Wiki version of what happened at Lemon Road

[Anonymous]

The next school that needs aligning is McNair. Once a school gets to 900 students, FCPS should start looking at ways to redistrict.

[Anonymous]

Isn't there a new school in the works to help out McNair?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And the parents were loud and pushy. Sorry, there is no way you can deny that.

Some were, and some were not. And some of the Lemon Road parents in Cluster 2 were quietly hoping the "pushy" Haycock parents would get what they wanted, because moving the AAP students to Lemon Road meant that it was less likely that additional GenEd students from the lower-income apartments behind Marshall HS would get reassigned to Lemon Road from Freedom Hill.

Sorry, there is no way you can deny that, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why in the world does fcps make such stupid decisions just to appease a small group of parents?

Because these parents are loud and involved. Parents and PTAs at schools in less well-off areas have less time to lobby for their interests because they're too busy working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The next school that needs aligning is McNair. Once a school gets to 900 students, FCPS should start looking at ways to redistrict.

I agree. 900 K-6 graders is not a healthy model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the parents were loud and pushy. Sorry, there is no way you can deny that.

Some were, and some were not. And some of the Lemon Road parents in Cluster 2 were quietly hoping the "pushy" Haycock parents would get what they wanted, because moving the AAP students to Lemon Road meant that it was less likely that additional GenEd students from the lower-income apartments behind Marshall HS would get reassigned to Lemon Road from Freedom Hill.

Sorry, there is no way you can deny that, either.

I don't think the Lemon Road parents could be blamed since they had already willingly taken half of the students from the lower income apartments the year before, when the boundary was changed. Freedom Hill was still looking to get rid of the entire apartment complex. I haven't seen a school accept high risk students with as little fanfare as Lemon Road in a long time. I haven't seen any other school in the area taking additional at risk students without a huge multi-year fight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the parents were loud and pushy. Sorry, there is no way you can deny that.

Some were, and some were not. And some of the Lemon Road parents in Cluster 2 were quietly hoping the "pushy" Haycock parents would get what they wanted, because moving the AAP students to Lemon Road meant that it was less likely that additional GenEd students from the lower-income apartments behind Marshall HS would get reassigned to Lemon Road from Freedom Hill.

Sorry, there is no way you can deny that, either.

I don't think the Lemon Road parents could be blamed since they had already willingly taken half of the students from the lower income apartments the year before, when the boundary was changed. Freedom Hill was still looking to get rid of the entire apartment complex. I haven't seen a school accept high risk students with as little fanfare as Lemon Road in a long time. I haven't seen any other school in the area taking additional at risk students without a huge multi-year fight.

One example that comes immediately to mind is Virginia Run, which as part of the Southwestern Boundary Study in 2011 was reassigned a large number at kids from lower SES neighborhoods then assigned to Poplar Tree. The FARMS rates at Virginia Run increased much faster in a short period of time than Lemon Road's went up after the reassignment of the Freedom Hill students (the FARMS rate at Lemon Road then went down sharply after the AAP reassignments from Haycock). There was no big, multi-year fight at Virginia Run, just some irritation that a School Board member (Kathy Smith) had apparently orchestrated the change to drive down the FARMS rate at her own neighborhood school.

At the end of the day, FCPS did a decent job of balancing the demographics of the Marshall pyramid schools serving neighborhoods in that area (Lemon Road, Westgate, Shrevewood, and Freedom Hill), so that they all ended up around 20-30% FARMS with no school tipping over into Title 1 territory. But there was no shortage of angst about what Lemon Road would have looked like had all the apartments been moved from Freedom Hill to Lemon Road. You can get a flavor for some of the comments at:

http://www.fcps.edu/fts/planning/freedomlemon/onlinecomments3-18-12.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I know I tried like hell. There was horrible apathy in our community. The school and PTA were absolutely silent on the issue. I like the principal, but she has an unwritten policy that teachers are not allowed to get involved in such matters. But they were behind the scenes thanking those of us who were fighting to keep going. There was a lot of confusion and very poor communication from key players on what was actually happening.

That's because the majority of the parents can't speak English!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the parents were loud and pushy. Sorry, there is no way you can deny that.

Some were, and some were not. And some of the Lemon Road parents in Cluster 2 were quietly hoping the "pushy" Haycock parents would get what they wanted, because moving the AAP students to Lemon Road meant that it was less likely that additional GenEd students from the lower-income apartments behind Marshall HS would get reassigned to Lemon Road from Freedom Hill.

Sorry, there is no way you can deny that, either.

I don't think the Lemon Road parents could be blamed since they had already willingly taken half of the students from the lower income apartments the year before, when the boundary was changed. Freedom Hill was still looking to get rid of the entire apartment complex. I haven't seen a school accept high risk students with as little fanfare as Lemon Road in a long time. I haven't seen any other school in the area taking additional at risk students without a huge multi-year fight.

One example that comes immediately to mind is Virginia Run, which as part of the Southwestern Boundary Study in 2011 was reassigned a large number at kids from lower SES neighborhoods then assigned to Poplar Tree. The FARMS rates at Virginia Run increased much faster in a short period of time than Lemon Road's went up after the reassignment of the Freedom Hill students (the FARMS rate at Lemon Road then went down sharply after the AAP reassignments from Haycock). There was no big, multi-year fight at Virginia Run, just some irritation that a School Board member (Kathy Smith) had apparently orchestrated the change to drive down the FARMS rate at her own neighborhood school.

At the end of the day, FCPS did a decent job of balancing the demographics of the Marshall pyramid schools serving neighborhoods in that area (Lemon Road, Westgate, Shrevewood, and Freedom Hill), so that they all ended up around 20-30% FARMS with no school tipping over into Title 1 territory. But there was no shortage of angst about what Lemon Road would have looked like had all the apartments been moved from Freedom Hill to Lemon Road. You can get a flavor for some of the comments at:

http://www.fcps.edu/fts/planning/freedomlemon/onlinecomments3-18-12.pdf

Creating title 1 schools should not be a goal of FCPS especially when talking about a school that is saddled between one of the wealthiest incorporated cities in the country and Tysons which is supposedly Fairfax's economic engine. All schools should be balanced with their neighboring schools as much as possible to keep schools from falling into Title 1. Title 1 schools just highlight the areas in Fairfax that were planned poorly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the parents were loud and pushy. Sorry, there is no way you can deny that.

Some were, and some were not. And some of the Lemon Road parents in Cluster 2 were quietly hoping the "pushy" Haycock parents would get what they wanted, because moving the AAP students to Lemon Road meant that it was less likely that additional GenEd students from the lower-income apartments behind Marshall HS would get reassigned to Lemon Road from Freedom Hill.

Sorry, there is no way you can deny that, either.

I don't think the Lemon Road parents could be blamed since they had already willingly taken half of the students from the lower income apartments the year before, when the boundary was changed. Freedom Hill was still looking to get rid of the entire apartment complex. I haven't seen a school accept high risk students with as little fanfare as Lemon Road in a long time. I haven't seen any other school in the area taking additional at risk students without a huge multi-year fight.

One example that comes immediately to mind is Virginia Run, which as part of the Southwestern Boundary Study in 2011 was reassigned a large number at kids from lower SES neighborhoods then assigned to Poplar Tree. The FARMS rates at Virginia Run increased much faster in a short period of time than Lemon Road's went up after the reassignment of the Freedom Hill students (the FARMS rate at Lemon Road then went down sharply after the AAP reassignments from Haycock). There was no big, multi-year fight at Virginia Run, just some irritation that a School Board member (Kathy Smith) had apparently orchestrated the change to drive down the FARMS rate at her own neighborhood school.

At the end of the day, FCPS did a decent job of balancing the demographics of the Marshall pyramid schools serving neighborhoods in that area (Lemon Road, Westgate, Shrevewood, and Freedom Hill), so that they all ended up around 20-30% FARMS with no school tipping over into Title 1 territory. But there was no shortage of angst about what Lemon Road would have looked like had all the apartments been moved from Freedom Hill to Lemon Road. You can get a flavor for some of the comments at:

http://www.fcps.edu/fts/planning/freedomlemon/onlinecomments3-18-12.pdf

Creating title 1 schools should not be a goal of FCPS especially when talking about a school that is saddled between one of the wealthiest incorporated cities in the country and Tysons which is supposedly Fairfax's economic engine. All schools should be balanced with their neighboring schools as much as possible to keep schools from falling into Title 1. Title 1 schools just highlight the areas in Fairfax that were planned poorly.

Others at Lemon Road felt exactly the same way. Some might even say they were rather vocal about expressing that viewpoint.

It's not an unreasonable point of view to express. Neither is that having over 1000 students was not feasible at a school that was originally designed for roughly 775 students and was about to become a construction zone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the parents were loud and pushy. Sorry, there is no way you can deny that.

Some were, and some were not. And some of the Lemon Road parents in Cluster 2 were quietly hoping the "pushy" Haycock parents would get what they wanted, because moving the AAP students to Lemon Road meant that it was less likely that additional GenEd students from the lower-income apartments behind Marshall HS would get reassigned to Lemon Road from Freedom Hill.

Sorry, there is no way you can deny that, either.

I don't think the Lemon Road parents could be blamed since they had already willingly taken half of the students from the lower income apartments the year before, when the boundary was changed. Freedom Hill was still looking to get rid of the entire apartment complex. I haven't seen a school accept high risk students with as little fanfare as Lemon Road in a long time. I haven't seen any other school in the area taking additional at risk students without a huge multi-year fight.

One example that comes immediately to mind is Virginia Run, which as part of the Southwestern Boundary Study in 2011 was reassigned a large number at kids from lower SES neighborhoods then assigned to Poplar Tree. The FARMS rates at Virginia Run increased much faster in a short period of time than Lemon Road's went up after the reassignment of the Freedom Hill students (the FARMS rate at Lemon Road then went down sharply after the AAP reassignments from Haycock). There was no big, multi-year fight at Virginia Run, just some irritation that a School Board member (Kathy Smith) had apparently orchestrated the change to drive down the FARMS rate at her own neighborhood school.

At the end of the day, FCPS did a decent job of balancing the demographics of the Marshall pyramid schools serving neighborhoods in that area (Lemon Road, Westgate, Shrevewood, and Freedom Hill), so that they all ended up around 20-30% FARMS with no school tipping over into Title 1 territory. But there was no shortage of angst about what Lemon Road would have looked like had all the apartments been moved from Freedom Hill to Lemon Road. You can get a flavor for some of the comments at:

http://www.fcps.edu/fts/planning/freedomlemon/onlinecomments3-18-12.pdf

Creating title 1 schools should not be a goal of FCPS especially when talking about a school that is saddled between one of the wealthiest incorporated cities in the country and Tysons which is supposedly Fairfax's economic engine. All schools should be balanced with their neighboring schools as much as possible to keep schools from falling into Title 1. Title 1 schools just highlight the areas in Fairfax that were planned poorly.

Others at Lemon Road felt exactly the same way. Some might even say they were rather vocal about expressing that viewpoint.

It's not an unreasonable point of view to express. Neither is that having over 1000 students was not feasible at a school that was originally designed for roughly 775 students and was about to become a construction zone.

Not quite the same thing --- turning a school into a Title 1 school or letting less than 100 kids be grandfathered so they don't have to change schools for a third time during elementary, but okaaaay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I know I tried like hell. There was horrible apathy in our community. The school and PTA were absolutely silent on the issue. I like the principal, but she has an unwritten policy that teachers are not allowed to get involved in such matters. But they were behind the scenes thanking those of us who were fighting to keep going. There was a lot of confusion and very poor communication from key players on what was actually happening.

That's because the majority of the parents can't speak English!!!

Um, we have a rather diverse population and many of the students are of Asian descent. But parents can't speak English? Really? You obviously have never visited our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the parents were loud and pushy. Sorry, there is no way you can deny that.

Some were, and some were not. And some of the Lemon Road parents in Cluster 2 were quietly hoping the "pushy" Haycock parents would get what they wanted, because moving the AAP students to Lemon Road meant that it was less likely that additional GenEd students from the lower-income apartments behind Marshall HS would get reassigned to Lemon Road from Freedom Hill.

Sorry, there is no way you can deny that, either.

I don't think the Lemon Road parents could be blamed since they had already willingly taken half of the students from the lower income apartments the year before, when the boundary was changed. Freedom Hill was still looking to get rid of the entire apartment complex. I haven't seen a school accept high risk students with as little fanfare as Lemon Road in a long time. I haven't seen any other school in the area taking additional at risk students without a huge multi-year fight.

One example that comes immediately to mind is Virginia Run, which as part of the Southwestern Boundary Study in 2011 was reassigned a large number at kids from lower SES neighborhoods then assigned to Poplar Tree. The FARMS rates at Virginia Run increased much faster in a short period of time than Lemon Road's went up after the reassignment of the Freedom Hill students (the FARMS rate at Lemon Road then went down sharply after the AAP reassignments from Haycock). There was no big, multi-year fight at Virginia Run, just some irritation that a School Board member (Kathy Smith) had apparently orchestrated the change to drive down the FARMS rate at her own neighborhood school.

At the end of the day, FCPS did a decent job of balancing the demographics of the Marshall pyramid schools serving neighborhoods in that area (Lemon Road, Westgate, Shrevewood, and Freedom Hill), so that they all ended up around 20-30% FARMS with no school tipping over into Title 1 territory. But there was no shortage of angst about what Lemon Road would have looked like had all the apartments been moved from Freedom Hill to Lemon Road. You can get a flavor for some of the comments at:

http://www.fcps.edu/fts/planning/freedomlemon/onlinecomments3-18-12.pdf

Creating title 1 schools should not be a goal of FCPS especially when talking about a school that is saddled between one of the wealthiest incorporated cities in the country and Tysons which is supposedly Fairfax's economic engine. All schools should be balanced with their neighboring schools as much as possible to keep schools from falling into Title 1. Title 1 schools just highlight the areas in Fairfax that were planned poorly.

Others at Lemon Road felt exactly the same way. Some might even say they were rather vocal about expressing that viewpoint.

It's not an unreasonable point of view to express. Neither is that having over 1000 students was not feasible at a school that was originally designed for roughly 775 students and was about to become a construction zone.

Not quite the same thing --- turning a school into a Title 1 school or letting less than 100 kids be grandfathered so they don't have to change schools for a third time during elementary, but okaaaay.

I think you are playing a bit loose with the facts.

Had all the students originally under consideration been redistricted from Freedom Hill to Lemon Road, Lemon Road would have been closer to hitting the Title I threshold, but it's not clear it would have tipped into Title 1 territory. Neither of the two options presented by FCPS Staff for FCPS consideration anticipated that the FARMS rate at Lemon Road would exceed 30%. Even so, some Lemon Road parents were concerned and expressed their concerns forcefully, as they did not know where FCPS would land.

As to your other point, the only children who would have changed schools three times were non-grandfathered AAP students who moved from Louise Archer (base school Freedom Hill) to Haycock after part of Freedom Hill was reassigned to Lemon Road, and were then moved to Lemon Road AAP the next year. They were a fairly small subset of the larger group of students reassigned from Haycock AAP to Lemon Road to address the significant overcrowding at Haycock. The others were either zoned for Westgate and Shrevewood or lived in other parts of the Lemon Road district (i.e., they had never been at Archer AAP). My understanding is that FCPS did allow some of those students to stay at Haycock when their parents petitioned on an individual basis, but grandfathering them for a longer period would have meant that they would start Kilmer MS in a few years knowing very few of their classmates.

[Anonymous]

I've never understood the freak out people have about the idea that some kids will go to a different middle school than most of thei classmates. This happens all over the county. There are lots of split feeders. In fact, Lemon Road is actually a split feeder and a small group of those kids will go to Longfellow instead of Kilmer.

In middle school it all shakes up anyway because a bunch of different schools join. Friendships shuffle. It's not a big deal at all. I have a middle schooler so I've seen it firsthand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never understood the freak out people have about the idea that some kids will go to a different middle school than most of thei classmates. This happens all over the county. There are lots of split feeders. In fact, Lemon Road is actually a split feeder and a small group of those kids will go to Longfellow instead of Kilmer.

In middle school it all shakes up anyway because a bunch of different schools join. Friendships shuffle. It's not a big deal at all. I have a middle schooler so I've seen it firsthand.

Yes, there are other split feeders. If you are referring to the prior post, however, FCPS would have ended up with an incredibly small cohort of kids going from Haycock to Kilmer, compared even to the number of Lemon Road kids who go to Longfellow. There aren't a lot of the latter, but Lemon Road actually sits within the Longfellow/McLean boundaries.