Boundary Review Meetings
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
If you read my follow up post, I agreed that what FCPS allowed to happen is appalling. I also wrote in that exchange: "I will add that I feel strongly that it is a travesty that a county as wealthy and educated as FCPS with such high paid leadership would let Lewis fall into such disrepair and neglect, not just the programs at the school, but also the building and facilities. I do wish you well whether you stay at Lewis and fight for it, or use a loophole to get out. A FCPS family in the richest area of the country should never see their school so neglected by their elected officials." You only have 2 real options. Either you can just accept status quo and either stay and do nothing or use the existing loopholes to transfer. Or, you can try to find like minded parents to push Lewis to do more things to build community with the elementary schools to carry what you have at schools like Sprinfield Estates and Saratoga up to Lewis, to grow a sense of pride and community connection with Lewis, while pushing your school board rep to eliminate IB, switch to AP, and stop rezoning neighborhoods out of Lewis, as well as mobilizing and demanding that move you up in the renovation queue so your school is similar to all the other high schools. What are your other options? If you are an elementary school family, I would go for the latter, including trying to build more community at the high school, networking with Saratoga parents who have expressed similar experiences as Springfield Estates, and pushing for program changes. If that doesn't work by high school, then bail and pupil place elsewhere. |
Anonymous
But, someone was leaving them out of the estimate for Westfield. There are two different things going on here---boundary review as it applies to KAA and Westfield and Scenario 4. I think the Herndon kids are still at Coates for now? |
Anonymous
|
As someone with a child in Lewis, I will say that there is community there. It is challenging, when you meet parents for whom English is not their first language, but they genuinely want their children to succeed. And just from that alone, we can bond. We're all there for our kids.
I've attended potlucks at Lewis with international flavors I've never had before and it was AMAZING! Speaking of international, the international night at Lewis is always a sold-out event. There are other community events, like the holiday concert the band does for local preschools, and last year there was a trunk-or-treat event. The teachers have been amazing and really work hard to help their kids succeed. They don't go easy, but they also really care. Throughout elementary and middle school, teachers only reached out to me when things went wrong for me kid, but the Lewis teachers reach out to let me know when my kid does awesome. (And seriously, the first time I got one of those messages, my heart pounded and I thought, "Oh crap, the teacher's emailed me!" But it was good news! Never before did a teacher email me with good news!) I'm not willing to give up on Lewis. We have been so happy and welcomed there. It may be hard to see from the outside, but Lewis is a really good school and deserves so much more than what the school board is doing to it. Yes, I'm talking to other parents, and yes, we plan to speak up on behalf of the school. We will do our best. |
Anonymous
I'm not the OP on this, but she is the Chair of the Board and has been pushing this whole this through. I think the better statement is..What's Sandy Anderson's obsession with pushing an inadequate and faulty boundary process? That's weird. |
Anonymous
|
Meren posted the following on her Facebook page:
"BOUNDARY REVIEW THOUGHTS Last night, Herndon High School hosted a Community Boundary Review Meeting for the South Lakes and Herndon pyramids. As I left the meeting, I couldn't help but appreciate the students' art on the walls, including developed photos from film, the old-school way. I also left with unanswered questions, as did many there, since only summaries of proposed changes to the South Lakes and Herndon pyramids were reviewed. Adjacent pyramids and the new Western High School were not addressed. This is a gaping hole. I pressed the Superintendent to make this all available as soon as possible. I'm told the new maps for Western High School will be available by the end of October. We need the information sooner, and I will continue to speak up alongside our community to get answers." |
Anonymous
Do you think you need more kids or just more support? As a WSHS parent and teacher for FARMS kids for decades, I am not sure adding more kids will be the thing Lewis needs. More wrap around support for some families and allowing the children who are there to have access to more AP programming (even if that means smaller than typical class sizes) would probably be helpful to all. Focusing on test scores will never capture the learning that goes on for many children, and I hope FCPS is able to better articulate the true successes and achievements that students and families have at Title 1 schools. Communities like Lewis are always amazing and unique places. THAT needs to be talked about more. That said, after decades of working to help children like many of those who attend Lewis, asking my family to sacrifice my child’s high school experience and have them attend one school for 9/10 and then a second school for 11/12 was too great a price for me to back switching kids from West Springfield to Lewis. It is just unfair to expect children to do that. Lewis does deserve more support and accolades than it gets. How do we build that up? |
Anonymous
|
Reid tonight on western HS - really focused on bringing down enrollments at Chantilly, Centreville, and Westfield. Could have a little impact on South Lakes and Oakton (sounded like far less than any full South Lakes or Oakton feeder).
First boundary maps available around the time of the guided tour of KAA facility. |
Anonymous
That is so nice to hear. Thank you for sharing. I sincerely wish you success. You have been badly mistreated by the school board for many years One thing you have at Lewis that we don't over at larger schools like WSHS is that if your kid is a stand out they will really stand out, instead of being one of a crowd. That should help at college admissions time. Good luck with your battle. I think all of us are fighting for what is best for our own kids, even when it doesn't match what is best for the families a neighborhood or two over. |
Anonymous
| As between South Lakes and Oakton Reid seems to be suggesting more of SL might get moved into KAA than Oakton based on the drafts she's been reviewing. Obviously reading the tea leaves. |
Anonymous
Why on earth would FCPS release maps showing a huge number of kids getting rezoned to one place, when they know full well that all of those neighborhoods will change again, even further out, once the maps for the new school are drafted? Why in earth are they not delaying this by a year, to fall 2027, so they can have a more accurate picture of enrollment changes from rifs and deportations, as well as the new high school? Why on earth does everything have to be orchestrated around their elections and political campaigns? For once, can this school board make it about students and being responsible stewards of our taxpayer money? |
Anonymous
Also why are they wasting western Fairfax’s time with community meetings when they are getting ANOTHER set of maps to review in 10 days. They should have scheduled all of those pyramids for the last week. At least Chantilly and Westfield should have the maps by their October 30 meeting. |
Anonymous
i think the kids moved out of coates will stay at the new schools assigned (floris, mcnair and herndon ES). i think KAA will then incorporate the scenario 4 numbers of kids moved from coates when they decide who goes to KAA. like if they move coates there the enrollment will be lower than now, mcnair and floris will be higher than now. |
Anonymous
| Langley/Oakton meeting going on now. I can’t follow the woman who is calling out the “unethical practice” some developers allegedly made when they made the Herndon homes only if they were in the Langley pyramid. Thankfully someone rightfully stated that no one in the Great Falls community wants any boundary changes. Everyone bought their homes knowing the pyramid. Reid said in the future they may not provide transportation that far west, but I bet parents would get together to find a solution. Leave the Langley Pyramid boundaries alone. |
Anonymous
So it sounds like someone from Centreville might backfill Westfield? |
Anonymous
FCPS cannot not provide bus service to far off neighborhoods. Wtf? |