An online campaign is under way requesting help from local representatives to halt the high school boundary study in western Fairfax County. Forty-three e-mails were sent to The Connection with letters addressed to state Del. Tom Rust (R-86) and state Sen. Mark Herring (D-33) since last Monday night, Dec. 10.
Rust said he has made a request for the Attorney General’s opinion on whether Fairfax County Public Schools is following the correct process, adding that his request is informal for the purposes of receiving an answer in a quick manner. The citizen letters request that the representatives stop the process. Rust said an imposed moratorium from his side is impossible since this is a local School Board issue. He said, however, that he has been in contact with the Dranesville District School Board member Jane Strauss. Rust said he expressed his concern to Strauss over the process and is responding to the letters from his constituents.
The requests addressed to Rust and Herring follow a format, where only constituents’ names and addresses are changed. The campaign comes ahead of the Dec. 19 meeting, the third and last scheduled town hall meeting on the western county high school boundary study, at Oakton High School. The e-mails include information on the current process, calling it an "indefensible study," which impacts 10,000 children and more than 100,000 citizens. The senders also wrote that the "non-transparent" process had been "very tumultuous and painful to us and our children." Before going into the details of the study, the senders demand: "My neighbors and I request that you intervene and pause the current process and investigate whether the approach is transparent, fair, and legal."
For more information on the boundary study visit www.fcps.edu.