FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

Well there you go. Keep the LBSS transfers at LBSS for high school and don’t let the private school kids in. They can go to Lewis or LBSS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

If Lewis’s enrollment is going to fall that much in a span of only ~5 years, the conversation FCPS needs to be having is not how to prop up its enrollment, but how best to shut it down and consolidate with the other nearby HS. Especially as Edison is walking distance on the same road.

They didn't shut down Marshall in the 90s when it's enrollment was around 1150. They didn't shut down South Lakes in 2008 when it was around 1450. And they won't shut down Lewis, either.

If Edison was the school in the area that currently had over 2700 students and was projected to be over 2900 in a few years, you might be right. Lewis and Edison are close to each other as well. But that's not Edison's situation, which is why the focus will likely be on moving part of West Springfield to Lewis (unless they have a whole series of boundary changes that would send WS kids to other schools and ultimately kids from other schools to Lewis). But WS to Lewis is the simplest way to reduce the enrollment at WSHS and increase it at Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

Well there you go. Keep the LBSS transfers at LBSS for high school and don’t let the private school kids in. They can go to Lewis or LBSS.

They have enough lawsuits on their hands without doing even more things that would trigger lawsuits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

Well there you go. Keep the LBSS transfers at LBSS for high school and don’t let the private school kids in. They can go to Lewis or LBSS.

They have enough lawsuits on their hands without doing even more things that would trigger lawsuits.

They have the freedom to move anyone as long as it is less than 5%? Of the population according to their new guidelines. Buying a house in a school district doesn’t mean you get to attend that district. It would be pretty easy to allow the AAP kids to stay at Braddock.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

If you know the area at all, though, you'd know it's just not that simple to redraw Irving/WSHS boundaries. The boundary is not weirdly gerrymandered to keep kids out of Lewis. Except for that one neighborhood south of the parkway, the boundary makes sense. The neighborhoods closest to Lewis, that sort of northeast section, walks to Irving and is very close to West Springfield. Easily bikeable and walkable. I guess Daventry could go back to Key/Lewis and the area south of the parkway to either Lewis or South County. And maybe something on the west side to LBSS if they could absorb some more kids. Look, we are at WSHS/Irving but we aren't in a zone that would move, we are literally right in the middle of the boundary, so I'm not trying to plead my personal case. But the West Springfield boundary largely makes sense as is. There is just a lot of housing, a good amount of "affordable for the area" apartments and town houses. It's compact and all has the same mixed culture, government-type worker, military family, vibe. I think it would be a shame to mess it up.

I recognize that the current WSHS boundaries are relatively compact. However, the enrollment imbalance between WSHS and Lewis trumps that. We certainly shouldn't be allocating more money to expand WSHS again any time soon, and Lewis needs more students to thrive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

Well there you go. Keep the LBSS transfers at LBSS for high school and don’t let the private school kids in. They can go to Lewis or LBSS.

They have enough lawsuits on their hands without doing even more things that would trigger lawsuits.

They have the freedom to move anyone as long as it is less than 5%? Of the population according to their new guidelines. Buying a house in a school district doesn’t mean you get to attend that district. It would be pretty easy to allow the AAP kids to stay at Braddock.

Moving an entire neighborhood is different than disallowing kids who attended private school or an AAP center from attending their assigned base high school. I suppose that, prospectively, they could stipulate that parents who decide their kids should attend an AAP middle school center in another pyramid agree that their kids will attend the high school in the other pyramid, but it would create as many problems in other areas as it might partially address at West Springfield. And it does nothing for Lewis in any event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

Well there you go. Keep the LBSS transfers at LBSS for high school and don’t let the private school kids in. They can go to Lewis or LBSS.

They have enough lawsuits on their hands without doing even more things that would trigger lawsuits.

They have the freedom to move anyone as long as it is less than 5%? Of the population according to their new guidelines. Buying a house in a school district doesn’t mean you get to attend that district. It would be pretty easy to allow the AAP kids to stay at Braddock.

Moving an entire neighborhood is different than disallowing kids who attended private school or an AAP center from attending their assigned base high school. I suppose that, prospectively, they could stipulate that parents who decide their kids should attend an AAP middle school center in another pyramid agree that their kids will attend the high school in the other pyramid, but it would create as many problems in other areas as it might partially address at West Springfield. And it does nothing for Lewis in any event.

It keeps Lewis a small school so they can focus on their ELL population with smaller class sizes. That is what it does for Lewis. And yes, they could say that. Parents who selected the AAP center for middle school have already selected to leave their home schools, this would just extend that choice. All AAP kids get options about center vs home schools anyway, making this preference for the supposedly “special situation” of WSHS is aligned with previous practices.
The private school kids would pose more difficulty, but FCPS has given itself leeway to do as the board wants when they changed the policy.

[Anonymous]

Does Lewis have all the AP and DE classes that West Springfield has available? Cause you can't just switch a couple hundred kids who have already started their high school courses to a school that doesn't provide the "next step" classes. And only grandfathering in seniors would mean this would affect a lot of students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is going to affect less than 5% of FCPS students, probably far less. The districts are already geographically appropriate for the most part. There aren’t going to be new bussing/demographic islands created (eg. Timber Lane to McLean). There will be minor tweaks at the boundaries of some obvious places.

The most compact and geographically appropriate boundary is West Springfield High School.

The school board is going to gerrymander the boundary lines over equity.

No, they won’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

Well there you go. Keep the LBSS transfers at LBSS for high school and don’t let the private school kids in. They can go to Lewis or LBSS.

They have enough lawsuits on their hands without doing even more things that would trigger lawsuits.

They have the freedom to move anyone as long as it is less than 5%? Of the population according to their new guidelines. Buying a house in a school district doesn’t mean you get to attend that district. It would be pretty easy to allow the AAP kids to stay at Braddock.

Moving an entire neighborhood is different than disallowing kids who attended private school or an AAP center from attending their assigned base high school. I suppose that, prospectively, they could stipulate that parents who decide their kids should attend an AAP middle school center in another pyramid agree that their kids will attend the high school in the other pyramid, but it would create as many problems in other areas as it might partially address at West Springfield. And it does nothing for Lewis in any event.

It keeps Lewis a small school so they can focus on their ELL population with smaller class sizes. That is what it does for Lewis. And yes, they could say that. Parents who selected the AAP center for middle school have already selected to leave their home schools, this would just extend that choice. All AAP kids get options about center vs home schools anyway, making this preference for the supposedly “special situation” of WSHS is aligned with previous practices.
The private school kids would pose more difficulty, but FCPS has given itself leeway to do as the board wants when they changed the policy.

Kids at Lewis deserve the same opportunities as kids at West Springfield. With the right adjustments and support, both schools can be solid and offer opportunities to all their kids. Suggesting that FCPS engage in illegal practices just to keep the WS enrollment below a threshold that would clearly warrant a boundary adjustment isn't going to cut it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is going to affect less than 5% of FCPS students, probably far less. The districts are already geographically appropriate for the most part. There aren’t going to be new bussing/demographic islands created (eg. Timber Lane to McLean). There will be minor tweaks at the boundaries of some obvious places.

The most compact and geographically appropriate boundary is West Springfield High School.

The school board is going to gerrymander the boundary lines over equity.

No, they won’t.

If the boundary lines are adjusted to ensure more comparable enrollments and opportunities, and don't result in the creation of attendance islands or new split feeders, it's a stretch to say they are being gerrymandered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

Well there you go. Keep the LBSS transfers at LBSS for high school and don’t let the private school kids in. They can go to Lewis or LBSS.

They have enough lawsuits on their hands without doing even more things that would trigger lawsuits.

They have the freedom to move anyone as long as it is less than 5%? Of the population according to their new guidelines. Buying a house in a school district doesn’t mean you get to attend that district. It would be pretty easy to allow the AAP kids to stay at Braddock.

Moving an entire neighborhood is different than disallowing kids who attended private school or an AAP center from attending their assigned base high school. I suppose that, prospectively, they could stipulate that parents who decide their kids should attend an AAP middle school center in another pyramid agree that their kids will attend the high school in the other pyramid, but it would create as many problems in other areas as it might partially address at West Springfield. And it does nothing for Lewis in any event.

It keeps Lewis a small school so they can focus on their ELL population with smaller class sizes. That is what it does for Lewis. And yes, they could say that. Parents who selected the AAP center for middle school have already selected to leave their home schools, this would just extend that choice. All AAP kids get options about center vs home schools anyway, making this preference for the supposedly “special situation” of WSHS is aligned with previous practices.
The private school kids would pose more difficulty, but FCPS has given itself leeway to do as the board wants when they changed the policy.

Kids at Lewis deserve the same opportunities as kids at West Springfield. With the right adjustments and support, both schools can be solid and offer opportunities to all their kids. Suggesting that FCPS engage in illegal practices just to keep the WS enrollment below a threshold that would clearly warrant a boundary adjustment isn't going to cut it.

These WS parents don’t care about facts or logic or (gasp) equity. Instead, they will continue to whine and threaten to leave, sue, oust the elected SB members for doing their job and implementing solutions that benefit most (not all or some).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

Well there you go. Keep the LBSS transfers at LBSS for high school and don’t let the private school kids in. They can go to Lewis or LBSS.

They have enough lawsuits on their hands without doing even more things that would trigger lawsuits.

They have the freedom to move anyone as long as it is less than 5%? Of the population according to their new guidelines. Buying a house in a school district doesn’t mean you get to attend that district. It would be pretty easy to allow the AAP kids to stay at Braddock.

Moving an entire neighborhood is different than disallowing kids who attended private school or an AAP center from attending their assigned base high school. I suppose that, prospectively, they could stipulate that parents who decide their kids should attend an AAP middle school center in another pyramid agree that their kids will attend the high school in the other pyramid, but it would create as many problems in other areas as it might partially address at West Springfield. And it does nothing for Lewis in any event.

It keeps Lewis a small school so they can focus on their ELL population with smaller class sizes. That is what it does for Lewis. And yes, they could say that. Parents who selected the AAP center for middle school have already selected to leave their home schools, this would just extend that choice. All AAP kids get options about center vs home schools anyway, making this preference for the supposedly “special situation” of WSHS is aligned with previous practices.
The private school kids would pose more difficulty, but FCPS has given itself leeway to do as the board wants when they changed the policy.

Kids at Lewis deserve the same opportunities as kids at West Springfield. With the right adjustments and support, both schools can be solid and offer opportunities to all their kids. Suggesting that FCPS engage in illegal practices just to keep the WS enrollment below a threshold that would clearly warrant a boundary adjustment isn't going to cut it.

No, they don’t get the same opportunities. West Springfield pyramid has German immersion you have to lottery into. Lewis kids had the same opportunity to lottery in as everyone else in the county. LBSS and Lewis don’t offer German. Nothing Illegal about it. There are only a few German teachers in the county the same teacher serves Irving and West Springfield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the projections for WS? I thought while this current cohort of HS kids was large, the current ES cohort was smaller than typical.

You are correct.

Once the current class of 2026 graduates, all the subsequent classes go down in size significantly.

2026 is well over 700 students. 2025 and 2024 are in the mkd to upper 600s.

Every class after 2026 is in the low 600s.

WSHS will self correct without a boundary adjustment once 2026 graduates, based on all the numbers in the middle school and elementary classes zoned for WSHS.

However, there are many out of zone kids attending WSHS usiing other addresses.

WSHS needs to do a residency check before sny rezoning occurs.

The current numbers at Irving don’t align with this. Nice try.

j

Yes they do current 8th grade is 601 current 7th is 571

So let's parse this. The current enrollment at Irving (1217 as of the start of the 2023-24 school year) is the second-highest enrollment at Irving of any year since 2014-15. In addition to those students, there are 117 Irving kids who transferred out to other schools this year, including over 100 to Lake Braddock, and students who may attend West Springfield after attending K-8 parochial schools.

In comparison, Lewis is projected to have 1423 students by 2028-29. So even if West Springfield only had 2600 kids in 2028, rather than the 2925 students that FCPS is now projecting, there would still be a huge disparity between the two schools in terms of enrollment and opportunities. There's no other combination in FCPS of nearby high schools where the current and projected contrast in enrollment and opportunities is so glaring.

If you know the area at all, though, you'd know it's just not that simple to redraw Irving/WSHS boundaries. The boundary is not weirdly gerrymandered to keep kids out of Lewis. Except for that one neighborhood south of the parkway, the boundary makes sense. The neighborhoods closest to Lewis, that sort of northeast section, walks to Irving and is very close to West Springfield. Easily bikeable and walkable. I guess Daventry could go back to Key/Lewis and the area south of the parkway to either Lewis or South County. And maybe something on the west side to LBSS if they could absorb some more kids. Look, we are at WSHS/Irving but we aren't in a zone that would move, we are literally right in the middle of the boundary, so I'm not trying to plead my personal case. But the West Springfield boundary largely makes sense as is. There is just a lot of housing, a good amount of "affordable for the area" apartments and town houses. It's compact and all has the same mixed culture, government-type worker, military family, vibe. I think it would be a shame to mess it up.

I recognize that the current WSHS boundaries are relatively compact. However, the enrollment imbalance between WSHS and Lewis trumps that. We certainly shouldn't be allocating more money to expand WSHS again any time soon, and Lewis needs more students to thrive.

You WANT Lewis to have more kids, so advocate with the people there to not transfer.

[Anonymous]

Look it’s a done deal. They’re going to send those HV kids to Lewis. Stop complaining none of the school board members care what you say. Fixing Lewis is past due and if it means we have to sacrifice a few of your little white snowflakes to the cause, then so be it. They will be fine.