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The West Fairfax Boundary Study…

In 2007, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) and the School Board decided to conduct a study of the current school boundaries for several Western Fairfax County High Schools with several different objectives in mind.

www.fcps.edu/fts/planning/westcoboundary/index.htm

Originally designed to meet four objectives, the study finally settled on an expanded list of eight goals:

 

The FCPS staff initially provided four new boundary options for public commentary in the Fall of 2007.  Following two public hearings, the four were narrowed to one alternative option in December 2007. A slightly modified version of the last alternative option appeared on the FCPS website in January 2008. Fairfax CAPS has devoted considerable time analyzing this option before the School Board in light of the eight goals FCPS staff and the School Board say it must meet. This is the result of that analysis:

Goal #1 - Balanced Enrollments and Capacities

Many would argue that the under enrollment of South Lakes needs to be corrected and that other schools currently at over capacity should be redistricted into South Lakes.

This sounds logical doesn’t it? 

But, like most things in life, there are the details that need to be addressed.

The center of this proposed redistricting is South Lakes High School and its continued under enrollment.

It has been suggested that South Lakes should be the Reston High School and that all residents of Reston should attend South Lakes High School.

This would bring students into South Lakes who currently live in Reston and go to Langley High School.

What does Stuart Gibson, the Hunter Mill School Board representative, have to say about this? He has been quoted as saying:

"A lot of people choose where to live based on the high schools where they live. It has been suggested before that all of Reston should go to South Lakes. North Point Village doesn't want to go to South Lakes. I love South Lakes. I have a daughter who went there and another that is going to graduate from there, but North Point Village doesn't want to go there," said Stuart Gibson (Hunter Mill). "If someone wants to go out in the community and float the idea of a boundary change, go ahead, but I for one will not be supporting that measure."

www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?archive=
true&article=14732&paper=65&cat=106

So Reston residents are bused to Langley at a distance of 18-20 miles from their neighborhoods rather than going to a Reston High School that is a fraction of that distance.

In the meantime, the FCPS staff recommendation to the School Board calls for busing kids from the Herndon/Oak Hill 20171 area while the North Reston kids continue their long Langley commute at a time when the stated goal of FCPS is to shorten bus distances.

This is not consistent with their stated goals.

Where did 15.6 million dollars go and why?

In recent years, in order to address capacity issues with both Langley and Westfield High Schools, a total of 15.6 million was spent expanding these schools to accommodate students under the current boundaries. The increased capacity was added at a time when South Lakes was already under enrolled and could have absorbed the over capacity of both schools.

If this proposed redistricting is about addressing over capacity of our High Schools –

Why was this money spent rather than redistricting the excess students from Langley by taking the North Reston Langley students and sending them to South Lakes?

Why was Westfield expanded only to be redistricted now?

The over capacity at Westfield is already self correcting and the FCPS projections place it below its expanded capacity for the next school year.

If we redistrict now, away from Westfield High, we’ll reduce our efficiency at one school in order to increase the efficiency of South Lakes.

This Redistricting means admitting that we’ve wasted 15.6 million of all of our tax dollars on the recent expansions of Westfield and Langley High Schools.

Capacity and School Bonds

Here in Fairfax County we have the 13th largest school district in the country.
We have a tradition of excellence in education.

How does this happen?

We have an educated population that values education and have continued to vote to support increased spending for schools and programs. 

Our levels of participation and generosity of time and money from parents are second to none. Any educator will tell you this is crucial to the success of any school.

Have we been too complacent?

YES – this is true. As many of us have investigated this Boundary Study process, we have discovered areas of great concern that make us question the wisdom of blindly approving each educational bond referendum presented to us.

If we had known more about the inequalities associated with the distribution of students within our school system, would we have never voted for bonds that provided funding for these changes.

Who would vote to expand Westfield if we knew FCPS staff and the School Board would propose reducing the size of the school after spending millions to expand it?

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Goal #2 – Improved Socio-Economic Balance

Fairfax County already addresses social economic opportunities through its various affordable housing programs. 

Many of us who live in the Oak Hill – Herndon areas to be impacted by the proposed boundary changes already live in subdivisions where affordable housing has been built through builder requirements from the county

Aren’t socio-economic factors beyond the responsibilities of the school board?

YES - The School Board and FCPS needs to focus on providing the best education for ALL students without consideration of race, ethnicity and free or reduce lunch programs.

Is this really busing under a different name?

Recent court cases, including a Supreme Court decision against the Town of Milton, Massachusetts have found that school systems that try to address academic challenges by “mixing” students from higher performing schools with students.

“Mixing” of high performing students doesn’t help under performing students.

South Lakes has high performing students.

South Lakes is not the profile of an under performing school.

Bruce Butler has done a terrific job in creating a positive atmosphere that supports excellence in education at South Lakes.

BUT -What happens when new students are forced to go there?

Won’t there be resentment from kids forced to go?

Won’t there be resentment from kids who are already there towards the new students that had to be forced to come to their school?

Increased numbers = increased class sizes

How is this positive for South Lakes?

Any educator will tell you they favor smaller class sizes.

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Goal #3 – Contiguous Attendance Areas – Eliminate Attendance Islands

The current redistricting recommendation creates an attendance island in the “East Floris” block. 

It ignores an elementary school that directly borders South Lakes and jumps over this area to pull students from Fox Mill and Floris Elementary Schools. 

The current recommendations fail in this stated objective.

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Goal #4 – Equitable Access to Programs & Resources

Redistricting is an attempt to apply to a facility solution to programmatic challenges.

Programs and resources can be provided in many different methods that have not been considered or discussed since the Boundary Study assumes that some form of a redistricting can fix all problems.

It can’t.

A program study needs to be conducted to fully analyze the reasons for South Lakes continued under enrollment and exodus of students. Step one of solving any problem is identifying what the problem is.

This is not a facility problem and cannot be solved by moving students into South Lakes to replace students that leave.

Challenges are addressed most effectively when an answer is not assumed and many options are considered.

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Goal #5 -  Improve Commuting Distances for Impacted Areas

This objective cannot be taken seriously when kids from North Reston are bused 18-20 miles to Langley High School.  Yet Langley High School was not involved in the study.

How can transportation efficiencies be taken seriously when the 13th largest school district in the U. S. uses index cards on a board instead of a computer program to calculate the most efficient bus routes?

Many empty seats and empty buses circle the county’s high schools where student drivers have already paid for a parking space for the car they will be using to drive themselves (and friends) to school.

Let’s improve the efficiency of our bus system before we start make judgments about more efficient transportation between schools.

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Goal #6 – Eliminates / Reduces Split Feeders

Floris becomes a split feeder to both Westfield and South Lakes.

Kids that grow up together and establish friendships in Floris Elementary School and Rachel Carson Middle School are sent to different high schools depending on which side of West Ox they live on.

This is a clear failure of the stated goal.

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Goal #7 – Provides Adequate Buffer for South Lakes

Reston is expected to see increased high density population growth along to Toll Road as the Metro to Dulles becomes a reality.

This high density residential growth near public transportation is a stated goal of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

As population growth happens, the current boundary proposal does not allow for adequate buffer for South Lakes.

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Goal #8 - Keeps Neighborhoods Together

This doesn’t appear to be working for the Floris Community that once again is under a forced redistricting.

Please see these sections of the site for greater analysis of the following issues:

AP versus IB

South Lakes HS Exodus

Redistricting

Just the Facts

Quotable Quotes

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