FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What about turning Lewis into a foreign language magnet for languages like Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Urdu, etc?

+1, one of the best ideas I've seen on this thread.

There's a significant unmet demand for Mandarin immersion in FCPS. There's also a substantial heritage speaker community for Hindi-Urdu that could benefit from services. That covers the two most populous countries of the world.

Add in some other K-6 magnets in the Lewis Pyramid (e.g. Montessori) and you might retain zoned students and attract others.

Another interesting idea from a PP be to greatly expand the vocational programs at Edison and transfer part of the general student population to Lewis. And provide some advanced STEM options as well.

Fair capital improvements to bring facilities to comparable facilities nearby would also help.

- UMC family in Lewis Pyramid considering moving or pupil placing, but would much rather be offered reasons to stay.

Lewis is not located well enough to attract those from all over the county.

What do you mean by not in a desirable.location? It's at the intersection of the beltway, close to the FFX county parkway.

Different poster adding that it is accessible to Alexandria, Fairfax and Burke and Annandale using backroads without having to drive one mile on the highways. It is also walkable to the springfield metro.

Lewis currently has a lot of negatives, but its location for a magnet school is perfect (a much better location for a magnet than the TJ campus)

Yeah, they aren’t creating another magnet. The one they already have is a source of never-ending controversy and frequent litigation.

Dream on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That would have been far more sensible. But addressing significant under-enrollment should be added to the mix as well.

Addressing significant under-enrollment is not fixed by redistricting. It is fixed by analyzing and acknowledging the elephant in the room: special programs (IB, for example) which enable the family to request transfer.
Foreign language is another. Unless there is an extremely good reason why a student wants a particular foreign language, that should not be a good reason for transfer. (There might be some good reasons, but I personally know kids who transferred for sports based on a foreign language not offered at base school.)

Or, perhaps, offer an online option for the language.

+1

There should be a menu of foreign languages available in person at every high school. The remainder should be offered solely on an online platform.

+1
But this needs phased out. Can’t just drop them for kids that started already.

-1 foreign language needs to be practiced and learned in front of people. you are completely ignorant of language learning if you think online/computer based language learning works well.

So, phase it out. We cannot offer all languages to all students. Allow transfers for those who have proof of real need to learn the language or with a close association to it. It has been abused far too much for those who want to be on a better sports team.

We can continue offering what we do without trying to judge everybody by the bad apples.
Also, who is supposed to be a judge of "what's a good reason"? I'm a heritage speaker of a language, and want to reinforce that for my kids in school. I know of others that hope to live in countries where particular languages are spoken. And I know of many who just read the research on learning multiple languages and think it's a good idea. How would the school system decide what of those is a "good" reason and weed out those wanting to use it for particular schools?

If equitable access to programming is a serious goal, they cannot continue the current system where certain schools offer far more robust foreign languages offerings than others and families who want to avail of that have to pay an application fee to pupil place and then arrange for their kids' transportation.

You cannot possibly offer all languages at all schools.

You can offer some languages at all schools and the rest online. That’s an obvious solution although not attractive to the privilege hoarders.

Hoarding what privilege?

DP. A frequent poster on this board believes that if your kids go to a school that is better performing than her kids, that their school should be brought down to her kids’ school’s level. It’s a selfish approach to life, but you’ll forgive her for being so bitter.

Schools don't perform; students do. But some schools provide access to opportunities in FCPS that others do not, and it aligns largely with the wealth of the community.

If FCPS cares about equitable access, it has to tackle this and stop indulging those like you who offer little but insults and condescension to everyone else.

So FCPS is denying opportunities to schools with lower middle-class families? Why haven't they been sued for providing lower quality facilities and programming on the basis of income?

So you think families in those schools have the same ready access to lawyers as families elsewhere in the county? It would make a good pro bono case, though.

How does one frame a lawsuit against FCPS for one school having more parent volunteers than another?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That would have been far more sensible. But addressing significant under-enrollment should be added to the mix as well.

Addressing significant under-enrollment is not fixed by redistricting. It is fixed by analyzing and acknowledging the elephant in the room: special programs (IB, for example) which enable the family to request transfer.
Foreign language is another. Unless there is an extremely good reason why a student wants a particular foreign language, that should not be a good reason for transfer. (There might be some good reasons, but I personally know kids who transferred for sports based on a foreign language not offered at base school.)

Or, perhaps, offer an online option for the language.

+1

There should be a menu of foreign languages available in person at every high school. The remainder should be offered solely on an online platform.

+1
But this needs phased out. Can’t just drop them for kids that started already.

-1 foreign language needs to be practiced and learned in front of people. you are completely ignorant of language learning if you think online/computer based language learning works well.

So, phase it out. We cannot offer all languages to all students. Allow transfers for those who have proof of real need to learn the language or with a close association to it. It has been abused far too much for those who want to be on a better sports team.

We can continue offering what we do without trying to judge everybody by the bad apples.
Also, who is supposed to be a judge of "what's a good reason"? I'm a heritage speaker of a language, and want to reinforce that for my kids in school. I know of others that hope to live in countries where particular languages are spoken. And I know of many who just read the research on learning multiple languages and think it's a good idea. How would the school system decide what of those is a "good" reason and weed out those wanting to use it for particular schools?

If equitable access to programming is a serious goal, they cannot continue the current system where certain schools offer far more robust foreign languages offerings than others and families who want to avail of that have to pay an application fee to pupil place and then arrange for their kids' transportation.

You cannot possibly offer all languages at all schools.

You can offer some languages at all schools and the rest online. That’s an obvious solution although not attractive to the privilege hoarders.

Hoarding what privilege?

DP. A frequent poster on this board believes that if your kids go to a school that is better performing than her kids, that their school should be brought down to her kids’ school’s level. It’s a selfish approach to life, but you’ll forgive her for being so bitter.

Schools don't perform; students do. But some schools provide access to opportunities in FCPS that others do not, and it aligns largely with the wealth of the community.

If FCPS cares about equitable access, it has to tackle this and stop indulging those like you who offer little but insults and condescension to everyone else.

So FCPS is denying opportunities to schools with lower middle-class families? Why haven't they been sued for providing lower quality facilities and programming on the basis of income?

So you think families in those schools have the same ready access to lawyers as families elsewhere in the county? It would make a good pro bono case, though.

How does one frame a lawsuit against FCPS for one school having more parent volunteers than another?

One doesn’t. Are you really this dense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That would have been far more sensible. But addressing significant under-enrollment should be added to the mix as well.

Addressing significant under-enrollment is not fixed by redistricting. It is fixed by analyzing and acknowledging the elephant in the room: special programs (IB, for example) which enable the family to request transfer.
Foreign language is another. Unless there is an extremely good reason why a student wants a particular foreign language, that should not be a good reason for transfer. (There might be some good reasons, but I personally know kids who transferred for sports based on a foreign language not offered at base school.)

Or, perhaps, offer an online option for the language.

+1

There should be a menu of foreign languages available in person at every high school. The remainder should be offered solely on an online platform.

+1
But this needs phased out. Can’t just drop them for kids that started already.

-1 foreign language needs to be practiced and learned in front of people. you are completely ignorant of language learning if you think online/computer based language learning works well.

So, phase it out. We cannot offer all languages to all students. Allow transfers for those who have proof of real need to learn the language or with a close association to it. It has been abused far too much for those who want to be on a better sports team.

We can continue offering what we do without trying to judge everybody by the bad apples.
Also, who is supposed to be a judge of "what's a good reason"? I'm a heritage speaker of a language, and want to reinforce that for my kids in school. I know of others that hope to live in countries where particular languages are spoken. And I know of many who just read the research on learning multiple languages and think it's a good idea. How would the school system decide what of those is a "good" reason and weed out those wanting to use it for particular schools?

If equitable access to programming is a serious goal, they cannot continue the current system where certain schools offer far more robust foreign languages offerings than others and families who want to avail of that have to pay an application fee to pupil place and then arrange for their kids' transportation.

You cannot possibly offer all languages at all schools.

You can offer some languages at all schools and the rest online. That’s an obvious solution although not attractive to the privilege hoarders.

Hoarding what privilege?

DP. A frequent poster on this board believes that if your kids go to a school that is better performing than her kids, that their school should be brought down to her kids’ school’s level. It’s a selfish approach to life, but you’ll forgive her for being so bitter.

Schools don't perform; students do. But some schools provide access to opportunities in FCPS that others do not, and it aligns largely with the wealth of the community.

If FCPS cares about equitable access, it has to tackle this and stop indulging those like you who offer little but insults and condescension to everyone else.

So FCPS is denying opportunities to schools with lower middle-class families? Why haven't they been sued for providing lower quality facilities and programming on the basis of income?

So you think families in those schools have the same ready access to lawyers as families elsewhere in the county? It would make a good pro bono case, though.

How does one frame a lawsuit against FCPS for one school having more parent volunteers than another?

One doesn’t. Are you really this dense?

If you read the entire thread you would see that I was responding to these two who think that suing FCPS for differences in parent support between schools would be a "good pro bono case"

Here is a cut and paste what I was sarcastically responding to:

"... So FCPS is denying opportunities to schools with lower middle-class families? Why haven't they been sued for providing lower quality facilities and programming on the basis of income?



So you think families in those schools have the same ready access to lawyers as families elsewhere in the county? It would make a good pro bono case, though...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What about turning Lewis into a foreign language magnet for languages like Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Urdu, etc?

+1, one of the best ideas I've seen on this thread.

There's a significant unmet demand for Mandarin immersion in FCPS. There's also a substantial heritage speaker community for Hindi-Urdu that could benefit from services. That covers the two most populous countries of the world.

Add in some other K-6 magnets in the Lewis Pyramid (e.g. Montessori) and you might retain zoned students and attract others.

Another interesting idea from a PP be to greatly expand the vocational programs at Edison and transfer part of the general student population to Lewis. And provide some advanced STEM options as well.

Fair capital improvements to bring facilities to comparable facilities nearby would also help.

- UMC family in Lewis Pyramid considering moving or pupil placing, but would much rather be offered reasons to stay.

Lewis is not located well enough to attract those from all over the county.

What do you mean by not in a desirable.location? It's at the intersection of the beltway, close to the FFX county parkway.

Look at a map. If you live in Lewis district, would you send your kid to Westfield every day? To Herndon? To South Lakes?

Absolutely not, but to that end you could say no school is in a "desirable location" if you're far away. People.pupil place for the programs not.location.

DP. For TJHSST, yes. For some, even Langley. For what you're proposing at Lewis, probably not.

I'm a separate poster than the one offering some solutions for Lewis, but my point was just that - if Lewis was performing at a Langley level or offered programs at TJ, you'd get transfers. So exactly what I said, it's not locations - it's the programs.

It's not the programs, the programs are fine. The reason most don't pupil place is the socioeconomic (and/or racial, correlated of course) composition of the student body. Which drives simplistic scores and metrics that make people go "Durr, must not be as good of a program!" as a crutch/excuse, rather than actually evaluating program quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What about turning Lewis into a foreign language magnet for languages like Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Urdu, etc?

+1, one of the best ideas I've seen on this thread.

There's a significant unmet demand for Mandarin immersion in FCPS. There's also a substantial heritage speaker community for Hindi-Urdu that could benefit from services. That covers the two most populous countries of the world.

Add in some other K-6 magnets in the Lewis Pyramid (e.g. Montessori) and you might retain zoned students and attract others.

Another interesting idea from a PP be to greatly expand the vocational programs at Edison and transfer part of the general student population to Lewis. And provide some advanced STEM options as well.

Fair capital improvements to bring facilities to comparable facilities nearby would also help.

- UMC family in Lewis Pyramid considering moving or pupil placing, but would much rather be offered reasons to stay.

Lewis is not located well enough to attract those from all over the county.

What do you mean by not in a desirable.location? It's at the intersection of the beltway, close to the FFX county parkway.

Different poster adding that it is accessible to Alexandria, Fairfax and Burke and Annandale using backroads without having to drive one mile on the highways. It is also walkable to the springfield metro.

Lewis currently has a lot of negatives, but its location for a magnet school is perfect (a much better location for a magnet than the TJ campus)

On the scale of the county, Lewis is about as close to TJ as you can get. For the vast majority of the northern and western parts of the county the difference between these sites would be negligble. Lewis might be slightly more convenient to access for south county folks, but that's about it, so unclear how you're differentiating it as somehow a "much better" location. If they were going to add a second magnet, it would make far more sense to put it somewhere in the Western part of the county, which is the region most distant from the only current magnet option at TJ, but also has a lot of the overcrowding and growth, which a magnet could help alleviate without so much reboundary need. Unfortunately the timeline for a new school seems a lifetime away, so I think it's a moot point regardless, and I don't see them "converting" a current neighborhood school to a magnet program until/unless there's a new HS being built to replace it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents shouldn’t be involved. That’s how you get these absurd little cutouts and gerrymanders. Let the consultants draw the maps.

Yeah, let the out of state no bid consultants who have never done anything like this before who advertised themselves as being broadband consultants do the work. They are much more qualified to determine the fate of FCPS students than parents.

In a sea of dumb SJW ideas…

The consultants are only here for cover. Reid a the school board have made their decisions. Parents are only being given lip service. How many times does this same shell game have to be played before Fairfax county voters and parents catch on?

Since you’re so omniscient, fill us in on these already-made decisions.

Happy to lay it out for you. The twin pillars of Reid's equity at all cost and board members self interest will result in the following. Boundaries that move high performing students to low performing schools based on the friend groups of board members, resulting in boundaries that would make heavily gerrymandered congressional districts look sane. The parents of those high performing kids will move to non-public alternatives and school performance across FCPS will plummet. School vouchers enter the VA landscape, Reid retires with a big nest egg and board members move on to other political offices. Everyone wins, except for FCPS students and parents.

Nope. People can't just afford "non public alternatives ". Sure some of fcps can, but many of the young fed/mil/contractors/single parent incomes are NOT making g private school money.
It's so irritating when people throw this out as an easy alternative or an inevitable outcome.

As the public schools continue to flounder voucher programs will take hold in all states. Catholic school enrollment will expand and other "church" based schools will emerge. Many of the "young fed/mil/contractors/single parents" will make the move to these schools, finding a way to cover the costs that vouchers don't. Sure some will be left out and they will join the poor and LMC in suffering at what is left of the public school system. This is the path the Reid and the school board are taking every one down, like it or not, see it or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents shouldn’t be involved. That’s how you get these absurd little cutouts and gerrymanders. Let the consultants draw the maps.

Yeah, let the out of state no bid consultants who have never done anything like this before who advertised themselves as being broadband consultants do the work. They are much more qualified to determine the fate of FCPS students than parents.

In a sea of dumb SJW ideas…

The consultants are only here for cover. Reid a the school board have made their decisions. Parents are only being given lip service. How many times does this same shell game have to be played before Fairfax county voters and parents catch on?

Since you’re so omniscient, fill us in on these already-made decisions.

Happy to lay it out for you. The twin pillars of Reid's equity at all cost and board members self interest will result in the following. Boundaries that move high performing students to low performing schools based on the friend groups of board members, resulting in boundaries that would make heavily gerrymandered congressional districts look sane. The parents of those high performing kids will move to non-public alternatives and school performance across FCPS will plummet. School vouchers enter the VA landscape, Reid retires with a big nest egg and board members move on to other political offices. Everyone wins, except for FCPS students and parents.

Nope. People can't just afford "non public alternatives ". Sure some of fcps can, but many of the young fed/mil/contractors/single parent incomes are NOT making g private school money.
It's so irritating when people throw this out as an easy alternative or an inevitable outcome.

As the public schools continue to flounder voucher programs will take hold in all states. Catholic school enrollment will expand and other "church" based schools will emerge. Many of the "young fed/mil/contractors/single parents" will make the move to these schools, finding a way to cover the costs that vouchers don't. Sure some will be left out and they will join the poor and LMC in suffering at what is left of the public school system. This is the path the Reid and the school board are taking every one down, like it or not, see it or not.

"Finding a way to cover the costs"
How completely out of touch. I'd like to find a way to cover the costs for a lot of things, but money doesn't just magically appear.

- signed, dual income military/federal family

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents shouldn’t be involved. That’s how you get these absurd little cutouts and gerrymanders. Let the consultants draw the maps.

Yeah, let the out of state no bid consultants who have never done anything like this before who advertised themselves as being broadband consultants do the work. They are much more qualified to determine the fate of FCPS students than parents.

In a sea of dumb SJW ideas…

The consultants are only here for cover. Reid a the school board have made their decisions. Parents are only being given lip service. How many times does this same shell game have to be played before Fairfax county voters and parents catch on?

Since you’re so omniscient, fill us in on these already-made decisions.

Happy to lay it out for you. The twin pillars of Reid's equity at all cost and board members self interest will result in the following. Boundaries that move high performing students to low performing schools based on the friend groups of board members, resulting in boundaries that would make heavily gerrymandered congressional districts look sane. The parents of those high performing kids will move to non-public alternatives and school performance across FCPS will plummet. School vouchers enter the VA landscape, Reid retires with a big nest egg and board members move on to other political offices. Everyone wins, except for FCPS students and parents.

Nope. People can't just afford "non public alternatives ". Sure some of fcps can, but many of the young fed/mil/contractors/single parent incomes are NOT making g private school money.
It's so irritating when people throw this out as an easy alternative or an inevitable outcome.

As the public schools continue to flounder voucher programs will take hold in all states. Catholic school enrollment will expand and other "church" based schools will emerge. Many of the "young fed/mil/contractors/single parents" will make the move to these schools, finding a way to cover the costs that vouchers don't. Sure some will be left out and they will join the poor and LMC in suffering at what is left of the public school system. This is the path the Reid and the school board are taking every one down, like it or not, see it or not.

"Finding a way to cover the costs"
How completely out of touch. I'd like to find a way to cover the costs for a lot of things, but money doesn't just magically appear.

- signed, dual income military/federal family

DP. Many of these religious private schools are surprisingly affordable. In many ways it beats the alternative, even if religion isn’t your thing.

I’d rather they didn’t tank the entire school system with redistricting, but here we are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What about turning Lewis into a foreign language magnet for languages like Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Urdu, etc?

+1, one of the best ideas I've seen on this thread.

There's a significant unmet demand for Mandarin immersion in FCPS. There's also a substantial heritage speaker community for Hindi-Urdu that could benefit from services. That covers the two most populous countries of the world.

Add in some other K-6 magnets in the Lewis Pyramid (e.g. Montessori) and you might retain zoned students and attract others.

Another interesting idea from a PP be to greatly expand the vocational programs at Edison and transfer part of the general student population to Lewis. And provide some advanced STEM options as well.

Fair capital improvements to bring facilities to comparable facilities nearby would also help.

- UMC family in Lewis Pyramid considering moving or pupil placing, but would much rather be offered reasons to stay.

Lewis is not located well enough to attract those from all over the county.

What do you mean by not in a desirable.location? It's at the intersection of the beltway, close to the FFX county parkway.

Different poster adding that it is accessible to Alexandria, Fairfax and Burke and Annandale using backroads without having to drive one mile on the highways. It is also walkable to the springfield metro.

Lewis currently has a lot of negatives, but its location for a magnet school is perfect (a much better location for a magnet than the TJ campus)

On the scale of the county, Lewis is about as close to TJ as you can get. For the vast majority of the northern and western parts of the county the difference between these sites would be negligble. Lewis might be slightly more convenient to access for south county folks, but that's about it, so unclear how you're differentiating it as somehow a "much better" location. If they were going to add a second magnet, it would make far more sense to put it somewhere in the Western part of the county, which is the region most distant from the only current magnet option at TJ, but also has a lot of the overcrowding and growth, which a magnet could help alleviate without so much reboundary need. Unfortunately the timeline for a new school seems a lifetime away, so I think it's a moot point regardless, and I don't see them "converting" a current neighborhood school to a magnet program until/unless there's a new HS being built to replace it.

So, you think a magnet for foreign languages will have the same pull as TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents shouldn’t be involved. That’s how you get these absurd little cutouts and gerrymanders. Let the consultants draw the maps.

Yeah, let the out of state no bid consultants who have never done anything like this before who advertised themselves as being broadband consultants do the work. They are much more qualified to determine the fate of FCPS students than parents.

In a sea of dumb SJW ideas…

The consultants are only here for cover. Reid a the school board have made their decisions. Parents are only being given lip service. How many times does this same shell game have to be played before Fairfax county voters and parents catch on?

Since you’re so omniscient, fill us in on these already-made decisions.

Happy to lay it out for you. The twin pillars of Reid's equity at all cost and board members self interest will result in the following. Boundaries that move high performing students to low performing schools based on the friend groups of board members, resulting in boundaries that would make heavily gerrymandered congressional districts look sane. The parents of those high performing kids will move to non-public alternatives and school performance across FCPS will plummet. School vouchers enter the VA landscape, Reid retires with a big nest egg and board members move on to other political offices. Everyone wins, except for FCPS students and parents.

Nope. People can't just afford "non public alternatives ". Sure some of fcps can, but many of the young fed/mil/contractors/single parent incomes are NOT making g private school money.
It's so irritating when people throw this out as an easy alternative or an inevitable outcome.

As the public schools continue to flounder voucher programs will take hold in all states. Catholic school enrollment will expand and other "church" based schools will emerge. Many of the "young fed/mil/contractors/single parents" will make the move to these schools, finding a way to cover the costs that vouchers don't. Sure some will be left out and they will join the poor and LMC in suffering at what is left of the public school system. This is the path the Reid and the school board are taking every one down, like it or not, see it or not.

"Finding a way to cover the costs"
How completely out of touch. I'd like to find a way to cover the costs for a lot of things, but money doesn't just magically appear.

- signed, dual income military/federal family

DP. Many of these religious private schools are surprisingly affordable. In many ways it beats the alternative, even if religion isn’t your thing.

I’d rather they didn’t tank the entire school system with redistricting, but here we are.

As someone who just moved my kids to one of those surprisingly affordable religious schools:

1) Admission at the best is already incredibly competitive, with waitlists 100s of kids long. Yes the smaller/lesser reputation religious schools saw their admissions numbers start dropping again around 2022 (after a pandemic spike), but the better ones are still going strong.

2) Some of the religious schools - not all - will require you to actually be of the same religion yourself to be admitted. And if they still have waitlists, they can afford to be picky on this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents shouldn’t be involved. That’s how you get these absurd little cutouts and gerrymanders. Let the consultants draw the maps.

Yeah, let the out of state no bid consultants who have never done anything like this before who advertised themselves as being broadband consultants do the work. They are much more qualified to determine the fate of FCPS students than parents.

In a sea of dumb SJW ideas…

The consultants are only here for cover. Reid a the school board have made their decisions. Parents are only being given lip service. How many times does this same shell game have to be played before Fairfax county voters and parents catch on?

Since you’re so omniscient, fill us in on these already-made decisions.

Happy to lay it out for you. The twin pillars of Reid's equity at all cost and board members self interest will result in the following. Boundaries that move high performing students to low performing schools based on the friend groups of board members, resulting in boundaries that would make heavily gerrymandered congressional districts look sane. The parents of those high performing kids will move to non-public alternatives and school performance across FCPS will plummet. School vouchers enter the VA landscape, Reid retires with a big nest egg and board members move on to other political offices. Everyone wins, except for FCPS students and parents.

Nope. People can't just afford "non public alternatives ". Sure some of fcps can, but many of the young fed/mil/contractors/single parent incomes are NOT making g private school money.
It's so irritating when people throw this out as an easy alternative or an inevitable outcome.

As the public schools continue to flounder voucher programs will take hold in all states. Catholic school enrollment will expand and other "church" based schools will emerge. Many of the "young fed/mil/contractors/single parents" will make the move to these schools, finding a way to cover the costs that vouchers don't. Sure some will be left out and they will join the poor and LMC in suffering at what is left of the public school system. This is the path the Reid and the school board are taking every one down, like it or not, see it or not.

Many of us tax payers will not support our tax dollars going to support private or religious schools. We are the majority. Vouchers are not going to happen on a large scale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What about turning Lewis into a foreign language magnet for languages like Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Urdu, etc?

+1, one of the best ideas I've seen on this thread.

There's a significant unmet demand for Mandarin immersion in FCPS. There's also a substantial heritage speaker community for Hindi-Urdu that could benefit from services. That covers the two most populous countries of the world.

Add in some other K-6 magnets in the Lewis Pyramid (e.g. Montessori) and you might retain zoned students and attract others.

Another interesting idea from a PP be to greatly expand the vocational programs at Edison and transfer part of the general student population to Lewis. And provide some advanced STEM options as well.

Fair capital improvements to bring facilities to comparable facilities nearby would also help.

- UMC family in Lewis Pyramid considering moving or pupil placing, but would much rather be offered reasons to stay.

Lewis is not located well enough to attract those from all over the county.

What do you mean by not in a desirable.location? It's at the intersection of the beltway, close to the FFX county parkway.

Different poster adding that it is accessible to Alexandria, Fairfax and Burke and Annandale using backroads without having to drive one mile on the highways. It is also walkable to the springfield metro.

Lewis currently has a lot of negatives, but its location for a magnet school is perfect (a much better location for a magnet than the TJ campus)

On the scale of the county, Lewis is about as close to TJ as you can get. For the vast majority of the northern and western parts of the county the difference between these sites would be negligble. Lewis might be slightly more convenient to access for south county folks, but that's about it, so unclear how you're differentiating it as somehow a "much better" location. If they were going to add a second magnet, it would make far more sense to put it somewhere in the Western part of the county, which is the region most distant from the only current magnet option at TJ, but also has a lot of the overcrowding and growth, which a magnet could help alleviate without so much reboundary need. Unfortunately the timeline for a new school seems a lifetime away, so I think it's a moot point regardless, and I don't see them "converting" a current neighborhood school to a magnet program until/unless there's a new HS being built to replace it.

So, you think a magnet for foreign languages will have the same pull as TJ?

Perhaps as a continuation of the language immersion program that ends at 8th grade?

[Anonymous]

I wish there was a poll option here - which is no doubt challenging given the anonymous nature of the forum.

Would love to see what % of posters react with 'won't be impacted' vs 'will move' vs 'go private' vs 'too bad. suck-it-up' as their preferred option.

@Jeff - any chance we can have this some day, with a single vote per IP address?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Parents shouldn’t be involved. That’s how you get these absurd little cutouts and gerrymanders. Let the consultants draw the maps.

Yeah, let the out of state no bid consultants who have never done anything like this before who advertised themselves as being broadband consultants do the work. They are much more qualified to determine the fate of FCPS students than parents.

In a sea of dumb SJW ideas…

The consultants are only here for cover. Reid a the school board have made their decisions. Parents are only being given lip service. How many times does this same shell game have to be played before Fairfax county voters and parents catch on?

Since you’re so omniscient, fill us in on these already-made decisions.

Happy to lay it out for you. The twin pillars of Reid's equity at all cost and board members self interest will result in the following. Boundaries that move high performing students to low performing schools based on the friend groups of board members, resulting in boundaries that would make heavily gerrymandered congressional districts look sane. The parents of those high performing kids will move to non-public alternatives and school performance across FCPS will plummet. School vouchers enter the VA landscape, Reid retires with a big nest egg and board members move on to other political offices. Everyone wins, except for FCPS students and parents.

Nope. People can't just afford "non public alternatives ". Sure some of fcps can, but many of the young fed/mil/contractors/single parent incomes are NOT making g private school money.
It's so irritating when people throw this out as an easy alternative or an inevitable outcome.

As the public schools continue to flounder voucher programs will take hold in all states. Catholic school enrollment will expand and other "church" based schools will emerge. Many of the "young fed/mil/contractors/single parents" will make the move to these schools, finding a way to cover the costs that vouchers don't. Sure some will be left out and they will join the poor and LMC in suffering at what is left of the public school system. This is the path the Reid and the school board are taking every one down, like it or not, see it or not.

Many of us tax payers will not support our tax dollars going to support private or religious schools. We are the majority. Vouchers are not going to happen on a large scale.

Many of who? You have to understand that the relevant population is purple Virginia, not Blue Fairfax. It is a lot closer to reality than you or the school board want to believe.