Explain Waynewood/Stratford/Fort Hunt dynamic to me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to Fairfax County.

Yep - home of Democratic hypocrites in that area like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell who talk equity and practice segregation.

Here is your answer. Live on the Potomac River side of Fort Hunt Road and your kids attend “whitewood” for elementary school. Then many are off to private school for middle school and beyond.

If they stay public there is culture shock for middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to Fairfax County.

Yep - home of Democratic hypocrites in that area like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell who talk equity and practice segregation.

Here is your answer. Live on the Potomac River side of Fort Hunt Road and your kids attend “whitewood” for elementary school. Then many are off to private school for middle school and beyond.

If they stay public there is culture shock for middle school.

The vast majority of kids from waynewood continue through west Potomac

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is an attendance Island

It's an area/neighborhood that is carved within another school's catchment zone. You can see it here on this map. When you open it, blow it up and scroll over to the bottom left. You'll see Fort Hunt ES bordering the river. Then follow a little up and to the left and find Mount Vernon Woods in bold. Right above the word "Mount" you'll see in a smaller font "Fort Hunt" with a line. That's an attendance island. Kids from there drive through a couple of other school catchments to get to Fort Hunt ES.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY2023-24ElementarySchoolBoundaries.pdf

To OP--where should Waynewood pull from? Look at the boundaries. Where do you propose they pull from? Currently there are zero apartment buildings in their catchment zone. All single family homes.

Thank you for the explanation, I had never heard of this.

[Anonymous]

Years ago, there was talk about building a new elementary school on the other side of Rt. 1 in the Mount Vernon pyramid - it was referred to as Pinewood and would be located in/near the Pinewood Lake neighborhood. It would allow the Ft. Hunt attendance island kids to have a neighborhood school. I went to community meeting about the school. I think my oldest was still in elementary school and he's now a college graduate so it would have been 10 plus years ago. I haven't heard about the plans in years. It would not solve the Whitewood problem, but it would get rid of the Ft. Hunt island.

[Anonymous]

One long-standing issue is the pipeline of zoned Mt Vernon HS families who use Ft Hunt immersion to get their kids out of the Mt Vernon pyramid. They send kids to Spanish and test them into Stratford Landing AAP instead of sending them to the AAP elementary school in the Mt Vernon Pyramid. This has led to overcrowding at Stratford, Sandburg MS and West Po. It's ridiculous. Kids who do stay in the AAP school near Mt Vernon have super small classes with personalized attention. If they closed this loophole it would solve a bunch of the overcrowding problems.

I know a few families who decided the driving was a pain and put their younger kids in the neighborhood schools in Mt Vernon thru HS and were very happy. More families in that pyramid should give it a try!

[Anonymous]

They closed Hollin Hall and bused those kids to Waynewood and bused the kids from Hybla Valley to Fort Hunt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One long-standing issue is the pipeline of zoned Mt Vernon HS families who use Ft Hunt immersion to get their kids out of the Mt Vernon pyramid. They send kids to Spanish and test them into Stratford Landing AAP instead of sending them to the AAP elementary school in the Mt Vernon Pyramid. This has led to overcrowding at Stratford, Sandburg MS and West Po. It's ridiculous. Kids who do stay in the AAP school near Mt Vernon have super small classes with personalized attention. If they closed this loophole it would solve a bunch of the overcrowding problems.

I know a few families who decided the driving was a pain and put their younger kids in the neighborhood schools in Mt Vernon thru HS and were very happy. More families in that pyramid should give it a try!

I'm a MV pyramid mom. Years ago, MV students did pupil place to Stratford and WestPo. But WestPo has been truly closed to transfers since the high school class of 2022 were freshmen, which would have been fall of 2018. I haven't heard of any AAP kids going to Stratford since the late 2000s. Our AAP students do go to Sandburg because we don't have a center at Whitman. And I'm pretty sure the Ft Hunt immersion students are also allowed to go to Sandburg. But since 2018, they've had to return to MV or pupil place into Hayfield. West Po does have a new principal this year - is she going to let students transfer in? The previous principal did not allow any transfers.

And yes, MVHS is a hidden gem. As a parent, I love the smaller size of the school and the opportunities my children have received being a big fish in a little pond. As a taxpayer, I hate that WestPo was expanded and MVHS is underenrolled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They closed Hollin Hall and bused those kids to Waynewood and bused the kids from Hybla Valley to Fort Hunt.

Hybla valley doesn’t bus to ft hunt. Do you live anywhere near the area?

[Anonymous]

Waynewood parents love to say WW elementary is “just like a private school.” It’s obnoxious. The snobbery in that neighborhood is real.

The whole dynamic is really unfortunate. It dramatically impacts the property values of the surrounding neighborhoods too.

Carl Sandburg is a disaster. That’s where all the kids from these elementary schools go. West Po is a bit better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They closed Hollin Hall and bused those kids to Waynewood and bused the kids from Hybla Valley to Fort Hunt.

Hybla valley doesn’t bus to ft hunt. Do you live anywhere near the area?

I was at Fort Hunt for the first year of busing then went to Waynewood and was there when they started busing kids from the far side of Fort Hunt Road. My first year at Waynewood we had one person of color in my class (nice kid, I saw him on a Waynewood Facebook group a while back), but he moved so the next year wasn't as diverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Waynewood parents love to say WW elementary is “just like a private school.” It’s obnoxious. The snobbery in that neighborhood is real.

The whole dynamic is really unfortunate. It dramatically impacts the property values of the surrounding neighborhoods too.

Carl Sandburg is a disaster. That’s where all the kids from these elementary schools go. West Po is a bit better.

The snobbery is real and it's so weird. WW peeps are inexplicably pleased with themselves. And the housing stock down there is so mid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One long-standing issue is the pipeline of zoned Mt Vernon HS families who use Ft Hunt immersion to get their kids out of the Mt Vernon pyramid. They send kids to Spanish and test them into Stratford Landing AAP instead of sending them to the AAP elementary school in the Mt Vernon Pyramid. This has led to overcrowding at Stratford, Sandburg MS and West Po. It's ridiculous. Kids who do stay in the AAP school near Mt Vernon have super small classes with personalized attention. If they closed this loophole it would solve a bunch of the overcrowding problems.

I know a few families who decided the driving was a pain and put their younger kids in the neighborhood schools in Mt Vernon thru HS and were very happy. More families in that pyramid should give it a try!

I'm a MV pyramid mom. Years ago, MV students did pupil place to Stratford and WestPo. But WestPo has been truly closed to transfers since the high school class of 2022 were freshmen, which would have been fall of 2018. I haven't heard of any AAP kids going to Stratford since the late 2000s. Our AAP students do go to Sandburg because we don't have a center at Whitman. And I'm pretty sure the Ft Hunt immersion students are also allowed to go to Sandburg. But since 2018, they've had to return to MV or pupil place into Hayfield. West Po does have a new principal this year - is she going to let students transfer in? The previous principal did not allow any transfers.

And yes, MVHS is a hidden gem. As a parent, I love the smaller size of the school and the opportunities my children have received being a big fish in a little pond. As a taxpayer, I hate that WestPo was expanded and MVHS is underenrolled.

The expansion of West Potomac to 3200 seats didn’t just happen by accident. West Po wasn’t scheduled for a renovation. It was Jeff Platenberg playing favorites and politicians like Corbett Sanders and Surovell who made that happen. Taxpayers paid through the nose, other overcrowding schools got ignored, and Mount Vernon’s reputation continued to decline. If it doesn’t meet the legal definition of corruption, it’s still rotten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Waynewood parents love to say WW elementary is “just like a private school.” It’s obnoxious. The snobbery in that neighborhood is real.

The whole dynamic is really unfortunate. It dramatically impacts the property values of the surrounding neighborhoods too.

Carl Sandburg is a disaster. That’s where all the kids from these elementary schools go. West Po is a bit better.

The snobbery is real and it's so weird. WW peeps are inexplicably pleased with themselves. And the housing stock down there is so mid.

+1. So many of the WW houses are average and not very attractive. When we were looking to buy in the area we just couldn’t stomach paying $1mil for a house without a garage, small kitchen, etc. We are happy on the other side of Fort Hunt Rd.