Tell me about the schools in Herndon/Chantilly - Crossfield, Oak Hill, Navy, Fox Mill, Lees Corner

[Anonymous]

Are you saying Emerald Chase/Bradley Farms (the neighborhood in question that is zoned for Oak Hill, Carson, and Westfield) is not an affluent neighborhood? My best friend lives there, and her house is worth around $850K-$900K. That seems fairly affluent to me!

No. I meant the opposite. I don't think Bradley Farms goes to Oak Hill. I was referring to Emerald Chase that was moved to Oak Hill at that time. As I recall, Emerald Chase wanted to be redistricted to Chantilly along with the Oak Hill kids. SB refused to do so and kept them at Westfield (I think they were already at Westfield.) I believe they did that because they were taking too many kids from Westfield and sending them to South Lakes. And I think they kept them there because they are affluent.

People also forget that not long before this, some of those neighborhoods had been switched from Oakton to Westfield --and then they were moved from Westfield to South Lakes. So, some families experienced kids who attended three different high schools, even though they had not moved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

My kids go to Westfield. I don't see how it has a capacity of 3000. The gym is tiny. The cafeteria is tiny. There are trailers being used for classrooms. Regardless, 2000 should be the target HS size. 2600+ is absurd.

If you think the Westfield gym is tiny, there are a lot of FCPS high schools you haven’t visited. It may not be as big as Robinson or Fairfax, but it’s larger than most.

The school was expanded shortly after it was built. I just remember from the boundary study that is why they changed the optimum size of a school to 2000. Because, they could not use capacity as a reason for the move. And, I definitely remember that Westfield had a capacity of 3000. I've been in the gym--and PP is correct. It is comparable to many gyms in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Fox Mill kids are kind of screwed at Carson. I have heard from many parents that the Counselor’s at Carson forget that there are kids that go to South Lakes and don’t know what the kids might need for the IB Diploma. This is normally an issue with taking a language in MS to meet the 5 year language requirement for the IB diploma. I had a friend tell me that she just learned about this and that the Counselor never said anything when selecting classes and had to call over to South Lakes to find out that there is a requirement for a 5th year of high school language.

Fox Mill and a small number of kids from Floris are the only kids that go to SLHS. It sucks for the kids.

I’m sorry but this is why you absolutely do not rely on counselors only to chart your kid’s academic path. Parents need to step up and determine what the IB requirements are themselves if their child is going to SLHS. Parents should know and suggest courses to their child. Just like I looked up my kid’s own high school to see what languages they offer up to level 4 or 5. That determined what we chose in middle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Fox Mill kids are kind of screwed at Carson. I have heard from many parents that the Counselor’s at Carson forget that there are kids that go to South Lakes and don’t know what the kids might need for the IB Diploma. This is normally an issue with taking a language in MS to meet the 5 year language requirement for the IB diploma. I had a friend tell me that she just learned about this and that the Counselor never said anything when selecting classes and had to call over to South Lakes to find out that there is a requirement for a 5th year of high school language.

Fox Mill and a small number of kids from Floris are the only kids that go to SLHS. It sucks for the kids.

I’m sorry but this is why you absolutely do not rely on counselors only to chart your kid’s academic path. Parents need to step up and determine what the IB requirements are themselves if their child is going to SLHS. Parents should know and suggest courses to their child. Just like I looked up my kid’s own high school to see what languages they offer up to level 4 or 5. That determined what we chose in middle.

No. That is unreasonable to expect from some parents. I say that as someone who did pay close attention to college requirements for my kids. But, not every parent understands this--and IB is especially difficult to process. This is the counselor's job. The counselors at South Lakes should ensure that Carson counselors understand the requirements. That is their job.

This is one reason we should get rid of IB. If the IB coordinator at South Lakes cannot ensure this, then maybe IB is not all it is cracked up to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Fox Mill kids are kind of screwed at Carson. I have heard from many parents that the Counselor’s at Carson forget that there are kids that go to South Lakes and don’t know what the kids might need for the IB Diploma. This is normally an issue with taking a language in MS to meet the 5 year language requirement for the IB diploma. I had a friend tell me that she just learned about this and that the Counselor never said anything when selecting classes and had to call over to South Lakes to find out that there is a requirement for a 5th year of high school language.

Fox Mill and a small number of kids from Floris are the only kids that go to SLHS. It sucks for the kids.

I’m sorry but this is why you absolutely do not rely on counselors only to chart your kid’s academic path. Parents need to step up and determine what the IB requirements are themselves if their child is going to SLHS. Parents should know and suggest courses to their child. Just like I looked up my kid’s own high school to see what languages they offer up to level 4 or 5. That determined what we chose in middle.

No. That is unreasonable to expect from some parents. I say that as someone who did pay close attention to college requirements for my kids. But, not every parent understands this--and IB is especially difficult to process. This is the counselor's job. The counselors at South Lakes should ensure that Carson counselors understand the requirements. That is their job.

This is one reason we should get rid of IB. If the IB coordinator at South Lakes cannot ensure this, then maybe IB is not all it is cracked up to be.

Oh, come on. The only thing that you have to know in MS is that you need to take a language. You can take it in 7th and 8th or just in 8th. The vast majority of kids who are going to selective colleges (and thus are likely to complete the full IB diploma) take a language in MS anyway. The MS advisors are who need to keep track of 1 piece of information. They may have told this kid and she didn't pay attention/remember or they dropped the ball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Fox Mill kids are kind of screwed at Carson. I have heard from many parents that the Counselor’s at Carson forget that there are kids that go to South Lakes and don’t know what the kids might need for the IB Diploma. This is normally an issue with taking a language in MS to meet the 5 year language requirement for the IB diploma. I had a friend tell me that she just learned about this and that the Counselor never said anything when selecting classes and had to call over to South Lakes to find out that there is a requirement for a 5th year of high school language.

Fox Mill and a small number of kids from Floris are the only kids that go to SLHS. It sucks for the kids.

I’m sorry but this is why you absolutely do not rely on counselors only to chart your kid’s academic path. Parents need to step up and determine what the IB requirements are themselves if their child is going to SLHS. Parents should know and suggest courses to their child. Just like I looked up my kid’s own high school to see what languages they offer up to level 4 or 5. That determined what we chose in middle.

No. That is unreasonable to expect from some parents. I say that as someone who did pay close attention to college requirements for my kids. But, not every parent understands this--and IB is especially difficult to process. This is the counselor's job. The counselors at South Lakes should ensure that Carson counselors understand the requirements. That is their job.

This is one reason we should get rid of IB. If the IB coordinator at South Lakes cannot ensure this, then maybe IB is not all it is cracked up to be.

Oh, come on. The only thing that you have to know in MS is that you need to take a language. You can take it in 7th and 8th or just in 8th. The vast majority of kids who are going to selective colleges (and thus are likely to complete the full IB diploma) take a language in MS anyway. The MS advisors are who need to keep track of 1 piece of information. They may have told this kid and she didn't pay attention/remember or they dropped the ball.

But, I think the PP who brought it up did not know about the language requirement. To me, that falls on the counselor..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

My kids go to Westfield. I don't see how it has a capacity of 3000. The gym is tiny. The cafeteria is tiny. There are trailers being used for classrooms. Regardless, 2000 should be the target HS size. 2600+ is absurd.

If you think the Westfield gym is tiny, there are a lot of FCPS high schools you haven’t visited. It may not be as big as Robinson or Fairfax, but it’s larger than most.

The school was expanded shortly after it was built. I just remember from the boundary study that is why they changed the optimum size of a school to 2000. Because, they could not use capacity as a reason for the move. And, I definitely remember that Westfield had a capacity of 3000. I've been in the gym--and PP is correct. It is comparable to many gyms in FCPS.

I don't think the School Board's strongly held, yet oh-so-temporary, view that no high school should have more than 2000 or 2100 kids had anything to do with the size of Westfield's gym relative to the larger field houses at Robinson, South Lakes, and Fairfax, or the smaller gyms at schools like Langley, Edison, Marshall, and TJ (the FCPS schools built in the mid-1960s have the smallest gyms).

They just wanted to add kids to South Lakes to shore up the school's enrollment and reputation, and South Lakes was surrounded by schools with more kids. So it was convenient to say South Lakes was below the acceptable "minimum" and other schools were above the acceptable "maximum."

Of course, now they are expanding some schools to 3000 again (West Potomac and Centreville), and many others to at least 2500 seats, so the 2000 or 2100-seat "maximum" HS size very much seems to have been forgotten. It's sitting on a book shelf next to the study that said any school with over 40% FARMS will tank.

[Anonymous]

What a mess. We were looking in this area but decided to buy elsewhere with more boundary certainty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Fox Mill kids are kind of screwed at Carson. I have heard from many parents that the Counselor’s at Carson forget that there are kids that go to South Lakes and don’t know what the kids might need for the IB Diploma. This is normally an issue with taking a language in MS to meet the 5 year language requirement for the IB diploma. I had a friend tell me that she just learned about this and that the Counselor never said anything when selecting classes and had to call over to South Lakes to find out that there is a requirement for a 5th year of high school language.

Fox Mill and a small number of kids from Floris are the only kids that go to SLHS. It sucks for the kids.

I’m sorry but this is why you absolutely do not rely on counselors only to chart your kid’s academic path. Parents need to step up and determine what the IB requirements are themselves if their child is going to SLHS. Parents should know and suggest courses to their child. Just like I looked up my kid’s own high school to see what languages they offer up to level 4 or 5. That determined what we chose in middle.

No. That is unreasonable to expect from some parents. I say that as someone who did pay close attention to college requirements for my kids. But, not every parent understands this--and IB is especially difficult to process. This is the counselor's job. The counselors at South Lakes should ensure that Carson counselors understand the requirements. That is their job.

This is one reason we should get rid of IB. If the IB coordinator at South Lakes cannot ensure this, then maybe IB is not all it is cracked up to be.

Oh, come on. The only thing that you have to know in MS is that you need to take a language. You can take it in 7th and 8th or just in 8th. The vast majority of kids who are going to selective colleges (and thus are likely to complete the full IB diploma) take a language in MS anyway. The MS advisors are who need to keep track of 1 piece of information. They may have told this kid and she didn't pay attention/remember or they dropped the ball.

But, I think the PP who brought it up did not know about the language requirement. To me, that falls on the counselor..

I am the PP, I know about the requirement and my kid is in 6th grade. I researched the schools and the options for the schools before we moved. Not every parent does that, even if I think that is crazy. I talk with parents of older kids so that I can learn from them as well. I have learned that many parents do not do the same thing.

Parents rely on the Counselors to know what their kids might need to meet future requirements. The Fox Mill and Floris kids at Carson should have Counselors who recognize that the kids are attending an IB program and should be making suggestions with that in mind. It should not be unreasonable to expect that the person giving you advice on what classes to take is aware that you will be attending a HS that has program needing particular requirements. At the very least, the Guidance Counselors at the MS should have a sheet or a document that they can pull up that lays out specialized programs available at the kids HS so that the Counselor can talk to kids about what to expect at that school.

Many of the kids from Fox Mill are in JI and a good percentage of those kids will continue Japanese so the IB language requirement is not that big a deal but at least half the kids from Fox Mill are not in JI and will not have that option. It is reasonable for a parent to expect the Counselors to know what advice they should be giving to a kid based on ability and what school they are going to be attending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Are you saying Emerald Chase/Bradley Farms (the neighborhood in question that is zoned for Oak Hill, Carson, and Westfield) is not an affluent neighborhood? My best friend lives there, and her house is worth around $850K-$900K. That seems fairly affluent to me!

No. I meant the opposite. I don't think Bradley Farms goes to Oak Hill. I was referring to Emerald Chase that was moved to Oak Hill at that time. As I recall, Emerald Chase wanted to be redistricted to Chantilly along with the Oak Hill kids. SB refused to do so and kept them at Westfield (I think they were already at Westfield.) I believe they did that because they were taking too many kids from Westfield and sending them to South Lakes. And I think they kept them there because they are affluent.

People also forget that not long before this, some of those neighborhoods had been switched from Oakton to Westfield --and then they were moved from Westfield to South Lakes. So, some families experienced kids who attended three different high schools, even though they had not moved.

Pleasant Glen is part of Bradley Farm, and those kids go to Oak Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

My kids go to Westfield. I don't see how it has a capacity of 3000. The gym is tiny. The cafeteria is tiny. There are trailers being used for classrooms. Regardless, 2000 should be the target HS size. 2600+ is absurd.

If you think the Westfield gym is tiny, there are a lot of FCPS high schools you haven’t visited. It may not be as big as Robinson or Fairfax, but it’s larger than most.

A school built or expanded to fit over 3000 kids should have bigger facilities than schools for 2000 students, though. The gym/lunchroom/common areas need more space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are you saying Emerald Chase/Bradley Farms (the neighborhood in question that is zoned for Oak Hill, Carson, and Westfield) is not an affluent neighborhood? My best friend lives there, and her house is worth around $850K-$900K. That seems fairly affluent to me!

No. I meant the opposite. I don't think Bradley Farms goes to Oak Hill. I was referring to Emerald Chase that was moved to Oak Hill at that time. As I recall, Emerald Chase wanted to be redistricted to Chantilly along with the Oak Hill kids. SB refused to do so and kept them at Westfield (I think they were already at Westfield.) I believe they did that because they were taking too many kids from Westfield and sending them to South Lakes. And I think they kept them there because they are affluent.

People also forget that not long before this, some of those neighborhoods had been switched from Oakton to Westfield --and then they were moved from Westfield to South Lakes. So, some families experienced kids who attended three different high schools, even though they had not moved.

Pleasant Glen is part of Bradley Farm, and those kids go to Oak Hill.

Just looked at the map. It is a tiny, tiny part of Bradley Farm reached through Emerald Chase. Most of Bradley Farm goes to Fox Mill or Floris.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Westfield has 2800 students.

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000. That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.

My kids go to Westfield. I don't see how it has a capacity of 3000. The gym is tiny. The cafeteria is tiny. There are trailers being used for classrooms. Regardless, 2000 should be the target HS size. 2600+ is absurd.

If you think the Westfield gym is tiny, there are a lot of FCPS high schools you haven’t visited. It may not be as big as Robinson or Fairfax, but it’s larger than most.

A school built or expanded to fit over 3000 kids should have bigger facilities than schools for 2000 students, though. The gym/lunchroom/common areas need more space.

There are only a few high schools left in the county built for just 2000 or so kids. All the others were either built for more kids or expanded later. Some of those schools need to be expanded before we worry about the size of the Westfield gym.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are you saying Emerald Chase/Bradley Farms (the neighborhood in question that is zoned for Oak Hill, Carson, and Westfield) is not an affluent neighborhood? My best friend lives there, and her house is worth around $850K-$900K. That seems fairly affluent to me!

No. I meant the opposite. I don't think Bradley Farms goes to Oak Hill. I was referring to Emerald Chase that was moved to Oak Hill at that time. As I recall, Emerald Chase wanted to be redistricted to Chantilly along with the Oak Hill kids. SB refused to do so and kept them at Westfield (I think they were already at Westfield.) I believe they did that because they were taking too many kids from Westfield and sending them to South Lakes. And I think they kept them there because they are affluent.

People also forget that not long before this, some of those neighborhoods had been switched from Oakton to Westfield --and then they were moved from Westfield to South Lakes. So, some families experienced kids who attended three different high schools, even though they had not moved.

Pleasant Glen is part of Bradley Farm, and those kids go to Oak Hill.

Just looked at the map. It is a tiny, tiny part of Bradley Farm reached through Emerald Chase. Most of Bradley Farm goes to Fox Mill or Floris.

Okay? That doesn't change the fact that that street is Bradley Farm and those students go to Oak Hill. It's still a fact!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Are you saying Emerald Chase/Bradley Farms (the neighborhood in question that is zoned for Oak Hill, Carson, and Westfield) is not an affluent neighborhood? My best friend lives there, and her house is worth around $850K-$900K. That seems fairly affluent to me!

No. I meant the opposite. I don't think Bradley Farms goes to Oak Hill. I was referring to Emerald Chase that was moved to Oak Hill at that time. As I recall, Emerald Chase wanted to be redistricted to Chantilly along with the Oak Hill kids. SB refused to do so and kept them at Westfield (I think they were already at Westfield.) I believe they did that because they were taking too many kids from Westfield and sending them to South Lakes. And I think they kept them there because they are affluent.

People also forget that not long before this, some of those neighborhoods had been switched from Oakton to Westfield --and then they were moved from Westfield to South Lakes. So, some families experienced kids who attended three different high schools, even though they had not moved.

Emerald Chase wasn't moved from Floris by the SL redistricting. The SL redistricting only affected HS boundaries - typical FCPS redistrictings only affect a specific level - HS/MS/ES.

But... Emerald Chase was classic pre-wired FCPS redistricting. Emerald Chase was moved from Floris to Oak Hill as part of ES redistricting driven by opening of Coates. During Coates redistricting, FCPS claimed that Floris was on a path to overcrowding due to the then *planned* Discovery Square development - out in empty fields at the edge of Floris... nearer to the then under enrolled Lees Corner than to Floris. So, placing Discovery Square in Lees Corner wouldn't have affected any current residents at all, would have utilized Lees Corner's under enrolled facility, and would have addressed Floris' projected over enrollment issue. But... Lees Corner wasn't on the list of ESes in the Boundary Study so the residents' suggestion that the Emerald Chase neighborhood remain in Floris where the community had always been and the then strictly future residents of the fields that became Discovery Square go to Lees Corner, could not be discussed at all because Lees Corner wasn't on FCPS's list of schools included in the Boundary Study. So... FCPS moved Emerald Chase to Oak Hill, and Emerald Chase became the sole bit of Oak Hill ES that goes to Carson/Westfield. Had Emerald Chase remained in Floris, it would have remained with the Floris/Carson/Westfield half of Floris.

Why half of Floris... The Floris boundary of Stu's district was West Ox as of the SL redistricting...