Fairfax County Public Schools Problems of Interest

1
Fairfax County Public Schools Problems of Interest

• OR 680 Project Course in Operations Research,
  Systems Engineering and Computational Modeling

2
Major Issues Facing FCPS

• Static Pupil Population Across County
• Growth in some parts, Decline in others
• Forecasting this for infrastructure, boundaries,
  and other related planning is critical
• Later Start Times for High School Students
• Difficult to adapt and survive due to physiology
  of age
• Impact to transportation shown to be excessive

3
Population Forecasting

• Varied Methods
• Ad Hoc
• Expert Opinion
• Lag Technique (Use Last Year to Fix This Year)
• Varied Sources of Data
• County Survey
• Federal Census
• Other County Sources

4
Forecasting Word Problem

• Develop an effective methodology to accurately
  forecast school demand in a high resolution
  fashion to allow local forecasting for each
  school community using existing resources
• Develop overarching Information Technology System
  Design to allow more effective use of existing
  county, federal or private data available to
  support forecasting requirements
• Assess utility of addition sources of data via
  surveys or appropriate sampling method

5
Start Times and Transportation

• Great deal of parental interest in starting high
  school students at times more consistent with
  their internal clocks
• Major limiting factor is cost of transportation
• Transportation Routes and Assignment always an
  interesting Topic
• Scale of this problem impressive by any standard
• Operating Budget of nearly 90M, gt100k pupils,
  gt1000 buses daily, gt5000 individual bus routes

6
Starting Time Word Problem

• Develop an optimized set of starting times with
  associated bus scheduling within reasonable
  constraints associated with student bus stop
  times, ride duration, educational day length and
  return home times with a minimum of additional
  transportation cost.

7
Bus Routing Word Problem

• Analyze existing routing techniques and routes to
  identify performance metrics of use and develop
  improved routing.
• Consider potential segments for optimization to
  develop and improved routing method for use in
  other areas if this problem is too daunting.

8
Summary

• George Mason University an East Coast Center of
  Excellence for Systems Engineering and Operations
  Research Centrally Located in Fairfax County
• Fairfax County Operates a Top Notch Public School
  System based on National Rankings
• Seeking improve in some areas
• Look Forward to the Opportunity to Work with
  Masons Best and Brightest

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Contact Information

• Dr. Bob Zarnich (technical advisor)
• zarnichre_at_msn.com, 703-502-0279, 202-781-1297
• Steve Hunt (school board member)
• Stephen.Hunt_at_fcps.edu, 703-266-8246,
  703-699-1706
• Prof. Karla Hoffman (faculty mentor)
• KHoffman_at_gmu.edu, 703-993-1679