Zoning changes in Chesterfield move more than 100 students

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- More than 100 Chesterfield County elementary school students will attend a new school for the 2026-27 school year, after the school board voted on a zoning change.

Officials said the change affects 119 students at Falling Creek Elementary (FCES), who will attend Bensley Elementary next fall instead. At Tuesday's meeting, the board heard this would help with overcrowding issues at FCES.

School leaders said FCES is operating at over 130% of capacity and has to use 21 trailers as classrooms. Bensley is currently under construction and set to open August 2026.

"The new school will provide additional capacity to allow us to balance that space and reduce the number of students who are being educated in our trailers at Falling Creek," Chief Operations Officer (CEO) Reid Wodicka said at the meeting.

"This provides a great opportunity to move students into a classroom," Wodicka said.

The board also voted to return the district's last year-round school, Bellwood Elementary, to a traditional calendar.

The decision followed the school board's review of new data that showed no difference in student growth between year-round and traditional schools.

The year-round model was first tested by the district in 2018, in hopes of improving student performance by giving them more learning opportunities. But that hasn't been the case, with year-round students performing slightly worse in one year.

In 2023, the board voted to end the year-round program at Falling Creek and leave Bellwood as the only school on that calendar. Board members said that it became too difficult.

"Yes, two years ago we were looking at the same decision," Board Chair Ann Coker said Tuesday. "But it is hard for one school to be technically solo in the year-round school when we are such a large school division."

The changes at Bellwood and Falling Creek will go into effect for the 2026-27 school year.