Sleepy Hollow families oppose school boundary change

Sleepy Hollow Elementary School [FCPS]

Residents of the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood are fighting Fairfax County Public Schools’ plan to transfer their children from Sleepy Hollow Elementary School to Beech Tree Elementary. 

Many parents say transferring students after the disruptive pandemic year would be traumatic, and they charge FCPS hasn’t given them a solid rationale for moving these students.   

The relocation is part of a boundary adjustment affecting elementary schools in the Justice High School pyramid in an effort to relieve severe overcrowding at Glen Forest Elementary School. 

Under that recommendation, about 81 students who live between Sleepy Hollow Road, Kerns Road, Annandale Road, and Arlington Boulevard would be transferred from Sleepy Hollow to Beech Tree. 

Families want to stay at neighborhood school

At a school board hearing on the boundary adjustment recommendation, June 8, nearly all of those who spoke urged the board to reject moving the Sleepy Hollow students. The school board is scheduled to adopt a boundary change at its June 17 meeting. The new boundaries would take effect at the start of the 2021-22 school year.

A petition signed by 216 Sleepy Hollow residents says relocating those students would not only “disrupt the peaceful enjoyment that we have relied on by being anchored to a neighborhood school, but it also disrupts the investments we have made into our community, our school, and our neighborhoods.” 

“In no way does the school board recommendation alleviate any overcrowding issue,” the petition states. It would result in reducing Sleepy Hollow’s enrollment to 70 percent and increasing Beech Tree’s to 99 percent.

Related story: Three options presented for changing school boundaries in Justice HS pyramid

FCPS presented three options at community meetings in April, then recommended a new option that combines previously proposed options A and C. 

Under this recommendation, an estimated 378 students would be reassigned. 

In addition to moving students from Sleepy Hollow to Beech Tree, the proposal would move students:

• From Belvedere Elementary School to Bailey’s and Bailey’s Upper;
• From Parklawn to Belvedere; and
• From Glen Forest to Parklawn. 

Charlie Williams, president of the Sleepy Hollow Citizens Association, wrote to Superintendent Scott Brabrand, other FCPS administrators, and elected officials June 3 “to express the association’s absolute opposition to the proposed school boundary change.”

“Our neighborhood has sent generations of children to SHES, including fourth-generation children currently attending SHES,” Williams states. “Our residents have served as active members and supporters of the SHES PTA and school activities for decades. It is our neighborhood school in more ways than just a shared name.”

In addition to reducing enrollment at Sleepy Hollow, he said the relocation sparks questions about future programs and funding available to SHES. 

“Our children deserve to return to a school they know and trust with familiar friends and teachers to help them overcome a year that has devastated so many. If they will not do that – for whatever reason – then their parents deserve to understand why not,” he said.

FCPS hasn’t given a justification 

The recommendation is significantly different from the original three options presented to the parents for discussion, Williams notes. As a result, “the prior engagement with the community stands as irrelevant. There has been no formal engagement with the community on the new proposal, and multiple attempts from our executive committee and multiple residents to gain insight from the school board remain unanswered.”

“The school board’s lack of transparency, changing rationales without explanation, and unwillingness to engage with our community suggest there are ulterior motives that this school board is hiding from us,” said Bob Kokta, a member of the Sleepy Hollow Civic Association board.

Kokta, who has a first-grader and a third-grader at Sleepy Hollow and a younger child not yet in school, said he bought a house in the neighborhood so they could walk to school. 

“SHES has been an anchor to our community for decades,” he said. “Why strip this anchor away from our kids and community – this year of all years – when the focus should be re-establishing stability so our kids can quickly make up for lost ground?”