Hundreds of Fairfax County Public Schools students could be directed to different schools under initial redistricting scenarios developed as part of a systemwide boundary review.
The Connecticut-based firm Thru Consulting, which was hired by the Fairfax County School Board last September, will present its first draft of potential boundary changes at a series of community meetings starting tomorrow (Thursday).
The proposals are based on input from an advisory committee as well as public feedback from listening sessions, emailed comments and an online survey, FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid said last week when announcing that the review is entering its second phase.
According to presentations given to the Superintendent’s Boundary Review Advisory Committee over the past month, Thru Consulting created draft scenarios to address four key issues facing the school system:
- Attendance islands, or areas assigned to a school that aren’t geographically connected
- Schools located outside their attendance zone
- Split feeders where students at an elementary or middle school transfer to different high schools
- Overcrowding
Attendance islands
FCPS currently has 16 elementary schools, three middle schools and three corresponding high schools with attendance islands, according to the district’s fiscal year 2026-2030 capital improvement program (CIP).
“Attendance islands can create logistical challenges, including longer commute times for students, increased transportation costs, and potential difficulties in fostering a sense of community within the school,” Thru Consulting said in its April 11 presentation to the advisory committee.
The consultant offered a sampling of options for eliminating attendance islands at elementary schools, including at Ravensworth, Halley, Groveton, Providence, Westbriar and more.
In addition, boundary changes to address islands at Katherine Johnson, Lake Braddock and Longfellow middle schools would also fix the issue at Fairfax, Lake Braddock and McLean high schools, respectively.
Schools outside their attendance zones
Three schools are located outside the areas where their students live: Graham Road Elementary School in West Falls Church, Bailey’s Upper Elementary School in Lake Barcroft, and Whitman Middle School in Fort Hunt.
The consultant proposes redrawing the boundaries for each school to align them with their attendance zones. For example, students who live near Whitman but are currently assigned to Sandburg Elementary School would be moved to Whitman, resulting in a net reduction of 66 students from Sandburg.
Adjustments for Bailey’s Upper Elementary would have the most extensive impacts, affecting boundaries for 12 different elementary schools in the Annandale and Bailey’s Crossroads area.
Some of the suggested changes aim to alleviate crowding at Lincolnia’s Parklawn Elementary School in Lincolnia, which is nearing capacity with more than two dozen temporary classrooms. Hoping to provide more immediate relief, the school board voted in March to move forward with individual boundary studies for Parklawn and Coates Elementary School near Herndon, though it now appears that those will be subsumed into the systemwide review.
Proposed changes to the boundaries for Graham Road would affect nearby Timber Lane, Pine Spring and Shrevewood elementary schools as well as area middle schools, reassigning students from Luther Jackson to Longfellow, Longfellow to Kilmer, and Kilmer (which is currently at 118% capacity) to Thoreau.
Fixing split feeders
According to an April 25 presentation, FCPS has 30 split-feeder elementary schools attended by 20,435 students and six middle schools with a total of 6,362 students, including a few cases where students head off to three different schools after they advance.
When developing scenarios to address split feeders, the consultant says it focused on cases where less than 25% of students go to a separate middle or high school from their classmates, and it worked to keep students in their existing neighborhood groupings.
“We heard from our community that maintaining neighborhood cohesion is important,” the presentation says. “Proposed boundary changes aim to keep neighborhoods together by moving entire Student Planning Areas.”
A few split feeders were resolved by the proposed attendance zone fixes, including one at Kilmer. Based on the affected number of students, the most substantial boundary changes would be:
- Coates Elementary: 190 students to Herndon Elementary School
- Rolling Valley Elementary: 106 students to Saratoga Elementary
- Westgate Elementary: 118 students to Franklin Sherman
- Powell Elementary: 156 students to Willow Springs, though Willow Springs would also lose 196 students to Eagle View and Fairfax Villa with an adjustment to eliminate an attendance island
- Holmes Middle School: 372 students to Annandale High School instead of Edison
Overcrowding
When looking at adjustments to relieve crowding, Thru Consulting concentrated on schools where enrollment is least 105% above their program capacity.
The most overcrowded site in FCPS at 137% capacity, Coates started this school year with 983 students but saw that number jump to 1,002 students, as of March. Enrollment is expected to keep rising in the future as the area south of the Innovation Center Metro station continues to develop.
Proposed tweaks would shift students to McNair, McNair Upper, Floris and Herndon elementary schools, reducing the capacity utilization at Coates by 295 students to 96%, per a May 5 presentation for the advisory committee.
At a meeting on May 7, FCPS staff told Coates families that the school will be prioritized in the systemwide review, but for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year, FCPS will consider short-term fixes — including the addition of eight more temporary classrooms and a parking lot expansion — instead of a full boundary adjustment.
The Parklawn community is scheduled to get a similar presentation today (May 14) during an in-person meeting that will be held at the school (4116 Braddock Road) starting at 6:30 p.m.
Thru Consulting is proposing also expanding the boundaries for South County Middle School north toward Fairfax County Parkway to address crowding at Irving Middle School in West Springfield, which is at 108% capacity.
The net change would be 93 students, though it would push South County over its 995-student program capacity. It would also shift 178 students from West Springfield High School, which is at 112% capacity, to South County High School, which is at 88% capacity and would remain under capacity (95%) after the boundaries are redrawn.
Other suggested changes to address overcrowding include:
- Irving Middle School: 93 students to South County Middle School, which would shift 178 students from West Springfield High School to South County
- Centreville High School: 115 students to Westfield High School, with some Westfield students moving to South Lakes High School in Reston
- Liberty Middle School would see approximately 59 students shift to Stone Middle School.
- Chantilly High School: 127 students to Westfield and Oakton high schools
- Fort Belvoir Primary Elementary School: limit enrollment to students who live on the Army base, with others instead attending Gunston Elementary School in Mason Neck
- Whitman and Hayfield middle schools would be affected, as would Mount Vernon and Hayfield high schools.
In its presentation, Thru Consulting stresses that the draft scenarios are intended to generate discussion.
“[They] do not in any way represent changes that have been formally accepted or agreed upon,” the presentation says.
The upcoming meetings
Initially planned for this summer, this round of community meetings was moved up to the tail end of the school year to give families more time to “review and reflect on the initial draft scenarios,” Reid said in her message last week.
Registration links are now available for the meetings, which will all be held in person with an option to attend via Zoom.
- Thursday, May 15 — Oakton High School, 6:30-8 p.m.
- Friday, May 16 — Robinson Secondary School, 6:30-8 p.m.
- Monday, May 19 — Herndon High School, 6:30-8 p.m.
- Friday, May 23 — Lewis High School, 7-8:30 p.m.
- Wednesday, May 28 — Annandale High School, 7-8:30 p.m.
- Thursday, May 29 — Whitman Middle School, 6:30-8 p.m.
- Friday, May 30 — Chantilly High School, 6:30-8 p.m.
- Friday, June 6 — Glasgow Middle School, 6:30-8 p.m.
According to Reid, FCPS plans to organize a second set of community meetings in the fall. After that, the consultant will finalize its boundary change recommendations for the school board, which is currently scheduled to review the proposals starting in December with a new map potentially getting approved in February 2026.
