Fall 2022 Over/Under-Enrollment at FCPS High Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:September 2022 FCPS HS enrollments vs. current or planned permanent capacity:

Severely Over-Crowded:

Centreville 133.1%
Chantilly 129.8%
McLean 122.1%

Modestly Over-Crowded to Modestly Under-Enrolled:

West Springfield 105.8%
Woodson 105.6%
Edison 105.2%
Marshall 102.6%
Oakton 102.1%
Robinson 99.9%
Fairfax 97.6%
Annandale 96.4%
Hayfield 96.0%
Westfield 93.8%
Herndon 93.6%
Justice 93.3%
Lake Braddock 92.7%
South Lakes 92.5%
West Potomac 90.8%
South County 90.3%

Significantly Under-Enrolled:
Langley 89.2%
Madison 85.1%
Falls Church 84.1%
TJ 82.5%
Mount Vernon 79.6%
Lewis 78.8%

At some point, FCPS will announce expansion plans for Centreville as part of its upcoming renovation. Chantilly and McLean remain overcrowded with either no solution offered (Chantilly/Stella Pekarsky) or a weak solution put in place that isn't adequately addressing the problem (McLean/Tholen). At the other end of the enrollment spectrum, Mount Vernon remains over 20% under-capacity, yet FCPS just expanded nearby West Potomac to 3000 seats, and Lewis has under 1700 students this fall while West Springfield now has over 2500 kids.

McLean HS needs not to accept students who live in Falls Church. That will solve the overcrowding problem.

It's not like you apply. There are boundaries. Right now FCPS has a high school for roughly every 46,000 residents. McLean has about 50,000 residents, which isn't enough to support two FCPS high schools. So Langley has all of Great Falls, and parts of McLean, Vienna, Reston and Herndon. McLean now has parts of McLean and Falls Church.

However, McLean has 2433 kids this fall and Falls Church has 2103. FCPS being FCPS, they are expanding Falls Church to 2500 seats and leaving McLean with 1993. Since Marshall and McLean are going to be getting more kids from Tysons, there's going to be a push to move the part of Timber Lane (currently a McLean/Falls Church split feeder) that feeds into McLean to Falls Church once Falls Church's renovation is finished. It will reduce the diversity at McLean. Parents at McLean have pleaded for a permanent addition for years and have been ignored. So now it's going to be FCPS left to explain why they are either leaving McLean overcrowded or reducing its diversity.

This does seen like a good boundary solution. We are zoned for FCHS and loved it - and it is going to be beautiful once the renovation is complete. The McLean schools are so overcrowded for years, with no renovation in sight, that I am surprised it has not had an effect on the real estate market there.

It's the location for commutes. Lots depends on where each of a couple works. If you have to get out of a current rental or whatever the reason... Some worse SFH houses for Chesterbrooke went under contract much quicker than stuff for KG. Similar price points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:September 2022 FCPS HS enrollments vs. current or planned permanent capacity:

Severely Over-Crowded:

Centreville 133.1%
Chantilly 129.8%
McLean 122.1%

Modestly Over-Crowded to Modestly Under-Enrolled:

West Springfield 105.8%
Woodson 105.6%
Edison 105.2%
Marshall 102.6%
Oakton 102.1%
Robinson 99.9%
Fairfax 97.6%
Annandale 96.4%
Hayfield 96.0%
Westfield 93.8%
Herndon 93.6%
Justice 93.3%
Lake Braddock 92.7%
South Lakes 92.5%
West Potomac 90.8%
South County 90.3%

Significantly Under-Enrolled:
Langley 89.2%
Madison 85.1%
Falls Church 84.1%
TJ 82.5%
Mount Vernon 79.6%
Lewis 78.8%

At some point, FCPS will announce expansion plans for Centreville as part of its upcoming renovation. Chantilly and McLean remain overcrowded with either no solution offered (Chantilly/Stella Pekarsky) or a weak solution put in place that isn't adequately addressing the problem (McLean/Tholen). At the other end of the enrollment spectrum, Mount Vernon remains over 20% under-capacity, yet FCPS just expanded nearby West Potomac to 3000 seats, and Lewis has under 1700 students this fall while West Springfield now has over 2500 kids.

McLean HS needs not to accept students who live in Falls Church. That will solve the overcrowding problem.

It's not like you apply. There are boundaries. Right now FCPS has a high school for roughly every 46,000 residents. McLean has about 50,000 residents, which isn't enough to support two FCPS high schools. So Langley has all of Great Falls, and parts of McLean, Vienna, Reston and Herndon. McLean now has parts of McLean and Falls Church.

However, McLean has 2433 kids this fall and Falls Church has 2103. FCPS being FCPS, they are expanding Falls Church to 2500 seats and leaving McLean with 1993. Since Marshall and McLean are going to be getting more kids from Tysons, there's going to be a push to move the part of Timber Lane (currently a McLean/Falls Church split feeder) that feeds into McLean to Falls Church once Falls Church's renovation is finished. It will reduce the diversity at McLean. Parents at McLean have pleaded for a permanent addition for years and have been ignored. So now it's going to be FCPS left to explain why they are either leaving McLean overcrowded or reducing its diversity.

This does seen like a good boundary solution. We are zoned for FCHS and loved it - and it is going to be beautiful once the renovation is complete. The McLean schools are so overcrowded for years, with no renovation in sight, that I am surprised it has not had an effect on the real estate market there.

It's the location for commutes. Lots depends on where each of a couple works. If you have to get out of a current rental or whatever the reason... Some worse SFH houses for Chesterbrooke went under contract much quicker than stuff for KG. Similar price points.

Good point on the commutes. And on the ES - I wonder if people care more about overcrowding at ES or HS? I suppose people buying houses with young kids are focused on the ES and, as you say, assume (maybe incorrectly) that FCPS will finally give MHS the expansion it needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting. Edison HS is as “overenrolled” as WSHS. It’s closer to Lewis, it’s on the same side of the mixing bowl as Lewis, but the Lewis crowd is only obsessively fixated on West Springfield.

It seems more the converse: the West Springfield crowd is obsessively fixated on trying to exclude WSHS from any conversation relating to Lewis.

The focus should be on why Lewis is severely under-capacity and what changes are needed to offer Lewis students opportunities comparable to those available to students at other schools. If West Springfield is part of the solution, so be it; if it is not, that's OK, too.

I would argue the focus needs to be around what determines “capacity” and that perhaps these “underenrolled” schools are actually properly sized and the rest are more over enrolled than believed.

That’s assuming education is our actual concern and not just daycare and student warehousing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting. Edison HS is as “overenrolled” as WSHS. It’s closer to Lewis, it’s on the same side of the mixing bowl as Lewis, but the Lewis crowd is only obsessively fixated on West Springfield.

It seems more the converse: the West Springfield crowd is obsessively fixated on trying to exclude WSHS from any conversation relating to Lewis.

The focus should be on why Lewis is severely under-capacity and what changes are needed to offer Lewis students opportunities comparable to those available to students at other schools. If West Springfield is part of the solution, so be it; if it is not, that's OK, too.

I would argue the focus needs to be around what determines “capacity” and that perhaps these “underenrolled” schools are actually properly sized and the rest are more over enrolled than believed.

That’s assuming education is our actual concern and not just daycare and student warehousing.

If you believe some schools are more over-enrolled than currently acknowledged, it makes the case for expanding some schools and adjusting boundaries where appropriate at others even stronger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone see how hard WS posters are fighting the suggestions that any WS kids ever get zoned to Lewis? Any of the other surrounding schools would be fine.

That is what happens when you concentrate all of the poor and ESL students.

FCPS needs a reckoning on this.

There's no getting around the fact that there is going to be a concentration of "poor and ESL students", as you say, in a particular area. It's the place they can afford to live!

We live in walking distance of West Springfield so I have no fears personally about shifting boundaries, but in terms of community and neighborhood, definitely Lewis and Edison should be your discussion, not Lewis and WS. I too rolled my eyes a bit when Daventry shifted to WSHS from Lewis, but they are, in terms of how our neighborhoods are laid out, definitely a West Springfield community.

My kids went to Rolling Valley which is also a split feeder. About 10% of our students go to Lewis (the rest to WSHS). Every single family I know personally in that Lewis group moved, placed into a specialty program (like stem at Edison), had divorced parents and chose the other parent's high school (like South County), or chose private high school. They should focus on improving Lewis rather than trying to move kids there who have the resources to just choose somewhere else for high school. It won't help enrollment at Lewis at all to shift a few neighborhoods from West Springfield there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting. Edison HS is as “overenrolled” as WSHS. It’s closer to Lewis, it’s on the same side of the mixing bowl as Lewis, but the Lewis crowd is only obsessively fixated on West Springfield.

Maybe because parts of the current WSHS boundary used to belong to Lewis, but in the span of 10 years the Board made two adjustments to the boundary between Lewis and WSHS and gave some of Lewis's neighborhoods to WSHS. For the same reason, Annandale would benefit from getting back the neighborhoods it lost to Woodson. However in Annandale's case, at least they still have a solid amount of students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone see how hard WS posters are fighting the suggestions that any WS kids ever get zoned to Lewis? Any of the other surrounding schools would be fine.

That is what happens when you concentrate all of the poor and ESL students.

FCPS needs a reckoning on this.

There's no getting around the fact that there is going to be a concentration of "poor and ESL students", as you say, in a particular area. It's the place they can afford to live!

We live in walking distance of West Springfield so I have no fears personally about shifting boundaries, but in terms of community and neighborhood, definitely Lewis and Edison should be your discussion, not Lewis and WS. I too rolled my eyes a bit when Daventry shifted to WSHS from Lewis, but they are, in terms of how our neighborhoods are laid out, definitely a West Springfield community.

My kids went to Rolling Valley which is also a split feeder. About 10% of our students go to Lewis (the rest to WSHS). Every single family I know personally in that Lewis group moved, placed into a specialty program (like stem at Edison), had divorced parents and chose the other parent's high school (like South County), or chose private high school. They should focus on improving Lewis rather than trying to move kids there who have the resources to just choose somewhere else for high school. It won't help enrollment at Lewis at all to shift a few neighborhoods from West Springfield there.

So it’s OK to move students from Lewis to West Springfield, but not in the opposite direction? Even though it contributes to West Springfield having over 800 more kids than Lewis (about twice as many more kids than Edison)?

We all know that real change will happen at Lewis only when they move families into the school who have the time, skills, and incentives to speak up. But you all just don’t want to do the work. If other kids suffer, too bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone see how hard WS posters are fighting the suggestions that any WS kids ever get zoned to Lewis? Any of the other surrounding schools would be fine.

That is what happens when you concentrate all of the poor and ESL students.

FCPS needs a reckoning on this.

There's no getting around the fact that there is going to be a concentration of "poor and ESL students", as you say, in a particular area. It's the place they can afford to live!

We live in walking distance of West Springfield so I have no fears personally about shifting boundaries, but in terms of community and neighborhood, definitely Lewis and Edison should be your discussion, not Lewis and WS. I too rolled my eyes a bit when Daventry shifted to WSHS from Lewis, but they are, in terms of how our neighborhoods are laid out, definitely a West Springfield community.

My kids went to Rolling Valley which is also a split feeder. About 10% of our students go to Lewis (the rest to WSHS). Every single family I know personally in that Lewis group moved, placed into a specialty program (like stem at Edison), had divorced parents and chose the other parent's high school (like South County), or chose private high school. They should focus on improving Lewis rather than trying to move kids there who have the resources to just choose somewhere else for high school. It won't help enrollment at Lewis at all to shift a few neighborhoods from West Springfield there.

So it’s OK to move students from Lewis to West Springfield, but not in the opposite direction? Even though it contributes to West Springfield having over 800 more kids than Lewis (about twice as many more kids than Edison)?

We all know that real change will happen at Lewis only when they move families into the school who have the time, skills, and incentives to speak up. But you all just don’t want to do the work. If other kids suffer, too bad.

The Daventry rezoning went through because there were fewer than 20 high school students from Daventry attending then Lee (Lewis). It has been a while, but I believe the total number was in the low teens.

However, after the rezoning, high school students started coming out of the woodwork from Daventry. Kids who were homeschooling high school. Kids who had switched to Cafholic schools. Military families with high schoolers who would not buy or rent in a house zoned for Lewis. Kids who had pupil placed to other schools for languages or special programs.

The amount of high school students living in Daventry increased exponentially overnight, once FCPS rezoned the neighborhood to WSHS. If I were to guess based off knowing the community, it went from around a 10-20 students who went to Lewis, to easily over 100 the following year after rezoning.

Don't try to kid yourself that rezoning Daventry back to Lewis will bring 100s of WSHS kids to that school.

It would be the same 10-20 students, with everyone else doing what they did before.

Even if it were 100-150 daventry kids, 25-35 kids per grade is not going to transform that school, especially since the kids will be invested more in the West Springfield community and friends theh grew up with.

To get that 500 figure you want, you would need to rezone neighborhoods walkable to WSHS, and neighborhoods deep into the West Springfiled neighborhoods.

Maybe that was the goal of Laura Jane Cohen and the Board of supervisors when they created a back door deal to slice up West Springfield's magisterial districs. She had a lot of support from those neigborhoods but stabbed them in the back. I am sure she would do it again in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone see how hard WS posters are fighting the suggestions that any WS kids ever get zoned to Lewis? Any of the other surrounding schools would be fine.

That is what happens when you concentrate all of the poor and ESL students.

FCPS needs a reckoning on this.

There's no getting around the fact that there is going to be a concentration of "poor and ESL students", as you say, in a particular area. It's the place they can afford to live!

We live in walking distance of West Springfield so I have no fears personally about shifting boundaries, but in terms of community and neighborhood, definitely Lewis and Edison should be your discussion, not Lewis and WS. I too rolled my eyes a bit when Daventry shifted to WSHS from Lewis, but they are, in terms of how our neighborhoods are laid out, definitely a West Springfield community.

My kids went to Rolling Valley which is also a split feeder. About 10% of our students go to Lewis (the rest to WSHS). Every single family I know personally in that Lewis group moved, placed into a specialty program (like stem at Edison), had divorced parents and chose the other parent's high school (like South County), or chose private high school. They should focus on improving Lewis rather than trying to move kids there who have the resources to just choose somewhere else for high school. It won't help enrollment at Lewis at all to shift a few neighborhoods from West Springfield there.

90-10 split feeders are just a bad idea generally. In general, the 10% ends up less invested in the public school system. This isn't just a Lewis issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone see how hard WS posters are fighting the suggestions that any WS kids ever get zoned to Lewis? Any of the other surrounding schools would be fine.

That is what happens when you concentrate all of the poor and ESL students.

FCPS needs a reckoning on this.

There's no getting around the fact that there is going to be a concentration of "poor and ESL students", as you say, in a particular area. It's the place they can afford to live!

We live in walking distance of West Springfield so I have no fears personally about shifting boundaries, but in terms of community and neighborhood, definitely Lewis and Edison should be your discussion, not Lewis and WS. I too rolled my eyes a bit when Daventry shifted to WSHS from Lewis, but they are, in terms of how our neighborhoods are laid out, definitely a West Springfield community.

My kids went to Rolling Valley which is also a split feeder. About 10% of our students go to Lewis (the rest to WSHS). Every single family I know personally in that Lewis group moved, placed into a specialty program (like stem at Edison), had divorced parents and chose the other parent's high school (like South County), or chose private high school. They should focus on improving Lewis rather than trying to move kids there who have the resources to just choose somewhere else for high school. It won't help enrollment at Lewis at all to shift a few neighborhoods from West Springfield there.

So it’s OK to move students from Lewis to West Springfield, but not in the opposite direction? Even though it contributes to West Springfield having over 800 more kids than Lewis (about twice as many more kids than Edison)?

We all know that real change will happen at Lewis only when they move families into the school who have the time, skills, and incentives to speak up. But you all just don’t want to do the work. If other kids suffer, too bad.

The Daventry rezoning went through because there were fewer than 20 high school students from Daventry attending then Lee (Lewis). It has been a while, but I believe the total number was in the low teens.

However, after the rezoning, high school students started coming out of the woodwork from Daventry. Kids who were homeschooling high school. Kids who had switched to Cafholic schools. Military families with high schoolers who would not buy or rent in a house zoned for Lewis. Kids who had pupil placed to other schools for languages or special programs.

The amount of high school students living in Daventry increased exponentially overnight, once FCPS rezoned the neighborhood to WSHS. If I were to guess based off knowing the community, it went from around a 10-20 students who went to Lewis, to easily over 100 the following year after rezoning.

Don't try to kid yourself that rezoning Daventry back to Lewis will bring 100s of WSHS kids to that school.

It would be the same 10-20 students, with everyone else doing what they did before.

Even if it were 100-150 daventry kids, 25-35 kids per grade is not going to transform that school, especially since the kids will be invested more in the West Springfield community and friends theh grew up with.

To get that 500 figure you want, you would need to rezone neighborhoods walkable to WSHS, and neighborhoods deep into the West Springfiled neighborhoods.

Maybe that was the goal of Laura Jane Cohen and the Board of supervisors when they created a back door deal to slice up West Springfield's magisterial districs. She had a lot of support from those neigborhoods but stabbed them in the back. I am sure she would do it again in a heartbeat.

WS has over 2500 kids and Edison 2250. Move 300 from WS and 100 from Edison, replace IB with AP, and provide transportation from Lewis to Edison for rising seniors who want to complete the IB diploma program.

That should get Lewis to over 2000, assuming some attrition and placements to Edison. It would demonstrate a real commitment to putting Lewis on a stronger footing, unlike just changing the school's name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone see how hard WS posters are fighting the suggestions that any WS kids ever get zoned to Lewis? Any of the other surrounding schools would be fine.

That is what happens when you concentrate all of the poor and ESL students.

FCPS needs a reckoning on this.

There's no getting around the fact that there is going to be a concentration of "poor and ESL students", as you say, in a particular area. It's the place they can afford to live!

We live in walking distance of West Springfield so I have no fears personally about shifting boundaries, but in terms of community and neighborhood, definitely Lewis and Edison should be your discussion, not Lewis and WS. I too rolled my eyes a bit when Daventry shifted to WSHS from Lewis, but they are, in terms of how our neighborhoods are laid out, definitely a West Springfield community.

My kids went to Rolling Valley which is also a split feeder. About 10% of our students go to Lewis (the rest to WSHS). Every single family I know personally in that Lewis group moved, placed into a specialty program (like stem at Edison), had divorced parents and chose the other parent's high school (like South County), or chose private high school. They should focus on improving Lewis rather than trying to move kids there who have the resources to just choose somewhere else for high school. It won't help enrollment at Lewis at all to shift a few neighborhoods from West Springfield there.

So it’s OK to move students from Lewis to West Springfield, but not in the opposite direction? Even though it contributes to West Springfield having over 800 more kids than Lewis (about twice as many more kids than Edison)?

We all know that real change will happen at Lewis only when they move families into the school who have the time, skills, and incentives to speak up. But you all just don’t want to do the work. If other kids suffer, too bad.

The Daventry rezoning went through because there were fewer than 20 high school students from Daventry attending then Lee (Lewis). It has been a while, but I believe the total number was in the low teens.

However, after the rezoning, high school students started coming out of the woodwork from Daventry. Kids who were homeschooling high school. Kids who had switched to Cafholic schools. Military families with high schoolers who would not buy or rent in a house zoned for Lewis. Kids who had pupil placed to other schools for languages or special programs.

The amount of high school students living in Daventry increased exponentially overnight, once FCPS rezoned the neighborhood to WSHS. If I were to guess based off knowing the community, it went from around a 10-20 students who went to Lewis, to easily over 100 the following year after rezoning.

Don't try to kid yourself that rezoning Daventry back to Lewis will bring 100s of WSHS kids to that school.

It would be the same 10-20 students, with everyone else doing what they did before.

Even if it were 100-150 daventry kids, 25-35 kids per grade is not going to transform that school, especially since the kids will be invested more in the West Springfield community and friends theh grew up with.

To get that 500 figure you want, you would need to rezone neighborhoods walkable to WSHS, and neighborhoods deep into the West Springfiled neighborhoods.

Maybe that was the goal of Laura Jane Cohen and the Board of supervisors when they created a back door deal to slice up West Springfield's magisterial districs. She had a lot of support from those neigborhoods but stabbed them in the back. I am sure she would do it again in a heartbeat.

Laura Jane Cohen is on the School Board. She had no vote in adjusting the magisterial districts, which was determined by the Board of Supervisors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone see how hard WS posters are fighting the suggestions that any WS kids ever get zoned to Lewis? Any of the other surrounding schools would be fine.

That is what happens when you concentrate all of the poor and ESL students.

FCPS needs a reckoning on this.

There's no getting around the fact that there is going to be a concentration of "poor and ESL students", as you say, in a particular area. It's the place they can afford to live!

We live in walking distance of West Springfield so I have no fears personally about shifting boundaries, but in terms of community and neighborhood, definitely Lewis and Edison should be your discussion, not Lewis and WS. I too rolled my eyes a bit when Daventry shifted to WSHS from Lewis, but they are, in terms of how our neighborhoods are laid out, definitely a West Springfield community.

My kids went to Rolling Valley which is also a split feeder. About 10% of our students go to Lewis (the rest to WSHS). Every single family I know personally in that Lewis group moved, placed into a specialty program (like stem at Edison), had divorced parents and chose the other parent's high school (like South County), or chose private high school. They should focus on improving Lewis rather than trying to move kids there who have the resources to just choose somewhere else for high school. It won't help enrollment at Lewis at all to shift a few neighborhoods from West Springfield there.

90-10 split feeders are just a bad idea generally. In general, the 10% ends up less invested in the public school system. This isn't just a Lewis issue.

I agree.

Unless the schools are very similar with overlapping communities.

Sangster is a good example. Most of the achools goes to Lake Braddock. The neighborhood Sangster sits in goes to West Springfield.

Thos two high schools are very interchangeable, because there is a lot of community overlap from things like little league, swim team, scouts, church, milktary families, etc. There is so much overlap. The WSHS and LBSS communitjes are intertwined. No one in either community would blink an eye over getting rezoned back or forth between either of those schools. They are a shared community, and the two schools are fairly equivalent.

Lewis is different in that it very separate community wise. These is no overlap anywhere. There is even a physical boundary of the mixing bowl.

I personally believe all split feeders should be eliminated wherever possible, certainly those that are less than 10%.

If rezoning were to happen, it should be Sangster to Lake Braddock, and the elimination of the Rolling Valley split feeder, with all of those houses zoned for WSHS.

Saratoga or Lewis should not even be part of the discussion of any rezoning of WSHS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone see how hard WS posters are fighting the suggestions that any WS kids ever get zoned to Lewis? Any of the other surrounding schools would be fine.

That is what happens when you concentrate all of the poor and ESL students.

FCPS needs a reckoning on this.

There's no getting around the fact that there is going to be a concentration of "poor and ESL students", as you say, in a particular area. It's the place they can afford to live!

We live in walking distance of West Springfield so I have no fears personally about shifting boundaries, but in terms of community and neighborhood, definitely Lewis and Edison should be your discussion, not Lewis and WS. I too rolled my eyes a bit when Daventry shifted to WSHS from Lewis, but they are, in terms of how our neighborhoods are laid out, definitely a West Springfield community.

My kids went to Rolling Valley which is also a split feeder. About 10% of our students go to Lewis (the rest to WSHS). Every single family I know personally in that Lewis group moved, placed into a specialty program (like stem at Edison), had divorced parents and chose the other parent's high school (like South County), or chose private high school. They should focus on improving Lewis rather than trying to move kids there who have the resources to just choose somewhere else for high school. It won't help enrollment at Lewis at all to shift a few neighborhoods from West Springfield there.

So it’s OK to move students from Lewis to West Springfield, but not in the opposite direction? Even though it contributes to West Springfield having over 800 more kids than Lewis (about twice as many more kids than Edison)?

We all know that real change will happen at Lewis only when they move families into the school who have the time, skills, and incentives to speak up. But you all just don’t want to do the work. If other kids suffer, too bad.

The Daventry rezoning went through because there were fewer than 20 high school students from Daventry attending then Lee (Lewis). It has been a while, but I believe the total number was in the low teens.

However, after the rezoning, high school students started coming out of the woodwork from Daventry. Kids who were homeschooling high school. Kids who had switched to Cafholic schools. Military families with high schoolers who would not buy or rent in a house zoned for Lewis. Kids who had pupil placed to other schools for languages or special programs.

The amount of high school students living in Daventry increased exponentially overnight, once FCPS rezoned the neighborhood to WSHS. If I were to guess based off knowing the community, it went from around a 10-20 students who went to Lewis, to easily over 100 the following year after rezoning.

Don't try to kid yourself that rezoning Daventry back to Lewis will bring 100s of WSHS kids to that school.

It would be the same 10-20 students, with everyone else doing what they did before.

Even if it were 100-150 daventry kids, 25-35 kids per grade is not going to transform that school, especially since the kids will be invested more in the West Springfield community and friends theh grew up with.

To get that 500 figure you want, you would need to rezone neighborhoods walkable to WSHS, and neighborhoods deep into the West Springfiled neighborhoods.

Maybe that was the goal of Laura Jane Cohen and the Board of supervisors when they created a back door deal to slice up West Springfield's magisterial districs. She had a lot of support from those neigborhoods but stabbed them in the back. I am sure she would do it again in a heartbeat.

Laura Jane Cohen is on the School Board. She had no vote in adjusting the magisterial districts, which was determined by the Board of Supervisors.

Cohen had input. They are all cronies. If she would have fought it, that last minute deal would not have happened. If you look at the voting patterns, that rezoning will not impact Herrity one way or the other. But it did split West Springfield between 3 distrticts, and removed the two neighborhoods physically closest to WSHS from having any school board represe tation in their zoned schools. I would bet money that the backdoor end game was to rezone one of those neigbborhoods to Lewis, with Cohen given the cover so she can wring her hands and tell constituents that she wishes she could help but her hands are tied since she does not represent them any more.

There is always a reason for back door, last minute deals and dramatic behind the scenes plan shifts. Since the redistricting will not likely affect Herrity, one can only assume it was done to affect school rezoning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting. Edison HS is as “overenrolled” as WSHS. It’s closer to Lewis, it’s on the same side of the mixing bowl as Lewis, but the Lewis crowd is only obsessively fixated on West Springfield.

Yeah, I think that's because WSHS is a very well-rated high school with high test scores. Edison is not. We just moved to the WSHS area 2 years ago away from the Edison pyramid because of that high school. I know some people like the IB program there but it wasn't for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting. Edison HS is as “overenrolled” as WSHS. It’s closer to Lewis, it’s on the same side of the mixing bowl as Lewis, but the Lewis crowd is only obsessively fixated on West Springfield.

Yeah, I think that's because WSHS is a very well-rated high school with high test scores. Edison is not. We just moved to the WSHS area 2 years ago away from the Edison pyramid because of that high school. I know some people like the IB program there but it wasn't for us.

Rezoning between two high FARMs schools when adjacent schools are richer and better preforming is a terrible look and everyone on the school board realizes it.