Reid presents boundary proposal to school board
Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid will present recommendations for comprehensive school boundary changes to the school board on Jan. 8.
The school board will hold a public hearing on the boundary study on Jan. 10, 10 a.m., at Glasgow Middle School. Speaker registration is closed, but community members who didn’t get a chance to speak will be able to do so at the board’s Jan. 13 meeting.
The school board is scheduled to vote on the boundary plan on Jan. 22.
The proposed changes would address two of the biggest needs in Mason District: overcrowding at Parklawn Elementary School and Glasgow Middle School.
The following proposed changes would affect schools in the Annandale/Mason District area:
Parklawn ES – 78 students would be reassigned to Belvedere Elementary School, and 20 students would be reassigned to Columbia Elementary School. These changes would reduce capacity utilization at Parklawn from 99 percent to 89 percent (or 138 percent to 124 percent without modulars).
Belvedere ES – The additional students would increase capacity utilization from 88 percent to 99 percent.
Columbia ES – Capacity utilization would increase from 91 percent to 95 percent.
Glasgow MS – 67 students would be reassigned to Poe MS, 46 students would be reassigned to Holmes MS, and the split feeder at Mason Crest Elementary School would be eliminated. Capacity utilization would be reduced from 102 percent to 88 percent (117 percent to 101 percent with modulars).
Poe MS – The additional students from Glasgow and the elimination of the Mason Crest split feeder would increase capacity from 72 to 101 percent.
Holmes MS – Capacity would be reduced from 82 to 80 percent. The capacity changes at Holmes, Glasgow, and Poe also reflect the newly approved Advanced Academic Center program at Poe.
Related story: School Board approves AAP Center at Poe
Annandale HS – An additional 60 students reassigned from Justice High School would increase capacity at Annandale from 86 to 88 percent (99 to 101 percent without modulars).
Justice HS – 60 students would be reassigned to Annandale, and 101 students would be reassigned to Falls Church, reducing capacity at Justice from 93 to 86 percent.
Falls Church HS – The 101 students reassigned from Justice HS and the elimination of the Mason Crest split feeder would increase capacity utilization from 109 to 114 percent.
Related story: Transportation is a big issue for school boundary plan
The proposed boundary changes would affect approximately 2,210 students at 52 schools, including 1,174 elementary students, 447 middle school students, and 589 high school students. This would be the first comprehensive boundary review in 40 years.
The boundary changes were developed by the Superintendent’s Boundary Review Advisory Committee, FCPS staff, and Thru Consulting, with input from community members.
The boundary study included these objectives:
- Ensure equitable access to programs and facilities;
- Balance available capacity to make the most effective use of school buildings;
- Establish consistent attendance zones by reducing isolated attendance areas and split feeder patterns; and
- Minimize student travel times to and from school.
Related story: Additional school boundary changes proposed
To provide oversight for implementing the boundary changes, Reid recommends that a streamlined version of the Boundary Review Advisory Committee remain in place and meet quarterly.
Reid will develop a comprehensive plan for establishing AAP centers in every middle school.
She also flagged several schools for future study, including Bren Mar Park Elementary School’s middle and high school feeders.
Somehow all of the communications about this proposal do not include that Beech Tree elementary would become a split feeder and the kids would switch school pyramids twice.
Our Beech Tree community is totally blindsided by this, since it was never mentioned during the review process. The information wasn’t added to the boundary information tool until this morning – too late to register to speak at the hearing on Saturday.
What is going on?? Is it a mistake?
This article is a nice summary of the school board’s proposed changes to local schools but it also omits what the Superintendent’s linked recommendations deliberately left out. Beech Tree ES gets carved up so that the students in the Valley Brook and Sleepy Hollow neighborhoods are shuffled between three HS pyramids from kindergarten to high school graduation. They’d go from Beech Tree (still primarily a Justice feeder) to Poe (a majority Annandale HS feeder) to Falls Church High School while never making up more than 25% of the transitioning group within 3 HS pyramids. (From a Region 2 school, to a Region 6 school, back to a Region 2 school.) Split feeders are unavoidable in a county like Fairfax but this seems unnecessarily cruel and contrary to the school system’s supposed emphasis on neighborhood and school connectivity.
In addition, this long boundary process began with outreach in Fall 2024. Boundary Scenario #1 was released in May 2025 with the final Boundary Scenario #4 following in October. On December 10th, two days before the last scheduled boundary committee meeting, last minute changes were made affecting Beech Tree for the first time in the process. The committee was soon dissolved and communication essentially ceased through winter break. At least for Beech Tree, it seems like the Community Review portion of the boundary process was deliberately ignored. Even as late as December 1st, in a separate boundary proposal meeting for Poe Middle School as a full time AAP Center, Beech Tree is not included in any of the school board’s charts. And those same charts show the County anticipating that Glasgow would be projected to fall under full capacity (-119 students) if Poe simply becomes the first full time Middle School AAP Center for both Region 6 and the Annandale HS pyramid. At that same school board hearing, this Blog quotes Ricardy Anderson responding to misinformation going around that “some families believe their children in the AAP Center at Glasgow will be transferred to Poe. ‘That is not the plan,’ she said.” In a roundabout way, it seems that was part of the plan. The Beech Tree community has been intentionally left in the dark, but according to the school board’s proposal that’s fine if it’s equitable for everybody else.
Wow, that’s unbelievable! How can they do that without allowing Beech Tree to meaningfully engage in the process as everyone else had a chance to do? I’m heartbroken for my community and enraged at our lack of representation!!
Curious if Poe is in any FCPS construction plans considering the large increase in students… And I don’t mean long term trailers. Any ideas?