FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

But isn't that equity?


No. Equity, as defined by the leftist in charge here, is where the government ensures equal outcomes, which they achieve by driving everyone towards the same mediocrity. Equality is giving everyone an even playing field and realizing that not everyone will succeed to the same level.

We wouldn't say we want health equity where everyone has a cold - we recognize that most people are usually healthy but some people are really sick, so we concentrate those people in hospitals because that's where the doctors and specialists are. We don't send surgeons around to every house.

We wouldn't say we want crime equity where everyone is subjected to the same level of violent crime - we concentrate the violent criminals in prisons because that's where the guards are.

Some kids need to be in an intensive ELL environment. Some kids need to be in a far more structured disciplinary environment. Some kids have severe learning disabilities. Rather than spreading underperforming kids out, and putting those specialists and resources everywhere - not to mention the extra expense as well as the impact of reduced attention on higher-acheiving kids - they would be best served by concentrating them where the specialists are. Yes, it might cost more to bus them around, but bus drivers are cheap compared to learning specialists, and in a decade the buses will drive themselves and be solar powered anyway.

It will be very interesting when they take the kids with IEP's and kids who are ELLs and behavior problems out of WSHS and concentrate them somewhere else. If you think people are upset now, just wait. FCPS will not have a chance of winning the ensuing civil rights lawsuit. All federal money for those kids will be pulled in a heartbeat. And it's not a small sum of money. Your house value will definitely go down when your property taxes get jacked up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It backfires because it leads to a few higher SES schools that border lower SES school taking the brunt of the burden of balancing while the wealthier schools stay the same. The farms rate in the county is out of control and going to get worse thanks to the county board welcoming affordable housing as fast as it can be build. All of that housing is concentrated in a few regions. Even the 'good schools' in those regions are now high farms. Meanwhile, neighboring schools have negligible farms rates

You are correct that the party in control of the county is one of the big reasons that the FARMs rate is skyrocketing, and their "solution" of spreading it out is going to lead to pain for everyone, in particular those students with high potential. Not to mention a big hit to property tax income as a lot of very expensive houses drop in value by 25%, which they will have to make up for by raising property and sales taxes, further burdening the poor.

The best thing to do is concentrate the failing students in a small number of schools, so their needs can be focused on without impacting students who actually want to learn. Let the high potential students transfer out to AAP/Honors/etc. centers elsewhere. The goal should be to make most of Fairfax county a great place to live, work, and learn, rather than making the whole of the county mediocre.

But isn't that equity?

No. Equity is giving each kid what he or she or they need to be a successful adult. It isn’t the same for all. It also isn’t getting a whole bunch of kids who don’t need much support to hide the ones who do.

Equity is about lowering the ceiling because it's not fair that some students need remediation to pass SOLs and others are capable of moving ahead. It's much easier to slow everyone down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

But isn't that equity?


No. Equity, as defined by the leftist in charge here, is where the government ensures equal outcomes, which they achieve by driving everyone towards the same mediocrity. Equality is giving everyone an even playing field and realizing that not everyone will succeed to the same level.

We wouldn't say we want health equity where everyone has a cold - we recognize that most people are usually healthy but some people are really sick, so we concentrate those people in hospitals because that's where the doctors and specialists are. We don't send surgeons around to every house.

We wouldn't say we want crime equity where everyone is subjected to the same level of violent crime - we concentrate the violent criminals in prisons because that's where the guards are.

Some kids need to be in an intensive ELL environment. Some kids need to be in a far more structured disciplinary environment. Some kids have severe learning disabilities. Rather than spreading underperforming kids out, and putting those specialists and resources everywhere - not to mention the extra expense as well as the impact of reduced attention on higher-acheiving kids - they would be best served by concentrating them where the specialists are. Yes, it might cost more to bus them around, but bus drivers are cheap compared to learning specialists, and in a decade the buses will drive themselves and be solar powered anyway.

It will be very interesting when they take the kids with IEP's and kids who are ELLs and behavior problems out of WSHS and concentrate them somewhere else. If you think people are upset now, just wait. FCPS will not have a chance of winning the ensuing civil rights lawsuit. All federal money for those kids will be pulled in a heartbeat. And it's not a small sum of money. Your house value will definitely go down when your property taxes get jacked up.

what PP suggested is illegal at the state and federal level, but even if federal per pupil funding was pulled, the county would end up better off because the amount of money needed to educate those kids is more than the feds provide

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand some families being upset if rezoning puts them underwater on their mortgage. Anybody would be upset by that.

Our school got rezoned when I was in high school, and they only grandfathered the seniors. It turned out okay, because they moved a LOT of kids. Everybody kept a good core group of friends. It’s actually better to go big than to nibble around the edges.

They will face massive blowback if they do not grandfather all the kids already attending a high school. And rightly so. No one elected them to “go big” on boundaries.

Was just at the governance meeting and I can assure you that extremely limited grandfathering is the plan.

They discussed seniors being grandfathered, eighth graders being grandfathered, and six graders being grandfathered and that’s it. One proposed making it juniors and seniors. One proposed maybe 7th and 8th grade, none said freshmen and sophomores. The board member proposing it said that she was just at a business roundabout and that the business leaders told her that Fairfax county kids were soft. She seems to want to limit grandfathering to toughen them up.

Ironically, the board member who suggested it had spoken twenty minutes before about the need to have certain redistricting occur at the staff level without a school board vote because of the intense negative public reaction her predecessor had received. It was a weird split screen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand some families being upset if rezoning puts them underwater on their mortgage. Anybody would be upset by that.

Our school got rezoned when I was in high school, and they only grandfathered the seniors. It turned out okay, because they moved a LOT of kids. Everybody kept a good core group of friends. It’s actually better to go big than to nibble around the edges.

They will face massive blowback if they do not grandfather all the kids already attending a high school. And rightly so. No one elected them to “go big” on boundaries.

Was just at the governance meeting and I can assure you that extremely limited grandfathering is the plan.

They discussed seniors being grandfathered, eighth graders being grandfathered, and six graders being grandfathered and that’s it. One proposed making it juniors and seniors. One proposed maybe 7th and 8th grade, none said freshmen and sophomores. The board member proposing it said that she was just at a business roundabout and that the business leaders told her that Fairfax county kids were soft. She seems to want to limit grandfathering to toughen them up.

Ironically, the board member who suggested it had spoken twenty minutes before about the need to have certain redistricting occur at the staff level without a school board vote because of the intense negative public reaction her predecessor had received. It was a weird split screen.

Good luck with that. They will have to vote on it and there will be blowback. The County Board will then have to vote to fund it and there will be blowback there too.

[Anonymous]

Meanwhile I got a response from my school board rep that minimized the whole issue saying there will be lots of public hearings before anything happens, if it happens. They seemed to throw mcdaniel shade for writing his email at all.

Was that governance meeting recorded? And how do I look for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


It will be very interesting when they take the kids with IEP's and kids who are ELLs and behavior problems out of WSHS and concentrate them somewhere else. If you think people are upset now, just wait. FCPS will not have a chance of winning the ensuing civil rights lawsuit. All federal money for those kids will be pulled in a heartbeat. And it's not a small sum of money. Your house value will definitely go down when your property taxes get jacked up.


what PP suggested is illegal at the state and federal level, but even if federal per pupil funding was pulled, the county would end up better off because the amount of money needed to educate those kids is more than the feds provide

That makes no sense. How could the county be better off with less money coming in from the state and feds? They would still have to educate the same kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand some families being upset if rezoning puts them underwater on their mortgage. Anybody would be upset by that.

Our school got rezoned when I was in high school, and they only grandfathered the seniors. It turned out okay, because they moved a LOT of kids. Everybody kept a good core group of friends. It’s actually better to go big than to nibble around the edges.

They will face massive blowback if they do not grandfather all the kids already attending a high school. And rightly so. No one elected them to “go big” on boundaries.

Was just at the governance meeting and I can assure you that extremely limited grandfathering is the plan.

They discussed seniors being grandfathered, eighth graders being grandfathered, and six graders being grandfathered and that’s it. One proposed making it juniors and seniors. One proposed maybe 7th and 8th grade, none said freshmen and sophomores. The board member proposing it said that she was just at a business roundabout and that the business leaders told her that Fairfax county kids were soft. She seems to want to limit grandfathering to toughen them up.

Ironically, the board member who suggested it had spoken twenty minutes before about the need to have certain redistricting occur at the staff level without a school board vote because of the intense negative public reaction her predecessor had received. It was a weird split screen.

Good luck with that. They will have to vote on it and there will be blowback. The County Board will then have to vote to fund it and there will be blowback there too.

The weird thing with this group is that they are mostly new and haven't really dealt with an issue before where a significant number of parents showed up at a public hearing to challenge or criticize them.

And now they are taking on one of the most controversial things that a school board touches - attendance boundaries - and going about it in a way that is maximizing public anxiety by talking about county-wide changes (which might affect only a limited number of boundaries in total, but still...) and limited grandfathering, even at the high school level where continuity is most important

Either they are masochists or they have no idea what they are going to be dealing with later. And if the criticism is fierce enough, the Board of Supervisors and other local elected officials won't hesitate for a second to throw them under a bus. Kind of like what they're apparently getting ready to do to our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile I got a response from my school board rep that minimized the whole issue saying there will be lots of public hearings before anything happens, if it happens. They seemed to throw mcdaniel shade for writing his email at all.

Was that governance meeting recorded? And how do I look for it.

Governance committee meetings are not recorded and are not posted on YouTube. That’s why they’re doing all the preliminary work in these sessions. So no one can see what they’re actually doing unless they can takeoff in the middle of the day to go watch the meeting.

[Anonymous]

Gotcha- can anyone explain what an emergency situation is that would require 15% of a student body moved? Is an “emergency” a school losing accreditation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotcha- can anyone explain what an emergency situation is that would require 15% of a student body moved? Is an “emergency” a school losing accreditation?

I think this is intended to deal with a situation like a fire or extensive water damage that might force an unanticipated school closure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand some families being upset if rezoning puts them underwater on their mortgage. Anybody would be upset by that.

Our school got rezoned when I was in high school, and they only grandfathered the seniors. It turned out okay, because they moved a LOT of kids. Everybody kept a good core group of friends. It’s actually better to go big than to nibble around the edges.

They will face massive blowback if they do not grandfather all the kids already attending a high school. And rightly so. No one elected them to “go big” on boundaries.

Was just at the governance meeting and I can assure you that extremely limited grandfathering is the plan.

They discussed seniors being grandfathered, eighth graders being grandfathered, and six graders being grandfathered and that’s it. One proposed making it juniors and seniors. One proposed maybe 7th and 8th grade, none said freshmen and sophomores. The board member proposing it said that she was just at a business roundabout and that the business leaders told her that Fairfax county kids were soft. She seems to want to limit grandfathering to toughen them up.

Ironically, the board member who suggested it had spoken twenty minutes before about the need to have certain redistricting occur at the staff level without a school board vote because of the intense negative public reaction her predecessor had received. It was a weird split screen.

Good luck with that. They will have to vote on it and there will be blowback. The County Board will then have to vote to fund it and there will be blowback there too.

The weird thing with this group is that they are mostly new and haven't really dealt with an issue before where a significant number of parents showed up at a public hearing to challenge or criticize them.

And now they are taking on one of the most controversial things that a school board touches - attendance boundaries - and going about it in a way that is maximizing public anxiety by talking about county-wide changes (which might affect only a limited number of boundaries in total, but still...) and limited grandfathering, even at the high school level where continuity is most important

Either they are masochists or they have no idea what they are going to be dealing with later. And if the criticism is fierce enough, the Board of Supervisors and other local elected officials won't hesitate for a second to throw them under a bus. Kind of like what they're apparently getting ready to do to our kids.

Yeah, this is all why I can’t fathom any of it actually happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile I got a response from my school board rep that minimized the whole issue saying there will be lots of public hearings before anything happens, if it happens. They seemed to throw mcdaniel shade for writing his email at all.

Was that governance meeting recorded? And how do I look for it.

Governance committee meetings are not recorded and are not posted on YouTube. That’s why they’re doing all the preliminary work in these sessions. So no one can see what they’re actually doing unless they can takeoff in the middle of the day to go watch the meeting.

So the recorded “work sessions” will be for show and the real discussions will take place largely in unrecorded meetings in mid-day? This is just sleazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand some families being upset if rezoning puts them underwater on their mortgage. Anybody would be upset by that.

Our school got rezoned when I was in high school, and they only grandfathered the seniors. It turned out okay, because they moved a LOT of kids. Everybody kept a good core group of friends. It’s actually better to go big than to nibble around the edges.

They will face massive blowback if they do not grandfather all the kids already attending a high school. And rightly so. No one elected them to “go big” on boundaries.

Was just at the governance meeting and I can assure you that extremely limited grandfathering is the plan.

They discussed seniors being grandfathered, eighth graders being grandfathered, and six graders being grandfathered and that’s it. One proposed making it juniors and seniors. One proposed maybe 7th and 8th grade, none said freshmen and sophomores. The board member proposing it said that she was just at a business roundabout and that the business leaders told her that Fairfax county kids were soft. She seems to want to limit grandfathering to toughen them up.

Ironically, the board member who suggested it had spoken twenty minutes before about the need to have certain redistricting occur at the staff level without a school board vote because of the intense negative public reaction her predecessor had received. It was a weird split screen.

Good luck with that. They will have to vote on it and there will be blowback. The County Board will then have to vote to fund it and there will be blowback there too.

The weird thing with this group is that they are mostly new and haven't really dealt with an issue before where a significant number of parents showed up at a public hearing to challenge or criticize them.

And now they are taking on one of the most controversial things that a school board touches - attendance boundaries - and going about it in a way that is maximizing public anxiety by talking about county-wide changes (which might affect only a limited number of boundaries in total, but still...) and limited grandfathering, even at the high school level where continuity is most important

Either they are masochists or they have no idea what they are going to be dealing with later. And if the criticism is fierce enough, the Board of Supervisors and other local elected officials won't hesitate for a second to throw them under a bus. Kind of like what they're apparently getting ready to do to our kids.

Yeah, this is all why I can’t fathom any of it actually happening.

Yeah, well reading over that document, the superintendent can move 15% of a student body at will. I mean you get a newspaper article in the paper, 7 days later hold a hearing to “hear” and then do what you want:

btain public comment through a public hearing not less than seven days after reasonable notice to the public in a newspaper of general circulation in the school division prior to providing (i) for the consolidation of schools...(iii)...for redistricting of school boundaries or adopting any pupil assignment plan affecting the assignment of 15 percent or more of the pupils in average daily membership in the affected school

That is the VA law quoted, and how they will ram it through. Im guessing none of them care about reelection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotcha- can anyone explain what an emergency situation is that would require 15% of a student body moved? Is an “emergency” a school losing accreditation?

fire, flood, power failure, condemning of part of school,