Let the School Board Hear Your Voice!

Over the next two weeks, the School Board and Facilities staff will wrap up the community meetings and start narrowing down the options for addressing AHS’s overcrowding. EACH ONE of these options would have some impact, possibly dramatic, on your community and its school children. Once the School Board eliminates a particular option, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to resurrect that option. If you have strong feelings about one or more of the options currently on the table, NOW is the time let the School Board hear your voice. Your voice CAN make a difference, but, if you do not speak out, the School Board may not know the true state of public opinion in the Wakefield neighborhoods. Here is what you can do:


1. Fill out the personal “Community Feedback Form” on the FCPS Facilities webpage.

Even if you answered similar questions at a community meeting with your table, you should still fill out this form because the School Board has indicated that they are also interested in hearing people’s INDIVIDUAL views. Submitting this form on your own will ensure that the School Board hears YOUR thoughts and concerns, undiluted by members of a group. The more specific comments you leave, the more helpful it will be to the School Board.

2. Write a letter or an email to the School Board members and Facilities staff.

The School Board has indicated that it pays closer attention to specific, factually supported comments and suggested solutions than it does to emotional arguments, so try to support a particular solution and back it up with sound reasoning instead of just opposing any change. Many of the issues are discussed from our perspective on our web page. If you have already sent a letter or e-mail, please send another outlining your position and your support.

3. Take our online survey, which is SPECIFICALLY FOCUSED on ensuring the voices of the Wakefield Forest community are heard.

If you have already taken the survey but your spouse has not, please have them do so—you are both voters, and members of the community, and both your voices should be heard by our elected officials. This is very important, even if you have already signed our petition opposing Option 4 (formerly Option 1a).

4. If you are opposed to Option 4 (the non-boundary suggestion), please sign our “Opposed to Option 4” petition.

For all of those who have contributed to this effort so far, we thank you. At the same time, please keep in mind that this matter will not be resolved until late July. Between now and then, changes in the proposed solutions can occur, even after they have been narrowed down to one or two, so it is important to keep the School Board and staff aware of what you, as a voter and community member, want to see happen. LET THE SCHOOL BOARD KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!