Northern Virginia schools opened their doors on Tuesday to hundreds of thousands of students, marking a dreary, rain-soaked end to the summer.
Fairfax County, the nation’s 13th largest school district, again topped the region’s enrollment at an estimated 164,295 students.
The start of the new academic year brings with it a persistent overcrowding problem in some parts of the county system. The use of portable classrooms has been reduced, but not eliminated,schools spokesman Paul Regnier said.
The overall school population has remained somewhat steady for the past three years, Regnier said, though the areas of heaviest growth have changed.
“To some extent, the population growth is moving around,” he said. “In the southern part of the county and the western part of the county, there has been a lot of growth.”
South County Secondary School in Lorton and Westfield High School in Chantilly are facing the worst overcrowding problems, he said.
No other Northern Virginia school system has even half of Fairfax County’s student population. This year, Loudoun County reports about 50,740 students, and Prince William County will have about 70,000.
Meanwhile, 18,252 Arlington County public school students were back in the classroom Tuesday. Despite the rain, the county’s 113 buses were on schedule.
“Everybody got in and got in on time,” said Arlington County public school spokesman Frank Bolivia.
More than 10,000 students returned to Alexandria public schools on Aug. 24.
Enrollment in Alexandria schools has been on a steady decline in recent years, down from nearly 11,000 in 2002. City officials have attributed the loss to a lack of affordable housing and cost-of-living increases in the city.
