FCPS Ready to Screw Poorer/GenEd Kids Again

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was it unanimous?
All of Oakton, Marshall, and Mosby that go to a Oakton will now feed to Thoreau?
When does it go into effect?

yes
yes
this fall

[Anonymous]

Order of events to come:

1. Jackson will end up poorer over the next several years (simple fact of this boundary change)
2. More parents will choose to keep their AAP students at Thoreau for Local Level IV instead of sending them to the Jackson AAP center
3. Scores will slip at Jackson
4. Great School score will drop at Jackson
5. New families will avoid schools that feed Jackson and Falls Church (just as Falls Church was starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel)
6. Some families who currently live in Jackson and Falls Church feeder areas will leave
7. Falls Church elementary feeders will see a decline in scores
8. Jackson and Falls Church will suffer further

This pattern has been seen before. They don't seem to learn. Perhaps the AAP Center can save Jackson, but the option to have Local Level IV at Thoreau really undercuts that program. And only two of the pyramid elementary schools remaining at Jackson will have a F/R lunch rate below 60%

No doubt that One Fairfax is a farce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The most idiotic part was when the board talked about how they were reducing split feeders as they were creating a 3-way split feeder out of Thoreau onto high school.

Disgraceful. They all need to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it unanimous?
All of Oakton, Marshall, and Mosby that go to a Oakton will now feed to Thoreau?
When does it go into effect?

yes
yes
this fall

Wow! I am happy about it, but I am surprised it was unanimous. This thread made me anticipate acrimony. Well, for the past 20 years, folks living in Vienna 22181 have been wanting this. So, it seems right. Jerryrigging boundaries for politics or for “diversity” is never the best option. My DC will stay at LJ, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Order of events to come:

1. Jackson will end up poorer over the next several years (simple fact of this boundary change)
2. More parents will choose to keep their AAP students at Thoreau for Local Level IV instead of sending them to the Jackson AAP center
3. Scores will slip at Jackson
4. Great School score will drop at Jackson
5. New families will avoid schools that feed Jackson and Falls Church (just as Falls Church was starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel)
6. Some families who currently live in Jackson and Falls Church feeder areas will leave
7. Falls Church elementary feeders will see a decline in scores
8. Jackson and Falls Church will suffer further

This pattern has been seen before. They don't seem to learn. Perhaps the AAP Center can save Jackson, but the option to have Local Level IV at Thoreau really undercuts that program. And only two of the pyramid elementary schools remaining at Jackson will have a F/R lunch rate below 60%

No doubt that One Fairfax is a farce.

I agree with everything you've said.

The only things those schools have going for them are their location and the fact that by 2024 Falls Church HS should be renovated.

But, in general, parents aren't stupid, and they pick up on whether the School Board and FCPS care about their schools or not.

Where Jackson and Falls Church are concerned, it's years of benign neglect followed by a conscious decision to ramp up the poverty rates at Jackson. When FCPS sends the message that it couldn't give a crap about maintaining some type of demographic balance at Jackson and Falls Church, parents will leave before Jackson becomes the next Poe MS (FARMS rates went from 52% to 72% in less than a decade following a redistricting) and avoid the area like the plague.

Congratulations, School Board. We needed more basket-case schools and you are always more than happy to oblige.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha! I told you about 16 pages ago that this ship has sailed. Unanimous.

Agreed. I think we all knew that. However the fact that there was no discussion tells me that One Fairfax is a farce.

The funniest part was Palchik made the motion and Keys-Gamarra seconded it. It might as well have been "I move that we redistrict the wealthiest neighborhoods currently assigned to Luther Jackson MS to Thoreau MS and promote the concentration of low-income and minority students at what was once a segregated high school and can yet again be a segregated middle school."

They could not be bigger hypocrites if they tried. Keys-Gamarra is a complete tool and liar.

Couldn't agree more. It was almost as ridiculous as watching Storck and Smith vote against the 5 cent rate increase in 2016. Just so dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Order of events to come:

1. Jackson will end up poorer over the next several years (simple fact of this boundary change)
2. More parents will choose to keep their AAP students at Thoreau for Local Level IV instead of sending them to the Jackson AAP center
3. Scores will slip at Jackson
4. Great School score will drop at Jackson
5. New families will avoid schools that feed Jackson and Falls Church (just as Falls Church was starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel)
6. Some families who currently live in Jackson and Falls Church feeder areas will leave
7. Falls Church elementary feeders will see a decline in scores
8. Jackson and Falls Church will suffer further

This pattern has been seen before. They don't seem to learn. Perhaps the AAP Center can save Jackson, but the option to have Local Level IV at Thoreau really undercuts that program. And only two of the pyramid elementary schools remaining at Jackson will have a F/R lunch rate below 60%

No doubt that One Fairfax is a farce.

Re #2, they'll keep their kids at Thoreau for LLIV and at some point demand that Thoreau be formally designated as a center just like Cooper and Lanier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Order of events to come:

1. Jackson will end up poorer over the next several years (simple fact of this boundary change)
2. More parents will choose to keep their AAP students at Thoreau for Local Level IV instead of sending them to the Jackson AAP center
3. Scores will slip at Jackson
4. Great School score will drop at Jackson
5. New families will avoid schools that feed Jackson and Falls Church (just as Falls Church was starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel)
6. Some families who currently live in Jackson and Falls Church feeder areas will leave
7. Falls Church elementary feeders will see a decline in scores
8. Jackson and Falls Church will suffer further

This pattern has been seen before. They don't seem to learn. Perhaps the AAP Center can save Jackson, but the option to have Local Level IV at Thoreau really undercuts that program. And only two of the pyramid elementary schools remaining at Jackson will have a F/R lunch rate below 60%

No doubt that One Fairfax is a farce.

Re #2, they'll keep their kids at Thoreau for LLIV and at some point demand that Thoreau be formally designated as a center just like Cooper and Lanier.

You left out that the number of kids getting into TJ from Jackson will go down and that will be seen as further evidence of the school's decline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Order of events to come:

1. Jackson will end up poorer over the next several years (simple fact of this boundary change)
2. More parents will choose to keep their AAP students at Thoreau for Local Level IV instead of sending them to the Jackson AAP center
3. Scores will slip at Jackson
4. Great School score will drop at Jackson
5. New families will avoid schools that feed Jackson and Falls Church (just as Falls Church was starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel)
6. Some families who currently live in Jackson and Falls Church feeder areas will leave
7. Falls Church elementary feeders will see a decline in scores
8. Jackson and Falls Church will suffer further

This pattern has been seen before. They don't seem to learn. Perhaps the AAP Center can save Jackson, but the option to have Local Level IV at Thoreau really undercuts that program. And only two of the pyramid elementary schools remaining at Jackson will have a F/R lunch rate below 60%

No doubt that One Fairfax is a farce.

Re #2, they'll keep their kids at Thoreau for LLIV and at some point demand that Thoreau be formally designated as a center just like Cooper and Lanier.

You left out that the number of kids getting into TJ from Jackson will go down and that will be seen as further evidence of the school's decline.

Hasn't it already been losing steam? Thoreau, on the other hand, has been gaining steam in the rate of applicants getting into TJ. It had nothing to do with the rezoning. Probably related to the AAP program becoming more established. That said, I wouldn't expect either one to be sending a lot of kids to TJ. Parents in these zones simply don't want TJ as much as parents in Carson/RR/Cooper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Order of events to come:

1. Jackson will end up poorer over the next several years (simple fact of this boundary change)
2. More parents will choose to keep their AAP students at Thoreau for Local Level IV instead of sending them to the Jackson AAP center
3. Scores will slip at Jackson
4. Great School score will drop at Jackson
5. New families will avoid schools that feed Jackson and Falls Church (just as Falls Church was starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel)
6. Some families who currently live in Jackson and Falls Church feeder areas will leave
7. Falls Church elementary feeders will see a decline in scores
8. Jackson and Falls Church will suffer further

This pattern has been seen before. They don't seem to learn. Perhaps the AAP Center can save Jackson, but the option to have Local Level IV at Thoreau really undercuts that program. And only two of the pyramid elementary schools remaining at Jackson will have a F/R lunch rate below 60%

No doubt that One Fairfax is a farce.

Re #2, they'll keep their kids at Thoreau for LLIV and at some point demand that Thoreau be formally designated as a center just like Cooper and Lanier.

You left out that the number of kids getting into TJ from Jackson will go down and that will be seen as further evidence of the school's decline.

Hasn't it already been losing steam? Thoreau, on the other hand, has been gaining steam in the rate of applicants getting into TJ. It had nothing to do with the rezoning. Probably related to the AAP program becoming more established. That said, I wouldn't expect either one to be sending a lot of kids to TJ. Parents in these zones simply don't want TJ as much as parents in Carson/RR/Cooper.

Which is exactly why it should have been figured into the equation. Yes. Thoreau recently started an AAP LLIV center and it has been gaining steam. So why then would FCPS facilities propose a boundary decision that not only would take out the wealthiest neighborhoods of Jackson but also assume that all the AAP students would stay at Jackson? FCPS is just nuts.

[Anonymous]

I oppose what they did, but actually it benefits me in the short term. I just see the stupidity of the move.

[Anonymous]

I think the AAP center and the local level 4 with be more balanced (in numbers) in the future. Maybe not this coming year, but in the next few years. LJ will still have a strong AAP group. But, in stead of LJ having an AAP class of 225 and TMS having a class of 100, LJ's AAP classes might be 175 and TMS might be 150.

I think that is a good thing. 175 is still a very strong class size for a MS AAP grade.

[Anonymous]

Having two AAP centers that are smaller will cost the school district more money and will not help Jackson remain strong academically. Eventually they will stop giving a choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having two AAP centers that are smaller will cost the school district more money and will not help Jackson remain strong academically. Eventually they will stop giving a choice.

Thoreau will then become overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the AAP center and the local level 4 with be more balanced (in numbers) in the future. Maybe not this coming year, but in the next few years. LJ will still have a strong AAP group. But, in stead of LJ having an AAP class of 225 and TMS having a class of 100, LJ's AAP classes might be 175 and TMS might be 150.

I think that is a good thing. 175 is still a very strong class size for a MS AAP grade.

Don't agree. Right now LJ only has 390 in AAP, so that's 195 per grade. I'd expect it to shrink to about 250 in a few years (125 per class).

It will be a weak program within a majority FARMS school sending few kids to TJ and attracting progressively fewer kids. At some point the Thoreau parents will demand that it have formal center status, and there's no reason to think they'd get turned down. Time has shown they get what they want.