Emerald Chase neighbors are working to gather signatures on the following petition, which we intend to deliver to the school board at a later date.

Dear Superintendent Dr. Reid and Members of the FCPS School Board,

We the undersigned ask you to keep Emerald Chase assigned to Oak Hill Elementary School (OHES) and to a high school offering an AP program. The county’s proposed scenarios for Emerald Chase will not meaningfully address any of FCPS’s stated goals of the boundary review, and may actually have the unintended effect of creating significant problems for the school district, Emerald Chase students and parents, and others in the surrounding region. The proposed maps will not balance population capacity, fix the split-feeder problem, ensure proximity to schools or transportation safety/efficiency, or allow access to equitable programming. 

• FCPS is proposing to redistrict Emerald Chase from schools that do not have capacity utilization concerns and are expected to dwindle in population in the near future to schools that are expected to grow over the next three years (and the proposed high school would approach a capacity deficit).
• The proposed maps would keep Emerald Chase assigned to a split-feeder middle school and would not bring OHES students into pyramid alignment with Chantilly High School. If FCPS truly wanted to align pyramids in a sustainable way, it would have offered scenarios reassigning Emerald Chase to the same middle school and high school as the rest of OHES.
• Emerald Chase is only a short walk/bike ride away from OHES via a walking trail and safe neighborhood streets. In contrast, Fox Mill Elementary School, to which the neighborhood would be reassigned, is farther away and across the high-speed Fairfax County Parkway, making walking or biking there hazardous or impracticable.
• Emerald Chase students in OHES’s AAP program would likely remain there even after redistricting, and so dual bus routes may be required for the neighborhood, driving up costs for taxpayers and further burdening an already understaffed FCPS transportation system. 
• OHES offers full-time Level IV AAP services and Chinese language instruction. Fox Mill lacks comparable programs. And there are no assurances of SACC availability for Emerald Chase students at Fox Mill. 
• FCPS is proposing to reassign Emerald Chase from an AP high school to an IB high school, and the IB diploma requires two-year classes. Current high school students who would be reassigned to the IB program could face serious obstacles. Emerald Chase students should be allowed to stay at a school that provides AP instruction.

In light of the above points, the best solution for Emerald Chase students and the broader community is to keep the neighborhood assigned to OHES and an AP high school. 

Here is a printable version of our petition that you can use to gather signatures. Please email [email protected] for more details.