Three proposed redistricting maps would send Cosby, Midlothian High School students to West Ridge
In three proposed redistricting plans, Cosby and Midlothian High School students are being reshuffled to populate Chesterfield’s 2,400-student West Ridge High School, which is set to open August 2027.
CCPS’s Chief Operations Officer Reid Wodicka presented these proposed boundaries to the county’s school board Tuesday evening, and the board will decide which one will be used during its Oct. 13 meeting.
Rising high school seniors won’t have to attend a different school for the 2027-28 academic year.
The new school is just over a three-mile drive northwest of Cosby High School, which Chesterfield says is at 125% capacity that’s supported by several exterior trailer-style classrooms. Midlothian High School is in second place at 97% capacity and is a nine-mile drive northeast of West Ridge.
“West Ridge and Cosby High School are really close in geography,” Wodicka said, “so that creates some challenges in terms of drawing lines that make sense for everyone.”
Cosby and Midlothian were both highlighted as being located in high-development areas, meaning there’s an increased likelihood that additional students will enroll in these schools as more people move into the area.
Parallel to this is another, smaller-scale redistricting process which looks to adapt boundaries to predicted development. For the 2027-28 academic year, Cosby would welcome 53 and 75 new students from Clover Hill and Manchester high schools, respectively. Rising seniors can choose to switch schools. The board won’t vote on this redistricting, only on the three proposed plans focused on West Ridge High School. Instead, the superintendent will handle the administrative side. There will be an information session open to the public Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m. at Cosby High School.
The three plans get rid of all of Cosby’s trailers, were crafted with this administrative redistricting in mind, and focus on specific neighborhoods (whose names were taken verbatim from Wodicka’s presentation).
Throughout all three, 449 Magnolia Green students and 293 Westerleigh/Summer Lake students will be placed in the new school.
Here are the proposals.
Option one: This plan makes the capacity at Cosby, Midlothian and West Ridge roughly the same at an average of 73% — 82% in five years. Besides the students from Magnolia Green and Westerleigh/Summer Lake, it would move…
- 293 students from Westerleigh/Summer Lake
- 343 from Watermill/RounTrey peninsula
- and 173 from Wynwood at FoxCreek/Foxfield to the new school.
Matoaca’s representative, Steve Paranto, said this is the choice he’s seen the most support for, to which Midlothian’s Lisa Hudgins agreed.
“I’d like to echo what Mr. Paranto said about what we’ve been hearing from the community as soon as this went live, and I don’t disagree with what they’re saying,” Hudgins said.
Option two: Between the three, option two is the one that’ll use up the most of West Ridge’s capacity straight out of the gate at 80.3%, whereas Cosby would be 73.6% and Midlothian 63.7%.
The number of other impacted students and their neighborhoods are:
- 293 from Westerleigh/Summer Lake
- 246 from RounTrey peninsula
- 282 from Hallsley/Newmarket
- and 246 from West of Woolridge Road.
Option three: Wodicka described this as a mix between the first two options. Under this plan, West Ridge’s capacity would immediately be 78.3%, Cosby’s is 75.8% and Midlothian’s is 63.7%. It would see…
- 293 from Westerleigh/Summer Lake
- 343 from Watermill/RounTrey peninsula
- and 173 from Wynwood at FoxCreek/Foxfield to the new high school.
A public information session on these three redistricting proposals will happen Sept. 28 at 6:30 p.m. in Deep Creek Middle School’s auditorium.
