Changes in boundaries for schools (including AAP Centers) and Capital Improvement Program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: The alleviation of overcrowding at Kilmer and Thoreau by sending Cooper kids back to McLean makes sense.

What's depressing is seeing a small neighborhood school like Westbriar, with a one street entrance, ballooning up to 900 kids in 5 years. Yes, it's now an AAP center, but making it the defacto Tysons school with such limited access and doubling it's size is going to make passage in and out of those neighborhoods via OCR a nightmare.

Looks like FCPS wants to move the Westbriar island west of Beulah to Colvin Run and/or Wolftrap. It's unclear whether some or all of that area will also move from Marshall to Langley. Either way, Westbriar may end up with a higher percentage of AAP students than parents may have expected earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The alleviation of overcrowding at Kilmer and Thoreau by sending Cooper kids back to McLean makes sense.

What's depressing is seeing a small neighborhood school like Westbriar, with a one street entrance, ballooning up to 900 kids in 5 years. Yes, it's now an AAP center, but making it the defacto Tysons school with such limited access and doubling it's size is going to make passage in and out of those neighborhoods via OCR a nightmare.

Looks like FCPS wants to move the Westbriar island west of Beulah to Colvin Run and/or Wolftrap. It's unclear whether some or all of that area will also move from Marshall to Langley. Either way, Westbriar may end up with a higher percentage of AAP students than parents may have expected earlier.

Of course it will. Westbriar principal Lisa Pilson and AAP boosters like the current PTA prez who wanted her daughter to be able to go to AAP in her neighborhood, told objecting parents anything to get them to shut up and let this happen. Once you turn a school into a center, good luck controlling growth of the AAP population. People will move to the area specifically for AAP and then put pressure on the school to get their above average kids into the program. Soon the AAP kids will outnumber the base school kids just as they have at every other AAP school in a decent neighborhood.

The only real way to stop this and insert some sanity back into elementary education around here is to go back to neighborhood schools with local level IV programs for the advanced kids, which given the high concentration of smart kids in the area would serve people's needs just fine without all the busing hassles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The alleviation of overcrowding at Kilmer and Thoreau by sending Cooper kids back to McLean makes sense.

What's depressing is seeing a small neighborhood school like Westbriar, with a one street entrance, ballooning up to 900 kids in 5 years. Yes, it's now an AAP center, but making it the defacto Tysons school with such limited access and doubling it's size is going to make passage in and out of those neighborhoods via OCR a nightmare.

Looks like FCPS wants to move the Westbriar island west of Beulah to Colvin Run and/or Wolftrap. It's unclear whether some or all of that area will also move from Marshall to Langley. Either way, Westbriar may end up with a higher percentage of AAP students than parents may have expected earlier.

Of course it will. Westbriar principal Lisa Pilson and AAP boosters like the current PTA prez who wanted her daughter to be able to go to AAP in her neighborhood, told objecting parents anything to get them to shut up and let this happen. Once you turn a school into a center, good luck controlling growth of the AAP population. People will move to the area specifically for AAP and then put pressure on the school to get their above average kids into the program. Soon the AAP kids will outnumber the base school kids just as they have at every other AAP school in a decent neighborhood.

The only real way to stop this and insert some sanity back into elementary education around here is to go back to neighborhood schools with local level IV programs for the advanced kids, which given the high concentration of smart kids in the area would serve people's needs just fine without all the busing hassles.

Couldn't have said it better. Wondering when FCPS will do something about this ridiculous system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The alleviation of overcrowding at Kilmer and Thoreau by sending Cooper kids back to McLean makes sense.

What's depressing is seeing a small neighborhood school like Westbriar, with a one street entrance, ballooning up to 900 kids in 5 years. Yes, it's now an AAP center, but making it the defacto Tysons school with such limited access and doubling it's size is going to make passage in and out of those neighborhoods via OCR a nightmare.

Looks like FCPS wants to move the Westbriar island west of Beulah to Colvin Run and/or Wolftrap. It's unclear whether some or all of that area will also move from Marshall to Langley. Either way, Westbriar may end up with a higher percentage of AAP students than parents may have expected earlier.

Of course it will. Westbriar principal Lisa Pilson and AAP boosters like the current PTA prez who wanted her daughter to be able to go to AAP in her neighborhood, told objecting parents anything to get them to shut up and let this happen. Once you turn a school into a center, good luck controlling growth of the AAP population. People will move to the area specifically for AAP and then put pressure on the school to get their above average kids into the program. Soon the AAP kids will outnumber the base school kids just as they have at every other AAP school in a decent neighborhood.

The only real way to stop this and insert some sanity back into elementary education around here is to go back to neighborhood schools with local level IV programs for the advanced kids, which given the high concentration of smart kids in the area would serve people's needs just fine without all the busing hassles.

Couldn't have said it better. Wondering when FCPS will do something about this ridiculous system.

I wouldn't say that all level IVs are created equally or are not in transition. Wolftrap is undergoing changes that may result in one of 4 or 5 scenarios (per Principal) - two years ago they stopped the AAP only classes- the first year I hear they stopped this was not very good - the second year was a lot of hand holding for the AAP class to make up for the first year.. it's clear that the next year will not be clear until school starts fall 2014.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The alleviation of overcrowding at Kilmer and Thoreau by sending Cooper kids back to McLean makes sense.

What's depressing is seeing a small neighborhood school like Westbriar, with a one street entrance, ballooning up to 900 kids in 5 years. Yes, it's now an AAP center, but making it the defacto Tysons school with such limited access and doubling it's size is going to make passage in and out of those neighborhoods via OCR a nightmare.

Looks like FCPS wants to move the Westbriar island west of Beulah to Colvin Run and/or Wolftrap. It's unclear whether some or all of that area will also move from Marshall to Langley. Either way, Westbriar may end up with a higher percentage of AAP students than parents may have expected earlier.

Of course it will. Westbriar principal Lisa Pilson and AAP boosters like the current PTA prez who wanted her daughter to be able to go to AAP in her neighborhood, told objecting parents anything to get them to shut up and let this happen. Once you turn a school into a center, good luck controlling growth of the AAP population. People will move to the area specifically for AAP and then put pressure on the school to get their above average kids into the program. Soon the AAP kids will outnumber the base school kids just as they have at every other AAP school in a decent neighborhood.

The only real way to stop this and insert some sanity back into elementary education around here is to go back to neighborhood schools with local level IV programs for the advanced kids, which given the high concentration of smart kids in the area would serve people's needs just fine without all the busing hassles.

Couldn't have said it better. Wondering when FCPS will do something about this ridiculous system.

I wouldn't say that all level IVs are created equally or are not in transition. Wolftrap is undergoing changes that may result in one of 4 or 5 scenarios (per Principal) - two years ago they stopped the AAP only classes- the first year I hear they stopped this was not very good - the second year was a lot of hand holding for the AAP class to make up for the first year.. it's clear that the next year will not be clear until school starts fall 2014.

Why on earth would an AAP class need "hand-holding"? Good grief, it's just a slightly advanced program and yet is made out to be some sort of highly-specialized curriculum in need of specially trained teachers. Just give the more advanced kids more advanced work and be done with it. Our center school principal said that almost every student could easily do AAP work. All this hand-wringing would never have occurred a few years ago when it was "GT" for the actually gifted and the School Board seemed to possess more common sense. Now that everybody and their brother is in AAP, it holds no meaning whatsoever.

[Anonymous]

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All this hand-wringing would never have occurred a few years ago when it was "GT" for the actually gifted and the School Board seemed to possess more common sense. Now that everybody and their brother is in AAP, it holds no meaning whatsoever.

The name was changed to Advanced Academics -- that is all.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/357696.page#4593122

And the number found eligible for AAP has actually dropped -- see Attachment B:

http://www.fcps.edu/schlbd/docs/sb%20follow%20up%20responses/fy%202014/SBfollow-up14-2-3-4.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All this hand-wringing would never have occurred a few years ago when it was "GT" for the actually gifted and the School Board seemed to possess more common sense. Now that everybody and their brother is in AAP, it holds no meaning whatsoever.

The name was changed to Advanced Academics -- that is all.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/357696.page#4593122

And the number found eligible for AAP has actually dropped -- see Attachment B:

http://www.fcps.edu/schlbd/docs/sb%20follow%20up%20responses/fy%202014/SBfollow-up14-2-3-4.pdf

Yes. They dropped from a year where they were hopelessly inflated because of a flawed test. But the general trend is still up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All this hand-wringing would never have occurred a few years ago when it was "GT" for the actually gifted and the School Board seemed to possess more common sense. Now that everybody and their brother is in AAP, it holds no meaning whatsoever.

The name was changed to Advanced Academics -- that is all.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/357696.page#4593122

And the number found eligible for AAP has actually dropped -- see Attachment B:

http://www.fcps.edu/schlbd/docs/sb%20follow%20up%20responses/fy%202014/SBfollow-up14-2-3-4.pdf

Yes. They dropped from a year where they were hopelessly inflated because of a flawed test. But the general trend is still up.

As is the population of 2nd grader students in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All this hand-wringing would never have occurred a few years ago when it was "GT" for the actually gifted and the School Board seemed to possess more common sense. Now that everybody and their brother is in AAP, it holds no meaning whatsoever.

The name was changed to Advanced Academics -- that is all.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/357696.page#4593122

And the number found eligible for AAP has actually dropped -- see Attachment B:

http://www.fcps.edu/schlbd/docs/sb%20follow%20up%20responses/fy%202014/SBfollow-up14-2-3-4.pdf

Yes. They dropped from a year where they were hopelessly inflated because of a flawed test. But the general trend is still up.

Absolutely. I believe that year was 2012-13, when my DC was in 3rd grade. The majority of the kids in DC's 28 student 2nd grade classroom were admitted to AAP. Nothing was ever done to remedy that situation, and so now this grade is overwhelmingly AAP. Completely ludicrous and shocking, not only to me but to many other parents at our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All this hand-wringing would never have occurred a few years ago when it was "GT" for the actually gifted and the School Board seemed to possess more common sense. Now that everybody and their brother is in AAP, it holds no meaning whatsoever.

The name was changed to Advanced Academics -- that is all.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/357696.page#4593122

And the number found eligible for AAP has actually dropped -- see Attachment B:

http://www.fcps.edu/schlbd/docs/sb%20follow%20up%20responses/fy%202014/SBfollow-up14-2-3-4.pdf

Yes. They dropped from a year where they were hopelessly inflated because of a flawed test. But the general trend is still up.

Absolutely. I believe that year was 2012-13, when my DC was in 3rd grade. The majority of the kids in DC's 28 student 2nd grade classroom were admitted to AAP. Nothing was ever done to remedy that situation, and so now this grade is overwhelmingly AAP. Completely ludicrous and shocking, not only to me but to many other parents at our school.

Wasn't that the year of the new CogAT form 7?

[Anonymous]

When does the AAP center realignment go into effect? This was talked about last year. Thx!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When does the AAP center realignment go into effect? This was talked about last year. Thx!

The school board didn't act on that plan. They only changed assignments for 3 center schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes sense for some movement based on current numbers.

No question that there are current capacity issues, and to the extent that adjustments can be made to alleviate them, those conversations should occur. But it is pretty clear if you look at enrollment projections in the CIPs that FCPS has literally no ability to forecast enrollment increases in any competent fashion. To make recommendations based upon a 5-year projection that has no track record of reliability is irresponsible.

I agree with you. The McLean HS five-year projections keep skyrocketing. While I'd love to think it's because people are moving into a pyramid with a good reputation, it seems like maybe FCPS wants an excuse to move kids to Langley to justify the addition it plans to add as part of Langley's renovation. I'd rather see FCPS adding ES capacity that's needed now closer to Tysons and then build an addition to McLean later if it's really needed.

This is PRECISELY what they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes sense for some movement based on current numbers.

No question that there are current capacity issues, and to the extent that adjustments can be made to alleviate them, those conversations should occur. But it is pretty clear if you look at enrollment projections in the CIPs that FCPS has literally no ability to forecast enrollment increases in any competent fashion. To make recommendations based upon a 5-year projection that has no track record of reliability is irresponsible.

I agree with you. The McLean HS five-year projections keep skyrocketing. While I'd love to think it's because people are moving into a pyramid with a good reputation, it seems like maybe FCPS wants an excuse to move kids to Langley to justify the addition it plans to add as part of Langley's renovation. I'd rather see FCPS adding ES capacity that's needed now closer to Tysons and then build an addition to McLean later if it's really needed.

This is PRECISELY what they do.

The problem is that with the expected growth of Tyson's, ALL the High Schools will have to be expanded. I tis more of a matter of which one first. Since Langley needs a renovation and McLean + Marshall have had ones recently, it makes sense to build capacity during Langley's planned renovation. I can imagine the uproar if McLean or Marshall got another renovation/addition before Langley even had a recent update.