School Board Forum on "Boundary and Capacity"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need real change. The western school pyramid is comprised mostly of first and second generation immigrants, and have been ignored forever. Even the school signal traffic light is missing on Centreville road for years since they widened road and not one single politician has cared to restore the flashing lights for an elementary school (Floris) for basic traffic safety. It’s an underrepresented community that is significantly neglected. No school board member ever fights to represent this community.

I think most people on this board would be fine with restoring a traffic light. A lot less people would be down for redistricting and the immense toll that would entail for students. Yours seems to be a burn-it-all-down argument.

If done right, the toll on kids should be negligible. First of all grandfathering periods are long enough that HS kids are entirely unaffected, and transitions occur when they normally would like ES to MS and MS to HS. Siblings have priority for transfers if that's a concern. Fixing the mess of split feeders means kids are more likely to stay with friends they've had since ES. More efficient bus routes means more sleep.

If they change enough boundaries at the same time grandfathering goes out the window because they won’t have enough buses to run routes to multiple schools from the same time.

And you seem to be inferring that they will prioritize ending split feeders when they’ve created more split feeders relatively recently on purpose (for example, turning Thoreau into a 3-way split feeder).

The vast majority of people do not want boundaries changed, but instead for FCPS to prioritize adding capacity at the schools that need it. These new SB members did not tout during their campaigns that their goal would be to reshuffle kids around the entire county in the name of equity, efficiency, or whatever other buzzword they might come up with.

I would prefer that the school redistrict and use the space that they have. If there are parts of the county where over crowding cannot be mitigated with a boundary shift then add capacity at those schools. But I don't think there are too many places where that is actually the case. As for grandfathering, I think that FCPS can allow kids to remain at schools but parents become responsible for providing transportation.

I would love for the AAP Centers to go away. I would love for FCPS to do something about the split feeders. I think doing a county wide redistricting would cause a decent amount of upheaval all at once, which I doubt the board is willing to tolerate, but that it would probably be the least painful way of addressing the multitude of issues with over crowding and under capacity schools because everyone is being hit at once instead of the selective targeting of specific communities.

These may be your personal preferences but it’s not what community residents made clear they want when the consultants retained by FCPS engaged in outreach. But, of course, if the School Board wants to reshuffle kids all over the county, whether in the name of equity or otherwise, they’ll pretend this outreach never occurred.

You mean the people who pay enough attention to fill out a survey or think it is important to fill out a survey, which conveniently enough are people with more money and tend to be white or Asian. The same people who want to keep their kids in their current schools because they don’t want their home values to drop or to have to deal with the issues that come with additional students who are ELL or poor.

Let’s not pretend that the survey was in any way shape or form representative of the population of FCPS.

I would be fine if my child’s school stays the same, we are at SLHS and I think it is a good school. He will be fine there. I would guess that a boundary change would not move him to another school. If it does, we will decide what we want to do when that happens.

I don’t think that it will happen because I think the board is too cowardly to take any real action on boundaries but I think it is a waste of money to build mega schools instead of shifting the boundaries and making use of the space that we have.

It’s humorous that you call out white and Asian privilege then talk about how you have the privilege to decide what happens if you get redistricted - the very epitome of hypocritical privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need real change. The western school pyramid is comprised mostly of first and second generation immigrants, and have been ignored forever. Even the school signal traffic light is missing on Centreville road for years since they widened road and not one single politician has cared to restore the flashing lights for an elementary school (Floris) for basic traffic safety. It’s an underrepresented community that is significantly neglected. No school board member ever fights to represent this community.

I think most people on this board would be fine with restoring a traffic light. A lot less people would be down for redistricting and the immense toll that would entail for students. Yours seems to be a burn-it-all-down argument.

If done right, the toll on kids should be negligible. First of all grandfathering periods are long enough that HS kids are entirely unaffected, and transitions occur when they normally would like ES to MS and MS to HS. Siblings have priority for transfers if that's a concern. Fixing the mess of split feeders means kids are more likely to stay with friends they've had since ES. More efficient bus routes means more sleep.

If they change enough boundaries at the same time grandfathering goes out the window because they won’t have enough buses to run routes to multiple schools from the same time.

And you seem to be inferring that they will prioritize ending split feeders when they’ve created more split feeders relatively recently on purpose (for example, turning Thoreau into a 3-way split feeder).

The vast majority of people do not want boundaries changed, but instead for FCPS to prioritize adding capacity at the schools that need it. These new SB members did not tout during their campaigns that their goal would be to reshuffle kids around the entire county in the name of equity, efficiency, or whatever other buzzword they might come up with.

I would prefer that the school redistrict and use the space that they have. If there are parts of the county where over crowding cannot be mitigated with a boundary shift then add capacity at those schools. But I don't think there are too many places where that is actually the case. As for grandfathering, I think that FCPS can allow kids to remain at schools but parents become responsible for providing transportation.

I would love for the AAP Centers to go away. I would love for FCPS to do something about the split feeders. I think doing a county wide redistricting would cause a decent amount of upheaval all at once, which I doubt the board is willing to tolerate, but that it would probably be the least painful way of addressing the multitude of issues with over crowding and under capacity schools because everyone is being hit at once instead of the selective targeting of specific communities.

These may be your personal preferences but it’s not what community residents made clear they want when the consultants retained by FCPS engaged in outreach. But, of course, if the School Board wants to reshuffle kids all over the county, whether in the name of equity or otherwise, they’ll pretend this outreach never occurred.

You mean the people who pay enough attention to fill out a survey or think it is important to fill out a survey, which conveniently enough are people with more money and tend to be white or Asian. The same people who want to keep their kids in their current schools because they don’t want their home values to drop or to have to deal with the issues that come with additional students who are ELL or poor.

Let’s not pretend that the survey was in any way shape or form representative of the population of FCPS.

I would be fine if my child’s school stays the same, we are at SLHS and I think it is a good school. He will be fine there. I would guess that a boundary change would not move him to another school. If it does, we will decide what we want to do when that happens.

I don’t think that it will happen because I think the board is too cowardly to take any real action on boundaries but I think it is a waste of money to build mega schools instead of shifting the boundaries and making use of the space that we have.

It’s humorous that you call out white and Asian privilege then talk about how you have the privilege to decide what happens if you get redistricted - the very epitome of hypocritical privilege.

If FCPS isn't satisfied with the feedback it's getting, or thinks it's not representative, then it needs to reconsider its outreach efforts. The solution isn't a bunch of School Board members pretending they are acting on behalf of people whose views have not been expressed and may be quite different than assumed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need real change. The western school pyramid is comprised mostly of first and second generation immigrants, and have been ignored forever. Even the school signal traffic light is missing on Centreville road for years since they widened road and not one single politician has cared to restore the flashing lights for an elementary school (Floris) for basic traffic safety. It’s an underrepresented community that is significantly neglected. No school board member ever fights to represent this community.

I think most people on this board would be fine with restoring a traffic light. A lot less people would be down for redistricting and the immense toll that would entail for students. Yours seems to be a burn-it-all-down argument.

If done right, the toll on kids should be negligible. First of all grandfathering periods are long enough that HS kids are entirely unaffected, and transitions occur when they normally would like ES to MS and MS to HS. Siblings have priority for transfers if that's a concern. Fixing the mess of split feeders means kids are more likely to stay with friends they've had since ES. More efficient bus routes means more sleep.

If they change enough boundaries at the same time grandfathering goes out the window because they won’t have enough buses to run routes to multiple schools from the same time.

And you seem to be inferring that they will prioritize ending split feeders when they’ve created more split feeders relatively recently on purpose (for example, turning Thoreau into a 3-way split feeder).

The vast majority of people do not want boundaries changed, but instead for FCPS to prioritize adding capacity at the schools that need it. These new SB members did not tout during their campaigns that their goal would be to reshuffle kids around the entire county in the name of equity, efficiency, or whatever other buzzword they might come up with.

I would prefer that the school redistrict and use the space that they have. If there are parts of the county where over crowding cannot be mitigated with a boundary shift then add capacity at those schools. But I don't think there are too many places where that is actually the case. As for grandfathering, I think that FCPS can allow kids to remain at schools but parents become responsible for providing transportation.

I would love for the AAP Centers to go away. I would love for FCPS to do something about the split feeders. I think doing a county wide redistricting would cause a decent amount of upheaval all at once, which I doubt the board is willing to tolerate, but that it would probably be the least painful way of addressing the multitude of issues with over crowding and under capacity schools because everyone is being hit at once instead of the selective targeting of specific communities.

These may be your personal preferences but it’s not what community residents made clear they want when the consultants retained by FCPS engaged in outreach. But, of course, if the School Board wants to reshuffle kids all over the county, whether in the name of equity or otherwise, they’ll pretend this outreach never occurred.

You mean the people who pay enough attention to fill out a survey or think it is important to fill out a survey, which conveniently enough are people with more money and tend to be white or Asian. The same people who want to keep their kids in their current schools because they don’t want their home values to drop or to have to deal with the issues that come with additional students who are ELL or poor.

Let’s not pretend that the survey was in any way shape or form representative of the population of FCPS.

I would be fine if my child’s school stays the same, we are at SLHS and I think it is a good school. He will be fine there. I would guess that a boundary change would not move him to another school. If it does, we will decide what we want to do when that happens.

I don’t think that it will happen because I think the board is too cowardly to take any real action on boundaries but I think it is a waste of money to build mega schools instead of shifting the boundaries and making use of the space that we have.

It’s humorous that you call out white and Asian privilege then talk about how you have the privilege to decide what happens if you get redistricted - the very epitome of hypocritical privilege.

If FCPS isn't satisfied with the feedback it's getting, or thinks it's not representative, then it needs to reconsider its outreach efforts. The solution isn't a bunch of School Board members pretending they are acting on behalf of people whose views have not been expressed and may be quite different than assumed.

And no matter what they do, you can decide to go to the school you get redistricted to, or not. That’s your privilege, White, Asian, or otherwise, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP who said they wouldn't broadcast the forum discussion (even though it was under the broader "work session" heading) was right. So they apparently had a discussion this week about pushing forward revisions to the boundary policy so that (according to Kyle McDaniel, at least) they can propose county-wide boundary adjustments, and at this point no one knows what they intend to prioritize or hope to accomplish.

I think everyone knows what they intend to accomplish. "Equity". Spread out the poor students so there are no more "good schools" or "bad schools". Even though there will still be the same number of failing kids.

If research is to be trusted, spreading poor kids out lifts the bar for everyone. Removing them from the ghettos helps with assimilation, and the benefits of assimilation are immeasurable. And, less failing ELL kids means finally there's time to focus on higher academics for native English speakers. Truly, anyone who wants more for their UMC kids should support programs for ELL kids.

e

“Assimilation” is a white western concept that demands marginalized communities change their values and behavior to fit in with white supremacist norms of how “civilized” people act.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just redo wester fairfax area for now - Westfield, Chantilly, Centreville. Centreville will finish its renovation in 4 years and then make the huge shift then.

Don't understand. Seems like they should wait and then make the shift among Westfield, Chantilly, and Centreville once the Centreville renovation is finished, rather than change the boundaries among those schools twice. And no one else is really sitting around hoping they'll change boundaries all over the county just because they are expanding Centreville.

I’m saying they must redo the boundaries for these schools when it is finished. You can’t have a high school with 3,000 and only 2400.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just redo wester fairfax area for now - Westfield, Chantilly, Centreville. Centreville will finish its renovation in 4 years and then make the huge shift then.

Don't understand. Seems like they should wait and then make the shift among Westfield, Chantilly, and Centreville once the Centreville renovation is finished, rather than change the boundaries among those schools twice. And no one else is really sitting around hoping they'll change boundaries all over the county just because they are expanding Centreville.

I’m saying they must redo the boundaries for these schools when it is finished. You can’t have a high school with 3,000 and only 2400.

Well, you could but it doesn’t make any sense if Chantilly has almost 3000 in a building designed for under 2250.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need real change. The western school pyramid is comprised mostly of first and second generation immigrants, and have been ignored forever. Even the school signal traffic light is missing on Centreville road for years since they widened road and not one single politician has cared to restore the flashing lights for an elementary school (Floris) for basic traffic safety. It’s an underrepresented community that is significantly neglected. No school board member ever fights to represent this community.

I think most people on this board would be fine with restoring a traffic light. A lot less people would be down for redistricting and the immense toll that would entail for students. Yours seems to be a burn-it-all-down argument.

If done right, the toll on kids should be negligible. First of all grandfathering periods are long enough that HS kids are entirely unaffected, and transitions occur when they normally would like ES to MS and MS to HS. Siblings have priority for transfers if that's a concern. Fixing the mess of split feeders means kids are more likely to stay with friends they've had since ES. More efficient bus routes means more sleep.

If done wrong, we irreparably f up FCPS forever. No thanks.

FCPS is a shadow of its former self. Some pyramids have been cast aside as lost causes by the School Board. They made things worse in many cases and concentrated poverty. But hey, you get yours.

The narratives you tell yourself are truly fascinating.

+1
I don’t think the PP has had much experience reading a map or understanding geography.

The geography argument is baseless because schools are already inherently too scattered about. We aren't ruining equidistant schools and utopian boundaries by making changes. Anyone could draw up their own boundaries any which way and each time we'd end up with a few very compact pyramids that make geographic sense at the cost of others that make less sense, just like it is now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP who said they wouldn't broadcast the forum discussion (even though it was under the broader "work session" heading) was right. So they apparently had a discussion this week about pushing forward revisions to the boundary policy so that (according to Kyle McDaniel, at least) they can propose county-wide boundary adjustments, and at this point no one knows what they intend to prioritize or hope to accomplish.

I think everyone knows what they intend to accomplish. "Equity". Spread out the poor students so there are no more "good schools" or "bad schools". Even though there will still be the same number of failing kids.

If research is to be trusted, spreading poor kids out lifts the bar for everyone. Removing them from the ghettos helps with assimilation, and the benefits of assimilation are immeasurable. And, less failing ELL kids means finally there's time to focus on higher academics for native English speakers. Truly, anyone who wants more for their UMC kids should support programs for ELL kids.

e

“Assimilation” is a white western concept that demands marginalized communities change their values and behavior to fit in with white supremacist norms of how “civilized” people act.

Ok, the LWNJ has entered the chat.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need real change. The western school pyramid is comprised mostly of first and second generation immigrants, and have been ignored forever. Even the school signal traffic light is missing on Centreville road for years since they widened road and not one single politician has cared to restore the flashing lights for an elementary school (Floris) for basic traffic safety. It’s an underrepresented community that is significantly neglected. No school board member ever fights to represent this community.

I think most people on this board would be fine with restoring a traffic light. A lot less people would be down for redistricting and the immense toll that would entail for students. Yours seems to be a burn-it-all-down argument.

If done right, the toll on kids should be negligible. First of all grandfathering periods are long enough that HS kids are entirely unaffected, and transitions occur when they normally would like ES to MS and MS to HS. Siblings have priority for transfers if that's a concern. Fixing the mess of split feeders means kids are more likely to stay with friends they've had since ES. More efficient bus routes means more sleep.

If they change enough boundaries at the same time grandfathering goes out the window because they won’t have enough buses to run routes to multiple schools from the same time.

And you seem to be inferring that they will prioritize ending split feeders when they’ve created more split feeders relatively recently on purpose (for example, turning Thoreau into a 3-way split feeder).

The vast majority of people do not want boundaries changed, but instead for FCPS to prioritize adding capacity at the schools that need it. These new SB members did not tout during their campaigns that their goal would be to reshuffle kids around the entire county in the name of equity, efficiency, or whatever other buzzword they might come up with.

I would prefer that the school redistrict and use the space that they have. If there are parts of the county where over crowding cannot be mitigated with a boundary shift then add capacity at those schools. But I don't think there are too many places where that is actually the case. As for grandfathering, I think that FCPS can allow kids to remain at schools but parents become responsible for providing transportation.

I would love for the AAP Centers to go away. I would love for FCPS to do something about the split feeders. I think doing a county wide redistricting would cause a decent amount of upheaval all at once, which I doubt the board is willing to tolerate, but that it would probably be the least painful way of addressing the multitude of issues with over crowding and under capacity schools because everyone is being hit at once instead of the selective targeting of specific communities.

These may be your personal preferences but it’s not what community residents made clear they want when the consultants retained by FCPS engaged in outreach. But, of course, if the School Board wants to reshuffle kids all over the county, whether in the name of equity or otherwise, they’ll pretend this outreach never occurred.

You mean the people who pay enough attention to fill out a survey or think it is important to fill out a survey, which conveniently enough are people with more money and tend to be white or Asian. The same people who want to keep their kids in their current schools because they don’t want their home values to drop or to have to deal with the issues that come with additional students who are ELL or poor.

Let’s not pretend that the survey was in any way shape or form representative of the population of FCPS.

I would be fine if my child’s school stays the same, we are at SLHS and I think it is a good school. He will be fine there. I would guess that a boundary change would not move him to another school. If it does, we will decide what we want to do when that happens.

I don’t think that it will happen because I think the board is too cowardly to take any real action on boundaries but I think it is a waste of money to build mega schools instead of shifting the boundaries and making use of the space that we have.

I don't put a lot of weight on the views of people at schools like South Lakes that got big expansions (and, in South Lakes' case, one outside the renovation queue) to a design capacity of over 2700 kids, and then advocate to redistrict kids at other schools that would benefit from additional capacity. As you note, your kid is probably going to be "fine," but others may not be so fortunate.

Feel free to enroll in SLHS and enjoy the new facilities! Happy to have you, the IB program is great. But we all know that you don’t really care about that. You want to stay at your school and that is all you care about. You may even be one of the people so determined to stay at McLean even as you bemoan the condition of the school. Heck, there was a group that didn’t want to move to Langley, so clearly McLean is just that amazing.

Any kid with engaged parents will do fine at any of FCPS’s school. The AP/IB programs are excellent. After school activities tend to follow the engaged kids and parents. Change is hard, ask SLHS parents how they know. We also know that things turn out just fine because the schools are overall excellent.

Does that mean people want it? No. Should the fact that people don’t want it mean it shouldn’t happen? No. there are schools with open spaces that are near schools that are over crowded. There are schools with split feeders. There are schools with population islands. Redraw the maps at one time, make the boundaries make sense. Some parents might be upset and move to private but I suspect that would be a small percentage of people.

The fact that the parents who are the loudest and most able to rally people to fill out surveys that say redistricting is awful doesn’t mean that you get to decide policy. I have no clue if SLHS needed expansion, no one asked me. I don’t remember an organized movement in the neighborhood to call for an expansion. And in the long run, my vote counts as much as your vote, I don’t lose it because my kids high school was expanded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need real change. The western school pyramid is comprised mostly of first and second generation immigrants, and have been ignored forever. Even the school signal traffic light is missing on Centreville road for years since they widened road and not one single politician has cared to restore the flashing lights for an elementary school (Floris) for basic traffic safety. It’s an underrepresented community that is significantly neglected. No school board member ever fights to represent this community.

I think most people on this board would be fine with restoring a traffic light. A lot less people would be down for redistricting and the immense toll that would entail for students. Yours seems to be a burn-it-all-down argument.

If done right, the toll on kids should be negligible. First of all grandfathering periods are long enough that HS kids are entirely unaffected, and transitions occur when they normally would like ES to MS and MS to HS. Siblings have priority for transfers if that's a concern. Fixing the mess of split feeders means kids are more likely to stay with friends they've had since ES. More efficient bus routes means more sleep.

If they change enough boundaries at the same time grandfathering goes out the window because they won’t have enough buses to run routes to multiple schools from the same time.

And you seem to be inferring that they will prioritize ending split feeders when they’ve created more split feeders relatively recently on purpose (for example, turning Thoreau into a 3-way split feeder).

The vast majority of people do not want boundaries changed, but instead for FCPS to prioritize adding capacity at the schools that need it. These new SB members did not tout during their campaigns that their goal would be to reshuffle kids around the entire county in the name of equity, efficiency, or whatever other buzzword they might come up with.

I would prefer that the school redistrict and use the space that they have. If there are parts of the county where over crowding cannot be mitigated with a boundary shift then add capacity at those schools. But I don't think there are too many places where that is actually the case. As for grandfathering, I think that FCPS can allow kids to remain at schools but parents become responsible for providing transportation.

I would love for the AAP Centers to go away. I would love for FCPS to do something about the split feeders. I think doing a county wide redistricting would cause a decent amount of upheaval all at once, which I doubt the board is willing to tolerate, but that it would probably be the least painful way of addressing the multitude of issues with over crowding and under capacity schools because everyone is being hit at once instead of the selective targeting of specific communities.

These may be your personal preferences but it’s not what community residents made clear they want when the consultants retained by FCPS engaged in outreach. But, of course, if the School Board wants to reshuffle kids all over the county, whether in the name of equity or otherwise, they’ll pretend this outreach never occurred.

You mean the people who pay enough attention to fill out a survey or think it is important to fill out a survey, which conveniently enough are people with more money and tend to be white or Asian. The same people who want to keep their kids in their current schools because they don’t want their home values to drop or to have to deal with the issues that come with additional students who are ELL or poor.

Let’s not pretend that the survey was in any way shape or form representative of the population of FCPS.

I would be fine if my child’s school stays the same, we are at SLHS and I think it is a good school. He will be fine there. I would guess that a boundary change would not move him to another school. If it does, we will decide what we want to do when that happens.

I don’t think that it will happen because I think the board is too cowardly to take any real action on boundaries but I think it is a waste of money to build mega schools instead of shifting the boundaries and making use of the space that we have.

I don't put a lot of weight on the views of people at schools like South Lakes that got big expansions (and, in South Lakes' case, one outside the renovation queue) to a design capacity of over 2700 kids, and then advocate to redistrict kids at other schools that would benefit from additional capacity. As you note, your kid is probably going to be "fine," but others may not be so fortunate.

Feel free to enroll in SLHS and enjoy the new facilities! Happy to have you, the IB program is great. But we all know that you don’t really care about that. You want to stay at your school and that is all you care about. You may even be one of the people so determined to stay at McLean even as you bemoan the condition of the school. Heck, there was a group that didn’t want to move to Langley, so clearly McLean is just that amazing.

Any kid with engaged parents will do fine at any of FCPS’s school. The AP/IB programs are excellent. After school activities tend to follow the engaged kids and parents. Change is hard, ask SLHS parents how they know. We also know that things turn out just fine because the schools are overall excellent.

Does that mean people want it? No. Should the fact that people don’t want it mean it shouldn’t happen? No. there are schools with open spaces that are near schools that are over crowded. There are schools with split feeders. There are schools with population islands. Redraw the maps at one time, make the boundaries make sense. Some parents might be upset and move to private but I suspect that would be a small percentage of people.

The fact that the parents who are the loudest and most able to rally people to fill out surveys that say redistricting is awful doesn’t mean that you get to decide policy. I have no clue if SLHS needed expansion, no one asked me. I don’t remember an organized movement in the neighborhood to call for an expansion. And in the long run, my vote counts as much as your vote, I don’t lose it because my kids high school was expanded.

You’re tiresome but the bottom line is that you’re proposing a lot of changes many would oppose, comfortable that they wouldn’t affect you in the slightest.

[Anonymous]

Yep let’s redraw all the boundaries at one time and make sure we move some South Lakes kids to Herndon in the process. And since we’re changing so many boundaries we probably can’t grandfather kids - it’s got to be cold turkey - so if PP’s kid is already at South Lakes or taking IB too bad. They’ll do just fine anywhere, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep let’s redraw all the boundaries at one time and make sure we move some South Lakes kids to Herndon in the process. And since we’re changing so many boundaries we probably can’t grandfather kids - it’s got to be cold turkey - so if PP’s kid is already at South Lakes or taking IB too bad. They’ll do just fine anywhere, lol.

We have friends at Herndon High, they love it there. Happy to join the McLean kids that would end up with us at Herndon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need real change. The western school pyramid is comprised mostly of first and second generation immigrants, and have been ignored forever. Even the school signal traffic light is missing on Centreville road for years since they widened road and not one single politician has cared to restore the flashing lights for an elementary school (Floris) for basic traffic safety. It’s an underrepresented community that is significantly neglected. No school board member ever fights to represent this community.

I think most people on this board would be fine with restoring a traffic light. A lot less people would be down for redistricting and the immense toll that would entail for students. Yours seems to be a burn-it-all-down argument.

If done right, the toll on kids should be negligible. First of all grandfathering periods are long enough that HS kids are entirely unaffected, and transitions occur when they normally would like ES to MS and MS to HS. Siblings have priority for transfers if that's a concern. Fixing the mess of split feeders means kids are more likely to stay with friends they've had since ES. More efficient bus routes means more sleep.

If they change enough boundaries at the same time grandfathering goes out the window because they won’t have enough buses to run routes to multiple schools from the same time.

And you seem to be inferring that they will prioritize ending split feeders when they’ve created more split feeders relatively recently on purpose (for example, turning Thoreau into a 3-way split feeder).

The vast majority of people do not want boundaries changed, but instead for FCPS to prioritize adding capacity at the schools that need it. These new SB members did not tout during their campaigns that their goal would be to reshuffle kids around the entire county in the name of equity, efficiency, or whatever other buzzword they might come up with.

I would prefer that the school redistrict and use the space that they have. If there are parts of the county where over crowding cannot be mitigated with a boundary shift then add capacity at those schools. But I don't think there are too many places where that is actually the case. As for grandfathering, I think that FCPS can allow kids to remain at schools but parents become responsible for providing transportation.

I would love for the AAP Centers to go away. I would love for FCPS to do something about the split feeders. I think doing a county wide redistricting would cause a decent amount of upheaval all at once, which I doubt the board is willing to tolerate, but that it would probably be the least painful way of addressing the multitude of issues with over crowding and under capacity schools because everyone is being hit at once instead of the selective targeting of specific communities.

These may be your personal preferences but it’s not what community residents made clear they want when the consultants retained by FCPS engaged in outreach. But, of course, if the School Board wants to reshuffle kids all over the county, whether in the name of equity or otherwise, they’ll pretend this outreach never occurred.

You mean the people who pay enough attention to fill out a survey or think it is important to fill out a survey, which conveniently enough are people with more money and tend to be white or Asian. The same people who want to keep their kids in their current schools because they don’t want their home values to drop or to have to deal with the issues that come with additional students who are ELL or poor.

Let’s not pretend that the survey was in any way shape or form representative of the population of FCPS.

I would be fine if my child’s school stays the same, we are at SLHS and I think it is a good school. He will be fine there. I would guess that a boundary change would not move him to another school. If it does, we will decide what we want to do when that happens.

I don’t think that it will happen because I think the board is too cowardly to take any real action on boundaries but I think it is a waste of money to build mega schools instead of shifting the boundaries and making use of the space that we have.

I don't put a lot of weight on the views of people at schools like South Lakes that got big expansions (and, in South Lakes' case, one outside the renovation queue) to a design capacity of over 2700 kids, and then advocate to redistrict kids at other schools that would benefit from additional capacity. As you note, your kid is probably going to be "fine," but others may not be so fortunate.

Feel free to enroll in SLHS and enjoy the new facilities! Happy to have you, the IB program is great. But we all know that you don’t really care about that. You want to stay at your school and that is all you care about. You may even be one of the people so determined to stay at McLean even as you bemoan the condition of the school. Heck, there was a group that didn’t want to move to Langley, so clearly McLean is just that amazing.

Any kid with engaged parents will do fine at any of FCPS’s school. The AP/IB programs are excellent. After school activities tend to follow the engaged kids and parents. Change is hard, ask SLHS parents how they know. We also know that things turn out just fine because the schools are overall excellent.

Does that mean people want it? No. Should the fact that people don’t want it mean it shouldn’t happen? No. there are schools with open spaces that are near schools that are over crowded. There are schools with split feeders. There are schools with population islands. Redraw the maps at one time, make the boundaries make sense. Some parents might be upset and move to private but I suspect that would be a small percentage of people.

The fact that the parents who are the loudest and most able to rally people to fill out surveys that say redistricting is awful doesn’t mean that you get to decide policy. I have no clue if SLHS needed expansion, no one asked me. I don’t remember an organized movement in the neighborhood to call for an expansion. And in the long run, my vote counts as much as your vote, I don’t lose it because my kids high school was expanded.

I may choose to keep my kids at SLHS or maybe I will send them to private school, i shall make that decision because I have the privilege to be able to do that, all the rest of the students, let them eat cake.

You are right that your vote counts as much as ours, but you are in a distinct minority wanting the whole county to suffer through a redistricting (now that your kid is safely where you want him to be). What a GD hypocrite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep let’s redraw all the boundaries at one time and make sure we move some South Lakes kids to Herndon in the process. And since we’re changing so many boundaries we probably can’t grandfather kids - it’s got to be cold turkey - so if PP’s kid is already at South Lakes or taking IB too bad. They’ll do just fine anywhere, lol.

We have friends at Herndon High, they love it there. Happy to join the McLean kids that would end up with us at Herndon.

I have a friend that is a minority, so I can’t be racist.

[Anonymous]

I’ll wait until my school gets an expensive renovation and addition and has 2700 seats and then I’ll pontificate about what should happen to other schools.