New Elementary Attendance Zones Proposed for Fredericksburg City
New Elementary Attendance Zones Proposed for Fredericksburg City
New attendance zones are needed to fill Gladys West Elementary, which will open along with the new Walker-Grant Middle School in August of 2025.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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City school division staff on Monday evening presented a proposed map of elementary zones to go into effect next year, when Fredericksburg’s third elementary school, Gladys West Elementary, opens.
The city would be divided into a western, central, and eastern zone, with the eastern zone attending the Gladys West, which will be housed in the current Walker-Grant Elementary School.
That school is being converted into the third elementary school, and Walker-Grant Middle will move to the new building being constructed in the Idlewild neighborhood. Both schools will open in August of 2025.
The school division will post a detailed map of the proposed attendance zones online on Tuesday.
The attendance zone for Gladys West Elementary includes downtown Fredericksburg south of Ford Street and east of Washington Avenue and the neighborhoods of Confederate Ridge and Mayfield.
The central zone, which will attend Hugh Mercer Elementary, includes the rest of downtown, Normandy Village, and neighborhoods off Cowan Boulevard between U.S. 1 and Interstate 95.
The western zone, which will attend Lafayette, includes Idlewild and neighborhoods west of I-95.
Deputy Superintendent Matt Eberhardt, who worked with Superintendent Marci Catlett and Chief Academic Officer Lori Bridi to create the new attendance zones, said at Monday’s School Board meeting that the map is based on student enrollment data from last school year and from this school year, which is in its sixth week.
He said the “overarching principles” of the process were to keep attendance zones contiguous, keep neighborhoods together “as much as possible,” and carefully balance the demographics of four main student groups—Black, Hispanic, White, and Asian—across the three schools.
“Additionally, we wanted to watch three other categories—special education, English language learners, and poverty percentages,” Eberhardt said. “In the end, the map revealed a western zone, a central zone and an eastern zone.”
The map that looked good using last year’s data “still maintained a pretty good balance” using the current enrollment data, he said.
When Gladys West opens, it is projected to have 556 students. Thirty percent of the student body will be Black, 26% Hispanic, 23% White, and 11% Asian.
The English learner population at Gladys West will be 27.3%, the special education population will be 14.6%, and the economically disadvantaged population will be 57.6%.
Gladys West will be the biggest of the three schools in terms of square footage at 131,000 square feet.
Hugh Mercer will have the largest student body at 572 students. It’s the second largest school in terms of physical size, at 110,000 square feet. Demographics are projected to be 30% Black, 23% Hispanic, 19% White, and 18% Asian.
It is projected to have the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students, at just under 66%. The projected special education population is 13.5% and the projected English learner population is 29%.
Lafayette is projected to have 495 students. Thirty-one percent of the student body will be Black, 27% Hispanic, 20% White, and 12% Asian.
The English learner population is projected to be 28.5%, the special education population 13.5%, and the economically disadvantaged population 55.4%.
It will be the smallest school in terms of student enrollment and physical size.
Courtney Wheeler, now the principal of Lafayette Elementary School, will be the first principal of Gladys West Elementary, staff also announced Monday.
She will remain in her current role until her replacement has been hired, which will happen before January of 2025. After that, Wheeler will devote her time to working towards opening the new school.
This story has been updated to include the official proposed zoning map from the school division, a description of neighborhoods attending each school, and the projected percentages of special education, English learning, and economically disadvantaged students at each school.
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