Boundary Review Meetings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading some of these comments sounds like there are school board members being ‘anonymous’ trying to defend rationale for pushing this redoing of boundaries. Telling WSHS families to ‘just stop’ when the data shows kids moving from Lewis to WSHS when there is an overcrowding issue makes no sense and moving Sangster kids to LB for really no reason.

I bet too that if WSHS parents had a vote they’d rather the kids being moved in scenario 4 than taking in the Lewis kids—prove me wrong.

Not on school board. No one knows how many potential Lewis to WSHS students are in that cluster. It’s all speculation based on nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading some of these comments sounds like there are school board members being ‘anonymous’ trying to defend rationale for pushing this redoing of boundaries. Telling WSHS families to ‘just stop’ when the data shows kids moving from Lewis to WSHS when there is an overcrowding issue makes no sense and moving Sangster kids to LB for really no reason.

I bet too that if WSHS parents had a vote they’d rather the kids being moved in scenario 4 than taking in the Lewis kids—prove me wrong.

Not on school board. No one knows how many potential Lewis to WSHS students are in that cluster. It’s all speculation based on nonsense.

Of course no one knows. The point I think some WSHS parents are trying to make on this, however, is that we've seen this play before. It is the same thing that happened with Daventry. The Daventry parents 10 years ago argued that they just would be moving in a handful of kids by moving from Lewis to WSHS. And now there are a LOT of kids coming from that neighborhood. We can't tell you how many because FCPS staff doesn't make that info available.

It can start as 9 kids and end up at 40 or 50 real quickly. Also, the idea that you'd move current WSHS kids out to make room for Lewis kids, when Lewis is already underenrolled just boggles the mind.

[Anonymous]

Can someone explain this? (Notes in the tool)
The adjustments only include students attending their base school.
The adjustments do not include general education students transferring to another school, AAP students transferring to another school, and special education students transferring to another school. These students are still considered part of the school they are transferring to.

[Anonymous]

I think the Lewis and West Springfield folks need to consider my post from yesterday. Reposting here (it is on page 77).

Here is what I think is going on with Lewis.

The county cannot officially make Lewis an ESL school (that would be illegal), but through their actions they seem to be pushing it that way.

They slightly shrank the boundaries with this latest map. This could reduce the population further (on track to be around 1450 in a couple of years). Remember, in both 2005 and 2015 the boundaries of Lewis (Lee) were made smaller and the enrollment fell from over 2100 to its current 1539.

At Lewis they stick with a woefully underperforming IB program and have shrunk the language choices to a minimum. They put in a STEM program at Edison next door. All of this allows (and incentivizes) families who live within the Lewis boundaries to pupil place to other schools. These are typically families with more resources that can provide their own transportation and likely get more education support at home.

The end effect is Lewis having more high-needs students and fewer advanced students. This theoretically allows the county to focus on high-needs students while more advanced students transfer to different schools to access more advanced courses. They must think this will make the job for Lewis administrators and teachers easier. The problem is that right now they don’t appear to be getting those high-needs students to perform very well (only so much a school can do without proper influence from the home), and it is doing a disservice to advanced students who have to stay at Lewis (fewer advanced courses, fewer instances of those courses).

If they had addressed this 10-15 years ago they may have been able to avert Lewis from becoming a pariah. At this point Lewis is so far down the high ESL / high poverty line that the thought of moving any students to Lewis is seen as cataclysmic. I think all of this explains why no students are being moved to Lewis.

This is the only explanation I can think of. Why else would they hold on to IB at that school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are locked in on the number of homes for whatever reason. Only seems to be Lewis parents.

There are WAY more than 20 high school students living in those 282 Lewis townhomes getting rezoned to WSHS.

It is probably closer to 50 high school students. Maybe more. Maybe less.

There are around 8-9 students per grade at the elementary level from that neighborhood getting rezoned to WSHS from Lewis, approximately 60 elementary students total.

FCPS is estimating 20 students, which is roughly 3 students per grade.

This means the number of students who will attend WSHS from that neighborhood is at least triple the FCPS estimates.

Once that RV neighborhood is zoned for WSHS, that number will skyrocket. It will probably end up bringing in more students than FCPS is removing from Sangster.

Here we go again. Broken record. Speculation. Wrong info. Please stop.

It is not speculating.

Other than the math correction of double from triple, this post is correct and you know it.

It completely discounts and ignores the number of homes and students lost to LBSS and only focuses on the gains - which are offset by a great number resulting in a big net loss of both homes and students.

There are far more than 20 lewis zoned high school students in that RV neighborhood.

FCPS is not counting all the lewis zoned students from that neighborhood who are pupil placing to other high schools, who will switch to WSHS in 2026.

The number is substantial.

Moving any neighborhood into WSHS will negate any enrollment increase by moving Sangster to LB.

Spouting opinions as facts. Just stop it.

Something is off with THRU’s math.

Rolling Valley enrollment is 519
Scenario 3 moves Lewis Zoned Students and enrollment drops to 413 (519-413=106 —> 106/7=15 kids per grade or 60 students to Lewis)
Scenario 4 moves Lewis students north of the parkway to WSHS and enrollment drops to 471 (519-471=48 —> 48/7=7 students per grade or 28 students to Lewis.)

That means Scenario 4 should be moving 32 kids from Lewis to WSHS, not 20. It isn’t huge, but makes you wonder if there are additional errors at play in these estimates.

[Anonymous]

Are there stats showing how many students received IB diplomas at each school offering them? I'm curious what the amount is for Lewis vs. other schools.
Do other parents have information on what classes/clubs/sports Lewis is not able to provide due to low enrollment? I remember hearing that they didn't have a softball team due to low interest. Are there any other activities not offerred?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are locked in on the number of homes for whatever reason. Only seems to be Lewis parents.

There are WAY more than 20 high school students living in those 282 Lewis townhomes getting rezoned to WSHS.

It is probably closer to 50 high school students. Maybe more. Maybe less.

There are around 8-9 students per grade at the elementary level from that neighborhood getting rezoned to WSHS from Lewis, approximately 60 elementary students total.

FCPS is estimating 20 students, which is roughly 3 students per grade.

This means the number of students who will attend WSHS from that neighborhood is at least triple the FCPS estimates.

Once that RV neighborhood is zoned for WSHS, that number will skyrocket. It will probably end up bringing in more students than FCPS is removing from Sangster.

Here we go again. Broken record. Speculation. Wrong info. Please stop.

It is not speculating.

Other than the math correction of double from triple, this post is correct and you know it.

It completely discounts and ignores the number of homes and students lost to LBSS and only focuses on the gains - which are offset by a great number resulting in a big net loss of both homes and students.

There are far more than 20 lewis zoned high school students in that RV neighborhood.

FCPS is not counting all the lewis zoned students from that neighborhood who are pupil placing to other high schools, who will switch to WSHS in 2026.

The number is substantial.

Moving any neighborhood into WSHS will negate any enrollment increase by moving Sangster to LB.

Spouting opinions as facts. Just stop it.

Look, we realize that you are thrilled that you managed to increase your property value by 20% overnight, but get real.

There are around 8 to 9 elementary kids per grade living in that Lewis neighborhood attending Rolling Valley.

At the minimum, the number of high school kids living in that Lewis neighborhood is double the projection of fewer than 20 students that FCPS is using to justify rezoning them.

FCPS needs to do a count of how many kids from that Lewis neighborhood, likely dozens, who are zoned for Lewis but attending other schools due to pupil placement options like Lake Braddock for AP and Edison for academy classes.

The number of high school students in that Lewis neighborhood is much higher than 20.

Rezone them or not, but use accurate numbers and make the numbers public.

Using fake numbers impacts every kid at WSHS, including the WSHS Sangster students.

I’m not from those townhomes. No impact either way to my property value or kids. I was and still am zoned for WSHS.

I just don’t want misinformation tossed out there like it’s fact. Or you can go to the meeting and say the same stats and numbers, look dumb, and invalidate your points. Up to you.

I do agree Lewis is a disaster. And I’m shocked the fcps board and thru were smart enough to not send other kids there in a stupid attempt to raise averages etc. I don’t know the answer to fix Lewis if it’s even fixable.

The fact is that FCPS is not including in their calculations the kids zoned for Lewis from that neighborhood who pupil place to other high schools.

It is also true that based on FCPS own numbers on the Thru maps, that neighborhood sends close to 10 elementary kids per grade to Rolling Valley. At a minimum, the amount of high school kids zoned for that neighborhood is double what FCPS is estimating.

They are only using the high school kids that actually attend Lewis.

They are not including the kids from that neighborhood who are zoned to Lewis but pupil place to other schools.

FCPS needs to use accurate numbers.

They need to include all the pupil placed students from that neighborhood so the totals being used to justify the rezoning are accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there stats showing how many students received IB diplomas at each school offering them? I'm curious what the amount is for Lewis vs. other schools.
Do other parents have information on what classes/clubs/sports Lewis is not able to provide due to low enrollment? I remember hearing that they didn't have a softball team due to low interest. Are there any other activities not offerred?

The state of Virginia Department of Education has that number.

I checked last year, and Lewis was in the very low single digits for IB diplomas, the lowest in the county.

I think it was only 3 diplomas, by don't quote me because I might be wrong by one or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the Lewis and West Springfield folks need to consider my post from yesterday. Reposting here (it is on page 77).

Here is what I think is going on with Lewis.

The county cannot officially make Lewis an ESL school (that would be illegal), but through their actions they seem to be pushing it that way.

They slightly shrank the boundaries with this latest map. This could reduce the population further (on track to be around 1450 in a couple of years). Remember, in both 2005 and 2015 the boundaries of Lewis (Lee) were made smaller and the enrollment fell from over 2100 to its current 1539.

At Lewis they stick with a woefully underperforming IB program and have shrunk the language choices to a minimum. They put in a STEM program at Edison next door. All of this allows (and incentivizes) families who live within the Lewis boundaries to pupil place to other schools. These are typically families with more resources that can provide their own transportation and likely get more education support at home.

The end effect is Lewis having more high-needs students and fewer advanced students. This theoretically allows the county to focus on high-needs students while more advanced students transfer to different schools to access more advanced courses. They must think this will make the job for Lewis administrators and teachers easier. The problem is that right now they don’t appear to be getting those high-needs students to perform very well (only so much a school can do without proper influence from the home), and it is doing a disservice to advanced students who have to stay at Lewis (fewer advanced courses, fewer instances of those courses).

If they had addressed this 10-15 years ago they may have been able to avert Lewis from becoming a pariah. At this point Lewis is so far down the high ESL / high poverty line that the thought of moving any students to Lewis is seen as cataclysmic. I think all of this explains why no students are being moved to Lewis.

This is the only explanation I can think of. Why else would they hold on to IB at that school?

If that logic is true, then it is completely inequitable to all the other FARMs and ELL kids at the large high schools like Annandale, Falls Church, Justice, etc, which have larger ELL populations than Lewis by the raw numbers. Why do Lewis ELL kids get special small private school treatment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the Lewis and West Springfield folks need to consider my post from yesterday. Reposting here (it is on page 77).

Here is what I think is going on with Lewis.

The county cannot officially make Lewis an ESL school (that would be illegal), but through their actions they seem to be pushing it that way.

They slightly shrank the boundaries with this latest map. This could reduce the population further (on track to be around 1450 in a couple of years). Remember, in both 2005 and 2015 the boundaries of Lewis (Lee) were made smaller and the enrollment fell from over 2100 to its current 1539.

At Lewis they stick with a woefully underperforming IB program and have shrunk the language choices to a minimum. They put in a STEM program at Edison next door. All of this allows (and incentivizes) families who live within the Lewis boundaries to pupil place to other schools. These are typically families with more resources that can provide their own transportation and likely get more education support at home.

The end effect is Lewis having more high-needs students and fewer advanced students. This theoretically allows the county to focus on high-needs students while more advanced students transfer to different schools to access more advanced courses. They must think this will make the job for Lewis administrators and teachers easier. The problem is that right now they don’t appear to be getting those high-needs students to perform very well (only so much a school can do without proper influence from the home), and it is doing a disservice to advanced students who have to stay at Lewis (fewer advanced courses, fewer instances of those courses).

If they had addressed this 10-15 years ago they may have been able to avert Lewis from becoming a pariah. At this point Lewis is so far down the high ESL / high poverty line that the thought of moving any students to Lewis is seen as cataclysmic. I think all of this explains why no students are being moved to Lewis.

This is the only explanation I can think of. Why else would they hold on to IB at that school?

Herndon is AP and that school is also a pariah. Do you see anyone on here clamoring to get into Herndon?

It’s not about the program it is about the students. How are people so naive? It is not about the classes it is about the environment. Put IB at Langley and see if there is a mass exodus there.

If they take away IB people of means will simply use a different excuse. You can transfer for other reasons other than IB/AP so people will just use something else.

The only people that are screwed are poor kids who are at or above grade level and take their studies seriously. They are stuck in a bad school because their family can’t transport them to a better school or don’t know any better.

[Anonymous]

Herndon is not a pariah the same way as Lewis, only in the minds of Great Falls parents. Lots of middle class and upper middle class kids at Herndon.

[Anonymous]

I'm completely baffled that the FCPS "SPA planning numbers" are just based on an algorithm and not actually how many kids live there. They know where all their students live...so why are they just guessing?

[Anonymous]

Did that School. Board member who was trying to help out a donor by moving their house from Lewis to WSHS get their way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the Lewis and West Springfield folks need to consider my post from yesterday. Reposting here (it is on page 77).

Here is what I think is going on with Lewis.

The county cannot officially make Lewis an ESL school (that would be illegal), but through their actions they seem to be pushing it that way.

They slightly shrank the boundaries with this latest map. This could reduce the population further (on track to be around 1450 in a couple of years). Remember, in both 2005 and 2015 the boundaries of Lewis (Lee) were made smaller and the enrollment fell from over 2100 to its current 1539.

At Lewis they stick with a woefully underperforming IB program and have shrunk the language choices to a minimum. They put in a STEM program at Edison next door. All of this allows (and incentivizes) families who live within the Lewis boundaries to pupil place to other schools. These are typically families with more resources that can provide their own transportation and likely get more education support at home.

The end effect is Lewis having more high-needs students and fewer advanced students. This theoretically allows the county to focus on high-needs students while more advanced students transfer to different schools to access more advanced courses. They must think this will make the job for Lewis administrators and teachers easier. The problem is that right now they don’t appear to be getting those high-needs students to perform very well (only so much a school can do without proper influence from the home), and it is doing a disservice to advanced students who have to stay at Lewis (fewer advanced courses, fewer instances of those courses).

If they had addressed this 10-15 years ago they may have been able to avert Lewis from becoming a pariah. At this point Lewis is so far down the high ESL / high poverty line that the thought of moving any students to Lewis is seen as cataclysmic. I think all of this explains why no students are being moved to Lewis.

This is the only explanation I can think of. Why else would they hold on to IB at that school?

Herndon is AP and that school is also a pariah. Do you see anyone on here clamoring to get into Herndon?

It’s not about the program it is about the students. How are people so naive? It is not about the classes it is about the environment. Put IB at Langley and see if there is a mass exodus there.

If they take away IB people of means will simply use a different excuse. You can transfer for other reasons other than IB/AP so people will just use something else.

The only people that are screwed are poor kids who are at or above grade level and take their studies seriously. They are stuck in a bad school because their family can’t transport them to a better school or don’t know any better.

But, the AP/IB issue makes it very easy for transfer by pupil placement. That is how Herndon kids leave Herndon and Lewis kids leave Lewis.

Get rid of IB--most prefer AP. Then, you may help Lewis and Herndon. Sure, there will still be "ways" to transfer, but not as easy as this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm completely baffled that the FCPS "SPA planning numbers" are just based on an algorithm and not actually how many kids live there. They know where all their students live...so why are they just guessing?

FCPS planning and facilities department has been a complete disaster for many years. As long as they were just glorified building contractors overseeing fancy renovations of your schools, and expansions that may or may not have been needed, you were fine with it. Now that they are messing with more boundaries some of you are starting to wake up.