by Sasha Newsuan Smith

Here is a crisis of the classroom in Prince William County, that’s turning out to be the worst kept and poorly timed secret.

Meet Sasha Newsuan Smith. She’s a retired, disabled Army Veteran, a federal employee, and more importantly a mother to Porter Traditional School 8th grader, Josiah Newsuan Alexander. Josiah is a bright and enterprising young man looking forward to High School. He’s a Mensa Inductee with a 145 IQ, an honor roll student, and he attends the number one Middle School in the state of Virginia & in Prince William County, but he can no longer attend the number one High School and program available to Prince William County students.

Osbourn Park High School in Manassas hosts several specialty programs including the Pre-Governor’s program. The Pre-Governor’s School is a preparatory program through which students will experience an accelerated mathematics and science course sequence. You would think Josiah is exactly the type of student the Pre-Governor’s program at Osbourn Park would want, but he can no longer attend.

Apparently, Prince William County Schools Superintendent, Dr. LaTanya D. McDade, who was appointed in the summer of 2021, decided without school board approval and without informing families that this year they would create a new version of the Pre-Governor’s program at Freedom High on the eastern part of the county. Expansion sounds great at first glance, double the seats and closer to home, except Freedom is the lowest performing high school in the county. According to US World & News Reports high school rankings it is last in almost every measure. OPHS has an overall 95% as the top 22nd school in the state, while Freedom HS has a 42% ranking as the 219th school in the state. OPHS has a college readiness index as 34th in the state with their state assessment performance is 9th in the state, while Freedom HS is 201st and 98th respectively.

OPHS has an 88% overall performance rate with a 93% college ready performance via AP examinations, while Freedom HS has an overall performance of 12% and only performing at a 50% rate on AP exams. OPHS has seven additional AP and Biotech Science electives that aren’t even offered to Freedom HS students. Even the college curriculum breadth index drops from #881 state-wide down to #8658 from OPHS to Freedom. The rising 10th graders that live on the eastern part of the county will not be forced to transfer OPHS to Freedom HS, so the newly selected freshmen, along with the untested staff will all be navigating this highly rigorous curriculum together.

Josiah says he wishes there was a transition period for he & his friends who have worked extremely hard and had their hearts set on attending OPHS. Mrs. Newsuan Smith says she fears for her son’s safety at a school like Freedom and doesn’t have much faith that Freedom will have the access to the right teachers or curriculum for this new expansion to be successful. She also added that this could be a great opportunity for families who would like to try it, but rising 9th graders this year should have been provided a choice!

My son has worked extremely hard for 8 years and the Superintendent has decided to reward him and his peers with #13 of 13. It’s unfair, inequitable, and reeks of “separate, but equal,” which we know has been proven unconstitutional and someone like Dr. McDade should know that!

(Editor’s Note: the opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the writer and not necessarily the views of PW Perspective, LLC, or its affiliated stakeholders.)