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Public pleads with school board
Nine Fairfax County students opened the first of three public hearings on the west county school boundary study on Jan. 30. They were followed by more than 100 parents that evening alone, many of them in opposition to the proposal to shift school districts to alleviate overcrowding at Chantilly and Westfield high schools while infusing students into the under-enrolled South Lakes High School.Three of the student speakers that evening were from the Ramsey family, who lives in the Fox Mill neighborhood and whose parents have lobbied to remain in the Oakton High School district.
Amy Girardi, a senior at South Lakes and SGA president, said the boundary process, which began in earnest in November, has taught her that “adults can be more childish than any high school student.”
Girardi defended the IB program, which would become a point of contention and the subject of statistics in many of the speakers' objections to being moved to South Lakes.
As South Lakes students and supporters spoke, close to 20 supporters stood. For speakers who opposed redistricting, the rest of the audience stood in support, numbering much more than the South Lakes supporters.
The biggest group to come out of the anti-redistricting organizations that formed in each community has been the FairfaxCAPS (Coalition of Advocates for Public Schools). The group organized recently as a way to coordinate the dozens of communities affected by the boundary study.
Nick Pesce, one of the founders of FairfaxCAPS, promised the school board it would hear from supporters that the boundary study fails to address the “programmatic” problems of South Lakes by instead using a “facilities approach.”
“Please understand the urgency to push forward with this vote is not justifiable, please vote no to the current recommendation,” he said.
Maryclaire Ramsey agreed with Pesce's assertion that the study fails to address the “programmatic” problems of South Lakes, namely that the IB program has caused an exodus of students from South Lakes into schools that offer AP classes.
Ramsey said she and others who oppose redistricting have been unfairly accused of disliking the demographic makeup of South Lakes.
“I take offense to these comments,” she said. “I therefore ask you to support the stoppage of these accusations and focus on the programmatic issues.”
Herndon High School, though unaffected in the final boundary scenario presented to the School Board, still had representatives at the hearing who wanted to make sure it remained that way.
Elizabeth Gibson, a member of Herndon's PTSA and chairman of the PTSA's boundary study committee, said Herndon's current demographics represents the ideal high school model of Fairfax County, with a population of 2,000.
“It's imperative the boundary change never enrolls one school to the detriment of another,” she said.
The final public hearing will be held on Saturday, Feb. 9. Any interested speakers may still sign up at www.fcps.edu.
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