Redistricting Update: March 2005

On March 28, 2005 the FCPS Board of Education adopted refinements to the attendance area plans effective with registration for fall 2005. Their action approved recommendations by two citizen task forces and staff. This is to quickly convey these actions to those interested in the potential end result. More information is available through IAKSS.

There are established attendance boundaries throughout the county and a plan adopted by the Board on December 16, 2002 continues to be implemented in phases to adjust many of those boundaries. On November 15 staff held a public forum to discuss many potential refinements to the plan. Three of these proposals drew a great deal of attention. The first was Veterans Park Elementary School, where there has been recent crowding and there had been plans to change the boundaries in 2005 and 2006. The second was Edythe J. Hayes Middle School, which just opened in fall of 2004. It was crowded at the time of opening and is expected to be very crowded in fall of 2005 if no changes are made. The third is the planned opening of the Athens-Chilesburg Elementary School in fall 2006 and the current crowding at Athens Elementary School until the new school replaces it.

At the end of January 2005, Superintendent Silberman appointed parents to three task forces, each facilitated by an Equity Council member, to help address and resolve some difficult redistricting issues. The parents were selected from interested persons living in the areas under discussion. The three committees were given until the end of February to make recommendations for their respective areas. Each committee met at least four times and made recommendations based on as much available data as possible. The committees reviewed the 19 ‘Redistricting Criteria’ adopted by the Board on December 16, 2002 and attempted to apply them carefully to their situations. The committees developed and reviewed alternatives and attempted to reach consensus on one recommendation. They all allowed public input at the beginning of most meetings and occasionally additional meetings were held in potentially affected communities and dedicated entirely to public comment. The complete reports of these three committees were given to the Superintendent and the Board for consideration. The reports vary greatly in length, with one more than 100 pages long including all attachments. They each have provided the rationale for their recommendations in their written and verbal reports, but for the sake of brevity, they are not included here.

Each task force made an oral presentation to the Board on March 14. The Board discussed the Task Force ideas and encouraged the Edythe J. Hayes Task Force and the Veterans Park Elementary School Task Force to go forward to have an additional public forum and finalize a recommendation. These two committees together held a Public Forum at IAKSS on March 22 to take comment on their proposals. At its March 28 meeting, the Board adopted the Task Force recommendations from those two areas plus related items from staff. Because the difficult issues of the Athens Chilesburg Elementary School were not fully resolved in that Task Force’s report and because their resolution was not so urgent, Superintendent Silberman suggested that they take a break and consider the issues with refreshed vision in mid-April.

Board Actions

Draft recommendations had been shown through display maps at the meetings. The mapped boundary lines showed the 2006 boundary lines based upon adopted Board plans. All changes were considered relative to that plan. Maps approved by the Board and now available on the internet combine all recommendations and show the 2005-06 boundaries with coloration of areas to change this summer. All three committees recommended that if the Board changes a boundary, any students already in the school should be “grandfathered” with out of area status and allowed to finish at their current school.

Veterans Park Elementary School

This recommendation shows proposed boundaries to go into effect in fall 2005. Generally the Charleston Gardens area moves to Millcreek in fall 2005 and the area near Tates Creek and Man o’ War Blvd. also moves to Millcreek. To follow the feeder pattern, the task force recommended that the area near Tates Creek and Man o’ War should also be changed from Southern Middle School to Tates Creek Middle School. The committee recommended that the Trent Boulevard area not be moved in fall 2006. Enrollment should be monitored and the area should be phased in later as room is available at the facility. The current thinking would be for the area to move in two phases 2008-09 and 2009-10.

In addition to allowing all current students to stay and finish at Veterans Park, the task force recommended that for the next five years from the date of the Board’s adoption, siblings of those attending from the redistricted areas be allowed to enter the school if another sibling will be attending VPE during the same year. Once any child is in, they should be allowed to finish at the school (unless the family moves outside the attendance boundary.) No other new out of area students are to be admitted.

Edythe J. Hayes Middle School

This task force recommended that the Board redistrict several current Edythe J. Hayes areas into three middle schools as shown on the map. The Codell portion of Woodhill and the Polo Club-Todds Road development would go to Crawford. The Mt. Rushmore-Pimlico and Kenesaw corridor areas would go to Tates Creek Middle School. The area bounded by New Circle Road, Richmond Road, Man o’ War Blvd. and Alumni Drive would go to Morton. This last area recommendation was resolve at the public forum, based upon Board and Task Force comments at the March 14 presentation and additional study after that.
The middle school changes are to be phased in with only incoming sixth graders being affected in fall 2005. Incoming sixth graders would also be affected each of the following two years until in fall 2007 there would be full implementation of the plan. Entering siblings of current students in redistricted areas to be allowed to enter Edythe J. Hayes for the next two years. Future growth within the Hayes boundary would attend Hayes. They encouraged further consideration of potentially necessary elementary or high school changes, to work with the middle school proposal and reinforce feeder patterns wherever possible. Families in the affected areas will also be give extended deadlines for applying to magnet programs, out-of-area requests or other options.

Further Information

For further information contact Bob Joice.

Last update: 9/1/2005 3:18:28 PM     Printer friendly view