School-Redistricting Forum Draws 2,000

¿ In a third, McNair area students would be split between South Lakes and Herndon. Fox Mill area and some Wolf Trap area students would go to South Lakes. Some Navy Elementary area students would go from Chantilly to Oakton.

¿ In the fourth, Floris area and some McNair area students would move to Herndon. Students in the Armstrong and Aldrin elementary areas, who now track into Herndon, would go to South Lakes.

All scenarios would lower enrollments at Westfield and Chantilly and bring South Lakes to about 2,000 students by 2012. They also would lower the portion of South Lakes students on free or reduced-price lunches, a measure of poverty, from about a third to about a quarter.

Maria Allen, vice president of the South Lakes Parent-Teacher-Student Association, said the school system should do more to address economic imbalances. "The bottom line is South Lakes should not be the low-income magnet of western Fairfax," she said before the meeting.

Like others at the meeting, Sherry Zhu dressed in black to show solidarity with other parents who want no changes. She has a son in middle school who, under current boundaries, would go to Westfield. Too often, she said, low-income residents are shuffled from school to school.

"The school system's strategy is unfair," Zhu said.