There has been a great deal of concern about the boundary process that has taken place this past year and the boundary review that is to take place next year.  Based on the correspondence that I have received, I believe that some of the concern is based on misconceptions regarding the boundary process.  I have received a number of emails angrily complaining that the boundary process was not followed.  While some may not be pleased with the result of the process, the process was followed. 

There are two discrete elements to the boundary process.  Initially the staff studies the area, holds three community meetings and then makes a recommendation to the Board.  The three community meetings provide input to the staff for their recommendation.  During that time the Board members are strictly observers.  Once the staff recommendation is made, the Board holds a public hearing, and then a working session to discuss the recommendation and the input from the community.  The public hearing is the mechanism by which the Board receives input from the community (along with emails & phone calls, etc.).  The working session is the first time that the Board has any opportunity to discuss the issue as a group and make any modifications to the staff's recommendation.  The modification to move the South Hunt Valley students to West Springfield was made during that working session – at the earliest possible time in the process.  The staff's recommendation to send them to Lake Braddock (180 degrees across the West Springfield HS boundary area) made very little sense.  We were faced with a decision to leave them in Lee HS, which is more overcrowded that West Springfield HS, or move them to West Springfield HS.  We added another public hearing to the process just to hear from the West Springfield community.  There was a meeting at West Springfield to inform the public about the modification to the staff's recommendation.  Unfortunately it was delayed due to the weather so that the two events were much closer to each other than would have been preferred.  This modification was made public as soon as possible in accordance with the FCPS boundary process.  The same process that occurs after the staff recommendation occurred after the modification was put forward in order to inform and take input from the community.  I can understand that people that are not pleased with the results may want to attack the process in order to overturn the results, but the process was followed correctly. 

In the first community meeting, the staff stated that West Springfield was not a part of their study, but that was a part of their process leading up to the their recommendation.  It will be my recommendation that, in the future, the staff fully explain the entire process.  West Springfield HS did not enter into my solution set until the staff recommended shifting the South Hunt Valley community from Lee HS to Lake Braddock SS.  I believed that it was inappropriate to use that community as a capacity pawn yet again.  A different solution had to be found and West Springfield was the best choice. 

Lee HS would be overcrowded more than West Springfield if the students were shifted back to Lee HS.  Student-teacher ratios are being distributed to dispute this, but overcrowding is based on population with respect to capacity, not based on student-teacher ratios.  Student-teacher ratios take into consideration the additional teachers necessary for special education students and for students that have limited language proficiency.  The demographics for Lee HS have proportionately more special education students and three times the number of ESOL students than West Springfield HS.  Since these students’ needs are addressed in smaller classes, the overcrowding in Lee HS is even worse for the general education students.

The concerns that proper procedures will not be followed next year based on this past year are unfounded because the procedures were in fact followed last year.  There is every indication that they will be followed next year as well.  After the renovation is completed at Lake Braddock, there will be excess capacity in that school.  We need to make the best use of our facilities and despite the lack of popularity of boundary changes, they are a necessary evil as the population shifts around the county.  During that boundary process, you will have an opportunity to participate in the community meetings that the staff uses to aid the development of their recommendations and the hearings that the Board uses to make their decision.