When Andrew DiFrancisco stepped up to the microphone at Monday's Fairfax County School Board public hearing on boundary changes, he looked at the 12 Board members before him and cut straight to the point.
"If you make me go to Luther Jackson Middle School for seventh and eighth grade GT [Gifted and Talented], I won't go," said DiFrancisco, a fifth grade student at Louise Archer Elementary School in Vienna. "I would rather go to Thoreau – it is close to my house and all of my friends will be there … please let me stay in school with all of my friends."
The meeting — the first of two public hearings on proposed boundary changes — was held at Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church on Jan. 8. A second hearing was scheduled to be held at Luther Jackson the following evening to accommodate the next round of citizen input.
During Monday's three and a half hour hearing, the 75 students and parents who had pre-registered for three-minute speaking slots went one after another, expressing their opinion on proposed boundary changes to the School Board members.
Andrew DiFrancisco's comment referred to the Fairfax County School Board's proposal to create a Gifted and Talented center at Luther Jackson Middle School to alleviate overcrowding issues at Kilmer Middle School and Frost Middle School. The proposal was presented to affected parents in the latter half of 2006, and was met with mixed reactions. Parents of students at Luther Jackson Middle School were generally in favor of the proposed plan. However, the vast majority of parents with children attending elementary schools in Vienna were outraged — not only would the proposed boundary changes force their children to be bused even further to attend the Gifted and Talented center at Luther Jackson, but it would also cause "split-feeders" that would send students from one elementary school to two different middle schools.
"If I have to go to a new middle school in Falls Church, I won't know any of the kids there except for a few of my friends," said Andrew DiFrancisco on Monday night. "I wouldn't be able to go to school with any of my friends from baseball and other sports."
CURRENTLY, all Louise Archer Elementary School students in the Gifted and Talented program travel by bus to Kilmer Middle School 's Gifted and Talented center. The proposed boundary changes would mean that some of these students would be sent to Luther Jackson, while some would remain at Kilmer.
"The current proposal would split Vienna students across three pyramids, only to return to Marshall or Madison for high school," said Louise Archer parent Walter Blotkamp at Monday's hearing.
Elizabeth DiFrancisco, mother of Andrew as well as two other children, also spoke on Monday. Citing statistics from a survey that had been handed out to Louise Archer parents last October, she noted that 59 percent of survey respondents said that they would defer their child's Gifted and Talented education and enroll them in the honors program at Thoreau Middle School, enabling them to stay with their friends. She added that the survey had been redistributed after the informational meetings held in December 2006, and that the number of survey respondents who said they would defer their child's Gifted and Talented education had increased to 74 percent.
"Does this mean that we don't want our kids in the GT program? No, we love the GT program and all that it has to offer," said DiFrancisco. "Does this mean that we don't want them to build a GT center at Luther Jackson? No – we would love for the students of Luther Jackson to have their own GT center. We don't want to interrupt the continuity of our child's education … what we want is for Vienna kids to stay in Vienna."
Janet Gelb, past Parent Teacher Association (PTA) president at Louise Archer, said that the split feeders that would be created by the proposed boundary changes, simply do not make sense.
"The idea of shipping half of a child's network of friends and classmates off to another place as they enter a new school year is just crazy to me," said Gelb. "We have a real sense of community in Vienna that I value, and I want my daughter to benefit from it."
OVER THE LAST few months, several Louise Archer parents collaborated to create alternate boundary change proposals. The first two proposals were criticized for their failure to consider Gifted and Talented students in Great Falls. However, the third and most recent proposal was mentioned several times at Monday's hearing.
"They need to open a GT center at Cooper Middle School," said Martin Cohen, the father of two students at Louise Archer, and one student at Flint Hill Elementary. "This alternative is a win-win-win answer for all communities."
Cohen noted that a Gifted and Talented center at Cooper Middle School would still support the creation of GT center at Luther Jackson, while also avoiding overcrowding problems at Thoreau and Kilmer, and reducing long bus rides for students living in Great Falls.
"We just want all of these kids to get the education they need in their own communities," said Cohen. "Since the pyramid system is so important to you, why not work to keep the pyramids more aligned, rather than making them less aligned?"
Betty Ann Dobrenz, a creator of the Louise Archer alternative proposals, said that a boundary study in 1998 had made it clear that a GT center needed to be built at Cooper Middle School at some point in the near future.
"There is a problem with overcrowding in the GT middle schools, but the solution is not to shift students further away from their schools," said Dobrenz.
Jill Hecht, the current president of the Louise Archer Parent Teacher Association (PTA), also questioned why a GT center had not been built at Cooper.
"The staff knew that an option was to build a GT center at Cooper eight years ago, and yet here we are," said Hecht. "What's easier on paper is not better for students … I am thrilled that the Luther Jackson center will relieve the burden that is being placed on the children in Falls Church, but in the process I ask that you not apply that burden to Vienna children."
LOUISE ARCHER parents were not the only ones to express disapproval of the proposed GT boundary changes. David Wender, who has a daughter in the Gifted and Talented program at Mosby Woods Elementary School in Falls Church, said that he felt the boundary study was "flawed from the beginning."
"It did not seem to put a very big emphasis on transit times," said Wender. "I recommend that the study be delayed … I believe a long-term study strategy and solution is in order."
Great Falls resident Philip Pifer urged the School Board to consider building a new middle school along Route 7, or create a GT center at Cooper. Pifer said that his daughter currently catches a bus at 6:15 a.m. for her 2-hour ride to the GT center at Kilmer.
"By the end of the week she is exhausted," said Pifer. "I think it's great that they are building a GT center at Jackson Middle School — I wish we had that opportunity in Great Falls. We have no middle school or high school, our kids are shipped all over."
Marianne Vakiener has a son at Thomas Jefferson High School, and a daughter in the GT program at Mosby Woods Elementary School. Vakiener urged the School Board members to postpone a decision on the proposed boundary changes for another year.
"It's time to look at a system-wide redistricting for all schools," said Vakiener. "This year's transportation study will be helpful in this redistricting when you're considering costs … the best strategy is for students to attend an established GT center with the shortest bus ride."
DESPITE OPPOSITION to the proposed boundary changes, parents did seem to agree that the creation of a GT center at Luther Jackson is a good idea for students in the Falls Church pyramid.
"The children in Falls Church are entitled to a GT center, just as the other pyramids have a GT center," said Grace Cassidy, who has a son at Falls Church High School and a daughter at Camelot Elementary School. "The lack of a GT center in our pyramid is a self-fulfilling prophecy of lower test scores and lower performance by our students."
Cassidy said she suspected that some parents were opposed to sending their children to a GT center at Luther Jackson because of divisions in class.
"The bottom line is that some parents cannot bear to send their GT students to a school with a higher percentage of low income students," said Cassidy.
However, Reid Trautz — who has three sons in the Falls Church school pyramid system — said that Luther Jackson did not deserve its reputation for having a rowdy student body. Trautz said that he had heard such rumors when he first moved to the area with his family, but had found both the teachers and students at Luther Jackson to be "wonderful."
"I wondered what are all of these negative rumors, but none of them ever came to fruition," said Trautz.
He added that building a GT center at Luther Jackson "makes the most sense."
"This is the only pyramid that does not have that [GT] program," said Trautz.
Tamela Latham, past PTA president at Luther Jackson, currently has one son attending the middle school, and one son at Falls Church High School. Latham said that a GT center at Luther Jackson would round out the offerings of the Falls Church school pyramid.
"I want a GT center at Luther Jackson because I want each parent to have a complete package when it comes to educational services," said Latham. "I think your goals should be to have every elementary school have its own GT program, and every middle school would feed back into its respective high school pyramid … some programs bring out a 'Not In My Backyard' reaction, but other programs — such as GT programs — bring out the 'It Had Better Be In My Backyard' reaction."
The Fairfax County School Board will take all public commentary into account when making decisions on proposed boundary changes.