SB Member Anderson on County-wide Boundary Study

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holistic studies should be routinely done every few years in a county-wide district like this. I wish such a routine was mandated like the Census.

That’s ridiculous. A whole county review every 3-4 years is a waste of time.

I do think that a complete erasing of boundaries, studying capacity and projected growth and redrawing them every 25 years is a good idea. In the intervening years a tweak here or there is all that should be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holistic studies should be routinely done every few years in a county-wide district like this. I wish such a routine was mandated like the Census.

That’s ridiculous. A whole county review every 3-4 years is a waste of time.

I do think that a complete erasing of boundaries, studying capacity and projected growth and redrawing them every 25 years is a good idea. In the intervening years a tweak here or there is all that should be done.

I never said 3-4 years. I said mandated to be done routinely. The Census (aka the US decennial census) is every 10 years and that seems the right amount of time to check the status and determine if changes are necessary. Most of the time, in most pyramids, probably little needs to be changed. Wait too long and people start getting too stuck and act as if a boundary is permanent. It’s been decades since the last one, right? That is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m curious what they do with Glasgow. They have a big facility so it’s more an issue with just too many kids in one building than traditional overcrowding.

But if they just move kids to Holmes or Poe without changing high schools they turn those schools into 3-way split feeders. Holmes would feed to Annandale, Justice, and Edison. Poe would feed to Annandale, Justice, and Falls Church. Not sure why they can’t just send the AAP kids back to their base schools.

Of course if they are looking at county-wide changes they won’t be limited to the Justice pyramid.

They're looking at sending some of the AAP kids to Canterbury/Frost, which seems like a long bus ride.

So they aren't considering just having AAP at Holmes or Poe?

If not, 4could they send the AAP kids from Bren Mar Park to Twain rather than Glasgow, since BMP feeds to Edison? And maybe send the AAP kids from Mason Crest who feed to Falls Church to Jackson rather than Glasgow? Not sure how many kids that would affect.

If they do something like send the Columbia AAP kids to Frost rather than Glasgow, it's a much longer bus ride.

They can’t because Bren Mar ends at 5th grade and Twain doesn’t start til 7th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holistic studies should be routinely done every few years in a county-wide district like this. I wish such a routine was mandated like the Census.

That’s ridiculous. A whole county review every 3-4 years is a waste of time.

I do think that a complete erasing of boundaries, studying capacity and projected growth and redrawing them every 25 years is a good idea. In the intervening years a tweak here or there is all that should be done.

I never said 3-4 years. I said mandated to be done routinely. The Census (aka the US decennial census) is every 10 years and that seems the right amount of time to check the status and determine if changes are necessary. Most of the time, in most pyramids, probably little needs to be changed. Wait too long and people start getting too stuck and act as if a boundary is permanent. It’s been decades since the last one, right? That is ridiculous.

People can act like a boundary should be permanent or act like it needs to be changed because they want it. That doesn’t have anything to do with good governance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holistic studies should be routinely done every few years in a county-wide district like this. I wish such a routine was mandated like the Census.

That’s ridiculous. A whole county review every 3-4 years is a waste of time.

I do think that a complete erasing of boundaries, studying capacity and projected growth and redrawing them every 25 years is a good idea. In the intervening years a tweak here or there is all that should be done.

I never said 3-4 years. I said mandated to be done routinely. The Census (aka the US decennial census) is every 10 years and that seems the right amount of time to check the status and determine if changes are necessary. Most of the time, in most pyramids, probably little needs to be changed. Wait too long and people start getting too stuck and act as if a boundary is permanent. It’s been decades since the last one, right? That is ridiculous.

People can act like a boundary should be permanent or act like it needs to be changed because they want it. That doesn’t have anything to do with good governance.

Agreed but governance means getting reliable data routinely about where things stand. Some people don’t want the information because they would then be expected to act on that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holistic studies should be routinely done every few years in a county-wide district like this. I wish such a routine was mandated like the Census.

That’s ridiculous. A whole county review every 3-4 years is a waste of time.

I do think that a complete erasing of boundaries, studying capacity and projected growth and redrawing them every 25 years is a good idea. In the intervening years a tweak here or there is all that should be done.

I never said 3-4 years. I said mandated to be done routinely. The Census (aka the US decennial census) is every 10 years and that seems the right amount of time to check the status and determine if changes are necessary. Most of the time, in most pyramids, probably little needs to be changed. Wait too long and people start getting too stuck and act as if a boundary is permanent. It’s been decades since the last one, right? That is ridiculous.

People can act like a boundary should be permanent or act like it needs to be changed because they want it. That doesn’t have anything to do with good governance.

Agreed but governance means getting reliable data routinely about where things stand. Some people don’t want the information because they would then be expected to act on that.

Admin deleted my prior post, not totally sure why, but that’s his right.

So, I’ll non-controversially state that parents/citizens would not be on board with the frequency of the redistricting proposed in the posts above.

[Anonymous]

Tweaks happen somewhere in the district fairly frequently. When was the last comprehensive, holistic study?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tweaks happen somewhere in the district fairly frequently. When was the last comprehensive, holistic study?

It may have been 1984.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tweaks happen somewhere in the district fairly frequently. When was the last comprehensive, holistic study?

It may have been 1984.

Then by anyone’s gauge, FCPS is due.

[Anonymous]

I’d prefer they just come up with a new renovation queue than hype a county-wide redistricting that I doubt they are capable of pulling off.

I mean, just look at the other night. Staff was supposed to make a presentation on the scope of a single, narrow boundary change (Glasgow MS), and it was a fiasco. But these are the people we’re supposed to trust to change boundaries across the entire county?

[Anonymous]

They might not redistrict your school. Still they should evaluate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d prefer they just come up with a new renovation queue than hype a county-wide redistricting that I doubt they are capable of pulling off.

I mean, just look at the other night. Staff was supposed to make a presentation on the scope of a single, narrow boundary change (Glasgow MS), and it was a fiasco. But these are the people we’re supposed to trust to change boundaries across the entire county?

The timing was off. They should have stopped the presentation before the meeting started.

[Anonymous]

The regular redistrictings as of the past used to work when all the schools had generally similar programs. Now some schools have AP, but others IB; some schools have Academies, but others don’t; some have great extra-curricular programs in some areas, but not others, etc. These differences invite parents to focus intensely on schools when deciding where to buy or rent, and make people more resistant to change.

They will hit a brick wall if they try to do a county-wide redistricting that, for example, includes booting people out of AP schools into IB schools (or in some cases vice versa).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d prefer they just come up with a new renovation queue than hype a county-wide redistricting that I doubt they are capable of pulling off.

I mean, just look at the other night. Staff was supposed to make a presentation on the scope of a single, narrow boundary change (Glasgow MS), and it was a fiasco. But these are the people we’re supposed to trust to change boundaries across the entire county?

The timing was off. They should have stopped the presentation before the meeting started.

Exactly. It’s not uncommon to pull something off the agenda if it turns out it’s not ready for prime time. That was clearly the class with the Glasgow presentation, and it was Anderson’s fault. I have little confidence in the ability of people like her to oversee even bigger changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The regular redistrictings as of the past used to work when all the schools had generally similar programs. Now some schools have AP, but others IB; some schools have Academies, but others don’t; some have great extra-curricular programs in some areas, but not others, etc. These differences invite parents to focus intensely on schools when deciding where to buy or rent, and make people more resistant to change.

They will hit a brick wall if they try to do a county-wide redistricting that, for example, includes booting people out of AP schools into IB schools (or in some cases vice versa).

Then they would acting like there are multiple school systems when FCPS is a single system. Are you advocating for a tiered system? If so, then there should be school choice.