HANOVER COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Plans to expand Hanover’s largest elementary school to relieve overcrowding were abandoned in a recent school board meeting, leaving some parents wanting to know what will be done to address the issue.
Cool Spring Elementary is over capacity for the first time in about a decade. The school was built to hold 768 students but is currently holding 802.
To solve the problem, the district previously started the process of implementing “learning cottages” to prevent overcrowding — but recently did away with the idea in a recent board meeting.
The planned learning cottages, or portable classrooms, would have brought eight additional classrooms to the school. The district planned on leasing the cottages temporarily, which has been done before at the elementary school and in other parts of the county.
According to the district’s policy, “overcrowding” is defined as more than 20 percent above functional capacity for three consecutive years. Right now, Cool Spring Elementary is over capacity by four percent.
During a lengthy discussion period, some board members questioned whether the school was in a position to make this change this quickly. In the end, several members agreed that the cost of the learning cottages — totaling up to about one million dollars over the course of four years –was too high.
“It hurts my feelings, of course — I mean, forget feelings, it hurts my heart,” said Cool Springs Elementary parent Kimberly Foley. “To see that, realistically, a relatively small investment — if you think about how many how much tax dollars are paid in this county — is being held from students that need it.”
Following the pandemic, Hanover County has seen steady population growth, which has directly impacted classroom sizes. Based on this data, staff members provided projected school growth over the next four years, predicting that the County will reach overcrowding levels.
So far, the board has made accommodations for growth by doing things like transforming storage closets into classrooms. However, the board said classrooms aren’t the only concern — as some students currently eat lunch in the hallway.
“We’re already resource-tight, and now we’re looking at being space-tight,” Foley said. “And that means our kids and our teachers are going to be impacted the most.”
The district was set to move forward with the plan in next week’s board of supervisors meeting. However, this approved motion removed the school’s special exception application.
The district sent a message to the Cool Spring Elementary community, saying, in part:
“The Hanover County School Board voted to withdraw the special exception application to install a temporary learning cottage on the CSES campus starting next school year. This means that at this time, CSES will not have a learning cottage on its campus next year. The School Board expressed a desire to explore alternative options to address the growth in the number of students at CSES. As we did throughout this process, we will keep you updated as more information becomes available.”
Foley said this issue isn’t about pointing fingers, but instead letting administrators and board members know that something needs to be done before the next school year.
“We’ve seen administration bend over backwards, trying to protect teachers in their classrooms from being impacted by this growth, right?” Foley said. “What I’ve seen now is that their resources are running out, their flexibility is running out — and that is impacting teachers. Teachers are getting nervous.”
The board has suggested transferring students to nearby schools, hiring more teachers and redistricting.
“What I worry about now is that, there are kids that need speech therapy,” Foley said. “There are kids that need reading intervention, there are kids that need math intervention. We’ve got English as a second language — those are all places that have space in the elementary school today. What happens if we need another classroom next year?”
A spokesperson from Hanover County Public Schools said this conversation is ongoing and the board will discuss this matter an an upcoming work session that has yet to be scheduled.
