Boundaries assessment update 2023

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

But, just because the politician believes that a "boundary adjustment' is the "right thing to do" doesn't mean that it IS the right thing to do.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

1. The location of schools is not adaptable to redistribution. Too many poor schools are located close together and too many affluent schools are very close together.

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

I’m not arguing for boundary changes for the purposes of distribution children by color and household income in the percentages and patterns that the school board finds fashionable.

I am simply against politicians who won’t do what they say or belittle is right because they would have to give up their political careers. It’s disgusting.

I was against their last plan (2019) but still had to scoff when they abandoned their commitment to having “courageous conversations” and doing what they swore was soooooo right and important because an election was looming and they were scared.

What is right? FCPS has commissioned its own study showing that 20 and 40% farms rates are tipping points for schools. The schools above 40% in FCPS are surrounded by schools near 40%. Pulling an affluent neighborhood or two from Edison (35% farms) to Lewis (50% farms) is going to result in two schools past the tipping point. Justice is at 59% bordered by Annandale at 58% and Falls Church at 48%. Mount Vernon is at 57% bordered by West Potomac at 40% and Hayfield at 28%. Try shifting boundaries in a way that gets all of those schools below FCPS's own bright line. Voters with kids zoned for Edison or Falls Church or West Potomac or Hayfield get to worry about their kids getting rezoned or their schools getting worse and they are very aware that schools like Langley (2% farms), Oakton (12%), Woodson (12%)... will never be impacted.

That study was commissioned years ago when the overall FARMS rate was closer to 20% than 33%. It would never see the light of day today. The types of boundary shifts required to get all schools under 40% would be massive and would never fly politically. And it would overwhelmingly be driven by white people who paid less to live in high FARMS school districts but then effectively wanted FCPS to reshuffle school demographics to redistribute both kids and housing equity to their own neighborhoods.

There are probably some incremental changes that could be made consistent with the goal of making use of school capacity that would reduce but certainly not eliminate differences in demographics, but given how many additions FCPS has already built at wealthier schools like West Springfield even that gets harder to pull off.

At this point the genie is out of the bottle and they need to go ahead and fund additions at the schools where they are most needed and then hunker down, to a degree they haven’t in recent years (when focusing instead on things like school name changes and TJ admissions) on meeting the needs of kids where they live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

How do you solve the issue without bussing? Do you think Mt. Vernon should offer post calc math like other schools even if only 10 kids are even taking HL 2 math? The places that you'd bus from for most of these schools barely have advanced cohorts themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

I don't see any reason why boundaries should be changed so that certain schools can "fill" a class that is, in fact, offered at a school.

Maybe the better answer is to get rid of IB in pyramids that don't seem to prepare many kids to take HL IB classes. Falls Church had 106 kids taking AP Calculus, including 16 taking AP Calculus BC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

How do you solve the issue without bussing? Do you think Mt. Vernon should offer post calc math like other schools even if only 10 kids are even taking HL 2 math? The places that you'd bus from for most of these schools barely have advanced cohorts themselves.

If some Mount Vernon parents aren't happy with the courses offered there or the numbers of students enrolled in the courses that are offered, maybe they need to stop electing local officials like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell, who both supported the massive expansion of West Potomac HS when there was space at Mount Vernon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

How do you solve the issue without bussing? Do you think Mt. Vernon should offer post calc math like other schools even if only 10 kids are even taking HL 2 math? The places that you'd bus from for most of these schools barely have advanced cohorts themselves.

If some Mount Vernon parents aren't happy with the courses offered there or the numbers of students enrolled in the courses that are offered, maybe they need to stop electing local officials like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell, who both supported the massive expansion of West Potomac HS when there was space at Mount Vernon.

West Potomac has 36 kids taking calc BC and less than 10 taking anything beyond calc BC. Hayfield has 32 and 16. How are you going to try to carve the lines so that the all end up with viable advanced math classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

How do you solve the issue without bussing? Do you think Mt. Vernon should offer post calc math like other schools even if only 10 kids are even taking HL 2 math? The places that you'd bus from for most of these schools barely have advanced cohorts themselves.

If some Mount Vernon parents aren't happy with the courses offered there or the numbers of students enrolled in the courses that are offered, maybe they need to stop electing local officials like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell, who both supported the massive expansion of West Potomac HS when there was space at Mount Vernon.

West Potomac has 36 kids taking calc BC and less than 10 taking anything beyond calc BC. Hayfield has 32 and 16. How are you going to try to carve the lines so that the all end up with viable advanced math classes?

West Potomac has nine feeder elementary schools, only one of which is a split feeder, which is absurd. For sure at least one should have already been reassigned to Mount Vernon.

[Anonymous]

West Potomac has nine feeder elementary schools, only one of which is a split feeder, which is absurd. For sure at least one should have already been reassigned to Mount Vernon.

That is no where near absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
They won't move those Langley students to HHS- but not because of enrollment capacity. HHS is at 2300 students- with the recent renovation- capacity is 2500.
Move some from Langley to Herndon. Mclean to Langley. Could get 3 schools to similar enrollment and ease overcrowding at McLean and fill the under capacity at Langley- by #s- make sense.
Will never happen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm making an offer on a house in the extreme north-western part of Langley HS district, near Seneca road. It's in the 7-1 grid of https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/medi...choolBoundaries.pdf. My son is in 1st grade currently, would prefer Cooper/Langley as schools.

Given where things are at, is there any intent by FCPS to move that part of Langley into Herndon HS, has that been proposed or discussed? I saw a comments to that in this thread, wondering if this was ever really entertained.

I mean, yes, sending the far northwestern part of the county back to Herndon HS boundaries is a thing that could happen. A PP alluded to it earlier in the thread, and then the Langley boundaries would absorb one of the ES in the McLean pyramid. But Herndon HS doesn’t have the capacity right now to absorb a whole additional ES into its boundaries. The MS seems to have more “room” because the capacity dashboard shows it with a number of modular/temporary classrooms, but those are unpopular and not meant to be long term solutions. And building the mythical western HS that could change boundaries at multiple schools is at least 10 years away from completion and probably longer than that. So if you have a current 1st/rising 2nd grader I wouldn’t worry too much about it at all.

Langley’s freshman class is significantly larger than the senior class— presumably due to the most recent boundary change and the grandfathering that comes with it.

When it all shakes out in a few years I wonder where McLean will be in terms of enrollment. Still over I am sure, but by how much?

Part of the reason Langley’s enrollment is growing has nothing to do with the 2021 boundary change with McLean and more to do with places like Great Falls getting more attractive again for working parents when many jobs went remote w/Covid.

Um... GF has *always* been attractive for working parent(s). Most people who live there work in Tysons, Reston, Chantilly, McLean, etc., or remotely. Not DC.

Not saying otherwise, but regardless of where people’s jobs were based Covid led some people to place less emphasis on being close to those work places and more emphasis on bigger homes w/more space. It’s not a very controversial observation.

Precisely - It's why I closed on a house here, recognizing the need to drive children mostly across all of GF to get to Cooper/Langley.

But if they lop off the West end of GF and join it with Herndon HS - I'm getting out.

There is no land for another high school. The only place to put a high school is if they buy some property in Great Falls, then they can bus in some of the kids that are zoned for Herndon, South Lakes, and maybe Madison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

How do you solve the issue without bussing? Do you think Mt. Vernon should offer post calc math like other schools even if only 10 kids are even taking HL 2 math? The places that you'd bus from for most of these schools barely have advanced cohorts themselves.

If some Mount Vernon parents aren't happy with the courses offered there or the numbers of students enrolled in the courses that are offered, maybe they need to stop electing local officials like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell, who both supported the massive expansion of West Potomac HS when there was space at Mount Vernon.

West Potomac has 36 kids taking calc BC and less than 10 taking anything beyond calc BC. Hayfield has 32 and 16. How are you going to try to carve the lines so that the all end up with viable advanced math classes?

I went to a somewhat small HS and we had AP classes with less than 20 students. To be fair, the school would then only offer one session of the class and if you wanted to take it but it conflicted with band/a specialty choir/yearbook/etc., you had a tough choice to make. But we had the class. One of my friends was in AP French and that class had like 9 students.

Another thing to consider is letting the kids go to a different HS just for that class. For example, my school only had Calc AB, so if you wanted Calc BC, a neighboring HS would let you take it there if you could arrange your own transportation. For a senior in BC Calc that would usually mean driving themself. In return, the other school’s students could take a class that my HS offered that theirs didn’t. I think we had one of the only vet tech vocational programs in the area so that was our “offering” whereas other schools had AP Latin, German, BC Calc, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

How do you solve the issue without bussing? Do you think Mt. Vernon should offer post calc math like other schools even if only 10 kids are even taking HL 2 math? The places that you'd bus from for most of these schools barely have advanced cohorts themselves.

If some Mount Vernon parents aren't happy with the courses offered there or the numbers of students enrolled in the courses that are offered, maybe they need to stop electing local officials like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell, who both supported the massive expansion of West Potomac HS when there was space at Mount Vernon.

West Potomac has 36 kids taking calc BC and less than 10 taking anything beyond calc BC. Hayfield has 32 and 16. How are you going to try to carve the lines so that the all end up with viable advanced math classes?

I went to a somewhat small HS and we had AP classes with less than 20 students. To be fair, the school would then only offer one session of the class and if you wanted to take it but it conflicted with band/a specialty choir/yearbook/etc., you had a tough choice to make. But we had the class. One of my friends was in AP French and that class had like 9 students.

Another thing to consider is letting the kids go to a different HS just for that class. For example, my school only had Calc AB, so if you wanted Calc BC, a neighboring HS would let you take it there if you could arrange your own transportation. For a senior in BC Calc that would usually mean driving themself. In return, the other school’s students could take a class that my HS offered that theirs didn’t. I think we had one of the only vet tech vocational programs in the area so that was our “offering” whereas other schools had AP Latin, German, BC Calc, etc.

So if you are able to drive yourself, you have a viable option, if not, oh well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

How do you solve the issue without bussing? Do you think Mt. Vernon should offer post calc math like other schools even if only 10 kids are even taking HL 2 math? The places that you'd bus from for most of these schools barely have advanced cohorts themselves.

If some Mount Vernon parents aren't happy with the courses offered there or the numbers of students enrolled in the courses that are offered, maybe they need to stop electing local officials like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell, who both supported the massive expansion of West Potomac HS when there was space at Mount Vernon.

West Potomac has 36 kids taking calc BC and less than 10 taking anything beyond calc BC. Hayfield has 32 and 16. How are you going to try to carve the lines so that the all end up with viable advanced math classes?

West Potomac has nine feeder elementary schools, only one of which is a split feeder, which is absurd. For sure at least one should have already been reassigned to Mount Vernon.

And reassigning one school somehow gets you a viable advanced cohort?

[Anonymous]

I went to a somewhat small HS and we had AP classes with less than 20 students. To be fair, the school would then only offer one session of the class and if you wanted to take it but it conflicted with band/a specialty choir/yearbook/etc., you had a tough choice to make. But we had the class. One of my friends was in AP French and that class had like 9 students.

DD graduated from a very large FCPS high school. Conflicts for classes can happen even there. As I recall, it was between AP Foreign Language and, honestly, I cannot recall the other. She took the language. The other one may have been an elective rather than AP class. But, it was an elective she really wanted. I think this happened in both her Junior and Senior year. I do recall that there was only one AP foreign language class at her level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

How do you solve the issue without bussing? Do you think Mt. Vernon should offer post calc math like other schools even if only 10 kids are even taking HL 2 math? The places that you'd bus from for most of these schools barely have advanced cohorts themselves.

If some Mount Vernon parents aren't happy with the courses offered there or the numbers of students enrolled in the courses that are offered, maybe they need to stop electing local officials like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell, who both supported the massive expansion of West Potomac HS when there was space at Mount Vernon.

West Potomac has 36 kids taking calc BC and less than 10 taking anything beyond calc BC. Hayfield has 32 and 16. How are you going to try to carve the lines so that the all end up with viable advanced math classes?

I went to a somewhat small HS and we had AP classes with less than 20 students. To be fair, the school would then only offer one session of the class and if you wanted to take it but it conflicted with band/a specialty choir/yearbook/etc., you had a tough choice to make. But we had the class. One of my friends was in AP French and that class had like 9 students.

Another thing to consider is letting the kids go to a different HS just for that class. For example, my school only had Calc AB, so if you wanted Calc BC, a neighboring HS would let you take it there if you could arrange your own transportation. For a senior in BC Calc that would usually mean driving themself. In return, the other school’s students could take a class that my HS offered that theirs didn’t. I think we had one of the only vet tech vocational programs in the area so that was our “offering” whereas other schools had AP Latin, German, BC Calc, etc.

So if you are able to drive yourself, you have a viable option, if not, oh well?

Transportation is already enough of a problem in FCPS. I mean if they could get a bus or van to drive 10 kids from Mt. Vernon to West Potomac for BC Calc in the middle of the day, great. But I don’t think “oh there’s no school transportation so we can’t do it” is a viable excuse when kids could drive themselves or take a public bus. Mount Vernon and West Potomac aren’t so far apart. Lewis and Edison are quite close and both are also pretty close to Hayfield. They have options if the schools can just be a little creative and flexible. By the way when we had this arrangement in HS it was between different districts entirely. FCPS is at least all the same district!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of making this yet another IB vs. AP debate (they are both fine), let's get back to original topic. Yes making some IB schools AP would help. SB won't do jack because they don't want to stir up the pot. Parents-many in this forum-will freak out with boundary changes if it doesn't go their way. So what is the solution?

Distribute affordable housing across the county instead on concentrating it. Unless that happens, boundary adjustment will always be bitter and career ending for politicians

A politician who truly believes that a boundary adjustment is the right thing to do for the sake of equity, fiscal responsibility and any other good reason should have character enough to go through with it anyway.

The school board is supposed to exist for proper education and responsible use of facilities/resources, not as a stepping stone that ambitious politicians use to get to higher office.

You throw out that it should be done for the sake of "equity." How is this going to achieve "equity?" What do you think it will do?

2. So, you redistribute and get "equity" of demographics. What does this accomplish for the kids?

Maybe, just maybe, a politician will step forward who thinks we should educate our kids. To me, that would be "equity."

To me, equity is all about course offerings. All schools should have a student body that can support a robust STEM program along with strong humanities offerings. Currently we have schools that struggle to fill a single class with enough kids capable of taking certain advanced courses, or worse, the school doesn't even offer particular courses.

The findings and recommendations from the latest Career Pathways report and presentation are significant and unfortunately will be largely ignored by the SB and the community. The document showing enrollment of Career Pathway classes per school for 2021-22 demonstrates the inequalities that currently exist.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEP4CC430/$file/Career_Pathways_SBWS_%20Presentation.pdf
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CM2JEH4CC429/$file/High%20School%20Pathway%20Course%20Offerings%20by%20School%20SY%202021-22%20-%20High%20School%20(1).pdf

As a baseline, every school should be capable of offering and filling at least one full class of AP Computer Science A. Chantilly and Woodson have over 140 students enrolled in that class, while Mt. Vernon doesn't even offer IB Computer Science (they had a total of 26 kids enrolled in a regular 'Computer Science' elective.)
Similarly, every school should be capable of offering and filling AP Calculus BC. McLean had 133 kids enrolled in AP Calc BC, while Mt. Vernon had <10 enrolled in the equivalent IB Math A&A HL 2.

I'm not suggesting that we bus kids one way or the other. I'm only illustrating the very wide spectrum of course offerings and enrollment at our schools. The factor that boundaries play in creating this situation is not trivial.

How do you solve the issue without bussing? Do you think Mt. Vernon should offer post calc math like other schools even if only 10 kids are even taking HL 2 math? The places that you'd bus from for most of these schools barely have advanced cohorts themselves.

If some Mount Vernon parents aren't happy with the courses offered there or the numbers of students enrolled in the courses that are offered, maybe they need to stop electing local officials like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell, who both supported the massive expansion of West Potomac HS when there was space at Mount Vernon.

West Potomac has 36 kids taking calc BC and less than 10 taking anything beyond calc BC. Hayfield has 32 and 16. How are you going to try to carve the lines so that the all end up with viable advanced math classes?

I went to a somewhat small HS and we had AP classes with less than 20 students. To be fair, the school would then only offer one session of the class and if you wanted to take it but it conflicted with band/a specialty choir/yearbook/etc., you had a tough choice to make. But we had the class. One of my friends was in AP French and that class had like 9 students.

Another thing to consider is letting the kids go to a different HS just for that class. For example, my school only had Calc AB, so if you wanted Calc BC, a neighboring HS would let you take it there if you could arrange your own transportation. For a senior in BC Calc that would usually mean driving themself. In return, the other school’s students could take a class that my HS offered that theirs didn’t. I think we had one of the only vet tech vocational programs in the area so that was our “offering” whereas other schools had AP Latin, German, BC Calc, etc.

So if you are able to drive yourself, you have a viable option, if not, oh well?

Transportation is already enough of a problem in FCPS. I mean if they could get a bus or van to drive 10 kids from Mt. Vernon to West Potomac for BC Calc in the middle of the day, great. But I don’t think “oh there’s no school transportation so we can’t do it” is a viable excuse when kids could drive themselves or take a public bus. Mount Vernon and West Potomac aren’t so far apart. Lewis and Edison are quite close and both are also pretty close to Hayfield. They have options if the schools can just be a little creative and flexible. By the way when we had this arrangement in HS it was between different districts entirely. FCPS is at least all the same district!

Great, kids whose families can afford cars can take advanced classes, kids whose families can't are sol unless the county bus schedule happens to align with school bell schedules. Schools have no problem bussing to academy classes, but I guess it's a bridge too far to expect similar treatment for kids taking advanced classes.