School Boundaries and "One Fairfax"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You think Langley being at 25 percent FARMS and Herndon at 30 percent won't help Fairfax? It will.

And where do you want these Farms students to come from? Skip close proximity neighborhoods and bring kids from different geographic areas?

Langley area is the most expensive in northern va. That’s why there are so few farms kids. Hard to get any housing under a million. Most homes $2m+.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got my data from the school profiles. Mount Vernon was correct at 56% FARMS and Herndon was 56% non-FARMS an 44% FARMS so it was an honest mistake just mixing up the numbers. I don't really see how one of the schools having slightly less FARMS but still over 40% more than Langley has much bearing on the argument. You still haven't pointed to studies that say otherwise. One Fairfax is modeled after studies that say lower FARMS rates benefit schools, but if you are having too much difficulty finding these studies, I'd be glad to provide you with several of many.

I hate to break this to you, but when the most liberal members of the School Board make clear that the Langley/Herndon boundaries aren’t going to change until a new high school is built, that means they’ve given up on whatever plans they may have had to rejigger those boundaries in the name of equity. Depending on which parts of McLean get moved to Langley they might be able to bump the FARMS rate there up a few percentage points.

Anything else will have to wait until a new school is built at which point FCPS can pull Hutchison out of Herndon and move Forestville and maybe part of Great Falls into Herndon. Until then, it isn’t happening. If someone suggested otherwise, they gave you false hope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think Langley being at 25 percent FARMS and Herndon at 30 percent won't help Fairfax? It will.

And where do you want these Farms students to come from? Skip close proximity neighborhoods and bring kids from different geographic areas?

Langley area is the most expensive in northern va. That’s why there are so few farms kids. Hard to get any housing under a million. Most homes $2m+.

Yes, the Langley district is the most expensive in NoVa.

No, most homes aren’t over $2M. The median sales price for a single-family home zoned to Langley over the past year was $1.16M. McLean and Yorktown are next, at $1.05M and $987K. Let’s not get carried away with the champagne wishes and caviar dreams stuff.

[Anonymous]

I work in facilities. Nothing, and I mean nothing beyond capacity expansions is happening, until the new Western High School is funded and built. When that happens, then yes, there will be a very large rewriting of boundaries. But until then, this is all nonsense to essentially undermine the new school from every being built because nothing will ever change.

[Anonymous]

Doubtful. There are currently schools that are underenrolled. That said, facilities needs to stop recommending additions. Our current high schools are large enough. Fund the new high school already. No one is fighting against that expense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in facilities. Nothing, and I mean nothing beyond capacity expansions is happening, until the new Western High School is funded and built. When that happens, then yes, there will be a very large rewriting of boundaries. But until then, this is all nonsense to essentially undermine the new school from every being built because nothing will ever change.

Are you saying Facilities is so incompetent that it doesn’t plan to adjust the boundaries between overcrowded and under-enrolled high schools for at least a decade?

Not sure if you’re a troll, but if what you say is true then Brabrand is unlikely to last another school year. The BOS will want him out and the School Board will fire him to keep the money flowing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think Langley being at 25 percent FARMS and Herndon at 30 percent won't help Fairfax? It will.

And where do you want these Farms students to come from? Skip close proximity neighborhoods and bring kids from different geographic areas?

Langley area is the most expensive in northern va. That’s why there are so few farms kids. Hard to get any housing under a million. Most homes $2m+.

Yes, the Langley district is the most expensive in NoVa.

No, most homes aren’t over $2M. The median sales price for a single-family home zoned to Langley over the past year was $1.16M. McLean and Yorktown are next, at $1.05M and $987K. Let’s not get carried away with the champagne wishes and caviar dreams stuff.

We just moved here and it felt like everything was over $2. Our house was close to $3. We looked into new construction and tear downs went for $1m.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think Langley being at 25 percent FARMS and Herndon at 30 percent won't help Fairfax? It will.

And where do you want these Farms students to come from? Skip close proximity neighborhoods and bring kids from different geographic areas?

Langley area is the most expensive in northern va. That’s why there are so few farms kids. Hard to get any housing under a million. Most homes $2m+.

Yes, the Langley district is the most expensive in NoVa.

No, most homes aren’t over $2M. The median sales price for a single-family home zoned to Langley over the past year was $1.16M. McLean and Yorktown are next, at $1.05M and $987K. Let’s not get carried away with the champagne wishes and caviar dreams stuff.

We just moved here and it felt like everything was over $2. Our house was close to $3. We looked into new construction and tear downs went for $1m.

Yes, and then you found your 10000 SF house on an acre in McLean...which is not to be confused with the smaller and less expensive houses common elsewhere in the Langley district, particularly as you head further west.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My priority is my kids going to school in the community they live in which they do. If boundaries were redrawn and they went somewhere else it would not feel like our community anymore (would be across a major highway). I'm not really worried about because it would be completely nonsensical.

I don't think they'll really shake things up, but if they do, they better do it to every school, not just a few that don't have as vocal parents as others.

Also, the "under-enrolled" schools like Mt. Vernon and Lee are underenrolled for a reason. Many of the more wealthy families that are zoned for those schools just do private. Fairfax will lose the students it wants to keep to private schools if they shake things up too much.

There's probably more kids in the Langley pyramid in privates than any other pyramid in FCPS. My guess is that, if they got rid of IB at Lee and moved 400 kids into the school from LB, WS and/or SC, they'd retain most families and there'd be a significant improvement in the school's reputation. The situation at Mount Vernon might be different, because the Waynewood/Fort Hunt areas are wealthier, and there would be more trepidation and racism at play in sending kids to MV, which until recently always had the highest percentage of black kids in the county.

We live in Langley pyramid and I would estimate that more than 50% of our neighbors send their kids to private. That is probably why Langley is under enrolled. They would rather send kids to St. Albans or Potomac.

There just aren't that many spots in local private schools -- Potomac has about 110 kids in each graduating class, and it pulls from all over the area (though yes, a lot from McLean). St Albans is even smaller and has about 80 in each graduating class (and really not that many from anywhere in NoVa). I can't see how private schools are drawing SO many kids out of Fairfax schools.

[Anonymous]

There just aren't that many spots in local private schools -- Potomac has about 110 kids in each graduating class, and it pulls from all over the area (though yes, a lot from McLean). St Albans is even smaller and has about 80 in each graduating class (and really not that many from anywhere in NoVa). I can't see how private schools are drawing SO many kids out of Fairfax schools.

Georgetown Prep; Stone Bridge; St.Stephens St Agnes; Episcopal High School; Bishop O'Connell; Madeira; etc.etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in facilities. Nothing, and I mean nothing beyond capacity expansions is happening, until the new Western High School is funded and built. When that happens, then yes, there will be a very large rewriting of boundaries. But until then, this is all nonsense to essentially undermine the new school from every being built because nothing will ever change.

Are you saying Facilities is so incompetent that it doesn’t plan to adjust the boundaries between overcrowded and under-enrolled high schools for at least a decade?

Not sure if you’re a troll, but if what you say is true then Brabrand is unlikely to last another school year. The BOS will want him out and the School Board will fire him to keep the money flowing.

What I am saying is that we aren't given much leeway. The entire preference has been to expand capacity over shifting capacity to different schools. As this thread shows, even talking about making major changes sparks an insane amount of blow back. People complain less about just making the schools bigger to meet demand.

Right now, there are no immediate plans or plans anytime soon to change any of the high schools. Nothing is happening beyond us getting data and talking through expansions, fwiw.

[Anonymous]

I believe Langley is only enrolled until they move kids from McLean to Langley. At that point, Langley won't be under enrolled. Not sure why there is so much posting about Langley when it is going to at capacity soon anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe Langley is only enrolled until they move kids from McLean to Langley. At that point, Langley won't be under enrolled. Not sure why there is so much posting about Langley when it is going to at capacity soon anyway.

Which explains why FCPS is not moving some of McLean to Langley. They have other plans........

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

NP here. Your analysis is soley based on the capacity. What this school board is trying to do is to add a new criteria based on OneFairfax. That is to rebalance school demographics based on socioeconomic facotr. Herndon and Langley are close but their demogrpahics are compeletly different. So they may try to switch some of wealth great falls area with some of poor Herndon area. Same for West Springfield and Lee.

The proposed policy--which will likely be passed--is to use socioeconomic factors as the first consideration in a reshuffling. That comes before proximity, geography, traffic patterns, neighborhood communities,avoiding split feeders,etc.

This is what disturbs people.

And, yes, with this policy, they could ship very poor immigrant kids from Herndon to Langley. ( I don't think they will do this.) If they did do this, it will increase truancy, decrease participation in school activities, and almost eliminate almost any family involvement for the kids being transported there.

And, this is the problem with our School Board--they never consider unintended consequences when they make decisions. They only consider their social activism. They almost never think about how it will affect the kids in reality. Their minds are on utopia--not real life.

To me, there is no greater example of their disconnect than when several members were determined to change the name of Stuart to Thurgood Marshall--totally ignoring the fact that there was already a Marshall High School in FCPS. Tunnel vision.

Agree it will likely do these things. The bigger issue, though, is whether Langley has the resources to help the more vulnerable (and needy, in many ways) students who would be transferred. It seems like they would have to add ESOL staff and more counselors, or whatever. That's just more money.

As a taxpayer, I would rather have tax money "bussed" to schools that need additional resources and have them spend it in ways that will help the populations that need it, including parenting classes, ESOL for parents, night school, whatever. Break the cycle in the communities that suffer from the cycle.

[Anonymous]

As a taxpayer, I would rather have tax money "bussed" to schools that need additional resources and have them spend it in ways that will help the populations that need it, including parenting classes, ESOL for parents, night school, whatever. Break the cycle in the communities that suffer from the cycle.

This.
It's a lot easier to get parents involved if they are comfortable in the environment.