Why is the McLean high pyramid over crowded with crappy buildings and teachers but pays high tax

[Anonymous]

Good grief - did McLean mom bump this thread *again*?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good grief - did McLean mom bump this thread *again*?

Unclear, but you just did.

[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:To prove that the learning that goes in inside the building is not dependent upon the outside aesthetics? Maybe it is a good lesson for kids who are used to manicured lawns?

Everyone knows that already. McLean is the top-ranked neighborhood high school in Virginia in 2023 per US News.

Even so, there comes a time when you need to treat schools equitably in terms of capital investment, unless your goal is simply to degrade the system.

No, see the public schools were created to be the great equalizer of our society. Those kids get a top notch education, just the building sucks. Makes sense because they should see how all the other kids actually live to give them any hope of being empathetic and understanding adults. This way, they understand that not everything in life is handed to them and is beautiful, sometimes you shouldn’t judge a book by a cover.

Of course, you as an adult who “fought your way” from the streets of the inner city and “pulled yourself by your bootstraps” to the blissful streets of McLean believe YOUR kid needs the best, but maybe they are getting more than you think. You just disagree that the lesson is important because you are blinded by the capitalistic idea that “top of the line and state of the art facility” is the most important thing.

I hope you got Chat GPT to generate this nonsense.

McLean parents haven’t asked for their school to be “top of the line.” We know we’d never get that from FCPS. We’ve asked for an addition that would bring our permanent seats in line with the county average. Not a lot to ask since the enrollment is above-average and the school is among the top two (out of 25 high schools) projected to see the most future growth in residential development (and almost entirely from multi-family housing). And, then, eventually for a renovation - since the renovation the school got in the early 00s was cut-rate compared to more recent school renovations.

Tysons development and projected new students is even more reason not to band aid the current McLean HS. If anything, the projected growth should spawn a completely new HS.

Where?

Tysons has space for an elementary school. No consensus will ever form that a vertical HS without typical HS amenities should be built in Tysons - APS considered something like that and got nowhere.

And even if one were built, Tysons alone wouldn’t have enough kids to support a stand-alone high school, so you’d have to include Langley neighborhoods like McLean Hamlet and McLean neighborhoods like Seneca Ridge that would put up a fuss.

If you’re suggesting a new HS in western Fairfax should be built, that’s been an item for decades, yet is apparently becoming less, not more, likely with the expansions of Oakton, Herndon, and now Centreville.

I guess you could tear down existing McLean HS and build a new school there, since the land exists and the location is good. But then you’re talking about serious overcrowding and/or split shifts at Langley, Marshall and/or Falls Church to handle the 2400 displaced McLean kids for 3-4 years.

This is why an addition to McLean followed by a renovation in due course will continue to be the most practical option - if only we had a School Board that paid attention to such matters.

FCPS could phase a construction project at McLean for a brand new HS building (cheaper than renovation). Students would use the portions of the building not yet demolished, and the phase 1 portion of the newly constructed school. This is how most other schools districts do rebuilds.

The loss of field space for construction would be temporary. Once construction is complete, then relocated fields can be reconstructed.

That is a different model than FCPS has generally followed. It may be similar to what was done when the new Glasgow MS was built. I guess you’d end up building on top of existing fields, and then building new fields on top of razed classrooms.

If it’s feasible and expands capacity, sure, why not.

APS, MCPS, and school districts all over the country do this phased approach with brand new buildings on the former parking lots and fields. New builds are always cheaper than costly renovations. FCPS’s focus on more expensive renovations of mediocre 50s and 60s era school buildings is unusual. (The only truly historic high school buildings were the original Mount Vernon and Fairfax high schools and FCPS gave those properties up decades ago when renovations were deemed to be too expensive.)

This. And if we can’t build on site, relocate the kids permanently. Renovating McLean mom’s dump is a tiny bandaid on a much larger problem.

Rebuild / relocate / maintain, but do not renovate.

Didn’t hear you objecting to the ongoing renovation and expansion of Falls Church HS. Or others before it.

Yawn. That's because there wasn't a privileged loud-mouth person like McLean mom, who thinks she pays more in taxes than anyone else. (She probably thinks she's somehow entitled to more of the roads because she pays more in gas tax to drive her SUV.) Every time she pops up, I am more convinced that McLean HS needs to be bulldozed, and we'd be throwing more of McLean mom's precious tax dollars away on a dumpster fire.

FWIW I have VOTED against some of the CIPs.

Um, “McLean mom?”

You seriously believe only one single person is concerned about the School Board’s neglect of McLean public schools?? OMG.

I am a dad, btw.

[Anonymous]

McLean pays the same tax as everyone else in the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McLean pays the same tax as everyone else in the county.

That’s not true. They pay a surcharge. So both their effective tax rate and their overall tax bills are higher than in most of the county. But the issue isn’t whether the tax rate is different; it’s that the School Board shafts McLean HS while funding additions outside the renovation queue at other, newer, less overcrowded high schools like Justice and Madison, but not at McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McLean pays the same tax as everyone else in the county.

That's not the issue. The high schools are renovated according to a budget. My DD missed that and went to an "old" Langley so missed out on the new facilities. It happens. Each school is on a cycle. Complaining here is stupid. Call your county supervisor and ask when your high school is coming up for renovation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean pays the same tax as everyone else in the county.

That’s not true. They pay a surcharge. So both their effective tax rate and their overall tax bills are higher than in most of the county. But the issue isn’t whether the tax rate is different; it’s that the School Board shafts McLean HS while funding additions outside the renovation queue at other, newer, less overcrowded high schools like Justice and Madison, but not at McLean.

DP
I wasn’t aware of this. Could explain the surcharge? It’s an extra Fairfax County tax?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean pays the same tax as everyone else in the county.

That's not the issue. The high schools are renovated according to a budget. My DD missed that and went to an "old" Langley so missed out on the new facilities. It happens. Each school is on a cycle. Complaining here is stupid. Call your county supervisor and ask when your high school is coming up for renovation

Every school is on a cycle unless it isn’t. South Lakes, West Potomac, Justice, and Madison all got additions outside the renovation queue/cycle but McLean and Chantilly get ignored even though both are overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean pays the same tax as everyone else in the county.

That's not the issue. The high schools are renovated according to a budget. My DD missed that and went to an "old" Langley so missed out on the new facilities. It happens. Each school is on a cycle. Complaining here is stupid. Call your county supervisor and ask when your high school is coming up for renovation

It’s more complicated than this. The older schools built in the 1950s got much cheaper renovations than schools built in the mid-1960s like Langley. And then they built additions to some schools, but not others, that weren’t otherwise due to be renovated.

If you talk to your county supervisor, all they’ll tell you is that it’s up to the School Board to decide which schools get funding and that they could do more if only they had more money.

[Anonymous]

If you’re at McLean and you’re dissatisfied with the state of the facilities vote for Paul Bartkowski for School Board. The other candidate, Robyn Lady, does not care and will do nothing for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean pays the same tax as everyone else in the county.

That’s not true. They pay a surcharge. So both their effective tax rate and their overall tax bills are higher than in most of the county. But the issue isn’t whether the tax rate is different; it’s that the School Board shafts McLean HS while funding additions outside the renovation queue at other, newer, less overcrowded high schools like Justice and Madison, but not at McLean.

DP
I wasn’t aware of this. Could explain the surcharge? It’s an extra Fairfax County tax?

I think they are talking about the tax that goes exclusively to the McLean Community Center. It isn’t a County tax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean pays the same tax as everyone else in the county.

That’s not true. They pay a surcharge. So both their effective tax rate and their overall tax bills are higher than in most of the county. But the issue isn’t whether the tax rate is different; it’s that the School Board shafts McLean HS while funding additions outside the renovation queue at other, newer, less overcrowded high schools like Justice and Madison, but not at McLean.

DP
I wasn’t aware of this. Could explain the surcharge? It’s an extra Fairfax County tax?

There are some areas of the county where residents pay a surcharge for community centers, including McLean and Reston. Tysons residents and businesses also pay a surcharge to fund some of the infrastructure improvements there. They are extra county taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean pays the same tax as everyone else in the county.

That’s not true. They pay a surcharge. So both their effective tax rate and their overall tax bills are higher than in most of the county. But the issue isn’t whether the tax rate is different; it’s that the School Board shafts McLean HS while funding additions outside the renovation queue at other, newer, less overcrowded high schools like Justice and Madison, but not at McLean.

DP
I wasn’t aware of this. Could explain the surcharge? It’s an extra Fairfax County tax?

I think they are talking about the tax that goes exclusively to the McLean Community Center. It isn’t a County tax.

It is a county tax, just for a specific purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re at McLean and you’re dissatisfied with the state of the facilities vote for Paul Bartkowski for School Board. The other candidate, Robyn Lady, does not care and will do nothing for you.

err, right, don't ask your current supervisor who might actually know something about renovation rotation . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean pays the same tax as everyone else in the county.

That’s not true. They pay a surcharge. So both their effective tax rate and their overall tax bills are higher than in most of the county. But the issue isn’t whether the tax rate is different; it’s that the School Board shafts McLean HS while funding additions outside the renovation queue at other, newer, less overcrowded high schools like Justice and Madison, but not at McLean.

DP
I wasn’t aware of this. Could explain the surcharge? It’s an extra Fairfax County tax?

There is a geographic Special Tax District which covers roughly all of McLean, but not other areas. It supposedly funds the McClean Community Center, which is part of the County Government. All other Community Centers in Fairfax County are funded from the general tax revenues. So the total real estate tax rate in McLean is higher than the rest of the County.