Tell me about the schools in Herndon/Chantilly - Crossfield, Oak Hill, Navy, Fox Mill, Lees Corner

[Anonymous]

The Fox Mill kids are kind of screwed at Carson. I have heard from many parents that the Counselor’s at Carson forget that there are kids that go to South Lakes and don’t know what the kids might need for the IB Diploma. This is normally an issue with taking a language in MS to meet the 5 year language requirement for the IB diploma. I had a friend tell me that she just learned about this and that the Counselor never said anything when selecting classes and had to call over to South Lakes to find out that there is a requirement for a 5th year of high school language.

Fox Mill and a small number of kids from Floris are the only kids that go to SLHS. It sucks for the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Fox Mill kids are kind of screwed at Carson. I have heard from many parents that the Counselor’s at Carson forget that there are kids that go to South Lakes and don’t know what the kids might need for the IB Diploma. This is normally an issue with taking a language in MS to meet the 5 year language requirement for the IB diploma. I had a friend tell me that she just learned about this and that the Counselor never said anything when selecting classes and had to call over to South Lakes to find out that there is a requirement for a 5th year of high school language.

Fox Mill and a small number of kids from Floris are the only kids that go to SLHS. It sucks for the kids.

Seems to me that falls on FCPS to ensure that the counselors know what is required. Remember, counselors at Carson have students going to at least four different FCPS schools.

Certainly, the IB coordinators at South Lakes should be aware of this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the quick.

Thats unfortunate. Ridiculous that kids from that neighborhood don't get to move on to Franklin with like 93% of their classmates.

Agree. Common sense. This was requested during the South Lakes boundary change. It makes sense. I think the issue was that they were taking so many kids away from Westfield and sending them to South Lakes that they didn't want to take any more from Westfield.

Westfield has 2800 students. Please take some!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the quick.

Thats unfortunate. Ridiculous that kids from that neighborhood don't get to move on to Franklin with like 93% of their classmates.

Agree. Common sense. This was requested during the South Lakes boundary change. It makes sense. I think the issue was that they were taking so many kids away from Westfield and sending them to South Lakes that they didn't want to take any more from Westfield.

Westfield has 2800 students. Please take some!

I think it was the "kind" of student they were taking. This neighborhood is considered "desirable."

[Anonymous]

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the quick.

Thats unfortunate. Ridiculous that kids from that neighborhood don't get to move on to Franklin with like 93% of their classmates.

It could be worse, your kid could go to Crossfield which is a split feeder where kids could go to any one of three different middle schools (Carson, Hughes, Franklin).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

My kids go to Westfield. I don't see how it has a capacity of 3000. The gym is tiny. The cafeteria is tiny. There are trailers being used for classrooms. Regardless, 2000 should be the target HS size. 2600+ is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

WHat does this mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

WHat does this mean?

My comment was not confusing. I meant to say that the proposal had a less affluent Herndon neighborhood switched to South Lakes. The South Lakes PTA stopped that change. On the other hand, there was a more affluent Reston neighborhood proposed to switch from Herndon to South Lakes and the Herndon PTA stopped that.

There was a ton of acrimony during this boundary adjustment. South Lakes benefited to the detriment of Herndon and Westfield. Mainly because of the South Lakes PTA and Stu Gibson. Kathy Smith was also quite involved. She and Stu were a team.
What I really remember was watching the hearings and seeing mostly Asian parents beg for SL to switch to AP. They were ignored.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

WHat does this mean?

My comment was not confusing. I meant to say that the proposal had a less affluent Herndon neighborhood switched to South Lakes. The South Lakes PTA stopped that change. On the other hand, there was a more affluent Reston neighborhood proposed to switch from Herndon to South Lakes and the Herndon PTA stopped that.

There was a ton of acrimony during this boundary adjustment. South Lakes benefited to the detriment of Herndon and Westfield. Mainly because of the South Lakes PTA and Stu Gibson. Kathy Smith was also quite involved. She and Stu were a team.
What I really remember was watching the hearings and seeing mostly Asian parents beg for SL to switch to AP. They were ignored.

PP--meant to say my comment was confusing! Guess I'm especially confused today!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

WHat does this mean?

My comment was not confusing. I meant to say that the proposal had a less affluent Herndon neighborhood switched to South Lakes. The South Lakes PTA stopped that change. On the other hand, there was a more affluent Reston neighborhood proposed to switch from Herndon to South Lakes and the Herndon PTA stopped that.

There was a ton of acrimony during this boundary adjustment. South Lakes benefited to the detriment of Herndon and Westfield. Mainly because of the South Lakes PTA and Stu Gibson. Kathy Smith was also quite involved. She and Stu were a team.
What I really remember was watching the hearings and seeing mostly Asian parents beg for SL to switch to AP. They were ignored.

This is still confusing.

Are you saying Emerald Chase/Bradley Farms (the neighborhood in question that is zoned for Oak Hill, Carson, and Westfield) is not an affluent neighborhood? My best friend lives there, and her house is worth around $850K-$900K. That seems fairly affluent to me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

I don’t recall any kids moved from Herndon to Westfield as part of the 2008 South Lakes redistricting. Kids from Madison, Oakton, and Westfield moved to South Lakes, and kids from Chantilly moved to Oakton.

Also, Oakton was never “depleted.” There was, however, a local School Board member (not Gibson) who was worried its football team would suffer if Oakton lost kids, so he cut a deal with Kathy Smith to move some kids out of Chantilly to Oakton. In retrospect, had those kids not moved to Oakton, Chantilly’s enrollment subsequently would have exceeded 3000 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

WHat does this mean?

My comment was not confusing. I meant to say that the proposal had a less affluent Herndon neighborhood switched to South Lakes. The South Lakes PTA stopped that change. On the other hand, there was a more affluent Reston neighborhood proposed to switch from Herndon to South Lakes and the Herndon PTA stopped that.

There was a ton of acrimony during this boundary adjustment. South Lakes benefited to the detriment of Herndon and Westfield. Mainly because of the South Lakes PTA and Stu Gibson. Kathy Smith was also quite involved. She and Stu were a team.
What I really remember was watching the hearings and seeing mostly Asian parents beg for SL to switch to AP. They were ignored.

This is still confusing.

Are you saying Emerald Chase/Bradley Farms (the neighborhood in question that is zoned for Oak Hill, Carson, and Westfield) is not an affluent neighborhood? My best friend lives there, and her house is worth around $850K-$900K. That seems fairly affluent to me!

There were areas that did not want to move to SL. And there were areas that Herndon did not want to lose. I have no clue if the neighborhhod you are talking about did not want to move. Fox Mill really didn’t want to move from Oakton, I am not sure how that came to be be. I was just talking with a Mom whose kids are in MS and are thinking about moving in boundary for Oakton, they had bought the house in Fox Mill for the ES and the HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

WHat does this mean?

My comment was not confusing. I meant to say that the proposal had a less affluent Herndon neighborhood switched to South Lakes. The South Lakes PTA stopped that change. On the other hand, there was a more affluent Reston neighborhood proposed to switch from Herndon to South Lakes and the Herndon PTA stopped that.

There was a ton of acrimony during this boundary adjustment. South Lakes benefited to the detriment of Herndon and Westfield. Mainly because of the South Lakes PTA and Stu Gibson. Kathy Smith was also quite involved. She and Stu were a team.
What I really remember was watching the hearings and seeing mostly Asian parents beg for SL to switch to AP. They were ignored.

Herndon ultimately wasn’t affected at all by the 2008 boundary changes, except to the extent they made South Lakes more attractive. Its boundaries didn’t change, and in 2011 Janie Strauss boasted when campaigning that she’d kept both Herndon and Langley out of the redistricting.

Herndon changed a lot over the next 15 years, but it was due to demographic changes within its existing boundaries. It’s not like at Annandale, where the School Board ended up concentrating poverty at the school through a series of incremental boundary changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

My kids go to Westfield. I don't see how it has a capacity of 3000. The gym is tiny. The cafeteria is tiny. There are trailers being used for classrooms. Regardless, 2000 should be the target HS size. 2600+ is absurd.

If you think the Westfield gym is tiny, there are a lot of FCPS high schools you haven’t visited. It may not be as big as Robinson or Fairfax, but it’s larger than most.