuts, construction and school scores.

One of the biggest issues Dorsey and the panel discussed, is the overcrowding of Arlington County Schools. In 2009, Washington-Lee High School opened its new $110 million, state-of-the-art, LEED Certified building. But now, the school is already facing the issue of overcrowding.

Baird joked, "If you build it, they will come." The panel explained how this is an ongoing issue all over Arlington. Dorsey mentioned the statistic on Arlington Public Schools website, that by 2015 almost all Arlington Public Schools will be at 90% capacity, some over 100%.

To help diffuse this situation, the board looked at moving boundaries for school districts, but the residents didn't want that. Baird said the residents said they love their schools. One solution to the issue is better usage of space and extending the school day. This year Arlington County Public High Schools starting offering classes as early as 7 a.m., and will begin to offer them later in the afternoon. This will get some students in earlier and free up more space throughout the day. In addition to freeing up space, they are answering the needs of some students.

Also address was the issue of the Planetarium near Washington-Lee High School. Over $400,000 is needed to renovate the dated building, but the community has stepped in to try to raise this money. The panel talked about the amount of residents that have said they didn't even know the Planetarium was there, but don't want to see it go.

Whether for instructional or entertainment purposes, the residents and the county agree that they want to do whatever they can to save the Planetarium. Baird said this action is good because it's a dialogue in the community, if it wasn't put on the table, it would continue to be an unknown, unused resource.

The School Board will be holding four public meetings in October and November to further discuss these issues.