Greg Schuckman has been paying careful attention to the boundary study at South County Secondary school. He attended community meetings and spoke at the public hearing in January.
He is an anomaly in his Lorton Station neighborhood, one of apparently a handful of parents in Lorton who knew their children might be reassigned to Hayfield Secondary school at the end of the boundary study, which will be voted on by the School Board in just three weeks.
"In Lorton Station we have an e-mail listserv, but unless I put a message out there, nothing comes out," said Schuckman, who said the lapse in information may have been fixed through a stronger homeowner's association or chain of communication.
Most parents in Lorton Station or Lorton Valley knew little to nothing about the study, they say, their only notice coming in the form of a flyer distributed to students during the first few weeks of school. As a result, they now want the School Board to reconsider moving their children to Hayfield, instead opting to make no changes until given their fair chance to speak out.
"We were left out of everything," said Mel Garcia, a Lorton Valley resident who does not currently have children in school. The principle of keeping all residents in the area informed and at South County has motivated him to fight to keep Lorton Station and Lorton Valley in the South County pyramid.
"I don't think it's fair. Our community is probably a lot closer other than ones on Silverbrook Road," he said. "We can practically walk to the school."
Lorton Station resident Karen Luffred said she remembers seeing the flyer last fall but didn't keep track of the proceedings until she heard about the recommendation.
"The whole reason they did a boundary study so quickly was because the school was so overcrowded, but this recommendation doesn't bring South County back under capacity," said Luffred, "Why are they putting everyone through this if it won't get the capacity under 100 percent?"
Luffred said she doesn't understand why the staff recommendation didn't suggest the School Board take advantage of the capacity that was found at Lake Braddock Secondary by the McKibben Group, a consulting firm that was hired for $150,000 to evaluate the School Board's enrollment projecting process last summer.
Luffred and many other Lorton Station and Lorton Valley residents feel the School Board expected residents to check their Web site for information, something that might not be fair to those parents who do not have a computer or Internet connection at home.
"It's not fair for Lorton children to be the sacrificial lamb in all this," said Lorton Valley resident Kevin Morse. "The line of demarcation is (Interstate) 95 for this school, that's why we got pulled into this to begin with. They pulled us up and grabbed us."
Lorton Valley children account for 116 students at South County, a slightly larger number that the nearly 90 from Mason Neck, which is currently slated to stay at South County. But because Lorton Valley is closer, Morse believes his community has a better argument for remaining at South County.
LORTON VALLEY is one of the newer communities in Lorton, and residents there have been working hard to create a sense of identity through block parties, holiday celebrations and participation in school events.
Morse said his 14-year-old daughter has been happy at South County since the school opened, when she left private school to join the new community created there.
"She felt right at home there from the start," Morse said. "We bought our house because we wanted her to go to this school."
Another reason Morse advocates a delay in action is the still-unknown impact of the 22,000 new residents and their families moving to Fort Belvoir or the Engineer Proving Ground in Springifeld as a result of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) changes, which could possibly increase enrollment at both South County and Hayfield.
"We need to look at the long-term plan and build a middle school to fix this problem," he said.
Plus, the question remains as to what fiscal impact any changes to South County's boundary may have in the future.
"If they had told me my daughter would go here for a year and then have to switch schools, I wouldn't have bought my home," said Morse, who added that resale value of his home might decrease if students are sent to Hayfield.
James Ransdell shares Morse's concerns, both about his daughter's ability to play sports at South County and the greater impact of whatever the boundary decision might state.
"What I'd like to see, rather than Fairfax County build another elementary school, is to build a middle school instead," said Ransdell, suggesting what many parents across the current South County boundary consider the only real answer to overcrowding.
"I think the best idea is to vote to do nothing," he said. "That would give us some time to be more engaged in the process. Most parents effected don't know anything about what's being discussed. We never knew until two or three weeks ago when it was almost too late."
Lorton Valley resident Harold Henson said he'd go so far as to suggest the School Board not change anything and leave the split schedule devised this year to make the most of the school's space to keep all the students together.
"The principal [Dale Rumberger] is doing a fine job, everything's working out well," Henson said. "Doing nothing is a good option."
Henson does not have any school-aged children attending South County or any of the surrounding schools, but feels he must speak out.
"If one group has to suffer, we all should," said Henson, adding that he believes the best option, if the School Board must do something, is to vote for Option One, which would revert South County into a high school by sending students in middle school to Lake Braddock or Hayfield.
WITH A 3-YEAR-OLD son at home, Henson said he and his wife intended to live in their Lorton Valley home for at least 20 years, so their son could graduate from South County.
"Now we're being told no, you're not going to that school, you're going to Hayfield," he said. "Even my wife, who graduated from Hayfield, said no, we want him to go to South County."
Another Lorton Station resident, Tom Stanley, agreed that Option One is the only solution on the table worth considering.
"Right now Lorton is singled out," he said. "The option [that was] recommended really is prejudicial against our area over others that are farther away. Given the fact that we're only two miles from school it's frustrating. It does not solve overcrowding problem."
With only a few weeks left until the School Board makes its decision, Schuckman said he is organizing his neighbors to fight together against the option in the hopes of changing the fate of their children. He is also advocating the School Board choose Option One, to keep all children together for high school while taking them out for middle school.
However, he believes the School Board has another option.
"There's funding in the queue to have Laurel Hill Elementary on-line in 2009, which is needed to relieve overcrowding at the other three elementary schools. That problem would be solved if we built a middle school for grades six through eight instead," Schuckman suggested. "This addresses the real capacity issues and it balances the pyramid. We can solve all the problems down here with the exception of a few parents in Laurel Hill who would be upset you're taking away their neighborhood elementary school."