Thursday, October 17, 2019
At last night's Board of Education meeting, the Board approved revisions to existing attendance boundaries, establishing attendance areas for the new Sugarloaf and Blue Heron elementary schools. In addition, the Board approved other adjustments to existing elementary, middle and high school attendance areas to establish feeder patterns for the new schools and to address school capacity issues.
The Board decided to draw the Sugarloaf ES attendance area, which takes effect in the 2020-21 school year, from the existing Centerville and Urbana elementary school attendance areas. The Board also decided that Sugarloaf ES will feed into Urbana Middle School.
The Board also determined changes to the Green Valley and Twin Ridge elementary boundaries for the 2020-21 school year, as well as changes to the New Market, Oakdale and Windsor Knolls middle and Linganore, Oakdale and Urbana high school attendance boundaries.
Current students who live in a redistricted area and will be in the 8th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade for the 2020-21 school year may choose to remain at their current schools with parent transportation, in accordance with the Board Policy 200.2 section D9 regarding a provision for "grandfathering" students in particular grade levels. FCPS will send a letter to each of these students' families by October 28, explaining the process for those who wish to use this option, available only for those grade levels (not available for their siblings in other grade levels). The deadline to respond is Friday, November 15, 4 PM, to the FCPS Central Office. Look for details in the letter.
The Board decided to draw the Blue Heron ES attendance area, opening in the 2021-22 school year, from the existing Deer Crossing, Liberty and New Market elementary attendance areas. Blue Heron ES will feed into both New Market and Oakdale middle schools.
Changes to the Deer Crossing, Liberty, New Market, Oakdale and Spring Ridge attendance boundaries will take effect in the 2021-22 school year.
To read the Board's decision, go to: http://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/fcps/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BGSRAB6C8177. FCPS is working to post updated attendance-area maps and other updates at www.fcps.org/LOURedistrict by Tuesday. (The site may be offline while updates are being made.)
After letters are sent to the parents of students who are eligible for grandfathering, FCPS will send letters to parents of all other students affected by the redistricting. Although the redistricting study involved 18 schools, fewer than 2,000 students are redistricted to new schools.
Please be assured that principals, staff and students are standing ready to offer a warm welcome to all who will be new to their school communities. Principals will send families welcome letters that include special welcome events, school tours and more. We look forward to continuing to provide a quality education for all students.