What’s Fairfax high school like

[Anonymous]

Tried searching the forums, but it’s impossible given the generality of the terms ‘Fairfax’ and ‘high school’.
Would love to hear the varying perspectives ranging from its terrible, it’s diverse, it’s great.

[Anonymous]

It's too diverse which hurts it's scores and rankings. The minimum threshold on DCUM is 75% total Asian/White to be a "good" school.

[Anonymous]

The building is really nice and new, at least compared to our kids' soviet bloc style school.

[Anonymous]

I live in the Fairfax HIgh School zone and my kids will go there eventually, they are in elementary school now. My neighbors are happy with the school, I don't hear complaints. The building was built in the 70s and had a major addition around 2001. The City of Fairfax owns the building so they pay for renos. They have been renovating the stadium and other things. The band won a state championship this year. It has an Academy, which adds extra language classes, theater classes, digital arts, dance and other things. I don't think there are any trailers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The building is really nice and new, at least compared to our kids' soviet bloc style school.

Now I need to guess where your kids go. McLean? Annandale? We were at Westfield HS for a wrestling meet and it was pretty depressing.

[Anonymous]

It is a nice building and gym.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in the Fairfax HIgh School zone and my kids will go there eventually, they are in elementary school now. My neighbors are happy with the school, I don't hear complaints. The building was built in the 70s and had a major addition around 2001. The City of Fairfax owns the building so they pay for renos. They have been renovating the stadium and other things. The band won a state championship this year. It has an Academy, which adds extra language classes, theater classes, digital arts, dance and other things. I don't think there are any trailers.

-the practice field was renovated, not the stadium
-City does own it and it gets some "nice things" because of that
-There are a few trailers out back, actually, but not many.

Generally, it's ok. There are a lot of fights, based on what I can see, and not a ton of parent engagement. It's the same 15 families that donate/volunteer.

It is diverse but i view that as a positive, not a negative. And there are PLENTY of wealthy families there.

[Anonymous]

It is one of the smaller FCPS schools so it is easier to make teams and ECs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is one of the smaller FCPS schools so it is easier to make teams and ECs.

There are 25 regular/magnet high schools in FCPS. Fairfax is #14 in terms of enrollment.

It used to be bigger but the City of Fairfax pushed some county kids out about a decade ago and they ended up at Woodson and Oakton instead.

That left Fairfax with an attendance island in the western part of the county that is closer to Centreville and Chantilly, but zoned for Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The building is really nice and new, at least compared to our kids' soviet bloc style school.

Now I need to guess where your kids go. McLean? Annandale? We were at Westfield HS for a wrestling meet and it was pretty depressing.

The buildings may be shabby but neither McLean nor Annandale has a "Soviet bloc-style" appearance. If any schools deserve that title it would be some of the schools built later in the 70s-90s with fewer windows and interior walls (a number of those schools were later retrofitted to get rid of the "open classrooms").

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is one of the smaller FCPS schools so it is easier to make teams and ECs.

There are 25 regular/magnet high schools in FCPS. Fairfax is #14 in terms of enrollment.

It used to be bigger but the City of Fairfax pushed some county kids out about a decade ago and they ended up at Woodson and Oakton instead.

That left Fairfax with an attendance island in the western part of the county that is closer to Centreville and Chantilly, but zoned for Fairfax.

I don't think the "city" pushed them out. It occurred as part of a regular boundary change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is one of the smaller FCPS schools so it is easier to make teams and ECs.

There are 25 regular/magnet high schools in FCPS. Fairfax is #14 in terms of enrollment.

It used to be bigger but the City of Fairfax pushed some county kids out about a decade ago and they ended up at Woodson and Oakton instead.

That left Fairfax with an attendance island in the western part of the county that is closer to Centreville and Chantilly, but zoned for Fairfax.

I don't think the "city" pushed them out. It occurred as part of a regular boundary change.

The boundary change was done at the request of Fairfax city to reduce enrollment at Fairfax High.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is one of the smaller FCPS schools so it is easier to make teams and ECs.

There are 25 regular/magnet high schools in FCPS. Fairfax is #14 in terms of enrollment.

It used to be bigger but the City of Fairfax pushed some county kids out about a decade ago and they ended up at Woodson and Oakton instead.

That left Fairfax with an attendance island in the western part of the county that is closer to Centreville and Chantilly, but zoned for Fairfax.

I don't think the "city" pushed them out. It occurred as part of a regular boundary change.

The boundary change was done at the request of Fairfax city to reduce enrollment at Fairfax High.

That may be what initiated it, but that was not the only change made. One of the previous PP made it sound like FHS was targeted and it wasn't.

Also while there may be neighborhoods closer to Cville and Chantilly, those schools are already overburdened. The other options for those schools were Woodson (where some were diverted) and Robinson. For those options, FHS is negligibly closer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is one of the smaller FCPS schools so it is easier to make teams and ECs.

There are 25 regular/magnet high schools in FCPS. Fairfax is #14 in terms of enrollment.

It used to be bigger but the City of Fairfax pushed some county kids out about a decade ago and they ended up at Woodson and Oakton instead.

That left Fairfax with an attendance island in the western part of the county that is closer to Centreville and Chantilly, but zoned for Fairfax.

I don't think the "city" pushed them out. It occurred as part of a regular boundary change.

The boundary change was done at the request of Fairfax city to reduce enrollment at Fairfax High.

That may be what initiated it, but that was not the only change made. One of the previous PP made it sound like FHS was targeted and it wasn't.

Also while there may be neighborhoods closer to Cville and Chantilly, those schools are already overburdened. The other options for those schools were Woodson (where some were diverted) and Robinson. For those options, FHS is negligibly closer.

What changes in the boundary study were not related to reducing enrollment at Fairfax High? Students from Fairfax were moved to Oakton and Woodson (and a few to Chantilly, I think), and students from Woodson were moved to Robinson to make room for more students from Fairfax. Nothing else at the secondary level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is one of the smaller FCPS schools so it is easier to make teams and ECs.

There are 25 regular/magnet high schools in FCPS. Fairfax is #14 in terms of enrollment.

It used to be bigger but the City of Fairfax pushed some county kids out about a decade ago and they ended up at Woodson and Oakton instead.

That left Fairfax with an attendance island in the western part of the county that is closer to Centreville and Chantilly, but zoned for Fairfax.

I don't think the "city" pushed them out. It occurred as part of a regular boundary change.

That is not correct. Fairfax City owns Fairfax HS and several other schools in the City of Fairfax. Fairfax City contracts with FCPS to operate Fairfax HS and, in return, allows some students who live in Fairfax County outside the City of Fairfax to attend the city-owned schools.

In the early 2010s, Fairfax HS was quite overcrowded, with over 2600 kids, and the City of Fairfax asked FCPS to pull county kids out of Lanier (now Johnson) MS and Fairfax HS. FCPS honored that request. It was a bit of a mess because just a few years earlier FCPS had redistricted a bunch of Annandale HS kids to Woodson HS, and the later demand by Fairfax City forced FCPS to move more kids to Woodson. Had they known when they adjusted the Annandale/Woodson boundary that they'd be moving Fairfax kids to Woodson as well, they might have taken a different approach to the Annandale/Woodson boundary change.