Lee HS Enrollment Falls Below 1700

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Historical perspective. I started at Lee in 1984. That year they had redistricted several West Springfield neighborhoods over to Lee. They did not grandfather siblings. There was not a big stink because back then the two High Schools were equivalents. We had 98% of graduates in my class go on to 4 year colleges. It was very competitive. Lee also had several State Championship sports teams---particularly dominated boys and girls HS soccer in VA throughout the 80s.

So what happened? Did they pull out some of the WS neighborhoods that were brought in? Did they redistrict other neighborhoods? Did Demographics drastically change? Demographics were about 20% Vietnamese (area directly surrounding Lee) and the rest Caucasian when I attended.

Demographics. Crime. Did you hear about the kidnapping/murder at the mall? They've fixed the mall, but it took years.

Boy, you are reaching back like 15-20 years! There was a kidnapping. I don't remember a murder. I think you are trying to make things worse than they are.

And can we just stop with the real estate arguments. Of course West Springfield is more desired than Lee (as a school). And by extension, West Springfield homes are more desirable (and yes, it costs more) than homes in the Lee pyramid. There is no legitimate argument to the contrary. The whole thrust of this thread is that no one will be zoned for Lee if the IB magnet plan takes hold. Those who are currently home owners in Lee pyrmaid, get a windfall by getting rezoned to WSHS or Hayfield or South County... .not so much for a rezone to Annandale. Sounds like the factors bringing Lee down were in play prior to the change in testing rules/ESOL/alternative programs -- but those changes are pushing it further into failing territory.

Maybe now is a good time to buy in Lee pyramid (closest to WSHS)! Make some $$.

A cold turkey switch to an IB magnet is a horrible plan.

There is simply not enough interest or demand for IB to fill a 2200 seat high school.

The rezoning that would need to be done to support this would be significant, resulting in around 20 elementary schools or more needing to be rezoned, along with overcrowding in all the receiving high schools.

Lee would not even be at half capacity if it were solely IB.

The logical path would be to close IB at those other area high schools, and create a school within a school for IB with Lee being the only option for that part of the county. This might just barely fill the current space available at Lee.

Then, if Interest grows over the next 4 years, gradually rezone one elementary at a time out of Lee, or just rezone neighborhoods from around its perimeter to minimize mass rezoning.

Going cold turkey on such an unpopular program as IB and expecting 500 kids per grade to magically want to switch to IB overnight is doubling down on poor planning.

This is sensible. From the insider, doesn't sound like there's much sense at Gatehouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:West springfield doesn't have apartment complexes- Lee does. It really comes down to that. The kids at WSHS have been there for years through the system the kids at Lee may be new immigrants. Housing prices are the same, but there are many more low income apartments going to Lee

That’s really not right, or at least it doesn’t fully explain what’s going on. Look at Saratoga - only one apartment complex of which I’m aware, which is pretty small and doesn’t have a lot of families, yet the school has terrible test scores, is Title 1, and facing accreditation problems. And, no, housing prices are not the same. Find two near identical homes - one south of the FFX County Parkway zoned for Saratoga and one north of the Fairfax County Parkway zoned for West Springfield ES or Hunt Valley ES and you’ll see at least a $50k difference in price (probably more).

Not sure about this community, but is this neighborhood zoned for Lee? If the high school and middle school get fixed and there is some investment in infrastructure, my guess is that eventually this neighborhood will improve.

I don't know if Saratoga will improve by much even with rezoning.

One of the biggest drawbacks for Saratoga is that it sits in the middle of an industrial park.

That problem will still be there even with rezoning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:West springfield doesn't have apartment complexes- Lee does. It really comes down to that. The kids at WSHS have been there for years through the system the kids at Lee may be new immigrants. Housing prices are the same, but there are many more low income apartments going to Lee

That’s really not right, or at least it doesn’t fully explain what’s going on. Look at Saratoga - only one apartment complex of which I’m aware, which is pretty small and doesn’t have a lot of families, yet the school has terrible test scores, is Title 1, and facing accreditation problems. And, no, housing prices are not the same. Find two near identical homes - one south of the FFX County Parkway zoned for Saratoga and one north of the Fairfax County Parkway zoned for West Springfield ES or Hunt Valley ES and you’ll see at least a $50k difference in price (probably more).

Not sure about this community, but is this neighborhood zoned for Lee? If the high school and middle school get fixed and there is some investment in infrastructure, my guess is that eventually this neighborhood will improve.

The middle school doesn't need fixing, and the infrastructure is fine. Unless you're referring to something else besides school facilities?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Historical perspective. I started at Lee in 1984. That year they had redistricted several West Springfield neighborhoods over to Lee. They did not grandfather siblings. There was not a big stink because back then the two High Schools were equivalents. We had 98% of graduates in my class go on to 4 year colleges. It was very competitive. Lee also had several State Championship sports teams---particularly dominated boys and girls HS soccer in VA throughout the 80s.

So what happened? Did they pull out some of the WS neighborhoods that were brought in? Did they redistrict other neighborhoods? Did Demographics drastically change? Demographics were about 20% Vietnamese (area directly surrounding Lee) and the rest Caucasian when I attended.

Demographics. Crime. Did you hear about the kidnapping/murder at the mall? They've fixed the mall, but it took years.

Boy, you are reaching back like 15-20 years! There was a kidnapping. I don't remember a murder. I think you are trying to make things worse than they are.

And can we just stop with the real estate arguments. Of course West Springfield is more desired than Lee (as a school). And by extension, West Springfield homes are more desirable (and yes, it costs more) than homes in the Lee pyramid. There is no legitimate argument to the contrary. The whole thrust of this thread is that no one will be zoned for Lee if the IB magnet plan takes hold. Those who are currently home owners in Lee pyrmaid, get a windfall by getting rezoned to WSHS or Hayfield or South County... .not so much for a rezone to Annandale. Sounds like the factors bringing Lee down were in play prior to the change in testing rules/ESOL/alternative programs -- but those changes are pushing it further into failing territory.

Maybe now is a good time to buy in Lee pyramid (closest to WSHS)! Make some $$.

A cold turkey switch to an IB magnet is a horrible plan.

There is simply not enough interest or demand for IB to fill a 2200 seat high school.

The rezoning that would need to be done to support this would be significant, resulting in around 20 elementary schools or more needing to be rezoned, along with overcrowding in all the receiving high schools.

Lee would not even be at half capacity if it were solely IB.

The logical path would be to close IB at those other area high schools, and create a school within a school for IB with Lee being the only option for that part of the county. This might just barely fill the current space available at Lee.

Then, if Interest grows over the next 4 years, gradually rezone one elementary at a time out of Lee, or just rezone neighborhoods from around its perimeter to minimize mass rezoning.

Going cold turkey on such an unpopular program as IB and expecting 500 kids per grade to magically want to switch to IB overnight is doubling down on poor planning.

Insider here. I've seen the enrollments and projections. We also followed the previous county that did this decommission and re-opening of an IB magnate. It's going to be more than full if it opens. Each feeder is allocated 70 seats per class, I believe in the preliminary modeling presentation I went to.

One of the interesting things was the survey data from the county that did this. Families who had previously refused or avoided the IB program (because it was used in local, poorer high school -- a school within a school model) flocked to the center because it was uniformly high performing, academically homogeneous, and had a college bound cohort. Suddenly IB was in high demand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Historical perspective. I started at Lee in 1984. That year they had redistricted several West Springfield neighborhoods over to Lee. They did not grandfather siblings. There was not a big stink because back then the two High Schools were equivalents. We had 98% of graduates in my class go on to 4 year colleges. It was very competitive. Lee also had several State Championship sports teams---particularly dominated boys and girls HS soccer in VA throughout the 80s.

So what happened? Did they pull out some of the WS neighborhoods that were brought in? Did they redistrict other neighborhoods? Did Demographics drastically change? Demographics were about 20% Vietnamese (area directly surrounding Lee) and the rest Caucasian when I attended.

Demographics. Crime. Did you hear about the kidnapping/murder at the mall? They've fixed the mall, but it took years.

Boy, you are reaching back like 15-20 years! There was a kidnapping. I don't remember a murder. I think you are trying to make things worse than they are.

And can we just stop with the real estate arguments. Of course West Springfield is more desired than Lee (as a school). And by extension, West Springfield homes are more desirable (and yes, it costs more) than homes in the Lee pyramid. There is no legitimate argument to the contrary. The whole thrust of this thread is that no one will be zoned for Lee if the IB magnet plan takes hold. Those who are currently home owners in Lee pyrmaid, get a windfall by getting rezoned to WSHS or Hayfield or South County... .not so much for a rezone to Annandale. Sounds like the factors bringing Lee down were in play prior to the change in testing rules/ESOL/alternative programs -- but those changes are pushing it further into failing territory.

Maybe now is a good time to buy in Lee pyramid (closest to WSHS)! Make some $$.

A cold turkey switch to an IB magnet is a horrible plan.

There is simply not enough interest or demand for IB to fill a 2200 seat high school.

The rezoning that would need to be done to support this would be significant, resulting in around 20 elementary schools or more needing to be rezoned, along with overcrowding in all the receiving high schools.

Lee would not even be at half capacity if it were solely IB.

The logical path would be to close IB at those other area high schools, and create a school within a school for IB with Lee being the only option for that part of the county. This might just barely fill the current space available at Lee.

Then, if Interest grows over the next 4 years, gradually rezone one elementary at a time out of Lee, or just rezone neighborhoods from around its perimeter to minimize mass rezoning.

Going cold turkey on such an unpopular program as IB and expecting 500 kids per grade to magically want to switch to IB overnight is doubling down on poor planning.

So instead of having one IB school because we don't have enough interests, we should keep Annandale, Edison, Mount Vernon, Stuart, and Lee? And maybe expand because IB is more similar to Portrait of a Graduate? I'm not following.

Close IB at all of those schools except for Lee and transfer the full IB diploma kids to Lee.

There are not enough kids interested in IB anywhere in fcps, but especially not that part of the county to fill an entire high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Historical perspective. I started at Lee in 1984. That year they had redistricted several West Springfield neighborhoods over to Lee. They did not grandfather siblings. There was not a big stink because back then the two High Schools were equivalents. We had 98% of graduates in my class go on to 4 year colleges. It was very competitive. Lee also had several State Championship sports teams---particularly dominated boys and girls HS soccer in VA throughout the 80s.

So what happened? Did they pull out some of the WS neighborhoods that were brought in? Did they redistrict other neighborhoods? Did Demographics drastically change? Demographics were about 20% Vietnamese (area directly surrounding Lee) and the rest Caucasian when I attended.

Demographics. Crime. Did you hear about the kidnapping/murder at the mall? They've fixed the mall, but it took years.

Boy, you are reaching back like 15-20 years! There was a kidnapping. I don't remember a murder. I think you are trying to make things worse than they are.

And can we just stop with the real estate arguments. Of course West Springfield is more desired than Lee (as a school). And by extension, West Springfield homes are more desirable (and yes, it costs more) than homes in the Lee pyramid. There is no legitimate argument to the contrary. The whole thrust of this thread is that no one will be zoned for Lee if the IB magnet plan takes hold. Those who are currently home owners in Lee pyrmaid, get a windfall by getting rezoned to WSHS or Hayfield or South County... .not so much for a rezone to Annandale. Sounds like the factors bringing Lee down were in play prior to the change in testing rules/ESOL/alternative programs -- but those changes are pushing it further into failing territory.

Maybe now is a good time to buy in Lee pyramid (closest to WSHS)! Make some $$.

A cold turkey switch to an IB magnet is a horrible plan.

There is simply not enough interest or demand for IB to fill a 2200 seat high school.

The rezoning that would need to be done to support this would be significant, resulting in around 20 elementary schools or more needing to be rezoned, along with overcrowding in all the receiving high schools.

Lee would not even be at half capacity if it were solely IB.

The logical path would be to close IB at those other area high schools, and create a school within a school for IB with Lee being the only option for that part of the county. This might just barely fill the current space available at Lee.

Then, if Interest grows over the next 4 years, gradually rezone one elementary at a time out of Lee, or just rezone neighborhoods from around its perimeter to minimize mass rezoning.

Going cold turkey on such an unpopular program as IB and expecting 500 kids per grade to magically want to switch to IB overnight is doubling down on poor planning.

Insider here. I've seen the enrollments and projections. We also followed the previous county that did this decommission and re-opening of an IB magnate. It's going to be more than full if it opens. Each feeder is allocated 70 seats per class, I believe in the preliminary modeling presentation I went to.

One of the interesting things was the survey data from the county that did this. Families who had previously refused or avoided the IB program (because it was used in local, poorer high school -- a school within a school model) flocked to the center because it was uniformly high performing, academically homogeneous, and had a college bound cohort. Suddenly IB was in high demand.

That is a pipe dream

If this projection were true then Robinson and the other IB schools in the county would be overrun with families trying to pupil place for IB and would be churning out huge amounts of IB diplomas.

That is simply not the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Historical perspective. I started at Lee in 1984. That year they had redistricted several West Springfield neighborhoods over to Lee. They did not grandfather siblings. There was not a big stink because back then the two High Schools were equivalents. We had 98% of graduates in my class go on to 4 year colleges. It was very competitive. Lee also had several State Championship sports teams---particularly dominated boys and girls HS soccer in VA throughout the 80s.

So what happened? Did they pull out some of the WS neighborhoods that were brought in? Did they redistrict other neighborhoods? Did Demographics drastically change? Demographics were about 20% Vietnamese (area directly surrounding Lee) and the rest Caucasian when I attended.

Demographics. Crime. Did you hear about the kidnapping/murder at the mall? They've fixed the mall, but it took years.

Boy, you are reaching back like 15-20 years! There was a kidnapping. I don't remember a murder. I think you are trying to make things worse than they are.

And can we just stop with the real estate arguments. Of course West Springfield is more desired than Lee (as a school). And by extension, West Springfield homes are more desirable (and yes, it costs more) than homes in the Lee pyramid. There is no legitimate argument to the contrary. The whole thrust of this thread is that no one will be zoned for Lee if the IB magnet plan takes hold. Those who are currently home owners in Lee pyrmaid, get a windfall by getting rezoned to WSHS or Hayfield or South County... .not so much for a rezone to Annandale. Sounds like the factors bringing Lee down were in play prior to the change in testing rules/ESOL/alternative programs -- but those changes are pushing it further into failing territory.

Maybe now is a good time to buy in Lee pyramid (closest to WSHS)! Make some $$.

A cold turkey switch to an IB magnet is a horrible plan.

There is simply not enough interest or demand for IB to fill a 2200 seat high school.

The rezoning that would need to be done to support this would be significant, resulting in around 20 elementary schools or more needing to be rezoned, along with overcrowding in all the receiving high schools.

Lee would not even be at half capacity if it were solely IB.

The logical path would be to close IB at those other area high schools, and create a school within a school for IB with Lee being the only option for that part of the county. This might just barely fill the current space available at Lee.

Then, if Interest grows over the next 4 years, gradually rezone one elementary at a time out of Lee, or just rezone neighborhoods from around its perimeter to minimize mass rezoning.

Going cold turkey on such an unpopular program as IB and expecting 500 kids per grade to magically want to switch to IB overnight is doubling down on poor planning.

Insider here. I've seen the enrollments and projections. We also followed the previous county that did this decommission and re-opening of an IB magnate. It's going to be more than full if it opens. Each feeder is allocated 70 seats per class, I believe in the preliminary modeling presentation I went to.

One of the interesting things was the survey data from the county that did this. Families who had previously refused or avoided the IB program (because it was used in local, poorer high school -- a school within a school model) flocked to the center because it was uniformly high performing, academically homogeneous, and had a college bound cohort. Suddenly IB was in high demand.

That is not happening at Marshall or Robinson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Historical perspective. I started at Lee in 1984. That year they had redistricted several West Springfield neighborhoods over to Lee. They did not grandfather siblings. There was not a big stink because back then the two High Schools were equivalents. We had 98% of graduates in my class go on to 4 year colleges. It was very competitive. Lee also had several State Championship sports teams---particularly dominated boys and girls HS soccer in VA throughout the 80s.

So what happened? Did they pull out some of the WS neighborhoods that were brought in? Did they redistrict other neighborhoods? Did Demographics drastically change? Demographics were about 20% Vietnamese (area directly surrounding Lee) and the rest Caucasian when I attended.

Demographics. Crime. Did you hear about the kidnapping/murder at the mall? They've fixed the mall, but it took years.

Boy, you are reaching back like 15-20 years! There was a kidnapping. I don't remember a murder. I think you are trying to make things worse than they are.

And can we just stop with the real estate arguments. Of course West Springfield is more desired than Lee (as a school). And by extension, West Springfield homes are more desirable (and yes, it costs more) than homes in the Lee pyramid. There is no legitimate argument to the contrary. The whole thrust of this thread is that no one will be zoned for Lee if the IB magnet plan takes hold. Those who are currently home owners in Lee pyrmaid, get a windfall by getting rezoned to WSHS or Hayfield or South County... .not so much for a rezone to Annandale. Sounds like the factors bringing Lee down were in play prior to the change in testing rules/ESOL/alternative programs -- but those changes are pushing it further into failing territory.

Maybe now is a good time to buy in Lee pyramid (closest to WSHS)! Make some $$.

A cold turkey switch to an IB magnet is a horrible plan.

There is simply not enough interest or demand for IB to fill a 2200 seat high school.

The rezoning that would need to be done to support this would be significant, resulting in around 20 elementary schools or more needing to be rezoned, along with overcrowding in all the receiving high schools.

Lee would not even be at half capacity if it were solely IB.

The logical path would be to close IB at those other area high schools, and create a school within a school for IB with Lee being the only option for that part of the county. This might just barely fill the current space available at Lee.

Then, if Interest grows over the next 4 years, gradually rezone one elementary at a time out of Lee, or just rezone neighborhoods from around its perimeter to minimize mass rezoning.

Going cold turkey on such an unpopular program as IB and expecting 500 kids per grade to magically want to switch to IB overnight is doubling down on poor planning.

Insider here. I've seen the enrollments and projections. We also followed the previous county that did this decommission and re-opening of an IB magnate. It's going to be more than full if it opens. Each feeder is allocated 70 seats per class, I believe in the preliminary modeling presentation I went to.

One of the interesting things was the survey data from the county that did this. Families who had previously refused or avoided the IB program (because it was used in local, poorer high school -- a school within a school model) flocked to the center because it was uniformly high performing, academically homogeneous, and had a college bound cohort. Suddenly IB was in high demand.

That is not happening at Marshall or Robinson.

That's because the base schools around them are high achieving. A IB Center school that essentially excluded students who were not seriously pursuing a diploma is a different story. I'd probably try to get my kid in and we are in Hayfield, fwiw. It's another chance for parents to put their kids with a college bound cohort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Historical perspective. I started at Lee in 1984. That year they had redistricted several West Springfield neighborhoods over to Lee. They did not grandfather siblings. There was not a big stink because back then the two High Schools were equivalents. We had 98% of graduates in my class go on to 4 year colleges. It was very competitive. Lee also had several State Championship sports teams---particularly dominated boys and girls HS soccer in VA throughout the 80s.

So what happened? Did they pull out some of the WS neighborhoods that were brought in? Did they redistrict other neighborhoods? Did Demographics drastically change? Demographics were about 20% Vietnamese (area directly surrounding Lee) and the rest Caucasian when I attended.

Demographics. Crime. Did you hear about the kidnapping/murder at the mall? They've fixed the mall, but it took years.

Boy, you are reaching back like 15-20 years! There was a kidnapping. I don't remember a murder. I think you are trying to make things worse than they are.

And can we just stop with the real estate arguments. Of course West Springfield is more desired than Lee (as a school). And by extension, West Springfield homes are more desirable (and yes, it costs more) than homes in the Lee pyramid. There is no legitimate argument to the contrary. The whole thrust of this thread is that no one will be zoned for Lee if the IB magnet plan takes hold. Those who are currently home owners in Lee pyrmaid, get a windfall by getting rezoned to WSHS or Hayfield or South County... .not so much for a rezone to Annandale. Sounds like the factors bringing Lee down were in play prior to the change in testing rules/ESOL/alternative programs -- but those changes are pushing it further into failing territory.

Maybe now is a good time to buy in Lee pyramid (closest to WSHS)! Make some $$.

A cold turkey switch to an IB magnet is a horrible plan.

There is simply not enough interest or demand for IB to fill a 2200 seat high school.

The rezoning that would need to be done to support this would be significant, resulting in around 20 elementary schools or more needing to be rezoned, along with overcrowding in all the receiving high schools.

Lee would not even be at half capacity if it were solely IB.

The logical path would be to close IB at those other area high schools, and create a school within a school for IB with Lee being the only option for that part of the county. This might just barely fill the current space available at Lee.

Then, if Interest grows over the next 4 years, gradually rezone one elementary at a time out of Lee, or just rezone neighborhoods from around its perimeter to minimize mass rezoning.

Going cold turkey on such an unpopular program as IB and expecting 500 kids per grade to magically want to switch to IB overnight is doubling down on poor planning.

Insider here. I've seen the enrollments and projections. We also followed the previous county that did this decommission and re-opening of an IB magnate. It's going to be more than full if it opens. Each feeder is allocated 70 seats per class, I believe in the preliminary modeling presentation I went to.

One of the interesting things was the survey data from the county that did this. Families who had previously refused or avoided the IB program (because it was used in local, poorer high school -- a school within a school model) flocked to the center because it was uniformly high performing, academically homogeneous, and had a college bound cohort. Suddenly IB was in high demand.

That is not happening at Marshall or Robinson.

That's because the base schools around them are high achieving. A IB Center school that essentially excluded students who were not seriously pursuing a diploma is a different story. I'd probably try to get my kid in and we are in Hayfield, fwiw. It's another chance for parents to put their kids with a college bound cohort.

Edison is doing well and has the stem academy, most of their higher kids will stay put.

WSHS high performing kids will mostly stay put.

MV, Annandale, and Stuart high performing kids will leave, resulting in all 3 of those schools sinking even further.

Some Hayfield kids will leave, some will stay.

Fcps will end up with one school at half capacity, and 4 to 5 overcrowded schools, and 20 ish elementary feeders full of VERY unhappy constituents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Historical perspective. I started at Lee in 1984. That year they had redistricted several West Springfield neighborhoods over to Lee. They did not grandfather siblings. There was not a big stink because back then the two High Schools were equivalents. We had 98% of graduates in my class go on to 4 year colleges. It was very competitive. Lee also had several State Championship sports teams---particularly dominated boys and girls HS soccer in VA throughout the 80s.

So what happened? Did they pull out some of the WS neighborhoods that were brought in? Did they redistrict other neighborhoods? Did Demographics drastically change? Demographics were about 20% Vietnamese (area directly surrounding Lee) and the rest Caucasian when I attended.

Demographics. Crime. Did you hear about the kidnapping/murder at the mall? They've fixed the mall, but it took years.

Boy, you are reaching back like 15-20 years! There was a kidnapping. I don't remember a murder. I think you are trying to make things worse than they are.

And can we just stop with the real estate arguments. Of course West Springfield is more desired than Lee (as a school). And by extension, West Springfield homes are more desirable (and yes, it costs more) than homes in the Lee pyramid. There is no legitimate argument to the contrary. The whole thrust of this thread is that no one will be zoned for Lee if the IB magnet plan takes hold. Those who are currently home owners in Lee pyrmaid, get a windfall by getting rezoned to WSHS or Hayfield or South County... .not so much for a rezone to Annandale. Sounds like the factors bringing Lee down were in play prior to the change in testing rules/ESOL/alternative programs -- but those changes are pushing it further into failing territory.

Maybe now is a good time to buy in Lee pyramid (closest to WSHS)! Make some $$.

A cold turkey switch to an IB magnet is a horrible plan.

There is simply not enough interest or demand for IB to fill a 2200 seat high school.

The rezoning that would need to be done to support this would be significant, resulting in around 20 elementary schools or more needing to be rezoned, along with overcrowding in all the receiving high schools.

Lee would not even be at half capacity if it were solely IB.

The logical path would be to close IB at those other area high schools, and create a school within a school for IB with Lee being the only option for that part of the county. This might just barely fill the current space available at Lee.

Then, if Interest grows over the next 4 years, gradually rezone one elementary at a time out of Lee, or just rezone neighborhoods from around its perimeter to minimize mass rezoning.

Going cold turkey on such an unpopular program as IB and expecting 500 kids per grade to magically want to switch to IB overnight is doubling down on poor planning.

I'm not sure what you mean by "cold turkey."

TJ didn't open as a STEM school overnight but, once the decision was made, the transition took place fairly quickly, and every non-magnet student previously at TJ was moved to Annandale.

Discussions on this forum over the years have indicated significant interest in IB, and that interest would increase exponentially if the IB program at Lee was a magnet program serving a significant part of the county.

I am pleased to see Gatehouse employees thinking creatively and pro-actively about Lee's future, rather than waiting for the school's enrollment to drop further or waiting until the point where it loses accreditation.

[Anonymous]

There is not significant interest in IB..

If there was the numbers would support it, especially in the high performing pyramids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Historical perspective. I started at Lee in 1984. That year they had redistricted several West Springfield neighborhoods over to Lee. They did not grandfather siblings. There was not a big stink because back then the two High Schools were equivalents. We had 98% of graduates in my class go on to 4 year colleges. It was very competitive. Lee also had several State Championship sports teams---particularly dominated boys and girls HS soccer in VA throughout the 80s.

So what happened? Did they pull out some of the WS neighborhoods that were brought in? Did they redistrict other neighborhoods? Did Demographics drastically change? Demographics were about 20% Vietnamese (area directly surrounding Lee) and the rest Caucasian when I attended.

Demographics. Crime. Did you hear about the kidnapping/murder at the mall? They've fixed the mall, but it took years.

Boy, you are reaching back like 15-20 years! There was a kidnapping. I don't remember a murder. I think you are trying to make things worse than they are.

And can we just stop with the real estate arguments. Of course West Springfield is more desired than Lee (as a school). And by extension, West Springfield homes are more desirable (and yes, it costs more) than homes in the Lee pyramid. There is no legitimate argument to the contrary. The whole thrust of this thread is that no one will be zoned for Lee if the IB magnet plan takes hold. Those who are currently home owners in Lee pyrmaid, get a windfall by getting rezoned to WSHS or Hayfield or South County... .not so much for a rezone to Annandale. Sounds like the factors bringing Lee down were in play prior to the change in testing rules/ESOL/alternative programs -- but those changes are pushing it further into failing territory.

Maybe now is a good time to buy in Lee pyramid (closest to WSHS)! Make some $$.

A cold turkey switch to an IB magnet is a horrible plan.

There is simply not enough interest or demand for IB to fill a 2200 seat high school.

The rezoning that would need to be done to support this would be significant, resulting in around 20 elementary schools or more needing to be rezoned, along with overcrowding in all the receiving high schools.

Lee would not even be at half capacity if it were solely IB.

The logical path would be to close IB at those other area high schools, and create a school within a school for IB with Lee being the only option for that part of the county. This might just barely fill the current space available at Lee.

Then, if Interest grows over the next 4 years, gradually rezone one elementary at a time out of Lee, or just rezone neighborhoods from around its perimeter to minimize mass rezoning.

Going cold turkey on such an unpopular program as IB and expecting 500 kids per grade to magically want to switch to IB overnight is doubling down on poor planning.

Insider here. I've seen the enrollments and projections. We also followed the previous county that did this decommission and re-opening of an IB magnate. It's going to be more than full if it opens. Each feeder is allocated 70 seats per class, I believe in the preliminary modeling presentation I went to.

One of the interesting things was the survey data from the county that did this. Families who had previously refused or avoided the IB program (because it was used in local, poorer high school -- a school within a school model) flocked to the center because it was uniformly high performing, academically homogeneous, and had a college bound cohort. Suddenly IB was in high demand.

That is not happening at Marshall or Robinson.

That's because the base schools around them are high achieving. A IB Center school that essentially excluded students who were not seriously pursuing a diploma is a different story. I'd probably try to get my kid in and we are in Hayfield, fwiw. It's another chance for parents to put their kids with a college bound cohort.

Edison is doing well and has the stem academy, most of their higher kids will stay put.

WSHS high performing kids will mostly stay put.

MV, Annandale, and Stuart high performing kids will leave, resulting in all 3 of those schools sinking even further.

Some Hayfield kids will leave, some will stay.

Fcps will end up with one school at half capacity, and 4 to 5 overcrowded schools, and 20 ish elementary feeders full of VERY unhappy constituents

Edison and Hayfield would both send many kids to this school.

WS would look rather different after the redistricting, with several Lee feeders moved there, so I'm not so sure the allotted number of parents and students wouldn't opt for the Lee IB magnet.

Some MV and Annandale kids would opt for the Lee magnet, but they already lose a lot of kids to AP schools through pupil placement, so the net effect might be neutral or positive. Stuart would stay IB as I understand it based on the Gatehouse insider's description.

I think others have a better ability to model future school capacities and enrollments than, say, a West Springfield parent opposed to the proposal because she's worried losing some of the phantom equity in her house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is not significant interest in IB..

If there was the numbers would support it, especially in the high performing pyramids.

Already addressed by prior poster. Reactions to an IB magnet program are different than reactions to existing IB programs and, even under the current programs, you have multiple IB schools with large net pupil placements and big enrollments (for example, South Lakes and Marshall, which has already announced it is closed to transfers next year).

[Anonymous]

PP who mentioned TJ moving to become a magnet school "and every non-magnet student previously at TJ was moved to Annandale."
Is this true? I would think a more gradual method would be less shocking to the non-Magnet students. Did FCPS filled out the freshman magnet students and let upper grades stayed and graduate?

[Anonymous]

TJ also pulls from all of NoVa. A magnet IB school simply won't fill to capacity, especially one that only pulls from a handful of HSs. I assume that Robinson and Marshall would not be converted to AP?

Creative proposals are good for discussion. Not for actual implementation.