How did Herndon/Westfield HS go from top to bottom?
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Anonymous
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They hired a consultant because they love wasting money.
Them stating at the work session that they weren’t tackling boundaries that day wasn’t racism, which is what was suggested earlier. Admitting that there was Anti Asian sentiment behind the push to change TJ admissions and going forward anyway? Racist calling Brabrand “dumb and white” as a reason why he can’t manage correctly? Racist |
Anonymous
Oh please, learn to read between the lines. Cohen specifically announced during the MGT meeting that she had just then received emails from Daventry parents, literally as the MGT consultant was presenting his PowerPoint, asking her not to reverse the boundary change back to Lewis. Cohen felt the need to publicly reassure them that wasn't happening to take some heat off her back. Call it what you will (classism, elitism, racism, or plain selfishness), but it's glaringly obvious that the reason the Board is so defensive on the topic of boundaries is because they all know the elephant in the room. And in case you don't know the elephant in the room either: some communities clearly feel threatened that adjustments may lead to more ELL/FARMs populations in their catchment areas. |
Anonymous
The wealthy don't mind if a small number of ESOL/FARMS kids are moved to their catchment areas. They do mind very much if they might be moved to a different pyramid. If you look at the Langley/McLean adjustment, Langley parents made it clear they were fine with having some apartments in Tysons with greater economic diversity moved into their school UNTIL the Great Falls parents realized that moving an area where additional apartments and condos are getting built might increase the odds of western Great Falls eventually getting moved to Herndon. Then they got Tholen to make sure none of those areas were moved to Langley and that an area further from Langley consisting entirely of existing single-family homes was moved instead. The Great Falls Citizens Association stated publicly that was the best possible outcome for them under the circumstances. That is how the game has been played in FCPS for well over a decade. The South Lakes redistricting from 2008, where the School Board deliberately moved higher-income neighborhoods zoned for Westfield, Oakton, and Madison into South Lakes at a time when South Lakes' enrollment had dropped to around 1400 kids, is ancient history. The School Board members saw the heat that some took for effecting that boundary change and said to themselves "never again." They hired a boundary policy consultant a few years ago to kick the can down the road, and because some members like to think that a new boundary policy will result in some algorithm for adjusting boundaries that can be applied mechanically and will take the heat off them, but that's a pipe dream. And any time they so much as hint that they might do a county-wide review of actual boundaries (as opposed to just looking at boundary policy), the groups like "One Great Falls" and "Voices of Fairfax" spring into action to oppose them. |
Anonymous
No sweetie that was her lamenting that not enough poorer/limited English people engage with attempts to get their input in policy discussions. That was a recurring theme, and she provided an example in real time. At the 53:50 mark she expresses dissatisfied with who answered. At the 58 min mark she says she’s already gotten emails during the meeting (from well-off English speakers it is implied, I presume that is the predominantly makeup of Daventry). She never said anything about the content of the emails you liar. She mentioned Lewis at the tail end of her initial remarks as an example that differing programs affect operations and not just boundaries. She mentioned Key Center during those remarks as well. I don’t even like most of this clown car but you don’t need to lie on them, the truth is bad enough. |
Anonymous
No one at Langley or in GF was making anything clear about Strauss’ very reasonable attempt to reduce crowding at McLean by rezoning an area to Langley. GF and other parts of the county did become interested when it was made known that the board was about to vote on a new boundary policy that gave no consideration to neighborhoods, that gave board the right to change boundaries every three years, and that prioritized the “right” racial mix in school buildings when deciding boundaries. They also were going to do a “comprehensive review”, in other words make new boundaries from scratch county wide. Once this became widely known and they received intense blowback, they cancelled the vote and decided that the boundary between under enrolled Langley and overcrowded McLean should be adjusted after all. The election was a few months away and the majority dem school board didactic want to lose any seats. If they really believed in what they were doing they wouldn’t have run away when the spotlight hit their policy making decisions. |
Anonymous
How do people feel about that SL redistricting from 2008- Now? |
Anonymous
Depends on who you ask. Many are now more than fine with it; others wish they hadn't been moved to SL, or from Chantilly to Oakton (which was one of the other changes made at the time). Some people took huge hits by selling their rezoned houses into a tough RE market in 2008 to get back into their prior districts. |
Anonymous
| McLean HS is a mess -capacity wise- current enrollment 2368- capacity 1993. Don't the McLean parents have any pull-compared to GF? |
Anonymous
Anecdotally (on this forum and elsewhere) and at the community meetings in late 2019 there were a lot of Langley parents who indicated they were more than willing to accept McLean students, no matter where they came from, given the capacity imbalance between the schools. Where the rubber hit the road was when Great Falls realized that FCPS staff wanted to move a growing area of Tysons to Langley. The GFCA convinced Tholen to reject the FCPS staff recommendation in favor of a different option that effectively capped the number of kids who could ever be expected to move into Cooper and Langley. Afterwards, the GFCA education chair had this to say: "Of the three options considered, I think Ms. Tholen's and the Board's decision on option B is the better compromise for Great Falls. It satisfies the various goals well while not excessive on Cooper and Langley's capacities. It is a significant number of students but comes from neighborhoods with little to no future development as compared to other options considered." Mind you, this was a Great Falls citizens group weighing in on boundary options that did not involve moving a single student from Great Falls, but only areas in Vienna or Tysons/McLean who might be reassigned from McLean to Langley. And now, thanks to the influence of the GFCA and Tholen, the relief provided is paltry with McLean's enrollment this fall at an all-time high and Langley still well under capacity to provide the GFCA with the buffer they want. The GFCA did say they support an addition to MHS, which is nice, but when push comes to shove they would far rather see McLean kids packed into MHS like sardines than to be close to a situation where someone might argue to move some LHS kids to Herndon. If anything ever gets put on the table involving Herndon or Westfield that could conceivably touch Langley's boundaries, Great Falls will get Tholen to do their bidding again. She only has one community's interests in mind, and it's Great Falls. |
Anonymous
And, now that not as many kids from that area are not going to TJ, there are parents who really, really would like AP over IB. That was a complaint at the time and remains so. |
Anonymous
Apparently not, or at least not with Elaine Tholen (a Great Falls resident and parent of a Langley graduate). She pushed through a limited boundary change that placed Great Falls' interests ahead of meaningful action to relieve the overcrowding at McLean. And now she's doing next to nothing to get funding for the overdue addition at the school. And, yes, there were some Colvin Run parents (generally those with younger kids without siblings already at Longfellow or McLean) who said they welcomed the move. FCPS/Tholen created a dynamic where people were encouraged to bid against each other to escape the overcrowded ship. Some obliged. This is how FCPS finds a way to trash schools. |
Anonymous
As I recall, they promised parents at the time that they'd add a bunch of AP courses at South Lakes to complement the IB program, and then failed to do so. I'm sure that was a disappointment to some. |
Anonymous
At least South Lakes is close to Fox Mill, part of Floris, and part of Crossfield, which was affected. I don’t think that particular boundary change was that bad. It’s also rare to move kids from a better school district to a less desireable district. |
Anonymous
It was terrible. And, the SB was nasty to the parents who wanted AP. Some families had already been redistricted two or three times. The particularly nasty part is that it was orchestrated by the South Lakes PTA. (They even posted their plans on a website. Not as savvy to social media as today.) The PTA was giving thumbs up and thumbs down to the choices. It pitted neighborhoods against neighborhoods--and that was not just those being redistricted to South Lakes. Boundary changes are disruptive. And, when you feel like you are being 'chosen" for someone else's desires, it is kind of disturbing. |
Anonymous
I know, I know. But that’s why it’s a lot easier to move kids (particarly kids from not poor areas) from less desirable schools to more desirable schools. Much less resistance from parents whose kids gets redistricted. But this would also mean the less desirable schools keep losing students while the more desirable schools keep having capacity issues. The 2008 boundary change got a bad rep on this board partly because it was the only significant boundary change that moved well establied single family house neighorhood to a less respected school. I bet the response would have been quite different if the kids were moved to Madison instead of SLHS. I also have to say this. Back then Herndon High school parents fought hard to make sure their kids were not moved to SLHS. These days many HHS parents send (and give rides to) their kids to SLHS for the IB program. |