Clifton parents have refused to accept the Fairfax County School Board’s decision to close Clifton Elementary, and are battling on to save the institution they say is the “center of our community.”
Parents of current and future Clifton students, with the help of the local nonprofit group Friends of Community Schools, have formally nominated the elementary school’s circa-1953 building for inclusion in the Town of Clifton Historic District.
The Clifton Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and if the elementary school becomes a part of that district, Fairfax Public Schools would have access to new funding sources for rehabilitating the school building.
“This would go a long way toward protecting the school,” said Kim Farrell, a spokeswoman for Friends of Community Schools.
Members of the Clifton community earlier this month filed a lawsuit against the School Board, claiming its members acted “arbitrarily and capriciously,” and failed to follow School Board protocol when they voted to close Clifton last month.
School Board members and staff had listed renovation costs and contaminated well water as the primary justifications for closing the school. But later, when tests proved the water was safe for student consumption, the School Board failed to postpone its decision to close Clifton.
“If the school building is moved into that historic district, then it’s protected by numerous local, state and federal laws,” Farrell said.
Fewer than 400 students attend Clifton. Whether saving the building will also preserve its status as an active elementary school is another matter.
Calls to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources on Friday were not immediately returned, so it’s unclear precisely how much protection historic status would provide Clifton Elementary.
But it is likely the school’s nomination to join the Clifton Historic District will be successful, according to a June letter written to the School Board by Kathleen Kilpatrick, director of the state’s department of historic resources.
Kilpatrick also encouraged the School Board to maintain Clifton’s status as an elementary school, if possible.
“Preservation is best served by maintaining … a resource in active use for the purpose for which it was designed,” Kilpatrick’s letter states.
