After countless e-mails, months of debate, weeks of speculation and hours of discussion, the Fairfax County School Board voted last week to send a total of 531 students to Hayfield Secondary from South County by 2011.
The boundary study, which officially began with public meetings in October, was the second for both schools since South County's boundary was established in early 2005. However, as the school is currently more than 500 students over its 2,500-pupil capacity, members of the School Board believed something had to be done to provide relief.
Beginning in September, 247 students from areas including Lorton Station I, Lorton Valley, Sanger Place, Williamsburg Square, Pohick Square, Shepard Hill and Pohick Pines will trade their green and blue South County Stallion T-shirts for the orange colors of the Hayfield Hawks.
"I think Brad (Center) summed it up when he said it's not a perfect solution," said Marie Sudik, a Hayfield parent who has urged the School Board to send students back to Hayfield, which many students attended before South County opened.
Center, the Lee District representative to the School Board, introduced the first motion on the boundary at about 9 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 22. In backing what was called Option 3, he said he believed the recommendation made by the Office of Facilities Planning was the best way to solve the enrollment dilemma.
"By moving students to Hayfield, we're doing something for South County that doesn't harm the receiving school in the process," said Center, adding that many classes and programs were eliminated from Hayfield once South County opened and lost nearly half its population in 2005.
During the more than two-hour discussion at the School Board meeting, various Board members urged their colleagues to take action, despite a clear solution that would make all neighborhoods that feed into South County happy.
"If we try to give everyone exactly what they want, we'll have 4,100 kids in a school built for 2,500," Center said.
Dan Storck (Mount Vernon), chair of the School Board, offered several amendments and alternate motions aimed at modifying the boundary for some middle school students but allowing them to return to South County for high school, or ensuring that those students who have siblings at or about to enter South County could attend the same school.
"South County is a very desirable school to go to," Storck said. "The actions we have taken ought to be done with the indication that they are not permanent."
Storck, along with Board member Janet Oleszek (At-large) have long been outspoken advocates for building a South County Middle School, which may not be needed if the school's facilities staff believe adequate room can be found at other schools in the area.
OPTION 3, which was approved by a vote of 8 to 2, includes a two-year window for South County residents to find ways to fund a middle school that do not impact current construction or renovation projects in the school system's Capital Improvement Plan, which dictates and funds projects on a sliding five-year timeline. Currently, the middle school is slated for construction in 2017, but if the need for the space is not apparent, the school might not be built.
Sudik said she was not surprised by the outcome of the vote.
"At the public hearings [in early January], most people spoke in favor of the staff recommendation," she said.
The decision was the best one that could be made at the time, Sudik said.
"I don't have any concerns about this," she said. "I hope everyone feels as welcome here as we'll try to make them."
Not all parents are in full agreement with the School Board's decision, however.
"In a county where transportation concerns remain paramount, one has to wonder why these closer communities are being sent to a school so far removed from their neighborhood," said Elizabeth Bradsher, a Fairfax Station resident who has worked for the construction of both South County schools for over a decade. "A closer school is less than two miles away from their residents' homes."
Bradsher referred to the students who live in Lorton Valley and Lorton Station, students east of I-95 who have been removed from South County and will be reassigned to Hayfield. She joined many Lorton Valley and Lorton Station parents who urged the School Board to keep students in Lorton at their community school, arguing that moving them so far from home will greatly reduce their ability to participate in sports or other after-school activities.
"The meeting on Thursday night demonstrated to the public the Board continues to struggle with process and with decisions," she said. "It appears certain decisions are politically based and the students are but numbers to transfer from one school location to another. "
Bradsher, however, is one of the parents who doesn't have to worry about where her children will attend school, as she and her family live in the Crosspointe neighborhood, which will continue to send students to South County.
"Board members spoke favorably about instilling a sense of community, and yet their vote resulted in destroying our sense of community," she said. "Kind of a sad commentary."
Michael Black said he feels the decision was made without concern for parents like him, who will have students in both South County and Hayfield.
"It's going to mean a house divided for us," said Black, who has a daughter in 11th grade at South County, a son in seventh grade who will be moved to Hayfield, and a younger daughter at Lorton Station Elementary. "With two parents working it's a tremendous inconvenience. I can't foresee what-all might happen as far as trying to take care of extracurricular activities at South County and Lorton Station and then with my son at Hayfield."
Black said that while he knew it would be "an uphill battle" to keep Lorton Station at South County, he's disappointed in the outcome.
"I appreciate that Dan Storck voted against the decision, but my son will ride a bus to Hayfield and wave at students going to South County that live further away than he does," he said.
Greg Schuckman, another Lorton Station parent, said he wasn't sure how the vote would turn out, but shares in Black's disappointment.
"We're going to be back at this in 18 months," when the boundary is determined for the Laurel Hill Elementary School and possibly South County once again, Schuckman said. "The goal now is to correct the second mistake made by the School Board. The first mistake was that South County wasn't left as a high school. The second mistake was that they moved students that didn't deserve to be moved."
Storck, who voted against the resolution, said he's disappointed with the decision but it's one he has to live with for the next two years.
"I really believe it's not balanced," he said. "The impact is really on a few communities and the problem is the whole South County boundary."
Storck said the School Board will have no choice but to re-address the school's boundary in two years, when the new Laurel Hill Elementary school is slated to open.
"We need to keep our focus on what is truly important to the community, which is getting a middle school built sooner," he said.
One amendment Storck made that was approved ensured the School Board's support of building a middle school if the funding were available without impacting the current CIP.
The consolation is not enough for the families of those children being reassigned to Hayfield, however.
"We recognize that until the community stabilizes or there's a middle school built, we're not done with boundaries," Storck said. "I keep trying to tell my colleagues that, but many of them don't believe we need it. There won't be stability or any long-term boundary decisions until there's a middle school. I make no apologies for that."
Calling the decision a "rest stop," Storck said it will take a long time for the pain of the boundary change to heal for the families being moved out.
"It's over for a good while, but the pain is just starting for some members in our community," he said.