After months of town meetings, public hearings and even petition drives, the Fairfax County School Board approved the boundary changes for four new elementary schools and six gifted and talented (GT) centers, all opening in September. A majority of the proposals were approved in one lump sum, with only the Andrew Chapel and Lorton Station school sites drawing any debate from the board members.
At a work session last Monday, the board members discussed amendments to three of the proposals — for the Lorton Station elementary school site, the northeast Centreville elementary school site and the Mosby Woods GT center. Those amendments were rolled into the main motion rather than voted on separately.
AT-LARGE BOARD MEMBER Mychele Brickner requested the Andrew Chapel and Lorton Station proposals be broken out of the main motion, allowing for a separate vote.
Brickner criticized the Andrew Chapel proposal, specifically because it had the Fox Run neighborhood, currently assigned to Forestville Elementary School, which is the community's closest school, reassigned to Andrew Chapel. In all, three communities were still dissatisfied with the proposed boundaries for the new school.
"I really don't have a better solution. I think we could have done better," Brickner said. "I find it hard to support something that so many people are disenfranchised with. We could do better and we should do better."
School Board member Jane Strauss (Dranesville) said there were several reasons the proposal on the table was the best one, which include avoiding moving students from one overcrowding situation to another, and not changing the middle- and high-school feeders or creating so-called split-feeders.
"The other part that made this boundary difficult is that the geography for all the elementary schools isn't perfect," Strauss said. "We tried to keep those communities that were very close to the schools and that's were the debate exists."
The proposal was approved by a 9-2 vote with Brickner and fellow at-large board member Rita Thompson opposed.
AS FOR LORTON STATION, again Thompson and Brickner were opposed to the way the boundary lines were drawn. Last Monday, an amendment was put forth by board members Isis Castro (Mount Vernon) and Catherine Belter (Springfield), whose districts are affected, to keep the area known as Hagel Circle at Halley rather than move it to the new Lorton Station school. The amendment would essentially make Hagel Circle an island.
The move was prompted by requests from members of the community who were concerned the number of children receiving free or reduced-priced lunch, which is about 34 percent, and a high English as a Second Language population would be too much for the new school. The amendment would drop the numbers to about 25 percent at Lorton Station, while Halley would have about 22 percent students on free and reduced lunch.
In addition, Halley is a Project Excel school and receives additional funding for resources to help students with special needs. No additional funding has been allocated for Lorton Station.
At the time, a meeting with the affected community had been scheduled to explain the reasoning behind the amendment, but it was canceled due to snow.
Brickner proposed an amendment, which eventually failed, to approve the originally proposed boundary, which moved Hagel Circle to Lorton Station. She suggested if the students requiring special programs were attending Lorton Station, then the funds for those programs should also go to Lorton.
"We do not like having an island and I'm glad you mentioned additional funding, but would you care to point out where in our budget we will get the additional funding for Lorton Station?" asked Castro.
Thompson, who abstained from voting on Brickner's motion, instead said she did not favor creating an island, but also did not want to send students who require special services to a school that does not have the proper resources for them.
"I'm not sure this should be on the table tonight to vote on before we've been in the community to explain it," Thompson said. She didn't however, make a motion to table the vote.
The boundary proposal, including the amendment to keep Hagel Circle at Halley, was approved 9-2 with Brickner and Thompson opposed.
The remaining proposals passed unanimously in a lump-sum vote.