FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

Are you allowing the Gatehouse employees to vote too? I’d imagine that’d really skew the results.

[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?

No, I was just saying I'm not sure Lewis is the ideal spot and/or meaningfully different location than TJ is currently.

If we were to have a second magnet school, I'd like to see it house multiple smaller non-STEM option programs for students looking to focus... e.g. foreign languages, music, theater, studio arts, possibly some vocation-specific tracks, etc. Collectively I think those programs would have plenty of pull.

[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?

Yes. The Maggie Walker Governor's school in Richmond follows that set up. They require 4 years of language plus another 2 years of a second language, along with offering various study abroad opportunities. On top of that their social studies AP and IB offerings have more international selections as opposed to limited US history and government. It would be "TJ for the humanities" here, no doubt it would be popular.

[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.

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?

Yes. The Maggie Walker Governor's school in Richmond follows that set up. They require 4 years of language plus another 2 years of a second language, along with offering various study abroad opportunities. On top of that their social studies AP and IB offerings have more international selections as opposed to limited US history and government. It would be "TJ for the humanities" here, no doubt it would be popular.

Does Richmond have a STEM school?

[Anonymous]

If a second magnet school was in the cards, don't you think we would have heard about this by now? Seems like it would be a natural topic for feedback at these regional meetings.

But there's been no suggestion that FCPS wants to convert another high school to a magnet program. If one of their priorities is equitable access to programming, they already have to play mental gymnastics to pretend kids at the other high/secondary schools have the same opportunities as students at TJ. They'd only magnify this problem with yet another magnet program with courses not available at other schools. There would be a fresh round of scrutiny over who gets admitted, and whether the admissions are truly "merit-based," etc. Yes, Richmond has Maggie Walker, but it doesn't have a TJ. Opening another magnet in FCPS is pretty much the exact opposite of the direction in which Reid and the School Board are taking FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a second magnet school was in the cards, don't you think we would have heard about this by now? Seems like it would be a natural topic for feedback at these regional meetings.

But there's been no suggestion that FCPS wants to convert another high school to a magnet program. If one of their priorities is equitable access to programming, they already have to play mental gymnastics to pretend kids at the other high/secondary schools have the same opportunities as students at TJ. They'd only magnify this problem with yet another magnet program with courses not available at other schools. There would be a fresh round of scrutiny over who gets admitted, and whether the admissions are truly "merit-based," etc. Yes, Richmond has Maggie Walker, but it doesn't have a TJ. Opening another magnet in FCPS is pretty much the exact opposite of the direction in which Reid and the School Board are taking FCPS.

They’ve discussed moving academies, but not standing up another magnet. Another magnet school goes against the messaging of reducing travel burden and keeping kids at neighborhood schools.

[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

If you are a dual income military/fed family you can certainly pay for private high school with room leftover.

Many of my neighbors are single fed or single military families, and have managed to to it for their kids, sometimes multiple kids.

It might mean parish schools and Catholic high school with a small bit of financial aid from.their parish, or it might mean private school which offers financial aid, but they are doing it. Often on just one income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a second magnet school was in the cards, don't you think we would have heard about this by now? Seems like it would be a natural topic for feedback at these regional meetings.

But there's been no suggestion that FCPS wants to convert another high school to a magnet program. If one of their priorities is equitable access to programming, they already have to play mental gymnastics to pretend kids at the other high/secondary schools have the same opportunities as students at TJ. They'd only magnify this problem with yet another magnet program with courses not available at other schools. There would be a fresh round of scrutiny over who gets admitted, and whether the admissions are truly "merit-based," etc. Yes, Richmond has Maggie Walker, but it doesn't have a TJ. Opening another magnet in FCPS is pretty much the exact opposite of the direction in which Reid and the School Board are taking FCPS.

They’ve discussed moving academies, but not standing up another magnet. Another magnet school goes against the messaging of reducing travel burden and keeping kids at neighborhood schools.

Well one I thought was honorable, Dunne, is now onboard with a load them up via a new magnet at an elementary school. FCPS has 2 elementary magnets put in to avoid boundary changes and Fed funds/grants doon't last forever. https://mvonthemove.com/bucknell-elementary-decides-to-add-montessori-program-option-after-all/

And Reid has 25 pyramids? I counted 24. https://www.fcps.edu/news/superintendents-weekly-reflections-115
HS academy course finder https://isweb.fcps.edu/CTE/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I think the people who are S.O.L. on this rezoning issue are far left people who created this mess thinking it wouldn't affect them, and who despise religion so they won't even consider sending their kids to one of the parochial Catholic or Christian schools.

They are the ones for whom there are no affordable options, and are complaining that there are not enough non public spots for them to switch to, because they eliminated all the good affordable options via their disdain for religious schools.

It is the people who created this mess who don't have enough secular private affordable options to switch to.

The people who did not create this mess will mostly be able to find better places for their kids to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a second magnet school was in the cards, don't you think we would have heard about this by now? Seems like it would be a natural topic for feedback at these regional meetings.

But there's been no suggestion that FCPS wants to convert another high school to a magnet program. If one of their priorities is equitable access to programming, they already have to play mental gymnastics to pretend kids at the other high/secondary schools have the same opportunities as students at TJ. They'd only magnify this problem with yet another magnet program with courses not available at other schools. There would be a fresh round of scrutiny over who gets admitted, and whether the admissions are truly "merit-based," etc. Yes, Richmond has Maggie Walker, but it doesn't have a TJ. Opening another magnet in FCPS is pretty much the exact opposite of the direction in which Reid and the School Board are taking FCPS.

We are just saying that if FCPS was,serious about actually fixing the Lewis problem, a magnet school for languages, humanities, IB, new arrivals/esol, trades, non traditional students, etc would be a better, more effective, less diruptive and more popular way to fix the problem long term, than the virtue signaling ineffective bandaid of rezoning and moving kids around based on their demographics to try to mask low performance at Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I think the people who are S.O.L. on this rezoning issue are far left people who created this mess thinking it wouldn't affect them, and who despise religion so they won't even consider sending their kids to one of the parochial Catholic or Christian schools.

They are the ones for whom there are no affordable options, and are complaining that there are not enough non public spots for them to switch to, because they eliminated all the good affordable options via their disdain for religious schools.

It is the people who created this mess who don't have enough secular private affordable options to switch to.

The people who did not create this mess will mostly be able to find better places for their kids to attend.

Way to make this an "us" versus "them" thing. How do we, as parents, collectively work together for the good of our kids and the future? You so smugly say that some people dont want religious schools. Yes, some of the more common ones are Catholic and there are many non-Catholics, whether religious or not, that would not want that. Freedom of religion...or from religion, whatever your fancy.
This totally reads like a person that considers themselves religious/aligned to a religion, yet wants to be nasty to other people that are different.

[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.

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.

While the majority in Fairfax County may oppose vouchers, the decision would be made at the state level and that decision may differ from the one desired by the many taxpayers noted above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a second magnet school was in the cards, don't you think we would have heard about this by now? Seems like it would be a natural topic for feedback at these regional meetings.

But there's been no suggestion that FCPS wants to convert another high school to a magnet program. If one of their priorities is equitable access to programming, they already have to play mental gymnastics to pretend kids at the other high/secondary schools have the same opportunities as students at TJ. They'd only magnify this problem with yet another magnet program with courses not available at other schools. There would be a fresh round of scrutiny over who gets admitted, and whether the admissions are truly "merit-based," etc. Yes, Richmond has Maggie Walker, but it doesn't have a TJ. Opening another magnet in FCPS is pretty much the exact opposite of the direction in which Reid and the School Board are taking FCPS.

We are just saying that if FCPS was,serious about actually fixing the Lewis problem, a magnet school for languages, humanities, IB, new arrivals/esol, trades, non traditional students, etc would be a better, more effective, less diruptive and more popular way to fix the problem long term, than the virtue signaling ineffective bandaid of rezoning and moving kids around based on their demographics to try to mask low performance at Lewis.

Problem is this really isn't credible.

It's not clear how much of a market there would be for the school you're describing generally, and at that location in particular. So not clearly "more effective."

If you turn Lewis into a magnet, you have to start by reassigning about 1900 kids (1600 at Lewis and 300 pupil placed) to new high schools, which could have ripple effects on boundaries. So not clearly "less disruptive."

This reshuffling might be more popular among those who do not want to attend or be redistricted to Lewis, but not with others, and magnet schools breed never-ending controversy over access and admissions. So not clearly "more popular."

More feasible is completely ridding Lewis of IB; adding a full menu of AP courses; ensuring that its course electives are comparable with those available at other schools; de-emphasizing the lightweight "leadership" program; and overhauling the Lewis administration to assign some of FCPS's top staff there. Give that five years and then make a decision whether to redistrict kids there or close it entirely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a second magnet school was in the cards, don't you think we would have heard about this by now? Seems like it would be a natural topic for feedback at these regional meetings.

But there's been no suggestion that FCPS wants to convert another high school to a magnet program. If one of their priorities is equitable access to programming, they already have to play mental gymnastics to pretend kids at the other high/secondary schools have the same opportunities as students at TJ. They'd only magnify this problem with yet another magnet program with courses not available at other schools. There would be a fresh round of scrutiny over who gets admitted, and whether the admissions are truly "merit-based," etc. Yes, Richmond has Maggie Walker, but it doesn't have a TJ. Opening another magnet in FCPS is pretty much the exact opposite of the direction in which Reid and the School Board are taking FCPS.

They’ve discussed moving academies, but not standing up another magnet. Another magnet school goes against the messaging of reducing travel burden and keeping kids at neighborhood schools.

No one would care about travel burdens or neighborhood schools if another magnet opened up as an option or for their kids.

[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: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.

I think the people who are S.O.L. on this rezoning issue are far left people who created this mess thinking it wouldn't affect them, and who despise religion so they won't even consider sending their kids to one of the parochial Catholic or Christian schools.

They are the ones for whom there are no affordable options, and are complaining that there are not enough non public spots for them to switch to, because they eliminated all the good affordable options via their disdain for religious schools.

It is the people who created this mess who don't have enough secular private affordable options to switch to.

The people who did not create this mess will mostly be able to find better places for their kids to attend.

Way to make this an "us" versus "them" thing. How do we, as parents, collectively work together for the good of our kids and the future? You so smugly say that some people dont want religious schools. Yes, some of the more common ones are Catholic and there are many non-Catholics, whether religious or not, that would not want that. Freedom of religion...or from religion, whatever your fancy.
This totally reads like a person that considers themselves religious/aligned to a religion, yet wants to be nasty to other people that are different.

Not trying to hit a nerve. Just pointing out the overlap between those who championed the far left school board, and those who have self eliminated most if not all of the affordable private school options by ruling out Catholic and Christian schools.