FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See the attached for how school size impacts classes.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2015/jun/11/springfield-daventry-reassigned-lee-west-springfie/

From the article:

The primary difference is total student population at West Springfield. Mukai said eight and nine years ago it was at capacity, around 2,400 students. With declining graduating class sizes of late, enrollment for the 2015-2016 school year is projected to be around 2,100.

“It’s a challenge,” said Mukai. “It means you have fewer kids selecting classes and that’s how you staff a building.”

Currently, the principal said with the projected drop of around 125 students schoolwide for the 2015-2016 school year, nine teachers will be impacted -- receiving new assignments elsewhere in the county -- based on the formula of need determined by Fairfax County.

And though the addition of students from Daventry won’t make up for the loss, “Every student we add changes the ratio slightly,” said Mukai.

The West Springfield principal was happy to get additional students from Lee because it meant WS got to keep more teachers and classes. Of course, the flip side to that is that Lee was already smaller and already losing students - causing it to lose teachers and classes. This is but one way FCPS screwed Lee/Lewis. IB (and refusing to budge on this for years), liberal pupil placement, sending the Hunt Valley kids (the portion that went to Lee) to WS when there was no need to do so back in 2005 right at the same time Lee was being renovated and slightly expanded. They expanded Lee and then immediately moved kids out and it has never approached the renovated design capacity. They moved only wealthier neighborhoods to West Springfield.

Omg Saratoga mom.

Hunt Valley was rezoned nearly 2 decades ago, before the class of 2024 graduating seniors were even born.

They were rezoned because FCPS opened a brand new high school in Lorton, South County. Hunt Valley was not rezoned to screw over the Lee/Lewis kids.

Almost every single family with school aged children currently zoned for the Lewis pyramid purchased their house or moved into their rental after South County opened and Hunt Valley was rezoned.

Your continuously bringing up Hunt Valley getting rezoned 2 decades ago, years before the kids in that pyramid were even born, and blaming that decades old rezoning for Lewis' ranking, is just about one of the most ridiculous things continuously posted on the FCPS forum.

I wasn't here during this (I was still in college myself), but according to the emails I found in my neighborhood's listserv (we're off Gambrill Road), it had more to do with ensuring the kids went to a closer school, as both South County and West Springfield are closer to our neighborhood than Lewis. And at the time, people were freaked out about having their kids go to a brand new high school that they weren't sure would be very good. So they lobbied to get into West Springfield. There was a portion of Saratoga that also didn't want to go to South County at that time and they lobbied to stay at Lewis (then Lee). School board agreed to both. Again, I'm not an expert on this like the Saratoga mom PP but a quick scan of our neighborhood listserv was pretty interesting.

[Anonymous]

There are often individual explanations that seem reasonable, but then you look at the cumulative effect over time ("death by a thousand paper cuts") and you can see that FCPS turned Lewis into an undesirable, under-enrolled school. They need to fix it, somehow, and they don't need "county-wide" boundary revisions that would unnecessarily affect a bunch of other schools to do so. There's no other situation in the county where a school projected to have 2800 kids is next to one projected to be under 1500 in a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See the attached for how school size impacts classes.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2015/jun/11/springfield-daventry-reassigned-lee-west-springfie/

From the article:

The primary difference is total student population at West Springfield. Mukai said eight and nine years ago it was at capacity, around 2,400 students. With declining graduating class sizes of late, enrollment for the 2015-2016 school year is projected to be around 2,100.

“It’s a challenge,” said Mukai. “It means you have fewer kids selecting classes and that’s how you staff a building.”

Currently, the principal said with the projected drop of around 125 students schoolwide for the 2015-2016 school year, nine teachers will be impacted -- receiving new assignments elsewhere in the county -- based on the formula of need determined by Fairfax County.

And though the addition of students from Daventry won’t make up for the loss, “Every student we add changes the ratio slightly,” said Mukai.

The West Springfield principal was happy to get additional students from Lee because it meant WS got to keep more teachers and classes. Of course, the flip side to that is that Lee was already smaller and already losing students - causing it to lose teachers and classes. This is but one way FCPS screwed Lee/Lewis. IB (and refusing to budge on this for years), liberal pupil placement, sending the Hunt Valley kids (the portion that went to Lee) to WS when there was no need to do so back in 2005 right at the same time Lee was being renovated and slightly expanded. They expanded Lee and then immediately moved kids out and it has never approached the renovated design capacity. They moved only wealthier neighborhoods to West Springfield.

Omg Saratoga mom.

Hunt Valley was rezoned nearly 2 decades ago, before the class of 2024 graduating seniors were even born.

They were rezoned because FCPS opened a brand new high school in Lorton, South County. Hunt Valley was not rezoned to screw over the Lee/Lewis kids.

Almost every single family with school aged children currently zoned for the Lewis pyramid purchased their house or moved into their rental after South County opened and Hunt Valley was rezoned.

Your continuously bringing up Hunt Valley getting rezoned 2 decades ago, years before the kids in that pyramid were even born, and blaming that decades old rezoning for Lewis' ranking, is just about one of the most ridiculous things continuously posted on the FCPS forum.

Why would opening South County necessitate moving kids from a smaller school to a larger school? If anything it seems like it would have reinforced the need to make sure Lewis retained enough kids. I thought Hayfield was the school affected the most when South County opened.

Lewis was not a smaller school back then.

Rezoning the Hunt Valley neighborhood did NOT result in a big drop in enrollment at Lewis.

The loss of students at Lewis came years to a decade later. The biggest percentage loss came during covid shut downs.

[Anonymous]

The smartest and least distuptive way for FCPS to address Lewis, would be to turn Lewis into a trades/skilled trades magnet, including moving the academy classes at any overcrowded school to Lewis.

Give Lewis zoned kids priority guaranteed placement in the magnet program.

Rezone the remaining students to Edison, Hayfield, Lake Braddock and South County, based strictly on the closest commute. So, for example, Saratoga would go to South County. Crestview would go to Hayfield. Etc. Etc.

Grandfather any current high school students who want to graduate from Lewis. As they graduate, increase the magnate slots for the trades academy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are often individual explanations that seem reasonable, but then you look at the cumulative effect over time ("death by a thousand paper cuts") and you can see that FCPS turned Lewis into an undesirable, under-enrolled school. They need to fix it, somehow, and they don't need "county-wide" boundary revisions that would unnecessarily affect a bunch of other schools to do so. There's no other situation in the county where a school projected to have 2800 kids is next to one projected to be under 1500 in a few years.

You can't force people to send their kids to Lewis, even if you rezone them.

12% of the Lewis population is already pupil placing out of that school. Over 200 studdnts. If they closed that loophole, then Lewis would be around 1800 students..

That one change would fix the under enrolled Lewis with the least disruption and with no rezoning.

If Lewis does not address the loopholes and motivation behind people pupil placing out, and just tries to rezone 200 WSHS students, you will end up with 400 students pupil placing out of Lewis, and the same enrollment number.

[Anonymous]

As a former Hunt Valley- now Irving and WSHS mixed race family- I’m totally bemused and annoyed by this fighting over WSHS. We bought in 2008, after being priced out of Arlington where we were living at the time, having carefully looked at well over 200 homes over several years. We bought a house in need of much work but it was what we could afford with commutes into DC and solid schools. This board loves to shit on Springfield as the armpit of NOVA but now everyone and their mother feel the need to stick their noses into our little corner of boring, uninspired, soulless suburbia because they all want a piece of our high school. To that I say GTFO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The smartest and least distuptive way for FCPS to address Lewis, would be to turn Lewis into a trades/skilled trades magnet, including moving the academy classes at any overcrowded school to Lewis.

Give Lewis zoned kids priority guaranteed placement in the magnet program.

Rezone the remaining students to Edison, Hayfield, Lake Braddock and South County, based strictly on the closest commute. So, for example, Saratoga would go to South County. Crestview would go to Hayfield. Etc. Etc.

Grandfather any current high school students who want to graduate from Lewis. As they graduate, increase the magnate slots for the trades academy.

What about the Lewis zoned students with higher aspirations? Are they just SOL?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are often individual explanations that seem reasonable, but then you look at the cumulative effect over time ("death by a thousand paper cuts") and you can see that FCPS turned Lewis into an undesirable, under-enrolled school. They need to fix it, somehow, and they don't need "county-wide" boundary revisions that would unnecessarily affect a bunch of other schools to do so. There's no other situation in the county where a school projected to have 2800 kids is next to one projected to be under 1500 in a few years.

You can't force people to send their kids to Lewis, even if you rezone them.

12% of the Lewis population is already pupil placing out of that school. Over 200 studdnts. If they closed that loophole, then Lewis would be around 1800 students..

That one change would fix the under enrolled Lewis with the least disruption and with no rezoning.

If Lewis does not address the loopholes and motivation behind people pupil placing out, and just tries to rezone 200 WSHS students, you will end up with 400 students pupil placing out of Lewis, and the same enrollment number.

South Lakes had under 1500 kids when they rezoned kids there. Now it has over 2450.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The smartest and least distuptive way for FCPS to address Lewis, would be to turn Lewis into a trades/skilled trades magnet, including moving the academy classes at any overcrowded school to Lewis.

Give Lewis zoned kids priority guaranteed placement in the magnet program.

Rezone the remaining students to Edison, Hayfield, Lake Braddock and South County, based strictly on the closest commute. So, for example, Saratoga would go to South County. Crestview would go to Hayfield. Etc. Etc.

Grandfather any current high school students who want to graduate from Lewis. As they graduate, increase the magnate slots for the trades academy.

What about the Lewis zoned students with higher aspirations? Are they just SOL?

No, as PP said the current feeder elementaries would be rezoned to whatever HS pyramid is nearest if they wanted college prep courses and current students who want to stay there could stay there.

I doubt they actually do anything like this though because 1) $$$, 2) it’s tacitly admitting that concentrating poverty + recent arrivals created an extremely undesirable school in a relatively short period of time. I have some acquaintance moms/dads at my kid’s school who graduated from Lee between 2000-2007ish and it was totally different back then but then changed a lot and very quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The smartest and least distuptive way for FCPS to address Lewis, would be to turn Lewis into a trades/skilled trades magnet, including moving the academy classes at any overcrowded school to Lewis.

Give Lewis zoned kids priority guaranteed placement in the magnet program.

Rezone the remaining students to Edison, Hayfield, Lake Braddock and South County, based strictly on the closest commute. So, for example, Saratoga would go to South County. Crestview would go to Hayfield. Etc. Etc.

Grandfather any current high school students who want to graduate from Lewis. As they graduate, increase the magnate slots for the trades academy.

What about the Lewis zoned students with higher aspirations? Are they just SOL?

PP was ignoring the number of Lewis feeders that would move to West Springfield (with a big move of WSHS kids then required to Lake Braddock).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The smartest and least distuptive way for FCPS to address Lewis, would be to turn Lewis into a trades/skilled trades magnet, including moving the academy classes at any overcrowded school to Lewis.

Give Lewis zoned kids priority guaranteed placement in the magnet program.

Rezone the remaining students to Edison, Hayfield, Lake Braddock and South County, based strictly on the closest commute. So, for example, Saratoga would go to South County. Crestview would go to Hayfield. Etc. Etc.

Grandfather any current high school students who want to graduate from Lewis. As they graduate, increase the magnate slots for the trades academy.

What about the Lewis zoned students with higher aspirations? Are they just SOL?

PP was ignoring the number of Lewis feeders that would move to West Springfield (with a big move of WSHS kids then required to Lake Braddock).

And the ones that aren't? If you turn a school into a technical academy and still have students in bounds, what happens to kids who want to be on a college track?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The smartest and least distuptive way for FCPS to address Lewis, would be to turn Lewis into a trades/skilled trades magnet, including moving the academy classes at any overcrowded school to Lewis.

Give Lewis zoned kids priority guaranteed placement in the magnet program.

Rezone the remaining students to Edison, Hayfield, Lake Braddock and South County, based strictly on the closest commute. So, for example, Saratoga would go to South County. Crestview would go to Hayfield. Etc. Etc.

Grandfather any current high school students who want to graduate from Lewis. As they graduate, increase the magnate slots for the trades academy.

What about the Lewis zoned students with higher aspirations? Are they just SOL?

You clearly didn't read the entire post.

Rezone those students to surrounding high schools, such as Hayfield, LB, SoCo and Edison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The smartest and least distuptive way for FCPS to address Lewis, would be to turn Lewis into a trades/skilled trades magnet, including moving the academy classes at any overcrowded school to Lewis.

Give Lewis zoned kids priority guaranteed placement in the magnet program.

Rezone the remaining students to Edison, Hayfield, Lake Braddock and South County, based strictly on the closest commute. So, for example, Saratoga would go to South County. Crestview would go to Hayfield. Etc. Etc.

Grandfather any current high school students who want to graduate from Lewis. As they graduate, increase the magnate slots for the trades academy.

What about the Lewis zoned students with higher aspirations? Are they just SOL?

PP was ignoring the number of Lewis feeders that would move to West Springfield (with a big move of WSHS kids then required to Lake Braddock).

WSHS is at capacity, so they would not be involved in the rezoning.

The one exception would be to eliminate the split feeders at Rolling Valley and Sangster, putting all of Sangster at LB and all of Rolling Valley at WS.

This option makes the most sense and is the least disruptive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The smartest and least distuptive way for FCPS to address Lewis, would be to turn Lewis into a trades/skilled trades magnet, including moving the academy classes at any overcrowded school to Lewis.

Give Lewis zoned kids priority guaranteed placement in the magnet program.

Rezone the remaining students to Edison, Hayfield, Lake Braddock and South County, based strictly on the closest commute. So, for example, Saratoga would go to South County. Crestview would go to Hayfield. Etc. Etc.

Grandfather any current high school students who want to graduate from Lewis. As they graduate, increase the magnate slots for the trades academy.

What about the Lewis zoned students with higher aspirations? Are they just SOL?

PP was ignoring the number of Lewis feeders that would move to West Springfield (with a big move of WSHS kids then required to Lake Braddock).

And the ones that aren't? If you turn a school into a technical academy and still have students in bounds, what happens to kids who want to be on a college track?

Those students are rezoned to Hayfield, Edison, Lake Braddock and South County.

It comes to roughly 100 students or less per grade going to each school. Possibly much less than 100 per grade if many students decide to stay for the magnet school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The smartest and least distuptive way for FCPS to address Lewis, would be to turn Lewis into a trades/skilled trades magnet, including moving the academy classes at any overcrowded school to Lewis.

Give Lewis zoned kids priority guaranteed placement in the magnet program.

Rezone the remaining students to Edison, Hayfield, Lake Braddock and South County, based strictly on the closest commute. So, for example, Saratoga would go to South County. Crestview would go to Hayfield. Etc. Etc.

Grandfather any current high school students who want to graduate from Lewis. As they graduate, increase the magnate slots for the trades academy.

What about the Lewis zoned students with higher aspirations? Are they just SOL?

PP was ignoring the number of Lewis feeders that would move to West Springfield (with a big move of WSHS kids then required to Lake Braddock).

And the ones that aren't? If you turn a school into a technical academy and still have students in bounds, what happens to kids who want to be on a college track?

Those students are rezoned to Hayfield, Edison, Lake Braddock and South County.

It comes to roughly 100 students or less per grade going to each school. Possibly much less than 100 per grade if many students decide to stay for the magnet school.

I think you over estimate how many parents would choose a technical school, even if you call it a magnet