Spring Hill, Churchill, or Great Falls Elementary?

[Anonymous]

We are looking at several houses zoned in the Spring Hill, Churchill, or Great Falls districts. Our oldest will be starting first grade next year. We would appreciate hearing pros and cons of each, though we are leaning towards Churchill as those neighborhoods are the closest to DC. One of the kids may be GT material, the other probably not, if that matters in the consideration. We also are interested in hearing from families who are currently at these schools regarding any overcrowding and the near-term solutions. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Springhill is fabulous. The renovation should be complete before the end of the school year - cafeteria is done and the addition is well on its way. Almost every AAP child stays at SH and the six graders last year scored head and shoulders above the rest of the county on the Algebra test (among the kids that took it). The PTO is very strong.

[Anonymous]

Churchill averages 28-30 kids in classes. You have a lot of years at the elementary school level! Many GT eligible families at Great Falls and Spring Hill opt to stay at the local school. What is also important, and forgotten with the GT discussions, is having neighborhood kids yours will know and play with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Churchill averages 28-30 kids in classes. You have a lot of years at the elementary school level! Many GT eligible families at Great Falls and Spring Hill opt to stay at the local school. What is also important, and forgotten with the GT discussions, is having neighborhood kids yours will know and play with.

Churchill averaged 21-25 kids per class last year, with the lower numbers at the lower levels.

[Anonymous]

I'm hijacking this thread a bit. Sorry in advance.

All these discussions about class size numbers at these listed schools or schools with similar SES are totally luck of the draw unless you are in a TITLE 1 school or school with High ESOL IN FFX county. If your child is in a school listed and you happen to have a class with a low 20s, you are incredibly lucky and you never know what the next year will bring. For instance, Marshall Road's 1st grade class last year all had classes of 29ish. This year they are 20ish because their numbers went over the tipping point. Lucky them! So the claim about Churchill averaging 21-25 is great, but buying a house in that school district is no way to guarantee a low class size or a high class size. AAP is no better - Oakton LLIV class sizes are 32 this year for 3rd grade. The only way to guarantee an acceptable class size # which my child's school administrators thinks is 25 is to get the School Board to pass a measure that puts a better upper limit on the class size. Now I think Virginia says it can go up to 35....
Anyone know if FFX county has something else on the books that speaks to this?

Not to start an argument, but I really wish this had been the focus 2 years ago instead of full-day kindergarten. I personally think it would have been a better use of county resources. Having full day kindergarten with the same curriculum as the half-day is just adding time to fill up the day and not necessarily improving the level of instruction our children are receiving. The real meat and bones of reading, writing, and math instruction in FFX county start in 1st grade in classes where there is no assistant, and in classes that routinely have 28, 29 and up to 30 kids.

[Anonymous]

OP, you can't go wrong with these choices! I'd go for the house/neighborhood/commute that you like the best. My personal vote would be SH > Churchill > Great Falls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm hijacking this thread a bit. Sorry in advance.

All these discussions about class size numbers at these listed schools or schools with similar SES are totally luck of the draw unless you are in a TITLE 1 school or school with High ESOL IN FFX county. If your child is in a school listed and you happen to have a class with a low 20s, you are incredibly lucky and you never know what the next year will bring. For instance, Marshall Road's 1st grade class last year all had classes of 29ish. This year they are 20ish because their numbers went over the tipping point. Lucky them! So the claim about Churchill averaging 21-25 is great, but buying a house in that school district is no way to guarantee a low class size or a high class size. AAP is no better - Oakton LLIV class sizes are 32 this year for 3rd grade. The only way to guarantee an acceptable class size # which my child's school administrators thinks is 25 is to get the School Board to pass a measure that puts a better upper limit on the class size. Now I think Virginia says it can go up to 35....
Anyone know if FFX county has something else on the books that speaks to this?

Not to start an argument, but I really wish this had been the focus 2 years ago instead of full-day kindergarten. I personally think it would have been a better use of county resources. Having full day kindergarten with the same curriculum as the half-day is just adding time to fill up the day and not necessarily improving the level of instruction our children are receiving. The real meat and bones of reading, writing, and math instruction in FFX county start in 1st grade in classes where there is no assistant, and in classes that routinely have 28, 29 and up to 30 kids.

Be that as it may, there has not been a year in the past decade where Churchill's class sizes averaged 28-30 students. That is simply incorrect.

[Anonymous]

I disagree about full day, but I do think class size should have come up last year instead of say adding FLES to primarily spanish speaking schools. I also still don't understand why there is bussing to AAP both from the local school SACC and in each neighborhood. I don't see why these buses can't be combined with all of the kids starting from their base schools.

[Anonymous]

PP: Be that as it may, there has not been a year in the past decade where Churchill's class sizes averaged 28-30 students. That is simply incorrect.

My DC went to Churchill all the way through and from 1 to 6, I think only had one year without 28 in class. But I would pick Churchill over the other AAP choices easily. It's a great school.

[Anonymous]

How so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree about full day, but I do think class size should have come up last year instead of say adding FLES to primarily spanish speaking schools.

Adding FLES is a small budget item (and actually a savings) compared to properly staffing a school to reduce class size.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the input. Does anyone know if the development at Tysons will impact Spring Hill enrollment? From the FCPS boundary maps, it looks like new development might feed into that school. Does the current addition take that into account?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the input. Does anyone know if the development at Tysons will impact Spring Hill enrollment? From the FCPS boundary maps, it looks like new development might feed into that school. Does the current addition take that into account?

Yes, development in Tysons may impact Spring Hill's enrollment, but FCPS looks at every new proposed development and eventually plans to build a new elementary school in Tysons.

Here's an example of an analysis of a proposal to build new housing in Tysons in the Spring Hill district that discusses some of the future plans:

http://www.fcps.edu/fts/impacts/10-pr-014e.pdf

Hope that helps.

[Anonymous]

Yes, there is a new elementary school planned for Tyson's that will take all of the apartment buildings. The addition to SH is the meet the current over enrollment and reduce (not eliminate) trailers at the school.

[Anonymous]

OP again. Thanks again to PPs with information on Tysons development. What are the trailers are used for at Churchill and Spring Hill? I wouldn't want my kids stuck in them full-time for years on end if I could avoid that. Are kids in the trailers full-time and does it go by grade? Again, any insights useful. TIA.