Fairfax County school staff will deliver a school-boundary proposal that doesn’t vary substantially from prior versions of the controversial plan, despite a series of public meetings in which angry residents called for it to be overhauled or scrapped.
The School Board, which will hear the final recommendation at its meeting tonight, found itself caught in a vicious battle with west county residents in recent months over how to shift school boundaries. The redistricting would expand the student body at the underpopulated South Lakes High School by peeling away parts of surrounding districts.
Critics of the proposal have accused the school board of carrying out “social engineering” on South Lakes, where more students are on free or reduced lunch, speak limited English and test marginally worse than adjacent high schools such as Westfield and Oakton.
Proponents call the boundary change a necessary, though difficult, solution to overcrowding and underenrollment in western Fairfax schools. Under the proposal, South Lakes would grow from a projected 1,389 students next school year to 1,615, with most of the new students coming from the Fox Mill Elementary School area that funnels into Oakton.
Community members overwhelmingly opposedthe change at three public hearings in recent weeks.
“What much of the community continues to ask for, which is a moratorium, is not something staff can take into consideration,” said Denise James, director of facilities planning for Fairfax County Public Schools. “Staff does not have the option to recommend to do nothing.”
Jay Frost, an outspoken opponent of the boundary change, said he saw little difference between the newest proposal and previous iterations, and said “it was very clear” staff have not read the notes from the meetings.
“We are not trying to judge [the school board’s] motivations, I’m sure they’re being sincere,” he said. “But they have put themselves in a box, and we’ve got to help them get out of it.”
James said school staff read through thousands of pages of comments, both written and online.
