School Board Narrows, Changes Boundary Possibilities

Tonight at 7 p.m. at the district office on Shaw Drive, the will consider four new or revised boundary scenarios before presenting them to the public. Some of the currently considered scenarios were arrived at in a public forum on March 24 at White Hill, but the board wants to review the proposals and enrollment projections, said Board President Chris Carlucci, before sending them out for public input.

All the proposed scenarios are available at right, by clicking on View Gallery.

The board still aims to make its final boundary decisions by May 15 to be effective for new students entering school in the fall.

At the meeting on March 24, the board heard a number of presentations, answers to questions, and comments from the public.

Wendi Kallins, from Safe Routes to School, made a preliminary presentation, pointing out that from Deer Park the distance to is actually only three-tenths of a mile longer than the distance to , but it’s the infrastructure that makes crossing Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Butterfield Road dangerous.

Kallins also said that when Upper Brookside , “it will be quite the traffic nightmare,” because young kids are less likely to walk or bike and parents don’t like to put them on buses.

Carlucci reiterated, though, that the board is “steadfast” about moving to two K-5 schools at Brookside and said that traffic will be reduced from parents driving in between the two campuses right now.

Facilities Manager Bret Joyner answered questions about possible traffic studies, saying that Parisi Associates would be able to get studies done promptly, but needed the number of possible scenarios narrowed down to two or three.

At a previous meeting, there had also been discussion about the possibility of making Manor a larger school to accommodate all MAP students and more Fairfax residents. George Baranoff, the pre-bond manager for the district, said that the school is currently at 380 students and the plan is to add two classrooms to bring the capacity up to 415 students. Each classroom built is approximately $650,000, he said. If a third classroom is added, it would take up space used for the garden and younger students. And if a fourth classroom is added, it would wipe out the garden area in back, he said. Though there are other areas classrooms could be added, those areas would disrupt the flow of the school and students.

In addition, if the school goes over 450 students, then the multi-purpose room would no longer be able to accommodate the whole school and the library may be too small. This means that in order for the school to grow to up to 500 kids it would cost approximately $10 million, Baranoff said, which would come out of the total $50 million planned on expansions and building -- $30 million of which is planned at .

The subject of the Measure A bond came up over and over as parents suggested that the board consider the possibility of not necessarily sticking to the 360-400 target student size if it meant forcing kids to go to school farther away.

“Probably looking at class size may be a more relevant measure than looking at school size,” said Sarah Chambers, who has kids at Manor.

“Look beyond the resident number projections,” said Shelley Hamilton, who presented a hybrid scenario to the board. Hamiltion tried to look at different ways students are fitting into the schools and suggested that MAP become a Manor-focused program with a lottery for students outside Manor who want to enroll in MAP.

Board member Sharon Sagar also suggested a lottery, but of a different kind.

The other four board members presented their draft scenarios for how they would like the boundaries to be drawn, but Sagar argued that instead the district should open small, neighborhood schools at Deer Park and Upper Brookside. She proposed that Deer Park be reopened as a green, magnet school that only allows biking, walking, and rainy-day carpools – with the district sharing the site with the Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center. And that to fill Upper, there would be a priority enrollment period and then a lottery for who would overflow to Upper.

“Ultimately, it’s probably the fairest thing to do,” said Sagar.

But, Carlucci said the board had already voted not to reopen Deer Park and had gone to the voters for . The board appeared split over how much leeway they had to maneuver within the confines of the Measure A language.

Carlucci attempted to find consensus among the board members – focusing on areas that they all agree on, such as the planning zones all farther back in Sleepy Hollow attending Upper Brookside, the majority of Fairfax attending Manor, and most of the current Wade Thomas students staying at Wade Thomas. However, it was hard for the board to even reach that consensus, with Carlucci, Heidi Kritscher Weller, and Annelise Bauer voting to send out Scenarios Y and Z to the public.

It was the areas on the edges that are the most open to question and where residents were most concerned about where their kids might end up going.

“I’m really upset about how this has turned out,” said one father, who was concerned about the overemphasis on maintaining school size. “On paper that makes sense, but in reality it’s incredibly disruptive to families.”

The current proposals under consideration, Scenarios W, X, Y, and Z, attempt to keep some of the boundaries constant and change the edges to give people different possibilities to consider

“I’m sitting in the back of the room and every 50th word someone says there’s a different section of the room shaking their heads. There’s a lot of pissed-off people,” said Matt Brassler at the March 24 meeting.