| Four
Options Proposed for High School Boundary Study |
By Rebecca Plevin
Observer Staff Writer |
| Parents and students from six west county high schools met
with county representatives to discuss four possible redistricting
solutions Monday night at Westfield High School. The meeting
was the second of three community forums designed to give
parents and students an opportunity to voice their opinions
on the county's plan to address overcrowding at Chantilly
and Westfield high schools and under-enrollment at South Lakes
High School. |
| Dean Tistadt, chief operating officer for facilities and
transportation services for Fairfax County Public Schools,
said the county developed the four plans to show the potential
impact to all of the areas studied, but said none of the plans
represented a likely solution. He said he would be surprised
if one of the options ended up being the county's final proposal. |
| "I personally did not think any of the four represented
the best possible work that could be done," he said in a phone
interview Tuesday. "I think they all needed work. None of
them got us quite where we needed to go." |
| In the first boundary change option, students from McNair
Elementary School, south of the Dulles Toll Road and west
of Centreville Road, and students at Floris Elementary School,
east of Sully Road and west of Centreville Road, would transfer
from Westfield to Herndon. Additionally, portions of McNair
and Floris, south of the Dulles Toll Road and east of Centreville
Road, would be moved from Westfield to South Lakes. Oak Hill
Elementary School would shift from Chantilly to Westfield.
|
| In the second boundary option, McNair students south of
the Dulles Toll Road and west of Centreville Road would relocate
to Herndon high and those east of Centreville Road would transfer
to South Lakes. Additionally, South Lakes would receive students
from the Fox Mill attendance area and the Madison "island,"
which includes portions of Wolftrap Elementary School. Oak
Hill Elementary School would move from Chantilly to Oakton.
|
| Movement of Fox Mill, McNair and Wolftrap elementary students
is identical in the third option. Instead of transferring
Oak Hill Elementary to Oakton, the county proposes relocating
students in the Navy Elementary School attendance area from
Chantilly to Oakton. |
| In the final options, students would relocate from Herndon
to South Lakes with the Aldrin and Armstrong attendance areas
changing boundaries, and McNair students south of the Dulles
Toll Road and east of Centreville Road and Floris students
east of Centreville Road would transfer from Westfield to
Herndon. South Lakes would receive the Madison "island" students
and Oak Hill would shift from Chantilly to Westfield. This
is the only option that recommends removing students from
Herndon's current boundaries. |
| At Monday's meeting, county officials asked participants
to list one advantage and one disadvantage for each plan.
Tistadt said county officials would review comments from the
meeting and present one or two potential scenarios at the
next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 19 at Oakton High School.
He said he had not yet reviewed the comments from the second
meeting. |
| Elizabeth Gibson, Herndon High School's PTSA boundary committee
chairman, said Herndon parents are mainly opposed to the fourth
plan, which would move Herndon feeder schools Buzz Aldrin
and Armstrong elementary schools to the South Lakes district.
All four plans would move Westfield students to Herndon, and
Gibson said Herndon is open to accepting additional students. |
| South Lakes PTSA vice president Maria Allen said she thought
all the plans needed revision. She said South Lakes opposed
the first three plans, which moved students from Westfield
feeder school McNair elementary to South Lakes. That plan
is, "basically taking low-income kids out of a school that
can better support them and putting them in schools that already
have very high percentage low-income kids," she said. |
| Both Gibson and Allen said parents from many schools were
concerned about students traveling long distances to get to
school. Long commutes, often on congested highways, are "a
cost concern to the county and families, both in dollars and
time," Gibson said. |
| Allen said South Lakes has developed their own "option five"
plan, which would allow Fox Mill Elementary School families
to attend South Lakes, instead of traveling a longer distance
to Oakton High School. Their plan would also transfer the
Madison "island" and possibly the eastern section of the Floris
elementary district to South Lakes. The plan would leave McNair
students at Westfield, Allen said. |
| A number of South Lakes students attended the meeting, including
junior Brian Stout. Stout said he supports South Lake's proposed
option because "I think that works out better from the whole
county perspective." |
| "I think I should represent the school as best I can," said
Stout, explaining why he attended the meeting. "On the whole,
South Lakes is getting a better image because we're getting
out there." |
