At Quioccasin Middle School community meeting, parents push for ‘equitable’ redistricting

Henrico Schools is building its first three-story middle school, and parents see it as an opportunity for some “much-needed” school redistricting.

At a community meeting July 29, Henrico Schools officials shared details with a crowd of neighbors and parents on the upcoming rebuild of Quioccasin Middle School, which should start this fall and finish in the fall of 2027. The new building would allow for a capacity of around 1,350 students, making Quioccasin the largest middle school in Henrico.

Many residents, including former Quioccasin parent Jeff Britt, are very excited about the upgraded building. But they also see the new school as an opportunity for HCPS to redraw some of the area’s school boundaries, especially as the county is working to rebuild other nearby schools such as Jackson Davis Elementary and R.C. Longan Elementary.

“As someone who sent all our kids through Quioccasin Middle School, this is a massive improvement over this [current] facility. So I want to give the county credit for that,” Britt said. “But I think it would be a missed opportunity if we didn't address feeder patterns and redistricting as this building is taking shape, especially with Davis and Longan also going up at the same time to increase capacity.”

Henrico School Board members have decided to undertake a “comprehensive analysis” of all school districts this fall, with the possibility of changing some boundaries. This past spring, a proposal to change some of the high school boundaries was shot down by the board in a 3-2 vote.

For Britt, the biggest desire for school redistricting is to create school demographics that are more balanced across all schools. In 2024, 43% of Quioccasin’s student population was economically-disadvantaged, compared to 30% at nearby Tuckahoe Middle and 25% at Pocahontas Middle.

“I do think that you need to try to keep communities together, but also strike a balance, so that every school in Henrico looks like Henrico County,” he said. “I mean, Quioccasin has a very high concentration of economically disadvantaged folks, and that was from the redistricting that occurred 15 years ago.”

The new building would add about 150 students to Quioccasin, but only some of those students would be from the area. Next fall, Quioccasin will become the second middle school in Henrico to host a new “Center for Innovation,” which students across the county can apply for and attend.

Parents want feeder patterns addressed, too

Several parents also want to address another concern through school redistricting: feeder patterns. Quioccasin currently receives students from seven different elementary schools, and then sends students off to three different high schools. 

For some Quioccasin students, that means having to start over at each new school, meeting a whole new group of students and parting ways with the friends you have already made.

“They're just the minority in every single high school they go to, so I think that puts them at a disadvantage,” said former Quioccasin parent Shelby Kirillin. “Especially in middle school, you finally make that group that you're like, ‘these are my people.’ And then, they all leave and you're back to square one.”

Even for parents, that can mean starting over with navigating a whole new community, said Quioccasin parent Ashley Gulick.

“We work as a community, so you make relationships with those families. You know who your child can go hang out with, who you trust to take your child home from an event,” said Gulick. “But then all of a sudden, breaking apart from those friendships that our children and ourselves have just created, you lose those friendships, you lose that momentum.”

Balancing out diversity also balances out important resources, such as funding from parent-teacher associations that support many school events, said Gulick. Placing such a high concentration of economically-disadvantaged students in one school creates inequity, she said.

“There’s so much that creates a school, from the PTSO or PTA, so when you purposely funnel certain populations into one school, you create a lack of opportunity in that school,” Gulick said. “And it’s not fair to those other communities where their kids could be mixing in with everyone else’s kids and having a more diverse experience in all of our schools, not just a couple of schools.”

The new three-story building for Quioccasin will be a major upgrade for the community, said Moseley Architects Vice President Chris Brown, who worked on the new school design and even attended Quioccasin himself about 25 years ago. 

The $89-million rebuild project will include an “innovation lab” for the Center of Innovation students, several outdoor learning spaces, and a more visible entryway and front door. Brown said the design focused on emphasizing certain areas of the building as “community spaces,” such as the cafeteria, gym, and auditorium. 

“Building identity was something that was important. We wanted to create something where you knew where the front door was, where you could walk up and feel like you were welcome to come in,” he said. “Once a student enters the [current] building, there's no real place for them to gather, to interact with each other. So one of the goals that we picked up on was, how can we create gathering spaces within the building that would promote collaboration and shared ideas?”

The design also focused on making the new building more accessible – something the current building significantly lacks, Brown said – by having more navigable staircases as well as several elevators. 

“If you've walked these hallways before, you know there's stairs at about every corner and there's no room for a ramp,” Brown said. “So with those barriers are also barriers to learning, barriers to opportunities.”

Gulick, who attended Quioccasin as a student 40 years ago, said she is always struck by just how much is unchanged in the building even now. The school is due for a big upgrade, she said. 

“I mean, how could we complain, when I was here 40 years ago, walking the halls, the murals are the same. Everything’s the same as when I was here,” she said.

But with the new building upgrade, parents and community members are hoping that school boundaries can be upgraded as well, allowing for more students in the county to experience more diversity at their schools.

“I want my kids to learn from all different people, from all different walks of life,” said Kirillin. “That look different, that think different, that speak different. Because that is public school. That's the gift of public school.”

Learn more about the Quioccasin Middle School rebuild plans by clicking here.

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.