Overcrowding in Fox Mill Elementary School

Parents at Fox Mill Elementary School, in Herndon, Va, have been having a tough time, since school started this year and Fairfax County Public School System (FCPS) have done little to help the process.

Largely as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the school population rose from 645 to 725 at the start of the 2005-06 school year. This is not to suggest that children who have been relocated as a result of this Act are not welcome at Fox Mill, but rather that the complete lack of foresight on the part of county planners and Federal authorities in the way the Act is administered has led to inept handling of the resultant overcrowding.

The situation has been made worse by FCPS officials, who failed to adequately inform parents and guardians of the impact of the sudden increase in the school population.

One such impact was that two classes of children, no longer have a formal classroom.

Orientation day was the first parents were alerted to this developing situation, when they began looking for the classroom for their children.

At a meeting between parents and FCPS Administrators on September 12, FCPS personnel had the audacity to tell parents in one breath that the current classroom situation was adequate and in the next breath tell them that trailers will be brought into the school to remedy the overcrowding.

In addition to the sudden and unannounced arrival of trailer-based classrooms at Fox Mill, FCPS personnel exacerbated the situation by plonking the trailers along side the school in full public view of the neighborhood. With the addition of above ground utilities, in a neighborhood where all utilities are underground, it is not surprising that local residents are up in arms about the entire mess.

FCPS administrators have steadfastly refused to remedy neighborhood and parental concerns in a satisfactory manner. FCPS refuses to consider moving the trailer-based classrooms behind the school where they would be out of sight, have improved security, and easier access to facilities in the remainder of the school.

FCPS officials apparently receive the results of Standards of Learning (SOL) tests as early as June, but do not act on those results for months later, producing the current over crowding crisis which Fox Mill Elementary now faces. Left unchanged the current procedures will see this situation repeated many times at many different schools in Fairfax County.

Principal Sheehy, who arrived to take over the post of principal starting this school year, has been faced with angry parents almost since the first day school commenced. Parents of Grade One classes also complained about the effects of overcrowding in their classes and as a result current rooms within the facility will be repurposed to accommodate a new Grade one class, as soon as a new teacher can be hired.

On a positive note, Principal Sheehy, acted promptly to address a noise problem caused by the HVAC plant near the 6th Grade classroom area. The trailer-based classrooms are being refurbished and FCPS officials now state that they will be ready for occupancy in the first week of October. For more information on issues related to trailer-based classrooms see the overcrowding web site, which also contains a link to the school's official web site.