School Board Forum on "Boundary and Capacity"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please fix the school boundaries in and around 20171. Thank you.

What’s broken? There are other zip codes where kids go to multiple schools.

20171 is Herndon.

20171 kids go to four different high schools (Chantily, Oakton, Westfield, and SLHS in Reston) but none of them are assigned to Herndon High.

Something is seriously messed up.

20171 is Oak Hill, which happens to border Reston and Herndon. It is not Herndon or Reston, we pay extra to use Herndon and Reston services, like the community center, classes, and pools. The commute to SLHS from Fox Mill is a bit faster than the commute to Herndon High. Fox Mill was moved from Oakton to South Lakes to decrease the number of FARMs kids at SLHS. So yeah, we already did the boundary shuffle. Look else where to fill your social justice warrior BS.

You're still in Herndon... Just as Wolftrap is still in Vienna despite not being in the Town of Vienna. Perhaps if your community welcomed the Herndon name you could be proud of it instead of being embarrassed.

???? What’s wrong with saying you live in Herndon? I’ve never had a problem with saying it. Herndon has a lot of Nice UMC neighborhoods, especially in the Oak Hill area, and some great schools (Oak Hill, Lees Corner, Floris, Franklin, Carson, many Herndon kids go to Chantilly for HS…). Herndon is more than one area of ELL and FARMS kids. You need to get out more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did South Lakes get renovated if it wasn't in the que? Some special pet project of Meren's because she has kids going there or something else?

My guess, it has alarge number of FARMs families, a large number of ELL students, and the Fox Mill ES and some parts of other ES were moved there when they didn’t want to move. Changing the boundaries so that the school had a better balance of kids, even marginally, and then allowing the school to be overcrowded would have been an even bigger slap in the face to those families.

I live in the Fox Mill boundary and there are parents who are miffed with the boundary change. I know some families thinking about moving now that their kids are entering MS because they had wanted the Fox Mill, Carson, Oakton route. Moving after 8th grade would not be all that disruptive to their kids HS career because there are so few kids from Carson that move from Carson to SLHS. The kids are pretty much starting over in HS as it is.

Most the families I know are fine with being at South Lakes, the Honors and IB program are well received. There are some solid clubs and sports teams. I think there would have been a lot of complaints and more kids trying to place out for AP if the school was overcrowded.

Wasn’t the boundary change to South Lakes roughly 15 years ago? How are the current elem and middle school parents even aware of that today?

I get that split feeders aren’t the best, but at least most families are fine with South Lakes. It’s a solid school today, and hopefully won’t get overcrowded in the future. Reston is one of the last bastions of housing affordability in Northern Virginia. Many lakefront townhomes and single family homes are still well under a million.

Parents bought houses in the area anticipating having kids. The JI program is popular and the area has been more reasonably priced for the area. We bought right when the boundary change happened and started our family a few years later. We were aware of the change when we were buying but were more focused on the ES at that time. Not to mention, there are a good number of parents who grew up here and attended Fox Mill and Oakton HS. We know parents who went through JI as kids in the neighborhood.

In the end, there are plenty of parents who knew about the change. I have been hearing more people wish for AP and want to find away to send their kids to Oakton. The parents of kids at Oak Hill for LIV would prefer Oakton because their kids have been going to ES with kids attending Oakton. So few kids from Carson go to South Lakes and that is really bothering more people I know in the neighborhood but no one wants to move to Langston Hughes for MS. Pretty much the only kids from Carson who will end up at South Lakes are the Fox Mill kids. And Carson does not do a good job prepping parents for IB at South Lakes. The MS info video flat out said that no one needs to take a language in MS, which is not true for anyone interested in the IB program at SL. It was like Carson ignores the Fox Mill kids counseling needs.

Incorrect. Most (I think all) Oak Hill is Franklin or Carson, then Chantilly or Westfield. I don’t think Oak Hill has any Oakton kids. You have to cross FFX Co Parkway to get to Oakton boundaries, and by then it’s more Fox Hill, Navy, etc. No one who lives near Oak Hill area want to deal with the traffic nightmare of Oakton— especially since the kids who would get that rezoning go to Chantilly. Which ties, and sometimes exceeds, Oakton on all publish metrics (SAT, etc).

I live in Oak Hill, we are zoned to Oakton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please fix the school boundaries in and around 20171. Thank you.

What’s broken? There are other zip codes where kids go to multiple schools.

20171 is Herndon.

20171 kids go to four different high schools (Chantily, Oakton, Westfield, and SLHS in Reston) but none of them are assigned to Herndon High.

Something is seriously messed up.

You could just as easily say things are messed up because two Reston schools go to Herndon - Aldrin and Armstrong.

The point is that zip codes don’t have much to do with school assignments when the areas in question are just unincorporated parts of the county. Kids in 22182 also go to four high schools - it just happens that none of the four has the name “Vienna HS.”

Madison is a de facto Vienna high school while SLHS is a de facto Reston high school. Some kids in 22182 go to Madison and Many kids in 20194 go to SLHS.

And Herndon is a de facto Herndon high school, but people with Herndon mailing addresses attend schools besides Herndon, people with Vienna mailing addresses attend schools besides Madison, people with Reston mailing addresses attend schools besides South Lakes, etc.

You seem to want additional areas with Herndon (or Oak Hill) mailing addresses moved to Herndon for demographic reasons, and if that's the case you should just make that argument rather than suggest that Herndon is being treated differently than Vienna, Reston, etc.

That was not my argument. Communities like Herndon, Vienna, Oakton, and South Lakes have their own high schools.

20171, whether it’s called Herndon or Oak Hill, doesn’t have one. 20171 is solidly middle class and quite distinct from 20170 Herndon or Reston. Instead of building a high school, the county continues the four way split.

Thus an identity crisis (is it part of Herndon or unqiue enough to have a distinct name such as Oak Hill?).

Franklin Farm and surrounding neighborhoods now cost about $800k to buy into. As you head toward the port of Heron near Frying Pan Pak Westfield zoned), you hit $million It’s about as UMC as you can get. Your view of the income level of America’s middle class is seriously out of whack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please fix the school boundaries in and around 20171. Thank you.

What’s broken? There are other zip codes where kids go to multiple schools.

20171 is Herndon.

20171 kids go to four different high schools (Chantily, Oakton, Westfield, and SLHS in Reston) but none of them are assigned to Herndon High.

Something is seriously messed up.

You could just as easily say things are messed up because two Reston schools go to Herndon - Aldrin and Armstrong.

The point is that zip codes don’t have much to do with school assignments when the areas in question are just unincorporated parts of the county. Kids in 22182 also go to four high schools - it just happens that none of the four has the name “Vienna HS.”

Madison is a de facto Vienna high school while SLHS is a de facto Reston high school. Some kids in 22182 go to Madison and Many kids in 20194 go to SLHS.

And Herndon is a de facto Herndon high school, but people with Herndon mailing addresses attend schools besides Herndon, people with Vienna mailing addresses attend schools besides Madison, people with Reston mailing addresses attend schools besides South Lakes, etc.

You seem to want additional areas with Herndon (or Oak Hill) mailing addresses moved to Herndon for demographic reasons, and if that's the case you should just make that argument rather than suggest that Herndon is being treated differently than Vienna, Reston, etc.

That was not my argument. Communities like Herndon, Vienna, Oakton, and South Lakes have their own high schools.

20171, whether it’s called Herndon or Oak Hill, doesn’t have one. 20171 is solidly middle class and quite distinct from 20170 Herndon or Reston. Instead of building a high school, the county continues the four way split.

Thus an identity crisis (is it part of Herndon or unqiue enough to have a distinct name such as Oak Hill?).

You do know your argument is frivolous, right? If your area has an identity crisis, it’s because it’s just part of the unincorporated Fairfax suburbs. It’s not because it doesn’t have its own high school.

You could just as easily say Reston has an identity crisis because some students attend Langley, Oakton has an identity crisis because some of its students attend Madison, Vienna has an identity crisis because some of its students attend Marshall, etc.

Disagree.

High schools are big part of community. Let’s say there is no Oakton high school. What’s the point of Oakton area then?

Yes some kids in Reston attend Langley or Herndon High. Reston as a community still does have its own high school. That makes a big difference.

My kids went to Oakton ES, which is in Oakton. Half went on to Oakton HS and 1/2 went to Madison. So, I guess there is not point to the Oakton area under your system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the Herndon families should focus on their school and stop worrying about moving other kids from their schools into Herndon. Take pride in your school and stop thnking that it would be better if you brought in the kids from Great Falls.

These aren't people with kids in Herndon. They're people with houses zoned for Herndon and want that property value to go up because Herndon is filled with such subpar students that it drags their property value down.

Wut if their house are zone for HHS, why don’t their kids go there? Oh, that’s right, because in he 20171 part of Herndon, the houses aren’t zoned for HHS and Chantilly, Wsfeld and SLHS are all much low. Maybe Oakton is if you just Google map e miles, but those miles are I66 during rush hour (or Hunter Mill Road during rush hour). Is that where you would want your teen driver (or yourself or EC pickups?).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please fix the school boundaries in and around 20171. Thank you.

What’s broken? There are other zip codes where kids go to multiple schools.

Carson feeds to 4 HSs plus TJ. Parents still have a choice between Franklin AAP and Carson AAP, despite the Franklin program having been up and running (with great word of mouth) for a decade. A bunch of 20171 feeds to Chantilly, which is so overcrowded. And that’s just scratching the surface.

A slit feeder and a 4 way split feeder are very different things.

I thought Carson fed to Oakton, Westfield, and South Lakes. Does it also pick up part of Chantilly when you include AAP options?

Thoreau is also is a three-way split feeder now. That was a conscious decision by the School Board because it wanted to keep an AAP center at Jackson but not open one at Thoreau. Otherwise they could have just aligned Madison’s boundaries with Thoreau’s and Marshall’s boundaries with Kilmer’s, and those schools would have had straight feeder patterns.

Yes Franklin Farm and surrounding neighborhoods like Armfield Farms are Carson AAP then Chantilly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please fix the school boundaries in and around 20171. Thank you.

What’s broken? There are other zip codes where kids go to multiple schools.

Carson feeds to 4 HSs plus TJ. Parents still have a choice between Franklin AAP and Carson AAP, despite the Franklin program having been up and running (with great word of mouth) for a decade. A bunch of 20171 feeds to Chantilly, which is so overcrowded. And that’s just scratching the surface.

A slit feeder and a 4 way split feeder are very different things.

As a Carson parent to a non-AAP kid, I wish they would get rid of the AAP "center" there and send all of the Franklin kids back to their AAP program. Friends have said it's really good. Carson is no longer a "feeder" to TJ under the new admission policies, so let's get rid of that stigma, and get rid of all the hyper competitive, super rude Navy kids.

I’d like this too, and I’m Franklin zoned. But the answer we are always given is that Franklin doesn’t have the capacity to take so many kids back. Solution would be to move the Oakton kids out of Franklin. But again, that would be a boundary adjustment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On another thread, but equally relevant to this one:

From Kyle McDaniel, one of the new at-large members:

"On February 13th, the School Board will hold a work session to discuss a path forward that addresses significant gaps in existing policies, and creates a roadmap for a division wide boundary adjustment. In my comments last night, I stated that I will not support any more one-off boundary changes until we overhaul these flawed policies, and implement a County-wide boundary study to fix the overcrowding that has plagued our schools for decades."

These newbies are not ready for the blowback. They should ask some of the folks who were on the school board back in 2019 how this is going to go for them.

Hasn't he been on the school board before?

McDaniel ran for the School Board in 2019 and lost to Cohen. The other two at-large members (Moon and McElveen) are returnees.

Right now they are setting themselves up for a battle royale, because they are promising big changes (the first county-wide boundary revisions since the mid-1980s), and suggesting it's going to be based primarily on recommendations from FCPS staff or third-party consultants. But assigned that task, the FCPS staff or third-party consultants will insist that the School Board not only identify the relevant criteria, but prioritize them. The fingers will be pointing in every which direction.

And once any priority is identified that could lead to moving anyone out of one school in particular - Langley - they'll be met with a tidal wave of opposition from an outspoken and wealthy community that wants their kids at Langley, and Langley alone, and will denounce their perceived opponents as "social engineers," etc.

It's possible the new Board won't wilt like the prior Board did in 2018-19 after all, there is more precedent now to suggest that Democrats on the School Board can do whatever they want and get re-elected to the School Board or elected to higher office. They could also launch their own PR effort to basically portray the Langley parents leading the opposition (not all Langley parents, but the ones who were previously behind "One Great Falls" and "Voices of Fairfax" and could be expected to rear their heads again) as elitist, out-of-touch, MAGA types. And, given that the overcrowding at some schools may have gone on even longer by the time they get around to this, there may be broader support for a comprehensive review (although the survey results from the consultant that was hired suggest parents just want more additions and renovations, which of course costs more money, and not boundary changes).

But it won't be pretty, and it won't be easy.

I for one am done voting yes to every referendum asking for funding towards FCPS facilities, just because well-off parents are throwing hissy fits over their demands for unnecessary luxury renovations. The level of disparity is too far gone now. Some pyramids got very lucky in the past half decade but I'm frustrated that we would effectively subsidize the wealthiest communities at the cost of the poorest.

Bond referenda always pass and when you vote against one people just think you don't want to pay taxes, not that you're concerned with how money may have been allocated in the past.

Meals Tax failed. I wouldn’t assume people will just blindly vote to fund schools forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Franklin Farm kids need to be sent to Herndon. Franklin Middle needs to feed to Oakton.

Some Westfield and Chantilly kids need to be sent to Centerville (Virginia Run/Bull Run and Poplar Tree (make is a split feeder).

No and no. You have no idea what you are talking about.

First you say you would you send kids a mile or two from Chantilly and not far from Westfield to Herndon. And then you say send all of Franklin to Oakton. The non-Oakton piece of Franklin IS Franklin Farm.

So are you sending the kids who live the closest to Chantilly HS to Herndon or Oakton (45 minute rush hour commute)?

This is that same person who thinks everyone in Oak Hill should go to Herndon High School because our address is technically Herndon - even though there are two other high schools much closer than Herndon (and never mind that the other half of neighborhood already goes to a high school that's really far away).

No. It definately is not. This is someone in Oak Hill/Herndon zoned for Chantilly who wants to stay zoned for Chantilly because both Oakton and Herndon are ridiculous communities when Chantilly is a couple miles away and SLHS and Westfield (and maybe even Centerville) are closer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did South Lakes get renovated if it wasn't in the que? Some special pet project of Meren's because she has kids going there or something else?

My guess, it has alarge number of FARMs families, a large number of ELL students, and the Fox Mill ES and some parts of other ES were moved there when they didn’t want to move. Changing the boundaries so that the school had a better balance of kids, even marginally, and then allowing the school to be overcrowded would have been an even bigger slap in the face to those families.

I live in the Fox Mill boundary and there are parents who are miffed with the boundary change. I know some families thinking about moving now that their kids are entering MS because they had wanted the Fox Mill, Carson, Oakton route. Moving after 8th grade would not be all that disruptive to their kids HS career because there are so few kids from Carson that move from Carson to SLHS. The kids are pretty much starting over in HS as it is.

Most the families I know are fine with being at South Lakes, the Honors and IB program are well received. There are some solid clubs and sports teams. I think there would have been a lot of complaints and more kids trying to place out for AP if the school was overcrowded.

Wasn’t the boundary change to South Lakes roughly 15 years ago? How are the current elem and middle school parents even aware of that today?

I get that split feeders aren’t the best, but at least most families are fine with South Lakes. It’s a solid school today, and hopefully won’t get overcrowded in the future. Reston is one of the last bastions of housing affordability in Northern Virginia. Many lakefront townhomes and single family homes are still well under a million.

Parents bought houses in the area anticipating having kids. The JI program is popular and the area has been more reasonably priced for the area. We bought right when the boundary change happened and started our family a few years later. We were aware of the change when we were buying but were more focused on the ES at that time. Not to mention, there are a good number of parents who grew up here and attended Fox Mill and Oakton HS. We know parents who went through JI as kids in the neighborhood.

In the end, there are plenty of parents who knew about the change. I have been hearing more people wish for AP and want to find away to send their kids to Oakton. The parents of kids at Oak Hill for LIV would prefer Oakton because their kids have been going to ES with kids attending Oakton. So few kids from Carson go to South Lakes and that is really bothering more people I know in the neighborhood but no one wants to move to Langston Hughes for MS. Pretty much the only kids from Carson who will end up at South Lakes are the Fox Mill kids. And Carson does not do a good job prepping parents for IB at South Lakes. The MS info video flat out said that no one needs to take a language in MS, which is not true for anyone interested in the IB program at SL. It was like Carson ignores the Fox Mill kids counseling needs.

Incorrect. Most (I think all) Oak Hill is Franklin or Carson, then Chantilly or Westfield. I don’t think Oak Hill has any Oakton kids. You have to cross FFX Co Parkway to get to Oakton boundaries, and by then it’s more Fox Hill, Navy, etc. No one who lives near Oak Hill area want to deal with the traffic nightmare of Oakton— especially since the kids who would get that rezoning go to Chantilly. Which ties, and sometimes exceeds, Oakton on all publish metrics (SAT, etc).

I live in Oak Hill, we are zoned to Oakton.

I meant Oak Hill ES. Oak Hil ES kids don’t got to Oakton.

[Anonymous]

AAP “center” schools should be a thing of the past, for starters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On another thread, but equally relevant to this one:

From Kyle McDaniel, one of the new at-large members:

"On February 13th, the School Board will hold a work session to discuss a path forward that addresses significant gaps in existing policies, and creates a roadmap for a division wide boundary adjustment. In my comments last night, I stated that I will not support any more one-off boundary changes until we overhaul these flawed policies, and implement a County-wide boundary study to fix the overcrowding that has plagued our schools for decades."

These newbies are not ready for the blowback. They should ask some of the folks who were on the school board back in 2019 how this is going to go for them.

Hasn't he been on the school board before?

McDaniel ran for the School Board in 2019 and lost to Cohen. The other two at-large members (Moon and McElveen) are returnees.

Right now they are setting themselves up for a battle royale, because they are promising big changes (the first county-wide boundary revisions since the mid-1980s), and suggesting it's going to be based primarily on recommendations from FCPS staff or third-party consultants. But assigned that task, the FCPS staff or third-party consultants will insist that the School Board not only identify the relevant criteria, but prioritize them. The fingers will be pointing in every which direction.

And once any priority is identified that could lead to moving anyone out of one school in particular - Langley - they'll be met with a tidal wave of opposition from an outspoken and wealthy community that wants their kids at Langley, and Langley alone, and will denounce their perceived opponents as "social engineers," etc.

It's possible the new Board won't wilt like the prior Board did in 2018-19 after all, there is more precedent now to suggest that Democrats on the School Board can do whatever they want and get re-elected to the School Board or elected to higher office. They could also launch their own PR effort to basically portray the Langley parents leading the opposition (not all Langley parents, but the ones who were previously behind "One Great Falls" and "Voices of Fairfax" and could be expected to rear their heads again) as elitist, out-of-touch, MAGA types. And, given that the overcrowding at some schools may have gone on even longer by the time they get around to this, there may be broader support for a comprehensive review (although the survey results from the consultant that was hired suggest parents just want more additions and renovations, which of course costs more money, and not boundary changes).

But it won't be pretty, and it won't be easy.

I for one am done voting yes to every referendum asking for funding towards FCPS facilities, just because well-off parents are throwing hissy fits over their demands for unnecessary luxury renovations. The level of disparity is too far gone now. Some pyramids got very lucky in the past half decade but I'm frustrated that we would effectively subsidize the wealthiest communities at the cost of the poorest.

Bond referenda always pass and when you vote against one people just think you don't want to pay taxes, not that you're concerned with how money may have been allocated in the past.

Meals Tax failed. I wouldn’t assume people will just blindly vote to fund schools forever.

Fairfax is a heavily Democratic county and school bonds pass by large margins. I believe the percentage who voted in favor of the 2023 bond was down slightly from 2021, but it still passed easily, including in areas where no schools were getting any funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On another thread, but equally relevant to this one:

From Kyle McDaniel, one of the new at-large members:

"On February 13th, the School Board will hold a work session to discuss a path forward that addresses significant gaps in existing policies, and creates a roadmap for a division wide boundary adjustment. In my comments last night, I stated that I will not support any more one-off boundary changes until we overhaul these flawed policies, and implement a County-wide boundary study to fix the overcrowding that has plagued our schools for decades."

These newbies are not ready for the blowback. They should ask some of the folks who were on the school board back in 2019 how this is going to go for them.

Hasn't he been on the school board before?

McDaniel ran for the School Board in 2019 and lost to Cohen. The other two at-large members (Moon and McElveen) are returnees.

Right now they are setting themselves up for a battle royale, because they are promising big changes (the first county-wide boundary revisions since the mid-1980s), and suggesting it's going to be based primarily on recommendations from FCPS staff or third-party consultants. But assigned that task, the FCPS staff or third-party consultants will insist that the School Board not only identify the relevant criteria, but prioritize them. The fingers will be pointing in every which direction.

And once any priority is identified that could lead to moving anyone out of one school in particular - Langley - they'll be met with a tidal wave of opposition from an outspoken and wealthy community that wants their kids at Langley, and Langley alone, and will denounce their perceived opponents as "social engineers," etc.

It's possible the new Board won't wilt like the prior Board did in 2018-19 after all, there is more precedent now to suggest that Democrats on the School Board can do whatever they want and get re-elected to the School Board or elected to higher office. They could also launch their own PR effort to basically portray the Langley parents leading the opposition (not all Langley parents, but the ones who were previously behind "One Great Falls" and "Voices of Fairfax" and could be expected to rear their heads again) as elitist, out-of-touch, MAGA types. And, given that the overcrowding at some schools may have gone on even longer by the time they get around to this, there may be broader support for a comprehensive review (although the survey results from the consultant that was hired suggest parents just want more additions and renovations, which of course costs more money, and not boundary changes).

But it won't be pretty, and it won't be easy.

I for one am done voting yes to every referendum asking for funding towards FCPS facilities, just because well-off parents are throwing hissy fits over their demands for unnecessary luxury renovations. The level of disparity is too far gone now. Some pyramids got very lucky in the past half decade but I'm frustrated that we would effectively subsidize the wealthiest communities at the cost of the poorest.

Bond referenda always pass and when you vote against one people just think you don't want to pay taxes, not that you're concerned with how money may have been allocated in the past.

Meals Tax failed. I wouldn’t assume people will just blindly vote to fund schools forever.

Fairfax is a heavily Democratic county and school bonds pass by large margins. I believe the percentage who voted in favor of the 2023 bond was down slightly from 2021, but it still passed easily, including in areas where no schools were getting any funding.

They pass, but should they? Perhaps one defeat would send a message to the School Board that they need to be better stewards of taxpayer money. But the limousine liberals (this county is at least 65% Democrats) in this county would rather spend taxpayer money to expand their schools than to ever be redistricted to the poorer schools. So nothing will change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On another thread, but equally relevant to this one:

From Kyle McDaniel, one of the new at-large members:

"On February 13th, the School Board will hold a work session to discuss a path forward that addresses significant gaps in existing policies, and creates a roadmap for a division wide boundary adjustment. In my comments last night, I stated that I will not support any more one-off boundary changes until we overhaul these flawed policies, and implement a County-wide boundary study to fix the overcrowding that has plagued our schools for decades."

These newbies are not ready for the blowback. They should ask some of the folks who were on the school board back in 2019 how this is going to go for them.

Hasn't he been on the school board before?

McDaniel ran for the School Board in 2019 and lost to Cohen. The other two at-large members (Moon and McElveen) are returnees.

Right now they are setting themselves up for a battle royale, because they are promising big changes (the first county-wide boundary revisions since the mid-1980s), and suggesting it's going to be based primarily on recommendations from FCPS staff or third-party consultants. But assigned that task, the FCPS staff or third-party consultants will insist that the School Board not only identify the relevant criteria, but prioritize them. The fingers will be pointing in every which direction.

And once any priority is identified that could lead to moving anyone out of one school in particular - Langley - they'll be met with a tidal wave of opposition from an outspoken and wealthy community that wants their kids at Langley, and Langley alone, and will denounce their perceived opponents as "social engineers," etc.

It's possible the new Board won't wilt like the prior Board did in 2018-19 after all, there is more precedent now to suggest that Democrats on the School Board can do whatever they want and get re-elected to the School Board or elected to higher office. They could also launch their own PR effort to basically portray the Langley parents leading the opposition (not all Langley parents, but the ones who were previously behind "One Great Falls" and "Voices of Fairfax" and could be expected to rear their heads again) as elitist, out-of-touch, MAGA types. And, given that the overcrowding at some schools may have gone on even longer by the time they get around to this, there may be broader support for a comprehensive review (although the survey results from the consultant that was hired suggest parents just want more additions and renovations, which of course costs more money, and not boundary changes).

But it won't be pretty, and it won't be easy.

I for one am done voting yes to every referendum asking for funding towards FCPS facilities, just because well-off parents are throwing hissy fits over their demands for unnecessary luxury renovations. The level of disparity is too far gone now. Some pyramids got very lucky in the past half decade but I'm frustrated that we would effectively subsidize the wealthiest communities at the cost of the poorest.

Bond referenda always pass and when you vote against one people just think you don't want to pay taxes, not that you're concerned with how money may have been allocated in the past.

Meals Tax failed. I wouldn’t assume people will just blindly vote to fund schools forever.

Fairfax is a heavily Democratic county and school bonds pass by large margins. I believe the percentage who voted in favor of the 2023 bond was down slightly from 2021, but it still passed easily, including in areas where no schools were getting any funding.

They pass, but should they? Perhaps one defeat would send a message to the School Board that they need to be better stewards of taxpayer money. But the limousine liberals (this county is at least 65% Democrats) in this county would rather spend taxpayer money to expand their schools than to ever be redistricted to the poorer schools. So nothing will change.

My God, do you just spend all day parroting the same thing on multiple threads?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please fix the school boundaries in and around 20171. Thank you.

What’s broken? There are other zip codes where kids go to multiple schools.

Carson feeds to 4 HSs plus TJ. Parents still have a choice between Franklin AAP and Carson AAP, despite the Franklin program having been up and running (with great word of mouth) for a decade. A bunch of 20171 feeds to Chantilly, which is so overcrowded. And that’s just scratching the surface.

A slit feeder and a 4 way split feeder are very different things.

As a Carson parent to a non-AAP kid, I wish they would get rid of the AAP "center" there and send all of the Franklin kids back to their AAP program. Friends have said it's really good. Carson is no longer a "feeder" to TJ under the new admission policies, so let's get rid of that stigma, and get rid of all the hyper competitive, super rude Navy kids.

I’d like this too, and I’m Franklin zoned. But the answer we are always given is that Franklin doesn’t have the capacity to take so many kids back. Solution would be to move the Oakton kids out of Franklin. But again, that would be a boundary adjustment.

So, we live by Navy ES--what MS would we go to if not Franklin?