FCPS Skyview Boundary Revised Scenario 1 / 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:200+ rising 9th graders opted to Skyview from Westfields boundaries. So instead of 680 freshman Westfield will have 480 freshman. That’s where a lot of the destaffs came from. They will continue and get steeper the next few years with the redistricting plan. All Westfields young staff and many assistant coaches will be sent away.

Where did you get this number?

Yes. I did a search of this forum and found nothing from that post.

I live with someone who works at Westfield and is in the know. Westfield is terrified about the staff they will lose over the next couple of years. The young staff that will not be retained wear many hats in that building.

This is more than a year away. Teachers retire and move every year in a high school. This will not be a wholesale shift in staff. There will be natural attrition and a few always shift to other schools. Some move away.

They are already destaffing some teachers for this fall, that's two months away.

Since you are familiar with it, please name the departments.

They have 200+ kids disappearing from their freshman class.

Why do you doubt they are destaffing teachers who teach 9th grade courses? The principal gets a staffing budget based on enrollment. They can't keep the same number of teachers with 200 fewer freshmen. Maybe you don't understand how schools are run.

I understand enough to know that teachers leave every year due to moves, retirements, and transfers of choice. With a staff the size of Westfield, it should not be an issue. So, be specific please. Sure there will be fewer teachers, but, doubt many are being forced out. Do you think there won't be enough teachers? Not sure you understand how staffing works.

There will be enough teachers at Westfield but there will be fewer sections of some classes, because there are fewer students to enroll. Electives that were on the margin with the number of kids to take them might not have enough kids because some of the kids who would have enrolled are not at Westfield. 200 students is significant and will impact the staffing numbers.

People might be excited to be moving to Skyview from SLHS and Westfield, maybe even Chantilly, but there will be impacts at the schools because the numbers enrolling in classes will drop. It is leading to destaffing and I can understand why people are unhappy with that.

[Anonymous]

Reid doesn’t get much right, but her instinct to make Skyview an aviation magnet was the right move for many reasons.

In the end it will work out for all but the poorest kids in FCPS and the Skyview threads have been quite entertaining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Looks like opt-out for one year is available to all students. ( Just read the presentation on board docs)

To all students, even those not in the Skyview boundary? Ie. If kids get switched to Westfield they can opt out??

No one who is currently attending Chantilly or Centreville HS will be required to switch schools regardless, they are grandfathered in.

I’m talking about kids who will be in 8th grade next year. Can they opt out of their new school? This is a kid I am thinking of that is getting switched out of Chantilly to Westfield.

He can stay at his current middle school for 8th next year but then would go to his zoned high school, Westfield. Kids currently in high school are grandfathered in but of course younger kids will be going to their correct assigned schools.


No poin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reid doesn’t get much right, but her instinct to make Skyview an aviation magnet was the right move for many reasons.

In the end it will work out for all but the poorest kids in FCPS and the Skyview threads have been quite entertaining.

All of the kids assigned to attend Westfield post-Skyview will be negatively affected because the school will be much worse off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the other proposed maps in the other versions had Westfield with a more reasonable population-at least 23-400 students by pulling from Lees Corner, or Bull Run, or the Walney area, etc. This "final" map is the only one that dipped all the way down to @2000. I'm sure the Westfield people were taken aback by that.

Where were all the people thinking an enrollment of 2300 or 2400 kids is "reasonable" when FCPS was refusing to invest in other schools and downsizing them? If Westfield ends up with 2150 kids or so, it will still have an enrollment larger than nine other high schools, including Skyview.

The projection has it at only 2083, which is fewer than 2150, with the only MC neighborhood being rezoned lobbying FCPS hard to get out. There's no chance they add more kids in but based on the shenanigans so far, there's a likely chance they move kids back to Chantilly, which would leave them with 1900 or fewer.

You're right that the projection has Westfield at 2083, not 2150. That's still higher than nine other high schools based on all the boundary adjustments adopted and proposed: Herndon, Marshall, South County, Falls Church, Annandale, South Lakes, Mount Vernon, Skyview, and Lewis.

Interesting that this list of smallest schools also includes all the academic have-not schools people are desperate to avoid in FCPS and that FCPS ignores and refuses to improve. They are deliberately moving Westfield from a regular middle of the pack school down to the bottom tier of Avoid at All Cost schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:200+ rising 9th graders opted to Skyview from Westfields boundaries. So instead of 680 freshman Westfield will have 480 freshman. That’s where a lot of the destaffs came from. They will continue and get steeper the next few years with the redistricting plan. All Westfields young staff and many assistant coaches will be sent away.

Where did you get this number?

Yes. I did a search of this forum and found nothing from that post.

I live with someone who works at Westfield and is in the know. Westfield is terrified about the staff they will lose over the next couple of years. The young staff that will not be retained wear many hats in that building.

This is more than a year away. Teachers retire and move every year in a high school. This will not be a wholesale shift in staff. There will be natural attrition and a few always shift to other schools. Some move away.

They are already destaffing some teachers for this fall, that's two months away.

This is what happens at all the FCPS HS with a sizable farms population once the school population drops down low enough. Its not an issue at the Langleys of FCPS. They can't run electives and APs with fewer than 32 students. So the schedule might have 1 AP French section, and 1 AP physics section. If you want to take physics and french, best hope they don't conflict with the one section of your DE English or the one section of honors math. Oh, its August and they only have 26 students for AP Physics-now that class is canceled. Or they can't find a DE teacher, but the one section of AP English is full and there aren't 32 kids to open another section. There aren't enough students to put together a marching band; there aren't enough students to find managers for the sports teams; there aren't enough parent volunteers to run the booster clubs, etc. Its a downward spiral until the school gets bad enough that everyone who can, finds a way to avoid it. Then you are sitting at 1600 students in a building for 2800+.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reid doesn’t get much right, but her instinct to make Skyview an aviation magnet was the right move for many reasons.

In the end it will work out for all but the poorest kids in FCPS and the Skyview threads have been quite entertaining.

All of the kids assigned to attend Westfield post-Skyview will be negatively affected because the school will be much worse off.

Whenever I read a post like this, I think back to the school board meeting where they announced the rushed secret purchase and how many school board members were patting themselves on the back.

This school board loves breaking things without much thought as to the consequences. It’s unfortunate because they’re breaking things that won’t be easily fixed.

[Anonymous]

Its wild to me that they would rather make a functioning school crappy forever rather than p!ss off a few neighborhoods today.

What are we paying them for, if not to make reasonable decisions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reid doesn’t get much right, but her instinct to make Skyview an aviation magnet was the right move for many reasons.

In the end it will work out for all but the poorest kids in FCPS and the Skyview threads have been quite entertaining.

All of the kids assigned to attend Westfield post-Skyview will be negatively affected because the school will be much worse off.

Whenever I read a post like this, I think back to the school board meeting where they announced the rushed secret purchase and how many school board members were patting themselves on the back.

This school board loves breaking things without much thought as to the consequences. It’s unfortunate because they’re breaking things that won’t be easily fixed.

I wonder if Seema Dixit was smart enough at the time to understand she was going to have to do underhanded things to "save" her neighborhood from the unspeakable horrors of attending a school almost identical to the school they are zoned to. People on here were discussing almost immediately how that meant kids were going to be moved out and then have to be moved in to Westfield.

[Anonymous]

If they don't have the stomach to deal with one small problem--moving adjacent neighborhoods into Westfield--how are they going to run "comprehensive" reviews every 5 years across the whole county?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they don't have the stomach to deal with one small problem--moving adjacent neighborhoods into Westfield--how are they going to run "comprehensive" reviews every 5 years across the whole county?

The callous disregard for students’ mental health is the problem. Moves should only be made when absolutely necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they don't have the stomach to deal with one small problem--moving adjacent neighborhoods into Westfield--how are they going to run "comprehensive" reviews every 5 years across the whole county?

The callous disregard for students’ mental health is the problem. Moves should only be made when absolutely necessary.

No one is being moved from one high school to another. Anyone who starts HS A this coming school year is allowed to stay put at HS A.
I don't see how this is a mental health issue.

[Anonymous]

If Seema Dixit thinks the Skyview purchase and subsequent rezoning was so great, then she needs to put her money where her mouth is and move her own neighborhood. If its just fine to move people around, volunteer yourself and your neighbors as tribute. Her area--the BRES split feeder-- was moved to WF on almost every prior map.

What's the big deal, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the other proposed maps in the other versions had Westfield with a more reasonable population-at least 23-400 students by pulling from Lees Corner, or Bull Run, or the Walney area, etc. This "final" map is the only one that dipped all the way down to @2000. I'm sure the Westfield people were taken aback by that.

Where were all the people thinking an enrollment of 2300 or 2400 kids is "reasonable" when FCPS was refusing to invest in other schools and downsizing them? If Westfield ends up with 2150 kids or so, it will still have an enrollment larger than nine other high schools, including Skyview.

The projection has it at only 2083, which is fewer than 2150, with the only MC neighborhood being rezoned lobbying FCPS hard to get out. There's no chance they add more kids in but based on the shenanigans so far, there's a likely chance they move kids back to Chantilly, which would leave them with 1900 or fewer.

You're right that the projection has Westfield at 2083, not 2150. That's still higher than nine other high schools based on all the boundary adjustments adopted and proposed: Herndon, Marshall, South County, Falls Church, Annandale, South Lakes, Mount Vernon, Skyview, and Lewis.

Interesting that this list of smallest schools also includes all the academic have-not schools people are desperate to avoid in FCPS and that FCPS ignores and refuses to improve. They are deliberately moving Westfield from a regular middle of the pack school down to the bottom tier of Avoid at All Cost schools.

If the only thing keeping Westfield in the middle of the pack was all those kids north of 50, then this was inevitable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the other proposed maps in the other versions had Westfield with a more reasonable population-at least 23-400 students by pulling from Lees Corner, or Bull Run, or the Walney area, etc. This "final" map is the only one that dipped all the way down to @2000. I'm sure the Westfield people were taken aback by that.

Where were all the people thinking an enrollment of 2300 or 2400 kids is "reasonable" when FCPS was refusing to invest in other schools and downsizing them? If Westfield ends up with 2150 kids or so, it will still have an enrollment larger than nine other high schools, including Skyview.

The projection has it at only 2083, which is fewer than 2150, with the only MC neighborhood being rezoned lobbying FCPS hard to get out. There's no chance they add more kids in but based on the shenanigans so far, there's a likely chance they move kids back to Chantilly, which would leave them with 1900 or fewer.

You're right that the projection has Westfield at 2083, not 2150. That's still higher than nine other high schools based on all the boundary adjustments adopted and proposed: Herndon, Marshall, South County, Falls Church, Annandale, South Lakes, Mount Vernon, Skyview, and Lewis.

Interesting that this list of smallest schools also includes all the academic have-not schools people are desperate to avoid in FCPS and that FCPS ignores and refuses to improve. They are deliberately moving Westfield from a regular middle of the pack school down to the bottom tier of Avoid at All Cost schools.

If the only thing keeping Westfield in the middle of the pack was all those kids north of 50, then this was inevitable.

There is nothing special about those particular 1000+ kids. Moving back in a similar mix of 500-600 kids would keep Westfield afloat. FCPS is refusing to do that.