Boundary Study Will Move 32 Students from Providence to Fairfax Villa

Next year 32 county students attending Providence Elementary School will instead take the bus to Fairfax Villa.

Fairfax County's School Board approved the Southwestern Boundary Study's give and take answer to overcrowded schools in February. The board plans to move students to less crowded schools starting in 2011-2012. They will fine tune each school's enrollment the following school year.

Though a county school board decision, students in Fairfax City, particularly those attending Providence, will be affected. The city contracts with Fairfax County to run and staff all four of the city's schools. County teachers and administrators follow county rules. All Fairfax City has to worry about is paying tuition to the county and renovating school buildings.

While Fairfax City students won't leave the city limits, their county friends might be among those moved to Fairfax Villa on Santa Clara Drive between Fairfax Villa Park and Providence Park.

Providence saw its highest student enrollment in 2010 at 929 students, according to FCPS. That number will be brought down slightly to 897. In contrast, Fairfax Villa saw its highest enrollment in 2001 at 445 students. The boundary study will add 119 students (564) from Providence and Eagle View.

To meet higher enrollment, Fairfax Villa will get a six classroom addition in 2013. This will allow the school to accept a maximum of 680 students.

Providence would exceed 105 percent capacity in 2015-2016. School officials expect to keep Providence's capacity at 106.4 percent to prevent moving any city students.

Westmore was not considered to help with overcrowding. The old, unused school is owned by Fairfax City and needs significant renovations to safely house students.

The boundary study was one of the largest in the school system's history, and controversial in many quarters. Twelve PTAs  from 21 of the schools affected voted in favor of a resolution expressing "no confidence" in the Southwestern Boundary Study. Around 70 people attended the board meeting on February 24, many carrying signs in protest. 

"I've been getting a lot of e-mails saying, 'just vote no. Vote no on this boundary change.' But we have a school district to run," said James Raney (Member at Large). He said that when some schools are vastly overcrowded, and others are far under capacity, the school board has a responsibility to act.

"In a perfect world, change would be minimized, because change is in and of itself disruptive," said Tessie Wilson (Braddock District). "But this is not a perfect world. And we as a governing board must look at the larger picture and make our decision based on the greater good."

The vote was opposed by Patricia Reed (Providence District), Martina Hone and Ilryong Moon (Members-at-Large).

Reed, Hone and Moon had voted earlier in the evening in favor of an amendment that would postpone the vote until after new projection numbers are released in March. Citing concerns that the data school board members based their decisions on is too old, and the need for increased public trust in the boundary study process, the three joined Sandra Evans (Mason District), in voting to postpone the vote until April 14. 

"This study uses enrollment data from over a year ago, and projections that show the best guess at the time. So I ask you, would you allow a surgeon to rely on one year old medical tests prior to surgery?" Reed said, to cheers from many of those observing. "Would you even allow your auto mechanic to fix a car that he hadn't evaluated in a year? This study affects 1700 students directly, and many more families and communities indirectly."

Evans said that even if the numbers were completely accurate, public confidence in the process was crucial.

“The community needs to buy into this process. The community needs to have some confidence in what we’re doing...I don’t see that we lose anything significant in waiting." 

However, Wilson and Brad Center (Lee District), said that while the numbers might change very slightly next month, any changes were probably not going to be substantial enough that the board should delay any longer in a process that had already taken two years.

"If this amendment were to pass, we would still be here in April with the same people in the room, arguing about the validity of the numbers," said Stuart Gibson (Hunter Mill). 

"The people who disagree with our decision to close Clifton Elementary School are not going to be swayed by any change in the projections, whether they're proved accurate or inaccurate," Gibson said. "And I would submit that the variance of even one student would be held up as evidence that we should not move forward."

Dr. Jack Dale, Fairfax County Public Schools' superintendent, told the school board that if the data was slightly off, he does have the authority to make some small administrative changes. 

Boundary adjustment will take effect during the 2011-12 school year at the following schools:

Bonnie Brae, Brookfield, Bull Run, Cub Run, Deer Park, Eagle View, Fairview, Fairfax Villa, Greenbriar East, Greenbriar West, London Towne, Oak View, Poplar Tree, Providence, Union Mill, Virginia Run, and Willow Springs Elementary Schools.

Boundary adjustment will take effect during the 2013-14 school year at the following schools:

Centreville, Centre Ridge, Colin Powell, Eagle View, Fairfax Villa, Greenbriar East, and Union Mill Elementary Schools.

were writing in emails to each other before and during the Feb. 24 decision. to learn how it took seven months for FCPS to fill Clifton resident Jill Hill's FOIA requests.

Check out this map to see where your student will be assigned.