New School in Lansdowne Changes Attendance Boundaries

By: Jack Minchew

A new high school is scheduled to be built to serve the majority of students in Lansdowne. The new high school, known as HS-8 until a real name is chosen, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2015. After much controversy during the process of choosing the location for the new school, the School Board and the Board of Supervisors agreed on a 20 million dollar acquisition adjacent to the National Conference Center. The new HS-8 will share fields with Belmont Ridge Middle School. The school has a capacity of 1600 students and, when established, will contain a direct feed of students from Belmont Ridge. While this will not directly affect students attending Tuscarora, younger siblings may face the same situation that many students at Tuscarora faced in 2010: switching to a new school after attending another one for a year or two. Many features of the school have not been completely finalized, and there are still many opportunities to provide input on how the school should be built and run. For more information, attend one of the many upcoming public hearings or email your school board member. The representative for those who live in the Lansdowne area is Eric Hornberger. The at-large School Board member is Tom Reed.