Fairfax County Public Schools is pitching a new proposal to redraw boundaries for five high schools in the western part of the county that would preserve a divisive plan to cobble parts of wealthier districts into a poorer one.
The new proposal, however, is doing little to mollify critics ahead of a third public forum tonight to discuss the proposals, which officials said would fix imbalances in enrollment between the underpopulated South Lakes High School and more-crowded surrounding schools. Earlier meetings have drawn large, angry crowds.
The latest plan would send some students on track to attend Madison, Westfield and Oakton high schools instead to South Lakes, where about a third of students are on free or reduced-price meals and about 15 percent speak English as a second language.
Jay Frost, who was organizing opposition for the upcoming meeting at Oakton High School, said he moved to Fox Mill two years ago specifically so his son could attend Oakton. He said the School Board has ignored public input, a claim the board’s chairman disputed.
“I have no objection to South Lakes at all,” Frost said. “But the idea that I should move away from having my son have the opportunity to attend one of the top 100 schoolsin America to a school that’s not on the list is kind of an absurd exchange for me.”
Critics — Frost among them — have branded the redistricting as social engineering, which would artificially dilute South Lakes’ problems with an influx of children from other schools.
School Board Chairman Dan Storck rejected that accusation as “absolutely bogus.”
“The board is committed to ensuring our schools have the full complement of students that they’re able to serve … and ultimately to ensure that we’re using taxpayers dollars wisely,” he said.
Under the most recent blueprint, the population of South Lakes would increase from an expected 1,389 students in 2008 to 1,615 students, and from 1,350 students to 2,056 in 2012.
At the same time, the number of English-as-second-language children at South Lakes would drop 4 percent and free-and-reduced-lunch students would be cut about 9 percent.
The School Board is set to receive staff recommendations on the redistricting in January and make a final vote at the end of February.
