FCPS' plans to address concerns at under-enrolled and over-enrolled schools.

[Anonymous]

One of the things from 2-3 months ago that left me curious is FCPS stating they intend to find solutions to balance underenrollment at schools such as Lewis and overenrollment at schools such as West Springfield.

In the west end of the county, we are seeing again a boundary change involving the high schools where Skyview is opening. However, in other parts of the county enrollment is disproportionate to the size of the school, whether it be West Springfield which is 300+ students overcrowded, and lewis is heavily underenrolled. My question ultimately is, will it be likely that FCPS closes the more underenrolled schools and adjust boundaries to fix enrollment issues from any consolidations that occur?

By consolidations, I'm not saying move one high schools area into another, but move certain parts of one attendance area into a different high school or something like that.

In the case of underenrolled elementary schools, maybe move a sizeable part of one into another, and move less sizeable parts into another? Not so sure.

What is likely to occur from this offchute of the CBR?

[Anonymous]

The boundary review made it very clear that parents don't want their kids to be moved from one school to another. This is even more true when the move requires moving from a higher ranked school with better test scores to a school that it far lower in the rankings, with bad test scores, and fewer offerings of higher level courses. Toss in moving kids from an AP HS to an IB HS and you have all sorts or rioting.

The school board is trying to limit students moving out of the lower ranked schools by removing the pupil placement option for a foreign language, which will turn off the moves from one AP school to another for a language, think Herndon to Langley for Russian. It does nothing to stop the move from an IB school to an AP school, which provides plenty of room for kids to leave Lewis. Removing the language option does reduce the students ability to ask for a specific school because they want to take a language offered at West Springfield that is not offered at Lewis or the other near by AP school that is not over enrolled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The boundary review made it very clear that parents don't want their kids to be moved from one school to another. This is even more true when the move requires moving from a higher ranked school with better test scores to a school that it far lower in the rankings, with bad test scores, and fewer offerings of higher level courses. Toss in moving kids from an AP HS to an IB HS and you have all sorts or rioting.

The school board is trying to limit students moving out of the lower ranked schools by removing the pupil placement option for a foreign language, which will turn off the moves from one AP school to another for a language, think Herndon to Langley for Russian. It does nothing to stop the move from an IB school to an AP school, which provides plenty of room for kids to leave Lewis. Removing the language option does reduce the students ability to ask for a specific school because they want to take a language offered at West Springfield that is not offered at Lewis or the other near by AP school that is not over enrolled.

Well I'm not sure what would work the best, but understanding the issue regarding programming is important.

Maybe if there were equity in programming, such issues with imbalanced school enrollment would exist.

FCPS should do the best it can not only to balance enrollment, but if they can, to even out school rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The boundary review made it very clear that parents don't want their kids to be moved from one school to another. This is even more true when the move requires moving from a higher ranked school with better test scores to a school that it far lower in the rankings, with bad test scores, and fewer offerings of higher level courses. Toss in moving kids from an AP HS to an IB HS and you have all sorts or rioting.

The school board is trying to limit students moving out of the lower ranked schools by removing the pupil placement option for a foreign language, which will turn off the moves from one AP school to another for a language, think Herndon to Langley for Russian. It does nothing to stop the move from an IB school to an AP school, which provides plenty of room for kids to leave Lewis. Removing the language option does reduce the students ability to ask for a specific school because they want to take a language offered at West Springfield that is not offered at Lewis or the other near by AP school that is not over enrolled.

There are fewer than 10 transfers from Herndon to Langley this year. On the other hand, there are 158 transfers from Herndon (AP) to South Lakes (IB).

They have shown no interest in replacing IB with AP at schools, which would eliminate the basis for many pupil placements. On the other hand, they do seem intent on having AAP at every middle school and that should reduce the number of high school pupil placements out of pyramids like Herndon, Lewis, and Robinson that don't have middle school AAP centers. If and when every middle school has AAP that could require adjustments at middle schools like Rocky Run (which would lose a lot of kids) and Thoreau (which would gain a lot of kids), with accompanying changes eventually to some high school boundaries.

Apart from that, there were a number of boundary issues that weren't addressed this year, but which Reid has said will be revisited by January 2027. FCPS staff has said they include:

1. Gunston/Halley/Laurel Hill/Lorton Station ES boundaries

2. Bren Mar Park ES feeders

3. Greenway Downs/Jefferson Village/City Park Homes/Kingsley Commons

3. Rolling Valley feeders and Keene Mill ES.

[Anonymous]

Where are Greenway Downs/Jefferson Village/City Park Homes/Kingsley Commons.

Is that the Graham Road/Timber Lane/Pine Spring situation where Graham Road at Devonshire is not in its attendance area, Timber Lane split feeds to Falls Church, and Pine Spring has an island? Or is it something else having to do with the Falls Church area or something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are Greenway Downs/Jefferson Village/City Park Homes/Kingsley Commons.

Is that the Graham Road/Timber Lane/Pine Spring situation where Graham Road at Devonshire is not in its attendance area, Timber Lane split feeds to Falls Church, and Pine Spring has an island? Or is it something else having to do with the Falls Church area or something?

Yes, these are some neighborhoods in Falls Church, and the resolution of the issues has potential implications for the boundaries at Graham Road, Pine Spring, Shrevewood, and Timber Lane ES (and possibly Beech Tree).

[Anonymous]

1. Gunston/Halley/Laurel Hill/Lorton Station ES boundaries

2. Bren Mar Park ES feeders

My suspicion with these two is that FCPS will fill Lewis with Bren Mar Park elementary, which also serves to take kids out of over-enrolled and still growing with new development Edison. I’m not sure what the middle school situation will be but I suspect they will stay at Holmes.

The first situation is significantly more complicated now that they aren’t moving any students out of WSHS to South County. Let me just say if they WERE moving some of Hunt Valley to South County, the move here would actually be more straightforward: the Hagel Circle (Halley) attendance island would almost certainly go to Lorton Station ES and then to Hayfield. South County is not as large as many other MS and HS and would need to lose some students if it picked up 40% of large HVES. LSES is already at Hayfield so the move is pretty clean.

However, without any new students coming into SC, I believe the right thing to do now in terms of balancing enrollments between SC and Hayfield is sending Hagel Circle to Gunston and keeping them at South County, and not adding new students to LSES and keeping them at Hayfield. But there is a lot going on there. Lorton Station’s PTA is lobbying to have their whole school at South County with or without Hagel Circle. I suspect they would have to take Hagel Circle as a prisoner swap if the powers that be grant their wishes to be zoned for SC, but they are fighting against it. And the influential Mason Neck people are lobbying to keep Hagel Circle out of Gunston ES. South County would be bursting at the seams with an additional large elementary (LSES is quite large) added to its attendance area, especially the middle school would be well over capacity. Hayfield would then be well UNDER capacity if it lost a whole feeder and, with Bren Mar Park being added to Lewis, it doesn’t seem likely that Hayfield would pick up students from Edison. But adding Hagel Circle to Gunston would likely push Gunston into Title 1 status. And the SB members have already announced they want to fill Halley Elementary’s excess capacity once Hagel Circle is gone with a Korean immersion program, so staying at Halley as an attendance island won’t be happening long term.

Also - Lorton Station is the AAP center for the South County pyramid + Saratoga ES which is zoned for Lewis. If LSES was fully added to the SC pyramid, I believe enrollments would go haywire at the other elementary schools in the SC pyramid. Right now barely anyone goes to the center because everyone sees it as “less than” compared to the neighborhood elementaries and it’s not even in pyramid. The center at LSES is full of Saratoga kids backdooring out of there and Key MS. If it was in pyramid - I think people’s decision making would change and you’d see some significant enrollment drops starting in 3rd at Newington Forest and Halley (the two smaller schools - Silverbrook is large enough to support a larger LLIV program and I believe Laurel Hill is as well but not sure on that).

[Anonymous]

Maybe in five years, but there will be no more changes until the next boundary review outside of the Skyview changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe in five years, but there will be no more changes until the next boundary review outside of the Skyview changes.

Sorry, but that's not how things were presented to the School Board this January. An excerpt from Dr. Reid's January 2026 presentation:

"Sites for 1 Year Review with Recommendations by January 2027

To allow for additional community engagement and input, the following areas will be reviewed with recommendations provided to the School Board by January 2027:

● The neighborhoods in Gunston, Halley, Laurel Hill, and Lorton Station elementary schools’ boundaries.
● The Bren Mar Park Elementary School middle and high school feeders.
● Greenway Downs, Jefferson Village, City Park Homes, and Kingsley Commons neighborhoods.
● Rolling Valley Elementary School middle and high school feeders (SPA 8922).
● Glasgow Middle School changes related to the Beech Tree Elementary School and Belvedere Elementary School areas.
● Keene Mill Elementary School attendance island and the surrounding schools (e.g., Cardinal Forest Elementary School and White Oaks Elementary School)."

The revised boundary policy commits to a county-wide review "at least every five years." It does not prevent one-off boundary changes or, for that matter, another county-wide review sooner than five years from now.

[Anonymous]

What is an attendance island? Is that basically an area that's not really near the school but it's designated to go there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The boundary review made it very clear that parents don't want their kids to be moved from one school to another. This is even more true when the move requires moving from a higher ranked school with better test scores to a school that it far lower in the rankings, with bad test scores, and fewer offerings of higher level courses. Toss in moving kids from an AP HS to an IB HS and you have all sorts or rioting.

The school board is trying to limit students moving out of the lower ranked schools by removing the pupil placement option for a foreign language, which will turn off the moves from one AP school to another for a language, think Herndon to Langley for Russian. It does nothing to stop the move from an IB school to an AP school, which provides plenty of room for kids to leave Lewis. Removing the language option does reduce the students ability to ask for a specific school because they want to take a language offered at West Springfield that is not offered at Lewis or the other near by AP school that is not over enrolled.

There are fewer than 10 transfers from Herndon to Langley this year. On the other hand, there are 158 transfers from Herndon (AP) to South Lakes (IB).

They have shown no interest in replacing IB with AP at schools, which would eliminate the basis for many pupil placements. On the other hand, they do seem intent on having AAP at every middle school and that should reduce the number of high school pupil placements out of pyramids like Herndon, Lewis, and Robinson that don't have middle school AAP centers. If and when every middle school has AAP that could require adjustments at middle schools like Rocky Run (which would lose a lot of kids) and Thoreau (which would gain a lot of kids), with accompanying changes eventually to some high school boundaries.

Apart from that, there were a number of boundary issues that weren't addressed this year, but which Reid has said will be revisited by January 2027. FCPS staff has said they include:

1. Gunston/Halley/Laurel Hill/Lorton Station ES boundaries

2. Bren Mar Park ES feeders

3. Greenway Downs/Jefferson Village/City Park Homes/Kingsley Commons

3. Rolling Valley feeders and Keene Mill ES.

Interesting on Herndon, I remember reading about there being a parent paid bus to get kids to Langley from Herndon using the russian langauge so I thought the number was higher than 10 kids. I knew about the SLHS kids, I think people have explained that as the AAP kids who attend Hughes pupil place a SLHS using either IB or Japanese, now it would have to be IB.

But yes, making IB a program kids can apply to participate in, like Loudon and Arlington do, while having full AP at every school would end a lot of the pupil placement and would bring back some higher test scores to the IB schools that lose kids to AP placements. I believe that the kids who apply for the program in other counties commit to completing the diploma and not just taking 4 IB classes.

I do like that they are putting AAP at all the MS and eliminating MS Centers. There are enough kids coming from different ES to have AAP offerings at all the MS. That will reduce some of the desire to pupil place to be with friends from ES and MS in HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The boundary review made it very clear that parents don't want their kids to be moved from one school to another. This is even more true when the move requires moving from a higher ranked school with better test scores to a school that it far lower in the rankings, with bad test scores, and fewer offerings of higher level courses. Toss in moving kids from an AP HS to an IB HS and you have all sorts or rioting.

The school board is trying to limit students moving out of the lower ranked schools by removing the pupil placement option for a foreign language, which will turn off the moves from one AP school to another for a language, think Herndon to Langley for Russian. It does nothing to stop the move from an IB school to an AP school, which provides plenty of room for kids to leave Lewis. Removing the language option does reduce the students ability to ask for a specific school because they want to take a language offered at West Springfield that is not offered at Lewis or the other near by AP school that is not over enrolled.

There are fewer than 10 transfers from Herndon to Langley this year. On the other hand, there are 158 transfers from Herndon (AP) to South Lakes (IB).

They have shown no interest in replacing IB with AP at schools, which would eliminate the basis for many pupil placements. On the other hand, they do seem intent on having AAP at every middle school and that should reduce the number of high school pupil placements out of pyramids like Herndon, Lewis, and Robinson that don't have middle school AAP centers. If and when every middle school has AAP that could require adjustments at middle schools like Rocky Run (which would lose a lot of kids) and Thoreau (which would gain a lot of kids), with accompanying changes eventually to some high school boundaries.

Apart from that, there were a number of boundary issues that weren't addressed this year, but which Reid has said will be revisited by January 2027. FCPS staff has said they include:

1. Gunston/Halley/Laurel Hill/Lorton Station ES boundaries

2. Bren Mar Park ES feeders

3. Greenway Downs/Jefferson Village/City Park Homes/Kingsley Commons

3. Rolling Valley feeders and Keene Mill ES.

Interesting on Herndon, I remember reading about there being a parent paid bus to get kids to Langley from Herndon using the russian langauge so I thought the number was higher than 10 kids. I knew about the SLHS kids, I think people have explained that as the AAP kids who attend Hughes pupil place a SLHS using either IB or Japanese, now it would have to be IB.

But yes, making IB a program kids can apply to participate in, like Loudon and Arlington do, while having full AP at every school would end a lot of the pupil placement and would bring back some higher test scores to the IB schools that lose kids to AP placements. I believe that the kids who apply for the program in other counties commit to completing the diploma and not just taking 4 IB classes.

I do like that they are putting AAP at all the MS and eliminating MS Centers. There are enough kids coming from different ES to have AAP offerings at all the MS. That will reduce some of the desire to pupil place to be with friends from ES and MS in HS.

It was families at Westfield, not Herndon, supposedly organizing a bus of some sort to get to Langley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is an attendance island? Is that basically an area that's not really near the school but it's designated to go there?

Yes, it’s basically a non-contiguous boundary and usually means that the “island” has a longer commute to a further away school vs. going to a closer school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is an attendance island? Is that basically an area that's not really near the school but it's designated to go there?

Yes.

For example, Keene Mill is on the very edge of the WSHS boundary, the closest neighborhoods to Lewis.

The Keene Mill island is one neighborhood all the way down on the opposite side of the WSHS boundary at the other end of the Old Keene Mill Road section, close to White Oaks Elementary.

They were supposed to get moved to White Oaks and Lake Braddock, which would have been a sensible solution for both Keene Mill Elementary, WSHS, and after the transistion, for that island neighborhood.

For some reason Dr. Reid put off that change for one year. It really did not make sense to not move forward with fixing that island instead of drawing out that change another year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is an attendance island? Is that basically an area that's not really near the school but it's designated to go there?

Yes, it’s basically a non-contiguous boundary and usually means that the “island” has a longer commute to a further away school vs. going to a closer school.

The only way to get from the neighborhood to the school is to drive through at least one other school catchment area.