FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretend to have community involvement and listen, then do what they had planned to do. Same old playbook.

This has been the way they do boundary changes in the past. They have a plan, and they may throw a few small bones to the community, but ultimately, they will proceed with the plan.

That said, I do think the boundaries need adjusting every so often. It won't be popular because there are always perceived winners and losers. But, something needs to be done. My youngest graduates this year, and we live close to two high schools that are both acceptable. So I won't be affected much either way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretend to have community involvement and listen, then do what they had planned to do. Same old playbook.

This has been the way they do boundary changes in the past. They have a plan, and they may throw a few small bones to the community, but ultimately, they will proceed with the plan.

That said, I do think the boundaries need adjusting every so often. It won't be popular because there are always perceived winners and losers. But, something needs to be done. My youngest graduates this year, and we live close to two high schools that are both acceptable. So I won't be affected much either way.

Why does something need to be done? People know what they are getting with their current schools and FCPS enrollment is essentially flat or slightly down. What problem are you solving and how is a boundary change the best solution?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretend to have community involvement and listen, then do what they had planned to do. Same old playbook.

This has been the way they do boundary changes in the past. They have a plan, and they may throw a few small bones to the community, but ultimately, they will proceed with the plan.

That said, I do think the boundaries need adjusting every so often. It won't be popular because there are always perceived winners and losers. But, something needs to be done. My youngest graduates this year, and we live close to two high schools that are both acceptable. So I won't be affected much either way.

Why does something need to be done? People know what they are getting with their current schools and FCPS enrollment is essentially flat or slightly down. What problem are you solving and how is a boundary change the best solution?

FCPS has not effectively managed and resourced its high schools, and it has not accurately projected population changes. Because of this, select high schools are approaching an unrecoverable decline. The solution the SB is pursuing is to divide up populations and use equity as the cover to mash together low performing and high performing schools so every school is average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how they can redo HS boundaries without a concrete plan for the new Western HS. Could someone ask that at the Westfield meeting?

The western HS is illusory. It is always 10 more years away. They simply don’t know how to take it out of the CIP since some of the land acquisition costs were funded by a prior bond. But they have no site, the overwhelming percentage of the costs are not yet funded, and they’ve continued to expand many of the high schools that serve kids living in the western part of the county.

Of course it’s fair to ask for clarification, but you won’t get a clear answer at the meeting. Ask if they really still plan to build Centreville out to 3000 as well.

None of this got asked at the Westfield meeting. From what I could tell (sitting near the back) it seemed like the meeting may have been brigaded by an organized group from another region (I didn't hear where they were from, but I saw someone else post somewhere that it was Mantua Elem parents? They flat out said they were going to every meeting in front of the whole group.) These parents were all very vocal about how no boundary adjustments were acceptable in any way/shape/form. One lady even suggested boundaries should be fixed forever, and schools should just 'adapt' to changing populations (which is logistically just not realistic, at least in some situations).

The meeting wasn't so much them telling us anything as them asking us for our input/feedback in a pretty generic way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how they can redo HS boundaries without a concrete plan for the new Western HS. Could someone ask that at the Westfield meeting?

The western HS is illusory. It is always 10 more years away. They simply don’t know how to take it out of the CIP since some of the land acquisition costs were funded by a prior bond. But they have no site, the overwhelming percentage of the costs are not yet funded, and they’ve continued to expand many of the high schools that serve kids living in the western part of the county.

Of course it’s fair to ask for clarification, but you won’t get a clear answer at the meeting. Ask if they really still plan to build Centreville out to 3000 as well.

None of this got asked at the Westfield meeting. From what I could tell (sitting near the back) it seemed like the meeting may have been brigaded by an organized group from another region (I didn't hear where they were from, but I saw someone else post somewhere that it was Mantua Elem parents? They flat out said they were going to every meeting in front of the whole group.) These parents were all very vocal about how no boundary adjustments were acceptable in any way/shape/form. One lady even suggested boundaries should be fixed forever, and schools should just 'adapt' to changing populations (which is logistically just not realistic, at least in some situations).

The meeting wasn't so much them telling us anything as them asking us for our input/feedback in a pretty generic way.

How annoying parents like that are. Things change, populations grow, things have to be adjusted.

[Anonymous]

Wow, pretty much every speaker at the meeting just now was against boundary moves. You gotta wonder how the school board can be so tone deaf on this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pretty much every speaker at the meeting just now was against boundary moves. You gotta wonder how the school board can be so tone deaf on this issue.

Curious why? Did they have any proposed alternatives? I couldn't get to rhe meeting today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pretty much every speaker at the meeting just now was against boundary moves. You gotta wonder how the school board can be so tone deaf on this issue.

Curious why? Did they have any proposed alternatives? I couldn't get to rhe meeting today.

Where to begin? Disruptive, people chose where they live based in current pyramids, concerns about reliability of data, residency fraud, grandfathering.

Families don’t want to move. It’s very simple. Unfortunately, every time the board heard that they dismiss it as a vocal group rather than the majority opinion in our county.

The school board is an echo chamber.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pretty much every speaker at the meeting just now was against boundary moves. You gotta wonder how the school board can be so tone deaf on this issue.

Curious why? Did they have any proposed alternatives? I couldn't get to rhe meeting today.

Where to begin? Disruptive, people chose where they live based in current pyramids, concerns about reliability of data, residency fraud, grandfathering.

Families don’t want to move. It’s very simple. Unfortunately, every time the board heard that they dismiss it as a vocal group rather than the majority opinion in our county.

The school board is an echo chamber.

It’s funny because the reality is the complete opposite. The people who really want changes are a small but loud minority. I’m so tired of FCPS only listening to the super left. It’s how schools stayed closed so long during COVID, how we got a terrible school calendar, and now this impending mess. Republicans could win school board seats so easily if they figured out how to run someone normal. We need balance!!

[Anonymous]

I was at the Lake Braddock boundary meeting tonight and there wasn’t a single table who had anything positive to say about the process. A lot of people expressed concerns about keeping neighborhoods together, grandfathering, mental health of kids and property values. Also a lot of questions about the transparency of this process and how all of these feedback is going to be used (or more likely totally ignored).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pretty much every speaker at the meeting just now was against boundary moves. You gotta wonder how the school board can be so tone deaf on this issue.

Curious why? Did they have any proposed alternatives? I couldn't get to rhe meeting today.

Where to begin? Disruptive, people chose where they live based in current pyramids, concerns about reliability of data, residency fraud, grandfathering.

Families don’t want to move. It’s very simple. Unfortunately, every time the board heard that they dismiss it as a vocal group rather than the majority opinion in our county.

The school board is an echo chamber.

It’s funny because the reality is the complete opposite. The people who really want changes are a small but loud minority. I’m so tired of FCPS only listening to the super left. It’s how schools stayed closed so long during COVID, how we got a terrible school calendar, and now this impending mess. Republicans could win school board seats so easily if they figured out how to run someone normal. We need balance!!

I am definitely not left, for sure not super left ...but can see the need for some change. Throwing stones and stereotyping and getting hysterical on the internet isn't going to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pretty much every speaker at the meeting just now was against boundary moves. You gotta wonder how the school board can be so tone deaf on this issue.

Curious why? Did they have any proposed alternatives? I couldn't get to rhe meeting today.

Where to begin? Disruptive, people chose where they live based in current pyramids, concerns about reliability of data, residency fraud, grandfathering.

Families don’t want to move. It’s very simple. Unfortunately, every time the board heard that they dismiss it as a vocal group rather than the majority opinion in our county.

The school board is an echo chamber.

It’s funny because the reality is the complete opposite. The people who really want changes are a small but loud minority. I’m so tired of FCPS only listening to the super left. It’s how schools stayed closed so long during COVID, how we got a terrible school calendar, and now this impending mess. Republicans could win school board seats so easily if they figured out how to run someone normal. We need balance!!

I am definitely not left, for sure not super left ...but can see the need for some change. Throwing stones and stereotyping and getting hysterical on the internet isn't going to help.

Really? Are you personally volunteering to move? If so, tell us the schools involved.

People tend to support change when it involves someone else, not them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pretty much every speaker at the meeting just now was against boundary moves. You gotta wonder how the school board can be so tone deaf on this issue.

This is normal for proposals. The anti crowd shows up and is more animated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pretty much every speaker at the meeting just now was against boundary moves. You gotta wonder how the school board can be so tone deaf on this issue.

This is normal for proposals. The anti crowd shows up and is more animated.

Just wait. They haven’t seen anything yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pretty much every speaker at the meeting just now was against boundary moves. You gotta wonder how the school board can be so tone deaf on this issue.

This is normal for proposals. The anti crowd shows up and is more animated.

Just wait. They haven’t seen anything yet.

It’s going to get a lot worse for the school board. This is but a fraction of the country that is going to be furious with the proposed changes.