Mythical Western HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.)

I'm sure they can figure out how to run water and sewer a couple thousand feet from Rt 7.

Residents would never go for it … and it would be absurdly expensive. It’s ~2 miles from Leesburg Pike (on the route a sewer pipe would travel, from Colvin Run Rd to Walker to Harriman. That’s a multi-million dollar project in an area that is not approved for sewer and where the population is very anti-sewer. Read about the battle to get Forestville Elementary on sewer (a much shorter sewer line from Leesburg Pike) that goes entirely through Nike Park. It would never happen.

[Anonymous]

The county owns a ton of park land along Pleasant Valley Road, it is only a few miles from Westfield but other high schools are similarly situated.

[Anonymous]

I will believe FCPS is serious about this only after it opens for students to attend. This has been talked about since the 1990s, but No Action Talk Only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.)

I'm sure they can figure out how to run water and sewer a couple thousand feet from Rt 7.

Residents would never go for it … and it would be absurdly expensive. It’s ~2 miles from Leesburg Pike (on the route a sewer pipe would travel, from Colvin Run Rd to Walker to Harriman. That’s a multi-million dollar project in an area that is not approved for sewer and where the population is very anti-sewer. Read about the battle to get Forestville Elementary on sewer (a much shorter sewer line from Leesburg Pike) that goes entirely through Nike Park. It would never happen.

Just curious....what relief would this give to overcrowded Western high schools?

[Anonymous]

It wouldn’t. The county needs a K-12 redistricting both for equity and space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It wouldn’t. The county needs a K-12 redistricting both for equity and space.

Please explain how equity will help students. "Equity" means equal outcomes. Please explain how this will ensure equal outcomes for all students.

My neighborhood's high school is diverse. Here's a little secret: there are not equal outcomes for all students.

We have now moved from closing the "achievement gap" to "equity."

I have taught extremely ;poor kids in elementary school. The best way to close the gap is focus on the kids and give them good solid instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It wouldn’t. The county needs a K-12 redistricting both for equity and space.

What you think the county needs and what elected officials are willing to do are two totally different things. No one runs for office promising to redistrict county-wide. And even if officials, once elected, hint that they are considering a county-wide study, they back off immediately as soon as groups like One Great Falls (aka Voices of Fairfax) (formed in 2019 by Langley parents) challenge them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It wouldn’t. The county needs a K-12 redistricting both for equity and space.

Please explain how equity will help students. "Equity" means equal outcomes. Please explain how this will ensure equal outcomes for all students.

My neighborhood's high school is diverse. Here's a little secret: there are not equal outcomes for all students.

We have now moved from closing the "achievement gap" to "equity."

I have taught extremely ;poor kids in elementary school. The best way to close the gap is focus on the kids and give them good solid instruction.

Pushing all the disadvantaged kids into the same schools further disadvantages them. Redistributing student populations not only spreads out pockets of high need, but allows resources to be spread as well. A range of students in class pushes those at the bottom. If all students are at the bottom then they stay there. Virginias county education system is incredibly challenging for big counties like ffx because there is such disparity across it. To truly improve resources and opportunity for all kids all kids should be given a chance. Schools like Annandale, Falls Church, Lewis, Herndon, Mount Vernon should absolutely be shuffled around with West Springfield, Woodson, Madison, McLean, Langley, etc.. it’s unreal the county has let those schools get to this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It wouldn’t. The county needs a K-12 redistricting both for equity and space.

Please explain how equity will help students. "Equity" means equal outcomes. Please explain how this will ensure equal outcomes for all students.

My neighborhood's high school is diverse. Here's a little secret: there are not equal outcomes for all students.

We have now moved from closing the "achievement gap" to "equity."

I have taught extremely ;poor kids in elementary school. The best way to close the gap is focus on the kids and give them good solid instruction.

Pushing all the disadvantaged kids into the same schools further disadvantages them. Redistributing student populations not only spreads out pockets of high need, but allows resources to be spread as well. A range of students in class pushes those at the bottom. If all students are at the bottom then they stay there. Virginias county education system is incredibly challenging for big counties like ffx because there is such disparity across it. To truly improve resources and opportunity for all kids all kids should be given a chance. Schools like Annandale, Falls Church, Lewis, Herndon, Mount Vernon should absolutely be shuffled around with West Springfield, Woodson, Madison, McLean, Langley, etc.. it’s unreal the county has let those schools get to this point.

Please define “shuffled around.” I think you just mean busing kids out of their neighborhoods to schools much further away.

Before you do this, ask the Hispanic families in Culmore whose kids can walk to Justice whether they want their kids depending on a bus to take them to a different school and how that will help those families, especially if the kids currently have after-school jobs in Seven Corners or Bailey’s Crossroads.

[Anonymous]

Pushing all the disadvantaged kids into the same schools further disadvantages them. Redistributing student populations not only spreads out pockets of high need, but allows resources to be spread as well. A range of students in class pushes those at the bottom. If all students are at the bottom then they stay there. Virginias county education system is incredibly challenging for big counties like ffx because there is such disparity across it. To truly improve resources and opportunity for all kids all kids should be given a chance. Schools like Annandale, Falls Church, Lewis, Herndon, Mount Vernon should absolutely be shuffled around with West Springfield, Woodson, Madison, McLean, Langley, etc.. it’s unreal the county has let those schools get to this point.

Do you realize that there are also good students who achieve at a high level at all those schools you listed?

Do you understand what happens when you bus very poor students long distances? You increase truancy. You get less parental support than you already have. Transportation is an issue for very poor kids.

The only thing this will help is to possibly make the standardized test scores more even.

First step to providing "equity:"

remove IB==People pupil place into schools based on this. (It works both ways--why are some IB schools more sought after than others? Why are some AP schools more sought after than others? )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Pushing all the disadvantaged kids into the same schools further disadvantages them. Redistributing student populations not only spreads out pockets of high need, but allows resources to be spread as well. A range of students in class pushes those at the bottom. If all students are at the bottom then they stay there. Virginias county education system is incredibly challenging for big counties like ffx because there is such disparity across it. To truly improve resources and opportunity for all kids all kids should be given a chance. Schools like Annandale, Falls Church, Lewis, Herndon, Mount Vernon should absolutely be shuffled around with West Springfield, Woodson, Madison, McLean, Langley, etc.. it’s unreal the county has let those schools get to this point.

Do you realize that there are also good students who achieve at a high level at all those schools you listed?

Do you understand what happens when you bus very poor students long distances? You increase truancy. You get less parental support than you already have. Transportation is an issue for very poor kids.

The only thing this will help is to possibly make the standardized test scores more even.

First step to providing "equity:"

remove IB==People pupil place into schools based on this. (It works both ways--why are some IB schools more sought after than others? Why are some AP schools more sought after than others? )

I think boundaries could be completely shifted rather than busing long distances. It would take an entire overhaul of the system, but it is needed. Some kids will be bused further, but nothing outlandish. Don’t just bus the poor kids, bus the wealthy kids. Improve all schools and remove the option to pupil place out.

[Anonymous]

I think boundaries could be completely shifted rather than busing long distances. It would take an entire overhaul of the system, but it is needed. Some kids will be bused further, but nothing outlandish. Don’t just bus the poor kids, bus the wealthy kids. Improve all schools and remove the option to pupil place out.

"nothing outlandish"

This is ironic. I read on here all the time that we shouldn't be busing wealthy kids to Langley. I'm more familiar with western Fairfax and know that Oakton also has lots of kids being bused long distances.

I don't know if PP has kids in high school. Most communities feel an attachment to their schools. This would result in major disruption to students and families. It would necessarily require no grandfathering of kids already in the schools. It would likely result in many more split feeders than we already have.
Bottom line; this would be impractical and disruptive. And, it would be unlikely to produce the results that PP desires.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think boundaries could be completely shifted rather than busing long distances. It would take an entire overhaul of the system, but it is needed. Some kids will be bused further, but nothing outlandish. Don’t just bus the poor kids, bus the wealthy kids. Improve all schools and remove the option to pupil place out.

"nothing outlandish"

This is ironic. I read on here all the time that we shouldn't be busing wealthy kids to Langley. I'm more familiar with western Fairfax and know that Oakton also has lots of kids being bused long distances.

I don't know if PP has kids in high school. Most communities feel an attachment to their schools. This would result in major disruption to students and families. It would necessarily require no grandfathering of kids already in the schools. It would likely result in many more split feeders than we already have.
Bottom line; this would be impractical and disruptive. And, it would be unlikely to produce the results that PP desires.

It absolutely would be a major disruption, but that’s what the county needs. It could get worse before it gets better as people adjust, but if we keep things the way they are it’s absolutely going to further enhance the inequities across the county. The one benefit of an all county system is that these aren’t individual school districts, they’re one school district that needs change. Yes I have kids in public schools and yes I understand what a disruption it would be. But I know my kids are going to be fine wherever they end up and I can’t say the same for others. Don’t we want to improve things for all kids not just our own?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Pushing all the disadvantaged kids into the same schools further disadvantages them. Redistributing student populations not only spreads out pockets of high need, but allows resources to be spread as well. A range of students in class pushes those at the bottom. If all students are at the bottom then they stay there. Virginias county education system is incredibly challenging for big counties like ffx because there is such disparity across it. To truly improve resources and opportunity for all kids all kids should be given a chance. Schools like Annandale, Falls Church, Lewis, Herndon, Mount Vernon should absolutely be shuffled around with West Springfield, Woodson, Madison, McLean, Langley, etc.. it’s unreal the county has let those schools get to this point.

Do you realize that there are also good students who achieve at a high level at all those schools you listed?

Do you understand what happens when you bus very poor students long distances? You increase truancy. You get less parental support than you already have. Transportation is an issue for very poor kids.

The only thing this will help is to possibly make the standardized test scores more even.

First step to providing "equity:"

remove IB==People pupil place into schools based on this. (It works both ways--why are some IB schools more sought after than others? Why are some AP schools more sought after than others? )

I think boundaries could be completely shifted rather than busing long distances. It would take an entire overhaul of the system, but it is needed. Some kids will be bused further, but nothing outlandish. Don’t just bus the poor kids, bus the wealthy kids. Improve all schools and remove the option to pupil place out.

If they got rid of IB then pupil placements would drop sharply since the bulk of pupil placements are for kids placing out of IB schools to AP schools (although South Lakes now gets a ton of pupil placements from Herndon).

[Anonymous]

It absolutely would be a major disruption, but that’s what the county needs. It could get worse before it gets better as people adjust, but if we keep things the way they are it’s absolutely going to further enhance the inequities across the county. The one benefit of an all county system is that these aren’t individual school districts, they’re one school district that needs change. Yes I have kids in public schools and yes I understand what a disruption it would be. But I know my kids are going to be fine wherever they end up and I can’t say the same for others. Don’t we want to improve things for all kids not just our own?

Have you ever been through a boundary study in Fairfax? I've been through three. Not fun and disruptive to the community and turns neighborhood against neighborhood.

Please explain how it will eliminate inequities.
Again, start with eliminating IB. That would be simple and save $$$.