Henry’s Talking Points

The Reasons for Redistricting are unjustified.

The smaller student membership is blamed as the reason for lack of school programs in South Lake. In the Town Hall Meeting at Chantilly High School on November 12, 2007, a FCPS staff listed the following as the justifications for redistricting:

• "Larger schools offer more in-house electives"  
• "Smaller schools offer fewer advanced level math courses"
• "Smaller schools offer fewer advanced level science courses"

However, our research shows the small school size does not always translate to lack of programs. Let’s compare South Lakes High School with Falls Church High School, a school with similar size and demographics, but with an AP program:

Comparison of School Programs offered by Falls Church and South Lakes
	Falls Church		South Lakes	Comments
Number of students	1,317		1,454	Falls Church is an AP school with 137 less students.
% Special Ed students	18.6		18.1
% Asian	21.89		11.75
% Black	8.48		20.59
% Hispanic	33.43		16.14
% White	32.68		45.72
"Larger schools offer more in-house electives"
Sports Medicine	-	-
Fashion Marketing	COTM	COTM		"Course on the Mall"
Gourmet foods	Y	-
Fitness and Foods	-	Y
International Foods Hospitality	Y	-
Philosophy	-	TOK		"Theory of Knowledge"    Per course descriptions, philosophy is discussed in every IB course, including science
World Religions	-	-
Comparative Religions	-	-
Current Affairs	-	-
Human Anatomy/Physiology	-	-
American Sign Language	Y	-
Finance	Y	-
Business/Technical Drawing	Y	-
Engineer Drawing	Y	Y
Architectural Drawing	Y	-
Pre-engineering	Y	-
Jewelry 3D Art	-	-
Guitar	Y	-
	Falls Church	South Lakes		Comments
Piano	Y	-
Astronomy	-	-
Animation	-	-
Aerospace Science 1 and 2	-	-
Peer Mediation	-	Y
Criminal Justice	Y	Y		Through Academies
Economics (an AP course)*	-	-
"Smaller schools offer fewer advanced level math courses"
Discrete Math	Y	Y
Pre-calculus honors*	Y	-		IB Math SL Includes pre-calc
Math analysis	Y	Y
Multivariable calculus*	Y	-		IB HL lower level than MV Calc.
AP Statistics	Y	-		Prob/Stats (IB Math Studies and Math SL
Matrix Algebra*	Y	-		also have prob/stats)
"Smaller schools offer fewer advanced level science courses"
AP Physics*	Y	-		IB Physics I and II (though not HL)
AP Environment*	Y	-		IB Environmental systems (SL only)
Major programs that South Lakes has that Falls Church, Robinson, and Westfield do not:
	JROTC, Ceramics, Sculpture
Legend: "Y" school offers the course, per course description book.
"-"  school does NOT offer the course, per the course description book.
* Structure of IB program would not allow these classes.

As you can see from the above table, which is compiled based on the classes brochures from both schools, most of the justifications for redistricting in West County Boundary Study are simply unjustified. Because most of those listed courses can be offered in a school with a smaller size than South Lakes!

Redistricting is a very painful process for all parties involved. If it is really necessary, it must be supported by very strong programming and facility requirements, instead of some “obvious” reasons without factual base!

Why is the proposed redistricting option faced with so much opposition?

The proposed redistricting option has been met with very strong opposition from the families involved. Dean Tistadt, chief operating officer for facilities and transportation services for Fairfax County Public Schools, acknowledged that many of the people affected by the study are frustrated, and said that, "a vast majority of the people slotted to be moved to South Lakes do not want to move."

• Quote Source: http://observernews.com/stories/current/news/011108/boundary.shtml

Why does the redistricting face so much opposition?

We oppose the proposed redistricting option because the reasons we were given for it are not valid:

• The inability of some school to be able to offer some unimportant classes, such as Jewelry Design, were actually used to help justify this painful redistricting process.
• Some rarely offered classes, such as the Advanced Level of a Foreign Language, were also used as the justification for the painful redistricting process. Sometimes, even the largest schools can not offer those classes because lack of interest, for example, Spanish 5.
• Some classes that can not be offered at South Lakes based on its IB curriculum, such as AP-type classes, are used as the justification for the painful redistricting process.
• Most justifications for redistrict town meeting are simply without factual supports.
• Severely crowded conditions in Chantilly and Westfield were used as the reason for redistricting, but the recommended plan ends up moving the least amount of students from these two schools, as compared to all the other proposed options. The results contradict the reason for the process. If these schools are so crowded, shouldn’t you move more students from them instead of less?
• Chantilly and Westfield are still way above the 2000 optional size with the implementation redistrict plan, while the optional size is one of main justification for the redistricting.
• Programmatic problems are considered as the main driver for the boundary study, but only facility solutions are being considered. Programmatic solutions are not even mentioned.
• “Only the very best players get the opportunity to play during football games” is used as a reason for redistricting. However, this claim is generally true for any school.  Ironically, at Westfield, because the team did so well this year, they often used 2^nd and 3^rd string players to finish off a game when the team had a significant lead, giving these students more playing time than they would have likely gotten at a smaller school!

We oppose the proposed redistricting option because the process is heavily flawed:

• Some schools that should be included in the study are excluded for unexplainable reasons.
• Other schools, such as Falls Church and Mount Vernon, have similar under enrollment problems, but there are no plans to redraw boundaries around these schools.
• During the town meetings, FCPS staff and School Board members were speaking behind the video feed, therefore there were no chances for us to ask any questions. 
• The proposed redistricting option was supposed to have been based on community input. But the alternative plan was published 5 days before the meeting notes were published. You may argue that it took a long time to compile the meeting notes. We need to ask how you can create a plan before you finish compiling the meeting notes on which the plan is based.
• Communities were divided to fight against each other, and now, the ones who are no longer slotted to be redistricted are still throwing the rest of us “under the bus.”
• All options and the final recommendation do not have any financial or efficiency analyses and comparisons. Improved efficiency is the main reason for undergoing redistricting according to the Virginia state code.

We oppose the proposed redistricting option because our kids will not have the same education choices as other kids in Fairfax County.

• Fairfax County offers three choices to all high school students: IB, AP and TJ. Since the redistricting plan moves a large number of students from AP schools to South Lakes, an IB school, if our kids want to have pupil placement to an AP school, their choices will be severely limited. Westfield and Chantilly are out of the question because these two schools are consider too “crowded” and will not accept extra students. Oakton is too far away. The only school our kids can go to is Herndon High School. Once Herndon is filled to its capacity, our kids will have no place to go but will be trapped at South Lakes, forced to accept a program they don’t want. While other Fairfax Kids are free to choose, our kids’ choices are limited under the redistricting plan.

We oppose the proposed redistricting option because our kids will be forced to go to a school that can not even keep its own students.

• There is a student exodus problem at South Lakes. The redistricting option will force our kids go to a school that has been continuously losing its own students. Our bigger worry is that either no one has realized there is such a problem or no one wants to admit it. Since this problem was not even mentioned, the related solutions are definitely out of the question. If this situation continues, our kids can become a large part of these statistics.

---

Maryclaire’s Talking Points

Topics for Public...

--No Compelling Enrollment Issue to Do this Redistricting

--There is no urgency to do this Redistricting. Let’s get more information so we don’t look at doing this again in the very near future... This ties into the Over Enrollment Issues of 98% with the additional influx of students.

--Programmatic Issues being addressed by Facility Staff. WHERE IS THE PROGRAM TASK FORCE? Where are the program studies?

--AP vs. IB... These are two totally different programs and IB should be a voluntary opt in program

--Split Feeder at Rachel Carson does  not meet criteria

--Why Send My Kid to South Lakes when they have not yet determined why they have a substantial number of students in the boundary area not attending.

--Transportation, look at the transportation task force report. The savings to Fox Mill is negated by the driving of the Navy Group. The Task Force finds that boundary issues are negligible in addressing the bussing issues they are already tackling.

--Langley, Madison and Centreville... where are they in the boundary study. The staff has still not provided a good reason for that.

--Regulation  and Process... They have disregarded the publicized process