By Yiqing Wang / Fairfax County Times
As Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) prepares to adjust school boundaries to better align students with local schools, parents and a nonprofit organization are raising concerns over the division’s decision to award a boundary review contract to a consulting firm without proper bidding and oversight, calling the move “arbitrary and capricious.”
The FairFACTS Matters Foundation, a nonpartisan group advocating for county families, sent a letter to FCPS on Sept. 23 criticizing the selection of Thru Consulting LLC. Scott Jones, president of the foundation and father of four in Langley district, said that FCPS “seems to be intentionally trying to hide things” to obscure Thru’s lack of qualifications in boundary reviews.
The foundation claimed that the FCPS improperly used The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) to hire Thru, bypassing the competitive bidding process like Request for Proposal (RFP) that are typically required for such contracts. They also cited a lack of evidence that the firm has conducted school boundary reviews, despite Superintendent Michelle C. Reid’s claim that they had done similar work for major districts like Miami-Dade and Houston during a regular school board meeting.
Thru Consulting’s bid request is listed on the TIPS website under “consulting and other related services” in Texas. Still, no details about the firm’s experience with school boundary reviews are provided. Parents are questioning why a company contracted through a Texas procurement system, without clear qualifications in boundary work, was chosen to oversee a project directly affecting Fairfax County schools.
The foundation urges FCPS to cancel its boundary review contract with Thru Consulting. In the letter, Jones called for an injunction if the contract has been awarded but work has not yet commenced. He requested that Reid and the School Board declare the contract void if performance has begun, citing public interest under Virginia law.
The boundary review is part of FCPS’s implementation of Policy 8130, which aims to address overcrowding and improve resource distribution by redrawing school boundaries every five years. However, some parents, including Jones, are concerned about the insufficient data and potential overcrowding caused by several major upcoming developments.
Michael Baker, a former actuary who lives in Forestville district, provided The Fairfax County Times with FCPS’s projected enrollment data obtained through a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request. According to Baker, one significant problem with the data is that FCPS failed to account for an expected influx of at least over 1,000 schoolchildren from two major development projects in the Herndon district.
FCPS’s methodology for calculating enrollment projections involved simply comparing student numbers in consecutive grades across two school years to determine increases or decreases. According to Baker, this approach did not account for anomalies, such as fluctuations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially skewing the data.
“Their projections are very plastic,” Baker said.
Amid these concerns, increasing attention has turned to the selection of Thru Consulting. While the firm positions itself as advancing the vision of education leaders, a closer examination of its track record raises questions about its qualifications.
David Irwin, co-founder of Thru, is the only team member with experience working with large districts such as Broward County in Miami, Houston, and New York City. However, Irwin’s work with these districts occurred between 2003 and 2017, while Gartner, Inc. employed him and primarily focused on IT strategic planning, not boundary reviews.
Jones expressed his doubt to Reid and Mateo Dunne, Mount Vernon District representative, asked whether FCPS had properly vetted the firm, especially given the lack of public evidence supporting Thru’s experience in boundary reviews.
In response to Jones’ concerns, Dunne replied in an email that “Dr. Reid consulted with the 20 largest school systems in the country to ascertain the leading consulting firms for school boundary revisions, and David Irwin was identified as the preeminent authority by her peers.”
Dunne also said that he has asked Reid to release Thru’s RFP proposal and is consulting with legal counsel to determine if disclosing the document complies with Virginia law.
By the time this story was published, Thru Consulting LLC had not responded to interview requests. FCPS spokeswoman Julie Allen, replying to a request for an interview with Reid, said, “Should she [Dr. Reid] be available, we will be sure to let you know.”
“It’s the transparency that goes with an RFP that they’re failing to either recognize or they’re doing so on purpose,” said Christina Williams, a mother of two who lives in Forestville district.
According to Dunne, the boundary review process with Thru Consulting includes “extensive community engagement,” beginning in November and spanning three to four months. At least six in-person and hybrid meetings will take place, where school board members and Thru Consulting representatives will be available to answer community questions and concerns.
“I take their concern very seriously. Please come out and let us hear your voice,” Dunne said.