April 11, 2025

Dear Oakton Community,

Welcome back from Spring Break!

The FCPS Boundary Review Committee is having a busy spring.  The Committee met on April 11th and is scheduled to meet again on April 25th and May 5th.

Recap from the April 11th meeting:

• The consultants hired by FCPS walked through all of the attendance islands in the county and proposed changes to eliminate them.

• Note that Waples Mill ES, Franklin MS and Oakton HS do NOT have attendance islands and it does not appear that Scenario 1 (as this set of maps is being called) impacts the Waples-Franklin-Oakton pyramid.

• The slides with the Scenario 1 maps can be found here: https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-04/4-11-2025_superintendent_boundary_review_advisory_committee_presentation.pdf 

The April 25th meeting will focus on split feeders, or schools that feed into more than one school at the next level. Waples Mill is not a split feeder but Franklin MS is so it will be highlighted in Scenario 2.

The county has said they plan to focus on feeders where less than 25% of students from a lower school are split off to a different upper-level school. All of Waples Mill (aside from AAP placements) go to Franklin MS and the vast majority of Franklin MS students go on to Oakton HS. By the county’s set criteria, Waples Mill students should continue to go on to Franklin and Oakton after the review process is complete.

It is important we let the School Board know that:

1. We understand their stated decision criteria will have the Waples-Franklin-Oakton community lines stay as is.
   
2. It is our preference that the Waples-Franklin-Oakton community lines stay as is.
   
3. It would be unfair to make boundary modifications that don’t align with the county’s stated goals.

Please take the time to make sure your elected officials know how you feel about boundary changes.  

Our collective voice has pushed FCPS to provide more information about the process and acknowledge a need for more community input. The time you spend sending an email or making a phone call matters!

Here is a link to contact information for key School Board members: https://weareoakton.org/county-officials.

We will continue to send out updates as soon as they are available and encourage you to sign up for updates from FCPS and check the Boundary Review Committee Page for new information.

The Waples Mill Committee following this issue is happy to connect with any groups in the community who want to know more and/or want to help.

Please reach out to WMESBoundaryCommittee@gmail.com if you want to connect.

Additionally, sign up here to receive updates from the WMES PTA Boundary Change Committee.

Thank you for your engagement,

Waples Mill Boundary Review Committee