Letter to the Editor: Resident Sounds Off on School Boundaries in Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- (Editor's note: The following is a Letter to the Editor written by Alexandria resident Alexis Fabrikant.)

By ALEXIS FABRIKANT

Dreams Have No Boundaries: By Refusing to Erase Gerrymandered School Boundaries ACPS is Leaving in Place a Legacy of Educational Inequality and Dysfunction

The Alexandria City School Board has failed to address the concerns of its citizens in the Jefferson-Houston (JH) school district during the current Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) redistricting.

According to ACPS' Redistricting FAQ, the purpose of the redistricting is to alleviate capacity issues in Alexandria Public Schools as well as to meet several other important criteria. Contrary to its mission, ACPS has failed to give serious consideration to changing the boundaries of JH – an elementary school which has long failed to meet every important metric: it is under capacity, under-performing and lacks diversity.

Here's a quick background on JH:

• Lack of Accreditation: JH has not met the accreditation benchmark in any category and has been denied state accreditation for at least the past four years.
• Poor Academic Performance: JH is the third worst school in the entire state of Virginia. Making matters even worse is that the district's poorest performing and only unaccredited school is located within the boundaries of one of the city's most affluent pockets. Through redistricting ACPS is perpetuating this under performance while touting priorities like "diversity" and easing "overcapacity" per the redistricting criteria.
• Lack of Integration: Free and reduced-priced meals (FARM) rates are a good indication of the number of students coming from low-income families. School enrollment statistics show a staggering 73% FARM rate at JH. JH is less than a mile from two schools, bordering Lyles Crouch which only has a 21% FARM rate and Matthew Maury which has a 30% FARM rate. ACPS supports walkability and other criteria, yet it concentrates low-income families into a single underperforming school and sends their wealthier neighbors that live within blocks of Jefferson Houston to Lyles Crouch or Matthew Maury, which are further away.
• Intentional Segregation: Lyles Crouch, Matthew Maury and Jefferson Houston neighborhoods have sufficient middle to high-income families to assure that Jefferson Houston does not have a 73% FARM rate. Instead of configuring the boundaries so that all schools have a similar racial and socio-economic diversity, ACPS has refused to change school boundaries in such a way that all three of these elementary schools have comparable FARM rates, rather than having one, JH, that sticks out like a sore thumb.
• Capacity Oversight: JH’s neighboring schools Lyles Crouch and Matthew Maury are over enrollment capacity at 116% and 119% respectively. Conversely JH is under capacity at 89%. If resolving capacity issues is a priority for redistricting why not have JH take on some of the students from these overpopulated schools? JH would also benefit from retaining some of the wealthy families that live within blocks of JH.
• Neighborhood Without a Voice: There are zero options out of nine presented to date that change current JH boundaries. ACPS is not planning to address demographics and/or capacity issues at JH despite their stated criteria.
• "Pulling Out All Stops": In an effort to turn around JH, ACPS has poured $45 million into its renovation and has hired and fired several principals yet the school is still not accredited. The band-aid approach is not working. Why has ACPS not considered changing the boundaries of this school?
• Questionable North Old Town Boundaries: Current boundaries pull out the wealthiest families in JH's own backyard and places them into Matthew Maury (EYA Old Town Commons, Asher Apartments, Bell Pre, The Meridian, The Bradley and new condos/townhouses on Henry St., Patrick St., Fayette St.).

The last time JH received new school facilities without a change to school boundaries it ended in failure. It looks like history is set to repeat itself. Our community believes this is a missed opportunity for the City of Alexandria to make Jefferson-Houston a better school. The best way to equalize educational opportunities in our community, and to dramatically improve diversity, is to redraw the gerrymandered JH school boundary.

Time is ticking -- the School Board is voting on redistricting on January 26, 2017.

I encourage citizens of Alexandria to let your voices be heard so we do not let another 17 years go by without erasing the failed boundaries of JH, and giving JH a genuine opportunity to nurture its families.