Whole point of the boundary study is to get and keep parents riled up while Reid slips in more equity policies like SBG grading throughout the system while collecting over a million dollars over the next three years. Nothing more than a slight of hand maneuver. She is pulling it off quite well with an incompetent school board helping her succeed.
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.
Not really, it's straight down the parkway and then left on whatever that road is in front of the mall. Those houses used to go to Lewis (lee)
That can be a 25 to 30 minute drive during traffic times, past the metro, the mixing bowl and the mall.
It can take 15 minute just to go from the mall through that major mixing bowl interchange into the Lewis parking lot.
WSHS is bikeable from the Gambril neighborhoods, or a short 10 minute drive through neighborhood roads.
You live there. And what you say is false. I bet we can pool the Tesla data from drivers in the area and prove it.
Agree. You can say I don't want kids in that neighborhood going to Lewis because of X, Y, or Z is fine....but to hide behind traffic that isn't that bad? I take the Metro to downttown DC everyday and there is never backup near the metro. The traffic to the highway might add an additional 2-4 minutes in the morning only.
On one side of the county you have people trying to use the mixing bowl and a highway as a "natural barrier" (what?! have you even seen our crazy zoning maps?) and on the other side of the county you have people sending their kids on a bus for 30+ minutes to go to Langley. Just say why you really dont want that school.
Ding, ding, ding!
Because we chose our current pyramid. Your attempt at identity politics fear mongering was soundly defeated in November. Sorry.
"Your attempt at identity politics fear mongering was soundly defeated in November.". What? What kind of word salad is that? People told you to just say why you dont want Gambrill moved to that school instead of using fake commute times that a number of people dispute. I'll say it - I odnt want my kids going to Lewis because the test scores are low, there are less programs and resources for high performers, etc. BOO! Is that scary/fear mongering enough? That's pretty straight forward instead of using the twisted logic of a made up commute time.
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.
Not really, it's straight down the parkway and then left on whatever that road is in front of the mall. Those houses used to go to Lewis (lee)
That can be a 25 to 30 minute drive during traffic times, past the metro, the mixing bowl and the mall.
It can take 15 minute just to go from the mall through that major mixing bowl interchange into the Lewis parking lot.
WSHS is bikeable from the Gambril neighborhoods, or a short 10 minute drive through neighborhood roads.
You live there. And what you say is false. I bet we can pool the Tesla data from drivers in the area and prove it.
Agree. You can say I don't want kids in that neighborhood going to Lewis because of X, Y, or Z is fine....but to hide behind traffic that isn't that bad? I take the Metro to downttown DC everyday and there is never backup near the metro. The traffic to the highway might add an additional 2-4 minutes in the morning only.
On one side of the county you have people trying to use the mixing bowl and a highway as a "natural barrier" (what?! have you even seen our crazy zoning maps?) and on the other side of the county you have people sending their kids on a bus for 30+ minutes to go to Langley. Just say why you really dont want that school.
Ding, ding, ding!
Because we chose our current pyramid. Your attempt at identity politics fear mongering was soundly defeated in November. Sorry.
"Your attempt at identity politics fear mongering was soundly defeated in November.". What? What kind of word salad is that? People told you to just say why you dont want Gambrill moved to that school instead of using fake commute times that a number of people dispute. I'll say it - I odnt want my kids going to Lewis because the test scores are low, there are less programs and resources for high performers, etc. BOO! Is that scary/fear mongering enough? That's pretty straight forward instead of using the twisted logic of a made up commute time.
I’m saying no one in the county wants boundary changes especially ones steeped in equity and that anyone pushing for it needs to learn the lesson from this past election, where even the suburbs shifted decisively away from identity politics.
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.
Not really, it's straight down the parkway and then left on whatever that road is in front of the mall. Those houses used to go to Lewis (lee)
That can be a 25 to 30 minute drive during traffic times, past the metro, the mixing bowl and the mall.
It can take 15 minute just to go from the mall through that major mixing bowl interchange into the Lewis parking lot.
WSHS is bikeable from the Gambril neighborhoods, or a short 10 minute drive through neighborhood roads.
You live there. And what you say is false. I bet we can pool the Tesla data from drivers in the area and prove it.
Agree. You can say I don't want kids in that neighborhood going to Lewis because of X, Y, or Z is fine....but to hide behind traffic that isn't that bad? I take the Metro to downttown DC everyday and there is never backup near the metro. The traffic to the highway might add an additional 2-4 minutes in the morning only.
On one side of the county you have people trying to use the mixing bowl and a highway as a "natural barrier" (what?! have you even seen our crazy zoning maps?) and on the other side of the county you have people sending their kids on a bus for 30+ minutes to go to Langley. Just say why you really dont want that school.
Ding, ding, ding!
Because we chose our current pyramid. Your attempt at identity politics fear mongering was soundly defeated in November. Sorry.
"Your attempt at identity politics fear mongering was soundly defeated in November.". What? What kind of word salad is that? People told you to just say why you dont want Gambrill moved to that school instead of using fake commute times that a number of people dispute. I'll say it - I odnt want my kids going to Lewis because the test scores are low, there are less programs and resources for high performers, etc. BOO! Is that scary/fear mongering enough? That's pretty straight forward instead of using the twisted logic of a made up commute time.
+1
And thank you. It really isn’t difficult to speak the truth.
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.
Not really, it's straight down the parkway and then left on whatever that road is in front of the mall. Those houses used to go to Lewis (lee)
That can be a 25 to 30 minute drive during traffic times, past the metro, the mixing bowl and the mall.
It can take 15 minute just to go from the mall through that major mixing bowl interchange into the Lewis parking lot.
WSHS is bikeable from the Gambril neighborhoods, or a short 10 minute drive through neighborhood roads.
You live there. And what you say is false. I bet we can pool the Tesla data from drivers in the area and prove it.
Agree. You can say I don't want kids in that neighborhood going to Lewis because of X, Y, or Z is fine....but to hide behind traffic that isn't that bad? I take the Metro to downttown DC everyday and there is never backup near the metro. The traffic to the highway might add an additional 2-4 minutes in the morning only.
On one side of the county you have people trying to use the mixing bowl and a highway as a "natural barrier" (what?! have you even seen our crazy zoning maps?) and on the other side of the county you have people sending their kids on a bus for 30+ minutes to go to Langley. Just say why you really dont want that school.
Ding, ding, ding!
Because we chose our current pyramid. Your attempt at identity politics fear mongering was soundly defeated in November. Sorry.
"Your attempt at identity politics fear mongering was soundly defeated in November.". What? What kind of word salad is that? People told you to just say why you dont want Gambrill moved to that school instead of using fake commute times that a number of people dispute. I'll say it - I odnt want my kids going to Lewis because the test scores are low, there are less programs and resources for high performers, etc. BOO! Is that scary/fear mongering enough? That's pretty straight forward instead of using the twisted logic of a made up commute time.
+1
And thank you. It really isn’t difficult to speak the truth.
DP. I thought there were supposed to be more resources for top performers at Lewis because there were fewer of them and they weren’t competing with each other 24/7 like those cut-throat West Springfield kids.
The truth may be out there, but your version of it may be slanted, too.
Anonymous wrote:OK, it seems like there are a lot of people who won't be very impacted by whatever changes result from this, but some BIG area where people will be greatly impacted. For those who are new to this, what are the top areas where people anticipate (and maybe fear) boundary changes?
The most controversial are:
WSHS —> Lewis
Langley —> Herndon
Less controversial:
McLean —> Langley
McLean —> FCHS
Elementary school attendance islands
Runner up:
Mantua mobilizing in case they’re sent to FCHS
Split feeders
Marshall to Madison?
West Potomac to Mount Vernon?
Chantilly to Westfield + Westfield to Herndon
All conjectural of course. But if they muck around with Chantilly that’s going to be somewhere in between your “most controversial” and “less controversial” categories. Same for moving any part of West Potomac to Mount Vernon.
Is the only school that they would send Chantilly kids to Westfield? How do we find out what they are planning?
Could be centreville too. They have an expansion planned but it’s over five years out and the school is pretty overcrowded.
Can’t put those kids in Centreville yet. Fairfax high maybe? I know Greenbriar East is a split feeder and all the apartments in Fair Lakes go to Fairfax.
Fairfax is already close to capacity and would more likely pick up the townhouses by Wegmans that for some reason are sent to Woodson, as that would eliminate an attendance island.
Westfield is the one discussed the most as it borders Herndon, which has open seats.
Anonymous wrote:OK, it seems like there are a lot of people who won't be very impacted by whatever changes result from this, but some BIG area where people will be greatly impacted. For those who are new to this, what are the top areas where people anticipate (and maybe fear) boundary changes?
The most controversial are:
WSHS —> Lewis
Langley —> Herndon
Less controversial:
McLean —> Langley
McLean —> FCHS
Elementary school attendance islands
Runner up:
Mantua mobilizing in case they’re sent to FCHS
Split feeders
Marshall to Madison?
West Potomac to Mount Vernon?
Chantilly to Westfield + Westfield to Herndon
All conjectural of course. But if they muck around with Chantilly that’s going to be somewhere in between your “most controversial” and “less controversial” categories. Same for moving any part of West Potomac to Mount Vernon.
Is the only school that they would send Chantilly kids to Westfield? How do we find out what they are planning?
Could be centreville too. They have an expansion planned but it’s over five years out and the school is pretty overcrowded.
Can’t put those kids in Centreville yet. Fairfax high maybe? I know Greenbriar East is a split feeder and all the apartments in Fair Lakes go to Fairfax.
Fairfax is already close to capacity and would more likely pick up the townhouses by Wegmans that for some reason are sent to Woodson, as that would eliminate an attendance island.
Westfield is the one discussed the most as it borders Herndon, which has open seats.
Agree. I think they’ll shift the northern part of Westfield to Herndon and some of Franklin Farm to Westfield.
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.
Not really, it's straight down the parkway and then left on whatever that road is in front of the mall. Those houses used to go to Lewis (lee)
That can be a 25 to 30 minute drive during traffic times, past the metro, the mixing bowl and the mall.
It can take 15 minute just to go from the mall through that major mixing bowl interchange into the Lewis parking lot.
WSHS is bikeable from the Gambril neighborhoods, or a short 10 minute drive through neighborhood roads.
You live there. And what you say is false. I bet we can pool the Tesla data from drivers in the area and prove it.
Agree. You can say I don't want kids in that neighborhood going to Lewis because of X, Y, or Z is fine....but to hide behind traffic that isn't that bad? I take the Metro to downttown DC everyday and there is never backup near the metro. The traffic to the highway might add an additional 2-4 minutes in the morning only.
On one side of the county you have people trying to use the mixing bowl and a highway as a "natural barrier" (what?! have you even seen our crazy zoning maps?) and on the other side of the county you have people sending their kids on a bus for 30+ minutes to go to Langley. Just say why you really dont want that school.
Ding, ding, ding!
Because we chose our current pyramid. Your attempt at identity politics fear mongering was soundly defeated in November. Sorry.
"Your attempt at identity politics fear mongering was soundly defeated in November.". What? What kind of word salad is that? People told you to just say why you dont want Gambrill moved to that school instead of using fake commute times that a number of people dispute. I'll say it - I odnt want my kids going to Lewis because the test scores are low, there are less programs and resources for high performers, etc. BOO! Is that scary/fear mongering enough? That's pretty straight forward instead of using the twisted logic of a made up commute time.
Your arguing with a bunch of people, Saratoga Mom.
I am actually the person who first posted about commute times and biking. I haven't been on here since that post, for a couple hours. I logged in and was just giggling about the person (Saratoga Mom?) who keeps ranting back and forth to herself about teslas.
In fact, I just drove back to the Orange Hunt/Hunt Valley area from Lewis. It was around 25 minutes at 3:30 PM. So 20 to 25 minutes with normal afternoon traffic is accurate, and up to 30 minutes when mall traffic gets bad.
If Trump succeeds in sending everyone back to work, the commute will be longer because both the metro side and the new commuter slug garage on the OKM side will be backed up heavily with newly returning federal workers who have been working from home the past few years. Add on the actual bus tine picking up kids, and any kid from that HV/OH zone is looking at a 35 to 45 minute bus ride one way to get to Lewis.
I don't know who the person you are yelling at during all the tesla posts or who this recent person is, but you are arguing with multiple people who disagree with your logic behind rezoning.
If you start framing your Lewis problem in terms of finding a concrete, long term solution for improvement, instead of looking at the rezoning as a way to stick it to a bunch of families and kids you have never met, getting revenge for a 19 year old slight on people who did not live here 20 years ago and whose school aged kids were not even born when you feel Lewis and Saratoga were wronged, you might actually start real change and improvement for Lewis instead of a bandaid that won't work as intended.
I think if you stopped being so snide about sticking it to Hunt Valley and WSHS families, and started talking about finding practical solutions for Lewis over the next few years that would make it less of a pariah (such as taking advantage of current low enrollment to bump it to the top of the renovation queue so Lewis cosmetically looks similar to the other 30 ish FCPS high schools with similar quality sports fields, science labs and arts facilities) then you might actually find a lot of allies in the people whose kids you want to disrupt, to help improve Lewis long term so that young families with kids want to buy in its zone, and parents of teens stop trying to move heaven and earth to transfer their kids out of Lewis. In fact, if you took a long term approach to fixing Lewis based of concrete improvements, many of the WSHS families you seem to want to punish, would be right there with you pressuring the school board
Perhaps instead of pushing to have WSHS kids rezoned to Lewis, which won't achieve your end goal, why don't you start a thread to listen to why people don't want to send their kids there, and to come up with a game plan to lobby for real, long term solutions to Lewis.
Anonymous wrote:OK, it seems like there are a lot of people who won't be very impacted by whatever changes result from this, but some BIG area where people will be greatly impacted. For those who are new to this, what are the top areas where people anticipate (and maybe fear) boundary changes?
The most controversial are:
WSHS —> Lewis
Langley —> Herndon
Less controversial:
McLean —> Langley
McLean —> FCHS
Elementary school attendance islands
Runner up:
Mantua mobilizing in case they’re sent to FCHS
Split feeders
Marshall to Madison?
West Potomac to Mount Vernon?
Chantilly to Westfield + Westfield to Herndon
All conjectural of course. But if they muck around with Chantilly that’s going to be somewhere in between your “most controversial” and “less controversial” categories. Same for moving any part of West Potomac to Mount Vernon.
Is the only school that they would send Chantilly kids to Westfield? How do we find out what they are planning?
Could be centreville too. They have an expansion planned but it’s over five years out and the school is pretty overcrowded.
Can’t put those kids in Centreville yet. Fairfax high maybe? I know Greenbriar East is a split feeder and all the apartments in Fair Lakes go to Fairfax.
Fairfax is already close to capacity and would more likely pick up the townhouses by Wegmans that for some reason are sent to Woodson, as that would eliminate an attendance island.
Westfield is the one discussed the most as it borders Herndon, which has open seats.
Agree. I think they’ll shift the northern part of Westfield to Herndon and some of Franklin Farm to Westfield.
Anonymous wrote:OK, it seems like there are a lot of people who won't be very impacted by whatever changes result from this, but some BIG area where people will be greatly impacted. For those who are new to this, what are the top areas where people anticipate (and maybe fear) boundary changes?
The most controversial are:
WSHS —> Lewis
Langley —> Herndon
Less controversial:
McLean —> Langley
McLean —> FCHS
Elementary school attendance islands
Runner up:
Mantua mobilizing in case they’re sent to FCHS
Split feeders
Marshall to Madison?
West Potomac to Mount Vernon?
Chantilly to Westfield + Westfield to Herndon
All conjectural of course. But if they muck around with Chantilly that’s going to be somewhere in between your “most controversial” and “less controversial” categories. Same for moving any part of West Potomac to Mount Vernon.
Is the only school that they would send Chantilly kids to Westfield? How do we find out what they are planning?
Could be centreville too. They have an expansion planned but it’s over five years out and the school is pretty overcrowded.
Can’t put those kids in Centreville yet. Fairfax high maybe? I know Greenbriar East is a split feeder and all the apartments in Fair Lakes go to Fairfax.
Fairfax is already close to capacity and would more likely pick up the townhouses by Wegmans that for some reason are sent to Woodson, as that would eliminate an attendance island.
Westfield is the one discussed the most as it borders Herndon, which has open seats.
Agree. I think they’ll shift the northern part of Westfield to Herndon and some of Franklin Farm to Westfield.
They could move Forestville to Herndon instead.
I can't see them leaving Langley alone if they are simultaneously pushing kids into Lewis and Mt Vernon - the optics are just too terrible
Anonymous wrote:OK, it seems like there are a lot of people who won't be very impacted by whatever changes result from this, but some BIG area where people will be greatly impacted. For those who are new to this, what are the top areas where people anticipate (and maybe fear) boundary changes?
The most controversial are:
WSHS —> Lewis
Langley —> Herndon
Less controversial:
McLean —> Langley
McLean —> FCHS
Elementary school attendance islands
Runner up:
Mantua mobilizing in case they’re sent to FCHS
Split feeders
Marshall to Madison?
West Potomac to Mount Vernon?
Chantilly to Westfield + Westfield to Herndon
All conjectural of course. But if they muck around with Chantilly that’s going to be somewhere in between your “most controversial” and “less controversial” categories. Same for moving any part of West Potomac to Mount Vernon.
Is the only school that they would send Chantilly kids to Westfield? How do we find out what they are planning?
Could be centreville too. They have an expansion planned but it’s over five years out and the school is pretty overcrowded.
Can’t put those kids in Centreville yet. Fairfax high maybe? I know Greenbriar East is a split feeder and all the apartments in Fair Lakes go to Fairfax.
Fairfax is already close to capacity and would more likely pick up the townhouses by Wegmans that for some reason are sent to Woodson, as that would eliminate an attendance island.
Westfield is the one discussed the most as it borders Herndon, which has open seats.
Agree. I think they’ll shift the northern part of Westfield to Herndon and some of Franklin Farm to Westfield.
They could move Forestville to Herndon instead.
I can't see them leaving Langley alone if they are simultaneously pushing kids into Lewis and Mt Vernon - the optics are just too terrible
The optics of leaving Chantilly close to 3000 students would be bad too. I think the more likely outcome is Herndon will take students from both Coates and Forestville to minimize the impact to their FARM rates.
Anonymous wrote:OK, it seems like there are a lot of people who won't be very impacted by whatever changes result from this, but some BIG area where people will be greatly impacted. For those who are new to this, what are the top areas where people anticipate (and maybe fear) boundary changes?
The most controversial are:
WSHS —> Lewis
Langley —> Herndon
Less controversial:
McLean —> Langley
McLean —> FCHS
Elementary school attendance islands
Runner up:
Mantua mobilizing in case they’re sent to FCHS
Split feeders
Marshall to Madison?
West Potomac to Mount Vernon?
Chantilly to Westfield + Westfield to Herndon
All conjectural of course. But if they muck around with Chantilly that’s going to be somewhere in between your “most controversial” and “less controversial” categories. Same for moving any part of West Potomac to Mount Vernon.
Is the only school that they would send Chantilly kids to Westfield? How do we find out what they are planning?
Could be centreville too. They have an expansion planned but it’s over five years out and the school is pretty overcrowded.
Can’t put those kids in Centreville yet. Fairfax high maybe? I know Greenbriar East is a split feeder and all the apartments in Fair Lakes go to Fairfax.
Fairfax is already close to capacity and would more likely pick up the townhouses by Wegmans that for some reason are sent to Woodson, as that would eliminate an attendance island.
Westfield is the one discussed the most as it borders Herndon, which has open seats.
Agree. I think they’ll shift the northern part of Westfield to Herndon and some of Franklin Farm to Westfield.
They could move Forestville to Herndon instead.
I can't see them leaving Langley alone if they are simultaneously pushing kids into Lewis and Mt Vernon - the optics are just too terrible
I don’t want any boundary moves. Nonetheless, “optics” aren’t one of the four factors.
Anonymous wrote:OK, it seems like there are a lot of people who won't be very impacted by whatever changes result from this, but some BIG area where people will be greatly impacted. For those who are new to this, what are the top areas where people anticipate (and maybe fear) boundary changes?
The most controversial are:
WSHS —> Lewis
Langley —> Herndon
Less controversial:
McLean —> Langley
McLean —> FCHS
Elementary school attendance islands
Runner up:
Mantua mobilizing in case they’re sent to FCHS
Split feeders
Marshall to Madison?
West Potomac to Mount Vernon?
Chantilly to Westfield + Westfield to Herndon
All conjectural of course. But if they muck around with Chantilly that’s going to be somewhere in between your “most controversial” and “less controversial” categories. Same for moving any part of West Potomac to Mount Vernon.
Is the only school that they would send Chantilly kids to Westfield? How do we find out what they are planning?
Could be centreville too. They have an expansion planned but it’s over five years out and the school is pretty overcrowded.
Can’t put those kids in Centreville yet. Fairfax high maybe? I know Greenbriar East is a split feeder and all the apartments in Fair Lakes go to Fairfax.
Fairfax is already close to capacity and would more likely pick up the townhouses by Wegmans that for some reason are sent to Woodson, as that would eliminate an attendance island.
Westfield is the one discussed the most as it borders Herndon, which has open seats.
Agree. I think they’ll shift the northern part of Westfield to Herndon and some of Franklin Farm to Westfield.
They could move Forestville to Herndon instead.
I can't see them leaving Langley alone if they are simultaneously pushing kids into Lewis and Mt Vernon - the optics are just too terrible
I don’t want any boundary moves. Nonetheless, “optics” aren’t one of the four factors.
Factor #4 is transportation. They’ll have no problem justifying moving kids to Herndon.
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