After redefining town meeting, the Fairfax County School Board is now trying to keep people quiet at public hearings. One parent who attended a hearing on the Western Boundary Study told me that anybody who objected to staff recommendations were cut off and consistently told they had to introduce new material or they would not be allowed to speak. Families living in the Floris community have already been redistricted five times in nine years, yet they were not allowed to criticize the biased redistricting study at the public hearing. Here s a copy of a letter one Floris resident sent to each Fairfax County School Board member and Supt. Jack Dale: Hello Mr. Dale, I’d like to state for the public record that I feel that freedom of speech at the Public Hearing on Feb, 19, 2008 was denied to myself and to several other taxpaying citizens of the Floris Community. I was interrupted by [School Board member] Brad Center because he said that I was not speaking to “comparing staff’s [redistricting] option with options 2 and 3”. Many other speakers did not speak directly to this specific parameter and were not interrupted, only Floris speakers were targeted and asked to stop. The Floris community is the only community that is in the crosshairs of each of the options that would force us out of an AP program at Westfield and into an IB program at South Lakes. How can we possibly compare the pros/cons of staff’s scenario with the pros/cons of option 2 and 3 presented by Mr. [Stu] Gibson and Mrs. [Kathy] Smith when all three options do the same thing: they force Floris to be moved to South Lakes and split our community? You asked Floris parents to make impossible comparisons! All of the options force our children and families to make all of the sacrifices while South Lakes makes no sacrifices. As a result, Floris residents had to speak to the flawed process and to the many issues that have not been discussed, such as pupil placement issues, transportation, splitting communities, etc. Other speakers from McNair and Chantilly Highlands were easily able to make the requested comparisons because staff’s option 1 left them alone, while options 2 and 3 forced them to move. Of course they are going to say that options 2 and 3 are bad and they prefer option 1! Clearly a ploy to gain support for staff’s recommendation. And then to have to hear Ms. [Kaye] Kory give a very frustrated sigh while listening to a Floris resident speak was just as inexcusable as Mr. Gibson’s antics at the first two hearings. We have tried to be respectful, even under impossible odds, and we do not deserve this response from any member of the School Board. Floris residents are frustrated and angry because we do not have representation and our pleas to the School Board fall on several deaf ears. Please help us end this nightmare and start the study over again. There are too many unanswered questions and unresolved issues for any School Board member to vote for redistricting at this time. There will be too many redistricting victims if this goes forward. Thank you for your time. Respectfully, Paula Crosby Herndon