Boundaries assessment update 2023

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Came across this letter from 2019 - it's kind of sad because you have a loyal Democrat in the Mount Vernon district thinking somehow FCPS was going to adjust the West Potomac/Mount Vernon boundary to take advantage of capacity at MV and boost MV's academics and programs.

Didn't happen then, probably won't happen now. Especially since Corbett Sanders went right along with expanding West Potomac to 3000 seats.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2019/aug/12/opinion-letter-editor-get-involved-boundary-proces/

It turns out that no one wants to be rezoned so that a terrible school can be slightly less terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Hunt Valley/Orange Hunt/WSHS thing would be easy. 1) cut off HV south of the parkway and send those kids to Newington Forest. That gets them out of the WSHS pyramid entirely since Newington Forest goes to South County. Which is probably about the same distance as WSHS for those kids.

2) change overcrowded OH boundaries to send some kids to now under capacity HV. The schools are physically quite close to one another so you have plenty of options. Also in that area, a not insignificant number of families would elect to stay at OH for the German immersion program so you could likely pick up a larger section of OH’s current boundaries than you might think.

3) if possible, fix the Rolling Valley split feeder and send all the kids to Irving/WSHS if there is still capacity at WSHS.

Now OH and HV aren’t bursting at the seams and we’ve even done a little to fix overenrollment at WSHS. And no one is getting bussed down the parkway to the other side of 95 to do it.

We're at RVES (Irving and WSHS) and it really stinks that Rolling Valley is a split feeder, because most years it's only about 10% of the class that goes to Key/Lee. I wish they would change it either way - either have those kids go to Irving/WSHS or change them to a different elementary school, like Saratoga, with more student who go to Key/Lee. But those few kids aren't really going to make a difference at either school.

How about fixing the Rolling Valley split feeder by sending the RV (split) students to Saratoga? They already go to Key and Lewis. Those split students will ride a bus to elementary school regardless if they are at RV or Saratoga. And Saratoga is close and has plenty of room. You can fix it at the lower level instead of the higher level.

Rolling valley inside the parkway should stay at WSHS.

They are within walking distance of WSHS.

They are the 2nd closet elementary after Cardinal Forest to WSHS.

No rezoning should involve moving any houses from walkable to a bus ride.

None of the kids zoned to RV, Key, and Lewis are within walking distance of West Springfield HS. At least not a practical day after day walk. That is the very south end of the RV boundary. Many probably don't even walk to RV. Sure, you could walk to WSHS, but no parent is going to let that happen every day.

I don't actually expect the county to rezone those kids to Saratoga, just pointing out there is another way to close the split feeder.

I wouldn't be surprised if they do close the split feeder by moving those RV kids to WSHS. And further reducing the catchment area for Lewis. Why would they stop screwing Lewis now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Came across this letter from 2019 - it's kind of sad because you have a loyal Democrat in the Mount Vernon district thinking somehow FCPS was going to adjust the West Potomac/Mount Vernon boundary to take advantage of capacity at MV and boost MV's academics and programs.

Didn't happen then, probably won't happen now. Especially since Corbett Sanders went right along with expanding West Potomac to 3000 seats.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2019/aug/12/opinion-letter-editor-get-involved-boundary-proces/

It turns out that no one wants to be rezoned so that a terrible school can be slightly less terrible.

You're an ugly person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Came across this letter from 2019 - it's kind of sad because you have a loyal Democrat in the Mount Vernon district thinking somehow FCPS was going to adjust the West Potomac/Mount Vernon boundary to take advantage of capacity at MV and boost MV's academics and programs.

Didn't happen then, probably won't happen now. Especially since Corbett Sanders went right along with expanding West Potomac to 3000 seats.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2019/aug/12/opinion-letter-editor-get-involved-boundary-proces/

It turns out that no one wants to be rezoned so that a terrible school can be slightly less terrible.

You're an ugly person.

Are we not allowed to say that a school in constant danger of losing accreditation where 1% of students manage to get pass advanced on math sols is a terrible school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Came across this letter from 2019 - it's kind of sad because you have a loyal Democrat in the Mount Vernon district thinking somehow FCPS was going to adjust the West Potomac/Mount Vernon boundary to take advantage of capacity at MV and boost MV's academics and programs.

Didn't happen then, probably won't happen now. Especially since Corbett Sanders went right along with expanding West Potomac to 3000 seats.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2019/aug/12/opinion-letter-editor-get-involved-boundary-proces/

It turns out that no one wants to be rezoned so that a terrible school can be slightly less terrible.

You're an ugly person.

Are we not allowed to say that a school in constant danger of losing accreditation where 1% of students manage to get pass advanced on math sols is a terrible school?

You are going to find most schools to have more students getting pass proficient than pass advanced on recent math SOLs. And MV is currently fully accredited, not accredited with conditions.

You're still a jerk.

[Anonymous]

Our ES is Lorton station we live about .5 mile away. We are zoned for Hayfield MS & HS about 5 miles from our house. Which makes no sense since South County 1.8 miles away. I just want my kid to go to the closest school. Not to be bused to a school that is more than twice the miles away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our ES is Lorton station we live about .5 mile away. We are zoned for Hayfield MS & HS about 5 miles from our house. Which makes no sense since South County 1.8 miles away. I just want my kid to go to the closest school. Not to be bused to a school that is more than twice the miles away.

They can’t really change where the schools are already located. If I recall, Hayfield’s boundaries are long and narrow but everything zoned to Hayfield is fairly close to Telegraph Road, so there was some logic to it. A lot of the area closer to Hayfield is either park land or part of Fort Belvoir.

[Anonymous]

Just crazy my kid is a 10 minute ride from south county but 20+ minute ride to get to Hayfield. We are closer to Amazon fresh than telegraph road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lewis is so small now that it even makes practical sense to shut it down as a base school and use it for a specialized site like an expansive IAESP program. The Board and community have clearly shown they favor the 3000-student base HS model. In many ways it is more efficient and better for kids to attend large base schools than holding on to small schools.

Despite the overcrowding issues affecting our western schools, there has been zero interest or initiative in taking advantage of available capacity at under-enrolled schools anyway so it isn't a loss of a building.

That sort of idea (closing Lewis as a base school and turning it into an IB magnet for that whole part of the county + ending IB at the other nearby schools) was under consideration at some point maybe 8-10 years ago when Lewis was in serious danger of losing accreditation. Now the accreditation rules have been changed so the situation appears better, even though it’s not. Key MS would have been turned into a middle school IB magnet, and the Key/Lewis feeder elementaries would have been reassigned to the nearby pyramids. It made more sense to me then turning it into the “social Justice program” or whatever they were trying to call it, even if I thought it was fuzzy math that the surrounding HS’s would have supported another 1 or even 2 feeder elementary schools because “so many people would pick the IB magnet school that fewer kids would be attending the zoned HS and it would all even out.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ES is Lorton station we live about .5 mile away. We are zoned for Hayfield MS & HS about 5 miles from our house. Which makes no sense since South County 1.8 miles away. I just want my kid to go to the closest school. Not to be bused to a school that is more than twice the miles away.

They can’t really change where the schools are already located. If I recall, Hayfield’s boundaries are long and narrow but everything zoned to Hayfield is fairly close to Telegraph Road, so there was some logic to it. A lot of the area closer to Hayfield is either park land or part of Fort Belvoir.

They could send the southern part of Hayfield to South County, expand Hayfield south to grab the homes along Jeff Todd and RT1, and then back fill MVHS with an ES from Ft Hunt. It might help MVHS, but it would make Hayfield and West Po significantly worse, so it will never happen

[Anonymous]

Not always a lot of praise for Lewis HS here so dropping a note that the boys soccer team has made the Class 6 state soccer final tomorrow. Go Lancers!

Other area schools that have won state championships this spring include Langley, Madison, McLean, and Oakton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Came across this letter from 2019 - it's kind of sad because you have a loyal Democrat in the Mount Vernon district thinking somehow FCPS was going to adjust the West Potomac/Mount Vernon boundary to take advantage of capacity at MV and boost MV's academics and programs.

Didn't happen then, probably won't happen now. Especially since Corbett Sanders went right along with expanding West Potomac to 3000 seats.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2019/aug/12/opinion-letter-editor-get-involved-boundary-proces/

It turns out that no one wants to be rezoned so that a terrible school can be slightly less terrible.

You're an ugly person.

Are we not allowed to say that a school in constant danger of losing accreditation where 1% of students manage to get pass advanced on math sols is a terrible school?

You are going to find most schools to have more students getting pass proficient than pass advanced on recent math SOLs. And MV is currently fully accredited, not accredited with conditions.

You're still a jerk.

DP people in WSHS pyramid won't willingly go along with redistricting because real estate values would tank. A lot of that market is military families and they will no longer buy/rent there if zoned to a bad school. Not so easy to get elected officials to pull the trigger on rezoning when it comes with consequences to their constituents.

[Anonymous]

Redrawing boundaries does not fix the problem. Good, solid instruction is the best way.

I don't think taxpayers begrudge putting extra funds where it is most needed. However, an "academy" like KKG is planning is not the answer. Much better would be to get the struggling students direct instructional help--aka "tutoring." Get them involved in school activities and quit telling them that they are victims who cannot succeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Came across this letter from 2019 - it's kind of sad because you have a loyal Democrat in the Mount Vernon district thinking somehow FCPS was going to adjust the West Potomac/Mount Vernon boundary to take advantage of capacity at MV and boost MV's academics and programs.

Didn't happen then, probably won't happen now. Especially since Corbett Sanders went right along with expanding West Potomac to 3000 seats.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2019/aug/12/opinion-letter-editor-get-involved-boundary-proces/

It turns out that no one wants to be rezoned so that a terrible school can be slightly less terrible.

You're an ugly person.

Are we not allowed to say that a school in constant danger of losing accreditation where 1% of students manage to get pass advanced on math sols is a terrible school?

You are going to find most schools to have more students getting pass proficient than pass advanced on recent math SOLs. And MV is currently fully accredited, not accredited with conditions.

You're still a jerk.

DP people in WSHS pyramid won't willingly go along with redistricting because real estate values would tank. A lot of that market is military families and they will no longer buy/rent there if zoned to a bad school. Not so easy to get elected officials to pull the trigger on rezoning when it comes with consequences to their constituents.

Propping up real estate values isn't a valid reason to avoid boundary discussions. FCPS caters specifically to the Fort Belvoir military community with their two ES schools within Fort Belvoir and the MVHS pyramid. It doesn't make sense that the status quo is for parents on base to transfer out of their initial pyramid fter ES so that they can get a good education. That needs to be addressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Came across this letter from 2019 - it's kind of sad because you have a loyal Democrat in the Mount Vernon district thinking somehow FCPS was going to adjust the West Potomac/Mount Vernon boundary to take advantage of capacity at MV and boost MV's academics and programs.

Didn't happen then, probably won't happen now. Especially since Corbett Sanders went right along with expanding West Potomac to 3000 seats.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2019/aug/12/opinion-letter-editor-get-involved-boundary-proces/

It turns out that no one wants to be rezoned so that a terrible school can be slightly less terrible.

You're an ugly person.

Are we not allowed to say that a school in constant danger of losing accreditation where 1% of students manage to get pass advanced on math sols is a terrible school?

You are going to find most schools to have more students getting pass proficient than pass advanced on recent math SOLs. And MV is currently fully accredited, not accredited with conditions.

You're still a jerk.

DP people in WSHS pyramid won't willingly go along with redistricting because real estate values would tank. A lot of that market is military families and they will no longer buy/rent there if zoned to a bad school. Not so easy to get elected officials to pull the trigger on rezoning when it comes with consequences to their constituents.

Propping up real estate values isn't a valid reason to avoid boundary discussions. FCPS caters specifically to the Fort Belvoir military community with their two ES schools within Fort Belvoir and the MVHS pyramid. It doesn't make sense that the status quo is for parents on base to transfer out of their initial pyramid fter ES so that they can get a good education. That needs to be addressed.

+1. The mess in that area is due to local politicians like Karen Corbett Sanders and Scott Surovell - both raging hypocrites.