Better than the shit show we would have had with Republicans running the board. |
DP, but I'm not sure. I think that a School Board run by Republicans might have made the same decision, but done it years ago without so much empty talk about how critical it was to look at every decision through an "equity-based lens." There was no reason this couldn't have been decided years ago to coincide with the completion of Langley's renovation and implemented by 2018. This crowd has dragged McLean HS through the mud by calling so much attention to the overcrowding, doing nothing to get McLean in the queue for a permanent addition, and then inviting people to come in on multiple occasions over a multi-year period and plead their case about why they are most deserving of getting moved to Langley. If they get recalled, primaried, or replaced by 2023, it's hard to see how we'd be any worse off, short of a School Board run by Republicans that just tries to defund the public schools entirely so people can get vouchers for privates. |
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They don't care about McLean, and Elaine Tholen obviously puts the interests of Langley over McLean. Therefore, I propose they tear down McLean, sell the land to developers, and reassign students as follows:
Chesterbrook, Franklin Sherman, Kent Gardens - reassign to Langley Haycock, Lemon Road, Westgate - reassign to Marshall Timber Lane - reassign to Falls Church Colvin Run, Spring Hill - reassign to Madison Maybe they'd need to send part of Great Falls to Herndon to accommodate the additional kids from McLean at Langley, but Herndon is getting a fantastic renovation while they are letting McLean fall apart, so it doesn't seem too unfair. |
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OMG, they are still doing public participation during the meeting?!? They won't get around to the boundary change until after 10:30 or 11:00 at this rate.
Why are they so incapable of sticking to a schedule or conducting business in anything remotely resembling a competent manner? |
| They are starting the McLean Boundary portion right now. |
| What a half-baked presentation by Brabrand, with no real explanation as to why they abandoned the staff recommendation presented in January. |
| And here comes Tholen, suggesting that maybe some day she'll actually go to bat for McLean and advocate for a permanent addition. She needs to go. |
Did her face just freeze or is it my computer? |
| So the kids already at MHS are all grandfathered in? |
They are debating this motion now. |
| Motion to grandfather current students carries. |
| They are now debating a "special" accommodation that would allow current Longfellow 8th graders living in areas that would otherwise switch to Langley to attend either Langley or McLean given all the disruption this year due to Covid, the change in TJ admissions, and the change in boundaries. |
| So no relief for years, then? |
| If I understand correctly Longfellow students who are rising 9th graders are now grandfathered in and it is their choice of which highschool to attend?? |
Poor Megan. She asked an entirely reasonable question about the incremental cost of giving rising 9th graders the option to attend either school, and Platenberg repeatedly responded without acknowledging it was novel. Eventually she gave up. But it passed with unanimous support so Platenberg's failure to appreciate the question is moot. |