FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We do know for sure what the plans are for grandfathering, because the school board voted not to grandfather students except for 6th, 8th and 12th because it would negate the effects of rezoning.

Their plans regarding not gradfathering siblings or high school students have been voted on and are crystal clear transparent.

Sandy Anderson and other school board reps might tell constituents something different (like you are saying) but they are lying to avoid getting yelled at or emailed.

Watch the meetings and daytime work sessions. Read the vote documents. Don't believe what your rep is telling you because odds are, they are misleading you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP that just wants to highlight that grandfathering is going to result in many more buses on the road for a number of years which goes directly against one of their big four factors (transportation).

I just don’t see how they can add to transportation costs as part of the changes given that the school board is on record seeking to cut transportation costs and the policy demands it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Accurately summarizing school board votes,discussions and documents, then explaining it with easy to understand examples is not "worst case scenario".

Being accurate is being accurate.

The school board overwhelmingly voted against grandfathering all but 6th/8th/12th graders.

[Anonymous]

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.

That is true. It has been a collective effort by the population of Fairfax County. Now some people are left holding the bag. In particular, some long term residents have been screwed.

[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.

That is true. It has been a collective effort by the population of Fairfax County. Now some people are left holding the bag. In particular, some long term residents have been screwed.

It takes real gall to beg for a handout in the form of redistricting other people’s kids to try to help your own property values, especially when you knew your pyramid when you bought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP that just wants to highlight that grandfathering is going to result in many more buses on the road for a number of years which goes directly against one of their big four factors (transportation).

I just don’t see how they can add to transportation costs as part of the changes given that the school board is on record seeking to cut transportation costs and the policy demands it.

It is unclear to me how they manage the transportation issues with even limited grandfathering if they change enough boundaries. They would still have to deal with the challenges in that transition year.

It’s just another one of the constraints on what seems feasible that doesn’t clearly seem to align with their more grandiose statements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We do know for sure what the plans are for grandfathering, because the school board voted not to grandfather students except for 6th, 8th and 12th because it would negate the effects of rezoning.

Their plans regarding not gradfathering siblings or high school students have been voted on and are crystal clear transparent.

Sandy Anderson and other school board reps might tell constituents something different (like you are saying) but they are lying to avoid getting yelled at or emailed.

Watch the meetings and daytime work sessions. Read the vote documents. Don't believe what your rep is telling you because odds are, they are misleading you.

Sniveling Sandy Anderson should not be trusted on anything. She truly hates her constituents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP that just wants to highlight that grandfathering is going to result in many more buses on the road for a number of years which goes directly against one of their big four factors (transportation).

I just don’t see how they can add to transportation costs as part of the changes given that the school board is on record seeking to cut transportation costs and the policy demands it.

Rezoning 6th grade to middle school makes no sense just on transportation issues alone.

There are enough busses for middle schools now, but they are crowded with some busses 3 to a seat with just two grades.

Rezoning 6th grade to middle school will take a bunch of walker kids - a huge number of elementary kids are walkers = and turn them into bus riders. The crowded middle school busses will now have to accommodate thousands of riders. FCPS is turning thousands or tens of thousands of 6th graders who walk to elementay school into bus riders to the middle schools.

I bet there will be more middle school bus riders than high school bus riders, and we don't have enough busses for the current high school load. 3 grades of students at middle, almost all bus riders, compared to 4 grades of high school students where half the kids drive and another huge portion stay after school for sports and clubs.

Rezoning 6th to middle school is a stupid, impractical idea that will not be able to be executed well, particularly with regards to bus issues.

[Anonymous]

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/Boundary%20Change%20Letter%20-%20Ross.pdf

I think places that grandfather allow it, but leave transportation up to the family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/Boundary%20Change%20Letter%20-%20Ross.pdf

I think places that grandfather allow it, but leave transportation up to the family.

FCPS will not grandfather.

They want to move kids from popular, high performing schools to unpopular low performing schools, in many cases using inaccurate, inflated enrollment numbers as the justification.

Letting all those kids grandfather defeats the point of rezoning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We do know for sure what the plans are for grandfathering, because the school board voted not to grandfather students except for 6th, 8th and 12th because it would negate the effects of rezoning.

Their plans regarding not gradfathering siblings or high school students have been voted on and are crystal clear transparent.

Sandy Anderson and other school board reps might tell constituents something different (like you are saying) but they are lying to avoid getting yelled at or emailed.

Watch the meetings and daytime work sessions. Read the vote documents. Don't believe what your rep is telling you because odds are, they are misleading you.

I’ve read the language on phasing in the updated Policy 8130 and it’s still noncommittal on phasing and grandfathering.

At some point they will have to be specific about what they intend and they won’t be able to hide behind the vague language any longer. If they refuse to grandfather rising sophomores or juniors (or seniors), they will face an avalanche of opposition they haven’t met yet. At the end of the day I really doubt they want to take that on - hell, up until now they have been grandfathering ES kids generously when changing boundaries (look at the phasing for the Glen Forest and Kent Gardens boundary changes) and the stakes are much higher when it involves high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That is true. It has been a collective effort by the population of Fairfax County. Now some people are left holding the bag. In particular, some long term residents have been screwed.

It takes real gall to beg for a handout in the form of redistricting other people’s kids to try to help your own property values, especially when you knew your pyramid when you bought.

Or maybe people bought off Gambrill and never did their research about where that area used to attend.

I blame realtors. They shouldn't put certain phrases in their listings....it is subjective anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/Boundary%20Change%20Letter%20-%20Ross.pdf

I think places that grandfather allow it, but leave transportation up to the family.

Ut oh, don’t sound very equitable. Not sure the equity agenda will allow it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP that just wants to highlight that grandfathering is going to result in many more buses on the road for a number of years which goes directly against one of their big four factors (transportation).

I just don’t see how they can add to transportation costs as part of the changes given that the school board is on record seeking to cut transportation costs and the policy demands it.

Rezoning 6th grade to middle school makes no sense just on transportation issues alone.

There are enough busses for middle schools now, but they are crowded with some busses 3 to a seat with just two grades.

Rezoning 6th grade to middle school will take a bunch of walker kids - a huge number of elementary kids are walkers = and turn them into bus riders. The crowded middle school busses will now have to accommodate thousands of riders. FCPS is turning thousands or tens of thousands of 6th graders who walk to elementay school into bus riders to the middle schools.

I bet there will be more middle school bus riders than high school bus riders, and we don't have enough busses for the current high school load. 3 grades of students at middle, almost all bus riders, compared to 4 grades of high school students where half the kids drive and another huge portion stay after school for sports and clubs.

Rezoning 6th to middle school is a stupid, impractical idea that will not be able to be executed well, particularly with regards to bus issues.

Agree 100% and the fact they haven’t already nipped this talk in the bud is just another piece of evidence that they are severely challenged in making any type of operating decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That is true. It has been a collective effort by the population of Fairfax County. Now some people are left holding the bag. In particular, some long term residents have been screwed.

It takes real gall to beg for a handout in the form of redistricting other people’s kids to try to help your own property values, especially when you knew your pyramid when you bought.

Or maybe people bought off Gambrill and never did their research about where that area used to attend.

I blame realtors. They shouldn't put certain phrases in their listings....it is subjective anyway.

I am so sorry but the Gambrill.argument is just so stupid.

I don't live in that neighborhood, but anyone who has ever driven a car in that area knows that it would be beyond ludicrous to zone the Gambrill neighborhood to Lewis.

Saratoga Mom's fixation on Hunt Valley is simply ludicrous and not based on any current traffic patterns or reality.