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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
Fairfax - Southwestern boundary study
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Anonymous
The District does the boundary study, not the School Board. Staff presents its recommendation and then the School Board votes yea or nay. |
Anonymous
That's correct, but the School Board instructs the Staff as to the parameters of the study, and there are many behind-the-scene discussions as well. How else do you think Langley always avoids being part of any boundary study? So, yes, Staff makes presentations and recommendations to the School Board for approval, but School Board members get involved long before the final vote. |
Anonymous
Exactly. That's how Clifton happened, and with Liz Bradsher's help to boot. |
Anonymous
| So, what's the parents' best way to give input and affect the decision-making? I'm a newbie at this . . . |
Anonymous
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Its all rigged..see how better schools ( like Poplar Tree, Greenbrier West, Navy Elementary, Waples Mill, Colin Powell) never get scoped into such studies.
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Anonymous
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Three of the five schools the PP mentioned are within the scope of the study; indeed, the overcrowding at Colin Powell is one of the main reasons for the study.
"Scope of the Southwestern Boundary Study Twenty-three elementary schools are recommended for the scope of study: Bonnie Brae, Brookfield, Bull Run, Centre Ridge, Centreville, Clifton, Colin Powell, Cub Run, Deer Park, Eagle View, Fairfax Villa, Fairview, Greenbriar East, Greenbriar West, Laurel Ridge, London Towne, Oak View, Poplar Tree, Providence, Sangster, Union Mill, Virginia Run, and Willow Springs. Staff does not recommend that this boundary study include Lees Corner, Navy, Silverbrook, Terra Centre, and Waples Mill, as these schools will not contribute to solving the overcrowding in this region." As to the other poster's question, it's hard to say what's most effective, other than trying to have an early one-on-one dialogue with individual School Board or Staff members. Ideally, you want to be in a position to get them to commit to a position, so you can say "you lied to my face" if they later reverse course. Of course, getting them to commit to a position is no easy task. But the decisions often have, for all intents and purposes, already been made by the time there are public hearings on a specific redistricting plan. |
Anonymous
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Yeah but they have pretty much decided to do expansion in these schools:
bonnie brae fairview fairfax villa greenbriar east cub run union mill My beef is this: Greenbrier East, West, Poplar Tree and Colin Powell are within 2-3 miles of each other Yet, only Greenbrier East will be evaluated for expansion - and it also happens to be the lowest rated school. My point is, decisions have already been made - and now we are getting scraps to debate over. |
Anonymous
OK - but there's a difference between being within the scope of the study and being identified as a school that may receive an addition. I'll leave it to others to debate whether schools like Powell - which currently is designed to accommodate over 850 students - should get a small addition so it has an even larger capacity. There's a point where healthy skepticism about FCPS decision-making turns into unhealthy cynicism, but it's hard to say exactly when it's reached. |
Anonymous
Well GBW is the GT center and it is huge. They added trailers at GBW and GBE over the summer. I have a child at each. There are 7 3rd grade classes at GBW. The 4 6th grade classes at GBE are all in the trailer "campus" as they call it. GBE was involved in a redistricting a few years ago for Dixie Hill and at the time was almost 1000 students. After it went down to 650 or so. They then added full day K and more pre school which I guess brought up another enrollment issue. We went thru all of the meetings and hearings during this redisctricitng because our neighborhood was included for some random reason. We think we know why, but staff would never say. Needless to say we were redictricted. I have no problems with the new school, but it was annoying b/c we didn't know anyone in the neighborhood for after school activities. I wil agree with the sentiment that if you attend the meetings, you will see a proposal promoted that is more than likely the one that staff prefers. At the most you can have marginal impact at the edges. If you are close to a border, you should absolutely attend the meetings and get the other parents on your side. The comments will then reflect this and the staff is more inclined to move that way. Don't think that if you go and you see nothing happening to your area, that nothing will. Changes are made until the final school board vote. |
Anonymous
| It has not been publicized much, but Poplar Tree ES communities are likely to be affected. I have compiled a fair bit of information at http://smallwoodhouselog.blogspot.com/ for the border communities that could be annexed into Brookfield ES. Thank you FCPS for involuntarily lowering the value of my and my neighbors homes! Contact your district supervisor and board rep and let them know your vote! |
Anonymous
Probably the single least effective argument to oppose a proposed boundary change is to complain about its potential impact on property values. The School Board members absolutely LOVE it when people make that argument. They are more than ready to tell any reporter who will listen that the opponents of a redistricting don't care about providing children with equal opportunities to get a solid education, but only about their own real estate values. Then others will jump on board and point out that you should have realized when you bought your house that the boundaries could be adjusted at any time, particularly in the fast-growing SW part of the county. The good news for your area is that it may well be the case that the School Board favors the third option, which would involving building additions at three schools and moving fewer students. Rest assured that Kathy Smith and Liz Bradsher have probably already made a deal and decided what they are going to do to your neighborhoods. |
Anonymous
| I've heard it also does wonders when anti-redistricting folks complain about the demographics of the school they're going to. |
Anonymous
Well, yes, that's a lightning rod as well. It's a very sad situation at the moment. There is some serious over-crowding in parts of SW Fairfax that definitely needs to be addressed. However, the reputation of the current School Board could hardly be worse. There are a lot of e-mails coming to light right now that make it very clear that the decision to close Clifton ES was heavily influenced - if not dictated - by the desire by the Springfield District representative, Liz Bradsher, to get another school (West Springfield HS) renovated sooner. None of this was disclosed to the Clifton parents at the time, so they wasted a lot of time and money attending meetings and working with consultants, to try and convince the School Board that Clifton should not be closed, when the decision had already been made. The only saving grace is that this has now come to light and Bradsher's political future is not looking so great. As a result, I'm sure those parents who even bother to participate in the currently scheduled meetings to discuss the SW Boundary Study will be very suspicious and highly skeptical - as well they should be. |
Anonymous
Given the tight budget, I doubt whether the Board will recommend an option where 3 ES undergo additions. Option A with no additions seems to meet projected capacity needs. I rather have FCPS spend their $ on preserving programs/avoiding layoff's etc |
Anonymous
| Option A also seems to fix a lot of the broken school districts and also would seem to lower the huge transportation costs associated with them. |