Henrico Schools unveils design for new Glen Allen elementary school

On May 15, Henrico School Board members approved the schematic design for a new elementary school in the Fairfield District – a project that is estimated to cost a total of $46 million.

The two-story, 93,000-square-foot building would hold up to 750 students and would be completed by the beginning of the 2029-2030 school year. The school would be located in Glen Allen, northwest of the intersection of Woodman Road and Farmstead Mill Drive, adjacent to the Fall Line Trail and the River Mill neighborhood. 

School redistricting, which would need to be finalized by the fall of 2028, most likely would impact Chamberlayne Elementary, Greenwood Elementary, Longdale Elementary, and Maude Trevvett Elementary, and also could impact Echo Lake Elementary, Elizabeth Holladay Elementary, Glen Allen Elementary, and Laburnum Elementary, according to HCPS officials.

The new elementary school site would include an outdoor track and playground as well as an enclosed outdoor courtyard space with synthetic turf grass. Both cars and school buses would enter and exit the campus on Woodman Road. 

The first floor would contain the cafeteria and gymnasium (which would share a stage), the main office area next to the main entrance, and the music and art classrooms. Pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and exceptional education classrooms would be located on the first floor, with a bathroom inside each classroom.

Classrooms for grades 3 through 5 would be located on the second floor with bathrooms accessible from the hallways. The library or “media center” and a lactation room for mothers also would be located on the second floor.

The specific design for the building has not been used for any other Henrico schools, said HCPS Director of Facilities Susan Moore. HCPS is aiming to earn LEED Silver certification in environmental sustainability for the building and include solar panels on the rooftop.

A fence would separate the building from the Fall Line Trail, with gates locked during school hours. About half of the 23.3-acre campus is designated as wetlands, although school construction plans will require a quarter-of-an-acre of wetlands to be converted into parking lot space, said HCPS officials. 

With the wetland area being so close by, students might benefit from the addition of a wetland observation deck or rain garden, said school board member Alicia Atkins (Varina District). Atkins and school board chair Madison Irving (Three Chopt District) also recommended HCPS to add solar panels to the site’s parking lot to maximize energy efficiency.

School Board addresses the ‘elephant in the room’: Is another elementary school needed?

But with HCPS’s overall elementary school population slightly declining over the past five years, school board members said that Henrico’s Board of Supervisors likely will question the need for a new elementary school.

“I am excited we are building this building, but knowing the questions we’re going to get asked I want to ask. . . we also see birth rates declining, and that will hit elementary school first,” said school board member Marcie Shea (Tuckahoe District). “I know my counterpart will have those questions for me.”

For the current school year, HCPS has an elementary school population of 21,730 students and had building capacity for nearly 25,934 students across all elementary schools. But HCPS officials said that proposed and approved developments in the Fairfield and West End areas warrant a new Fairfield District elementary school, as well as a $48-million new West End area elementary school that HCPS plans to construct in 2028 or 2029.

“We have had a fair amount of development in that area – River Mill made a considerable difference in the number of households we have that contribute to the school, as well as developments going on across Route 1,” said Moore. “We also had some larger enrollment in a few of our schools, and this was the logical choice for where we needed to start looking.”

Henrico has six elementary schools that are currently overcapacity – including Greenwood Elementary, which is just a mile away from the proposed site of the new school. The five other elementary schools that are overcapacity are located farther away: Colonial Trail, Maybeury, Rivers Edge, Skipwith, and Three Chopt.

Despite an overall declining elementary school population, HCPS has struggled with overcrowded schools due to higher development in certain areas, said Shea.

“I think it’s important that we acknowledge that we can’t just look at total elementary school enrollment and total elementary school capacity and say, well, there’s seats somewhere in the county,” she said. “Because it’s really making sure we have seats where we need them, without creating huge transportation waits for kids, long distances from schools to where kids live, and a domino effect to all boundaries.”

“It's very important that we as a school division are advocating for buildings like this,” said Irving. “Because if we don't have them, it puts us in a lot harder space.”

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.