With the 70th anniversary upon us, it’s the perfect time to look back at one of the school’s forgotten architectural oddities, six small trailers, used as math, science, and Latin classrooms from the early 1990s to their demolition from 2005-2006. “That was short lived, thankfully…but it was a different thing,” Latin teacher Lynn Krepich said, noting that when classes change, “you’re not in a hallway, and people are just kind of coming in and out. ”
The construction of the trailers was the result of immense population growth in northern Virginia in the 1990s. This growth was seen as non-permanent, and that school populations would peak within the decade, then decline.
As a result, counties were reluctant to spend big money on large additions or new schools, so trailers began to sprout up across northern Virginia. In 1999, LCPS had 22 total trailers. However, that number is tiny compared to Prince Williams’ 428 trailers and Fairfax’s 662 the same year. Fairfax would continue to lead the pack in terms of trailer classrooms, peaking at over 1,100 trailers in 2013.
However, schools’ predictions were wrong, and northern Virginia continued to grow. As a result, school trailers were replaced with permanent schools or additions. In 2018, Prince William County had around 200 trailers, and was working to eliminate them fully.
The trailers at County were removed during summer renovations to the school from 2005-2006. After demolition, the site of the trailers became the location of new parking spaces. The trailers are unlikely to reappear, as population growth nowadays generally results in a new school being built somewhere else in the county. Krepich, who has been teaching in the same classroom for nearly all of her four decades of teaching, is grateful for that. “[I] felt isolated… [there was] no sense of community,” she said.
Not all memories reflect isolation, though. Krepich recalls one year when the trailers resulted in an extra classmate. “A squirrel did wander into the trailer one time. We had to chase the squirrel out the door. Quite a memory,” Krepich said.
