Vote on School Zones in Fairfax Pits Neighbor Against Neighbor

"This whole process has pitted neighbors against neighbors, friends against friends, communities against communities," said Fox Mill resident Jennifer Kyle Herd. "We don't trust each other, and we don't trust the School Board."

Fox Mill parents have found allies elsewhere. At the hearings, some joined irate parents from the Madison High zone. They stood in solidarity with parents from the Westfield High zone, many of them Asian immigrants who are opposed to a boundary switch.

"We came here with empty hands," Yufang Wu, the Chinese-born mother of a Floris Elementary second-grader, said in an interview. "We can sacrifice many things, but not our education."

While opponents of a boundary change cited fears for their real estate values and their children's college prospects, parents of South Lakes students reminded the board that Fairfax tax dollars support all public schools and said that their school deserves equal resources.

The Fox Mill Elementary attendance area is largely composed of Fox Mill Estates, which has 1,100 houses. Fox Mill Estates is considered one of the more affordable neighborhoods in the Oakton High zone, with prices of some houses from the 1970s starting at about $400,000. The attendance zone also includes nearby subdivisions, some with newer, pricier homes.

There's no shortage of volunteers in the schools. In some years, the Fox Mill Elementary PTA has had 100 percent membership. Parents have joked that if they didn't sign up immediately to chaperone a field trip, they could forget it.

The school also has a prized Japanese immersion program. From Fox Mill, students go to Rachel Carson Middle and then Oakton High, which has received a governor's award for excellence and has been ranked among the nation's top 100 high schools by U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek.

Every school day, Elena Shillingburg drives down a winding road from Fox Mill Estates past sprawling mansions with terraced gardens to pick up her 10th-grade daughter at Oakton High. Shillingburg said she hopes her eighth-grade son will also go there and get into the University of Virginia. She said she does not want him to be "a guinea pig" at a school in flux.

For months, she has spent as much as 20 hours a week in meetings, making calls and knocking on doors to try to stop the plan. She said she has had trouble sleeping and has stopped talking to friends who support the plan as long as their schools remain untouched. "Everyone is in it for themselves," she said.

But some neighbors support the move to South Lakes High.

Erika Castro said that if her daughter and other newcomers can raise test scores at the Reston school and help bring more clubs and course offerings, it would make a big difference. "When a school is successful and people take pride in their success, it has a psychological impact on everyone," she said.

In response to a petition with 2,500 signatures against the new boundaries, Castro gave the School Board a petition with 500 supporting signatures.