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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
Staff recommendation for FCPS Boundary changes in Annandale area now posted on BoardDocs
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Anonymous
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Link to the staff recommendation:
http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/8HVNYL5F4733/$file/Appendix%20A%20-%20%20%20Annandale%20Regional%20Study.pdf |
Anonymous
Don't know how others feel, but I think this is an improvement on any of the original options, even though it will drive up the percentage of low-income and ESL students at Annandale HS a few percentage points. |
Anonymous
Extensive grandfathering is recommended. Hope the board will support. |
Anonymous
| So... in order to prevent Annandale HS from etting to 115% of capacity, they are pushing Frost MS up to 122% of capacity in the same time period? Can someone explain to me why that makes sense? Is there an expansion projected at Frost? |
Anonymous
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Frost gets a 12 million dollar expansion; hopefully the WF community is pleased.
Bren Mar Park is stuck at 150% of capacity, yanked out of their existing middle school (Poe), put in a new middle school (Holmes), then thrown across the Beltway into Edison (making Holmes a split feeder). Quality job, there, facilities. |
Anonymous
The WK community will be pleased. The problem is that Woodson had extra capacity to absorb Annandale students while Frost is overcrowded. You can't take advantage of the Woodson space without adding a modular at Frost. No one wanted WF sent all the way to Lake Braddock. Of all the schools involved in the study, BMP was the most obvious candidate for redistricting. Both Holmes and Edison had space. Crossing the Beltway is not a big deal. That's what WF kids have done for decades to get to Annandale. Not sure why part of BMP wasn't reassigned to North Springfield/Key/Lee, since all of these schools have space. May have to do with the fact that sending the Edsall Park kids to North Springfield would drive up the ESOL/FRL percentages at BMP substantially. BMP isn't a big school and it may be better to build an addition there, if possible, than to start redistricting its students. For the most part, this was a quality job. |
Anonymous
I agree. The rollout from the staff recommendation: Given the community comments and the School Board’s objectives and policies, a combination of boundary changes are recommended for the elementary, middle, and high school levels that draw upon elements of the initial boundary options. Consistent with other middle and high school studies, staff believes that a more gradual transition to implement the boundary changes should be accommodated for the middle and high school levels. Implementation would generally begin with rising 9th grade students at the high school level and rising 6th or 7th grade students at the middle school level (depending upon the grade model). Elementary school changes would begin with grades K-4 or K-5 (depending upon the grade model) allowing 5th grade (or 6th grade) students to remain back at their current elementary school assignment. |
Anonymous
| As part of WF, I am thrilled, but I have no confidence that the board will accept this. |
Anonymous
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It seemed that Staff did try and listen to the feedback and adjust the recommendations accordingly.
It probably helped that there wasn't a School Board member with a major agenda that he or she wanted to ram down people's throats, like Stu Gibson or Liz Bradsher, driving this process. |
Anonymous
| So, can the board just ignore, or make major changes despite the recommendation? |
Anonymous
| These proposed boundaries will hasten Annandale's decline. Oh well. Stuart and Falls Church will have a better socio-economic balance than the future Annandale. |
Anonymous
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The School Board can send the Staff back to the drawing board, or make changes to the Staff recommendation. Typically, you'd expect the Staff to have discussed its final recommendation with the School Board members with the most interest in the outcome (Evans and Wilson) in advance.
The changes won't cause the demographics at Annandale to be less "favorable" than those at Falls Church or Stuart. Redistricting Bren Mar Park, which has higher ESOL/FRL percentages than Annandale HS as a whole, to Edison (which has lower ESOL/FRL percentages than Anandale) largely balances the impact of sending the half of Wakefield Forest not already at Frost and Woodson to those schools. It will increase slightly the ESOL/FRL percentages at Annandale, but not to the levels at Falls Church or Stuart. The increasing percentage of ESOL/FRL students at all these schools is due to the fact that the birth rate of Hispanics in the area is higher than that of higher-income, native English-speaking families. Neither FCPS nor the School Board has any control over these demographic trends, which are exacerbated by other facts (Arlington has become more expensive; Prince William has become less hospitable to Hispanics; and western Fairfax and Loudoun offer cheaper housing for those who don't want to send their kids to schools with high percentages of ESOL/FRL students). |
Anonymous
| I didn't see any recommendations for AAP to change from Glasgow to either Poe or Holmes. Anyone see this? |
Anonymous
| It looks like the remaining higher SES students at Annandale will have a smaller peer group than before. That could be a concern to some. |
Anonymous
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The final Staff recommendation keeps the AAP center at Glasgow.
Yes, there would be a smaller number of students at Annandale after the redistricting, and a smaller number of students from high-income homes. One alternative might have been to send kids from North Springfield to Lee, and keep the Wakefield Forest kids at Annandale, but it's a pain to get from that neighborhood to Lee. Backlick Road is pretty much the only option. |