School Boundary changes

[Anonymous]

I would like them to stop with the non-stop hypocrisy.

Leave Langley the bastion of the wealthy and zone every single-family neighborhood north of Route 50 that's left in Fairfax County there if they want to. Just stop with the stupid "One Fairfax" nonsense and the bogus work retreats to get more "equity training." There isn't a single School Board member who is willing to take the heat that would come with living by their stated values, so they should just shut up, change boundaries only when they need to, and do it quickly without all the faux-angst about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I doubt less-advantaged populations are wringing their hands because they only have a few classmates with wealthier parents. Teachers, principals and staff still help the kids get a great education.

+1

Here kids, we're going to take you from your neighborhood with your crowded apartments and send you on a bus for where you have to get up earlier and ride thirty minutes minimum to a school where many kids have their own cars. Your job is to teach them what it is like to be poor.

Here are some real world examples:

You play football at your current school? Good you can play at your new, wealthy school. Oh, you don't have a car to get home from practice? That's okay. You won't miss playing football--you might get hurt anyway.

To another kid: you have to get home to watch your little brother after school--or get him ready for school in the morning? I'm sure your mom can work that out. Maybe, she can find a different job.

You may think this is a joke--but it is not. This could quickly solve the overcrowding problem. It's difficult enough already to keep these kids in school.

much better to keep kids with kids like them. Sure some schools are failing, sure are barely accredited and produce demostrably worse outcomes with absolutely no expectation of culture of success, but the don't have to ride buses. Separate but equal - maybe that can be the new FCPS motto

So we need the middle class upper middle class kids to ride in on their horses carrying banners, colonize the poor kids and teach them the right culture?

The same people are talking out of both sides of their mouths. They insist “rich” kids should be bused in to failing schools (or vice-versa) but then they complain about exactly the scenario you laid out. Can’t win with these nutcases.

[Anonymous]

There are kids being bussed 14.5 miles to Langley. Surely that is its own form of "social engineering"?

I think it was done initially to fill Langley. Herndon was quite different at that time than it is now.

And, remember, when it was done, there was no Fairfax County Parkway. Great Falls kids would have had to access Herndon High via Dranesville Road--which has since been widened in some spots--but not all. I am not familiar with the roads in Great Falls to know how easy the commute would have been.

In any case, people get attached to their schools. It is very disruptive to communities and families to change high schools. If you have not been a parent of a high school kid, you might not understand that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No. The plan is to build the new school on Hutchison site. Which elementary schools in Centreville and Chantilly boundaries will be assigned to this new high school? I don’t see any, do you? The board must have planned moving Westfield kids to the new school (direct impact) and then move Chantilly and Centreville kids to Westfield (ripple imact).

Doubt it will end up there. It is a terrible location for a high school. Isn't this based on an FPAC recommendation? Doubt anyone ever looked at the site in person. Besides, it is in a location that would not give relief to the overcrowded schools. And, I suspect the Town of Herndon would want all their kids to stay at Herndon.

I agree that the Hutchison site is logistically bad. But the Hutchison site is denoted in the map in the CIP. And if they change the site to somewhere else and the town of Herndon kids stay in Herndon, the likelihood of impacting Langley boundary would be even smaller.

By the way, the Hutchison site itself is located outside the town boundary and both TOH and non TOH kids attend Hutchison. The board could make Hutchsion elementary as a spilt feeder and make only non TOH kids go to the new school.

[Anonymous]

I'd rather see housing policy that supported better integrated neighborhoods with greater SES variation vs. trying to solve things at the school level through busing or grossly gerrymandered boundaries. It would take decades, but that's the best solution to segregated schools and avoiding concentrated poverty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When schools increase in diversity, it benefits every single child in that school.

Completely incorrect.

+100000, it often benefits no one.

I’m getting a good feel now for the mindset that made sure no apartments ended up at Langley.

Elaine Tholen must be so proud that her biggest fans think diversity is bad.

DP.
I have no problem with diversity. Langley is an incredibly diverse school, but no one wants to acknowledge that because apparently it’s not the “right” kind of diversity. I *do* have a problem with the social engineering that many of you would love to make happen. Sorry, when you have to bus kids in in order to fulfill certain “diversity” requirements, there is a big problem. Not interested in being a part of your bizarre fantasies.

There are kids being bussed 14.5 miles to Langley. Surely that is its own form of "social engineering"?

So you’d prefer they attend the closet school - WHICH IS OVERCROWDED? Please explain how this would help HHS. We’ll wait.

Herndon is being expanded to 2500 seats and had an enrollment under 2200 for most of last year. Seems like there's space, or will be soon (and that doesn't take into account the additional seats that might open up later at HHS if a new school is built).

Perhaps you've seen the writing on the wall, and don't like it. Good luck with your next effort to replace the entire School Board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There are kids being bussed 14.5 miles to Langley. Surely that is its own form of "social engineering"?

I think it was done initially to fill Langley. Herndon was quite different at that time than it is now.

And, remember, when it was done, there was no Fairfax County Parkway. Great Falls kids would have had to access Herndon High via Dranesville Road--which has since been widened in some spots--but not all. I am not familiar with the roads in Great Falls to know how easy the commute would have been.

In any case, people get attached to their schools. It is very disruptive to communities and families to change high schools. If you have not been a parent of a high school kid, you might not understand that.

These areas used to attend Herndon. They were moved to Langley when there was far less traffic coming from Loudoun, or on Routes 7 or 193.

From what I can tell, the disruption always falls on someone else's shoulders, never Langley.

[Anonymous]

Herndon is being expanded to 2500 seats and had an enrollment under 2200 for most of last year. Seems like there's space, or will be soon (and that doesn't take into account the additional seats that might open up later at HHS if a new school is built).

Perhaps you've seen the writing on the wall, and don't like it. Good luck with your next effort to replace the entire School Board.

I'm guessing the Town of Herndon will want to keep everyone at Herndon.

[Anonymous]

From what I can tell, the disruption always falls on someone else's shoulders, never Langley.

Even our SB is not going to let Langley's enrollment go down that much. It's already pretty low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd rather see housing policy that supported better integrated neighborhoods with greater SES variation vs. trying to solve things at the school level through busing or grossly gerrymandered boundaries. It would take decades, but that's the best solution to segregated schools and avoiding concentrated poverty.

The same people who come up with all the arguments as to why Langley could never be economically diverse given its location are the same ones controlling the community groups (MCA and GFCA) that fight tooth-and-nail against any type of upzoning in their communities. John Foust loves affordable housing, as long as it's in Herndon, Reston, and Tysons, not McLean or Great Falls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Herndon is being expanded to 2500 seats and had an enrollment under 2200 for most of last year. Seems like there's space, or will be soon (and that doesn't take into account the additional seats that might open up later at HHS if a new school is built).

Perhaps you've seen the writing on the wall, and don't like it. Good luck with your next effort to replace the entire School Board.

I'm guessing the Town of Herndon will want to keep everyone at Herndon.

The Hutchison site is not within the Town of Herndon, and many current HHS students live outside the town boundaries.

Anyway, some town residents might welcome their kids attending a new school. Kids in the town of Vienna used to attend both Madison and Oakton and kids living there now attend two different middle schools.

[Anonymous]

The Education Chair of the Fairfax NAACP recently had this to say about FCPS: "We simply do not have an equitable school system. We are a segregated school system, by boundaries, geography etc."

I guess she'd have first-hand knowledge of this, as she sent her own daughter to Langley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Education Chair of the Fairfax NAACP recently had this to say about FCPS: "We simply do not have an equitable school system. We are a segregated school system, by boundaries, geography etc."

I guess she'd have first-hand knowledge of this, as she sent her own daughter to Langley.

do as I say not as I do is a time honored tradition of activist and politicians

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When schools increase in diversity, it benefits every single child in that school.

Completely incorrect.

+100000, it often benefits no one.

I’m getting a good feel now for the mindset that made sure no apartments ended up at Langley.

Elaine Tholen must be so proud that her biggest fans think diversity is bad.

DP.
I have no problem with diversity. Langley is an incredibly diverse school, but no one wants to acknowledge that because apparently it’s not the “right” kind of diversity. I *do* have a problem with the social engineering that many of you would love to make happen. Sorry, when you have to bus kids in in order to fulfill certain “diversity” requirements, there is a big problem. Not interested in being a part of your bizarre fantasies.

There are kids being bussed 14.5 miles to Langley. Surely that is its own form of "social engineering"?

The boundary was changed back in 1998 when Herndon was overcrowded and Langley had space, both white, middle/upper middle class schools.

It was made for capacity reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When schools increase in diversity, it benefits every single child in that school.

Completely incorrect.

All schools in Fairfax County are diverse anyway.

Absolutely. Langley has a decent population of both big law AND lobbyist families. I even heard there are some children of corporate EVPs. A true melting pot.

Apparently you don’t consider kids from every continent in the world to be diverse. Ok then.
DP

most studies show that poverty is more indicative of a school's outcome, and that concentrated poverty is most indicative. Langley has all kinds of diversity, just absolutely no economic diversity

So spread the burdensome poor children around.