YORK — Scores of Williamsburg-area children began school this week in brand new classrooms in a modular building at Waller Mill Elementary School.
The York County School Division increased the capacity of Waller Mill with the addition of a portable structure erected behind the 55-year-old school. The new construction is an effort to accommodate recent school zone redistricting and to prepare for increasing enrollment brought on by substantial residential development in the county’s northern reaches.
Hundreds of new housing units have been built recently or will come online within several years in York County’s northern District 1. School administrators are devising plans to accommodate the new children this will bring to classrooms, but some residents and policymakers say that the division is not acting fast enough to stay ahead of an impending surge in enrollment.
The 6,000-square-foot, detached modular building behind Waller Mill adds six full-sized classrooms, a main hallway and bathrooms. Waller Mill Principal Khrista Brownlee said that the building has been designated the school’s “Senior Academy,” with fourth and fifth grade classes occupying the new classrooms — a branding that offers the older grades something to look forward to.
“The space is not that of a typical portable space and is very inviting,” Brownlee said, noting that the new classrooms have the latest education technology, including document cameras and projection screens for instruction. The structure is secured with badge-access for entry.
Mark Shafer, the York County School Board member who represents District 1, said that the modular school buildings of today are a far cry from the trailers added to some schools decades ago.
“Nobody wants those flimsy trailers,” he said. “These are very nice buildings.”
In 2018, Magruder Elementary School, which is also in York County’s District 1 and serves Williamsburg-area children, added portable classrooms that accommodated its growing enrollment.
In recent years, Magruder has exceeded its capacity, according to a study prepared by ARCBridge Consulting & Training Inc. for the York County School Division earlier this year. In March, York County’s school board opted for a redistricting plan that eased overcrowding at Magruder and sent many of those students to Waller Mill.
After the redistricting, Waller Mill’s enrollment increased by roughly 20% from 380 last school year to about 455 this year, according to Brownlee.
The new construction at Waller Mill helped the division accommodate the redistricting, said Jim Carroll, the division’s chief operating officer.
“Magruder was the one school that was under the most enrollment pressure, so we needed to have some students go to Waller Mill,” Carroll said. “We had space for portables there. That’s why we made that choice.”
But Doug Holroyd, who represents District 1 on the York County Board of Supervisors, said that he questions the decision to add modular buildings when the need for more permanent space is obvious and urgent.
“Those are beautiful looking portables,” Holroyd said. “But we put a lot of money into them, and I just as soon would have seen a permanent facility. It’s not like the kids are going away. … Why are we hesitating on what is proper to build?”
The school division’s Facilities Master Plan for fiscal years 2025 to 2030, prepared by Carroll and his team, indicates that 667 housing units have not yet been built but have been approved, are pending or are planned in Waller Mill’s school attendance zone. In the Magruder zone, there are 529 housing units yet to come, according to the master plan.
Shafer cautions that just because growth is coming in a specific area doesn’t necessarily mean that school-aged children will materialize right away. He pointed to predictions of increased enrollment from development around the Marquis Shopping Center that did not align with what came to pass.
Shafer said that the school division is following an established and sequential protocol for growth: maximizing space within a school, adding portables and rezoning, all before building a new school.
Portable buildings offer a measure of flexibility, Carroll said.
“We recognize that there is a lot of growth possible around Williamsburg, given the number of units that are planned or pending,” he said. “We don’t know how many students will come out of those.”
The modular building “gives us flexibility to watch and make appropriate choices. Once we add brick and mortar, we are committed,” he said.
The current Facilities Master Plan identifies funding needed beginning in fiscal year 2030 to add six new, permanent classrooms to Waller Mill, a project that could cost upward of $16 million.
The master plan also calls for expansion at Queens Lake Middle School, which takes students from Waller Mill and Magruder, even sooner. Construction could begin on a $28.5 million project to add eight classrooms in September 2027.
Holroyd said that adding portables and budgeting for new construction far in the future is not the long-term solution needed to address a problem that has arisen from rapid growth.
“We’ve had 12 rezonings in the upper district and now it’s coming home to roost,” he said.
Ben Swenson, ben.swenson05@gmail.com
