001Board members, please take your seats. Good evening and welcome to the public hearing on the superintendent's proposed school boundary adjustments. On behalf of the entire school board, I would like to thank you for sharing your comments with us. This hearing is being broadcast on channel 99 and livereamed on YouTube and on our website at www.fcps.edu edu backlivestream. At the January 8th, 2026 regular meeting, Dr. Reid presented her boundary adjustment recommendations. And on Saturday, January 10th and January 10 13, 2026, the board heard um the school board heard comments on on the proposal at a public hearing and this public hearing is another opportunity for those comments as well. At this time, I call on Dr. Reid for a statement. >> Thank you. Uh Madam Chair, um this evening just want to thank our community for
002coming out to comment. We've heard a lot of um feedback over the last 18 months and while um I think scenario four was the last formal scenario that we took back to the community very recently in December, November and December. And after hearing feedback from the community about scenario 4, we made further adjustments and those were reflected in what I presented as an amended um recommendation at our last board uh hearing on boundaries. And at this point, we've made no further adjustments to the to that amended recommendation. and we do look forward to hearing uh comments this evening and really appreciate the breadth and depth of community engagement in a really complex process. So we also recognize that this uh particular round is not perfect uh and we can't let perfection get in the way
003of progress. Uh we know that as we have further cycles of review and further iterations uh the boundaries I think will become refined and continue to be improved over time. So we look forward to engaging in that process uh with some spots for January of 2027 which is in the document linked on the website and others where we will be able to prep for the next fiveyear cycle and we look forward to ample time to be really um ready for the next five year. So thank you madam chair. >> Thank you Dr. Reid. We have 32 pre-registered and walk-in speakers who will address the board at this public hearing. Speakers are allotted two minutes and we ask that you stay within your time limit. The timer will start when you begin to speak and the
004timer will sound after two minutes. Please ensure that your remarks are limited to the proposed school boundary adjustments and that your remarks adhere to the school board's expectation for community participation. Including in those expectations are that only one person is allowed at the podium when speaking. Neither adults nor children may accompany a speaker to the podium. Copies of all expectations are available at the back of the auditorium. To assist with the flow of tonight's hearing, please ensure that you are following along with the speaker list and please be ready to go as soon as your name is called. If you have a hard copy of your testimony, please give it to the clerk. If you are virtual, please turn your on your camera when you are the next in line to speak so that you
005just have to unmute when you are called to speak. If you have electronic copies of your testimony and would like to share it with the board, please email it to community participationfps.edu. edu. When your name is called, the clerk will read your name three times before moving on to the next individual on the list. You may find copies of the speaking order at the back of the room or on board talks. We ask for grace and patient patience from the audience members and we also ask you to hold applause so that we keep the hearing flowing to ensure that all speakers are heard in a timely manner. Um, school board members may be taking small breaks but are able to access the hearing throughout the building and we'll be listening to all speakers. Madam clerk,
006please call our first speaker, >> Ashley Vanderante, Miss Vanabonte, we are getting the screen down. I apologize. When you are ready, uh, please speak. We, uh, have you muted at this time. >> I'm not sure if you're speaking, Miss Vanabonte, but you're you're still muted. We cannot hear you. Please go ahead, Miss Nabante. Miss Vanabonte, can you hear us? >> Hi. Are you ready? I can't hear anything on my side, so just let we're good to go. >> Yes, please start. >> Is that a yes, I assume? Okay. I'm Ashley Vanderbenty. I'm a Cardinal Forest parent. I want to thank Dr. agreed in the school board for pausing the proposed boundary adjustment for Cardinal Forest Elementary School. This late change in scenario 4 introduced at a time when Cardinal Forest is without a Bradup School
007Board representative would have increased the school's capacity from 102% to 108%. An outcome that somehow went unnoticed. This runs counter to the stated goals of the review, which includes balancing available capacity to make the best use of our school facilities. The scenario placed a disproportionate capacity burden on one elementary school. No other school in the west Springfield pyramid or even in the surrounding areas experienced an increase in capacity under the scenario. The adjustment neglected to consider Cardinal Forest is comp comprised of nearly 2,400 town homes, condominiums, and other more affordable housing options compared to the areas other areas in the pyramid whose boundaries and capacity levels remain largely the same. This placed additional strain on a community that already faces greater resource constraints and may may have less time or flexibility to attend these meetings
008and advocate for their school. While educators, families, and students are doing their best to handle the already over capacity school, increasing the capacity to 108% would harm student well-being through increased stress and anxiety from crowded spaces and potentially more behavioral challenges. Academically, it would mean larger class sizes with less individualized instruction, resource strains, and an increased strain on teachers, making retention recruitment harder. Overcrowding negatively impacts student outcomes. The last proposal asked Cardinal Forest to absorb nearly all that burden for the entire West Springfield pyramid in order to preserve preferred pyramid boundaries for others. Easing and balancing overcrowding must be a top priority for the board as it directly impacts the quality of education a student receives and a concentrated effort should be made by the board to avoid overburdening one school. Thank you. I appreciate
009Dr. Le the school board for listening and pausing this change. I urge you to fully consider these factors during the next year's review and to commit to not pushing Cardinal Forest for their over capacity. Thank you again >> Megan Neurus of the board. My name is Megan Neorus. I've been a proud FCPS employee for 16 years, but I speak to you today as a parent from Cardinal Forest Elementary. The recent proposal to increase our capacity from 102% to 108% failed to consider the unique needs of our diverse and transient community. I'm asking for that to not happen again. Currently, Cardinal Forest is already bursting at the seams. My fourth grader and his entire grade level are currently in modulars and special classes are pushed into trailers. Some of the classrooms already have 30 students. My
010sixth grader is in an advanced math class with 33 students. Had three students not been identified to complete algebra 1 delivered through admentum, there would be 36 students in that room for a teacher to support. In the modular units, teachers share that students lose approximately 10 minutes of instruction just to use the bathroom. In the cafeteria, the overcrowding is so severe the children feel forced to choose between finishing what could be one of their only meals of the day or having recess as they are often standing in line right up until the end of lunch. For a title one adjacent community, asking a child to choose between nutrition and play is a logistical failure and a social injustice. The countyy's strategic plan includes a vision to increase academic rigor, but you cannot have rigor without
011relationships and support. Cardinal Forest is the only elementary school in the West Springfield Pyramid with five specialized special education programs, including the only preschool autism program. Close to 20% of our students are multilingual learners. 24% receive special education services and 12% are military connected. Our diverse learners require individual attention and quality relationships with teachers that simply will vanish when they are overwhelmed by sheer numbers and limited space. When you crowd classrooms, behavior conflicts rise, mental health needs escalate, and the quality of instruction fails. We will lose our best educators to exhaustion, and our students will lose the joy and foundation of their education. I'm asking the board to work with us to create a transparent plan that actually reduces the existing strain on our building for our mighty Redbird. Madlin Grineer. Good evening, members of
012the school board. My name is Maddie Grryer. I'm the Belvadier Elementary PTA president and the parent of four Belvadier students. First, I want to thank you for postponing the proposed boundary changes affecting Belvadier. As originally presented, those changes would have made Belvadier a triple split feeder, sending students to three different middle schools and three different high schools. We appreciate the board's willing will willingness to listen to families and educators and to hit pause on an issue with significant community impact. At the same time, postponing the decision doesn't eliminate its effects. It simply moves them forward. Families and staff are still love trying to understand what a future split theater plan could mean for our school community. At Belvadier, relationships matter. Students succeed because teachers know them, families are connected, and the community is stable. But
013a split feeder model disrupts that. It separates peers that grew up together, complicates the transition to middle school, and creates uncertainty for family. It also places additional burdens on educators who must coordinate across a school pyramid to maintain continuity, consistency, and positive transitions in and for the curriculum. As you continue this work, we respectfully ask for meaningful opportunities to engage early and meaningfully before decisions are effectively final. We want to understand the goals, review the data, and share what we see every day. how these changes affect students socially and emotionally, how they affect staffing and school climate, and how they affect families family's ability to plan for their children's education beyond elementary school. We're not here to dismiss the challenges FCPS is working to address. We understand capacity and equity matter. We simply ask that
014any future changes involving the Belvadier community be developed with transparent communication, clear timelines, and genuine partnership so families and educators aren't left reacting at the last minute. Thank you for your time and Continuing to consider the impact on Belvadier students, staff and Jess Steel. Paula Long. Good evening members of the board and superintendent Reid. My name is Paola Long and I'm a resident of Barker of Woods community. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight about our son, our schools, and our neighborhood and respectfully ask the board not to change Belvadier Glasgow justice school pyramid for our neighborhood. As a family, we deeply value diversity. One of the primary reasons we chose to invest in bark woods is the school pyramid which we are assigned to not only excels academically as an IB and
015AAP center but it's also widely recognized for its diversity inclusion and equity. Our son is 11 years old and part of the last cohort whose early education was profoundly disrupted by COVID. Belvadier Elementary became his second home a place of stability stability with our administrators and staff worked tirelessly to help students catch up. Dr. Reed, you met our son last year when you visited the school. He was the fifth grade ambassador during your visit. An impactful experience that meant a great deal to our son. As we transition to middle school where we unders we were understandably anxious. However, Glasco Middle School made the transition seamless through strong coordination between schools, thoughtful outreach, and uh support for AAP, non-AP, and IEP students. Our son entered sixth grade confident and thriving. Principal Baron or her team have
016been exceptional. The community matters. Students from our neighborhood enter middle school already knowing classmates, teachers, and even staff because these schools function as a true pyramid. They do not walk those hallways as strangers. We are deeply invested in the schools in our community. I have served many years as P in PTA boards at both schools and I have invited I've been invited to participate in justice related scholarship funds effort created by longstanding community members and neighbors. We are a small community about a 100 homes where families grow up together often across generations within the same pyramid. I respectfully ask the board to preserve our current school assignments and allow our children to continue their planned educational journey together before resoning our neighborhood is revisited. I invite you to visit our community, meet our students and
017families and hear our stories firsthand. Leia Sar. >> Good evening. My name is Leah Sumner. Thank you for your time and consideration today. I reside in SBA 2810 within the Tyson Green neighborhood and an FCPS parent. In the first three proposals, we were appropriately aligned with neighbors to Madison High School. But after addressing other communities needs while excluding us, in the end, the current boundary proposal is a worst case scenario than our current boundaries and further isolates and silos us away from the Vienna neighborhoods that we are geographically and community aligned to via natural boundaries, location, community organizations, and walkability. Understanding that Westbrier is still a split feeder, it is more beneficial to the children and the community, that students are aligned where natural and community boundaries are for children's well-being, safety, and in alignment
018with boundary objectives. I appreciate you allowing our children to have priority transfer, which acknowledges our alignment to the other neighborhoods, but this still keeps us siloed and fragments our Tyson's Green community. Additionally, I appreciate we will be under future consideration, but I implore you to consider our inclusion with other community members now, especially considering the current Tyson's development that will certainly impact Marshall High School's capacity in the immediate future and who we are separated from by major roads and natural boundaries. As such, we should be aligned to Madison versus Marshall. Further, I want to address it is not too late to do the right and logical thing for our current children versus ones impacted five years down the road. I request that our representatives not forget to represent Tyson's Green and advocate for us in
019alignment with FCPS objectives and align SBA 2810 with our neighbors to Madison High School. Thank you. >> Natalie Cronin. Natalie Cronin. Lauren Garris. Margot Wong. Miss Wong, can you hear us? You are muted right now. >> Miss Wong, can you hear us? Good evening. My name is Marggo Huang and I am the IB coordinator at Belvadier Elementary School as well as the parent of a first grade student at Belvadier. Belvadier is proud to offer IB's primary years program and we are one of just two elementary schools in FCPS to offer this program. Currently, our school is part of the justice pyramid, and when students leave Belvadier, they continue their IB education at both Glasgow Middle School and Justice High School. Very recently, a scenario was proposed that would cause some students from Belvadier Elementary School
020to leave our pyramid and for some also end their time with IB. I thank Dr. Reed and the school board for their careful considerations of all scenarios and the impacts any changes have on our community. For our tiny section of FCPS, turning Belvadier Elementary School into a split feeder has long lasting impacts. With just two schools offering students the opportunity to begin IB in preschool or kindergarten and continue through 12th grade, I urge the board to keep Belvadier Elementary School in the justice pyramid in any future boundary adjustments so that all Belvadier students have that opportunity. Thank you. Ellen Saraphini. >> Good evening. My name is Ellen Saraphini and first I want to thank FCPS and members of our school board for hosting this meeting of community members in light of recently proposed and now
021postponed boundary changes. I truly value the opportunity to share my perspective as an educational stakeholder both as a parent of two kids at Belvadier Elementary School and an active PTA member as well as a local university educator educator who trains pre-ervice and inservice public school teachers in the six largest and one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse public school systems in the US. The need to collectively advocate for educational equity and ac and the academic achievement of all our students and kids is nothing if not a complex endeavor. As a kid who grew up in the south without access to AAP or IB and only one high school, I recognize I am privileged to have access to these forms of education for my own children and to have the agency to advocate for their
022needs. I also believe that the best forms of education are practiced transparently through dialogue and sustained home and community engagement. And as members of our vastly dynamic and diverse community of practice, I am hopeful that going forward in the boundary proposal process, all stakeholders voices continue to be heard and members of the school board strive to maintain transparency and timely communication in seeking ways to address overcrowding and capacity issues without sacrificing the curricular integrity of our IB pyramid or the socio emotional well-being of our children. Margaret Summers, Heather McCain. Good evening, Chair Anderson, Superintendent Reid, and members of the board. My name is Heather McCain, and I am here as a representative of the Waln Oaks HOA board and our community. I've stood before you previously with frustration, but tonight I'm here with a very
023different message. Thank you. On behalf of the families in Waln Oaks, I want to formally withdraw our opposition to the proposed boundary changes. We want to express our sincere gratitude to the boundary review advisory committee and this board for listening to our concerns and incorporating Waln Oaks into the final plan. For decades, our neighborhood felt like an afterthought, a literal attendance island on the map. By correcting this anomaly and addressing the split feeder patterns at Brookfield Elementary and Franklin Middle, you have done more than just move lines on a map. You have restored logic and safety to our students commutes. You have prioritized student cohorting and social stability. And most importantly, you have shown that the public engagement process actually works. It is rare in local government to feel so clearly heard. We recognize the
024immense pressure and the difficult math involved in these decisions. By choosing to include Waln Oaks, you have ensured that our children will transition through the Chantelli pyramid alongside their neighbors and peers exactly as this process intended. We know that is not easy and it is not possible to make everyone happy, but we are grateful for this step forward. We are excited to move forward as a more cohesive part of our school community. Thank you for your leadership, your late nights, and your commitment to this process. Jim Gully. Joy Hang. Mark Bar. Good evening. My name is Mark Bar. I'm here on behalf of my two kids who happen to be among the nearly 1700 who would be realigned based on the recommendations. And why I'm here is because I want you to hear how much
025I fully support these recommendations. Um I really implore the school board to go ahead and approve this tonight if possible. Actually, not if possible. Please just approve it. Um, I would say that the impact I think some people have focused on the impact on the 1,700 realigned kids, but I really feel like it is lost that this impacts all 183,000 kids within Fairfax County Public Schools. And those impacts are positive. This whole effort has been all about balancing capacity, keeping communities together, ensuring equitable access to programs. I will say as we have gotten closer to tonight's vote, the uncertainty felt by so many students and parents and teachers has really increased anxiety and a feeling of lack of control. I have a middle schooler who does not know for sure which high school she's going
026to next year. She doesn't know which open house to go to. She doesn't know what courses she's going to be able to select from. You have parents who need to have time to make informed decisions about whether or not their kids are going to stay at their current school or their realigned school. making a decision tonight, you have the opportunity to really alleviate so much concern for so many people within this community. I will say, as we heard earlier, this has been an 18-month process. There have been 48 inerson, virtual, and hybrid meetings. There have been three public hearings. There have been 27,000 comments on the various tools online. And honestly, I cannot imagine the number of emails and calls and conversations you all have had, the superintendent has had, or the 96 B volunteers
027have had. I have to say I was in incredibly uplifted to see the changes after the first public hearing. It really showed that the superintendent and her team are here to listen. They take that feedback to heart. They listen, they assess, they take action. I will say as the compliance nerd, I was very excited to see pent to paper committing to addressing certain targeted areas in the future. And I just ask you please, these are informed, substantiated, and optimized recommendations. Please vote yes. Chris Mitchell, Carrie Pory. Good evening. My name is Carrie Pokai and I'm a parent from Cardinal Forest Elementary. While we appreciate that the West Springfield boundary decision is on hold, it is deeply concerning that a proposal was ever considered to increase a school already over capacity to 108%. While nearby schools
028remain well below capacity, with some even slated to enrollment reductions, placing the burden of overcrowding on a single school to preserve preferred school assignments for certain communities directly contradicts FCPS goals of equity and smacks of discrimination. Even more troubling, all four proposed scenarios remove most single family homes from the Cardinal Forest boundary, leaving behind an island of town homes, condos, and apartments. This fundamentally alters the fabric of both our school and our community and raises serious concerns about diversity, particularly when those homes are being shifted to schools planned for decreased capacity. Families are left asking who set these priorities and how such an obvious and significant impact on one community went unnoticed by the board. These decisions have real consequences. Overcrowded classrooms, continued reliance on trailers, experienced educators leaving, and strain on basic functions like
029lunch and recess are not hypothetical. They are our current reality. Further increasing enrollment at our school will push it past the breaking point while other schools are positioned to thrive. My question for the board is this. What will you do this year to achieve a more equitable outcome? What criteria and data will ensure capacity pressures are not disproportionately placed on one community? How will the board ensure the boundary review process is transparent and aligned with FCPS priorities of community cohesion and equitable access to quality instruction? Most importantly, how will meaningful representation from our affected communities be included in the final recommendations? We appreciate the pause, but now we need a clear plan that restores trust. There is no scenario in which increasing Cardinal Forest to 108% capacity is acceptable for our community. Thank you for
030your time. Assam shelf. Katarina Patna. Katarina Petro. Desh Pa Varnum. Desh. Pajarnum. DH Pavarum. Saki Sheller. Azreen. I mean, Amin I I can Can you hear us? >> Miss Anderson, can you hear me? >> We can hear you. >> Can you guys hear me? >> We can hear you and we can see you. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> We can hear you and we can see you. My name is Azri Namin. My son is a kindergartener at Han Valley Elementary School. I want to start by thanking Dr. Reed for listening to me and to the community and keeping Han Valley uh and specifically the communities south of Fairfax County Parkway under the West Springfield High School pyramid. I want to urge the school board to vote according to that plan. I also want
031to urge the school board with to stop with the continuous review and boundary changes. Our kids deserve stability, especially the young ones who don't understand over capacity or attendance island. My six-year-old came to me crying several times. He told me, "Mom, please do something. Please don't let them change my school. As parents, we had to live with that. We don't deserve to live through this trauma again and again, and neither do our kids." So, I want to urge you to please stop with this recurring reviews. I also want to represent the diverse immigrant community of my neighborhood, South County Parkway. When I came here as an immigrant, my parents struggled to afford schools at good school district. My husband and I specifically chose to live in West Springfield High School to allow the very best
032for our children. Taking that away from us keeps us immigrants in the continuous struggles of not being able to reach stability that non-immigrants don't experience and that's not equitable. Thank you, Joy Jan. Hello everyone. Crucial voices have been absent in this process. We have not done all that we can to solicit from our first generation families. When I connected with Dr. Reid, she mentioned Brack was lotterybased. There was a military rep, but why wasn't there a first generation rep or a dual language household rep? All are equally important. As someone who now resides in the West Springfield High School pyramid, I'm first generation and a product of New York City Medicaid. I was also the first in my family of five to graduate high school and go on to college. The voices of first generation
033and second generation families have been missing in this process. When we assume the demographics of an area, we forget that community south of Fairfax County Parkway, there are families like mine. My sons are also of Cambodian heritage, a group often underrepresented. So, this is a reminder that West Springfield High School is made up of 51% of individuals who identify as Asian, black, Hispanic, and other. 5% are also English language learners. Please change the narrative that West Springfield moms are all white and are afraid to attend other schools. No, we simply love our community. Reszoning could have the opposite effect on reducing diversity. The implications are unknown. I don't need someone who doesn't look like myself or my kids coming here saying that this is for equity. Instead of acting like an ally I never asked
034for, get families like myself involved and included in making major changes. I asked the board to really answer, "Was this an inclusive process representing the demographics of our communities?" If you have any doubt that it was, then how can you vote on any changes? I appreciate Dr. Reid for taking our community's feedback into account. We cannot continue to make major decisions without the voices of historically underrepresented individuals. Just a reminder that those voices also live in the West Springfield High School pyramid. south of Fairfax. Thank you, >> Rachel Cavona. Good evening. I'm a West Springfield High School pyramid parent that lives south of the Fairfax County Parkway in Middle. I attended the meeting when the revised 8130 policy was passed and since then I've been following the comprehensive boundary review process closing closely. It's been
035a timeconsuming and draining process. I would like to say thank you to Dr. Reid, Sandy, and Kyle for listening to the parents and residents of the West Springfield High School pyramid and putting a pen in the a pin in this boundary change for five years. It is greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank Mr. Moon for taking the time to meet in person with us and listen to our concerns. And I would also like to thank Kathy Hosek for her wonderful assistance, always willing to give a helping hand. I recommend that the school board do a deep dive into the boundary review process. Find out what worked and what didn't work. A written after, excuse me, a written afteraction report with lessons learned will make the process run more smoothly in 2030. I also
036encourage the school board to release an unredacted lessons learned report to the public. I am in favor of residency checks or enrollment veric verification. I recommend that at the entry into middle school and high school, all students at schools with utilization rates at 105% and above must provide documentation for proof of residency. I'd also like to advocate for the students who are in high school. I agree with Dr. Reid that busing should be provided to all high school student excuse me to Dr. Anderson that busing is to pro provided to those that are phased in when a boundary change occurs. Tatsiana Gregory. Evan Fowler. Evan Saler. Rebecca Herrera. Jacob Hirs. Michael Stabler. Fatima Aram. Roshan Sacrani. Kelly Oakley. Hi, good evening. Um, I just want to say thank you very much to the school board.
037Um, especially Miss Lady who is my representative. She does an amazing job and her emails are I don't know how she fits all that in her day. She is incredible. Um, and also Mr. Moon too. So, I appreciate your emails, too. Um, I can't really say too much about this because I just have one child left and she's a junior, so I don't have a lot of an investment in this process. I don't own property or or business here. But, uh, on behalf of my neighbors and the community that I live in, I just wanted to put in my two cents that, you know, it's important to let folks know what's going on because it affects them. um the school district that property is uh involved with, they um their values go up or down
038based on the school system. So, it's really important to get the entire community involved. And I think that um you know, you have to get the the notice out there. I I trust that the newspaper notice was given for this meeting. Um and then the schools that are involved, too. Hopefully, the schools all are tracking, you know, exactly how they're going to be affected. I I looked at the um the map and it had, you know, some notations about it, but not necessarily drilling down to what streets are going to be affected um in which neighborhood. So, it was a little bit tricky for me to to figure out, you know, exactly what school uh changes would be made between my high school that my daughter goes to and then um the other one that
039they would be accepting the other students. So, um I think maybe it would be helpful to get a little bit more detail to folks that are going to be affected by these changes. Um and also just keeping touch with the community going forward. Um there was a notation about a skeleton crew uh of meetings that would be um continuing to to provide progress. And so um if that is still ongoing, madam chair, that was our last speaker. Thank you for sharing your comments today. Okay. The board is scheduled to take action on the superintendent's proposed school boundary adjustments tonight at a regular meeting on Thursday, January 22nd, 2026. If you wish to provide any feedback to the board before this vote or to submit written comments of your testimony provided today, please do so by
040sending your comments to community participation at fcps.edu. Thank you for your participation. This public hearing of the Fairfax County School Board is adjourned as of 7:07 p.m. And we will be right back. We have to do a little bit of switching over.