The Fairfax County School Board on July 18 approved a new boundary-adjustment policy that displeased many in the audience and drew “nay” votes from some members.
The new policy, approved on a 9-2 vote, provides priority criteria for the superintendent to use in evaluating the need for any boundary changes, including enrollment, capacity, transportation in general, transportation times, proximity of students to schools and access to programming, said School Board member Rachna Sizemore Heizer (Braddock), who moved for approval.
The revised policy will result in better instructional quality, shorter commutes, smaller class sizes, stronger social connections, greater access to facilities and programs, effective use of school system resources and greater oversight, Sizemore Heizer said. The School Board must approve all boundary adjustments, except emergency-related ones, she added.
“With the approval of this update, FCPS will have the tools to solve significant, long-standing problems that have long been raised by the community, including overcrowded classrooms and schools, transportation issues, safety concerns from the use of trailers, staffing problems, split feeders and much, much more,” Sizemore Heizer said.
The changes include a “much more robust public-engagement process” before, during and after decisions are made, she said.
Some in the audience began booing and shouting after her remarks.
“Please observe proper decorum,” said School Board Chairman Karl Frisch (Providence). “Security will ask you to leave. Thank you.”
With the previous boundary policy, “we could move 5 percent of your children anytime,” said board Vice Chairman Sandy Anderson (Springfield), adding that such administrative changes had been suspended several years ago because of resulting problems.
School Board member R. Kyle McDaniel (At-Large) said the new policy gives FCPS staff some guidance regarding priorities, increases the amount of public input and requires a conversation about boundaries every five years.
“When I take my car into the shop and I get the oil changed, it doesn’t mean I swap the engine,” he said. “I fix what’s broken.”
The board defeated amendments by member Ricardy Anderson (Mason) to allow middle-school students, pupils in the final two years of elementary school and high-school sophomores through seniors the option of remaining in their current schools after a boundary change.
Instead, the board kept phasinglanguage from the previous policy, which grants that option – at the School Board’s discretion – to rising students in the final years of elementary, middle and high school.
During the public-comment period before the boundary-policy discussion, some speakers asked board members to defer their decision.
Citing the lack of a current boundary-change case before the School Board, Edward Phillips of the Great Falls Citizens Association asked for a pause in the policy’s updating.
FCPS did not engage with the community sufficiently leading up to the board’s decision, he said.
“The prioritized criteria that you are considering tonight, and the methodology you use, can largely predetermine the boundary changes across the entire community, without meaningful inputs from students, parents, businesses and communities,” Phillips said.
Another speaker, John Smith, said large public-school systems came into being by consolidating smaller community-based systems and legacy school boundaries reflect that.
“If the superintendent directs a boundary study without priority consideration for the existing community-centric architecture, and instead is optimized around the proposed four alternative primary criteria, the boundary map will bear very little resemblance to the legacy map,” he said.
School Board member Marcia St. John-Cunning (Franconia) urged residents to channel their energy toward better educational opportunities for every student.
“The concern about our tax base will take care of itself if instead of focusing our energy on property values, we focus on what is truly important: human values,” she said.
“This isn’t a zero-sum game,” said Superintendent Michelle Reid. “Just because some of our students will gain from this doesn’t mean that others will lose.”
In the final 9-2 vote,with Ricardy Anderson and Melanie Meren (Hunter Mill) voted against. School Board member Ryan McElveen was absent.
