Mythical Western HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

McLean HS needs a renovation, but not sure that is the solution for Chantilly/Centerville. I know these HS are overcrowded, but it seems like families with young kids are still flocking to buy into these pyramids - they must assume (incorrectly) that the SB will fix this long term. I read somewhere that children per household is very very high in McLean - if that continues, especially as the older residents there die off/go to assisted living, overcrowding will always be a problem.

The schools are good and the community is diverse. Chantilly and Centreville have been overcrowded for decades-that's why Westfield was built.

I don't think the people at Chantilly are as concerned about the overcrowding because the school seems to know how to deal with it and it is a compact area..There are lots of "niches" for kids with various activities. I cannot speak for Centreville.

Translation: they put up with it because they don’t want to be redistricted to schools that are either much further away (and also quite big) or schools that are lower ranked. The School Board knows this, so they can continue to ignore the overcrowding there until more people press for relief.

Also, several School Board members have affirmatively misled McLean families over the past decade, whereas it seems Chantilly just gets ignored. Neither is great, but the former may tend to offend people more.

For Centreville their “solution” for now is to expand the school to 3000 seats, and it’s clear there are mixed feelings about whether people want their kids at a school that large.

Meanwhile Loudoun keeps finding land and building brand-new schools designed for no more than 2100 or so students. Especially if you can work remotely, why stay in Fairfax now when they just seem to offer up excuses and incompetence by comparison?

[Anonymous]

Loudoun still has farms/former farms it can pave over.

Fairfax is significantly different.

Nevertheless, if you must or want to utilize government schools moving to Loudoun could be the best idea for some.

[Anonymous]

I get that Loudoun has more land but they are also have more self-discipline and consistency.

There is no rhyme or reason to what FCPS does. One of their main planning tools is a renovation queue developed over 15 years ago. Obviously it’s out of date now when it comes to identifying schools with the biggest capacity needs.

And they deviate from it randomly. Since the queue was developed they’ve built additions that weren’t planned or reflected in the queue at South Lakes, West Potomac, Madison, and now Justice. But Chantilly and McLean get ignored.

Their approach to boundary changes vs additions is also random and inconsistent. When West Potomac got overcrowded they built a huge addition to expand its capacity to 3000 students even though Mount Vernon had space. But when Annandale and McLean got overcrowded, they shipped kids off to Woodson and Langley, respectively.

So there are no clear guiding principles, no consistency, and no obvious competence brought to bear - just different people in a position to throw around their weight doing so when they can. At a certain point it sours one’s trust in FCPS because if they behave this erratically when it comes to facilities they certainly must do likewise when it comes to other matters - academics, discipline, HR, special education services, etc.

It is not a first-rate system any longer, and the Democrats who’ve overseen its decline are playing right into the hands of right-wing types who want to defund public schools and shift to a voucher system where the state funds students rather than school districts. I wish they’d clean up their act before it’s too late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get that Loudoun has more land but they are also have more self-discipline and consistency.

There is no rhyme or reason to what FCPS does. One of their main planning tools is a renovation queue developed over 15 years ago. Obviously it’s out of date now when it comes to identifying schools with the biggest capacity needs.

And they deviate from it randomly. Since the queue was developed they’ve built additions that weren’t planned or reflected in the queue at South Lakes, West Potomac, Madison, and now Justice. But Chantilly and McLean get ignored.

Their approach to boundary changes vs additions is also random and inconsistent. When West Potomac got overcrowded they built a huge addition to expand its capacity to 3000 students even though Mount Vernon had space. But when Annandale and McLean got overcrowded, they shipped kids off to Woodson and Langley, respectively.

So there are no clear guiding principles, no consistency, and no obvious competence brought to bear - just different people in a position to throw around their weight doing so when they can. At a certain point it sours one’s trust in FCPS because if they behave this erratically when it comes to facilities they certainly must do likewise when it comes to other matters - academics, discipline, HR, special education services, etc.

It is not a first-rate system any longer, and the Democrats who’ve overseen its decline are playing right into the hands of right-wing types who want to defund public schools and shift to a voucher system where the state funds students rather than school districts. I wish they’d clean up their act before it’s too late.

^ and just to tie this back to the thread topic when Loudoun says it plans to build a new high school people believe them. When Fairfax says it plans to build a new high school people say it’s “mythical.” Notice the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

How can you build a facility of any size like this in Great Falls? Are these 1950 kids going to catch a bus to Langley to take a poo as well? Anyway, I don’t see Great Falls residents happy to send their kids to a high school without practice fields or other amenities that would be the runt of FCPS. It wouldn’t even be a Class 6 school for VHSL purposes.

Did you read what I wrote? The Hickory Run School Site and an adjoining park totals over 25 acres, and there's an HOA-owned lot across the street that's another 24 acres. Langley HS sits on something like 42 acres, but half of that is fields and trees. A 20-acre, 1900 student STEM-focused HS/MS complex is completely doable, especially if a parking garage is used instead of surface lots.

If it were up to me, I'd get rid of the expense of school athletics entirely, since playing games is not all that educational. But kids who are already taking a bus to Langley could still take a bus to Langley if they want to do sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How can you build a facility of any size like this in Great Falls? Are these 1950 kids going to catch a bus to Langley to take a poo as well? Anyway, I don’t see Great Falls residents happy to send their kids to a high school without practice fields or other amenities that would be the runt of FCPS. It wouldn’t even be a Class 6 school for VHSL purposes.

Did you read what I wrote? The Hickory Run School Site and an adjoining park totals over 25 acres, and there's an HOA-owned lot across the street that's another 24 acres. Langley HS sits on something like 42 acres, but half of that is fields and trees. A 20-acre, 1900 student STEM-focused HS/MS complex is completely doable, especially if a parking garage is used instead of surface lots.

If it were up to me, I'd get rid of the expense of school athletics entirely, since playing games is not all that educational. But kids who are already taking a bus to Langley could still take a bus to Langley if they want to do sports.

So if I understand this you’re basically suggesting that a Great Falls SS with about 2000 kids would be an auxiliary of Cooper MS and Langley HS, where kids would take classes in the new building but do sports and other extra-curriculars as part of Langley. Relatedly, you’d then move kids from most of the ES feeders in McLean from McLean to the current Langley building, and let McLean become Tysons High?

Yeah, don’t think that’s going to fly. Langley families didn’t want their kids to travel a few miles to Marshall for Chinese when it wasn’t offered at Langley, so what happens when a class offered at Langley can’t be offered at new Great Falls SS due to its small size. And McLean woukd probably insist on more trailers before they’d cede both Franklin Sherman and Chesterbrook to Langley.

But I gather that you could put a 2000-student school there and it wouldn’t be impracticable because of waste/septic issues? That’s good to know - perhaps the time might come for a different new school there. God knows some of those kids have long trips now to Cooper and Langley.

[Anonymous]

They should allow more kids in the union mill neighborhood attend Robinson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How can you build a facility of any size like this in Great Falls? Are these 1950 kids going to catch a bus to Langley to take a poo as well? Anyway, I don’t see Great Falls residents happy to send their kids to a high school without practice fields or other amenities that would be the runt of FCPS. It wouldn’t even be a Class 6 school for VHSL purposes.

Did you read what I wrote? The Hickory Run School Site and an adjoining park totals over 25 acres, and there's an HOA-owned lot across the street that's another 24 acres. Langley HS sits on something like 42 acres, but half of that is fields and trees. A 20-acre, 1900 student STEM-focused HS/MS complex is completely doable, especially if a parking garage is used instead of surface lots.

If it were up to me, I'd get rid of the expense of school athletics entirely, since playing games is not all that educational. But kids who are already taking a bus to Langley could still take a bus to Langley if they want to do sports.

Everything else aside, the septic issue would make this all but impossible. Fairfax County isn't going to build a 2000-student complex with septic. Someone smarter than me can do the math, but the drain field would have to be huge. (The Hickory Run proposal -- which became Colvin Run -- was only 650 students.)

[Anonymous]

If it were up to me, I'd get rid of the expense of school athletics entirely, since playing games is not all that educational.

Strongly disagree.
Sports teaches a lot about working together and how to lose--as well as how to win. It helps develop resilience, too. Plus, it is physical activity.

[Anonymous]

There's a big difference between the Loudoun County (at large) population and FFX County (at large). Loudoun doesn't mind redistricting in ways that make sense because all of the schools are high performing and there aren't pockets of poverty that will impact school ratings. FFX not only has pockets of poverty it has schools with drastically different ratings that people base real estate decisions around and are willing to fight tooth and nail to keep their investment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a big difference between the Loudoun County (at large) population and FFX County (at large). Loudoun doesn't mind redistricting in ways that make sense because all of the schools are high performing and there aren't pockets of poverty that will impact school ratings. FFX not only has pockets of poverty it has schools with drastically different ratings that people base real estate decisions around and are willing to fight tooth and nail to keep their investment.

Fight tooth and nail to keep their children in the school they chose and gave up other things to purchase for their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a big difference between the Loudoun County (at large) population and FFX County (at large). Loudoun doesn't mind redistricting in ways that make sense because all of the schools are high performing and there aren't pockets of poverty that will impact school ratings. FFX not only has pockets of poverty it has schools with drastically different ratings that people base real estate decisions around and are willing to fight tooth and nail to keep their investment.

Fight tooth and nail to keep their children in the school they chose and gave up other things to purchase for their children.

That's not sound reasoning. It's not our job now as taxpayers to indefinitely fund facilities at your specific school so that nothing ever changes for your situation. There are 24 other high schools that have needs too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a big difference between the Loudoun County (at large) population and FFX County (at large). Loudoun doesn't mind redistricting in ways that make sense because all of the schools are high performing and there aren't pockets of poverty that will impact school ratings. FFX not only has pockets of poverty it has schools with drastically different ratings that people base real estate decisions around and are willing to fight tooth and nail to keep their investment.

The joke is on them. The FCPS system, having developed a reputation for being inconsistent, unprincipled, unmanageable, and hypocritical, is fast going down the tubes. I’ll remind you again - they have now said for years they plan to build a new western high school and I’d bet at least half the people familiar with the issue think it’s one giant farce. You can’t have a system where there is so little trust in what the leaders and School Board officials have to say and not have it decline. It needs a near-total overhaul.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a big difference between the Loudoun County (at large) population and FFX County (at large). Loudoun doesn't mind redistricting in ways that make sense because all of the schools are high performing and there aren't pockets of poverty that will impact school ratings. FFX not only has pockets of poverty it has schools with drastically different ratings that people base real estate decisions around and are willing to fight tooth and nail to keep their investment.

Fight tooth and nail to keep their children in the school they chose and gave up other things to purchase for their children.

That's not sound reasoning. It's not our job now as taxpayers to indefinitely fund facilities at your specific school so that nothing ever changes for your situation. There are 24 other high schools that have needs too.

The problem there is that the decisions they make very rarely can be explained as having been made in the interests of students, families, or taxpayers as a whole. It’s been whatever Jeff Platenberg or individual School Board members could get away with to benefit their own friends and neighborhoods.

So once people see that it’s all been an exercise in power politics, it’s a little difficult to ask them to step back and defer to the greater good. All they see is that they are going to continue to be treated like sh*t when areas a few miles away got the golden gloves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a big difference between the Loudoun County (at large) population and FFX County (at large). Loudoun doesn't mind redistricting in ways that make sense because all of the schools are high performing and there aren't pockets of poverty that will impact school ratings. FFX not only has pockets of poverty it has schools with drastically different ratings that people base real estate decisions around and are willing to fight tooth and nail to keep their investment.

Of course there are pockets of poverty in LCPS - Sterling Park?? Probably others up around Leesburg as well.