FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

It impacts taxpayers and neighboring schools. Perhaps your selfish views don't see that. Utilization of existing capacity is supposed to be one of the reasons to change boundaries - specifically so you don't build space you don't need at taxpayer expense. This is why the West Potomac boondoggle was so blatantly wrong. There was plenty of room at Mt. Vernon.

Perhaps your selfish views can't expand to understand that FC residents settled into the neighborhoods that they did based on the schools they were districted to.

Citizens of Fairfax are of course free to make those personal decisions and have opinions about where they believe they should attend, but FCPS is very clear that they do not make any guarantees. Straight from their boundary website:
"Please note that school boundaries are reevaluated each year and may be adjusted by the School Board. FCPS provides no guarantee that any residential address will continually be served by the same elementary, middle, and/or high school(s) or AAP center(s)."

FCPS is tasked with educating the public at large and pyramids certainly don't exist in isolation. This isn't about WS vs. Lewis or Langley vs. Herndon. If certain policies are harming the ability to run a good system then that needs to be addressed. And again this entire 'holistic' review isn't only about boundaries but also program placement and availability which undeniably needs to be evaluated.

Exactly. If you buy a house in FC, you need to read "the fine print" quoted above.

It’s not in FCPS’s interests to deal with families as if it’s entering into an adhesion contract with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

It impacts taxpayers and neighboring schools. Perhaps your selfish views don't see that. Utilization of existing capacity is supposed to be one of the reasons to change boundaries - specifically so you don't build space you don't need at taxpayer expense. This is why the West Potomac boondoggle was so blatantly wrong. There was plenty of room at Mt. Vernon.

Perhaps your selfish views can't expand to understand that FC residents settled into the neighborhoods that they did based on the schools they were districted to.

Citizens of Fairfax are of course free to make those personal decisions and have opinions about where they believe they should attend, but FCPS is very clear that they do not make any guarantees. Straight from their boundary website:
"Please note that school boundaries are reevaluated each year and may be adjusted by the School Board. FCPS provides no guarantee that any residential address will continually be served by the same elementary, middle, and/or high school(s) or AAP center(s)."

FCPS is tasked with educating the public at large and pyramids certainly don't exist in isolation. This isn't about WS vs. Lewis or Langley vs. Herndon. If certain policies are harming the ability to run a good system then that needs to be addressed. And again this entire 'holistic' review isn't only about boundaries but also program placement and availability which undeniably needs to be evaluated.

People are going to move where they want to live, usually based on schools and commute.

People in Fairfax County are wealthy enough that if you rezone kids to a low performing school in an attempt at social engineering, especially when no one is asking to be rezoned, that they will just pull their kids for private school and buy in other zones.

The other poster is right. There are so many things FCPS can do to fix Lewis, starting eith eliminating AB and the social justice academy.

Put in AP. Put in an audition based performing arts magnet. Put in a non traditional trades magnet and let kids transfer to Edison, Hayfield or Lake Braddock.

There are many things they can do that do not involve disrupting families and using kids as politicsl pawns.

Not really. For a public school, demographics is destiny. Lewis is 54% farms. That level dooms to to being an underperforming school. FCPS itself commissioned a study on the impact of poverty rate on school quality. According to FCPS's own study: "And, almost all schools with poverty levels of 45 percent or higher were unable to reach expected passrate levels in reading or math. Follow‐up statistical analyses found statistical evidence that two tipping points exist in FCPS. The reading data provided the most consistent findings as it indicated two tipping points occurring at 20 and 40‐45 percent school‐level poverty. Thus, FCPS schools with greater than 20 percent poverty are much less likely to meet performance expectations than those with less than 20 percent poverty. And, once poverty levels at a school reach 40 percent or more, FCPS schools are unlikely to meet expectations for school performance." ... "It is also important to note that this impact was for all students attending FCPS schools, meaning that both students living in poverty and those not from impoverished backgrounds at the same school demonstrate similar declines in their reading performance when attending schools above the 20 percent poverty tipping point."

https://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/9DG4KP71B0DB/$file/fcps_tipping-point.pdf

This years-old study doesn’t support the actions you seem to think it does, since they now can’t dilute the poverty levels at Lewis to below 40% through boundary changes with WS. They can revisit the assumption in the study, however, just like poverty rates and pass rates themselves can be adjusted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

It impacts taxpayers and neighboring schools. Perhaps your selfish views don't see that. Utilization of existing capacity is supposed to be one of the reasons to change boundaries - specifically so you don't build space you don't need at taxpayer expense. This is why the West Potomac boondoggle was so blatantly wrong. There was plenty of room at Mt. Vernon.

Perhaps your selfish views can't expand to understand that FC residents settled into the neighborhoods that they did based on the schools they were districted to.

Citizens of Fairfax are of course free to make those personal decisions and have opinions about where they believe they should attend, but FCPS is very clear that they do not make any guarantees. Straight from their boundary website:
"Please note that school boundaries are reevaluated each year and may be adjusted by the School Board. FCPS provides no guarantee that any residential address will continually be served by the same elementary, middle, and/or high school(s) or AAP center(s)."

FCPS is tasked with educating the public at large and pyramids certainly don't exist in isolation. This isn't about WS vs. Lewis or Langley vs. Herndon. If certain policies are harming the ability to run a good system then that needs to be addressed. And again this entire 'holistic' review isn't only about boundaries but also program placement and availability which undeniably needs to be evaluated.

Exactly. If you buy a house in FC, you need to read "the fine print" quoted above.

It’s not in FCPS’s interests to deal with families as if it’s entering into an adhesion contract with them.

Who do you believe has the upper hand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

It impacts taxpayers and neighboring schools. Perhaps your selfish views don't see that. Utilization of existing capacity is supposed to be one of the reasons to change boundaries - specifically so you don't build space you don't need at taxpayer expense. This is why the West Potomac boondoggle was so blatantly wrong. There was plenty of room at Mt. Vernon.

Perhaps your selfish views can't expand to understand that FC residents settled into the neighborhoods that they did based on the schools they were districted to.

Citizens of Fairfax are of course free to make those personal decisions and have opinions about where they believe they should attend, but FCPS is very clear that they do not make any guarantees. Straight from their boundary website:
"Please note that school boundaries are reevaluated each year and may be adjusted by the School Board. FCPS provides no guarantee that any residential address will continually be served by the same elementary, middle, and/or high school(s) or AAP center(s)."

FCPS is tasked with educating the public at large and pyramids certainly don't exist in isolation. This isn't about WS vs. Lewis or Langley vs. Herndon. If certain policies are harming the ability to run a good system then that needs to be addressed. And again this entire 'holistic' review isn't only about boundaries but also program placement and availability which undeniably needs to be evaluated.

Exactly. If you buy a house in FC, you need to read "the fine print" quoted above.

It’s not in FCPS’s interests to deal with families as if it’s entering into an adhesion contract with them.

Who do you believe has the upper hand?

FCPS acts as if it does but that belief may not be warranted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

It impacts taxpayers and neighboring schools. Perhaps your selfish views don't see that. Utilization of existing capacity is supposed to be one of the reasons to change boundaries - specifically so you don't build space you don't need at taxpayer expense. This is why the West Potomac boondoggle was so blatantly wrong. There was plenty of room at Mt. Vernon.

Perhaps your selfish views can't expand to understand that FC residents settled into the neighborhoods that they did based on the schools they were districted to.

Citizens of Fairfax are of course free to make those personal decisions and have opinions about where they believe they should attend, but FCPS is very clear that they do not make any guarantees. Straight from their boundary website:
"Please note that school boundaries are reevaluated each year and may be adjusted by the School Board. FCPS provides no guarantee that any residential address will continually be served by the same elementary, middle, and/or high school(s) or AAP center(s)."

FCPS is tasked with educating the public at large and pyramids certainly don't exist in isolation. This isn't about WS vs. Lewis or Langley vs. Herndon. If certain policies are harming the ability to run a good system then that needs to be addressed. And again this entire 'holistic' review isn't only about boundaries but also program placement and availability which undeniably needs to be evaluated.

Exactly. If you buy a house in FC, you need to read "the fine print" quoted above.

Alright FC can upend the current school boundaries if they want to, but shuffling students around does not change human behavior. The parents with means will relocate to higher performing public schools or send their kids to private. dramatically changing the school boundaries risks creating a death spiral for FC Schools. Wealthy parents leaving public schools will create a decline in average academic performance which will encourage even more parents to withdraw their kids from public school. The county will lose significant funding and have trouble paying for existing facilities.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, some of us have already experienced the death spiral. So that really doesn't move me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

It impacts taxpayers and neighboring schools. Perhaps your selfish views don't see that. Utilization of existing capacity is supposed to be one of the reasons to change boundaries - specifically so you don't build space you don't need at taxpayer expense. This is why the West Potomac boondoggle was so blatantly wrong. There was plenty of room at Mt. Vernon.

Perhaps your selfish views can't expand to understand that FC residents settled into the neighborhoods that they did based on the schools they were districted to.

Citizens of Fairfax are of course free to make those personal decisions and have opinions about where they believe they should attend, but FCPS is very clear that they do not make any guarantees. Straight from their boundary website:
"Please note that school boundaries are reevaluated each year and may be adjusted by the School Board. FCPS provides no guarantee that any residential address will continually be served by the same elementary, middle, and/or high school(s) or AAP center(s)."

FCPS is tasked with educating the public at large and pyramids certainly don't exist in isolation. This isn't about WS vs. Lewis or Langley vs. Herndon. If certain policies are harming the ability to run a good system then that needs to be addressed. And again this entire 'holistic' review isn't only about boundaries but also program placement and availability which undeniably needs to be evaluated.

People are going to move where they want to live, usually based on schools and commute.

People in Fairfax County are wealthy enough that if you rezone kids to a low performing school in an attempt at social engineering, especially when no one is asking to be rezoned, that they will just pull their kids for private school and buy in other zones.

The other poster is right. There are so many things FCPS can do to fix Lewis, starting eith eliminating AB and the social justice academy.

Put in AP. Put in an audition based performing arts magnet. Put in a non traditional trades magnet and let kids transfer to Edison, Hayfield or Lake Braddock.

There are many things they can do that do not involve disrupting families and using kids as politicsl pawns.

Not really. For a public school, demographics is destiny. Lewis is 54% farms. That level dooms to to being an underperforming school. FCPS itself commissioned a study on the impact of poverty rate on school quality. According to FCPS's own study: "And, almost all schools with poverty levels of 45 percent or higher were unable to reach expected passrate levels in reading or math. Follow‐up statistical analyses found statistical evidence that two tipping points exist in FCPS. The reading data provided the most consistent findings as it indicated two tipping points occurring at 20 and 40‐45 percent school‐level poverty. Thus, FCPS schools with greater than 20 percent poverty are much less likely to meet performance expectations than those with less than 20 percent poverty. And, once poverty levels at a school reach 40 percent or more, FCPS schools are unlikely to meet expectations for school performance." ... "It is also important to note that this impact was for all students attending FCPS schools, meaning that both students living in poverty and those not from impoverished backgrounds at the same school demonstrate similar declines in their reading performance when attending schools above the 20 percent poverty tipping point."

https://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/9DG4KP71B0DB/$file/fcps_tipping-point.pdf

Remove the IB transfer option by eliminating IB and switching to AP.

That will immediately bring back many more high income, academic familkes than rezoning Daventry or another WS neighborhood to Lewis.

Then bam, problem fixed without rezoning.

Unless, of course, you are going to argue that all those families that pupil place to other schools for AP, will discover a love of Japanese language, or send their kids to private schools before returning to Lewis.

Eliminating IB and switching to AP is the least disruptive was to add smart, upper middle class kids back to Lewis without rezoning.

See how that works before even thinking about rezoning kids living in other school zones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, some of us have already experienced the death spiral. So that really doesn't move me.

If you have school age children, then you knew the achievement levels of Lewis before you purchased a house there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, some of us have already experienced the death spiral. So that really doesn't move me.

If you have school age children, then you knew the achievement levels of Lewis before you purchased a house there.

Not everyone is a transient. Some of us have been here a long time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

Answer the question, how large should the enrollment at West Springfield be allowed to become before the decision is made to use the space at Lewis? Or should they just enlarge WS again? When they enlarged it several years ago they started with one number for the increase in size in the CIP and over the next two CIPs it increased twice. This was specifically to try to avoid ever moving students to Lewis. I mean some people on here have argued that the really huge schools are more efficient. Why not close Lewis and send some number of the students to West Springfield? Bigger is better after all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

It impacts taxpayers and neighboring schools. Perhaps your selfish views don't see that. Utilization of existing capacity is supposed to be one of the reasons to change boundaries - specifically so you don't build space you don't need at taxpayer expense. This is why the West Potomac boondoggle was so blatantly wrong. There was plenty of room at Mt. Vernon.

Well, no it doesn't.

The numbers are pretty clear if you chart per pupil expenditure based on category of student, average class sizes and number of teachers.

The expansion was a responsible fiscal decision since WSHS was under a full gut, down to the studs and wiring. Anyone who knows even a little bit about construction and budgets knows this.

The renovation actually came in early and under budget. How often can we say that?

WSHS is using full capacity, which is a fiscally responsible use of building space.

The school zone footprint is compact, one of the smallest in Fairfax County. This small footprint minimizes bus routes, bus driver pay, wear and tear on busses, commuting time for students, and reduces the impact on the environment. The WSHS bus zone is compact enough that they are able to have one driver do double routes and still get kids in elementary through high school to school on time, when in other circumstances there would have to be 2 drivers hired. This compactness was invaluable during the bus driver shortages over the past 2-3 years.

Your argument that the larger school with compact borders, efficient use of resources, less expenditure per pupil, a larger student to teacher ratio negatively impacts taxpayers in another zone with no connection to the school does not carry water.

I see WS and Chantilly families tout this feature quite often. Of course, WS and Chantilly can only have such a small catchment area at the cost of the surrounding pyramids. Lake Braddock and Lewis are taking the brunt of that with south-reaching boundaries. LB extends from the 495 beltway to the Occoquan. And on the other side Westfield has the pleasure of extending from the Dulles Toll Road to effectively the Manassass National Battlefield so that Chantilly doesn't have to. The impact on the rest of the communities is worth assessing.

This has to be one of the silliest, most churlish comments I’ve ever read here. School locations generally reflect where there was land to build a school and, in some cases, jurisdictional factors such as Fairfax City kids going to Fairfax and Falls Church City having its own schools. It’s not like communities fought for compact boundaries in order to screw over others.

In Chantilly’s case, both the MS and the HS are centrally located within the catchment area, and it’s nice FCPS was able to make that work. If you wanted to expand Chantilly’s boundaries and shrink Westfield’s boundaries, you’d move a big area north of 50 (including Dulles) to Chantilly and move Chantilly’s southern neighborhoods to Westfield. The net result would be most of Chantilly’s neighborhoods were well to the north of the school and Westfield would be to the northwest of most of its neighborhoods. So you’d have boundaries that were more similar in size but it wouldn’t be more convenient for more kids.

In the case of West Springfield and Lake Braddock, the schools are relatively close to one another and in each case at the northern ends of their attendance areas. The kids living in the relatively sparsely settled areas south of 123 would have a long commute to whatever school they were assigned, but if you arbitrarily moved the areas south of the Fairfax County Parkway from LB to West Springfield, you’d have to compensate by moving the Keene Mill and West Springfield ES areas to LB. As a result, those kids would almost pass by West Springfield on their way to LB - something that wouldn’t make any more sense than the current boundaries and probably would make less sense. So, again, the suggestion that one school (WS) has compact boundaries at “the expense of” another (LB) is a rather bizarre turn of phrase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, some of us have already experienced the death spiral. So that really doesn't move me.

Adopting new boundaries to give a moment’s passing pleasure to the nihilists in our midst is no way to run a school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

It impacts taxpayers and neighboring schools. Perhaps your selfish views don't see that. Utilization of existing capacity is supposed to be one of the reasons to change boundaries - specifically so you don't build space you don't need at taxpayer expense. This is why the West Potomac boondoggle was so blatantly wrong. There was plenty of room at Mt. Vernon.

Perhaps your selfish views can't expand to understand that FC residents settled into the neighborhoods that they did based on the schools they were districted to.

Citizens of Fairfax are of course free to make those personal decisions and have opinions about where they believe they should attend, but FCPS is very clear that they do not make any guarantees. Straight from their boundary website:
"Please note that school boundaries are reevaluated each year and may be adjusted by the School Board. FCPS provides no guarantee that any residential address will continually be served by the same elementary, middle, and/or high school(s) or AAP center(s)."

FCPS is tasked with educating the public at large and pyramids certainly don't exist in isolation. This isn't about WS vs. Lewis or Langley vs. Herndon. If certain policies are harming the ability to run a good system then that needs to be addressed. And again this entire 'holistic' review isn't only about boundaries but also program placement and availability which undeniably needs to be evaluated.

People are going to move where they want to live, usually based on schools and commute.

People in Fairfax County are wealthy enough that if you rezone kids to a low performing school in an attempt at social engineering, especially when no one is asking to be rezoned, that they will just pull their kids for private school and buy in other zones.

The other poster is right. There are so many things FCPS can do to fix Lewis, starting eith eliminating AB and the social justice academy.

Put in AP. Put in an audition based performing arts magnet. Put in a non traditional trades magnet and let kids transfer to Edison, Hayfield or Lake Braddock.

There are many things they can do that do not involve disrupting families and using kids as politicsl pawns.

Not really. For a public school, demographics is destiny. Lewis is 54% farms. That level dooms to to being an underperforming school. FCPS itself commissioned a study on the impact of poverty rate on school quality. According to FCPS's own study: "And, almost all schools with poverty levels of 45 percent or higher were unable to reach expected passrate levels in reading or math. Follow‐up statistical analyses found statistical evidence that two tipping points exist in FCPS. The reading data provided the most consistent findings as it indicated two tipping points occurring at 20 and 40‐45 percent school‐level poverty. Thus, FCPS schools with greater than 20 percent poverty are much less likely to meet performance expectations than those with less than 20 percent poverty. And, once poverty levels at a school reach 40 percent or more, FCPS schools are unlikely to meet expectations for school performance." ... "It is also important to note that this impact was for all students attending FCPS schools, meaning that both students living in poverty and those not from impoverished backgrounds at the same school demonstrate similar declines in their reading performance when attending schools above the 20 percent poverty tipping point."

https://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/9DG4KP71B0DB/$file/fcps_tipping-point.pdf

Remove the IB transfer option by eliminating IB and switching to AP.

That will immediately bring back many more high income, academic familkes than rezoning Daventry or another WS neighborhood to Lewis.

Then bam, problem fixed without rezoning.

Unless, of course, you are going to argue that all those families that pupil place to other schools for AP, will discover a love of Japanese language, or send their kids to private schools before returning to Lewis.

Eliminating IB and switching to AP is the least disruptive was to add smart, upper middle class kids back to Lewis without rezoning.

See how that works before even thinking about rezoning kids living in other school zones.

Agree with this, except that the biggest recipients of pupil placements from Lewis now is Edison, another IB school. So you have to look at why/how kids are pupil placing to Edison - could be STEM Academy - and offer that at Lewis as well. And put out a new queue so people know when Lewis will get its next renovation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

Answer the question, how large should the enrollment at West Springfield be allowed to become before the decision is made to use the space at Lewis? Or should they just enlarge WS again? When they enlarged it several years ago they started with one number for the increase in size in the CIP and over the next two CIPs it increased twice. This was specifically to try to avoid ever moving students to Lewis. I mean some people on here have argued that the really huge schools are more efficient. Why not close Lewis and send some number of the students to West Springfield? Bigger is better after all!

Not the poster to whom you’re responding, but what’s your proof for the assertion that the bump-up in West Springfield’s capacity was “specifically to try and avoid ever moving students to Lewis”? It may have been based on an assessment at the time that economic conditions were favorable to adding more capacity without incurring huge incremental costs. In West Springfield’s case, at least, that may have been a good call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, the Springfield district folks were fools in the past school board election when they voted Schultz out of office over national issues.

Schultz was the one who helped and supported the Daventry parents with their split feeder elimination. She worked diligently with them, even though they were mostly not from her political party, because she treated them as her constituents even though they were from opposing political groups. She worked for her constituents on school issues, and would have been counted on to fight like a bobcat if the school board started pushing to rezone her neighborhoods out of the pyramid to use the kids as political pawns. She was awfully trumpy, but on school issues, particularly rezoning issues, Schultz put constituency over party. Fighting political rezoning was one of her issues.

Now they lost that kind of representation on the school board, followed by redistricting thanks to McKay and the board of supervisors, that split their representation from Springfield district to Providence, where the primary school board representation is on Lewis and not their zoned high school, West Springfield.

I think many in that part of West Springfield are going to end up regretting the day they voted on local offices because of national politics. They basically voted against their own interests, particularly with regards to school rezoning.

Fair enough, but, just to reiterate:

Not a single school board candidate ran on a redistricting platform. That they feel they somehow have a mandate to do this is very misplaced.

No school board candidate anywhere would get elected by running on a redistricting platform. It is a necessary evil that school boards loathe to do - everywhere. FCPS punting it down the road for so many decades, it is now needed. An overall comprehensive change makes the most sense. It will not be popular - they never are.

We should ask Terry McAuliffe how successful your line of thinking is: Parents and constituents don’t want redistricting? Well, I’m smarter than they are and I know better than they do, so I’m just going to do it anyway.

Also, you say redistricting is now needed. Your view is in the extreme minority in the county.

Let's assume that parents keep stuffing their kids into West Springfield (already over capacity). Should we expand WS again before using the available
Space at Lewis? That is not a reasonable thing to do and parents don't get everything they want.

Surely you have this all figured out. I bestow on you the title of FCPS emperor to do your will over the objection of any and all FCPS parents and constituents.

You sound exactly like McAuliffe.

It's just simple logic and fiscal responsibility. Would you have a cap on how big WS could become?

Since you aren't zoned for West Springfield, it doesn't really matter or affect you as to how big the school is.

It is weird to have a fixation on the size of a school you are not zoned for, which doesn't affect you in any way, and where parents of students actually attending the school are not complaining aboht the size or asking to be rezoned.

At some point, your obsession with that school sounds a lot like vengeance and wanting to stick it to people who made other choices with their housing purchases, as well as wanting to disrupt the lives of other people's kids for something that does not affect you one iota.

It impacts taxpayers and neighboring schools. Perhaps your selfish views don't see that. Utilization of existing capacity is supposed to be one of the reasons to change boundaries - specifically so you don't build space you don't need at taxpayer expense. This is why the West Potomac boondoggle was so blatantly wrong. There was plenty of room at Mt. Vernon.

Perhaps your selfish views can't expand to understand that FC residents settled into the neighborhoods that they did based on the schools they were districted to.

Citizens of Fairfax are of course free to make those personal decisions and have opinions about where they believe they should attend, but FCPS is very clear that they do not make any guarantees. Straight from their boundary website:
"Please note that school boundaries are reevaluated each year and may be adjusted by the School Board. FCPS provides no guarantee that any residential address will continually be served by the same elementary, middle, and/or high school(s) or AAP center(s)."

FCPS is tasked with educating the public at large and pyramids certainly don't exist in isolation. This isn't about WS vs. Lewis or Langley vs. Herndon. If certain policies are harming the ability to run a good system then that needs to be addressed. And again this entire 'holistic' review isn't only about boundaries but also program placement and availability which undeniably needs to be evaluated.

Exactly. If you buy a house in FC, you need to read "the fine print" quoted above.

Alright FC can upend the current school boundaries if they want to, but shuffling students around does not change human behavior. The parents with means will relocate to higher performing public schools or send their kids to private. dramatically changing the school boundaries risks creating a death spiral for FC Schools. Wealthy parents leaving public schools will create a decline in average academic performance which will encourage even more parents to withdraw their kids from public school. The county will lose significant funding and have trouble paying for existing facilities.

+1. Exactly this. And you can’t put the cat back in the bag once it’s begun.