Freedom Hill Elementary in Vienna

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonderful school! ! 5th year as a parent there. LLIV, really good teachers at all grades if not fantastic ones, diverse ethnically (~70 unique countries at international day) tremendous music/choir teacher in Ms. Lynch, pre and post school activities, active and engaged PTA, SACC wait list that actually moves.

Good to hear this especially that the SACC wait list moves. Our neighborhood may be redistricted to Freedom Hill so feedback from current parents at the school is very helpful.

What neighborhood do you think may be redistricted to Freedom Hill?

There's some talk about moving some of the Town of Vienna residents that are currently at Freedom Hill to Vienna Elementary, and potentially redistricting some of the households that are currently outside the Town of Vienna from Vienna Elementary to Freedom Hill.

They should definitely do this, especially since they're allowing these Town residents to attend Vienna ES without having to go through the formal request process. The boundaries as-is make no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonderful school! ! 5th year as a parent there. LLIV, really good teachers at all grades if not fantastic ones, diverse ethnically (~70 unique countries at international day) tremendous music/choir teacher in Ms. Lynch, pre and post school activities, active and engaged PTA, SACC wait list that actually moves.

Good to hear this especially that the SACC wait list moves. Our neighborhood may be redistricted to Freedom Hill so feedback from current parents at the school is very helpful.

What neighborhood do you think may be redistricted to Freedom Hill?

There's some talk about moving some of the Town of Vienna residents that are currently at Freedom Hill to Vienna Elementary, and potentially redistricting some of the households that are currently outside the Town of Vienna from Vienna Elementary to Freedom Hill.

They should definitely do this, especially since they're allowing these Town residents to attend Vienna ES without having to go through the formal request process. The boundaries as-is make no sense.

Agreed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonderful school! ! 5th year as a parent there. LLIV, really good teachers at all grades if not fantastic ones, diverse ethnically (~70 unique countries at international day) tremendous music/choir teacher in Ms. Lynch, pre and post school activities, active and engaged PTA, SACC wait list that actually moves.

Good to hear this especially that the SACC wait list moves. Our neighborhood may be redistricted to Freedom Hill so feedback from current parents at the school is very helpful.

What neighborhood do you think may be redistricted to Freedom Hill?

There's some talk about moving some of the Town of Vienna residents that are currently at Freedom Hill to Vienna Elementary, and potentially redistricting some of the households that are currently outside the Town of Vienna from Vienna Elementary to Freedom Hill.

They should definitely do this, especially since they're allowing these Town residents to attend Vienna ES without having to go through the formal request process. The boundaries as-is make no sense.

If Vienna has less than 400 students and Freedom Hill has over 600, why is that problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonderful school! ! 5th year as a parent there. LLIV, really good teachers at all grades if not fantastic ones, diverse ethnically (~70 unique countries at international day) tremendous music/choir teacher in Ms. Lynch, pre and post school activities, active and engaged PTA, SACC wait list that actually moves.

Good to hear this especially that the SACC wait list moves. Our neighborhood may be redistricted to Freedom Hill so feedback from current parents at the school is very helpful.

What neighborhood do you think may be redistricted to Freedom Hill?

There's some talk about moving some of the Town of Vienna residents that are currently at Freedom Hill to Vienna Elementary, and potentially redistricting some of the households that are currently outside the Town of Vienna from Vienna Elementary to Freedom Hill.

They should definitely do this, especially since they're allowing these Town residents to attend Vienna ES without having to go through the formal request process. The boundaries as-is make no sense.

If Vienna has less than 400 students and Freedom Hill has over 600, why is that problem?

Vienna ES is physically a smaller school.
Town regulations do not allow trailers so there is no overflow space.
Their renovations were done just a few years ago so they will not come up for an expansion or another reno for something like 20 years.
With more older generations moving out and younger families moving in, the number of students that feed into Vienna El. is increasing already. It's gone from 1 K class for years and years, to 2 and now 3.

To sum, no space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonderful school! ! 5th year as a parent there. LLIV, really good teachers at all grades if not fantastic ones, diverse ethnically (~70 unique countries at international day) tremendous music/choir teacher in Ms. Lynch, pre and post school activities, active and engaged PTA, SACC wait list that actually moves.

Good to hear this especially that the SACC wait list moves. Our neighborhood may be redistricted to Freedom Hill so feedback from current parents at the school is very helpful.

What neighborhood do you think may be redistricted to Freedom Hill?

There's some talk about moving some of the Town of Vienna residents that are currently at Freedom Hill to Vienna Elementary, and potentially redistricting some of the households that are currently outside the Town of Vienna from Vienna Elementary to Freedom Hill.

They should definitely do this, especially since they're allowing these Town residents to attend Vienna ES without having to go through the formal request process. The boundaries as-is make no sense.

If Vienna has less than 400 students and Freedom Hill has over 600, why is that problem?

Vienna ES is physically a smaller school.
Town regulations do not allow trailers so there is no overflow space.
Their renovations were done just a few years ago so they will not come up for an expansion or another reno for something like 20 years.
With more older generations moving out and younger families moving in, the number of students that feed into Vienna El. is increasing already. It's gone from 1 K class for years and years, to 2 and now 3.

To sum, no space.

In addition, Vienna ES is more desirable than Freedom Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wonderful school! ! 5th year as a parent there. LLIV, really good teachers at all grades if not fantastic ones, diverse ethnically (~70 unique countries at international day) tremendous music/choir teacher in Ms. Lynch, pre and post school activities, active and engaged PTA, SACC wait list that actually moves.

Good to hear this especially that the SACC wait list moves. Our neighborhood may be redistricted to Freedom Hill so feedback from current parents at the school is very helpful.

What neighborhood do you think may be redistricted to Freedom Hill?

There's some talk about moving some of the Town of Vienna residents that are currently at Freedom Hill to Vienna Elementary, and potentially redistricting some of the households that are currently outside the Town of Vienna from Vienna Elementary to Freedom Hill.

They should definitely do this, especially since they're allowing these Town residents to attend Vienna ES without having to go through the formal request process. The boundaries as-is make no sense.

If Vienna has less than 400 students and Freedom Hill has over 600, why is that problem?

Vienna ES is physically a smaller school.
Town regulations do not allow trailers so there is no overflow space.
Their renovations were done just a few years ago so they will not come up for an expansion or another reno for something like 20 years.
With more older generations moving out and younger families moving in, the number of students that feed into Vienna El. is increasing already. It's gone from 1 K class for years and years, to 2 and now 3.

To sum, no space.

All the more reason to move students not in the Town to Freedom Hill so there is space there for Town students and the pyramids are aligned. The current boundaries don't make sense.

[Anonymous]

So what are the plans to align ALL town students to the same MS? Currently not all town students go to the same MS but do for HS (Madison). It is so incredibly inconsistent to jerk the kids into various environments to have them meet up 2 years later.

[Anonymous]

Yeah... or, for some of us in adjacent areas, too . My DD's path is Stenwood, Thoreau, Marshall. She loses half of her friends going to HS next year and (gets the frenemies back). Now that SOLs are over she is moody and sobbing (and no pupil placing to Madison doesn't work for us). I have younger children too so I get to wash, rinse, repeat this.

They really need to fix a bunch of these boundaries under the Thoreau and Kilmer, especially since Thoreau's expansion will be done next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah... or, for some of us in adjacent areas, too . My DD's path is Stenwood, Thoreau, Marshall. She loses half of her friends going to HS next year and (gets the frenemies back). Now that SOLs are over she is moody and sobbing (and no pupil placing to Madison doesn't work for us). I have younger children too so I get to wash, rinse, repeat this.

They really need to fix a bunch of these boundaries under the Thoreau and Kilmer, especially since Thoreau's expansion will be done next year.

You would think Thoreau's boundaries would become Madison's, and Kilmer's would become Marshall's, but some Town students go to Kilmer and their parents are adamant that they should go to Madison, even though Town students have no legal right to attend Madison. So there's a stalemate, where 10% of Thoreau's students go to Marshall and 15% of Kilmer's students go to Madison. People won't support the easy fix, and FCPS hasn't cared enough to revise the boundaries for all four schools. But maybe you can get FCPS to revisit them when the Thoreau renovations are complete and FCPS is considering moving some of the AAP kids at Jackson and Kilmer to Thoreau.

[Anonymous]

My kids are at Wolftrap and majority of Wolftrap students will go to Marshall and some will go to Madison since Wolftrap it's a split feeder. I don't see it as an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Wolftrap and majority of Wolftrap students will go to Marshall and some will go to Madison since Wolftrap it's a split feeder. I don't see it as an issue.

The majority of Wolftrap kids are zoned for Madison (63%), not Marshall (37%). However, the split is not an issue for you because they'll go to Kilmer, and 85% of Kilmer is zoned for Marshall. So your situation is different from someone at Stenwood whose kid goes to Thoreau, which only sends 10% of its students to Marshall. Many of those kids pupil place to Madison to stay with their Thoreau friends, but PP said that she can't do that (presumably, she can't arrange for transportation).

In some parts of the county, split feeders are inevitable, but there's no reason other than inertia that the Kilmer/Marshall and Thoreau/Madison boundaries aren't aligned like Frost/Woodson, Cooper/Langley and Longfellow/McLean's are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Wolftrap and majority of Wolftrap students will go to Marshall and some will go to Madison since Wolftrap it's a split feeder. I don't see it as an issue.

The majority of Wolftrap kids are zoned for Madison (63%), not Marshall (37%). However, the split is not an issue for you because they'll go to Kilmer, and 85% of Kilmer is zoned for Marshall. So your situation is different from someone at Stenwood whose kid goes to Thoreau, which only sends 10% of its students to Marshall. Many of those kids pupil place to Madison to stay with their Thoreau friends, but PP said that she can't do that (presumably, she can't arrange for transportation).

In some parts of the county, split feeders are inevitable, but there's no reason other than inertia that the Kilmer/Marshall and Thoreau/Madison boundaries aren't aligned like Frost/Woodson, Cooper/Langley and Longfellow/McLean's are.

We are in the Wolftrap boundary Madison bound wishing our kids could go to Thoreau so that they could have more friends before going onto Madison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Wolftrap and majority of Wolftrap students will go to Marshall and some will go to Madison since Wolftrap it's a split feeder. I don't see it as an issue.

The majority of Wolftrap kids are zoned for Madison (63%), not Marshall (37%). However, the split is not an issue for you because they'll go to Kilmer, and 85% of Kilmer is zoned for Marshall. So your situation is different from someone at Stenwood whose kid goes to Thoreau, which only sends 10% of its students to Marshall. Many of those kids pupil place to Madison to stay with their Thoreau friends, but PP said that she can't do that (presumably, she can't arrange for transportation).

In some parts of the county, split feeders are inevitable, but there's no reason other than inertia that the Kilmer/Marshall and Thoreau/Madison boundaries aren't aligned like Frost/Woodson, Cooper/Langley and Longfellow/McLean's are.

We are in the Wolftrap boundary Madison bound wishing our kids could go to Thoreau so that they could have more friends before going onto Madison.

We live in the town boundaries as well and can't easily use the teen center that we pay for because there is only a bus from Thoreau to the center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Wolftrap and majority of Wolftrap students will go to Marshall and some will go to Madison since Wolftrap it's a split feeder. I don't see it as an issue.

The majority of Wolftrap kids are zoned for Madison (63%), not Marshall (37%). However, the split is not an issue for you because they'll go to Kilmer, and 85% of Kilmer is zoned for Marshall. So your situation is different from someone at Stenwood whose kid goes to Thoreau, which only sends 10% of its students to Marshall. Many of those kids pupil place to Madison to stay with their Thoreau friends, but PP said that she can't do that (presumably, she can't arrange for transportation).

In some parts of the county, split feeders are inevitable, but there's no reason other than inertia that the Kilmer/Marshall and Thoreau/Madison boundaries aren't aligned like Frost/Woodson, Cooper/Langley and Longfellow/McLean's are.

We are in the Wolftrap boundary Madison bound wishing our kids could go to Thoreau so that they could have more friends before going onto Madison.

My sense is that the Kilmer students who go to Madison acclimate fairly quickly, because they all live in Vienna and know Thoreau kids from VYS and other activities. It's not quite as easy for the Thoreau kids, who also live in Vienna, to get sent to Marshall in Falls Church.

But, again, the simplest fix is to align the Marshall boundaries with Kilmer's current boundaries (which would mean that all of Wolftrap goes to both Kilmer and Marshall), and align the Madison boundaries with Thoreau's current boundaries. I would tell anyone in the Town who objects to getting reassigned to Marshall tough. Some of them claim that the Town of Vienna has "always" gone to Madison, but part of the Town of Vienna used to be zoned for Oakton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Wolftrap and majority of Wolftrap students will go to Marshall and some will go to Madison since Wolftrap it's a split feeder. I don't see it as an issue.

The majority of Wolftrap kids are zoned for Madison (63%), not Marshall (37%). However, the split is not an issue for you because they'll go to Kilmer, and 85% of Kilmer is zoned for Marshall. So your situation is different from someone at Stenwood whose kid goes to Thoreau, which only sends 10% of its students to Marshall. Many of those kids pupil place to Madison to stay with their Thoreau friends, but PP said that she can't do that (presumably, she can't arrange for transportation).

In some parts of the county, split feeders are inevitable, but there's no reason other than inertia that the Kilmer/Marshall and Thoreau/Madison boundaries aren't aligned like Frost/Woodson, Cooper/Langley and Longfellow/McLean's are.

We are in the Wolftrap boundary Madison bound wishing our kids could go to Thoreau so that they could have more friends before going onto Madison.

My sense is that the Kilmer students who go to Madison acclimate fairly quickly, because they all live in Vienna and know Thoreau kids from VYS and other activities. It's not quite as easy for the Thoreau kids, who also live in Vienna, to get sent to Marshall in Falls Church.

But, again, the simplest fix is to align the Marshall boundaries with Kilmer's current boundaries (which would mean that all of Wolftrap goes to both Kilmer and Marshall), and align the Madison boundaries with Thoreau's current boundaries. I would tell anyone in the Town who objects to getting reassigned to Marshall tough. Some of them claim that the Town of Vienna has "always" gone to Madison, but part of the Town of Vienna used to be zoned for Oakton.

That fix isn't helpful.. the fix should be all town of Vienna go to Thoreau and then Madison- NOT Marshall (unless they pupil place). Town of Vienna residents pay town of Vienna taxesin addition to Fairfax Cty so saying "tough" isn't the best answer.