What is the AAP center for Waples Mill ES?

[Anonymous]

Is it still Hunter Woods, or are the students going to go elsewhere next academic year?

[Anonymous]

How come no reply?

[Anonymous]

I believe it's Hunters Woods.

[Anonymous]

Which makes absolutely no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which makes absolutely no sense.

why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe it's Hunters Woods.

That what I see as well. And then Carson for MS AAP.

[Anonymous]

I believe most of the Hunters Wood kids go onto Hughes and then South Lakes whereas the Waples Mill kids go onto Franklin or Carson and then Oakton High. Also Navy is within a mile or thereabouts of Waples Mill Elementary. It's like FCPS just made a decision on AAP centers in that area by the current numbers to fill the schools and nothing else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe most of the Hunters Wood kids go onto Hughes and then South Lakes whereas the Waples Mill kids go onto Franklin or Carson and then Oakton High. Also Navy is within a mile or thereabouts of Waples Mill Elementary. It's like FCPS just made a decision on AAP centers in that area by the current numbers to fill the schools and nothing else.

Well, yeah, pretty much. Navy and Crossfield sent their AAP kids to HW as well, but it got too crowded.

[Anonymous]

But Waples Mill is closer to Navy than Crossfield and I think is better aligned with the schools. Crossfield also seems to be one of those schools that is very under capacity now.

[Anonymous]

Last year when they created the center at Navy (due to overcrowding at Hunters Woods), they expected only some of the AAP kids from Crossfield to choose to go to Navy, since Crossfield already has a LLIV (there had been some quality problems with the LLIV at Crossfield, but they have a wonderful new principal, so that has been resolved).

There were two reasons why Waples Mill was not included in the center at Navy:
1. Even without Crossfield kids attending, Navy did not have enough capacity to accommodate all of Waples Mill AAP kids (remember, they anticipated only SOME of Crossfield AAP kids to choose Navy Center over LLIV). Waples Mill does not have a LLIV, does not have the capacity for a LLIV, and the principal is adamantly against adding a LLIV. In other words, Waples Mill counts on shipping 40+ of its students per grade away to other schools each year in order to maintain its legal capacity (there are sewer/septic issues that make it a legal problem to go over capacity).

2. The original long-term plan (announced Nov 2012 and revised a few months later) was to send Waples Mill kids AAP kids to the center at Mosby Woods. Waples Mill parents HATED this idea and let the administration know at all levels. Waples Mill parents did not have a problem with the school itself, just how inconvenient it would be, especially during rush hour. This move from the center at Hunters to the center at Mosby got put on the back burner, not because of any complaining by parents or receptiveness of the administration, but because Mosby does not yet have the capacity for Waples Mill kids (they had planned to move some AAP out of Mosby, thus allowing for the Waples kids, but that didn't happen.)

So, right now, there are 2 AAP classes of third graders at Hunters Woods (compared to 5 classes each for 4th, 5th, and 6th-- where Navy and Crossfield are included). Each class has 22 students. My son's teacher told me that 4 of the kids are base school Hunters and the rest are base school Waples Mill. It is ridiculous, but it's working. Of course, come middle school, the transition will be strange. And the bus ride is up to an hour for some kids.

It appears that the move from center at Hunters to center at Mosby is on hold indefinitely. Personally, if I were buying a house right now and concerned about AAP, I would choose Navy or Crossfield over Waples, just for this reason. There are just too many unknowns right now for the future of Waples AAP. Not to mention, Waples Mill is now the only elementary school in the Oakton pyramid without either a LLIV or an in-house center.

I hope this answers the questions.

[Anonymous]

Great post PP.

How would you rate AAP at Navy? Has the school seen any improvements after becoming the center?

[Anonymous]

Waples Mills goes to Hunter's Woods

http://www.fcps.edu/is/aap/designations.shtml

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year when they created the center at Navy (due to overcrowding at Hunters Woods), they expected only some of the AAP kids from Crossfield to choose to go to Navy, since Crossfield already has a LLIV (there had been some quality problems with the LLIV at Crossfield, but they have a wonderful new principal, so that has been resolved).

There were two reasons why Waples Mill was not included in the center at Navy:
1. Even without Crossfield kids attending, Navy did not have enough capacity to accommodate all of Waples Mill AAP kids (remember, they anticipated only SOME of Crossfield AAP kids to choose Navy Center over LLIV). Waples Mill does not have a LLIV, does not have the capacity for a LLIV, and the principal is adamantly against adding a LLIV. In other words, Waples Mill counts on shipping 40+ of its students per grade away to other schools each year in order to maintain its legal capacity (there are sewer/septic issues that make it a legal problem to go over capacity).

2. The original long-term plan (announced Nov 2012 and revised a few months later) was to send Waples Mill kids AAP kids to the center at Mosby Woods. Waples Mill parents HATED this idea and let the administration know at all levels. Waples Mill parents did not have a problem with the school itself, just how inconvenient it would be, especially during rush hour. This move from the center at Hunters to the center at Mosby got put on the back burner, not because of any complaining by parents or receptiveness of the administration, but because Mosby does not yet have the capacity for Waples Mill kids (they had planned to move some AAP out of Mosby, thus allowing for the Waples kids, but that didn't happen.)

So, right now, there are 2 AAP classes of third graders at Hunters Woods (compared to 5 classes each for 4th, 5th, and 6th-- where Navy and Crossfield are included). Each class has 22 students. My son's teacher told me that 4 of the kids are base school Hunters and the rest are base school Waples Mill. It is ridiculous, but it's working. Of course, come middle school, the transition will be strange. And the bus ride is up to an hour for some kids.

It appears that the move from center at Hunters to center at Mosby is on hold indefinitely. Personally, if I were buying a house right now and concerned about AAP, I would choose Navy or Crossfield over Waples, just for this reason. There are just too many unknowns right now for the future of Waples AAP. Not to mention, Waples Mill is now the only elementary school in the Oakton pyramid without either a LLIV or an in-house center.

I hope this answers the questions.

so you think people may not want to buy a house in the Waples zone because 40 AAP kids may have to go to Mosby someday? Instead oh Hunter Woods where they have been going? That makes a lot of sense.

[Anonymous]

^ we bought in Waples school zone because we really like the school, regardless of whether DC got into AAP (which DC did, but that is beside the point).

[Anonymous]

Actually we were considering moving to Waples Mill, but it's a huge drawback to have kids transitioning all over the place. The area doesn't have any central location nearby to give it an identity, it's sports teams are unaligned (little league I think is in boundary with Chantilly or something crazy like that), the AAP centers at elementary and middle are un-aligned, and Oakton High School itself is a weird combination of kids from various middle schools. Why should Crossfield, an older school, get a school that is very undercapacity and Waples Mill Road right down the street is so overcapacity that it can't even have a LLIV program?