FCPS' plans to address concerns at under-enrolled and over-enrolled schools.
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
The Daventry community is in a really great location for Lewis -- they just go right up Keene Mill Road. There are communities zoned for WSHS that work well for Lewis. Yes, those communities are closer to Irving Middle School, but there are also Lewis communities closer to Irving Middle School that are zoned for Key. Lewis already gets an exemption from the VHSL to play other Division 6 schools -- because it is so small, it qualifies for Division 5, but every other school in the region is Division 6. When Lewis gets so small that sports aren't sustainable, the drama and arts programs aren't sustainable, the classroom sizes drop to below threshold -- that's a problem for more than just Lewis. At that point, the school may need to close, which means that all the surrounding high schools will have to absorb the the student population. And all the surrounding high schools are over capacity already. Which means expensive renovations, overcrowded classrooms, trailers, and so on to ensure those high schools can absorb the student populations. Or, the school board needs to take action in advance to prevent reaching that point, which means moving school populations into Lewis. People complain that they don't want to move into Lewis. But would WSHS and Edison rather the Lewis population move into their schools? How would they feel about that? |
Anonymous
|
I find it hilarious that people in our area think 1,500+ kids is a “small” high school. Oh, woah is me, the high school is only double the size of the typical American high school, how can we even exist under that scenario! What a joke.
The fact is, you’re only going to have a sustained increased enrollment by improving the school, not by forcing families to move there. |
Anonymous
Just as a lot of students suddenly “appeared” when Daventry was moved to WSHS, a lot of students will “disappear” if it is moved back to Lewis. FCPS always fails to account for this. A neighborhood gets their assigned school(s) changed, suddenly becomes more or less desirable, and the population of children increases or decreases accordingly. With Daventry, people would buy there, send their kids to elementary, and then move before the middle and HS years to another home in West Springfield. Or homes would be used for military renters with elementary age kids for a few years. It worked out because Daventry was essentially used as starter homes and the neighborhood was priced a little less, accordingly. Now people just don’t move once the kids hit the upper grades. If they moved, say, the old neighborhoods south of the Parkway that were zoned for Lewis in the early 2000s, they’d get fewer kids than they expect because people would move, pupil place, Catholic school, lie and use another address, etc. Likewise if they moved a neighborhood out of Lewis to another school, the student yield would be larger after a few years than it was on paper. FCPS is in denial about how this happens. |
Anonymous
| All this talk on this board about Lewis……..is the school board even listening? Who is the SB rep for Lewis and what are they doing to address the problem |
Anonymous
|
Moving students is not the answer.
Make the school better. There is nothing wrong with a 1500 population high I went to a suburban high school. There were 276 people in my graduating class. Sure, a very large school is able to offer more variety of classes, but just because some different classes are offered does not mean that every kid who is interested will be able to take it But, once more, what is IB doing for Lewis? Is it an advantage or a disadvantage. In my view, it is a huge disadvantage. It is far less flexible than AP and it is more difficult to get college credit for them. It also enables a mass exodus of transfers to AP high schools. |
Anonymous
Unless I'm missing something, I don't think they close schools because they go down a division in football or basketball because of the school size. The idea that you'd have to close a 1,500-member school because it has a lower division football team is insane. |
Anonymous
Well, they're still talking about moving some kids out of Rolling Valley and rezoning them from Lewis to West Springfield HS. So that's going to be a fight. I don't see how that helps Lewis or WSHS. https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/maps/boundary-adjustments-information/rolling-valley-elementary-school-feeders-and-keene |
Anonymous
All they’ve done is just dig up the old maps from the prior proposal that wasn’t adopted as a starting point. It’s very lazy but one suspects the focus of their attention has been on new Skyview boundaries. |
Anonymous
Daventry is definitely close and convenient to Lewis. But closer even than Daventry are the townhouses adjacent to Saint Bernadette, and the Keene Mill Elementary neighborhoods along Harwood and Glenister. Those KM areas are the closest WSHS neighborhoods to Lewis, closer than Daventry is to Lewis, and much closer than Saratoga and Rolling Valley. It's not going to happen, but if FCPS were to do an impartial rezoning strictly based on geography, Tiverton, Harwood and Glenister neighborhoods should be at Lewis, before Daventry. |
Anonymous
No one should mive into WSHS. WSHS is going to get a tiny bit of relief when the 730+ class of 2026 graduates in a few weeks. They are down at least one principal, and their director of student services, who handles scheduling, just relocated to the new high school. Their scheduling is going to be a challenge next year with all of the adminstration turmoil WSHS has right now, and its large studdnt body No one should be moved into WSHS until the administration issues are settled. |
Anonymous
3 administrators (Principal, VP and Activities director, all very experienced) went to TJ The Director of Student Services went to the new high school. The new principal has been out on leave. WSHS is very lean on the administrative end right now. The school is running well, but FCPS should not burden the school administration by rezoning students into the school while it is overcrowded, and every administrator that would lead scheduling is either on leave, moved to another high school, doing 2 jobs and completely overtasked, or new and inexperienced. Sorry but this is not the time to rezone Rolling Valley into WSHS. Get a fully staffed admin team in place first, then revisit it in a couple years |
Anonymous
That would destroy a middle and high school walk zone. Many kids from KMES walk to WSHS. They are walkers to both. Can’t even throw them under the bus because they walk. |
Anonymous
Sandy Anderson’s work. But you know she says she is “tired of these parents not wanted to go to certain schools” and then advocates hard for this move…. Hypocrisy thy name is Sandy |
Anonymous
Going down a division isn't bad -- until you realize that all the schools in the vicinity are a higher division. Which means if Lewis wants to play schools of a similar size and the same division, the students will have to travel beyond FCPS boundaries, traveling more than an hour or so. That's more money spent for transportation, and also the massive amounts of time Lewis students will spent on a bus being carted around. In the meantime, there are schools minutes away, like Edison and Hayfield and WSHS, but Lewis would be in a different division. Also pointing out that the nearby schools are overcrowded. WSHS is overcrowded to the point where kids can't make sports teams unless they've been playing since they were five years old. IB is not the magic fairy godmother that people think it is. You don't wave it away and think that suddenly students will unfurl into existence like a sparkling ball gown. It doesn't work that way. Not with an IB school right next door to Lewis. |
Anonymous
Move Daventry to Lewis and Bren Mar Park to Lewis. Edison and WSHS both get some relief and Lewis gets 500+ new students. Done. |