FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

WS won't be so happy. They'd probably have to give up Orange Hunt and Hunt Valley to LBSS and South County so they can take in Crestwood and Lynbrook. Hayfield as well would need to take some poorer neighborhoods. Even closing Lewis would be protested by other pyramids.

You are not reading the room.

No one wants to get rezoned to Lewis in its current state, not even the Edison and Hayfield families.

That's not PP's point. Some WS posters are acting like Lewis can be closed and all the kids sent to other schools like Hayfield and Edison. That probably wouldn't be the case. West Springfield would be among the schools picking up Lewis kids and seeing kids moved to at least one other school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

Parent zoned for Lewis here, and I’d be fine with this. It seems like the easiest and least controversial option of all that have been floated thus far.

If they do that, then they should turn Lewis into an opt in non traditional high school for new arrivals and older students, with citizenship, English language immersion and US cultural classes as well as a trades magnet and child crare services.

I believe FCPS used to have something like this at one of the alternative HS’s and it was closed during the recession due to lack of funding. That was one of the things that lead to more problems at Lewis (and some other schools, but a lot of recent arrivals landed in Springfield) in terms of student achievement and behavior. I agree, they really need this type of program given the demographics in the county.

And yes, closing Lewis and distributing its feeders was also discussed by Gatehouse at some point, and yes, it would be disruptive to the nearby HS’s that are already on the edge in terms of demographics. You’d close Lewis, but then Annandale, Justice, and Edison would become a lot worse, and the spillover affects would extend to Hayfield, South County, and West Springfield.

Closing Lewis wouldn't have any negative effect on Justice. Those schools aren't nearby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

WS won't be so happy. They'd probably have to give up Orange Hunt and Hunt Valley to LBSS and South County so they can take in Crestwood and Lynbrook. Hayfield as well would need to take some poorer neighborhoods. Even closing Lewis would be protested by other pyramids.

Lewis borders 6 other high school zones, with WSHS nor even the closest neighboring school.

Lewis sends way more kids to Lake Braddock than WSHS whoch is closed to transfers.

Lewis is practically next door to Edison.

Why are you singularly focusing your ire on WSHS and ignoring Lewis' 5 other neighboring high schools?

WSHS isn't closed to transfers. It might be very selective, but it isn't closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

WS won't be so happy. They'd probably have to give up Orange Hunt and Hunt Valley to LBSS and South County so they can take in Crestwood and Lynbrook. Hayfield as well would need to take some poorer neighborhoods. Even closing Lewis would be protested by other pyramids.

You are not reading the room.

No one wants to get rezoned to Lewis in its current state, not even the Edison and Hayfield families.

That's not PP's point. Some WS posters are acting like Lewis can be closed and all the kids sent to other schools like Hayfield and Edison. That probably wouldn't be the case. West Springfield would be among the schools picking up Lewis kids and seeing kids moved to at least one other school.

+1

Garfield would definitely be heading to WSHS. They'd have to shift Hunt Valley out to South County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

WS won't be so happy. They'd probably have to give up Orange Hunt and Hunt Valley to LBSS and South County so they can take in Crestwood and Lynbrook. Hayfield as well would need to take some poorer neighborhoods. Even closing Lewis would be protested by other pyramids.

You are not reading the room.

No one wants to get rezoned to Lewis in its current state, not even the Edison and Hayfield families.

That's not PP's point. Some WS posters are acting like Lewis can be closed and all the kids sent to other schools like Hayfield and Edison. That probably wouldn't be the case. West Springfield would be among the schools picking up Lewis kids and seeing kids moved to at least one other school.

+1

Garfield would definitely be heading to WSHS. They'd have to shift Hunt Valley out to South County.

That’s fine also. HV/WSHS parent here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

Parent zoned for Lewis here, and I’d be fine with this. It seems like the easiest and least controversial option of all that have been floated thus far.

If they do that, then they should turn Lewis into an opt in non traditional high school for new arrivals and older students, with citizenship, English language immersion and US cultural classes as well as a trades magnet and child crare services.

I believe FCPS used to have something like this at one of the alternative HS’s and it was closed during the recession due to lack of funding. That was one of the things that lead to more problems at Lewis (and some other schools, but a lot of recent arrivals landed in Springfield) in terms of student achievement and behavior. I agree, they really need this type of program given the demographics in the county.

And yes, closing Lewis and distributing its feeders was also discussed by Gatehouse at some point, and yes, it would be disruptive to the nearby HS’s that are already on the edge in terms of demographics. You’d close Lewis, but then Annandale, Justice, and Edison would become a lot worse, and the spillover affects would extend to Hayfield, South County, and West Springfield.

Closing Lewis wouldn't have any negative effect on Justice. Those schools aren't nearby.

There would be a surprisingly large spillover affect as Annandale would likely have to pick up both Lynbrook from Lewis and Bren Mar Park from Edison and would then have to give all of Parklawn at the very least to Justice. Even with Lewis being on the smaller side, there are a lot of moving pieces involved with its elementaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

WS won't be so happy. They'd probably have to give up Orange Hunt and Hunt Valley to LBSS and South County so they can take in Crestwood and Lynbrook. Hayfield as well would need to take some poorer neighborhoods. Even closing Lewis would be protested by other pyramids.

You are not reading the room.

No one wants to get rezoned to Lewis in its current state, not even the Edison and Hayfield families.

That's not PP's point. Some WS posters are acting like Lewis can be closed and all the kids sent to other schools like Hayfield and Edison. That probably wouldn't be the case. West Springfield would be among the schools picking up Lewis kids and seeing kids moved to at least one other school.

+1

Garfield would definitely be heading to WSHS. They'd have to shift Hunt Valley out to South County.

That’s fine also. HV/WSHS parent here.

+1

Hunt Valley is closer to South County and doesn't involve crossing I-95 to get there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One way to limit transfers out/in is to have each HS offer the same set of languages and AP classes regardless of how many students sign up for each. It would make offerings equal in each HS. The only differences would be how many classes of each are offered.

It’s also been proposed that some languages be offered on-line.

Currently some schools have to spend large amounts on their budgets on ESOL and others spend money on foreign languages not offered at other schools. If you’re a non-ESOL kid at the former you simply don’t have access to the same opportunities. You might be able to pupil place but that means arranging your own transportation, which isn’t feasible for a lot of families.

online offerings are not equivalent to in person. I think the answer is large schools where there are enough students to justify offerings at multiple levels. West Potomac and Herndon have high farms percentages and manage to have robust course catalogs because they are massive.

Herndon isn’t massive. It has a below-average enrollment for an FCPS high school.

But Langley, Madison, and Marshall have an even lower enrollment. Herndon looks under enrolled because they gave it a massive expansion to make up for the lack of a Western High School.

Those are two different issues. Herndon has a below-average enrollment for an FCPS high school. And it also has a lot of excess capacity now, which they may take advantage of in connection with the ongoing boundary study.

Only if they split feeder cooper. HMS doesn’t have capacity, now or in the future.

Yeah, they could make Cooper a split feeder if they needed to. Or they could put a modular at HMS, if that avoids having hundreds of empty seats at HHS for years.

The misalignment between MS and HS within a pyramid isn't just limited to the Herndon pyramid. They don't and won't any time soon have a perfect solution that aligns with the goals of using available capacity and minimizing commuting distances while avoiding split feeders.

In the western part of the county, there’s actually a surplus of middle school seats compared to high school seats because they’re missing a high school. They would be better off kicking South Lakes and Oakton out of Carson and making Carson a split feeder between Westfield and the silver line corridor of Herndon. Get Westfield out of Franklin so it only feeds Chantilly and Oakton. That takes care of 2 of the 3 tri-feeders.

Which Middle schools in the western half have empty seats? Stone is the only one with surplus capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One way to limit transfers out/in is to have each HS offer the same set of languages and AP classes regardless of how many students sign up for each. It would make offerings equal in each HS. The only differences would be how many classes of each are offered.

It’s also been proposed that some languages be offered on-line.

Currently some schools have to spend large amounts on their budgets on ESOL and others spend money on foreign languages not offered at other schools. If you’re a non-ESOL kid at the former you simply don’t have access to the same opportunities. You might be able to pupil place but that means arranging your own transportation, which isn’t feasible for a lot of families.

online offerings are not equivalent to in person. I think the answer is large schools where there are enough students to justify offerings at multiple levels. West Potomac and Herndon have high farms percentages and manage to have robust course catalogs because they are massive.

Herndon isn’t massive. It has a below-average enrollment for an FCPS high school.

But Langley, Madison, and Marshall have an even lower enrollment. Herndon looks under enrolled because they gave it a massive expansion to make up for the lack of a Western High School.

Those are two different issues. Herndon has a below-average enrollment for an FCPS high school. And it also has a lot of excess capacity now, which they may take advantage of in connection with the ongoing boundary study.

Only if they split feeder cooper. HMS doesn’t have capacity, now or in the future.

Yeah, they could make Cooper a split feeder if they needed to. Or they could put a modular at HMS, if that avoids having hundreds of empty seats at HHS for years.

The misalignment between MS and HS within a pyramid isn't just limited to the Herndon pyramid. They don't and won't any time soon have a perfect solution that aligns with the goals of using available capacity and minimizing commuting distances while avoiding split feeders.

In the western part of the county, there’s actually a surplus of middle school seats compared to high school seats because they’re missing a high school. They would be better off kicking South Lakes and Oakton out of Carson and making Carson a split feeder between Westfield and the silver line corridor of Herndon. Get Westfield out of Franklin so it only feeds Chantilly and Oakton. That takes care of 2 of the 3 tri-feeders.

Which Middle schools in the western half have empty seats? Stone is the only one with surplus capacity.

There are 441 open seats between Rocky Run and Franklin…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

Parent zoned for Lewis here, and I’d be fine with this. It seems like the easiest and least controversial option of all that have been floated thus far.

If they do that, then they should turn Lewis into an opt in non traditional high school for new arrivals and older students, with citizenship, English language immersion and US cultural classes as well as a trades magnet and child crare services.

I believe FCPS used to have something like this at one of the alternative HS’s and it was closed during the recession due to lack of funding. That was one of the things that lead to more problems at Lewis (and some other schools, but a lot of recent arrivals landed in Springfield) in terms of student achievement and behavior. I agree, they really need this type of program given the demographics in the county.

And yes, closing Lewis and distributing its feeders was also discussed by Gatehouse at some point, and yes, it would be disruptive to the nearby HS’s that are already on the edge in terms of demographics. You’d close Lewis, but then Annandale, Justice, and Edison would become a lot worse, and the spillover affects would extend to Hayfield, South County, and West Springfield.

Closing Lewis wouldn't have any negative effect on Justice. Those schools aren't nearby.

There would be a surprisingly large spillover affect as Annandale would likely have to pick up both Lynbrook from Lewis and Bren Mar Park from Edison and would then have to give all of Parklawn at the very least to Justice. Even with Lewis being on the smaller side, there are a lot of moving pieces involved with its elementaries.

That is just one scenario. It's also possible, were Lewis closed, that Annandale - which might be picking up part of Woodson as part of the upcoming changes - wouldn't take any of Lewis. It's also possible that, if Edison picked up more of Lewis, more of Edison could shift to West Potomac (with some of West Po shifting to Mount Vernon), with no impact on Bren Mar Park. This would also have no effect on Justice.

Finally, even if your scenario were to occur and the part of Parklawn now at Annandale were to move to Justice, that wouldn't cause Justice to become "a lot worse" as you posited earlier. It's not that different from other areas already zoned to Justice (a small older AA community in Lincolnia similar to the larger AA community off Lacy Boulevard, some apartments off Route 236 similar to apartments off Route 7, and some single-family houses in Alexandria similar to other parts of Parklawn zoned to Justice).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

Parent zoned for Lewis here, and I’d be fine with this. It seems like the easiest and least controversial option of all that have been floated thus far.

If they do that, then they should turn Lewis into an opt in non traditional high school for new arrivals and older students, with citizenship, English language immersion and US cultural classes as well as a trades magnet and child crare services.

I believe FCPS used to have something like this at one of the alternative HS’s and it was closed during the recession due to lack of funding. That was one of the things that lead to more problems at Lewis (and some other schools, but a lot of recent arrivals landed in Springfield) in terms of student achievement and behavior. I agree, they really need this type of program given the demographics in the county.

And yes, closing Lewis and distributing its feeders was also discussed by Gatehouse at some point, and yes, it would be disruptive to the nearby HS’s that are already on the edge in terms of demographics. You’d close Lewis, but then Annandale, Justice, and Edison would become a lot worse, and the spillover affects would extend to Hayfield, South County, and West Springfield.

Closing Lewis wouldn't have any negative effect on Justice. Those schools aren't nearby.

There would be a surprisingly large spillover affect as Annandale would likely have to pick up both Lynbrook from Lewis and Bren Mar Park from Edison and would then have to give all of Parklawn at the very least to Justice. Even with Lewis being on the smaller side, there are a lot of moving pieces involved with its elementaries.

That is just one scenario. It's also possible, were Lewis closed, that Annandale - which might be picking up part of Woodson as part of the upcoming changes - wouldn't take any of Lewis. It's also possible that, if Edison picked up more of Lewis, more of Edison could shift to West Potomac (with some of West Po shifting to Mount Vernon), with no impact on Bren Mar Park. This would also have no effect on Justice.

Finally, even if your scenario were to occur and the part of Parklawn now at Annandale were to move to Justice, that wouldn't cause Justice to become "a lot worse" as you posited earlier. It's not that different from other areas already zoned to Justice (a small older AA community in Lincolnia similar to the larger AA community off Lacy Boulevard, some apartments off Route 236 similar to apartments off Route 7, and some single-family houses in Alexandria similar to other parts of Parklawn zoned to Justice).

Is Woodson really at/over capacity? Feels like just yesterday (but was really like 12 or 13 years ago) that I would see the angry signs along Wakefield Chapel demanding not to be moved from Annandale to Woodson. Or is the idea that something else moves to Woodson so those neighborhoods that used to be zoned for Annandale head back to where they started?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

Parent zoned for Lewis here, and I’d be fine with this. It seems like the easiest and least controversial option of all that have been floated thus far.

If they do that, then they should turn Lewis into an opt in non traditional high school for new arrivals and older students, with citizenship, English language immersion and US cultural classes as well as a trades magnet and child crare services.

I believe FCPS used to have something like this at one of the alternative HS’s and it was closed during the recession due to lack of funding. That was one of the things that lead to more problems at Lewis (and some other schools, but a lot of recent arrivals landed in Springfield) in terms of student achievement and behavior. I agree, they really need this type of program given the demographics in the county.

And yes, closing Lewis and distributing its feeders was also discussed by Gatehouse at some point, and yes, it would be disruptive to the nearby HS’s that are already on the edge in terms of demographics. You’d close Lewis, but then Annandale, Justice, and Edison would become a lot worse, and the spillover affects would extend to Hayfield, South County, and West Springfield.

Closing Lewis wouldn't have any negative effect on Justice. Those schools aren't nearby.

There would be a surprisingly large spillover affect as Annandale would likely have to pick up both Lynbrook from Lewis and Bren Mar Park from Edison and would then have to give all of Parklawn at the very least to Justice. Even with Lewis being on the smaller side, there are a lot of moving pieces involved with its elementaries.

That is just one scenario. It's also possible, were Lewis closed, that Annandale - which might be picking up part of Woodson as part of the upcoming changes - wouldn't take any of Lewis. It's also possible that, if Edison picked up more of Lewis, more of Edison could shift to West Potomac (with some of West Po shifting to Mount Vernon), with no impact on Bren Mar Park. This would also have no effect on Justice.

Finally, even if your scenario were to occur and the part of Parklawn now at Annandale were to move to Justice, that wouldn't cause Justice to become "a lot worse" as you posited earlier. It's not that different from other areas already zoned to Justice (a small older AA community in Lincolnia similar to the larger AA community off Lacy Boulevard, some apartments off Route 236 similar to apartments off Route 7, and some single-family houses in Alexandria similar to other parts of Parklawn zoned to Justice).

Is Woodson really at/over capacity? Feels like just yesterday (but was really like 12 or 13 years ago) that I would see the angry signs along Wakefield Chapel demanding not to be moved from Annandale to Woodson. Or is the idea that something else moves to Woodson so those neighborhoods that used to be zoned for Annandale head back to where they started?

Yeah that PP has no clue. FCPS’s own projections show only two HS significantly over capacity by 2028 and those are WSHS and Woodson. No one is getting moved into Woodson unless significant numbers are moved OUT of Woodson. But again, we see how closing one HS has a big ripple effect surprisingly far away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

Parent zoned for Lewis here, and I’d be fine with this. It seems like the easiest and least controversial option of all that have been floated thus far.

If they do that, then they should turn Lewis into an opt in non traditional high school for new arrivals and older students, with citizenship, English language immersion and US cultural classes as well as a trades magnet and child crare services.

I believe FCPS used to have something like this at one of the alternative HS’s and it was closed during the recession due to lack of funding. That was one of the things that lead to more problems at Lewis (and some other schools, but a lot of recent arrivals landed in Springfield) in terms of student achievement and behavior. I agree, they really need this type of program given the demographics in the county.

And yes, closing Lewis and distributing its feeders was also discussed by Gatehouse at some point, and yes, it would be disruptive to the nearby HS’s that are already on the edge in terms of demographics. You’d close Lewis, but then Annandale, Justice, and Edison would become a lot worse, and the spillover affects would extend to Hayfield, South County, and West Springfield.

Closing Lewis wouldn't have any negative effect on Justice. Those schools aren't nearby.

There would be a surprisingly large spillover affect as Annandale would likely have to pick up both Lynbrook from Lewis and Bren Mar Park from Edison and would then have to give all of Parklawn at the very least to Justice. Even with Lewis being on the smaller side, there are a lot of moving pieces involved with its elementaries.

That is just one scenario. It's also possible, were Lewis closed, that Annandale - which might be picking up part of Woodson as part of the upcoming changes - wouldn't take any of Lewis. It's also possible that, if Edison picked up more of Lewis, more of Edison could shift to West Potomac (with some of West Po shifting to Mount Vernon), with no impact on Bren Mar Park. This would also have no effect on Justice.

Finally, even if your scenario were to occur and the part of Parklawn now at Annandale were to move to Justice, that wouldn't cause Justice to become "a lot worse" as you posited earlier. It's not that different from other areas already zoned to Justice (a small older AA community in Lincolnia similar to the larger AA community off Lacy Boulevard, some apartments off Route 236 similar to apartments off Route 7, and some single-family houses in Alexandria similar to other parts of Parklawn zoned to Justice).

Is Woodson really at/over capacity? Feels like just yesterday (but was really like 12 or 13 years ago) that I would see the angry signs along Wakefield Chapel demanding not to be moved from Annandale to Woodson. Or is the idea that something else moves to Woodson so those neighborhoods that used to be zoned for Annandale head back to where they started?

They last moved part of Annandale to Woodson around 2011. Subsequent to that Fairfax City asked that FCPS reduce the non-Fairfax City enrollment at Fairfax HS, and Fairfax Villa ES got reassigned from Fairfax to Woodson. That wasn't something FCPS had in mind when they eliminated the Wakefield Forest split feeder and sent the Annandale kids there to Woodson, so it ended up overcrowding Woodson.

Now, as to whether they actually move part of Woodson to Annandale, no one knows and it would just be speculation. The latest CIP has Woodson at 108% capacity in 2028-29 and Annandale at 97% (excluding the AHS modular). Historically those aren't numbers that would drive any redistricting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

Parent zoned for Lewis here, and I’d be fine with this. It seems like the easiest and least controversial option of all that have been floated thus far.

If they do that, then they should turn Lewis into an opt in non traditional high school for new arrivals and older students, with citizenship, English language immersion and US cultural classes as well as a trades magnet and child crare services.

I believe FCPS used to have something like this at one of the alternative HS’s and it was closed during the recession due to lack of funding. That was one of the things that lead to more problems at Lewis (and some other schools, but a lot of recent arrivals landed in Springfield) in terms of student achievement and behavior. I agree, they really need this type of program given the demographics in the county.

And yes, closing Lewis and distributing its feeders was also discussed by Gatehouse at some point, and yes, it would be disruptive to the nearby HS’s that are already on the edge in terms of demographics. You’d close Lewis, but then Annandale, Justice, and Edison would become a lot worse, and the spillover affects would extend to Hayfield, South County, and West Springfield.

Closing Lewis wouldn't have any negative effect on Justice. Those schools aren't nearby.

There would be a surprisingly large spillover affect as Annandale would likely have to pick up both Lynbrook from Lewis and Bren Mar Park from Edison and would then have to give all of Parklawn at the very least to Justice. Even with Lewis being on the smaller side, there are a lot of moving pieces involved with its elementaries.

That is just one scenario. It's also possible, were Lewis closed, that Annandale - which might be picking up part of Woodson as part of the upcoming changes - wouldn't take any of Lewis. It's also possible that, if Edison picked up more of Lewis, more of Edison could shift to West Potomac (with some of West Po shifting to Mount Vernon), with no impact on Bren Mar Park. This would also have no effect on Justice.

Finally, even if your scenario were to occur and the part of Parklawn now at Annandale were to move to Justice, that wouldn't cause Justice to become "a lot worse" as you posited earlier. It's not that different from other areas already zoned to Justice (a small older AA community in Lincolnia similar to the larger AA community off Lacy Boulevard, some apartments off Route 236 similar to apartments off Route 7, and some single-family houses in Alexandria similar to other parts of Parklawn zoned to Justice).

Is Woodson really at/over capacity? Feels like just yesterday (but was really like 12 or 13 years ago) that I would see the angry signs along Wakefield Chapel demanding not to be moved from Annandale to Woodson. Or is the idea that something else moves to Woodson so those neighborhoods that used to be zoned for Annandale head back to where they started?

Yeah that PP has no clue. FCPS’s own projections show only two HS significantly over capacity by 2028 and those are WSHS and Woodson. No one is getting moved into Woodson unless significant numbers are moved OUT of Woodson. But again, we see how closing one HS has a big ripple effect surprisingly far away.

I'm the PP. I didn't say anything about anyone getting moving into Woodson and only identified the possibility that some kids might be moved out of the school.

That is speculation, but I'm responding to a post about what would happen to Justice if Lewis got closed, which of course is even more speculative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis, save the renovation costs. Send the current students to the other schools next to them. Problem solved. The current students get an equitable outcome.

Parent zoned for Lewis here, and I’d be fine with this. It seems like the easiest and least controversial option of all that have been floated thus far.

If they do that, then they should turn Lewis into an opt in non traditional high school for new arrivals and older students, with citizenship, English language immersion and US cultural classes as well as a trades magnet and child crare services.

I believe FCPS used to have something like this at one of the alternative HS’s and it was closed during the recession due to lack of funding. That was one of the things that lead to more problems at Lewis (and some other schools, but a lot of recent arrivals landed in Springfield) in terms of student achievement and behavior. I agree, they really need this type of program given the demographics in the county.

And yes, closing Lewis and distributing its feeders was also discussed by Gatehouse at some point, and yes, it would be disruptive to the nearby HS’s that are already on the edge in terms of demographics. You’d close Lewis, but then Annandale, Justice, and Edison would become a lot worse, and the spillover affects would extend to Hayfield, South County, and West Springfield.

Closing Lewis wouldn't have any negative effect on Justice. Those schools aren't nearby.

There would be a surprisingly large spillover affect as Annandale would likely have to pick up both Lynbrook from Lewis and Bren Mar Park from Edison and would then have to give all of Parklawn at the very least to Justice. Even with Lewis being on the smaller side, there are a lot of moving pieces involved with its elementaries.

That is just one scenario. It's also possible, were Lewis closed, that Annandale - which might be picking up part of Woodson as part of the upcoming changes - wouldn't take any of Lewis. It's also possible that, if Edison picked up more of Lewis, more of Edison could shift to West Potomac (with some of West Po shifting to Mount Vernon), with no impact on Bren Mar Park. This would also have no effect on Justice.

Finally, even if your scenario were to occur and the part of Parklawn now at Annandale were to move to Justice, that wouldn't cause Justice to become "a lot worse" as you posited earlier. It's not that different from other areas already zoned to Justice (a small older AA community in Lincolnia similar to the larger AA community off Lacy Boulevard, some apartments off Route 236 similar to apartments off Route 7, and some single-family houses in Alexandria similar to other parts of Parklawn zoned to Justice).

Is Woodson really at/over capacity? Feels like just yesterday (but was really like 12 or 13 years ago) that I would see the angry signs along Wakefield Chapel demanding not to be moved from Annandale to Woodson. Or is the idea that something else moves to Woodson so those neighborhoods that used to be zoned for Annandale head back to where they started?

Yeah that PP has no clue. FCPS’s own projections show only two HS significantly over capacity by 2028 and those are WSHS and Woodson. No one is getting moved into Woodson unless significant numbers are moved OUT of Woodson. But again, we see how closing one HS has a big ripple effect surprisingly far away.

The ripple effects depend on the extent of the under-enrollment and the capacity of other schools.

When Fort Hunt HS was closed, it was essentially folded into Groveton HS and renamed West Potomac HS. I don't think it had huge ripple effects far away. It just created one very large school.

When Jefferson HS was repurposed, they started out sending every kid at old Jefferson to Annandale HS. That only worked for a while, and eventually they started redistricting Annandale kids to other schools (Falls Church, Lake Braddock, Woodson, and Edison). But those schools until now haven't had to reassign kids at those four schools to other schools as a result; it just changed the demographics at Annandale quite a bit by concentrating poverty along Route 236 at AHS that previously had been divided between two schools.

Lewis HS would be a different case because, even though it has the lowest enrollment of any HS in FCPS right now, it still has around 1600 kids (plus hundreds of kids living within its boundaries pupil placing) and no school around it is similarly small and/or has oodles of excess capacity. So the ripple effects would likely be larger (and it would be more speculative as to where the Lewis kids would go). That would seem to make it less likely a candidate for closure, as much as some hold that out as an option.