The school board is voting on that question in Dec. Given budget restraints at FCPS it is unlikely to pass. |
They havent decided for sure. But Reid said multiple times last night that the boundary review touches every middle and high school so they wouldn’t have the capacity to offer transportation. Which I thought was odd because the changes clearly don’t touch every school. |
Proving yet again all of this time and effort is for show. Reid gets what Reid wants or what the SB tells her what to want. Either way blind leading the blind. |
I’m the PP and yes, that’s what I meant. Sangster parents apparently believe LBSS is a crime-ridden dump where predatory seniors hit on 12 year old girls on the bus and in the halls and kids get hung on lockers and bullied. Sangster parents made it clear last night LBSS is really terrible. I guess it’s reputation as a good school is false. My big take away is that Sangster and White Oak changes to close those split feeders and the attendance island will get reversed now. They’ll focus on areas that haven’t complained like Daventry and West Soringfield and reopen the changes they reversed from Scenario 3. Someone has to move and now it’s clear Sangster kids avoiding LBSS is the priority because the school is terrible and it’s 2 miles further away than WSHS. Most likely it means hundreds of kids will get moved to Lewis and South County. West Soringfield neighborhoods are going to go to war with each other. I hope Racha and Sandy are pleased at what they’ve accomplished. |
It wasn’t that dramatic I would say. A couple of people did mention that they have strong feelings about secondary schools in general. I think most people agree that LB is a great school. No one else said anything bad about it. |
I spent 2+ hours listening to people complain about having to move to LBSS because it’s not part of their community (even though the rest of Sangster goes there) and how far away it is and how people want their babies to be babies and not surrounded by upper classmen. It sounds terrible. I’ve only been there for games and it looked okay to me but it sounds really bad with a lot of bullying and abuse towards 7th and 8th graders. |
I didn’t say on that long. I lasted an hour and then zoomed out. To me, the most compelling arguments were the Irving middle school kids with siblings at WSHS who will be going to LBSS. Parents may have kids at 2 different high schools next year and I don’t think that is a good thing. It can be easily fixed with grandfathering siblings. From there, the secondary school bussing issue is not something I have heard about, but I can see the point. However, lots of Sangster parents deal with that already because most of that school goes to LBSS currently. |
|
The parent who made the bus comment was a white oaks parent. Not Sangster. I heard many people say LBSS is a great school it’s just not the middle school and HS experience they went for their student, which is a valid point. Please don’t lump all of together and make accusations like that.
Neither WO or Sangster parents threw any other neighborhoods under the bus with suggesting they “pick them” instead. I heard overwhelmingly that they consider slowing these decisions down and reexamine data. Perhaps voting on a partial county boundary change to allow more time with accurate data be examined in this area. |
All the other concerns were unrelated to the school’s quality. People just wanted to stay where they are. Same with white oaks parents not attacking cherry run. |
|
People who don’t understand the nuance of these neighborhoods don’t see the community both White oaks and Sangster parents are fighting for. A man with a house on the dividing line made it clear - his neighborhood is walkable for students to visit friends etc but moving him to LBSS makes most of his school. community across the parkway and Lee chapel, eliminating the community aspect. white oaks parents explained that their neighborhood is governed by 3 HOAS that would be split in strange ways, again eliminating the neighborhood community when the students go to different schools.
When these parents talk about community, it’s not the school it’s where their physical house is and the community they see daily, carpool with, walk to friends houses etc. but moving these schools they would no longer be part of that because the natural boundaries are the parkway - and kids aren’t crossing that alone to go play w a friend |
Honestly, that was one comment made by one parent and the entire rest of room thought it was cringe. The rest of the comments were thoughtful and reasonable. I was impressed by how White Oaks, Sangster, and HV parents all spoke with decorum. I also appreciated Dr. Reid staying far past ending time to finish questions. Tonight made me proud for the whole West Springfield community. |
Someone is moving. Reid made that very clear. And if it’s not the Sangster split feeder and White Oaks attendance island then it will be West Springfield ES neighborhoods like Daventry, who will get returned to Lewis. Or sending Hunt Valley to Saratoga/Lewis or South County. Or maybe sending more of Orange Hunt to Sangster. Families are getting moved. It’s just a question of which ones. |
I think this comment is to stoke the fires and spread more fear. It sounded like the community worked together last night to force more questions on data. I also hope it made Dr.Reid and the board to acknowledge how challenging this process has been for every member of the community. |
It seems though that “someone will be moving” for the sake of moving. A couple of parents raised some good questions about shifting overcrowding from one place to another (WSHS to LB, and Cardinal forest to white oaks), lack of data on transportation which is critical to assess whether these changes address anything at all, whether split feeder percentage is calculated correctly, demographic trends etc. I hope there will be answers to that otherwise what’s the justification? It seems that community might not be concerned with split feeders and islands that much, etc etc |
Sandy Anderson has made it very clear the status quo won’t work. Current WSHS parents complain about overcrowding. SB and FCPS staff don’t care how challenging the process has been. Do you talk to any of them last night after the meeting? They are moving ahead with this. Someone is moving. The question is which neighborhood(s). |