Northern Virginia has seen massive changes in the last four decades. But there has not been a comprehensive evaluation of the boundaries for the 200 schools in the Fairfax County Public Schools system since 1986. And officials say it’s long overdue.
Time for Changes
“It is a best practice in school divisions to review boundaries periodically. The best practice is to do that every five years across an entire school division. And this is what happens in other school divisions nationwide. In Fairfax, there has not been a division-wide review in 40 years,” says Melanie Meren, the Hunter Mill District representative for the Fairfax County School Board. “It’s a best practice to do this because it results in the most efficient use of our limited resources.”
The reasons for the review include balancing enrollment numbers in schools that are under or over capacity; adjusting travel times for some students who have to pass by closer schools to get to their assigned school; reducing split-feeder patterns, where some students move on to one middle or high school and some to another; and ensuring equitable access to programming.
The school board hired a consultant who began the review process in July 2024. The consultant held a series of in-person community meetings for FCPS’ six regions — each of which drew hundreds of attendees. Meren finds those who attend the meetings tend to fall into three buckets: some who just want to know what’s going on, some who want to see changes made, and some who strongly oppose any changes.
“I am so proud of how engaged and thoughtful our community has been at the onset of this process,” FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid said in a statement. “This speaks to how dedicated, involved, and invested our community is in Fairfax County Public Schools — which comes as no surprise to me at all.” She said more than 1,500 people applied to be part of the Superintendent’s Boundary Review Advisory Committee. This committee is meant to “ensure community voices are heard and students are kept at the forefront of boundary decision-making.”
Parents Share Their Opinions
At the Region 1 meeting in December, some parents who purchased homes in the desirable Langley High School pyramid were upset with the possibility of change. They said they were worried that their children wouldn’t attend the high school they wanted, and that their home values would decline. (Langley was ranked No. 2 in all of NoVA in our 2023 Top High Schools list.) Attendees were broken into groups to discuss what they thought the priorities should be in making changes. Some groups were then asked to share their opinions. “Our first takeaway is we’re trying to better understand, what are the factors going into this decision making, and how are they weighed? … Our second takeaway is that doing nothing could be an option,” one parent shared. This drew loud applause from many others in attendance.
Some parents were also concerned that boundaries could potentially change more frequently after this process is complete. They were also worried about whether their children would be separated from friends or siblings. As the policy stands now, only seniors in high school would be guaranteed to finish at their schools.
Next Steps
The community engagement stage continued in January with virtual meetings; the last will be held February 10. After the meetings and data analysis are completed this spring, the process will move into Phase 2. This includes proposed changes and the approval process, followed by rollout and implementation in 2026.
Feature image courtesy Fairfax County Public Schools
This story originally ran in our February Issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
