Where should the county move the Kent Gardens kids?

[Anonymous]

Looks like Franklin Sherman will be seeing a lot of changes. Most of the options send a bunch of kids to Churchill and Chesterbrook, then replace them with even more kids from Kent Gardens. It all came conceptually makes sense given all the school enrollments, but has a broader reach than I originally expected.

[Anonymous]

While I thought some of the options were just for show (see what a silly alternative might look like) overall I felt the materials were well done and informative and appreciate the work and thought that went into them by FCPS staff, starting with Chuck Fanshaw.

[Anonymous]

I’m a Churchill parent. It looks like Franklin Sherman will be sending students to Churchill and FS will take the most kids from Kent Gardens in all the likely scenarios.

[Anonymous]

I’m glad it’s finally getting addressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a Churchill parent. It looks like Franklin Sherman will be sending students to Churchill and FS will take the most kids from Kent Gardens in all the likely scenarios.

I think you can look at the options and discern the following will almost certainly happen:

The Franklin Sherman kids who go to Cooper/Langley will move to Churchill Road.

Another large chunk of Franklin Sherman kids will move to Chesterbrook - and it seems clear which neighborhoods FCPS has in mind.

The Kent Gardens kids who live south of Kirby will move to Haycock.

The main issues really open are how many Kent Gardens kids move to Franklin Sherman and how liberal the grandfathering might be with respect to phasing in the boundary changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should also get rid of immersion, move that to a lower ses school that has capacity. Too many people are using it as a reason to attend a McLean school when they are zoned for a bad school

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I think they should move French Immersion to Dunn Loring when it opens. It's close enough that it won't add much commuting time for families.


It looks like 4 of the 16 language immersion programs are school based placement already, so it is something that can be done.

Or close it to non-Kent Gardens families. It makes sense if the school is at capacity or over capacity to change the placement. I know that at least 1/3 of the kids in my sons language immersion program are from outside the boundary. If the school were at capacity I can see the benefit to limiting outside placement into the program.

Maybe they could keep French immersion at KG for in-boundary families and open a second program at Dunn Loring for families elsewhere in the county.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should also get rid of immersion, move that to a lower ses school that has capacity. Too many people are using it as a reason to attend a McLean school when they are zoned for a bad school

+1

Are students coming to KG from outside of McLean???

I’m surprised they are allowing this at a school that is at overcapacity at 121%!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


+1


Are students coming to KG from outside of McLean???

I’m surprised they are allowing this at a school that is at overcapacity at 121%!

Yes, French Immersion students (if you live anywhere in Fairfax County you are eligible, yet have to provide your own transportation) outside of the KG boundaries are part of the Kent Gardens community. The FI program was established at KG because way back then, the school was under enrolled. No more. As you can see, it's now way over capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


+1


Are students coming to KG from outside of McLean???

I’m surprised they are allowing this at a school that is at overcapacity at 121%!

Yes, French Immersion students (if you live anywhere in Fairfax County you are eligible, yet have to provide your own transportation) outside of the KG boundaries are part of the Kent Gardens community. The FI program was established at KG because way back then, the school was under enrolled. No more. As you can see, it's now way over capacity.

The OOB parents also speed through the neighborhood and make arrival and dismissal from an already overcrowded school ten times worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


+1


Are students coming to KG from outside of McLean???

I’m surprised they are allowing this at a school that is at overcapacity at 121%!

Yes, French Immersion students (if you live anywhere in Fairfax County you are eligible, yet have to provide your own transportation) outside of the KG boundaries are part of the Kent Gardens community. The FI program was established at KG because way back then, the school was under enrolled. No more. As you can see, it's now way over capacity.

The OOB parents also speed through the neighborhood and make arrival and dismissal from an already overcrowded school ten times worse.

[Anonymous]

Westgate and Lemon Road are both below capacity, border the current Kent Gardens district, and send some kids to McLean HS. Why aren’t we considering sending some kids to those schools instead of moving so many kids out of Franklin Sherman to make space for the KG students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Westgate and Lemon Road are both below capacity, border the current Kent Gardens district, and send some kids to McLean HS. Why aren’t we considering sending some kids to those schools instead of moving so many kids out of Franklin Sherman to make space for the KG students?

How many kids are really being moved out of Franklin Sherman? The obvious group would be the kids who go to Cooper/Langley. This is 3-4 students per grade. So a total of about 25 students. It actually makes sense to move them to Churchill Road. Who else will be moved out of FS?

[Anonymous]

They were very clear about not impacting HS and middle school boundaries. Why? McLean HS is also over crowded and something will need to be done within the next couple of years. When that happens, we’ll be looking at some of these same neighborhoods to realign to other high schools. Why not make some changes now that will help both KG and MHS, instead of putting some of these same kids through another round of changes in a couple of years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How many kids are really being moved out of Franklin Sherman? The obvious group would be the kids who go to Cooper/Langley. This is 3-4 students per grade. So a total of about 25 students. It actually makes sense to move them to Churchill Road. Who else will be moved out of FS?

Most scenarios move about 150 kids out of FS to make room for 200 KG kids to move in. Most of the FS kids would be moved to Chesterbrook and the smaller group you mentioned would go to Churchill.