FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake up babe, new Mateo Dunne email just dropped. Not going to copy the whole thing here because it’s quite long, but specific situations are called out by name in the Mount Vernon district including the Whitman/Sandburg situation and the Halley attendance island. https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/19?utm_campaign+=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#

This is what I found interesting:

"Over 100 students who live within walking distance of Mount Vernon Woods ES are assigned to attend Fort Hunt ES. They ride the bus every day past multiple elementary schools to arrive at Fort Hunt ES."

Removing those kids from Fort Hunt eliminates all of their FARMS students and sends them to a high FARMS school, so I don't see that happening.

I don't see how Whitman/Sandburg is solvable without creating more problems. If you give Sandburg to MVSH and Whitman to WPHS, the the walkable neighborhoods to Sandburg (in the Stratford Landing Boundary, across the street from Waynewood, both separated from MVHS by Ft Hunt) then you move more kids to MVHS than MVHS has capacity for. Moving Hollin Meadows to MVHS so Whitman is in the boundary Creates another island unless you move Stratford Landing as well, but then Sandburg outside of its boundaries

The only way to solve the Whitman/Sandburg issue is to build a new school building within the Mount Vernon boundaries. If you swap the schools, Sandburg will still be 100% bused for all the MVHS pyramid students. The building is too far of a walk for anyone who lives within the MVHS boundaries. When my kids were at Whitman, there was definitely a "disconnect" to the school and I think alot of it has to do with its location.

Whitman is where it is located because of a financial decision when Groveton HS and Fort Hunt HS merged to create West Potomac HS. The corresponding middle schools were merged and you had an empty school building. FCPS decided to move Whitman instead of renovate the building it was in (the original Mount Vernon HS on Rt. 1) and rent out the old building. That building is now owned by Fairfax County Government and NOT FCPS. I think that may have happened when Whitman moved back in the 1980s. Personally, I'd love to see Whitman move back to the original MVHS building but that's not going to happen.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/capital-projects/original-mount-vernon-high-school

One way to potentially fix Whitman/Sandburg is to turn MVHS into a secondary school and have both middle schools feed to West Potomac. That would fill MVHS empty seats and keep all their schools in bounds. It would also open up space at Whitman/Sandburg to fulfill Reid’s dream of more 6-8 middle schools.

This would create a less disruptive path to open seats. West Potomac could pick up Mount Eagle and/or Cameron from Edison. Annandale could pick up Bren Mar Park, which is already a part of its pyramid. And then should Lewis close, it could be split between South County and Edison, with Key and Twain feeding to Edison as Reid’s beloved 6-8 feeders.

I really don’t see much appetite for new secondary schools. They were kind of a 60s-70s thing. When South County later opened, originally as a secondary school, it was with the explicit understanding that a new middle school would eventually get built and, when that happened, South County became a high school.

Nor does anyone seem to be very keen on more 6-8 middle schools. Reid seems to talk about it mostly to placate Ricardy Anderson, who is miffed that the middle schools in her district (Mason) are 6-8 outliers. She’d be happier if other schools followed the same model because misery loves company (she has also been pushing for years to shrink the enrollment of 6-8 Glasgow).

I don't think the 6-8 talk is so much to placate Ricardy Anderson as it is to try and free up more room at the Elementary Schools to enable Universal Pre-K.

Where will we get universal prek funding once we get vouchers and all the umc and mc families flee the sinking ship?

Most of FCPS is upper middle class or wealthy. There is no need for universal PreK in this district.

Most, like 51%?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake up babe, new Mateo Dunne email just dropped. Not going to copy the whole thing here because it’s quite long, but specific situations are called out by name in the Mount Vernon district including the Whitman/Sandburg situation and the Halley attendance island. https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/19?utm_campaign+=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#

This is what I found interesting:

"Over 100 students who live within walking distance of Mount Vernon Woods ES are assigned to attend Fort Hunt ES. They ride the bus every day past multiple elementary schools to arrive at Fort Hunt ES."

Removing those kids from Fort Hunt eliminates all of their FARMS students and sends them to a high FARMS school, so I don't see that happening.

I don't see how Whitman/Sandburg is solvable without creating more problems. If you give Sandburg to MVSH and Whitman to WPHS, the the walkable neighborhoods to Sandburg (in the Stratford Landing Boundary, across the street from Waynewood, both separated from MVHS by Ft Hunt) then you move more kids to MVHS than MVHS has capacity for. Moving Hollin Meadows to MVHS so Whitman is in the boundary Creates another island unless you move Stratford Landing as well, but then Sandburg outside of its boundaries

The only way to solve the Whitman/Sandburg issue is to build a new school building within the Mount Vernon boundaries. If you swap the schools, Sandburg will still be 100% bused for all the MVHS pyramid students. The building is too far of a walk for anyone who lives within the MVHS boundaries. When my kids were at Whitman, there was definitely a "disconnect" to the school and I think alot of it has to do with its location.

Whitman is where it is located because of a financial decision when Groveton HS and Fort Hunt HS merged to create West Potomac HS. The corresponding middle schools were merged and you had an empty school building. FCPS decided to move Whitman instead of renovate the building it was in (the original Mount Vernon HS on Rt. 1) and rent out the old building. That building is now owned by Fairfax County Government and NOT FCPS. I think that may have happened when Whitman moved back in the 1980s. Personally, I'd love to see Whitman move back to the original MVHS building but that's not going to happen.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/capital-projects/original-mount-vernon-high-school

One way to potentially fix Whitman/Sandburg is to turn MVHS into a secondary school and have both middle schools feed to West Potomac. That would fill MVHS empty seats and keep all their schools in bounds. It would also open up space at Whitman/Sandburg to fulfill Reid’s dream of more 6-8 middle schools.

This would create a less disruptive path to open seats. West Potomac could pick up Mount Eagle and/or Cameron from Edison. Annandale could pick up Bren Mar Park, which is already a part of its pyramid. And then should Lewis close, it could be split between South County and Edison, with Key and Twain feeding to Edison as Reid’s beloved 6-8 feeders.

I really don’t see much appetite for new secondary schools. They were kind of a 60s-70s thing. When South County later opened, originally as a secondary school, it was with the explicit understanding that a new middle school would eventually get built and, when that happened, South County became a high school.

Nor does anyone seem to be very keen on more 6-8 middle schools. Reid seems to talk about it mostly to placate Ricardy Anderson, who is miffed that the middle schools in her district (Mason) are 6-8 outliers. She’d be happier if other schools followed the same model because misery loves company (she has also been pushing for years to shrink the enrollment of 6-8 Glasgow).

I don't think the 6-8 talk is so much to placate Ricardy Anderson as it is to try and free up more room at the Elementary Schools to enable Universal Pre-K.

Where will we get universal prek funding once we get vouchers and all the umc and mc families flee the sinking ship?

Most of FCPS is upper middle class or wealthy. There is no need for universal PreK in this district.

This just shows that you are incredibly out of touch. You don't even see the people who are so far from your description it isn't even funny.

Um, what I posted was true.

FCPS does not need universal pre K since most of the county is upper middle class or flat out wealthy.

FCPS needs high quality targeted preK in poorer areas like Hybla Valley, for example, and high quality preK for kids with IEPs/developmental delays.

Disrupting the entire system with an unwanted county wide rezoning, moving 6th graders to already crowded middle schools, both vehemently opposed by most parents, to put unnecessary universal preK into all the elementary schools in FCPS is a stupid and illogical waste of resources.

[Anonymous]

Who's going to pay for Universal preK? With the incoming administration talking about eliminating the Dept. of Education and defunding a lot of school programs, where would FCPS find money for this sort of thing? I don't see the governor giving it to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake up babe, new Mateo Dunne email just dropped. Not going to copy the whole thing here because it’s quite long, but specific situations are called out by name in the Mount Vernon district including the Whitman/Sandburg situation and the Halley attendance island. https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/19?utm_campaign+=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#

This is what I found interesting:

"Over 100 students who live within walking distance of Mount Vernon Woods ES are assigned to attend Fort Hunt ES. They ride the bus every day past multiple elementary schools to arrive at Fort Hunt ES."

Removing those kids from Fort Hunt eliminates all of their FARMS students and sends them to a high FARMS school, so I don't see that happening.

I don't see how Whitman/Sandburg is solvable without creating more problems. If you give Sandburg to MVSH and Whitman to WPHS, the the walkable neighborhoods to Sandburg (in the Stratford Landing Boundary, across the street from Waynewood, both separated from MVHS by Ft Hunt) then you move more kids to MVHS than MVHS has capacity for. Moving Hollin Meadows to MVHS so Whitman is in the boundary Creates another island unless you move Stratford Landing as well, but then Sandburg outside of its boundaries

The only way to solve the Whitman/Sandburg issue is to build a new school building within the Mount Vernon boundaries. If you swap the schools, Sandburg will still be 100% bused for all the MVHS pyramid students. The building is too far of a walk for anyone who lives within the MVHS boundaries. When my kids were at Whitman, there was definitely a "disconnect" to the school and I think alot of it has to do with its location.

Whitman is where it is located because of a financial decision when Groveton HS and Fort Hunt HS merged to create West Potomac HS. The corresponding middle schools were merged and you had an empty school building. FCPS decided to move Whitman instead of renovate the building it was in (the original Mount Vernon HS on Rt. 1) and rent out the old building. That building is now owned by Fairfax County Government and NOT FCPS. I think that may have happened when Whitman moved back in the 1980s. Personally, I'd love to see Whitman move back to the original MVHS building but that's not going to happen.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/capital-projects/original-mount-vernon-high-school

One way to potentially fix Whitman/Sandburg is to turn MVHS into a secondary school and have both middle schools feed to West Potomac. That would fill MVHS empty seats and keep all their schools in bounds. It would also open up space at Whitman/Sandburg to fulfill Reid’s dream of more 6-8 middle schools.

This would create a less disruptive path to open seats. West Potomac could pick up Mount Eagle and/or Cameron from Edison. Annandale could pick up Bren Mar Park, which is already a part of its pyramid. And then should Lewis close, it could be split between South County and Edison, with Key and Twain feeding to Edison as Reid’s beloved 6-8 feeders.

I really don’t see much appetite for new secondary schools. They were kind of a 60s-70s thing. When South County later opened, originally as a secondary school, it was with the explicit understanding that a new middle school would eventually get built and, when that happened, South County became a high school.

Nor does anyone seem to be very keen on more 6-8 middle schools. Reid seems to talk about it mostly to placate Ricardy Anderson, who is miffed that the middle schools in her district (Mason) are 6-8 outliers. She’d be happier if other schools followed the same model because misery loves company (she has also been pushing for years to shrink the enrollment of 6-8 Glasgow).

I don't think the 6-8 talk is so much to placate Ricardy Anderson as it is to try and free up more room at the Elementary Schools to enable Universal Pre-K.

Where will we get universal prek funding once we get vouchers and all the umc and mc families flee the sinking ship?

Most of FCPS is upper middle class or wealthy. There is no need for universal PreK in this district.

1) rich people like free child care as much as anyone, 2) there are absolutely places in FCPS where 70%+ of families are on FARMS.

Riiiight

Places.

Not universal.

Focus on the limited areas that need it.

Don't disrupt the entire county with unwanted 6th-8th middle school and county wide rezoning, for something as unnecessary as universal preK

Yep. Don’t need FCPS to turn into day care with wrap-around services for everyone. But we do need adequate K-12 schools throughout the county, and we don’t have that now because they’ve forgotten how to focus on the main thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who's going to pay for Universal preK? With the incoming administration talking about eliminating the Dept. of Education and defunding a lot of school programs, where would FCPS find money for this sort of thing? I don't see the governor giving it to them.

The current federal piece of the budget is 1.3%. https://www.4publiceducation.org/post/fairfax-county-public-schools-2025-budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake up babe, new Mateo Dunne email just dropped. Not going to copy the whole thing here because it’s quite long, but specific situations are called out by name in the Mount Vernon district including the Whitman/Sandburg situation and the Halley attendance island. https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/19?utm_campaign+=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#

This is what I found interesting:

"Over 100 students who live within walking distance of Mount Vernon Woods ES are assigned to attend Fort Hunt ES. They ride the bus every day past multiple elementary schools to arrive at Fort Hunt ES."

Removing those kids from Fort Hunt eliminates all of their FARMS students and sends them to a high FARMS school, so I don't see that happening.

I don't see how Whitman/Sandburg is solvable without creating more problems. If you give Sandburg to MVSH and Whitman to WPHS, the the walkable neighborhoods to Sandburg (in the Stratford Landing Boundary, across the street from Waynewood, both separated from MVHS by Ft Hunt) then you move more kids to MVHS than MVHS has capacity for. Moving Hollin Meadows to MVHS so Whitman is in the boundary Creates another island unless you move Stratford Landing as well, but then Sandburg outside of its boundaries

The only way to solve the Whitman/Sandburg issue is to build a new school building within the Mount Vernon boundaries. If you swap the schools, Sandburg will still be 100% bused for all the MVHS pyramid students. The building is too far of a walk for anyone who lives within the MVHS boundaries. When my kids were at Whitman, there was definitely a "disconnect" to the school and I think alot of it has to do with its location.

Whitman is where it is located because of a financial decision when Groveton HS and Fort Hunt HS merged to create West Potomac HS. The corresponding middle schools were merged and you had an empty school building. FCPS decided to move Whitman instead of renovate the building it was in (the original Mount Vernon HS on Rt. 1) and rent out the old building. That building is now owned by Fairfax County Government and NOT FCPS. I think that may have happened when Whitman moved back in the 1980s. Personally, I'd love to see Whitman move back to the original MVHS building but that's not going to happen.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/capital-projects/original-mount-vernon-high-school

One way to potentially fix Whitman/Sandburg is to turn MVHS into a secondary school and have both middle schools feed to West Potomac. That would fill MVHS empty seats and keep all their schools in bounds. It would also open up space at Whitman/Sandburg to fulfill Reid’s dream of more 6-8 middle schools.

This would create a less disruptive path to open seats. West Potomac could pick up Mount Eagle and/or Cameron from Edison. Annandale could pick up Bren Mar Park, which is already a part of its pyramid. And then should Lewis close, it could be split between South County and Edison, with Key and Twain feeding to Edison as Reid’s beloved 6-8 feeders.

I really don’t see much appetite for new secondary schools. They were kind of a 60s-70s thing. When South County later opened, originally as a secondary school, it was with the explicit understanding that a new middle school would eventually get built and, when that happened, South County became a high school.

Nor does anyone seem to be very keen on more 6-8 middle schools. Reid seems to talk about it mostly to placate Ricardy Anderson, who is miffed that the middle schools in her district (Mason) are 6-8 outliers. She’d be happier if other schools followed the same model because misery loves company (she has also been pushing for years to shrink the enrollment of 6-8 Glasgow).

I don't think the 6-8 talk is so much to placate Ricardy Anderson as it is to try and free up more room at the Elementary Schools to enable Universal Pre-K.

Where will we get universal prek funding once we get vouchers and all the umc and mc families flee the sinking ship?

Most of FCPS is upper middle class or wealthy. There is no need for universal PreK in this district.

1) rich people like free child care as much as anyone, 2) there are absolutely places in FCPS where 70%+ of families are on FARMS.

Riiiight

Places.

Not universal.

Focus on the limited areas that need it.

Don't disrupt the entire county with unwanted 6th-8th middle school and county wide rezoning, for something as unnecessary as universal preK

Yep. Don’t need FCPS to turn into day care with wrap-around services for everyone. But we do need adequate K-12 schools throughout the county, and we don’t have that now because they’ve forgotten how to focus on the main thing.

+1. Our property taxes have already exploded. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who's going to pay for Universal preK? With the incoming administration talking about eliminating the Dept. of Education and defunding a lot of school programs, where would FCPS find money for this sort of thing? I don't see the governor giving it to them.

Transportation savings from running double bus routes after the boundary changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake up babe, new Mateo Dunne email just dropped. Not going to copy the whole thing here because it’s quite long, but specific situations are called out by name in the Mount Vernon district including the Whitman/Sandburg situation and the Halley attendance island. https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/19?utm_campaign+=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#

This is what I found interesting:

"Over 100 students who live within walking distance of Mount Vernon Woods ES are assigned to attend Fort Hunt ES. They ride the bus every day past multiple elementary schools to arrive at Fort Hunt ES."

Removing those kids from Fort Hunt eliminates all of their FARMS students and sends them to a high FARMS school, so I don't see that happening.

I don't see how Whitman/Sandburg is solvable without creating more problems. If you give Sandburg to MVSH and Whitman to WPHS, the the walkable neighborhoods to Sandburg (in the Stratford Landing Boundary, across the street from Waynewood, both separated from MVHS by Ft Hunt) then you move more kids to MVHS than MVHS has capacity for. Moving Hollin Meadows to MVHS so Whitman is in the boundary Creates another island unless you move Stratford Landing as well, but then Sandburg outside of its boundaries

The only way to solve the Whitman/Sandburg issue is to build a new school building within the Mount Vernon boundaries. If you swap the schools, Sandburg will still be 100% bused for all the MVHS pyramid students. The building is too far of a walk for anyone who lives within the MVHS boundaries. When my kids were at Whitman, there was definitely a "disconnect" to the school and I think alot of it has to do with its location.

Whitman is where it is located because of a financial decision when Groveton HS and Fort Hunt HS merged to create West Potomac HS. The corresponding middle schools were merged and you had an empty school building. FCPS decided to move Whitman instead of renovate the building it was in (the original Mount Vernon HS on Rt. 1) and rent out the old building. That building is now owned by Fairfax County Government and NOT FCPS. I think that may have happened when Whitman moved back in the 1980s. Personally, I'd love to see Whitman move back to the original MVHS building but that's not going to happen.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/capital-projects/original-mount-vernon-high-school

One way to potentially fix Whitman/Sandburg is to turn MVHS into a secondary school and have both middle schools feed to West Potomac. That would fill MVHS empty seats and keep all their schools in bounds. It would also open up space at Whitman/Sandburg to fulfill Reid’s dream of more 6-8 middle schools.

This would create a less disruptive path to open seats. West Potomac could pick up Mount Eagle and/or Cameron from Edison. Annandale could pick up Bren Mar Park, which is already a part of its pyramid. And then should Lewis close, it could be split between South County and Edison, with Key and Twain feeding to Edison as Reid’s beloved 6-8 feeders.

I really don’t see much appetite for new secondary schools. They were kind of a 60s-70s thing. When South County later opened, originally as a secondary school, it was with the explicit understanding that a new middle school would eventually get built and, when that happened, South County became a high school.

Nor does anyone seem to be very keen on more 6-8 middle schools. Reid seems to talk about it mostly to placate Ricardy Anderson, who is miffed that the middle schools in her district (Mason) are 6-8 outliers. She’d be happier if other schools followed the same model because misery loves company (she has also been pushing for years to shrink the enrollment of 6-8 Glasgow).

I don't think the 6-8 talk is so much to placate Ricardy Anderson as it is to try and free up more room at the Elementary Schools to enable Universal Pre-K.

Where will we get universal prek funding once we get vouchers and all the umc and mc families flee the sinking ship?

Most of FCPS is upper middle class or wealthy. There is no need for universal PreK in this district.

This just shows that you are incredibly out of touch. You don't even see the people who are so far from your description it isn't even funny.

Um, what I posted was true.

FCPS does not need universal pre K since most of the county is upper middle class or flat out wealthy.

FCPS needs high quality targeted preK in poorer areas like Hybla Valley, for example, and high quality preK for kids with IEPs/developmental delays.

Disrupting the entire system with an unwanted county wide rezoning, moving 6th graders to already crowded middle schools, both vehemently opposed by most parents, to put unnecessary universal preK into all the elementary schools in FCPS is a stupid and illogical waste of resources.

I don’t think they’re getting UPK anytime soon. BUT the push to move 6th grade to middle school isn’t just “because that’s how most of the rest of the US does it” and to increase availability of MS electives for 6th graders. They want to free up ES classroom space for full day pre-K for everyone, starting with 4 year olds and then going down to 3 year olds as well. Reid is subtly pushing for it. The question is can she get it pushed along far enough before the SB dumps her as Superintendent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake up babe, new Mateo Dunne email just dropped. Not going to copy the whole thing here because it’s quite long, but specific situations are called out by name in the Mount Vernon district including the Whitman/Sandburg situation and the Halley attendance island. https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/19?utm_campaign+=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#

This is what I found interesting:

"Over 100 students who live within walking distance of Mount Vernon Woods ES are assigned to attend Fort Hunt ES. They ride the bus every day past multiple elementary schools to arrive at Fort Hunt ES."

Removing those kids from Fort Hunt eliminates all of their FARMS students and sends them to a high FARMS school, so I don't see that happening.

I don't see how Whitman/Sandburg is solvable without creating more problems. If you give Sandburg to MVSH and Whitman to WPHS, the the walkable neighborhoods to Sandburg (in the Stratford Landing Boundary, across the street from Waynewood, both separated from MVHS by Ft Hunt) then you move more kids to MVHS than MVHS has capacity for. Moving Hollin Meadows to MVHS so Whitman is in the boundary Creates another island unless you move Stratford Landing as well, but then Sandburg outside of its boundaries

The only way to solve the Whitman/Sandburg issue is to build a new school building within the Mount Vernon boundaries. If you swap the schools, Sandburg will still be 100% bused for all the MVHS pyramid students. The building is too far of a walk for anyone who lives within the MVHS boundaries. When my kids were at Whitman, there was definitely a "disconnect" to the school and I think alot of it has to do with its location.

Whitman is where it is located because of a financial decision when Groveton HS and Fort Hunt HS merged to create West Potomac HS. The corresponding middle schools were merged and you had an empty school building. FCPS decided to move Whitman instead of renovate the building it was in (the original Mount Vernon HS on Rt. 1) and rent out the old building. That building is now owned by Fairfax County Government and NOT FCPS. I think that may have happened when Whitman moved back in the 1980s. Personally, I'd love to see Whitman move back to the original MVHS building but that's not going to happen.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/capital-projects/original-mount-vernon-high-school

One way to potentially fix Whitman/Sandburg is to turn MVHS into a secondary school and have both middle schools feed to West Potomac. That would fill MVHS empty seats and keep all their schools in bounds. It would also open up space at Whitman/Sandburg to fulfill Reid’s dream of more 6-8 middle schools.

This would create a less disruptive path to open seats. West Potomac could pick up Mount Eagle and/or Cameron from Edison. Annandale could pick up Bren Mar Park, which is already a part of its pyramid. And then should Lewis close, it could be split between South County and Edison, with Key and Twain feeding to Edison as Reid’s beloved 6-8 feeders.

I really don’t see much appetite for new secondary schools. They were kind of a 60s-70s thing. When South County later opened, originally as a secondary school, it was with the explicit understanding that a new middle school would eventually get built and, when that happened, South County became a high school.

Nor does anyone seem to be very keen on more 6-8 middle schools. Reid seems to talk about it mostly to placate Ricardy Anderson, who is miffed that the middle schools in her district (Mason) are 6-8 outliers. She’d be happier if other schools followed the same model because misery loves company (she has also been pushing for years to shrink the enrollment of 6-8 Glasgow).

I don't think the 6-8 talk is so much to placate Ricardy Anderson as it is to try and free up more room at the Elementary Schools to enable Universal Pre-K.

Where will we get universal prek funding once we get vouchers and all the umc and mc families flee the sinking ship?

Most of FCPS is upper middle class or wealthy. There is no need for universal PreK in this district.

This just shows that you are incredibly out of touch. You don't even see the people who are so far from your description it isn't even funny.

Um, what I posted was true.

FCPS does not need universal pre K since most of the county is upper middle class or flat out wealthy.

FCPS needs high quality targeted preK in poorer areas like Hybla Valley, for example, and high quality preK for kids with IEPs/developmental delays.

Disrupting the entire system with an unwanted county wide rezoning, moving 6th graders to already crowded middle schools, both vehemently opposed by most parents, to put unnecessary universal preK into all the elementary schools in FCPS is a stupid and illogical waste of resources.

I don’t think they’re getting UPK anytime soon. BUT the push to move 6th grade to middle school isn’t just “because that’s how most of the rest of the US does it” and to increase availability of MS electives for 6th graders. They want to free up ES classroom space for full day pre-K for everyone, starting with 4 year olds and then going down to 3 year olds as well. Reid is subtly pushing for it. The question is can she get it pushed along far enough before the SB dumps her as Superintendent.

I just don't see how this is going to work in terms of facilities. Are they going to to add portables to Middles School to make this happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake up babe, new Mateo Dunne email just dropped. Not going to copy the whole thing here because it’s quite long, but specific situations are called out by name in the Mount Vernon district including the Whitman/Sandburg situation and the Halley attendance island. https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/19?utm_campaign+=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#

This is what I found interesting:

"Over 100 students who live within walking distance of Mount Vernon Woods ES are assigned to attend Fort Hunt ES. They ride the bus every day past multiple elementary schools to arrive at Fort Hunt ES."

Removing those kids from Fort Hunt eliminates all of their FARMS students and sends them to a high FARMS school, so I don't see that happening.

I don't see how Whitman/Sandburg is solvable without creating more problems. If you give Sandburg to MVSH and Whitman to WPHS, the the walkable neighborhoods to Sandburg (in the Stratford Landing Boundary, across the street from Waynewood, both separated from MVHS by Ft Hunt) then you move more kids to MVHS than MVHS has capacity for. Moving Hollin Meadows to MVHS so Whitman is in the boundary Creates another island unless you move Stratford Landing as well, but then Sandburg outside of its boundaries

The only way to solve the Whitman/Sandburg issue is to build a new school building within the Mount Vernon boundaries. If you swap the schools, Sandburg will still be 100% bused for all the MVHS pyramid students. The building is too far of a walk for anyone who lives within the MVHS boundaries. When my kids were at Whitman, there was definitely a "disconnect" to the school and I think alot of it has to do with its location.

Whitman is where it is located because of a financial decision when Groveton HS and Fort Hunt HS merged to create West Potomac HS. The corresponding middle schools were merged and you had an empty school building. FCPS decided to move Whitman instead of renovate the building it was in (the original Mount Vernon HS on Rt. 1) and rent out the old building. That building is now owned by Fairfax County Government and NOT FCPS. I think that may have happened when Whitman moved back in the 1980s. Personally, I'd love to see Whitman move back to the original MVHS building but that's not going to happen.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/capital-projects/original-mount-vernon-high-school

One way to potentially fix Whitman/Sandburg is to turn MVHS into a secondary school and have both middle schools feed to West Potomac. That would fill MVHS empty seats and keep all their schools in bounds. It would also open up space at Whitman/Sandburg to fulfill Reid’s dream of more 6-8 middle schools.

This would create a less disruptive path to open seats. West Potomac could pick up Mount Eagle and/or Cameron from Edison. Annandale could pick up Bren Mar Park, which is already a part of its pyramid. And then should Lewis close, it could be split between South County and Edison, with Key and Twain feeding to Edison as Reid’s beloved 6-8 feeders.

I really don’t see much appetite for new secondary schools. They were kind of a 60s-70s thing. When South County later opened, originally as a secondary school, it was with the explicit understanding that a new middle school would eventually get built and, when that happened, South County became a high school.

Nor does anyone seem to be very keen on more 6-8 middle schools. Reid seems to talk about it mostly to placate Ricardy Anderson, who is miffed that the middle schools in her district (Mason) are 6-8 outliers. She’d be happier if other schools followed the same model because misery loves company (she has also been pushing for years to shrink the enrollment of 6-8 Glasgow).

I don't think the 6-8 talk is so much to placate Ricardy Anderson as it is to try and free up more room at the Elementary Schools to enable Universal Pre-K.

Where will we get universal prek funding once we get vouchers and all the umc and mc families flee the sinking ship?

Most of FCPS is upper middle class or wealthy. There is no need for universal PreK in this district.

This just shows that you are incredibly out of touch. You don't even see the people who are so far from your description it isn't even funny.

Um, what I posted was true.

FCPS does not need universal pre K since most of the county is upper middle class or flat out wealthy.

FCPS needs high quality targeted preK in poorer areas like Hybla Valley, for example, and high quality preK for kids with IEPs/developmental delays.

Disrupting the entire system with an unwanted county wide rezoning, moving 6th graders to already crowded middle schools, both vehemently opposed by most parents, to put unnecessary universal preK into all the elementary schools in FCPS is a stupid and illogical waste of resources.

I don’t think they’re getting UPK anytime soon. BUT the push to move 6th grade to middle school isn’t just “because that’s how most of the rest of the US does it” and to increase availability of MS electives for 6th graders. They want to free up ES classroom space for full day pre-K for everyone, starting with 4 year olds and then going down to 3 year olds as well. Reid is subtly pushing for it. The question is can she get it pushed along far enough before the SB dumps her as Superintendent.

They just renewed her contract.

They couldn’t figure out how to manage turning the Mason District middle schools back into 7-8 schools so it’s rather unlikely they can figure out how to turn the other two dozen middle schools into 6-8 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake up babe, new Mateo Dunne email just dropped. Not going to copy the whole thing here because it’s quite long, but specific situations are called out by name in the Mount Vernon district including the Whitman/Sandburg situation and the Halley attendance island. https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/19?utm_campaign+=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#

This is what I found interesting:

"Over 100 students who live within walking distance of Mount Vernon Woods ES are assigned to attend Fort Hunt ES. They ride the bus every day past multiple elementary schools to arrive at Fort Hunt ES."

Removing those kids from Fort Hunt eliminates all of their FARMS students and sends them to a high FARMS school, so I don't see that happening.

I don't see how Whitman/Sandburg is solvable without creating more problems. If you give Sandburg to MVSH and Whitman to WPHS, the the walkable neighborhoods to Sandburg (in the Stratford Landing Boundary, across the street from Waynewood, both separated from MVHS by Ft Hunt) then you move more kids to MVHS than MVHS has capacity for. Moving Hollin Meadows to MVHS so Whitman is in the boundary Creates another island unless you move Stratford Landing as well, but then Sandburg outside of its boundaries

The only way to solve the Whitman/Sandburg issue is to build a new school building within the Mount Vernon boundaries. If you swap the schools, Sandburg will still be 100% bused for all the MVHS pyramid students. The building is too far of a walk for anyone who lives within the MVHS boundaries. When my kids were at Whitman, there was definitely a "disconnect" to the school and I think alot of it has to do with its location.

Whitman is where it is located because of a financial decision when Groveton HS and Fort Hunt HS merged to create West Potomac HS. The corresponding middle schools were merged and you had an empty school building. FCPS decided to move Whitman instead of renovate the building it was in (the original Mount Vernon HS on Rt. 1) and rent out the old building. That building is now owned by Fairfax County Government and NOT FCPS. I think that may have happened when Whitman moved back in the 1980s. Personally, I'd love to see Whitman move back to the original MVHS building but that's not going to happen.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/capital-projects/original-mount-vernon-high-school

One way to potentially fix Whitman/Sandburg is to turn MVHS into a secondary school and have both middle schools feed to West Potomac. That would fill MVHS empty seats and keep all their schools in bounds. It would also open up space at Whitman/Sandburg to fulfill Reid’s dream of more 6-8 middle schools.

This would create a less disruptive path to open seats. West Potomac could pick up Mount Eagle and/or Cameron from Edison. Annandale could pick up Bren Mar Park, which is already a part of its pyramid. And then should Lewis close, it could be split between South County and Edison, with Key and Twain feeding to Edison as Reid’s beloved 6-8 feeders.

I really don’t see much appetite for new secondary schools. They were kind of a 60s-70s thing. When South County later opened, originally as a secondary school, it was with the explicit understanding that a new middle school would eventually get built and, when that happened, South County became a high school.

Nor does anyone seem to be very keen on more 6-8 middle schools. Reid seems to talk about it mostly to placate Ricardy Anderson, who is miffed that the middle schools in her district (Mason) are 6-8 outliers. She’d be happier if other schools followed the same model because misery loves company (she has also been pushing for years to shrink the enrollment of 6-8 Glasgow).

I don't think the 6-8 talk is so much to placate Ricardy Anderson as it is to try and free up more room at the Elementary Schools to enable Universal Pre-K.

Where will we get universal prek funding once we get vouchers and all the umc and mc families flee the sinking ship?

Most of FCPS is upper middle class or wealthy. There is no need for universal PreK in this district.

FCPS is 34% FARMS. By your logic that means less than 16% of FCPS students are from LMC or MC families combined, with >50% UMC or wealthy.

Tell me you're out of touch without telling me you're out of touch.

[Anonymous]

Here's how I am thinking about the impending FCPS boundary changes:

Boundary changes flowchart:

Did I buy into a good school district —> No
Am I currently zoned to a good HS —> No
Is my boundary being changed —> No —> Status Quo
Is my boundary being changed —> Yes —>
—— Do I get a good HS —> Yes —> Life is Good
—— Do I get a good HS —> No —> Status Quo


Did I buy into a good school district —> Yes
Am I currently zoned to a good HS —> Yes
Is my boundary being changed —> No —> Life is Good. Status Quo
Is my boundary being changed —> Yes —>
—— Do I get a good HS —> Yes —> Life is Good
—— Do I get a good HS —> No —>
———— Can I afford to move to a better school district —> Yes —> Life is Good OR
———— Can I afford to send the kid to a private school —> Yes —> Life is Good
———— Can I afford to move to a better school district —> No —>
—————— Can I afford to send the kid to a private school —> No —> FML. Sorry kiddo, you are likely out of luck

While I saw a few replies on the other thread about liking current community and desire to fight the changes, my intent for posting this is from an end scenario perspective, If the final outcome is as above, are those the end states folk plan to be in? Am I missing any cases?

We can afford to move / rent and go private. Personally, we won't be okay with our kid being the 'sacrifice' for raising mediocre school scores, and we are most likely to go private. How are other folks thinking about this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I am thinking about the impending FCPS boundary changes:

Boundary changes flowchart:

Did I buy into a good school district —> No
Am I currently zoned to a good HS —> No
Is my boundary being changed —> No —> Status Quo
Is my boundary being changed —> Yes —>
—— Do I get a good HS —> Yes —> Life is Good
—— Do I get a good HS —> No —> Status Quo


Did I buy into a good school district —> Yes
Am I currently zoned to a good HS —> Yes
Is my boundary being changed —> No —> Life is Good. Status Quo
Is my boundary being changed —> Yes —>
—— Do I get a good HS —> Yes —> Life is Good
—— Do I get a good HS —> No —>
———— Can I afford to move to a better school district —> Yes —> Life is Good OR
———— Can I afford to send the kid to a private school —> Yes —> Life is Good
———— Can I afford to move to a better school district —> No —>
—————— Can I afford to send the kid to a private school —> No —> FML. Sorry kiddo, you are likely out of luck

While I saw a few replies on the other thread about liking current community and desire to fight the changes, my intent for posting this is from an end scenario perspective, If the final outcome is as above, are those the end states folk plan to be in? Am I missing any cases?

We can afford to move / rent and go private. Personally, we won't be okay with our kid being the 'sacrifice' for raising mediocre school scores, and we are most likely to go private. How are other folks thinking about this?

How likely is it that the actual pyramids will change, with certain elementaries going to different HS than they are set to currently, for example?

I am very close to my elementary which is in a pretty good pyramid, though I guess the rezoning could mean more kids coming from another not-good pyramid to ours. If I could afford it, I would move, but the issue is that rezoning would affect the property values in our neighborhood right away, so we may be selling at a loss to try to go somewhere better. Folks who bought in pyramids under the assumption that their boundaries would not drastically change affecting the demographics significantly will likely be screwed by this (although of course many will have resources to take the hit and still buy somewhere good).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who's going to pay for Universal preK? With the incoming administration talking about eliminating the Dept. of Education and defunding a lot of school programs, where would FCPS find money for this sort of thing? I don't see the governor giving it to them.

The current federal piece of the budget is 1.3%. https://www.4publiceducation.org/post/fairfax-county-public-schools-2025-budget

Fcps needs to focus on K12 education, not daycare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake up babe, new Mateo Dunne email just dropped. Not going to copy the whole thing here because it’s quite long, but specific situations are called out by name in the Mount Vernon district including the Whitman/Sandburg situation and the Halley attendance island. https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/19?utm_campaign+=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#

This is what I found interesting:

"Over 100 students who live within walking distance of Mount Vernon Woods ES are assigned to attend Fort Hunt ES. They ride the bus every day past multiple elementary schools to arrive at Fort Hunt ES."

Removing those kids from Fort Hunt eliminates all of their FARMS students and sends them to a high FARMS school, so I don't see that happening.

I don't see how Whitman/Sandburg is solvable without creating more problems. If you give Sandburg to MVSH and Whitman to WPHS, the the walkable neighborhoods to Sandburg (in the Stratford Landing Boundary, across the street from Waynewood, both separated from MVHS by Ft Hunt) then you move more kids to MVHS than MVHS has capacity for. Moving Hollin Meadows to MVHS so Whitman is in the boundary Creates another island unless you move Stratford Landing as well, but then Sandburg outside of its boundaries

The only way to solve the Whitman/Sandburg issue is to build a new school building within the Mount Vernon boundaries. If you swap the schools, Sandburg will still be 100% bused for all the MVHS pyramid students. The building is too far of a walk for anyone who lives within the MVHS boundaries. When my kids were at Whitman, there was definitely a "disconnect" to the school and I think alot of it has to do with its location.

Whitman is where it is located because of a financial decision when Groveton HS and Fort Hunt HS merged to create West Potomac HS. The corresponding middle schools were merged and you had an empty school building. FCPS decided to move Whitman instead of renovate the building it was in (the original Mount Vernon HS on Rt. 1) and rent out the old building. That building is now owned by Fairfax County Government and NOT FCPS. I think that may have happened when Whitman moved back in the 1980s. Personally, I'd love to see Whitman move back to the original MVHS building but that's not going to happen.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/capital-projects/original-mount-vernon-high-school

One way to potentially fix Whitman/Sandburg is to turn MVHS into a secondary school and have both middle schools feed to West Potomac. That would fill MVHS empty seats and keep all their schools in bounds. It would also open up space at Whitman/Sandburg to fulfill Reid’s dream of more 6-8 middle schools.

This would create a less disruptive path to open seats. West Potomac could pick up Mount Eagle and/or Cameron from Edison. Annandale could pick up Bren Mar Park, which is already a part of its pyramid. And then should Lewis close, it could be split between South County and Edison, with Key and Twain feeding to Edison as Reid’s beloved 6-8 feeders.

I really don’t see much appetite for new secondary schools. They were kind of a 60s-70s thing. When South County later opened, originally as a secondary school, it was with the explicit understanding that a new middle school would eventually get built and, when that happened, South County became a high school.

Nor does anyone seem to be very keen on more 6-8 middle schools. Reid seems to talk about it mostly to placate Ricardy Anderson, who is miffed that the middle schools in her district (Mason) are 6-8 outliers. She’d be happier if other schools followed the same model because misery loves company (she has also been pushing for years to shrink the enrollment of 6-8 Glasgow).

I don't think the 6-8 talk is so much to placate Ricardy Anderson as it is to try and free up more room at the Elementary Schools to enable Universal Pre-K.

Where will we get universal prek funding once we get vouchers and all the umc and mc families flee the sinking ship?

Most of FCPS is upper middle class or wealthy. There is no need for universal PreK in this district.

FCPS is 34% FARMS. By your logic that means less than 16% of FCPS students are from LMC or MC families combined, with >50% UMC or wealthy.

Tell me you're out of touch without telling me you're out of touch.

If only 34% of FCPS is FARMS, then yes, most of FCPS is upper middle class (feds, military, contractors, etc) or wealthy.