Beth Curtis just wants her neighborhood unified.
John Quinn wants to keep his school together.
Steve Dietz hopes split feeder schools can be eliminated for the good of the students who attend them.
Allison Donnelly doesn't want her son to lose his friends.
James Schaeffer has seen the benefit of students spending 13 years together in the same system.
All are residents of communities that may be affected by the West Springfield High School boundary study. All acknowledge that schools in Fairfax County are equally capable of educating students. But what prevents them from agreeing on the best possible outcome of the study is their experience, or lack thereof, with Lee High School.
For years, parents in the Daventry area of Springfield have been told "no possibility" existed for all of their students to move on from Rolling Valley Elementary School and Irving Middle School to West Springfield High School together, Curtis said.
"A percentage of the children have gone to Lee High School, while the rest go on to West Springfield," said Curtis. "We were told this was the way it was always going to be, and then in July, the School Board tells us they wanted to fix the split feeders going into West Springfield."
Curtis and other parents saw this as a chance to unify their neighborhood. They went to the town meetings organized by the Fairfax County Public School Office of Facility Planning Services to discuss the four possible boundary changes that had been outlined to make the best use of space available at West Springfield and Lee high schools and Lake Braddock Secondary School.
At the first meeting, four possible changes were discussed. The first study would eliminate all split feeder schools, sending the Daventry neighborhood and all Rolling Valley students to West Springfield. Students attending Keene Mill Elementary School would go to West Springfield High School as well, but Orange Hunt students that currently attend Sangster Elementary would be moved to Lake Braddock Secondary School.
The second study was almost identical to the first except the Keene Mill students would not be moved into Lake Braddock and that school would remain a split feeder.
"I was thrilled at that first meeting," Curtis said, when two options that would align Rolling Valley students together for their entire education were discussed. "When we got into the smaller discussion groups, all the comments were kept very general. As I walked away from that meeting, I noticed that no one had really said anything about Rolling Valley specifically."
AT THE SECOND meeting on Nov. 10, the first two options were no longer being discussed because they hadn't received the same community support as the second set, which did not address Rolling Valley at all, Curtis said.
"We were very disappointed, but we did try to go to the small groups and provide feedback about our neighborhood and what we wanted," she said. "We are committed to communicating what we want to the School Board, and I'm confident they'll see it makes sense to fix the split feeders."
Curtis' two children are still in elementary school. Looking ahead a few years, she just wants them to be able to stay with their friends through middle and high school.
"I'm happy with Lee High School and I think Lake Braddock and West Springfield are all great schools too. I just want to see the split feeders fixed so our kids can stay together," Curtis said.
At a PTA meeting at Rolling Valley Elementary School two weeks ago, Curtis said a resolution was passed expressing support of keeping all Rolling Valley students together through Irving Middle School and West Springfield High School.
The Daventry neighborhood has experienced a "sharp division" regarding the boundary study, said John Quinn, president of the Lee High School PTSA.
"The people in the neighborhood who want to stay at Lee have had children graduate from Lee," Quinn said. Those who want to see the neighborhood change to West Springfield are concerned about their children making new friends in a new school, he added.
"I understand their concern, but that's something that can be overcome. Both of my kids kept their friends from middle school when they went to high school and made new ones at Lee," he said.
When the School Board makes a decision on the boundaries, the outcome must take into consideration "what's best for the students," not what makes more neighborhoods happy, Quinn said.
Removing even a few students each year, namely from the Daventry neighborhood, would upset the diversity at Lee, he said, which has helped students there learn tolerance.
"Lee already has a higher percentage of English Speakers of Other Language classes and students who receive free and reduced lunches than other schools in the area, along with more racial diversity than other schools in this cluster," said Quinn. "In order to be a successful learning environment, we need kids in the mainstream as well, along with parents who can support booster clubs."
No rivalry exists between Lee and West Springfield, Quinn said, and leaders from both schools only want what's best for their students. "I've spoken with their PTSA president and we all understand the need for diversity. We've compared notes on how to increase the representation of diversity on our PTSA boards," he said.
Parents at Lee High School voted to support the retention of the Daventry neighborhood by passing a resolution at the Lee PTSA meeting in November, said Quinn. "We don't want the School Board to cherry-pick neighborhoods. We are in this for the good of our kids."
IF THE INTENT of the boundary study was to eliminate split feeders, the School Board should stick to that purpose, said Steve Dietz, another member of the Lee PTSA.
"Daventry is very community-oriented, and the parents are very involved in their children's schools," he said. When children change schools and become involved in a place apart from their classmates, that support can become fractured.
"Even if only a small number of students are taken out of Lee, the impact will be felt by the entire school," said Dietz.
This is the first academic year when students from South Hunt Valley are not attending Lee, he said, and the impact from that loss is still being determined.
"We'd like to see how the changes made this year will affect us before more students are taken out," he said. "Different communities bring different aspects to each school. South Hunt Valley, Daventry and Saratoga all bring parental involvement and funding to our school and they're all important."
All Fairfax County Schools provide "a tremendous education," Dietz said, and concerns over the impact the study will have is based entirely on "doing what's best for our kids."
After talking with some parents whose children have made the transition from middle to high school without the friends they've grown up with, Dietz is certain all students can adjust to life in a new environment.
"For students who get involved in their new school right away, their transition period is over in a few weeks, but it might take longer for kids who don't jump right in," he said. "Unfortunately, our neighborhood is really divided on this issue."
ALLISON DONNELLY isn't convinced. Her 6-year-old son goes to Rolling Valley and she worries his timid nature would make it difficult for him to find friends at a new school.
"All the boys he hangs out with now will go to one school and he'll go to another," she said. "I personally don't like the idea of split feeders and I think it would be beneficial not to have them. I think it would be better for everyone at Rolling Valley if the kids all stayed together."
The Rolling Valley community is located in the middle of South Hunt and Daventry, she said, but the last two options discussed at the town meetings about the boundary studies didn't discuss moving Rolling Valley into West Springfield.
"If you take South Hunt Valley and Daventry and put them in West Springfield, it leaves Rolling Valley alone to go to Lee. We're literally in the middle of those two areas," Donnelly said. "We want to see our kids stay together, and most of the kids go on to West Springfield."
Jack Schaeffer's children have grown up and graduated from the Fairfax County School System, but he knows from their experience "the benefit of kids staying with their class all the way" through graduation.
"My children were able to form lasting relationships that they wouldn't have had if they went to different schools from their friends," Schaeffer said. "I was surprised to find that split feeders even existed in this school system and I think if we're in a position to eliminate them, it's a good idea."
The boundary study has become "a popularity contest" in Schaeffer's opinion. "This was supposed to be about looking at the situation and seeing what could be done to make it better, not what one neighborhood wants over another," he said. "All we can do now is look to the School Board to take a common sense approach to this and hope they go back to one of the first two options so we can go back to doing what's right."