ROANOKE, Va. – Redistricting has been a hot topic for Roanoke City Public Schools for a of couple years after they started the process in October 2022. We’re getting a look at what the feasibility study done by Spectrum Design is recommending now.
Documents the school board will talk about at a workshop Tuesday night include increasing classroom space at the high schools so more than 2,000 students can attend each or building a third high school.
The high schools are more than 20 percent over capacity, according to the study:
- William Fleming High School is at 123% capacity
- Patrick Henry High School is at 122% capacity
Adding more space for 450 students at Fleming would increase capacity from 1,649 to 2,099. Adding more space for 450 students at PH would increase capacity from 1,674 to 2,124.
The option to build a third high school would mean 900 students could go there and possibly have a magnet focus like Technology/STEM, Fine & Performing Arts, or Health Sciences. The documents say it could be a possible urban location with a compact site and lists centralized options of downtown, West End, Gainsboro, Wasena or Franklin Road/Riverside. It would be city-wide attendance and attendance zones would not have to change.
“I do know we need to do something. Personally, I don’t agree with having a high school, two of them, at 2,000 or over 2,000. That’s just a lot for our teachers and our administrators to deal with and it’s not fair to them. I think having these conversations a little bit more aggressively is going to help us,” said Michael Cherry, with the Roanoke City School Board during a meeting earlier this month.
The group doing the study said Roanoke City would need the new building to be open in the next 12 years to keep up with enrollment, but if they wait, there will be overcrowding issues, like we’re currently seeing, until then.
They’re also talking about elementary schools including possibly building two or three new schools and adjusting attendance zones.
The school board will talk about cost and next steps at the meeting and Spectrum’s final report is expected to be submitted to RCPS on August 30.