FCPS Skyview Boundary Scenario 1/2/3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP. I understand wanting to stay at current school where you feel an attachment. But, I do not see why some think this will be a huge downgrade. It won't.

Having had kids in high school, I cannot imagine that they cannot see what a big plus to their quality of life would be to avoid that terrible, awful commute. Even if your kid has a car and can drive, you likely still have two years of an awful commute to pick them up at after school activities--not to mention the awful bus commute for your kid.

Hours a day on a bus is not optimal for any kid. I know some do it for TJ and i have never understood the tradeoff there.

Literally the only reason I'd prefer for my kids to be at Skyview is because of the commute and that's a huge reason. I work from home, but I won't be able to pick up my kids from Oakton at 4:00 because it's 30-45 minutes round trip. If they're at Skyview, it's 15-20 minutes round trip. I can take 30 minutes to pick them up, but not an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP. I understand wanting to stay at current school where you feel an attachment. But, I do not see why some think this will be a huge downgrade. It won't.

Having had kids in high school, I cannot imagine that they cannot see what a big plus to their quality of life would be to avoid that terrible, awful commute. Even if your kid has a car and can drive, you likely still have two years of an awful commute to pick them up at after school activities--not to mention the awful bus commute for your kid.

Hours a day on a bus is not optimal for any kid. I know some do it for TJ and i have never understood the tradeoff there.

Obviously many parents and kids believe the advantages of commutes to schools like TJ, Langley, and Oakton outweigh the disadvantages of a longer commute. Kids learn how to use their time efficiently.

And it sounds like you have opinions but not the facts to say whether different schools would offer less to particular students.

DP. My kid opted in to Skyview because it's our neighborhood high school. You'd think that would result in a better commute, meaning a later bus pickup and more sleep. But no, he's going to have to take a bus to his base HS and another bus from there to Skyview, likely waking up at the same time as the middle school kids. It's too bad - the base schools have lots of juniors and seniors will be assigned direct transportation, which they won't use because they're driving. Very few Skyview students will have their license, especially at the beginning of the year.

That will only be for one year. It's really, really unfortunate that the inaugural kids have to suffer because FCPS couldn't get its act together to make all of the boundary changes at the same time, but this is only for one year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP. I understand wanting to stay at current school where you feel an attachment. But, I do not see why some think this will be a huge downgrade. It won't.

Having had kids in high school, I cannot imagine that they cannot see what a big plus to their quality of life would be to avoid that terrible, awful commute. Even if your kid has a car and can drive, you likely still have two years of an awful commute to pick them up at after school activities--not to mention the awful bus commute for your kid.

Hours a day on a bus is not optimal for any kid. I know some do it for TJ and i have never understood the tradeoff there.

Obviously many parents and kids believe the advantages of commutes to schools like TJ, Langley, and Oakton outweigh the disadvantages of a longer commute. Kids learn how to use their time efficiently.

And it sounds like you have opinions but not the facts to say whether different schools would offer less to particular students.

DP. My kid opted in to Skyview because it's our neighborhood high school. You'd think that would result in a better commute, meaning a later bus pickup and more sleep. But no, he's going to have to take a bus to his base HS and another bus from there to Skyview, likely waking up at the same time as the middle school kids. It's too bad - the base schools have lots of juniors and seniors will be assigned direct transportation, which they won't use because they're driving. Very few Skyview students will have their license, especially at the beginning of the year.

That will only be for one year, I thought?
Won’t direct transportation be provided after this upcoming year?

Yes, it is one year. The one year that it's needed the most (by the time the 2027-28 school year begins Skyview will have juniors who drive).

Do you have an alternative suggestion for transportation that would not cost more money/vehicles/drivers?

Can't they do the same thing they're planning to do in 27-28? Or is the only way to provide buses to Skyview by taking buses away from kids who end up in the Skyview boundary but remain at their base school?

No. Not enough buses and drivers. If they had set and forced boundaries, there would be enough buses and drivers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP. I understand wanting to stay at current school where you feel an attachment. But, I do not see why some think this will be a huge downgrade. It won't.

Having had kids in high school, I cannot imagine that they cannot see what a big plus to their quality of life would be to avoid that terrible, awful commute. Even if your kid has a car and can drive, you likely still have two years of an awful commute to pick them up at after school activities--not to mention the awful bus commute for your kid.

Hours a day on a bus is not optimal for any kid. I know some do it for TJ and i have never understood the tradeoff there.

Obviously many parents and kids believe the advantages of commutes to schools like TJ, Langley, and Oakton outweigh the disadvantages of a longer commute. Kids learn how to use their time efficiently.

And it sounds like you have opinions but not the facts to say whether different schools would offer less to particular students.

DP. My kid opted in to Skyview because it's our neighborhood high school. You'd think that would result in a better commute, meaning a later bus pickup and more sleep. But no, he's going to have to take a bus to his base HS and another bus from there to Skyview, likely waking up at the same time as the middle school kids. It's too bad - the base schools have lots of juniors and seniors will be assigned direct transportation, which they won't use because they're driving. Very few Skyview students will have their license, especially at the beginning of the year.

That will only be for one year, I thought?
Won’t direct transportation be provided after this upcoming year?

Yes, it is one year. The one year that it's needed the most (by the time the 2027-28 school year begins Skyview will have juniors who drive).

Do you have an alternative suggestion for transportation that would not cost more money/vehicles/drivers?

Can't they do the same thing they're planning to do in 27-28? Or is the only way to provide buses to Skyview by taking buses away from kids who end up in the Skyview boundary but remain at their base school?

That's what I don't understand. They're going to have run double routes for all of the grandfathered in kids for three years. Might as well do it for four.

[Anonymous]

I really thought they said they would provide bussing for in boundary kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really thought they said they would provide bussing for in boundary kids.

They are providing bussing. Just not the bussing pp wants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really thought they said they would provide bussing for in boundary kids.

They are. There's just no Skyview boundary until 2027-28.

[Anonymous]

Is anyone else thinking of having their kids bike? I am. They DID say they were providing transportation to in boundary kids and we are in boundary in every scenario.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else thinking of having their kids bike? I am. They DID say they were providing transportation to in boundary kids and we are in boundary in every scenario.

They are providing transportation. Its just not up to pp's standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else thinking of having their kids bike? I am. They DID say they were providing transportation to in boundary kids and we are in boundary in every scenario.

They are providing transportation. Its just not up to pp's standards.

DP. It’s a legitimate gripe. One of the worst things about MS is the awful early bus pickup. It’s bad enough for 2 years and having to do it longer sorta sucks.
For this coming year they would have synched and merged with Carson routes and that would have covered a lot of kids.

[Anonymous]

Zero chance I'm bussing my kid to a base school only to turn around and drive back by our house to go to Skyview. Our elementary school is one thing - going miles in the opposite direction is not happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Zero chance I'm bussing my kid to a base school only to turn around and drive back by our house to go to Skyview. Our elementary school is one thing - going miles in the opposite direction is not happening.

Since Skyview is so close to your house, just drive them. It’s not that hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else thinking of having their kids bike? I am. They DID say they were providing transportation to in boundary kids and we are in boundary in every scenario.

They are providing transportation. Its just not up to pp's standards.

DP. It’s a legitimate gripe. One of the worst things about MS is the awful early bus pickup. It’s bad enough for 2 years and having to do it longer sorta sucks.
For this coming year they would have synched and merged with Carson routes and that would have covered a lot of kids.

I doubt the pick up will be as early as a middle school pick up, because all the buses are being used for middle school runs at that time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Skyview will have decent demographics. I don't understand why people think their property will lose value.

It doesn't make sense to me either. It should be similar to CHS. I guess because Oakton is SO out of the norm for FCPS HS on demographics, anything but Langley feels like Boyz in the hood.

What does this mean? Oakton being so out of the norm for FCPS HS on demographics? Is that good or bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone else thinking of having their kids bike? I am. They DID say they were providing transportation to in boundary kids and we are in boundary in every scenario.

They are providing transportation. Its just not up to pp's standards.

DP. It’s a legitimate gripe. One of the worst things about MS is the awful early bus pickup. It’s bad enough for 2 years and having to do it longer sorta sucks.
For this coming year they would have synched and merged with Carson routes and that would have covered a lot of kids.

I doubt the pick up will be as early as a middle school pick up, because all the buses are being used for middle school runs at that time.

Right now we have a 7:10 bus pickup for Westfield. That's going to have to get way earlier, because of the second bus ride plus the fact that Skyview will start 10 minutes earlier than Westfield.