Why is the McLean high pyramid over crowded with crappy buildings and teachers but pays high tax

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Complete rebuilds save a lot of money over a complex, phased renovation. But where would the McLean kids all go in the interim? There are no more vacant, abandoned high schools to use. FCPS demolished the decrepit, abandoned Falls Church HS (on cherry street) to sell to a developer of luxury town homes twenty years ago. I suppose they could build a brand new new school on McLean’s football field while classes continue in the old one. The school could then share the field at Langley during construction. Or maybe pay Arlington Parks Dept to use the Greenbrier Stadium adjacent to nearby Yorktown HS.

I completely agree that FCPS has done terribly with stewarding their land resources. Having extra land would allow them the chance to raze and rebuild, but they seem to have frittered away all those opportunities by continuing to close down schools and then sell them off. The county does own the land across from the track, they will need to use that. So much for green space.

I thought FPCS was precluded by environmental reasons from ever encroaching upon the parcel owned by the park authority.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Your argument would have a point if McLean was the only one being ostracized. There are plenty of other pyramids that haven't had a renovation recently and are arguably in a worse state overall accounting for other factors like Lewis, Annandale, Westfield, Mt. Vernon. They would like to receive consideration too. Is it the kids' fault they're poor and their parents don't pay as much tax?
This isn't really about the wealthy being punished. Oakton, West Springfield, and Langley have been given the luxury treatment despite their high SES. It's bias by the school board that allows this to happen.

You’ll have to elaborate on what you mean by “worse shape overall accounting for other factors.” Chantilly and McLean are clearly the two most overcrowded schools for which FCPS has not developed any good facilities plan, and Justice and Madison both got additions outside the queue in recent years even though both are newer than McLean and less crowded than both Chantilly and McLean.

Are you suggesting FCPS should not address the facilities needs of certain schools unless their test scores are among the lowest in the county? If so, that’s a guaranteed race to the bottom.

So, you’re ok moving kids from McLean to Justice then? Didn’t think so. My guess is SB added onto Justice because it was overcrowded and they knew it would unpopular to move Justice kids elsewhere, just like it would go over like a lead balloon to move McLean kids to Justice.

Wait, so you’re saying they expanded Justice to contain the students there, like it’s some kind of penal colony?

The excuses for poor planning and disparate treatment in FCPS just keep getting weirder.

Whoa. This is a good question.

If McLean is sooooo decrepit, maybe it should be knocked down entirely and rebuilt while it’s feeder students are temporarily accommodated elsewhere. Or … While a new site can sought elsewhere to put a little more separation from Langley (they are very close). Maybe it could go in the heart of Tysons.

Langley and McLean are not as close to each other as Oakton and Madison. Oakton and Langley have both been expanded and renovated and Madison just got an addition. McLean needed an addition more than Madison did. Jeff Platenberg was just a very poor planner.

They do have a site for an urban elementary school in Tysons. It will be great if that school gets built. They’ve identified no such site for a high or secondary school.

The renovated and expanded Oakton HS is beautiful. It has one of those amphitheater style terraced seating areas for informal learning and socializing that FCPS is constructing in the remodeled high schools. The new main entrance is iconic and welcoming. Same with the new Madison entry and library that has lots of glazing to let light in. I can’t wait to see what Falls Church will look like when completed.

I like the present location of McLean HS since it is highly walkable to the surrounding neighborhood. It would be ideal if FCPS renovates it or completely rebuilds it on its current site. Hopefully we don’t have to wait twenty years. Fingers crossed.

Renovation (ie expansion) would be a huge waste of money. Knock it down (temporarily rehouse students in nearby schools) or build a new building elsewhere.

Complete rebuilds save a lot of money over a complex, phased renovation. But where would the McLean kids all go in the interim? There are no more vacant, abandoned high schools to use. FCPS demolished the decrepit, abandoned Falls Church HS (on cherry street) to sell to a developer of luxury town homes twenty years ago. I suppose they could build a brand new new school on McLean’s football field while classes continue in the old one. The school could then share the field at Langley during construction. Or maybe pay Arlington Parks Dept to use the Greenbrier Stadium adjacent to nearby Yorktown HS.

Doesn’t Tysons have some vacant office buildings? They already use an office building for part of an elementary school in 7 Corners. I would think with cube land office buildings, it would be a fairly easy set up.

[Anonymous]

They could always do split shifts at Langley. The McLean kids could go there is the morning and the Langley kids in the afternoon, and then they could switch the order the next semester, while a new McLean HS is built.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Complete rebuilds save a lot of money over a complex, phased renovation. But where would the McLean kids all go in the interim? There are no more vacant, abandoned high schools to use. FCPS demolished the decrepit, abandoned Falls Church HS (on cherry street) to sell to a developer of luxury town homes twenty years ago. I suppose they could build a brand new new school on McLean’s football field while classes continue in the old one. The school could then share the field at Langley during construction. Or maybe pay Arlington Parks Dept to use the Greenbrier Stadium adjacent to nearby Yorktown HS.

I completely agree that FCPS has done terribly with stewarding their land resources. Having extra land would allow them the chance to raze and rebuild, but they seem to have frittered away all those opportunities by continuing to close down schools and then sell them off. The county does own the land across from the track, they will need to use that. So much for green space.

I thought FPCS was precluded by environmental reasons from ever encroaching upon the parcel owned by the park authority.

Honestly I have no idea!

[Anonymous]

No need to buy expensive land in Tysons for a high school and the adjacent fields it would need for sports. They can build the new McLean HS on the football field and parking lot in an L shape, and three stories tall where the football field is since there isn’t a lot of space to spread out. The football field is at a lower elevation so three stories should work there.

Students would continue to use the old building for classes during construction. It should take two years. Student parking would be limited during this period.

FCPS would work with FCPS, APS and FCCPS for sharing athletic fields during construction.

Once the new building is complete a new football stadium with concessions building and bathrooms would be built on the site of the old school.

Total project timeline would be three years.

(Unfortunately the McLean Woods appear to be off limits due to Chesapeake watershed or similar concerns.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They could always do split shifts at Langley. The McLean kids could go there is the morning and the Langley kids in the afternoon, and then they could switch the order the next semester, while a new McLean HS is built.

That’s a great suggestion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No need to buy expensive land in Tysons for a high school and the adjacent fields it would need for sports. They can build the new McLean HS on the football field and parking lot in an L shape, and three stories tall where the football field is since there isn’t a lot of space to spread out. The football field is at a lower elevation so three stories should work there.

Students would continue to use the old building for classes during construction. It should take two years. Student parking would be limited during this period.

FCPS would work with FCPS, APS and FCCPS for sharing athletic fields during construction.

Once the new building is complete a new football stadium with concessions building and bathrooms would be built on the site of the old school.

Total project timeline would be three years.

(Unfortunately the McLean Woods appear to be off limits due to Chesapeake watershed or similar concerns.)

I don’t think there is enough room between the football field, tennis courts and the student parking lot. Looking at the current footprint and the footprint you would need there, three stories would not be enough. The gyms and auditorium would need their own space and the classrooms are already currently two stories. The space is less than the current footprint. I would think three stores would barely give you what is already there - not counting the additional modular classrooms - so they would need another floor and you still end up with a HS that can hold the same number of students it currently has.

Maybe they could swap the McLean woods with another parcel for the watershed concerns. Then there would be more room to do it.

[Anonymous]

There's a bigger footprint available for new construction on the south side of Clearview Dr covering the 3 base/softball fields and the field that extends to Westmoreland, including the modular (which could be moved to the tennis courts during construction). Then once done can redo all the athletic fields on the site of the current school/track/tennis.

The biggest challenge would likely be from homeowners whose property abuts those south-of-Clearview fields who would now abut school buildings instead, but seems doable. Things like auditorium/theater/arts wing could be at the far eastern part (near Westmoreland) to keep core classrooms and facilities all concentrated on the current base/softball fields. That eastern wing could also be partially dug into the ground to keep building heights lower/reasonable in that more residential section.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are literal rats at McLean HS, some even in classrooms

Is it bc kids are leaving messes? That IG is showing banana peels where they shouldn’t be. Tampons in toilets, which they shouldn’t be… A chair in a toilet, which it shouldn’t be.

Why build a new school if those students are not taking care of the current one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are literal rats at McLean HS, some even in classrooms

Is it bc kids are leaving messes? That IG is showing banana peels where they shouldn’t be. Tampons in toilets, which they shouldn’t be… A chair in a toilet, which it shouldn’t be.

Why build a new school if those students are not taking care of the current one?

It’s a particular account intended to graphically underscore the poor conditions. And those conditions are more the result of FCPS neglect than student mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a bigger footprint available for new construction on the south side of Clearview Dr covering the 3 base/softball fields and the field that extends to Westmoreland, including the modular (which could be moved to the tennis courts during construction). Then once done can redo all the athletic fields on the site of the current school/track/tennis.

The biggest challenge would likely be from homeowners whose property abuts those south-of-Clearview fields who would now abut school buildings instead, but seems doable. Things like auditorium/theater/arts wing could be at the far eastern part (near Westmoreland) to keep core classrooms and facilities all concentrated on the current base/softball fields. That eastern wing could also be partially dug into the ground to keep building heights lower/reasonable in that more residential section.

Another option is to build the core academic spaces, aux gym, library and cafeteria in the fields. Then tear down the old school and build the auditorium, large gym and new athletic fields on the old school’s footprint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No need to buy expensive land in Tysons for a high school and the adjacent fields it would need for sports. They can build the new McLean HS on the football field and parking lot in an L shape, and three stories tall where the football field is since there isn’t a lot of space to spread out. The football field is at a lower elevation so three stories should work there.

Students would continue to use the old building for classes during construction. It should take two years. Student parking would be limited during this period.

FCPS would work with FCPS, APS and FCCPS for sharing athletic fields during construction.

Once the new building is complete a new football stadium with concessions building and bathrooms would be built on the site of the old school.

Total project timeline would be three years.

(Unfortunately the McLean Woods appear to be off limits due to Chesapeake watershed or similar concerns.)

as usual the environment and DEI equity is more important than children if they are so called monetary privileged, imagine if you paid first class ticket for spirit air coach this is everything wrong about our left leaning area, no benefit to anyone, it makes me want to go to a left-leaning private school

[Anonymous]

There are a number of FCPS high schools built in the 1950s: Annandale, McLean, Lewis, Madison, and Justice.

All of these schools received renovations in the early 2000s that were less extensive than later renovations in more recent years of high schools built in the 1960s or later.

Madison got, and Justice is now getting, an addition but not a full renovation. Of the five schools, McLean is certainly the most overcrowded. I can see the logic for building an addition to McLean ASAP, but the various scenarios to tear down and rebuild McLean from scratch seem like a pie-in-the-sky exercise.

Granted, if FCPS eventually decides the new western HS isn’t getting built, that will free up a lot of money in the future, but it’s hard to see the School Board agreeing to build a brand-new McLean, but not a brand-new Annandale, Lewis, Madison, or Justice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a number of FCPS high schools built in the 1950s: Annandale, McLean, Lewis, Madison, and Justice.

All of these schools received renovations in the early 2000s that were less extensive than later renovations in more recent years of high schools built in the 1960s or later.

Madison got, and Justice is now getting, an addition but not a full renovation. Of the five schools, McLean is certainly the most overcrowded. I can see the logic for building an addition to McLean ASAP, but the various scenarios to tear down and rebuild McLean from scratch seem like a pie-in-the-sky exercise.

Granted, if FCPS eventually decides the new western HS isn’t getting built, that will free up a lot of money in the future, but it’s hard to see the School Board agreeing to build a brand-new McLean, but not a brand-new Annandale, Lewis, Madison, or Justice.

Fair point. But new builds are always cheaper than complex renovations which is why MCPS and most districts tear down and rebuild. A competent facilities chief would try to get the most bang for the buck.

Didn’t Justice get a new library in the 00s? It looks attractive from the outside. And they plastered the new wolf logo on the outside facade (like those bus advert wrappers). But areas for outdoor learning and socializing are limited. There’s no substantial lawn with shade trees, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently the new FCHS won’t be as nice as they are having to cut back the scale because of rising costs. I really hope they can find a way to stick to the original plan since the facilities have been sub-par for so long.

Oh no, I hope that's not true! I knew there were some cost concerns due to inflation but hadn't heard they were being forced to cut back. Was there recently for an event and couldn't believe how awful the facilities were.