| Facing
Up to Changes in School Attendance Areas |
| When I was growing up as the son of an American foreign
service family, I changed schools at least every two years.
I went to first and second grades in Arlington, and then third
and fourth grades at an American school in South America. |
| Back to the States for a couple of years, and then it was
overseas again to another school. When we were not physically
moving to another country, I changed schools for more normal
reasons, like advancing to middle school or high school, or
when the old school was replaced with a new one. |
| Sometimes we lived in temporary quarters at the start of
the school year, and I attended a school for a few months
before moving to another school when we found a home to live
in for a longer period of time. |
| As a child wild for adventure, changing schools never slowed
me down. I thrived on our transitional life. |
| My parents tried their best to put me and my sister back
into the same school district when we returned to the United
States, so we could catch up with familiar faces and friends
from a couple of years before. But ultimately, it was up to
me and my parents to cope with our lifestyle and make the
best of it. |
| I recollected my upbringing in recent years in covering
the ever-changing school landscape of Loudoun County, which
has been on pace to add three elementary schools each year,
a middle school every couple of years, and a new high school
every three or four years. |
| Children who have grown up in Loudoun County in the past
decade have changed school attendance districts many times,
without ever moving to another home. Some children I interviewed
years ago went to a new elementary school every year for three
years in a row because new schools were added so frequently
and attendance boundaries were constantly in flux. |
| Fairfax County is now involved in studying changes to the
attendance boundaries for schools in the western portion of
the county, and these changes would affect Herndon and South
Lakes high schools as well as Westfields, Oakton and others. |
| Unfortunately, many parents treat these boundary changes
as if they are the end of the world. Schools with exceptional
reputations, such as Herndon and South Lakes high schools,
are being referred to as if they are somehow undesireable. |
| Fairfax County has one of the best school systems in the
nation, and yet parents are still wary of being moved to an
unfamiliar school. They buy into rumors and innuendo that
one high school is somehow better than another, but they don't
really know anything about that other school. |
| When I was on the street as a reporter, I visited Herndon
and South Lakes several times a week. I knew a lot of the
students and many of the teachers and administrators. I became
so familiar with the places I could walk the halls as if I
were a student there. |
| What I learned in that experience is that regardless of
a school's demographics or test scores, what makes a school
a bright and inspirational place for a child's mind to grow
is happy, dedicated and motivated people: the smiling teachers,
the strong and ever-present principals, and the parents, too. |
| In the coming weeks, the school system will narrow down
its options to make the most of its facilities, and students
from some neighborhoods will be moved into the attendance
boundaries of other schools. |
| Those boundaries will change. Those students will adjust.
And very quickly the school communities will come together
for the good of the whole. I hope parents can come to terms
with change as readily as their children will. |
