Mythical Western HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is your regular reminder that the Carson site was great. And the BOS sold it to the Saudis without community input.

Clearly, this bugged me. Still does, and my kids are in Hs, so it is what it is for them. Take care of Fairfax CO’s kids before kow towing to a foreign government.

+1.

At some point people will hold the local Democrats accountable for the poor decisions made by the Board of Supervisors and the School Board, and for the appalling lack of coordination between them. It is amazing what a free pass these morons have gotten for far too long. The decision to transfer the land near Carson to the Saudis was one obviously bone-headed decision, but it's far from the only one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone on here who desperately wants this high school built ever tried to figure out where they could actually build it? That is the real problem. You can blame the current school board all you want, you can blame politics, Langley parents, whatever you want. But it all comes down to them not being able to find a decent site that that could actually afford.

As I mentionned upthread, Carson is on 32 acrea and Hutchison 38. Carson could be expanded to a high school and a middle school could be built at Hutchison. Each site is oversized for a middle and elementary school. Frankly it's silly to ignore the residential addresses bussed to Langley that have Herndon addresses but are just N, NW of the town boundaries.

It is just poor resource allocation of our tax dollars to never consider boundary changes. But then this is FCPS which no longer does administrative or really any substantive/productive boundary changes. Code of VA has language on school divisions and attendance areas re improve operational efficiency of the division.

Note that Virginia DOE guidelines state that the minimium lot size for a high school should be 20 acres plus 1 additional acre per 100 students. So a 2000 student HS would need 40 acres. While not binding, I doubt FCPS would try to build anything not in compliance with the guidelines.

The Carson site is unsuitable under the guidelines -- it would be limited to 1200 students, which is far below the size that FCPS is looking for.

Oh, please. What about the guidelines for elementary schools? How exactly did FCPS follow them when they built Bailey's Upper ES (3.8 acres) a while back?

FCPS will continue to cram more kids into existing sites if that's what the politically connected want to ensure their own kids stay at Langley.

Yes and Hutchison site is big enough for a high school.

Hutchison is 2.5 miles from Herndon High School as the crow flies. FCPS isn't building a new HS so close to an existing one in the western part of the county. (We can argue about this all we want, but it's not happening.)

I know FCPS is not going to build a high school on the Hutchison site although it was their plan until last year. The distance/proximity is not the reason. We all know the real reason.

It’s about time they just acknowledged they weren’t going to do it.

It was embarrassing for it to be put off year after year after year after got damn year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone on here who desperately wants this high school built ever tried to figure out where they could actually build it? That is the real problem. You can blame the current school board all you want, you can blame politics, Langley parents, whatever you want. But it all comes down to them not being able to find a decent site that that could actually afford.

As I mentionned upthread, Carson is on 32 acrea and Hutchison 38. Carson could be expanded to a high school and a middle school could be built at Hutchison. Each site is oversized for a middle and elementary school. Frankly it's silly to ignore the residential addresses bussed to Langley that have Herndon addresses but are just N, NW of the town boundaries.

It is just poor resource allocation of our tax dollars to never consider boundary changes. But then this is FCPS which no longer does administrative or really any substantive/productive boundary changes. Code of VA has language on school divisions and attendance areas re improve operational efficiency of the division.

Note that Virginia DOE guidelines state that the minimium lot size for a high school should be 20 acres plus 1 additional acre per 100 students. So a 2000 student HS would need 40 acres. While not binding, I doubt FCPS would try to build anything not in compliance with the guidelines.

The Carson site is unsuitable under the guidelines -- it would be limited to 1200 students, which is far below the size that FCPS is looking for.

Oh, please. What about the guidelines for elementary schools? How exactly did FCPS follow them when they built Bailey's Upper ES (3.8 acres) a while back?

FCPS will continue to cram more kids into existing sites if that's what the politically connected want to ensure their own kids stay at Langley.

Yes and Hutchison site is big enough for a high school.

Hutchison is 2.5 miles from Herndon High School as the crow flies. FCPS isn't building a new HS so close to an existing one in the western part of the county. (We can argue about this all we want, but it's not happening.)

I know FCPS is not going to build a high school on the Hutchison site although it was their plan until last year. The distance/proximity is not the reason. We all know the real reason.

It’s about time they just acknowledged they weren’t going to do it.

It was embarrassing for it to be put off year after year after year after got damn year.

"Dear Parents:

We wanted to let you know that, despite having stated our plans to build a new high school in the western part of the county for well over a decade in our annual Capital Improvement Programs, which are reviewed by both the School Board and legal counsel, we have reluctantly concluded that it is time to finally tell you that we were just kidding and never planned to proceed with the construction of a new high school.

Our reasons are three-fold.

First, land in the county is expensive, as would be the cost of constructing a new high school. As a result, the expense associated with the construction of a new high school would easily take up most of our capital budget for several years in a row, and require the continued deferral of the renovation and expansion of other schools. Because we have paid so little attention in the past when deciding which schools to renovate or expand, and which to ignore, we now have a crisis situation at a number of other overcrowded schools that we must promptly address to avoid litigation with parents prepared to allege that we have denied their children a free and appropriate public education.

Second, when we considered potential locations for a new high school, we realized that it might actually have to serve ESOL and FARMS students and that families in other pyramids would not readily accept the reassignment of their children to a new school with what some describe informally as "the poors." More importantly, the opening of a new school might create space at Herndon HS for students in western Great Falls currently at Langley HS, and their parents have advised us on Twitter that they will produce a new series of You Tube videos attacking and mocking us if we dare reassign any portions of Forestville ES and/or Great Falls ES to Herndon HS. As we do not wish to infringe on the inalienable rights of those parents to have their children bussed over 10 miles to Langley, we have taken those potential site locations off the table.

Finally, as alluded to above, it is less expensive to build additions to existing schools than to build a brand-new high school. Our staff's analysis of emails received by FCPS over the past 10 years indicates that the vast majority of such emails emanate from Great Falls, McLean, and Vienna, and that only a small fraction come from areas west of the Fairfax County Parkway. Accordingly, we have concluded that you are "chill"; that we can do whatever we want in western Fairfax; and that the worst that will happen is that you will finally give up and move to Loudoun County. However, in recognition that some of you may stay, and have reservations about sending your children to a 3000-student "mega-school" such as planned for Centreville HS, we have arranged with the coaches and musical directors there to offer discounts for their summer camps, so that the chances of your kids making a sports team or theatre production in the coming years increase from "very remote" to merely "remote."

Should you have any questions, please feel free to address them to someone else. I still have some remaining pyramids in FCPS left to visit, and may not be able to respond to your questions directly.

As I always like to say "Imagine the Possibilities" (or, in this particular case, "Lack Thereof)."

Cordially, Dr. Reid."[i]

[Anonymous]

^ Given some of the things that happen in FCPS these days, should add a disclaimer that this was intended as satire. So /s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d go for sitting FCPS into smaller districts. I am not a fan of Rezoning and I’m just in a middle of the road pyramid. People buy their houses to go to a certain school. That’s a fact. Those of us who did will fight like heck getting rezoned elsewhere.

You'd "go for it"? Its a Virginia law that would have to be voted on by both houses.

The middle ground would be retaining a single legal district but allowing areas within the district to exercise more autonomy with respect to their fair shares of the operating and capital budgets.

In other words, high-SES zones that pay higher property tax would have a lion's share of revenue stay within their area for their own budgets. I take issue with that because FCPS was once great all around, and the high-SES schools are at the level they are now because of the former glory of FCPS. Some pyramids have gotten the very short end of the stick for a multitude of reasons over the past 20 years. What you are suggesting would equate to abandoning the low-SES schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d go for sitting FCPS into smaller districts. I am not a fan of Rezoning and I’m just in a middle of the road pyramid. People buy their houses to go to a certain school. That’s a fact. Those of us who did will fight like heck getting rezoned elsewhere.

You'd "go for it"? Its a Virginia law that would have to be voted on by both houses.

The middle ground would be retaining a single legal district but allowing areas within the district to exercise more autonomy with respect to their fair shares of the operating and capital budgets.

In other words, high-SES zones that pay higher property tax would have a lion's share of revenue stay within their area for their own budgets. I take issue with that because FCPS was once great all around, and the high-SES schools are at the level they are now because of the former glory of FCPS. Some pyramids have gotten the very short end of the stick for a multitude of reasons over the past 20 years. What you are suggesting would equate to abandoning the low-SES schools.

Not necessarily. There might still be continued subsidization of the lower-SES areas, but the sub-districts might have more autonomy as to how and when money allocated to their sub-districts is spent. The current system promotes poor, slow decision-making.

Obviously we've had the current system for a long time and it hasn't kept some pyramids from becoming pariahs. Will you only be happy when all the pyramids in FCPS have equally poor reputations? You fear abandonment but avoid looking at the overall decline of FCPS as a whole.

[Anonymous]

I know this much. The SB spent a year going round and round with “Dr. Gloria” and her incomprehensible public health advice. And discarded solution after solutes because: HSs can’t do it OR ES can’t do it OR lunch OR…. They could not find find a solution that met Dr. Gloria’s guidelines (which were confused at best) and could guarantee every school opened.

When schools had no choice but to reopen (thank you Rory Cooper), they essential thre up their hands and told principals to “find a way”- to distance classes, manage lunch etc. AND THEY DID. Successfully. There were cases and outbreaks, but no horror shows.

FCPS is too big to be micromanaged. The SB should be budget and big issues. Even TJ issues should be hashed out in a subcommittee. Set priorities and push decisions down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS used to redistrict regularly and fairly, and it also paid attention to the adequacy and condition of its facilities.

It does none of those things now. People know it's a political game and they don't want to come out on the losing side. The cycle repeats itself and FCPS continues to destroy its reputation for excellence and administrative competence. The current School Board members not only accept, but contribute to, the dumpster fire. Building Centreville out to 3000 kids isn't a timely or appropriate response to growth in that part of the county, but an implicit acknowledgement that the county is too fragmented, incompetent, and strife-ridden to get its shit together to build a new school.

The reality is that SB gives lipservice ro equity. They need a decision tree that triggers periodic re-alignment and how it will be re-aligned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone on here who desperately wants this high school built ever tried to figure out where they could actually build it? That is the real problem. You can blame the current school board all you want, you can blame politics, Langley parents, whatever you want. But it all comes down to them not being able to find a decent site that that could actually afford.

As I mentionned upthread, Carson is on 32 acrea and Hutchison 38. Carson could be expanded to a high school and a middle school could be built at Hutchison. Each site is oversized for a middle and elementary school. Frankly it's silly to ignore the residential addresses bussed to Langley that have Herndon addresses but are just N, NW of the town boundaries.

It is just poor resource allocation of our tax dollars to never consider boundary changes. But then this is FCPS which no longer does administrative or really any substantive/productive boundary changes. Code of VA has language on school divisions and attendance areas re improve operational efficiency of the division.

Note that Virginia DOE guidelines state that the minimium lot size for a high school should be 20 acres plus 1 additional acre per 100 students. So a 2000 student HS would need 40 acres. While not binding, I doubt FCPS would try to build anything not in compliance with the guidelines.

The Carson site is unsuitable under the guidelines -- it would be limited to 1200 students, which is far below the size that FCPS is looking for.

Well there is a reason the site is small now.

Also … do the calculations with the current enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Similar issue with snow delays/closures, where the entire gargantuan district's decision-making process is universally applied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone on here who desperately wants this high school built ever tried to figure out where they could actually build it? That is the real problem. You can blame the current school board all you want, you can blame politics, Langley parents, whatever you want. But it all comes down to them not being able to find a decent site that that could actually afford.

As I mentionned upthread, Carson is on 32 acrea and Hutchison 38. Carson could be expanded to a high school and a middle school could be built at Hutchison. Each site is oversized for a middle and elementary school. Frankly it's silly to ignore the residential addresses bussed to Langley that have Herndon addresses but are just N, NW of the town boundaries.

It is just poor resource allocation of our tax dollars to never consider boundary changes. But then this is FCPS which no longer does administrative or really any substantive/productive boundary changes. Code of VA has language on school divisions and attendance areas re improve operational efficiency of the division.

Note that Virginia DOE guidelines state that the minimium lot size for a high school should be 20 acres plus 1 additional acre per 100 students. So a 2000 student HS would need 40 acres. While not binding, I doubt FCPS would try to build anything not in compliance with the guidelines.

The Carson site is unsuitable under the guidelines -- it would be limited to 1200 students, which is far below the size that FCPS is looking for.

Oh, please. What about the guidelines for elementary schools? How exactly did FCPS follow them when they built Bailey's Upper ES (3.8 acres) a while back?

FCPS will continue to cram more kids into existing sites if that's what the politically connected want to ensure their own kids stay at Langley.

Yes and Hutchison site is big enough for a high school.

Hutchison is 2.5 miles from Herndon High School as the crow flies. FCPS isn't building a new HS so close to an existing one in the western part of the county. (We can argue about this all we want, but it's not happening.)

How did they manage to build another HS so close to MCLean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d go for sitting FCPS into smaller districts. I am not a fan of Rezoning and I’m just in a middle of the road pyramid. People buy their houses to go to a certain school. That’s a fact. Those of us who did will fight like heck getting rezoned elsewhere.

You'd "go for it"? Its a Virginia law that would have to be voted on by both houses.

The middle ground would be retaining a single legal district but allowing areas within the district to exercise more autonomy with respect to their fair shares of the operating and capital budgets.

In other words, high-SES zones that pay higher property tax would have a lion's share of revenue stay within their area for their own budgets. I take issue with that because FCPS was once great all around, and the high-SES schools are at the level they are now because of the former glory of FCPS. Some pyramids have gotten the very short end of the stick for a multitude of reasons over the past 20 years. What you are suggesting would equate to abandoning the low-SES schools.

Not necessarily. There might still be continued subsidization of the lower-SES areas, but the sub-districts might have more autonomy as to how and when money allocated to their sub-districts is spent. The current system promotes poor, slow decision-making.

Obviously we've had the current system for a long time and it hasn't kept some pyramids from becoming pariahs. Will you only be happy when all the pyramids in FCPS have equally poor reputations? You fear abandonment but avoid looking at the overall decline of FCPS as a whole.

Yes. This is the ultimate goal of FCPS and those who continue cheerleading on its behalf.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone on here who desperately wants this high school built ever tried to figure out where they could actually build it? That is the real problem. You can blame the current school board all you want, you can blame politics, Langley parents, whatever you want. But it all comes down to them not being able to find a decent site that that could actually afford.

As I mentionned upthread, Carson is on 32 acrea and Hutchison 38. Carson could be expanded to a high school and a middle school could be built at Hutchison. Each site is oversized for a middle and elementary school. Frankly it's silly to ignore the residential addresses bussed to Langley that have Herndon addresses but are just N, NW of the town boundaries.

It is just poor resource allocation of our tax dollars to never consider boundary changes. But then this is FCPS which no longer does administrative or really any substantive/productive boundary changes. Code of VA has language on school divisions and attendance areas re improve operational efficiency of the division.

Note that Virginia DOE guidelines state that the minimium lot size for a high school should be 20 acres plus 1 additional acre per 100 students. So a 2000 student HS would need 40 acres. While not binding, I doubt FCPS would try to build anything not in compliance with the guidelines.

The Carson site is unsuitable under the guidelines -- it would be limited to 1200 students, which is far below the size that FCPS is looking for.

Oh, please. What about the guidelines for elementary schools? How exactly did FCPS follow them when they built Bailey's Upper ES (3.8 acres) a while back?

FCPS will continue to cram more kids into existing sites if that's what the politically connected want to ensure their own kids stay at Langley.

Yes and Hutchison site is big enough for a high school.

Hutchison is 2.5 miles from Herndon High School as the crow flies. FCPS isn't building a new HS so close to an existing one in the western part of the county. (We can argue about this all we want, but it's not happening.)

I know FCPS is not going to build a high school on the Hutchison site although it was their plan until last year. The distance/proximity is not the reason. We all know the real reason.

It’s about time they just acknowledged they weren’t going to do it.

It was embarrassing for it to be put off year after year after year after got damn year.

"Dear Parents:

We wanted to let you know that, despite having stated our plans to build a new high school in the western part of the county for well over a decade in our annual Capital Improvement Programs, which are reviewed by both the School Board and legal counsel, we have reluctantly concluded that it is time to finally tell you that we were just kidding and never planned to proceed with the construction of a new high school.

Our reasons are three-fold.

First, land in the county is expensive, as would be the cost of constructing a new high school. As a result, the expense associated with the construction of a new high school would easily take up most of our capital budget for several years in a row, and require the continued deferral of the renovation and expansion of other schools. Because we have paid so little attention in the past when deciding which schools to renovate or expand, and which to ignore, we now have a crisis situation at a number of other overcrowded schools that we must promptly address to avoid litigation with parents prepared to allege that we have denied their children a free and appropriate public education.

Second, when we considered potential locations for a new high school, we realized that it might actually have to serve ESOL and FARMS students and that families in other pyramids would not readily accept the reassignment of their children to a new school with what some describe informally as "the poors." More importantly, the opening of a new school might create space at Herndon HS for students in western Great Falls currently at Langley HS, and their parents have advised us on Twitter that they will produce a new series of You Tube videos attacking and mocking us if we dare reassign any portions of Forestville ES and/or Great Falls ES to Herndon HS. As we do not wish to infringe on the inalienable rights of those parents to have their children bussed over 10 miles to Langley, we have taken those potential site locations off the table.

Finally, as alluded to above, it is less expensive to build additions to existing schools than to build a brand-new high school. Our staff's analysis of emails received by FCPS over the past 10 years indicates that the vast majority of such emails emanate from Great Falls, McLean, and Vienna, and that only a small fraction come from areas west of the Fairfax County Parkway. Accordingly, we have concluded that you are "chill"; that we can do whatever we want in western Fairfax; and that the worst that will happen is that you will finally give up and move to Loudoun County. However, in recognition that some of you may stay, and have reservations about sending your children to a 3000-student "mega-school" such as planned for Centreville HS, we have arranged with the coaches and musical directors there to offer discounts for their summer camps, so that the chances of your kids making a sports team or theatre production in the coming years increase from "very remote" to merely "remote."

Should you have any questions, please feel free to address them to someone else. I still have some remaining pyramids in FCPS left to visit, and may not be able to respond to your questions directly.

As I always like to say "Imagine the Possibilities" (or, in this particular case, "Lack Thereof)."

Cordially, Dr. Reid."[i]

Wow. That was impressive, and sadly reflective of the SB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d go for sitting FCPS into smaller districts. I am not a fan of Rezoning and I’m just in a middle of the road pyramid. People buy their houses to go to a certain school. That’s a fact. Those of us who did will fight like heck getting rezoned elsewhere.

You'd "go for it"? Its a Virginia law that would have to be voted on by both houses.

The middle ground would be retaining a single legal district but allowing areas within the district to exercise more autonomy with respect to their fair shares of the operating and capital budgets.

In other words, high-SES zones that pay higher property tax would have a lion's share of revenue stay within their area for their own budgets. I take issue with that because FCPS was once great all around, and the high-SES schools are at the level they are now because of the former glory of FCPS. Some pyramids have gotten the very short end of the stick for a multitude of reasons over the past 20 years. What you are suggesting would equate to abandoning the low-SES schools.

Not necessarily. There might still be continued subsidization of the lower-SES areas, but the sub-districts might have more autonomy as to how and when money allocated to their sub-districts is spent. The current system promotes poor, slow decision-making.

Obviously we've had the current system for a long time and it hasn't kept some pyramids from becoming pariahs. Will you only be happy when all the pyramids in FCPS have equally poor reputations? You fear abandonment but avoid looking at the overall decline of FCPS as a whole.

Yes. This is the ultimate goal of FCPS and those who continue cheerleading on its behalf.
DP

This is the talk of people who are an afraid of poor POC, yet do nothing to make reasonable county or state wide decisions that would help our schools. The dillution of the SES purity arguments (threats) are stale.

[Anonymous]

If FCPS insists on expanding Chantilly in lieu of a new Western HS, then the county needs to take the ball fields across the street for it and build a bridge or tunnel to the school. We have friends at that school and it is claustrophobia inducing.