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Thousands attend boundary meeting
Parents parked on medians and in fire lanes in Chantilly High School's overflowing parking lot Monday night for the first of three town hall meetings to gather public input on a west county boundary study by Fairfax County Public Schools.By county staff's estimates, more than 2,000 people showed up to hear an explanation of the boundary study process and the problems the county hopes to solve with redistricting. Six high schools are in the study: Herndon, Oakton, Chantilly, Westfield, South Lakes and Madison.
The study will examine redistricting as a solution to under-enrollment at South Lakes and crowded conditions at Westfield and Chantilly, according to staff's presentation. South Lakes has an enrollment of 1,450 students, and will have a capacity of more than 2,000 once renovations to the school are finished in fall 2008.
Westfield and Chantilly are slightly over capacity, although future enrollment projections show that they will not be seriously overcrowded until 2013. Future overcrowding, however, will limit student participation in extracurricular activities and electives, said Cluster 8 Superintendent Betsy Goodman.
The audience filled one side of the gym at Chantilly as well as the overfill room in the cafeteria, where the staff's presentation in the gym was projected on a screen.
Many of the attendees wore the high school colors of their current districts. Groups from nearly every high school in the study, except South Lakes, have formed groups to protest redistricting. Stoprd.org has an informal petition of 2,000 signatures to halt the process, and keepoakton.org was formed in January to keep neighborhoods in the Fox Mill area within Oakton's boundaries.
At a question-and-answer period after the presentation, the first questioner elicited a standing ovation in support.
“The majority of the community advocates a moratorium on redistricting. Would you consider a moratorium?”
The man then walked down the stands and handed the microphone to Hunter Mill District School Board representative Stu Gibson, who declined to answer.
“The board members are not here to answer questions tonight, they are here to listen and observe,” Goodman said.
The audience was given the opportunity to participate in small work group meetings to list what they believe should be priorities considered in redistricting. Fifty-one small groups were filled. Staff will compile “common themes” found in the groups and present them at the next town meeting, said Dean Tistadt, chief operating officer of facilities and transportation planning services.
In attendance with Gibson were at-large School Board members Ilryong Moon and Steve Hunt, Chairman Daniel Storck (Mount Vernon) and Kathy Smith (Sully). Jane Strauss, representative for the Dranesville District, did not attend.
Strauss' recent election, though unopposed, was the medium for a protest by parents currently in the Madison "attendance island" – a small part of the school's boundary on the Vienna side of Reston. Eliminating the island would affect 35 students, who would be redistricted to South Lakes.
At the Colvin precinct, an Election Day push by parents in the Madison island led to a write-in campaign of 22 percent for “James Madison.”
Charles Woloszynski, a parent of two in the Madison island, said the write-in was a way to express disappointment in leadership.
“We eat, breathe and live Vienna. Reston's not really part of our connections,” he said.
Unlike the other schools in the study, the Madison island would have a complete pyramid redistricting, also changing the boundaries for the elementary and middle schools.
Stoprd.org administrator Richard Bolger, an attorney, said the county must find another solution besides redistricting to address whatever problems it identifies. Bolger pointed to the petition and the “overwhelming sentiment” of the audience as reason to stop the redistricting process.
“If they do not change their course, we'll have no alternative but to prepare to litigate the issue in court,” he said.
Not all parents are in such fierce opposition to idea of redistricting. A smaller faction of nearly 30 parents and students of South Lakes wore the school's colors in the bleachers Monday. PTSA president Elizabeth Vandenberg brought and distributed 500 copies of the PTSA newsletter and South Lakes “At a Glance” handouts that highlighted academic and extracurricular achievements.
Vandenberg said she feels no ill-will toward parents at other schools who are opposed to sending their children to South Lakes.
“We understand change is hard, but we're 100 percent confident in our program, in our academics and in [Principal Bruce] Butler,” she said.
A smaller petition with 98 signatures was started on mysite.verizon.net/vze84nt5/we_support_redistricting to support the boundary study. Vandenberg said she signed it, though it is independent of the PTSA, which has not taken a formal stance.
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