FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New Question:


Why did enrollment in Chantilly go up 30 since September? It went up 18 in November alone.

I cannot find any other nearby high schools that has an enrollment increase anywhere near this.

This cannot be attributed to new construction. That is a lot of growth--and seems to be unique to Chantilly.

Falls Church is down 31 since September. Maybe they all went to Chantilly.

Closest increase is Braddock ES in Annandale, up 21 since September.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If enrollment is steady or declining, there is definitely no reason to continue expanding schools.

Happened in the 80s. Overall population was down, but schools were built to serve growing areas and shuttered where not needed.

Much better than what you seem to have in mind. Additions for me, but not for thee.

[Anonymous]

Example: Jefferson HS was repurposed and Fort Hunt HS closed and then a couple of years later Centreville HS opened. No one suggested reshuffling all the boundaries to backfill Jefferson and Fort Hunt with kids living much further west.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New Question:


Why did enrollment in Chantilly go up 30 since September? It went up 18 in November alone.

I cannot find any other nearby high schools that has an enrollment increase anywhere near this.

This cannot be attributed to new construction. That is a lot of growth--and seems to be unique to Chantilly.

Falls Church is down 31 since September. Maybe they all went to Chantilly.

Closest increase is Braddock ES in Annandale, up 21 since September.

Do you know what happened to the enrollment and transfer dashboards?

I was searching for it recently, and it appears to have been moved from its normal.spot on the website.

When I clicked on the transfer dashboard link, it took me to a bunch of spreadheets about general demographic info, instead of the actual dashboard.

[Anonymous]

When they change the boundaries - when do the new ones get implemented? How will you know if you are at risk of your kids being moved?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New Question:


Why did enrollment in Chantilly go up 30 since September? It went up 18 in November alone.

I cannot find any other nearby high schools that has an enrollment increase anywhere near this.

This cannot be attributed to new construction. That is a lot of growth--and seems to be unique to Chantilly.

There are a lot of new townhouses around that Target and EC Lawrence park, not sure if thats Chantilly zoned area.

[Anonymous]

Will there be enough open seats at quality private schools for all the fcps defectors? Also, keep in mind that private schools are not obligated to make accommodations for all students. They often say they will make these accommodations, but sometimes they just don’t have enough resources.

-Former Private School Teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When they change the boundaries - when do the new ones get implemented? How will you know if you are at risk of your kids being moved?

New boundaries will go into effect fall 2026 for the 2026-2027 school year.

The graduating class of 2027 will be grandfathered.

Juniors (class of 2028), sophomores (2029) and freshmen (2030) will not be grandfathered, per school board vote (a strong majority voted to only grandfather 6th, 8th and 12th grade students.) Our school board rep for WSHS, SoCo and parts of LB voted to not grandfather any other students.

If you have a class of 2027 senior, and a class of 2028 junior, and your neighborhood is rezoned, your 2027 senior will be allowed to graduate at her current school, but her class of 2028 junior will be required to move to the new school junior year, losing all leadership opportunities and sports/activity status going into their college application season.

Your older child will have a rewarding high school experience, while your junior will have everything disrupted, including their college game plans.

If they are transfering into a much lower performing school with fewer advanced options, or an IB program, their academic track will be thrown off due to lack of the same options, or having to take classes online because there are no or only one option for the advanced class, instead of multiple class times. For example, our high school has several AP chem classes taught by multiple teachers, so any student taking AP chem can typically fit a class with robust peer options into their schedule. The neighboring, lower performing school that the school board wants to rezone us to is an IB school with minimal IB participation, minimal to no AP classes, and will not be able to offer maybe more than one AP chem class. If you cannot fit the one class into your schedule, your only option will be taking it by yourself online sitting in the school library, without the peer support, teacher support, or lab options.

You will have kids at two very different quality high schools.

The school board might say otherwise to your face, but that is a lie. They voted against grandfathering high school students.

If I had a kid with an IEP or 504, I would be fighting to have some kind of continuity at the current school through graduation added to the IEP/504.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will there be enough open seats at quality private schools for all the fcps defectors? Also, keep in mind that private schools are not obligated to make accommodations for all students. They often say they will make these accommodations, but sometimes they just don’t have enough resources.

-Former Private School Teacher

The smart people on the edges of the boundaries who have kids who might get rezoned during high school are enrolling their kids into private school now. I know of several just in my small sample group.

No one wants to move a high school student junior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When they change the boundaries - when do the new ones get implemented? How will you know if you are at risk of your kids being moved?

If you are not within the walk zone to your high school, live in an attendance island, or are on the edge of the boundary between a good high school and a failing high school, your high school student is.at risk of rezoning.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:They've stated what the priority criteria for this process are, it's in their presentations if you attend any of the community meetings. Equity is not one of them.

6th grade MS would indeed require some changes... more or bigger MS (could potentially repurpose some of the admin centers similar to Dunn-Loring) and/or create some more secondary schools. They might need to phase it in over time rather than in one fell swoop. A 6th grade academy program would be a nice idea, but given the transport issues they're already dealing with trying to shift start times, etc. I doubt it would be realistic to implement. Anyway, point is I think there are options other than whatever massive rezoning you imagine as the only plausible alternative.

I don't think there's anything ridiculous about wanting both HS and MS students to start at 830a or later as research suggests is best. I also don't think balancing capacity across schools periodically is idiotic, it's a sane best practice.

The problem is there have been so few changes for so long that many (vocal) people are ossified into this view that they're somehow entitled to attend the school they are currently zoned for in perpetuity. If you're looking for arrogance and ridiculousness, start there.

Ha you have a LOT to learn about the way school systems run
Did you WaATCH or attend any work sessions or board meetings about policy 8130?
This is definitely about equity. Both sandy anderson (whose kids go to majority white elementary schools) and st John’s Cummings have had tirades about parents who they think are racist in not wanting their kids moved. In fact Cummings said “equity is at the heart of this policy”

No one wants their kid moved in high school. No one wants their kid moved in middle school. Stability is important.

I think if you are talkin by about entitled people having a bunch of teens never ever have to wake up early with ensure these kids are late for work and never make that early college class because the logic in entitlement will spill over.

T
Yiu have some warped
priorities

If stabilty is so important, why do so many parents say they will move their kids to private if they get re-zoned?

DP. Guess they are saying that if there is going to be disruption either way, they will make the best of the situation.

Another DP and I agree with this. If you’re going to blow up a school community and kids end up going to a different school from their friends, might as well go private and get to choose the school environment. I think it also depends on the age of people’s kids. If your kids are still young and they have this policy that they can review every 5 years and make more changes, then maybe you go private to make sure your kids can stay at the same school from K-8 or whatever.

It’s concerning to me that people who are in favor of these large scale boundary changes don’t seem capable of thinking through all the different scenarios and how different families might respond.

Reid and the school board do not care about individual schools or students. They care about getting test scores to be more similar across schools because the disparities (and some schools “failing”) makes them look bad. If you believe otherwise you are falling for some BS.

I get to decide whether or not these people use my kids in order to make themselves look better. If my kids get moved to a lower performing school so they can try to bring that school up, we are out… either a move to a different county or private. I suspect many others feel the same way.

Not everybody has the means for private school. Real estate is already incredibly expensive around here, so this is a very privileged response. Note everybody is able to spend 20-40k PER year PER kid for school. I do recognize that much of FFX likely can, but many in those income brackets are already sending their kids to private.

But ask yourself, honestly, think about this, is there a correlation between SES and academic performance that will end up blunting any of these boundary equity moves when they occur? If all the families that can move or go private do, is that substantially a better population at those poorer performing schools? Or are you just adding LMC to those schools?

Then ask yourself if you are doing a disservice to the LMC kids that you move, and whether the school board is contributing to a further degradation and segregation of schools?

I have always considered public school a public good, that’s why, even though we can afford private we haven’t sent our kids there. This has been a fundamental Democratic Party platform plank over the years. We will contribute more to certain populations’ education, but don’t mess with our kids’ ability to get a good education. But the school board doesn’t seem to get this democratic pillar and instead seems hell bent on making UMC go private or elsewhere.

This is exactly what will happen. I must be one of the few people here who grew up in a place where the school boundaries were crazy in order to balance demographics. The majority of people MC and above do what it takes to make private school work. I knew very few people who went to public, even people who really didn’t have a lot of money found a way to make it work.

Nobody felt an ounce of guilt for doing this either. Normal people do what they feel is best for their kids. It’s a very weird DC area (and maybe SF?) thing to be like “I need to send my kids to public school no matter what because I believe in it”. Who cares if other people think you are privileged for choosing private school. It’s none of their business and not your fault if other people can’t afford it.

It’s wild to me that FCPS wants to push forward with sticking it to the ‘privileged’ in order to achieve equity when the recent election showed that this thinking is clearly being rejected by the American people… including working class people and including Fairfax County which had much closer margins than 2020. I guess the school board wants Winsome Sears to be the next governor.

Hate to beat a dead horse, but before we imported a large amount of poverty, FCPS high schools were much more balanced. Over the last 25 years that poverty, combined with sites like Great Schools, very open pupil placement, and boundary changes that moved wealthier families to wealthier schools, the Fairfax population has managed to segregate itself. Just facts. Now it is not palatable to many families to make adjustments. So here we are.

None of the above is the fault of individual families. Those were choices made by Fairfax County and/or FCPS. Most of us don't appreciate being punished for bad choices made by others. If they want to make their poor planning my problem, I'm out.

Well, bye.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New Question:


Why did enrollment in Chantilly go up 30 since September? It went up 18 in November alone.

I cannot find any other nearby high schools that has an enrollment increase anywhere near this.

This cannot be attributed to new construction. That is a lot of growth--and seems to be unique to Chantilly.

There are a lot of new townhouses around that Target and EC Lawrence park, not sure if thats Chantilly zoned area.

That's Westfield boundary. That is still a big increase--even with new construction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will there be enough open seats at quality private schools for all the fcps defectors? Also, keep in mind that private schools are not obligated to make accommodations for all students. They often say they will make these accommodations, but sometimes they just don’t have enough resources.

-Former Private School Teacher

Full pay athletic kids who have straight As in heavy AP schedules and no IEPs or behavioral issues- sure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They've stated what the priority criteria for this process are, it's in their presentations if you attend any of the community meetings. Equity is not one of them.

6th grade MS would indeed require some changes... more or bigger MS (could potentially repurpose some of the admin centers similar to Dunn-Loring) and/or create some more secondary schools. They might need to phase it in over time rather than in one fell swoop. A 6th grade academy program would be a nice idea, but given the transport issues they're already dealing with trying to shift start times, etc. I doubt it would be realistic to implement. Anyway, point is I think there are options other than whatever massive rezoning you imagine as the only plausible alternative.

I don't think there's anything ridiculous about wanting both HS and MS students to start at 830a or later as research suggests is best. I also don't think balancing capacity across schools periodically is idiotic, it's a sane best practice.

The problem is there have been so few changes for so long that many (vocal) people are ossified into this view that they're somehow entitled to attend the school they are currently zoned for in perpetuity. If you're looking for arrogance and ridiculousness, start there.

Ha you have a LOT to learn about the way school systems run
Did you WaATCH or attend any work sessions or board meetings about policy 8130?
This is definitely about equity. Both sandy anderson (whose kids go to majority white elementary schools) and st John’s Cummings have had tirades about parents who they think are racist in not wanting their kids moved. In fact Cummings said “equity is at the heart of this policy”

No one wants their kid moved in high school. No one wants their kid moved in middle school. Stability is important.

I think if you are talkin by about entitled people having a bunch of teens never ever have to wake up early with ensure these kids are late for work and never make that early college class because the logic in entitlement will spill over.

T
Yiu have some warped
priorities

If stabilty is so important, why do so many parents say they will move their kids to private if they get re-zoned?

DP. Guess they are saying that if there is going to be disruption either way, they will make the best of the situation.

Another DP and I agree with this. If you’re going to blow up a school community and kids end up going to a different school from their friends, might as well go private and get to choose the school environment. I think it also depends on the age of people’s kids. If your kids are still young and they have this policy that they can review every 5 years and make more changes, then maybe you go private to make sure your kids can stay at the same school from K-8 or whatever.

It’s concerning to me that people who are in favor of these large scale boundary changes don’t seem capable of thinking through all the different scenarios and how different families might respond.

Reid and the school board do not care about individual schools or students. They care about getting test scores to be more similar across schools because the disparities (and some schools “failing”) makes them look bad. If you believe otherwise you are falling for some BS.

I get to decide whether or not these people use my kids in order to make themselves look better. If my kids get moved to a lower performing school so they can try to bring that school up, we are out… either a move to a different county or private. I suspect many others feel the same way.

Not everybody has the means for private school. Real estate is already incredibly expensive around here, so this is a very privileged response. Note everybody is able to spend 20-40k PER year PER kid for school. I do recognize that much of FFX likely can, but many in those income brackets are already sending their kids to private.

But ask yourself, honestly, think about this, is there a correlation between SES and academic performance that will end up blunting any of these boundary equity moves when they occur? If all the families that can move or go private do, is that substantially a better population at those poorer performing schools? Or are you just adding LMC to those schools?

Then ask yourself if you are doing a disservice to the LMC kids that you move, and whether the school board is contributing to a further degradation and segregation of schools?

I have always considered public school a public good, that’s why, even though we can afford private we haven’t sent our kids there. This has been a fundamental Democratic Party platform plank over the years. We will contribute more to certain populations’ education, but don’t mess with our kids’ ability to get a good education. But the school board doesn’t seem to get this democratic pillar and instead seems hell bent on making UMC go private or elsewhere.

This is exactly what will happen. I must be one of the few people here who grew up in a place where the school boundaries were crazy in order to balance demographics. The majority of people MC and above do what it takes to make private school work. I knew very few people who went to public, even people who really didn’t have a lot of money found a way to make it work.

Nobody felt an ounce of guilt for doing this either. Normal people do what they feel is best for their kids. It’s a very weird DC area (and maybe SF?) thing to be like “I need to send my kids to public school no matter what because I believe in it”. Who cares if other people think you are privileged for choosing private school. It’s none of their business and not your fault if other people can’t afford it.

It’s wild to me that FCPS wants to push forward with sticking it to the ‘privileged’ in order to achieve equity when the recent election showed that this thinking is clearly being rejected by the American people… including working class people and including Fairfax County which had much closer margins than 2020. I guess the school board wants Winsome Sears to be the next governor.

Hate to beat a dead horse, but before we imported a large amount of poverty, FCPS high schools were much more balanced. Over the last 25 years that poverty, combined with sites like Great Schools, very open pupil placement, and boundary changes that moved wealthier families to wealthier schools, the Fairfax population has managed to segregate itself. Just facts. Now it is not palatable to many families to make adjustments. So here we are.

None of the above is the fault of individual families. Those were choices made by Fairfax County and/or FCPS. Most of us don't appreciate being punished for bad choices made by others. If they want to make their poor planning my problem, I'm out.

Well, bye.

DP. You are an SJW who brings down the quality of all of FCPS.

Pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When they change the boundaries - when do the new ones get implemented? How will you know if you are at risk of your kids being moved?

New boundaries will go into effect fall 2026 for the 2026-2027 school year.

The graduating class of 2027 will be grandfathered.

Juniors (class of 2028), sophomores (2029) and freshmen (2030) will not be grandfathered, per school board vote (a strong majority voted to only grandfather 6th, 8th and 12th grade students.) Our school board rep for WSHS, SoCo and parts of LB voted to not grandfather any other students.

If you have a class of 2027 senior, and a class of 2028 junior, and your neighborhood is rezoned, your 2027 senior will be allowed to graduate at her current school, but her class of 2028 junior will be required to move to the new school junior year, losing all leadership opportunities and sports/activity status going into their college application season.

Your older child will have a rewarding high school experience, while your junior will have everything disrupted, including their college game plans.

If they are transfering into a much lower performing school with fewer advanced options, or an IB program, their academic track will be thrown off due to lack of the same options, or having to take classes online because there are no or only one option for the advanced class, instead of multiple class times. For example, our high school has several AP chem classes taught by multiple teachers, so any student taking AP chem can typically fit a class with robust peer options into their schedule. The neighboring, lower performing school that the school board wants to rezone us to is an IB school with minimal IB participation, minimal to no AP classes, and will not be able to offer maybe more than one AP chem class. If you cannot fit the one class into your schedule, your only option will be taking it by yourself online sitting in the school library, without the peer support, teacher support, or lab options.

You will have kids at two very different quality high schools.

The school board might say otherwise to your face, but that is a lie. They voted against grandfathering high school students.

If I had a kid with an IEP or 504, I would be fighting to have some kind of continuity at the current school through graduation added to the IEP/504.

I understand you want to paint a worst-case scenario to generate opposition but no one knows for sure yet what they’ll do on the grandfathering front. The refusal to guarantee grandfathering ahead of time doesn’t mean they’ll make then-current HS kids switch schools. They punted to avoid making a decision in advance, but they are going to face a tidal wave of opposition if they force rising sophomores and juniors to switch high schools. Any opposition seen so far to their plans will just be the warm-up act if that happens.