Transportation is a big issue for school boundary plan
When the Fairfax County School Board meets on Jan. 10 for a public hearing on school boundary changes, a key issue will be whether transportation will be provided to students who remain at their current school.
At the board’s Dec. 18 meeting, a motion by board chair Robyn Lady (Dranesville) to provide transportation only to students who transfer failed to pass. Four school board members voted against the motion, and five abstained. However, the issue is likely to resurface in early 2026.
Under the boundary phasing plan recommended by Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid, certain students assigned to a different school would be allowed to stay at their current school. That would apply to rising fourth and fifth-graders in K-5 elementary schools, rising fifth and sixth-graders in K-6 schools, all middle school students, and rising 10th and 12th-graders in high school.
Reid, however, recommends that FCPS not provide transportation for those students. Staff estimates 57 new buses would be needed at a cost of more than $10.4 million over the next five years.
Mason school board member Ricardy Anderson calls that proposal inequitable. If FCPS doesn’t provide transportation for students who want to remain at their current school, “the phasing option ceases to be a meaningful choice for all families,” she said. “This option could only be accessed by those with privilege.”
Related story: Additional school boundary changes proposed
“We have many kids in Mason District with parents who won’t be able to transport them to school,” Anderson said. “That’s a significant equity issue.”
The $10 million cost is based on an estimate of 2,894 students across 200 schools opting to remain in their current schools, FCPS states, “using insights from previous boundary adjustments.”
That data is flawed because new boundaries haven’t been finalized, Anderson said. “It is yet unknown how many students will elect to remain at their current schools. Without having accurate data on student ridership, it is difficult to appropriately estimate transportation costs.”
In addition, she said, the $10 million estimate assumes the purchase of 57 electric buses. Using diesel buses would reduce that amount by approximately $3 million.
Absolutely stupid not to provide transportation to every one who cannot walk to a nearby school and needs to use busses. It is a safety issue and an attendance issue. If students cannot get to school, how can they learn? It condemns students and their families to cycle of poverty, which may never be broken.
I am not surprised that FCPS would NOT provide extra transportation with these planed boundary changes. That would defeat one of the goals for changing the boundaries. The money for extra transportation could and should be used more wisely – possibly with other funds moved to priorities such as reading, writing and arithmetic. It’s no wonder that many people have been relocating away from Fairfax to other places in NOVA. Fairfax elected leaders and this time Mason’s School Board member Anderson is embarrassing herself and the district, again.
Have they ever sat near a school and seen how many parents opt to drive their kids to school? It is environmentally unfriendly to say the least.
Education is a right. Choosing which school because you don’t like the assignment is a privilege. Let the privileged drive their kids.