Parents & Students March In Protest Of School Redistricting Plan

Over the next couple years, a new middle and high school will both open in the Far West End. The heated debate over where children in different Short Pump neighborhoods will attend school after the new schools open keeps getting more intense. Hundreds of parents and students took to the streets of Twin Hickory in […]

April 19, 2009; 5:37 PM • by Trevor Dickerson

A large number of marchers were from the Wyndham Forest neighborhood, a community just one mile from Deep Run, that would attend the new high school being constructed on Staples Mill Road, under one of the proposed plans. Deep Run is close enough to the neighborhood that many students currently walk to school from their homes.

Wyndham Forest would be the only neighborhood north of I-295 that would attend the new school under one of the plans, and parents argue that this plan would completely sever them from the surrounding community who will continue to attend Deep Run High School.

This issue is but a small part of the 2010 Redistricting Plan, which will affect every school level and almost every area of Henrico County. Earlier in the debate, other nearby Short Pump neighborhoods held a march back in January to protest moving their children between Godwin and Freeman High Schools.

Parents and students who held Friday’s gathering say they plan on continuing their protest marches every Friday until the School Board makes a final decision on which plan to go with on May 28.

Coming Tuesday: Hear the views of a Wyndham Forest parent and why he thinks his children should attend Deep Run High School.

Watch for continuing coverage and more parent opinions in the Op/Ed section in the coming days and weeks.