The three possible boundary scenarios previously suggested for the new northeast Centreville elementary school have now been whittled down to one.
Gary Chevalier and John Bertocchi, with Fairfax County Public Schools' Facilities Planning Services, presented it to the nearly 120 parents attending the Thursday, Dec. 12, boundary meeting at Rocky Run Middle School.
"We reviewed the comments and suggestions from the last meeting," said Bertocchi. "We felt that Option 3 was the one that most people were in agreement with and that seemed to meet most people's concerns."
The school will open in Centreville Farms in September to help ease overcrowding in other local elementaries. At the same time, the Fairfax County school system hopes to adjust enrollment at nine other elementaries: Greenbriar East and West, Poplar Tree, Brookfield, Centre Ridge, Centreville, Union Mill, Willow Springs and Providence (in Fairfax City).
With Option 3, residents from communities within the following schools' current boundary areas would go to the new school:
From Greenbriar West Elementary:
* Beginning in the west, near Routes 28 and 29, including areas such as Walney Glen, Willoughby Woods and Walney Mills.
* Eastward, including the new Faircrest development (formerly called Centreville Farms and currently assigned to Poplar Tree Elementary), crossing Stringfellow Road, including The Woodlands of Fair Lakes, Fair Lakes Glen, Willow Ponds and Berkshire Woods.
From Greenbriar East Elementary:
* Eastward, along the Route 29/I-66 Corridor, past West Ox Road, including Dixie Hills, Fairfax Ridge and the Government Center area including the Eclipse and Carriage Park areas.
From Centre Ridge Elementary:
* The southern portion of the northeast Centreville attendance area would draw students from the apartment complexes near Route 29, such as Bent Tree and Centreville Gables (near Old Centreville Road).
In addition, Option 3 proposes shifting students among other local schools, as follows:
From Greenbriar East to Greenbriar West:
To make use of the space at GBW, this plan would move communities along the south side of Monument Drive from GBE to GBW, including sections of Fair Ridge, Cedar Lakes and Fairfield, in addition to the Fair Lakes area currently in GBE.
From Providence to Greenbriar East:
This plan would move the Route 29/Government Center area, including the Westcott Ridge and Ridgetop Commons areas,
to GBE.
From Brookfield to Poplar Tree:
This plan tried to provide some relief to Brookfield by sending the Walney Village section 1 townhouse area — and the Eagle Chase area along Walney Road — from Brookfield to Poplar Tree.
From Poplar Tree to Greenbriar West:
The Hunters Run and Poplar Tree Woods areas, near the intersection of Poplar Tree and Stringfellow roads, would move from Poplar Tree to GBW.
However, members of the Hunters Run community attending last week's boundary meeting were definitely unhappy about this proposal. Bertocchi said students there have always gone to Poplar Tree Elementary, ever since their community was built. So, he said, Facilities Services is "looking for a way to address their concerns."
Union Mill Elementary:
There's also talk about making use of existing space at Union Mill Elementary. Several areas have shown interest in being moved to Union Mill, including the Little Rocky Run townhouse community, Balmoral and the Willow Springs Elementary attendance area west of Clifton Road. However, noted Bertocchi, "We have also heard from the Union Mill community, which is very concerned about overcrowding [that school]."
Option 3 keeps the enrollment numbers at Union Mill near capacity, while trying to address the split feeder at Willow Springs. In this plan, the Willow Springs area west of Clifton Road (Cavalier Woods, Clifton Forest, Centreville Green) — which is the only area of Willow Springs assigned to Liberty Middle and Centreville High — would be assigned to Union Mill, thus eliminating the split feeder. Balmoral would also go to Union Mill.
"We're going to review what we hear back from this meeting and then tweak it a bit," said Bertocchi. Facilities Services staff will then recommend a boundary plan to the School Board on Jan. 23.
A public hearing will be held Feb. 10, followed by the School Board's vote on Feb. 27. Residents may e-mail comments or questions about this boundary proposal to Boundaries@fcps.edu or mail them to Facilities Planning Services, 10640 Page Ave., Fairfax, VA 22030.