South Lakes / Madison / Oakton High Schools

[Anonymous]

Any insight into the future of redistricting for these high schools? I live in an area that is in Madison High School's boundary, but just as close to South Lakes - off Hunter Mill Road. And also only 4-5 miles from Oakton High School. So really, any of those schools would be geographically close.

I know the last plan to redistrict was WWIII when they moved kids to South Lakes, but any idea if that will come again soon (next 5-10 years?) What are the enrollment trends of the three schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any insight into the future of redistricting for these high schools? I live in an area that is in Madison High School's boundary, but just as close to South Lakes - off Hunter Mill Road. And also only 4-5 miles from Oakton High School. So really, any of those schools would be geographically close.

I know the last plan to redistrict was WWIII when they moved kids to South Lakes, but any idea if that will come again soon (next 5-10 years?) What are the enrollment trends of the three schools?

We were in the Madison boundry and got moved to South Lakes in the last round. The school board is constantly rearanging the population to game the school's scores but it doesn't look like there will be any changes to the Madison/ SL boundry anytime soon. 5-10 years though is too hard to tell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any insight into the future of redistricting for these high schools? I live in an area that is in Madison High School's boundary, but just as close to South Lakes - off Hunter Mill Road. And also only 4-5 miles from Oakton High School. So really, any of those schools would be geographically close.

I know the last plan to redistrict was WWIII when they moved kids to South Lakes, but any idea if that will come again soon (next 5-10 years?) What are the enrollment trends of the three schools?

South Lakes is over-crowded now compared to Madison and Oakton, according to FCPS. If only those three schools were involved, you wouldn't expect to see more kids from Madison or Oakton moved to South Lakes any time soon.

The biggest challenge in Western Fairfax is the overcrowding at Fairfax HS, but it seems like that could be addressed by moving kids to schools further south (Woodson, Robinson and Lake Braddock) without impacting South Lakes, Madison or Oakton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any insight into the future of redistricting for these high schools? I live in an area that is in Madison High School's boundary, but just as close to South Lakes - off Hunter Mill Road. And also only 4-5 miles from Oakton High School. So really, any of those schools would be geographically close.

I know the last plan to redistrict was WWIII when they moved kids to South Lakes, but any idea if that will come again soon (next 5-10 years?) What are the enrollment trends of the three schools?

We were in the Madison boundry and got moved to South Lakes in the last round. The school board is constantly rearanging the population to game the school's scores but it doesn't look like there will be any changes to the Madison/ SL boundry anytime soon. 5-10 years though is too hard to tell.

I really cringe when parents claim redistricting is just about gaming school's scores. Sometimes there really are too many kids at one school and empty seats at another. I do wish that the South Lakes redistricting had been fairer and involved a few more schools (will never understand how Langley got excluded from the 2008 study).

[Anonymous]

good to know that South Lakes is more overcrowded now than the other two schools. Obviously if we were redistricted to South Lakes it would kill my property values and make my kids go to a much worse school.

I'd assume that over the next 5-10 years the population of Reston will increase faster than Vienna/Oakton, just given the shortage of new developments, but that could be a wild guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I really cringe when parents claim redistricting is just about gaming school's scores.

I do too. I just wish it wasn't true. In all the meetings, they never did deny it, confirmed it a couple times but said it was only one factor.

Anonymous wrote: Sometimes there really are too many kids at one school and empty seats at another.

Yes, sometimes it is true, but not true in this case. South Lakes went from balanced to overcrowded.

Anonymous wrote: I do wish that the South Lakes redistricting had been fairer and involved a few more schools (will never understand how Langley got excluded from the 2008 study).

Yes, it was a real education for us. The opnions of the parents were not heard.

To the OP's question, I don't think it will happen at SL again for a while.

[Anonymous]

We avoided houses along Hunter Mill (specially anything north of the bike trail) because we feared redistricting. But our oldest is only 7, so we were thinking longer out than 5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We avoided houses along Hunter Mill (specially anything north of the bike trail) because we feared redistricting. But our oldest is only 7, so we were thinking longer out than 5 years.

Everything North of the trail got moved in the last cut. It hit our housing values hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We avoided houses along Hunter Mill (specially anything north of the bike trail) because we feared redistricting. But our oldest is only 7, so we were thinking longer out than 5 years.

Everything North of the trail got moved in the last cut. It hit our housing values hard.

Did you get moved to South Lakes or to Marshall?

I live just south of the bike trail, but I think there are a few buffer neighborhoods in Madison - Tamarack, Wayside/Westside (cannot remember the name), etc. But the other side of Hunter Mill is South Lakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We avoided houses along Hunter Mill (specially anything north of the bike trail) because we feared redistricting. But our oldest is only 7, so we were thinking longer out than 5 years.

Everything North of the trail got moved in the last cut. It hit our housing values hard.

I thought that Tamarack was still at Madison.

[Anonymous]

Tamarack is Madison, but not in that cluster for elementary which is weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We avoided houses along Hunter Mill (specially anything north of the bike trail) because we feared redistricting. But our oldest is only 7, so we were thinking longer out than 5 years.

Everything North of the trail got moved in the last cut. It hit our housing values hard.

I thought that Tamarack was still at Madison.

pretty sure Tamarack is Madison. Talk about an ugly neighborhood! They need to do some tear-downs ASAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tamarack is Madison, but not in that cluster for elementary which is weird.

Tamarack is Oakton ES

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We avoided houses along Hunter Mill (specially anything north of the bike trail) because we feared redistricting. But our oldest is only 7, so we were thinking longer out than 5 years.

Everything North of the trail got moved in the last cut. It hit our housing values hard.

Did you get moved to South Lakes or to Marshall?

I live just south of the bike trail, but I think there are a few buffer neighborhoods in Madison - Tamarack, Wayside/Westside (cannot remember the name), etc. But the other side of Hunter Mill is South Lakes.

Marshall was not part of the 2008 South Lakes redistricting. I believe the only high schools affected were South Lakes, Chantilly, Oakton, Madison, and Westfield. Herndon was part of the original study, but no students were moved. A lot of people were angry that Langley was excluded from the study's scope.

Some think the primary purpose of the redistricting was to add more affluent and higher-scoring kids to South Lakes. At the time of the redistricting, though, South Lakes was definitely under-capacity. It's over-crowded now, so the study can be criticized in hindsight. Of course, the economy and other developments, such as PWC's increasing antipathy towards Hispanics, may have had an impact on enrollments as well. There's no doubt that South Lakes' current demographics look more like the neighboring schools than they did in 2007. For some, that might be a reason to stop fretting about sending their kids there.

The School Board hasn't changed Marshall's boundaries for a long time. The school's enrollment increased, and the test scores and rankings improved, due to a combination of expensive new housing and people wanting to live near Tysons. The impact on real estate values of getting moved from Madison to Marshall would be negligible today. Maybe getting moved there from Langley might be a bigger deal.

[Anonymous]

Uh, they're never going to f with the Langley boundaries. They fear the parents and their deep pockets.
Those GF parents would never consider sending their kids to Herndon HS, rather the kids should be on the bus for 45 minutes.