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Thoreau will become a center and the kids from Madison and Oakton pyramids who are now attending Jackson will be zoned for AAP center at Thoreau... not an option.
(This came from someone inside TMS.) Expect it to happen next year or the following year. Jackson is way over crowded and TMS is going to have a lot of excess capacity staring this fall. I am happy about it b/c I will have one who can stay within pyramid and still be with classmates. Unfortunately for Jackson, however, their demographics will skew toward the lower end when they lose a chunk of AAP kids. But, they need the space more than they need out of boundary kids. |
I do not think anything has been decided yet, especially since the new geocoding software tool has not been fully implemented, and Facilities has found enrollment pressures are not as large as was once thought. From the FPAC report to the School Board:
http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/ABMK654C6433/$file/FPAC%20Annual%20Report%20SY%202015-16%20for%207-18-16%20WS.pdf |
No official decisions have been made, but the plans are in the works. They didn't increase the size of Thoreau to accommodate 1300 kids just so that they can keep enrollment at 900 (or less). They have the capacity and Jackson is currently about 250 kids or more OVER capacity. It also makes no sense for Oakton kids and Madison kids to be going out of their pyramids and geographic location. The JMS base kids deserve to have their school available for their use. The solution is obvious.... space at Thoreau .... no space at Jackson... kids leaving the pyramid with space and an existing level 4 program.... to go to the school with no space out of the pyramid.... it's not rocket science. The administrators already know the plan. |
And Kilmer is also at like 150% capacity. There is no way they are going to allow a school a few blocks away to be significantly under capacity. |
But the Oakton AAP kids now at Jackson already have Jackson as their base school. Moving them to Thoreau, which is in the Madison pyramid, would be taking them to another school "out of their pyramids." It seems to me the much better approach is to have the kids for whom Thoreau is their base school attend a new AAP center at Thoreau, and leave the Oakton kids - none of whom currently have Thoreau as their base school - alone until FCPS has a better handle on the numbers. |
Kilmer was at 107% of design capacity last year, and 109% of program capacity. Not 150%. |
good point. I don't know. That's what I heard from someone at TMS. Maybe all the Oakton AAP kids would be taken out of Jackson and put at TMS which is closer, but out of pyramid. We'll see how this plays out. If someone has to move out of Jackson -- the easiest ones would be the AAP kids. Otherwise you have to rezone entire areas to move from LJMS/OHS to TMS/MHS. If they just move the AAP center kids, it only impacts the MS numbers, not the HS numbers. |
Tell that to the kids who could barely move in the halls in between classes. |
And there are middle schools more crowded than Kilmer! |
I can't see a scenario where FCPS moves the Oakton AAP kids from Jackson to Thoreau, but leaves the Oakton GenEd kids currently zoned for Jackson there. And if all the Oakton kids now at Jackson were moved to Thoreau, it would leave Jackson as only a feeder to Falls Church, which also pulls from Poe, whereas Thoreau would start to feed to three high schools (Oakton, Madison and Marshall). It would be better to leave the Oakton kids now at Jackson there, and if Jackson were to still be overcrowded after the Thoreau AAP kids move to Thoreau, redistrict part of Jackson to under-enrolled Poe. |
Kilmer will get some relief as the AAP kids from Great Falls move to Cooper, but there were only 15 AAP kids at Kilmer last year whose base school was Thoreau. |
How was that even allowed.? My understanding was any Vienna kid zoned for Thoreau but in AAP could attend Kilmer only as a gen ed. student. They had to go to LJ for AAP. |
This makes the most sense to keep Oakton kids together and will also help Luther Jackson from going downhill. |
Until recently, there were some neighborhoods zoned for Freedom Hill/Thoreau/Madison, but assigned to Kilmer rather than Jackson for AAP. Those neighborhoods have now been moved to Vienna ES. I don't know whether FCPS has indicated yet what the AAP assignment will be for the affected students when they hit MS. |
Just moving the Thoreau AAP kids from Jackson to Thoreau is not really enough kids to fill that school. They will have capacity for 1350 this fall. They have 850. I don't think your analysis addresses the capacity available at Thoreau. How many Oakton pyramid kids are attending Jackson in either the base or AAP? |