FCPS Skyview Boundary Revised Scenario 1 / 2

[Anonymous]

What does the pyramid matter?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The entire Walney area should be moved to Westfield. Brookfield should be a 50% split feeder. The Chantilly Mews kids should be moved back to CHS. The rest of Bull Run should be moved to Westfield. That would give Westfield around 2300-2400 students.

What would that do to Centreville? If people are worried about what Westfield can offer with 2100 kids they should ask what Centreville could offer with 1800 kids.

The bigger problem here is that they should have taken a harder look at the Oakton boundaries. When you open Skyview but leave Oakton with over 2700 kids you are ensuring some other schools serving western Fairfax are going to shrink drastically.

Instead they followed their typical approach of saying they want to move as few kids as possible. But when their starting point is moving over 1000 kids out of Westfield to populate Skyview, that approach no longer makes sense.

These people screw everything up, over and over again. And they pay themselves on the back for doing it.

Centreville is already a very small school. I think they have around 2100 students right now, and that's overcrowded. I don't think losing half of Bull Run would make much difference.

It would actually bring them into FCPS's "ideal capacity" zone. The capacity is only 1943 students.

And yet there was and perhaps still is a plan to expand Centreville to 3000.

If you think it’s the natural order of things to leave CVHS with 1943 or fewer seats you have to ask why we bothered to expand Oakton so much, or why it would be a problem for Westfield to have 2150 kids but OK for Centreville to have hundreds fewer.

People here are so blatantly transparent in advocating for changes that benefit their schools to the detriment of others.

The current scenario brings Westfield down from 2750 to 2083 students with a program capacity of 2800 and a building capacity of over 3000.
Centreville currently has 2181 and the scenario brings it down to 2118 with a program capacity of 1943.

Obsessing over current building and program capacities is the opposite of smart or proactive thinking, when those capacities are largely a product of ad hoc decisions made in the past and the timing of when a school came up in a renovation queue developed almost 20 years ago.

Not sure what you mean by "obsessing". Are you saying it makes financial sense to expand Centreville for a thousand more kids when FCPS can't find kids to attend Westfield, which borders Centreville?

It’s not that they can’t find kids to attend Westfield, it’s that they won’t.

Same practice result: tons of space for students at Westfield means no need to add tons of space at Centreville.

By that logic empty seats at Herndon should have meant KAA was never acquired.

Obviously the SB didn’t agree.

And it’s not 3000 or nothing when it comes to Centreville. They can add some capacity to bring it in line with the majority of high schools.

The SB got that one right. Herndon is even further from our neighborhood than Westfield, and without a road like 28 to (theoretically) zip along most of the way.

+1 Kids in this area shouldn't be at Herndon or at Oakton. Proximity counts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think this SB is eager to jump back into
more rezoning drama? LOL.

They have five other pending studies and 2030 (next county-wide review) will be here before you know it.

Now that their plans are in the open, future reviews are going to shrink significantly because they’ll need to answer questions from irate families and make promises to limit future changes during campaign season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entire Walney area should be moved to Westfield. Brookfield should be a 50% split feeder. The Chantilly Mews kids should be moved back to CHS. The rest of Bull Run should be moved to Westfield. That would give Westfield around 2300-2400 students.

What would that do to Centreville? If people are worried about what Westfield can offer with 2100 kids they should ask what Centreville could offer with 1800 kids.

The bigger problem here is that they should have taken a harder look at the Oakton boundaries. When you open Skyview but leave Oakton with over 2700 kids you are ensuring some other schools serving western Fairfax are going to shrink drastically.

Instead they followed their typical approach of saying they want to move as few kids as possible. But when their starting point is moving over 1000 kids out of Westfield to populate Skyview, that approach no longer makes sense.

These people screw everything up, over and over again. And they pay themselves on the back for doing it.

Centreville is already a very small school. I think they have around 2100 students right now, and that's overcrowded. I don't think losing half of Bull Run would make much difference.

It would actually bring them into FCPS's "ideal capacity" zone. The capacity is only 1943 students.

And yet there was and perhaps still is a plan to expand Centreville to 3000.

If you think it’s the natural order of things to leave CVHS with 1943 or fewer seats you have to ask why we bothered to expand Oakton so much, or why it would be a problem for Westfield to have 2150 kids but OK for Centreville to have hundreds fewer.

People here are so blatantly transparent in advocating for changes that benefit their schools to the detriment of others.

The current scenario brings Westfield down from 2750 to 2083 students with a program capacity of 2800 and a building capacity of over 3000.
Centreville currently has 2181 and the scenario brings it down to 2118 with a program capacity of 1943.

Obsessing over current building and program capacities is the opposite of smart or proactive thinking, when those capacities are largely a product of ad hoc decisions made in the past and the timing of when a school came up in a renovation queue developed almost 20 years ago.

Not sure what you mean by "obsessing". Are you saying it makes financial sense to expand Centreville for a thousand more kids when FCPS can't find kids to attend Westfield, which borders Centreville?

It’s not that they can’t find kids to attend Westfield, it’s that they won’t.

Same practice result: tons of space for students at Westfield means no need to add tons of space at Centreville.

By that logic empty seats at Herndon should have meant KAA was never acquired.

Obviously the SB didn’t agree.

And it’s not 3000 or nothing when it comes to Centreville. They can add some capacity to bring it in line with the majority of high schools.

The SB got that one right. Herndon is even further from our neighborhood than Westfield, and without a road like 28 to (theoretically) zip along most of the way.

+1 Kids in this area shouldn't be at Herndon or at Oakton. Proximity counts.

Then you should have no problem with their adding some capacity to Centreville so that as many kids as possible who live near the school can go there.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Where are the thousand students for Centreville's supposed expansion going to come from if they can't find students to keep Westfield within FCPS's own margins for building usage?

Seems to me that the neighborhood behind Centreville that is sent to Fairfax would be perfect for Centreville.

Then you have open seats to fill at Fairfax HS.
The most financially prudent decision is not to expand Centreville at all.

Fairfax can take some of Woodson. There are currently kids very close to Centreville getting sent to Fairfax when it’s much farther away.

Then you are upsetting Fairfax parents who want to stay at Fairfax AND Woodson parents who want to stay at Woodson. I'm sure the SB will really go for that.

There have long been families that would like to attend closer Centreville rather than Fairfax, just as there are now families who are happy to attend Skyview because it is closer than their current schools.

Woodson, unlike Centreville, has already been renovated and expanded, so if it’s still overcrowded it would be perfectly defensible to move some kids to Fairfax if FHS has space.

Annnnnnd lots of families who prefer Fairfax. Annnnd all the angry Woodson parents who don't want to be downgraded to FHS. That's a lot of unnecessary drama for FCPS.

If and when the SB ever puts their big boy pants on again the drama will subside. Most of the drama exists because the SB gives all the circus performers a big stage.

But screwing Westfield and then using that as the basis to shortchange Centreville - all while bending over backwards to placate people at Oakton and a few other schools - is a recipe for disaster.

There is no way Seema Dixit will let anything negative happen to Centreville. Centreville is clearly her baby. She wants her own kids to attend a beautiful renovated building and her property value to be tied to a beautiful renovated building (preferably with no pesky low income types).

When they get around to renovating Centreville it should receive a nice renovation, regardless of who the School Board member is or how she may have behaved.

Leaving it at 1943 kids when there's an opportunity to add some capacity would be stupid. Expanding it to 3000 would also be unreasonable; that plan was hatched when there was no expectation that FCPS could open a new high school in the western part of the county.

Enrollments ebb and flow, but FCPS has been well served when it added some capacity to schools being renovated and poorly served when it closed high schools or neglected schools with capacity needs. Closing Fort Hunt HS and combining it with Groveton HS was not good for that part of the county.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:The entire Walney area should be moved to Westfield. Brookfield should be a 50% split feeder. The Chantilly Mews kids should be moved back to CHS. The rest of Bull Run should be moved to Westfield. That would give Westfield around 2300-2400 students.

What would that do to Centreville? If people are worried about what Westfield can offer with 2100 kids they should ask what Centreville could offer with 1800 kids.

The bigger problem here is that they should have taken a harder look at the Oakton boundaries. When you open Skyview but leave Oakton with over 2700 kids you are ensuring some other schools serving western Fairfax are going to shrink drastically.

Instead they followed their typical approach of saying they want to move as few kids as possible. But when their starting point is moving over 1000 kids out of Westfield to populate Skyview, that approach no longer makes sense.

These people screw everything up, over and over again. And they pay themselves on the back for doing it.

Centreville is already a very small school. I think they have around 2100 students right now, and that's overcrowded. I don't think losing half of Bull Run would make much difference.

It would actually bring them into FCPS's "ideal capacity" zone. The capacity is only 1943 students.

And yet there was and perhaps still is a plan to expand Centreville to 3000.

If you think it’s the natural order of things to leave CVHS with 1943 or fewer seats you have to ask why we bothered to expand Oakton so much, or why it would be a problem for Westfield to have 2150 kids but OK for Centreville to have hundreds fewer.

People here are so blatantly transparent in advocating for changes that benefit their schools to the detriment of others.

The current scenario brings Westfield down from 2750 to 2083 students with a program capacity of 2800 and a building capacity of over 3000.
Centreville currently has 2181 and the scenario brings it down to 2118 with a program capacity of 1943.

Obsessing over current building and program capacities is the opposite of smart or proactive thinking, when those capacities are largely a product of ad hoc decisions made in the past and the timing of when a school came up in a renovation queue developed almost 20 years ago.

Not sure what you mean by "obsessing". Are you saying it makes financial sense to expand Centreville for a thousand more kids when FCPS can't find kids to attend Westfield, which borders Centreville?

It’s not that they can’t find kids to attend Westfield, it’s that they won’t.

Same practice result: tons of space for students at Westfield means no need to add tons of space at Centreville.

By that logic empty seats at Herndon should have meant KAA was never acquired.

Obviously the SB didn’t agree.

And it’s not 3000 or nothing when it comes to Centreville. They can add some capacity to bring it in line with the majority of high schools.

The SB got that one right. Herndon is even further from our neighborhood than Westfield, and without a road like 28 to (theoretically) zip along most of the way.

+1 Kids in this area shouldn't be at Herndon or at Oakton. Proximity counts.

Then you should have no problem with their adding some capacity to Centreville so that as many kids as possible who live near the school can go there.

If you see forlorn, school-less children wandering around Centreville, point them in the direction of Westfield. The schools are very close by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think this SB is eager to jump back into
more rezoning drama? LOL.

They have five other pending studies and 2030 (next county-wide review) will be here before you know it.

Now that their plans are in the open, future reviews are going to shrink significantly because they’ll need to answer questions from irate families and make promises to limit future changes during campaign season.

They can make all sorts of promises during campaign season. It doesn't mean those promises will be kept. They'll just say they have but one voice on the School Board and can't stop the train from leaving the station. You'll complain, but within a few years they'll still get elected to the Board of Supervisors or the state legislature, unless they are as unlikable as Karl Frisch.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entire Walney area should be moved to Westfield. Brookfield should be a 50% split feeder. The Chantilly Mews kids should be moved back to CHS. The rest of Bull Run should be moved to Westfield. That would give Westfield around 2300-2400 students.

What would that do to Centreville? If people are worried about what Westfield can offer with 2100 kids they should ask what Centreville could offer with 1800 kids.

The bigger problem here is that they should have taken a harder look at the Oakton boundaries. When you open Skyview but leave Oakton with over 2700 kids you are ensuring some other schools serving western Fairfax are going to shrink drastically.

Instead they followed their typical approach of saying they want to move as few kids as possible. But when their starting point is moving over 1000 kids out of Westfield to populate Skyview, that approach no longer makes sense.

These people screw everything up, over and over again. And they pay themselves on the back for doing it.

Centreville is already a very small school. I think they have around 2100 students right now, and that's overcrowded. I don't think losing half of Bull Run would make much difference.

It would actually bring them into FCPS's "ideal capacity" zone. The capacity is only 1943 students.

And yet there was and perhaps still is a plan to expand Centreville to 3000.

If you think it’s the natural order of things to leave CVHS with 1943 or fewer seats you have to ask why we bothered to expand Oakton so much, or why it would be a problem for Westfield to have 2150 kids but OK for Centreville to have hundreds fewer.

People here are so blatantly transparent in advocating for changes that benefit their schools to the detriment of others.

The current scenario brings Westfield down from 2750 to 2083 students with a program capacity of 2800 and a building capacity of over 3000.
Centreville currently has 2181 and the scenario brings it down to 2118 with a program capacity of 1943.

Obsessing over current building and program capacities is the opposite of smart or proactive thinking, when those capacities are largely a product of ad hoc decisions made in the past and the timing of when a school came up in a renovation queue developed almost 20 years ago.

Not sure what you mean by "obsessing". Are you saying it makes financial sense to expand Centreville for a thousand more kids when FCPS can't find kids to attend Westfield, which borders Centreville?

It’s not that they can’t find kids to attend Westfield, it’s that they won’t.

Same practice result: tons of space for students at Westfield means no need to add tons of space at Centreville.

By that logic empty seats at Herndon should have meant KAA was never acquired.

Obviously the SB didn’t agree.

And it’s not 3000 or nothing when it comes to Centreville. They can add some capacity to bring it in line with the majority of high schools.

The SB got that one right. Herndon is even further from our neighborhood than Westfield, and without a road like 28 to (theoretically) zip along most of the way.

+1 Kids in this area shouldn't be at Herndon or at Oakton. Proximity counts.

Then you should have no problem with their adding some capacity to Centreville so that as many kids as possible who live near the school can go there.

If you see forlorn, school-less children wandering around Centreville, point them in the direction of Westfield. The schools are very close by.

I think we'll have to fix the future overcrowding at Oakton first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their story about South Lakes is that 7000 housing "units" are being proposed. Who knows how many of those are actually going to be built and most of those will not be the type of housing that high schoolers live in, but that's their cover story for SLHS.

SLHS is at a reasonable capacity level after the move. There has been a lot of new housing in the area, to include apartments and townhouses and single family homes. It also shares borders with Oakton and can take students from Oakton if needed. I know that there are Crossfield families that hate hearing this, but Crossfield is likely to be moved to SLHS in a few years when Oakton is well over capacity.

SLHS has a great community and is a good school. It's biggest downside is IB but the School Board doesn't want to hear that. They could easily set up an IB academy or two in the county and bus kids who want IB to those schools and probably have a pretty robust IB program. The way they run IB right now, they can't even get the equivalent of one HS graduating class out of all the IB Diplomas across all the IB schools. I am not counting the specialized IB certificates that they have brought in to make the IB numbers look better but the actual IB diplomas.

I'll be interested in 5-10 years to see how well your analysis ages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their story about South Lakes is that 7000 housing "units" are being proposed. Who knows how many of those are actually going to be built and most of those will not be the type of housing that high schoolers live in, but that's their cover story for SLHS.

SLHS is at a reasonable capacity level after the move. There has been a lot of new housing in the area, to include apartments and townhouses and single family homes. It also shares borders with Oakton and can take students from Oakton if needed. I know that there are Crossfield families that hate hearing this, but Crossfield is likely to be moved to SLHS in a few years when Oakton is well over capacity.

SLHS has a great community and is a good school. It's biggest downside is IB but the School Board doesn't want to hear that. They could easily set up an IB academy or two in the county and bus kids who want IB to those schools and probably have a pretty robust IB program. The way they run IB right now, they can't even get the equivalent of one HS graduating class out of all the IB Diplomas across all the IB schools. I am not counting the specialized IB certificates that they have brought in to make the IB numbers look better but the actual IB diplomas.

SLHS share borders with 5 other pyramids

There are ES at all of those schools that could be moved to SLHS but the main one that I hear about is Oakton. Crossfield is at Oakton and already has students at SLHS so it makes sense that those kids would shift to SLHS when Oakton is deemed too over crowded. Madison and Marshall are close enough that I can see them swapping schools, I know that some just moved between the two but it seems like that caused some controversy. Langley is most likely to send kids to Herndon if it becomes too overcrowded. Herndon is not going to have to worry about getting to capacity any time soon and already sends a bunch of kids to SLHS for IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So that was the last meeting. No more comments on the tool.

What happens next?

Reid will make a final recommendation to SB.

The final recommendation should be very similar to the final draft sceanrio with potential "tweaks."

Given what we've seen from the comprehensive boundary study, the last minute tweaks tend to be bad.

Expect Walney Village and Cub Run families lobby very hard to avoid Westfield.

We may see Westfield dropping below 70%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their story about South Lakes is that 7000 housing "units" are being proposed. Who knows how many of those are actually going to be built and most of those will not be the type of housing that high schoolers live in, but that's their cover story for SLHS.

SLHS is at a reasonable capacity level after the move. There has been a lot of new housing in the area, to include apartments and townhouses and single family homes. It also shares borders with Oakton and can take students from Oakton if needed. I know that there are Crossfield families that hate hearing this, but Crossfield is likely to be moved to SLHS in a few years when Oakton is well over capacity.

SLHS has a great community and is a good school. It's biggest downside is IB but the School Board doesn't want to hear that. They could easily set up an IB academy or two in the county and bus kids who want IB to those schools and probably have a pretty robust IB program. The way they run IB right now, they can't even get the equivalent of one HS graduating class out of all the IB Diplomas across all the IB schools. I am not counting the specialized IB certificates that they have brought in to make the IB numbers look better but the actual IB diplomas.

SLHS share borders with 5 other pyramids

There are ES at all of those schools that could be moved to SLHS but the main one that I hear about is Oakton. Crossfield is at Oakton and already has students at SLHS so it makes sense that those kids would shift to SLHS when Oakton is deemed too over crowded. Madison and Marshall are close enough that I can see them swapping schools, I know that some just moved between the two but it seems like that caused some controversy. Langley is most likely to send kids to Herndon if it becomes too overcrowded. Herndon is not going to have to worry about getting to capacity any time soon and already sends a bunch of kids to SLHS for IB.

If Crossfield kids zoned to Oakton get moved to Franklin right now and then South Lakes in the future, where would they attend Middle School? Make Franklin into a three way split?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So that was the last meeting. No more comments on the tool.

What happens next?

Reid will make a final recommendation to SB.

The final recommendation should be very similar to the final draft sceanrio with potential "tweaks."

Given what we've seen from the comprehensive boundary study, the last minute tweaks tend to be bad.

Expect Walney Village and Cub Run families lobby very hard to avoid Westfield.

We may see Westfield dropping below 70%.

Someone - either Reid or a School Board member - needs to tweak the final scenario to add Walney Oaks to Westfield.

It balances both the enrollments and capacity utilization at Chantilly and Westfield, and avoids the latest scenario where only poor areas are targeted to move to Westfield.

If they aren't prepared to do that, there should be an organized campaign from the Westfield community to call out the School Board as a bunch of depraved, bigoted hypocrites. They should be called out at every School Board meeting for the remainder of their term, and their future opponents fully supported, whether they are Democrats seeking the FCDC endorsement in their place, independents, or GOP-endorsed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their story about South Lakes is that 7000 housing "units" are being proposed. Who knows how many of those are actually going to be built and most of those will not be the type of housing that high schoolers live in, but that's their cover story for SLHS.

SLHS is at a reasonable capacity level after the move. There has been a lot of new housing in the area, to include apartments and townhouses and single family homes. It also shares borders with Oakton and can take students from Oakton if needed. I know that there are Crossfield families that hate hearing this, but Crossfield is likely to be moved to SLHS in a few years when Oakton is well over capacity.

SLHS has a great community and is a good school. It's biggest downside is IB but the School Board doesn't want to hear that. They could easily set up an IB academy or two in the county and bus kids who want IB to those schools and probably have a pretty robust IB program. The way they run IB right now, they can't even get the equivalent of one HS graduating class out of all the IB Diplomas across all the IB schools. I am not counting the specialized IB certificates that they have brought in to make the IB numbers look better but the actual IB diplomas.

SLHS share borders with 5 other pyramids

There are ES at all of those schools that could be moved to SLHS but the main one that I hear about is Oakton. Crossfield is at Oakton and already has students at SLHS so it makes sense that those kids would shift to SLHS when Oakton is deemed too over crowded. Madison and Marshall are close enough that I can see them swapping schools, I know that some just moved between the two but it seems like that caused some controversy. Langley is most likely to send kids to Herndon if it becomes too overcrowded. Herndon is not going to have to worry about getting to capacity any time soon and already sends a bunch of kids to SLHS for IB.

If Crossfield kids zoned to Oakton get moved to Franklin right now and then South Lakes in the future, where would they attend Middle School? Make Franklin into a three way split?

Carson, Franklin, and Thoreau are all currently three-way splits, and they haven't proposed anything that would eliminate the three-way split at Thoreau.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their story about South Lakes is that 7000 housing "units" are being proposed. Who knows how many of those are actually going to be built and most of those will not be the type of housing that high schoolers live in, but that's their cover story for SLHS.

SLHS is at a reasonable capacity level after the move. There has been a lot of new housing in the area, to include apartments and townhouses and single family homes. It also shares borders with Oakton and can take students from Oakton if needed. I know that there are Crossfield families that hate hearing this, but Crossfield is likely to be moved to SLHS in a few years when Oakton is well over capacity.

SLHS has a great community and is a good school. It's biggest downside is IB but the School Board doesn't want to hear that. They could easily set up an IB academy or two in the county and bus kids who want IB to those schools and probably have a pretty robust IB program. The way they run IB right now, they can't even get the equivalent of one HS graduating class out of all the IB Diplomas across all the IB schools. I am not counting the specialized IB certificates that they have brought in to make the IB numbers look better but the actual IB diplomas.

SLHS share borders with 5 other pyramids

There are ES at all of those schools that could be moved to SLHS but the main one that I hear about is Oakton. Crossfield is at Oakton and already has students at SLHS so it makes sense that those kids would shift to SLHS when Oakton is deemed too over crowded. Madison and Marshall are close enough that I can see them swapping schools, I know that some just moved between the two but it seems like that caused some controversy. Langley is most likely to send kids to Herndon if it becomes too overcrowded. Herndon is not going to have to worry about getting to capacity any time soon and already sends a bunch of kids to SLHS for IB.

If Crossfield kids zoned to Oakton get moved to Franklin right now and then South Lakes in the future, where would they attend Middle School? Make Franklin into a three way split?

Based on what they are trying to do in this rezoning, I would imagine they would get moved to Hughes to avoid a split feeder.