Karl Frisch and the Stupidity of Dunn Loring ES

[Anonymous]

While other School Board members have embarrassed themselves deeply over the past two years, Karl Frisch may take the cake.

Frisch is responsible for the redirecting of $36 million in taxpayer funds that had been earmarked for the construction of a new elementary school in the Fairfax/Oakton area to the repurposing of the Dunn Loring Administrative Center as a new elementary school.

The stated rationale is to relieve future overcrowding in the "Dunn Loring/Tysons/Falls Church" area, as if these are not distinct area. For FCPS watchers, however, it is well known that the real reason was to make sure the $36 million was not spent to build a new school in the Blake Lane park area, home to a prized dog park for Frisch and some of his childless friends in the Providence District.

So what's in store:

(1) FCPS will dawdle and is expected to open the new Dunn Loring in the fall of 2026.

(2) By 2024, however, almost every nearby elementary school near Dunn Loring is expected to be below capacity - Stenwood at 92%, Shrevewood at 92%, Lemon Road at 69%, Vienna at 69%, Cunningham Park at 67%, and Freedom Hill at 67%.

(3) Given Dunn Loring's location, major boundary changes will be needed to provide a critical mass of students. Most Dunn Loring students will come from Stenwood or Freedom Hill, but some Shrevewood students will then likely move to Stenwood, and student at other schools, perhaps Westbriar (projected to be at 85% capacity in 2024) will need to move to Freedom Hill to avoid gutting Freedom Hill.

(4) None of this will provide immediate relief to Shrevewood, which prior to Covid had been overcrowded for years. Had prompt relief to Shrevewood's overcrowding, rather than saving the Blake Lane dog park, been the goal, a simple boundary change moving some Shrevewood kids to Stenwood and some Stenwood kids to Freedom could have been implemented starting this fall.

(5) Nor will Dunn Loring help with future growth in Tysons, if as expected more housing is built in central Tysons, as Dunn Loring is not especially close to the parts of Tysons slated for the most housing growth. A new elementary school in the southern part of the current Spring Hill ES attendance area would have made much more sense.

(6) And, if some of the schools in the Fairfax/Oakton area that are projected to be closer to full capacity actually see a higher-than-expected increase in enrollment, such as Waples Mill (projected to be at 99% by 2024), Oakton (89%), or Providence (87%), Frisch has nothing in the works for you, except possibly moving you to Mosaic ES, which already has about 900 kids and is itself about to undergo a renovation.

What colossal stupidity, and it was only possible because a 12-0 Democratic School Board blindly went along with Frisch's nonsense. These people have zero common sense and think they can get away with anything because so many people just vote for Democratic-endorsed candidates in School Board elections. But this crowd really is taking us all for a ride.

[Anonymous]

We wiul need more than one ES for the Tysons growth. Dunn Loring is close enough to absorb some of it. I thought it was a great idea and that finally the County started something BEFORE there was a crisis. It is far better that the SB giving away the old Lewinsville school site to the county. That would have been a great location for another school to absorb the Tysons growth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We wiul need more than one ES for the Tysons growth. Dunn Loring is close enough to absorb some of it. I thought it was a great idea and that finally the County started something BEFORE there was a crisis. It is far better that the SB giving away the old Lewinsville school site to the county. That would have been a great location for another school to absorb the Tysons growth.

No one with any understanding of current or projected growth thinks Dunn Loring should have been accelerated. It's only pro-active insofar as saving the dog park goes.

[Anonymous]

Vote Karl Frisch out. He’s scum and really doesn’t understand or care about school issues—most notably the overcrowding at Shrevewood.

[Anonymous]

I guarantee you that when they get around to having to move kids at under-enrolled schools to justify the Dunn Loring renovation, it will be a shit-show.

And it will be the gift that keeps on giving, because it will make sense to open a new ES in Tysons where all those condos and apartments that currently feed to Westbriar, Spring Hill, and Westgate are being built. That's in the CIP as a future project; it's important to give that area a sense of place; and it will be needed to reduce the enrollment at Spring Hill ES, which at times has exceeded 1000 kids.

But when they get around to doing this, they'll realize they have to reassign some of the areas that likely will have been reassigned a few years earlier to Freedom Hill because a good chunk of Freedom Hill (along with 1/2 of current Stenwood) is going to end up moving to Dunn Loring to justify Dunn Loring's re-opening.

It's a shame that no one on Facilities staff or the School Board cared enough to think ahead and instead just went along with Frisch's Folly.

[Anonymous]

I don’t see how the Blake Ln site makes any sense for a new ES given the new Plan, so maybe we should be thanking Fritsch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see how the Blake Ln site makes any sense for a new ES given the new Plan, so maybe we should be thanking Fritsch?

Or maybe not. It’s not like they couldn’t have put $36M to better use.

[Anonymous]

The idea that Frisch got to decide how $36M in taxpayer money got spent with no serious discussion ought to revolt people. The guy has no college degree, no teaching experience, and no kids in FCPS. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people in the county better equipped to do his job.

[Anonymous]

It’s appears that Karl Frish’s priorities during his time as a School Board member have been to push the sexual ideology indoctrination of students in FCPS and to preserve the dog park in his area. Both causes serve his personal interests, as opposed to those of the majority of the community members he represents. Enough of these activists making self-serving decisions that affect all children and are financed by tax payers.

[Anonymous]

I recall that a few years ago Megan McLaughlin had two schools in the Woodson pyramid that were scheduled for a boundary adjustment. By the time FCPS was about ready to start the study the projections had changed, so Megan pulled it. She didn’t ask for anything in return, but just said it was no longer a priority.

That is how School Board members should behave, not like Karl Frisch with this nutty scheme at Dunn Loring that is clearly more about saving a dog park than anything else.

[Anonymous]

I have been unimpressed with Frisch.

[Anonymous]

Where are the projections that Shrevewood will be at 92% capacity in 2026? That's insane given how overcrowded it was pre-pandemic. TONS of high income families left for private over the past two years and a lot of the AAP kids left for Lemon Road. That doesn't help those of us with kids who are in regular, non-AAP classes, though. They are still overcrowded, even after principal placement.

[Anonymous]

Karl Frisch+the pandemic really screwed Shrevewood over. Three years ago, we were promised a boundary study the following fall, which was then postponed to the next fall, and then of course the pandemic happened so that was postponed again, and somehow Karl managed to slide in the Dunn Loring proposal under the radar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The idea that Frisch got to decide how $36M in taxpayer money got spent with no serious discussion ought to revolt people. The guy has no college degree, no teaching experience, and no kids in FCPS. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people in the county better equipped to do his job.

Seriously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vote Karl Frisch out. He’s scum and really doesn’t understand or care about school issues—most notably the overcrowding at Shrevewood.

My hope is that his political ambitions launch him into running for a county-wide position during the next election and we have someone who actually has kids in FCPS and cares about children running in his stead. I know that last part is a pipe dream since the school board in this area is all about trying to broaden one's political career, but one can hope.