Where should the county move the Kent Gardens kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Westgate and Lemon Road are both below capacity, border the current Kent Gardens district, and send some kids to McLean HS. Why aren’t we considering sending some kids to those schools instead of moving so many kids out of Franklin Sherman to make space for the KG students?

Westgate is one of the schools most impacted by Tysons growth, along with Spring Hill.

Lemon Road is on the other side of 267 and in a different pyramid, so Kent Gardens parents could be expected to complain more if they were being moved there rather than into another school in the same pyramid.

I can’t think of any redistricting in decades where such a large percentage of kids would be moved into and out of a school, though, as stands to be the case at Franklin Sherman here. It will continue to feed to LMS and MHS, but the neighborhoods will change a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Westgate and Lemon Road are both below capacity, border the current Kent Gardens district, and send some kids to McLean HS. Why aren’t we considering sending some kids to those schools instead of moving so many kids out of Franklin Sherman to make space for the KG students?

How many kids are really being moved out of Franklin Sherman? The obvious group would be the kids who go to Cooper/Langley. This is 3-4 students per grade. So a total of about 25 students. It actually makes sense to move them to Churchill Road. Who else will be moved out of FS?

It’s a small school and all but one of the five options call for moving about 150 kids. And all but one of the five options call for moving the Cooper/Langley kids to Churchill Road, so that’s almost a done deal at this point. Other kids stand to be moved to Chesterbrook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They were very clear about not impacting HS and middle school boundaries. Why? McLean HS is also over crowded and something will need to be done within the next couple of years. When that happens, we’ll be looking at some of these same neighborhoods to realign to other high schools. Why not make some changes now that will help both KG and MHS, instead of putting some of these same kids through another round of changes in a couple of years?

Because they just changed the MS/HS boundaries in 2021; they need to fund an addition to MHS; and they can move some kids from the Timber Lane area to Jackson MS/Falls Church HS in a few years if they want once the FCHS renovation is finished.

It’s not easy to change ES boundaries within the same pyramid; heading into an election the last thing they are going to do is propose to change the MHS boundaries yet again (second time in three years) when they’ve neglected the need for an addition for so long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Westgate and Lemon Road are both below capacity, border the current Kent Gardens district, and send some kids to McLean HS. Why aren’t we considering sending some kids to those schools instead of moving so many kids out of Franklin Sherman to make space for the KG students?

Westgate is one of the schools most impacted by Tysons growth, along with Spring Hill.

Lemon Road is on the other side of 267 and in a different pyramid, so Kent Gardens parents could be expected to complain more if they were being moved there rather than into another school in the same pyramid.

I can’t think of any redistricting in decades where such a large percentage of kids would be moved into and out of a school, though, as stands to be the case at Franklin Sherman here. It will continue to feed to LMS and MHS, but the neighborhoods will change a lot.

Lemon Rd is a split feeder. The homes in the southern part of the district feed into the Longfellow/McLean pyramid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Westgate and Lemon Road are both below capacity, border the current Kent Gardens district, and send some kids to McLean HS. Why aren’t we considering sending some kids to those schools instead of moving so many kids out of Franklin Sherman to make space for the KG students?

Westgate is one of the schools most impacted by Tysons growth, along with Spring Hill.

Lemon Road is on the other side of 267 and in a different pyramid, so Kent Gardens parents could be expected to complain more if they were being moved there rather than into another school in the same pyramid.

I can’t think of any redistricting in decades where such a large percentage of kids would be moved into and out of a school, though, as stands to be the case at Franklin Sherman here. It will continue to feed to LMS and MHS, but the neighborhoods will change a lot.

Lemon Rd is a split feeder. The homes in the southern part of the district feed into the Longfellow/McLean pyramid.

True, but it’s in the other side of the Toll Road and in the Marshall pyramid. Anyway, I don’t think it was included within the scope of the boundary study approved back in June so it’s unlikely they are going to change that now.

[Anonymous]

Form was turned off early!

[Anonymous]

Why don’t they move the Franklin Sherman neighborhood that is on the Langley side of 123 diagonal from J Gilbert’s. When my kids were at Longfellow and Mclean I used to hate to have to pick them up during rush hour from that neighborhood. No one talks about that neighborhood and it is never addressed in any study. Those kids could practically walk to Churchill.

[Anonymous]

Did anyone go to the in person meeting? I couldn’t make it but am curious if they set any timeline for notifying the community on the final decision.

[Anonymous]

As someone who was heavily involved with the Cooper/Longfellow conversations two years ago, parents need to be aware that the community meetings and input are for show

The real decisions are made behind closed doors as deals between school board members. If you have a strong viewpoint, I would reach out to the school board rep, set up an in person meeting and lobby hard. Find out what they want to get you want you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Form was turned off early!

This is not surprising. They will turn it back on if someone complains, but they don’t look at the comments anyway.

[Anonymous]

What option do people favor? My bet is that the only thing that really matters to Tholen is moving the Franklin Sherman kids zoned to Cooper/Langley to Churchill Road. What otherwise happens with the kids at Kent Gardens or in the other McLean pyramid schools (Chesterbrook, Franklin Sherman, Haycock) likely doesn't matter to her much at all.

[Anonymous]

They need to take the opportunity to move enough kids to Chesterbrook to take advantage of its available long-term capacity. If they are going to have schools undercapacity, they should be the ones that border the West Falls Church and Tysons area development areas (and/or other ES). Chesterbrook is on the county line, so nowhere else for it to expand to... whereas all the other schools could potentially expand their catchment areas in the future to help balance capacity if needed (and/or KG could expand it's in-demand immersion program). Unless they plan on adding a similar elective program at Chesterbrook in the future, they need to shift more kids there.

Agree that eliminating the FS split feeder and moving the FS Langley kids to Churchill Road is a no-brainer. Along with that little easternmost island of FS moving to Chesterbook.

[Anonymous]

I just hope there’s some time to transition the students who will be moving schools. Think they will phase it in over a year/give kids a choice of staying at current school or will they just rip the bandaid off and force the change for everyone next fall?

[Anonymous]

I'd expect a phasing approach of some sort.

[Anonymous]

The last boundary change involving elementary schools was in the Justice pyramid in mid-2021. Kids in K and 1st grade had to attend the new schools that fall, regardless of the schools attended by their older siblings. Kids in higher grades had the option to attend the new school or stay at their existing school through middle school.