Letters To the Editor

School Study Story Has Another Side

I am writing in response to the guest column by the West Springfield Pyramid Solutions Coalition ["Coalition to Fight Until School Board Reconsiders Study," Fairfax Extra, June 16].

The writers failed to fully explain the study being conducted of West Springfield High School, Lee High School, Lake Braddock Secondary School, Irving Middle School and Key Middle School. Without the other side of the story, I'm afraid your readers will not see the importance of this story or understand the controversy.

Currently, the student population of Fairfax County is fairly static. The only problem is that the growth areas where students are located have shifted. The Lorton and Centreville areas are growing while other areas have even lost students. When new schools open, such as South County High School in September, or renovations such as those at Lake Braddock are completed, it becomes necessary to conduct studies on the current boundaries and make adjustments. The problem lies not with having these studies, as Kevin Brown and Thomas Bognanno of the West Springfield Pyramid Solutions Coalition suggest. The problem is that the school board has no criteria for deciding what is important when deciding on boundaries and does not have to comply with any recommendation from a boundary study.

Fairfax County residents should think about the problems caused by having no criteria. Consider enrollment. Lee High School and West Springfield are both over capacity. Lake Braddock, on the other hand, is under capacity. Logically, that means some students need to be shifted from Key Middle School, Lee High School and West Springfield High School to Lake Braddock Secondary.

Should we consider other criteria, such as proximity to schools, general community affiliation, historical precedence, school clusters or school pyramids? What about demographics? The reasons our children should or should not attend a school can be endless.

Without this criteria, the findings from a study can be subject to whims and not fair. Isn't that part of the West Springfield Pyramid Solutions Coalition's complaint, that how the South Hunt area was added to the West Springfield High School boundary was unfair?

The greater problem than having no criteria is the fact that the school board does not have to go with staff recommendations or the study. This is what happened with the South Hunt area.

It was first recommended that this area should attend the new South County High School. The next study recommended that this area attend Lake Braddock. The school board then decided to place the South Hunt Valley in West Springfield High School.

I am not going to debate the merits of this move, but the lesson for everyone involved in this new study should be, watch out. No matter what the study finds, boundaries will be decided by the school board, and in turn, politics.

Because of politics, my neighborhood of Daventry has already become a battleground of this new study. In general, West Springfield High School parents do not want any of the boundaries to change. This means no study and keeping the school from adding or subtracting any areas.

Daventry area students currently attend Lee High School. Since the community was formed in the 1980s, its assignment to Lee High School has created controversy. Most residents have all their social ties to the West Springfield area (shopping, religious services, youth sports, etc.) The creek behind my house divides Zip codes, voting districts and county districts, school clusters and school boundaries, except this one. Daventry is the only area with students who attend Irving Junior High who do not go on to attend West Springfield High School. Daventry is isolated in this manner.

Daventry is also isolated because, relatively speaking, it is small. My school board representative, Catherine A. Belter, has no incentive to represent Daventry. Ms. Belter can get many more votes by keeping the boundary of West Springfield High School exactly the same. She represents probably fewer than 100 students at Lee High School but the whole area of West Springfield High School. There is no political incentive to do what is recommended or fair. There is no political incentive for any of the other board members to follow the recommendations either, because for the most part, it doesn't concern their districts.

I am not afraid of this study. I am not even afraid of my children attending Lee High School, although it seems illogical.

I am afraid of being disenfranchised. I'm afraid no matter what the study finds is in the best interest of all the county's children, special interest groups set up to promote only their children's interests will create this piecemeal community-against-community system that is inherently unfair. This is the reason that those people living in the Westfield, South Lakes, Centreville and the rest of the county need to pay attention.

If redistricting is always going to be solely about politics, it would be in their best interest not to be naive and start knocking on doors, writing letters, raising money and using all means necessary, just as the West Springfield Pyramid Solutions Coalition is doing now.

Julie Melear

Springfield