FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

How many McLean kids come from the two attendance islands inside the Marshall boundaries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Langley is not overcrowded, not now overcrowded.

I think the Western Great Falls families are on high alert about this but I think they’re probably safe at Langley. As you said, LHS is under enrolled and could actually probably do with more students at this point. And it wouldn’t make sense to bus Herndon students there because that’s a haul, so any additional students would come from areas currently zoned for McLean.

There are kids being bussed to Langley who live further out than other kids currently attending Herndon. The only difference is how much money their parents make. Tholen was careful about which kids living in Herndon would be inbounds for Langley

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the change.org for those opposing changing the WSHS boundary:

https://chng.it/56yWH8hGLv

This is just related to West Springfield elementary. Keene Mill is closer. It would make more sense to look there.

Ugh. No it isn’t closer. Use google maps: they are equidistant school to school. They would be dumb to take either school because they are walkers to Irving. Keene mill is one of the most diverse schools in the district, so that would be doubly silly to take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Langley is not overcrowded, not now overcrowded.

I think the Western Great Falls families are on high alert about this but I think they’re probably safe at Langley. As you said, LHS is under enrolled and could actually probably do with more students at this point. And it wouldn’t make sense to bus Herndon students there because that’s a haul, so any additional students would come from areas currently zoned for McLean.

There are kids being bussed to Langley who live further out than other kids currently attending Herndon. The only difference is how much money their parents make. Tholen was careful about which kids living in Herndon would be inbounds for Langley

They made the choice to live way out in the far western reaches of the county where there’s nothing, so they knew there would be a long bus ride wherever they went.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Langley is not overcrowded, not now overcrowded.

I think the Western Great Falls families are on high alert about this but I think they’re probably safe at Langley. As you said, LHS is under enrolled and could actually probably do with more students at this point. And it wouldn’t make sense to bus Herndon students there because that’s a haul, so any additional students would come from areas currently zoned for McLean.

A few years ago, there was a boundary study about moving kids from McLean to Langley and then only a very small number of kids got rezoned. I believe part of the problem was that Cooper was under renovation and parents did not want their kids to Longfellow and then Langley. If moved, they wanted to be cooper/langley. Cooper renovation is almost complete so perhaps more kids from McLean would be moved to Langley. These schools are so close and makes sense to rezone.

Herndon still has nothing to do with this conversation besides trying to be equitable. It is often mentioned that parts of western great falls is closer to Herndon than Langley. Why not just let them be? They don’t want to go to Herndon. Langley had space for the GF people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Langley is not overcrowded, not now overcrowded.

I think the Western Great Falls families are on high alert about this but I think they’re probably safe at Langley. As you said, LHS is under enrolled and could actually probably do with more students at this point. And it wouldn’t make sense to bus Herndon students there because that’s a haul, so any additional students would come from areas currently zoned for McLean.

There are kids being bussed to Langley who live further out than other kids currently attending Herndon. The only difference is how much money their parents make. Tholen was careful about which kids living in Herndon would be inbounds for Langley

They made the choice to live way out in the far western reaches of the county where there’s nothing, so they knew there would be a long bus ride wherever they went.

The commute to Herndon isn't bad. Langley was marketed as a selling point for those homes, but FCPS has no reason to continue obliging them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Langley is not overcrowded, not now overcrowded.

I think the Western Great Falls families are on high alert about this but I think they’re probably safe at Langley. As you said, LHS is under enrolled and could actually probably do with more students at this point. And it wouldn’t make sense to bus Herndon students there because that’s a haul, so any additional students would come from areas currently zoned for McLean.

There are kids being bussed to Langley who live further out than other kids currently attending Herndon. The only difference is how much money their parents make. Tholen was careful about which kids living in Herndon would be inbounds for Langley

They made the choice to live way out in the far western reaches of the county where there’s nothing, so they knew there would be a long bus ride wherever they went.

The commute to Herndon isn't bad. Langley was marketed as a selling point for those homes, but FCPS has no reason to continue obliging them

FCPS does need to teach all kids.moving kids to cover up for the lack of meeting children’s needs isn’t ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many McLean kids come from the two attendance islands inside the Marshall boundaries?

McLean has two attendance islands. Neither is inside the Marshall boundaries.

The first island is in Tysons and bordered by Langley to the north and Marshall to the east, west, and south. The second is in Falls Church and bordered by Marshall to the west, Falls Church City to the north and east, and Falls Church to the south.

If I had to guess, I'd say about 175 kids come from the first island (Spring Hill) and 180 kids from the second island (Timber Lane). If they moved the first island to Langley and the second to Falls Church, McLean would be slightly over capacity excluding the modular and under capacity including the modular. I believe most would prefer no further boundary changes unless the overcrowding is more acute, even with the modular, and/or they've committed to a future upgrade of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Langley is not overcrowded, not now overcrowded.

I think the Western Great Falls families are on high alert about this but I think they’re probably safe at Langley. As you said, LHS is under enrolled and could actually probably do with more students at this point. And it wouldn’t make sense to bus Herndon students there because that’s a haul, so any additional students would come from areas currently zoned for McLean.

There are kids being bussed to Langley who live further out than other kids currently attending Herndon. The only difference is how much money their parents make. Tholen was careful about which kids living in Herndon would be inbounds for Langley

They made the choice to live way out in the far western reaches of the county where there’s nothing, so they knew there would be a long bus ride wherever they went.

The commute to Herndon isn't bad. Langley was marketed as a selling point for those homes, but FCPS has no reason to continue obliging them

FCPS does need to teach all kids.moving kids to cover up for the lack of meeting children’s needs isn’t ok.

So economic segregation is a good thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Langley is not overcrowded, not now overcrowded.

I think the Western Great Falls families are on high alert about this but I think they’re probably safe at Langley. As you said, LHS is under enrolled and could actually probably do with more students at this point. And it wouldn’t make sense to bus Herndon students there because that’s a haul, so any additional students would come from areas currently zoned for McLean.

There are kids being bussed to Langley who live further out than other kids currently attending Herndon. The only difference is how much money their parents make. Tholen was careful about which kids living in Herndon would be inbounds for Langley

They made the choice to live way out in the far western reaches of the county where there’s nothing, so they knew there would be a long bus ride wherever they went.

The commute to Herndon isn't bad. Langley was marketed as a selling point for those homes, but FCPS has no reason to continue obliging them

FCPS does need to teach all kids.moving kids to cover up for the lack of meeting children’s needs isn’t ok.

So economic segregation is a good thing?

DP.

Gosh you make it sound like we’re all a bunch of robber barons out here. Most parents who are adamantly against school redistricting are probably in favor of a lot of the programs that might actually help your kid. You’re just barking up the wrong tree here and the SB is about to throw the baby out with the bath water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Langley is not overcrowded, not now overcrowded.

I think the Western Great Falls families are on high alert about this but I think they’re probably safe at Langley. As you said, LHS is under enrolled and could actually probably do with more students at this point. And it wouldn’t make sense to bus Herndon students there because that’s a haul, so any additional students would come from areas currently zoned for McLean.

A few years ago, there was a boundary study about moving kids from McLean to Langley and then only a very small number of kids got rezoned. I believe part of the problem was that Cooper was under renovation and parents did not want their kids to Longfellow and then Langley. If moved, they wanted to be cooper/langley. Cooper renovation is almost complete so perhaps more kids from McLean would be moved to Langley. These schools are so close and makes sense to rezone.

Herndon still has nothing to do with this conversation besides trying to be equitable. It is often mentioned that parts of western great falls is closer to Herndon than Langley. Why not just let them be? They don’t want to go to Herndon. Langley had space for the GF people.

The primary reason that more Longfellow/McLean kids were not moved to Cooper/Langley in 2021 was that Great Falls parents lobbied Elaine Tholen, who lives in Great Falls, to cap the number of kids moved because Great Falls wanted a buffer to avoid exactly the type of talk that's happening now, courtesy of the new School Board, about part of Great Falls getting moved to Herndon. Staff had proposed to move an area that would have more kids and she shot it down.

The Cooper renovation is almost complete but it's not adding as much new capacity as one might have anticipated. If they redistrict any significant number of kids from Longfellow/McLean to Cooper/Langley it may trigger a redistricting of part of Cooper/Langley to Herndon/Herndon based on the latest projections, which have Cooper at 99% capacity and Langley at 98% within the next five years without any further boundary changes. You can't say Herndon has "nothing to do with the conversation" when adding more kids to Langley would put it over capacity and they are now projecting Herndon will be 29% under-enrolled in five years.

Note that, if they move the southern Longfellow/McLean attendance island to Jackson/Falls Church, and leave the northern attendance island alone for now, it does not affect Cooper/Langley and leaves the Herndon schools in a position to take on more of the future Silver Line growth projected nearby at Carson/Westfield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Langley is not overcrowded, not now overcrowded.

I think the Western Great Falls families are on high alert about this but I think they’re probably safe at Langley. As you said, LHS is under enrolled and could actually probably do with more students at this point. And it wouldn’t make sense to bus Herndon students there because that’s a haul, so any additional students would come from areas currently zoned for McLean.

There are kids being bussed to Langley who live further out than other kids currently attending Herndon. The only difference is how much money their parents make. Tholen was careful about which kids living in Herndon would be inbounds for Langley

Elaine Tholen had nothing to do with which kids living in Herndon would attend Langley. Those decisions were made well before her time by prior School Boards. What she did do during her term was make sure that, when McLean got overcrowded, only built-out, expensive single-family neighborhoods in Vienna, and no apartments in growing Tysons, got moved to Cooper/Langley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bringing a discussion from another thread over here because it is more relevant here.

As a bus drove by, I just checked travel times for Langley vs. Herndon. At least for folks north of route 7, there is really no difference between bus times.

Herndon High - 15 minutes from us, Langley High 17 minutes. Net difference, a de minimus 2 minutes. I encourage you to confirm yourselves.

Turns out buses as a pretext in this neck of the woods isn’t compelling.

I don’t know why Langley and Herndon are always brought up. Langley is now overcrowded. GF feeds into Langley. Other people are often trying to move GF families to Herndon. It is one thing if Langley was overcrowded but Langley isn’t overcrowded.

We are zoned for Langley and have watched for years while they make tiny boundary changes to Langley.

The afternoon and evening commute times are longer to Langley from some parts of GF. The reason Langley is brought up is because McLean is overcrowded so some kids could get shifted to Langley which could mean some LHS kids who are closer to Herndon should get shifted there.

In my experience there are always some McLean families near Langley who’d like to be rezoned to the wealthier, renovated school. Most would prefer to stay put and have pointed out that, with the modular addition, McLean isn’t overcrowded to the degree that FCPS has said in the past warrants redistricting.

However, Herndon has been expanded to almost 2800 seats, they are now projecting it will only have slightly over 1900 kids in five years, and you have members like Lady (who lives in Herndon) and McDaniel who seem to be promoting boundary changes. It’s not crazy to think they may propose to move more of McLean to Langley and then move part of Langley to Herndon.

If you don’t want further boundary changes in Dranesville, let Robyn Lady and the at-large members know. They are floundering right now because they are starting to realize they will ultimately be accountable for any future boundary changes, regardless of what they say about just relying on staff recommendations.

When you look at the Herndon situation you can see how bad the school board is at this. In 2016, Herndon was at 2300 students and over the capacity design of 2145. They projected Herndon to get to 2500 students by 2021 with an expansion underway to raise capacity to 2500 and be right at 100% utilization. They kept these projections throughout the expansion even though Herndon's enrollment stayed flat at 2300 for the next three years. Then, instead of expanding to 2500 capacity they pumped it up to 2800. Now in 2024, they are still at 2300 enrollment and projected to stay at 2300 for the next four years with a new capacity utilization of 85%. Oh no, now we are at a capacity utilization deficit and we need to fix it. Bad planning and bad use of taxpayer money over-expanding and now we need to shift boundaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Langley is not overcrowded, not now overcrowded.

I think the Western Great Falls families are on high alert about this but I think they’re probably safe at Langley. As you said, LHS is under enrolled and could actually probably do with more students at this point. And it wouldn’t make sense to bus Herndon students there because that’s a haul, so any additional students would come from areas currently zoned for McLean.

There are kids being bussed to Langley who live further out than other kids currently attending Herndon. The only difference is how much money their parents make. Tholen was careful about which kids living in Herndon would be inbounds for Langley

They made the choice to live way out in the far western reaches of the county where there’s nothing, so they knew there would be a long bus ride wherever they went.

The commute to Herndon isn't bad. Langley was marketed as a selling point for those homes, but FCPS has no reason to continue obliging them

FCPS does need to teach all kids.moving kids to cover up for the lack of meeting children’s needs isn’t ok.

So economic segregation is a good thing?

You are dodging. How is FCPS supporting farms and esl children’s goals? Do all the parents of those children expect them to go to a 4 year college? If so, can or should FCPS provide more adult classes for recent immigrants.
What does the low income esp population need? What are their goal? Do the kids achieve those goals and how is that success reported. Only reporting 4 year schools makes assumptions about what student and family goals are for their kids. Wakefield in Aps does home visits for its at risk kids to find this info out. Does FCPS do this and if so what does that data say?
What do Umc parent s at Lewis want for their kids. How does the school report that data so parents know what to expect.
There are two tracks of diplomas in va how does FCPS represent the sucesses of students who may not be meeting SOL benchmarks but become successful anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many McLean kids come from the two attendance islands inside the Marshall boundaries?

McLean has two attendance islands. Neither is inside the Marshall boundaries.

The first island is in Tysons and bordered by Langley to the north and Marshall to the east, west, and south. The second is in Falls Church and bordered by Marshall to the west, Falls Church City to the north and east, and Falls Church to the south.

If I had to guess, I'd say about 175 kids come from the first island (Spring Hill) and 180 kids from the second island (Timber Lane). If they moved the first island to Langley and the second to Falls Church, McLean would be slightly over capacity excluding the modular and under capacity including the modular. I believe most would prefer no further boundary changes unless the overcrowding is more acute, even with the modular, and/or they've committed to a future upgrade of the school.

I didn’t understand why more of Spring Hill didn’t get moved to Langley. This would have been such an easy fix.

They did another chance this year with Kent gardens and they only shifted around elementary schools with no changes to high school.