Mclean boundary changes - can someone please update?

[Anonymous]

I'm sure there will always be a market for an urban high school like FCPS has in store for McLean, just like there is for one attended by the children of the gentry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure there will always be a market for an urban high school like FCPS has in store for McLean, just like there is for one attended by the children of the gentry.

nothing screams 'urban' like McLean, Virginia

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Does the boundary change that will relieve some of MHS overcrowding, in combination with the modulars, mean that MHS is really unlikely to get a major renovation? Or is that still on the table in the CIP?

MHS is a terrific school and will continue to have lots of involved parents, but this is kind of a kick in the teeth.

Yes, it is really unlikely that MHS will get a major renovation.

And it was never "on the table in the CIP" except in the most generic sense. In other words, they have no specific plans to spend any money on an addition at McLean, much less a major renovation, at any point over the upcoming 10 years discussed in the CIP. It is only referenced in the most generic way possible in the CIP ("Capacity enhancement through either a modular or building addition" as a "potential solution") and of course they've now added a cheap $2M modular.

MHS has been a great school in the past, but it simply won't hold its own in the coming years. The stress test is to ask yourself where you would buy if you were looking to buy a home today in NoVa. For many of us, the McLean district would now be at best our fifth or sixth choice. The treatment of the school at the hands of FCPS has been abysmal, and some of us hope to slip out before it's too obvious how FCPS screwed the school over.

After Langley, Madison, and what else?

Yorktown, Marshall, Oakton...

George Mason...

I think McLean will still be second. Pp is being overly dramatic about the downfall of mclean high.

Maybe they are a realtor, or developer. A major downfall is not likely with the the current ES Haycock, Chesterbrook , Kent Gardens(why wouldn’t French immersion kids go to McLean(as someone indicated above), the majority who are at Longfellow from Kent go to McLean)Franklin Sherman and Longfellow is a powerhouse . McLean numbers won’t drop by 190 in one year. Just one or two of the same posters, over and over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure there will always be a market for an urban high school like FCPS has in store for McLean, just like there is for one attended by the children of the gentry.

nothing screams 'urban' like McLean, Virginia

Most of McLean goes to Langley. "McLean HS" should be renamed Tysons-West Falls Church HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Motion One: I move to adopt the FCPS recommendation of Option B, as presented to the community on December 7, 2020. This would adjust the boundaries of McLean HS, Langley HS, Longfellow MS, and Cooper MS. The change would adjust the feeder pattern of the Colvin Run ES split feeder area, a portion of the Spring Hill ES split feeder area, and a portion of Westbriar ES from Longfellow MS and McLean HS, to Cooper MS and Langley HS. The adjustment will not change the elementary school boundary.



In addition, the following phasing plan will implement the boundary change:
Rising 7th grade students will attend Cooper MS in the 2021-22 school year, with rising 8th graders grandfathered to remain at Longfellow MS in the 2021-22 school year. Both 7th and 8th grade students will attend Cooper MS in the 2022-23 school year.

Rising 10th, 11th, and 12th graders in the area will be grandfathered and remain at McLean HS. The high school boundary change will begin with rising 9th grade students in the 2021-22 school year; 9th and 10th grade students in the 2022-23 school year; 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students in the 2023-24 school year; and 9th through 12th grade students in the 2024-25 school year.

Motion by Elaine V Tholen, second by Karl V Frisch.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yes: Megan McLaughlin, Ricardy J Anderson - Chair, Melanie K Meren, Rachna S Heizer, Elaine V Tholen, Karen Corbett Sanders, Karen A Keys-Gamarra, Stella Pekarsky - Vice Chair, Laura Jane H Cohen, Karl V Frisch
No: Abrar Omeish
Not Present at Vote: Tamara D Kaufax
Rising 9th graders residing in the area changed will have the option to attend Langley HS in SY 2021-22 or be grandfathered at McLean HS with transportation provided through 12thgrade in the 2024-25 school year. The option chosen for the 2021-22 school year will determine the school through the 2024-25 school year and will not be able to be changed.

Motion by Elaine V Tholen, second by Melanie K Meren.
Motion Carries
Yes: Megan McLaughlin, Ricardy J Anderson - Chair, Melanie K Meren, Rachna S Heizer, Elaine V Tholen, Tamara D Kaufax, Karen Corbett Sanders, Karen A Keys-Gamarra, Stella Pekarsky - Vice Chair, Abrar Omeish, Laura Jane H Cohen, Karl V Frisch

So this is the final decision, right?

Totally different than the recommendation of the modified C from the last meeting.

Yes. It's done. Stick a fork in McLean.

They dragged this out for years and then changed the recommended option at the last minute and after the public hearing. Brabrand didn't even try and hide his bemusement at having a staff recommendation ignored yet again by this School Board.

I've been following this for years, as I'm in that island zoned for Colvin Run, Longfellow and McLean. I bought this house because it was Longfellow McLean. I just have personal reasons to want McLean over Langley, not bashing Langley.

So I was happy to see Option B was recommended. I'm having whiplash and in shock that C passed. I've just been rezoned to Cooper Langley. This school board is unbelievable as to the sudden changes and reversals.

Apart from "pressure on Tholen" what happened to cause this sudden change? At least I want to understand it!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the boundary change that will relieve some of MHS overcrowding, in combination with the modulars, mean that MHS is really unlikely to get a major renovation? Or is that still on the table in the CIP?

MHS is a terrific school and will continue to have lots of involved parents, but this is kind of a kick in the teeth.

Yes, it is really unlikely that MHS will get a major renovation.

And it was never "on the table in the CIP" except in the most generic sense. In other words, they have no specific plans to spend any money on an addition at McLean, much less a major renovation, at any point over the upcoming 10 years discussed in the CIP. It is only referenced in the most generic way possible in the CIP ("Capacity enhancement through either a modular or building addition" as a "potential solution") and of course they've now added a cheap $2M modular.

MHS has been a great school in the past, but it simply won't hold its own in the coming years. The stress test is to ask yourself where you would buy if you were looking to buy a home today in NoVa. For many of us, the McLean district would now be at best our fifth or sixth choice. The treatment of the school at the hands of FCPS has been abysmal, and some of us hope to slip out before it's too obvious how FCPS screwed the school over.

After Langley, Madison, and what else?

Yorktown, Marshall, Oakton...

George Mason...

I think McLean will still be second. Pp is being overly dramatic about the downfall of mclean high.

For 25 years Langley and McLean High have been the top two. The rise of Marshall is relatively recent. Ask natives around here what they think of Marshall. I predict McLean will still hold at the top two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hadn’t been inclined to support those seeking Elaine Tholen’s recall until now, but this breach of trust has changed my mind. It is unconscionable after all these years to switch the plan at the last minute. Like they really couldn’t have bothered to tell people they’d changed their mind, explained why, and scheduled a follow-up hearing? It’s so obvious she didn’t want to deal with people honestly.

As one of the affected families, this times a million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I've been following this for years, as I'm in that island zoned for Colvin Run, Longfellow and McLean. I bought this house because it was Longfellow McLean. I just have personal reasons to want McLean over Langley, not bashing Langley.

So I was happy to see Option B was recommended. I'm having whiplash and in shock that C passed. I've just been rezoned to Cooper Langley. This school board is unbelievable as to the sudden changes and reversals.

Apart from "pressure on Tholen" what happened to cause this sudden change? At least I want to understand it!!!!

I understand... but if it makes you feel any better, we are a Colvin/Cooper/Langley family and have been very happy with all three schools. My youngest is excited about the redistributing because he will move with his friends on to middle school. I remember when my daughter moved up, she lost half her friends to Longfellow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am confused because it seems many are suggesting this is a negative for McLean. How is this a negative for those in McLean district long term if it will relieve some overcrowding and McLean will likely get in the line for expansion?

From reading this thread, it appears that some of the wealthier families from McLean High are getting moved to Langley. There was a pp who said that some of the most involved families are in the neighborhoods that have been assigned to Langley.

Yes, those Vienna kids and families were always among the most actively involved at the school. Now they are shifting McLean to a school with a higher concentration of transient families living in apartments in Tysons and Merrifield, while keeping Langley almost entirely single-family neighborhoods (it has no apartments and only a handful of expensive townhouses). And because they are moving more kids than staff had recommended, it will delay, not expedite, any permanent addition to McLean and keep kids there in a cheap modular and moldy trailers.

Why were they among the most active? For every grade they were that active?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this a done deal? All of Colvin run now will go to copper/Langley and also parts of west brier and Spring Hill?

Looking at a map, this looks like it makes sense.

I have a current 6th grader who will be attending cooper next year. I welcome diversity and so do most other people I know.

Why didn’t the apartments get moved to Langley?

Very doubtful parents try to keep multi family housing out.

The apartments didn't get moved to Langley, as the staff had proposed, because Elaine Tholen was browbeaten by parents who said eliminating the split feeder at Colvin Run and having a "cleaner" boundary map was more important. You don't have to keep people out when you let the ones begging the hardest to be let in have their way.

This is what FCPS has done over and over again for more than a decade, and then they act shocked when the disparities in nearby schools (Annandale/Woodson, Lewis/West Springfield, McLean/Langley) keep increasing. It's their doing, and they know how to look sad about it but not fix it or avoid it.

You have been repeating yourself over and over. It makes zero sense to draw weird boundaries all in the name of “equity” - as if an apartment here or there would make any difference at all. It’s an asinine argument. Boundaries *should* be drawn cleanly and simply, with no ulterior motives. It’s people like you, ranting about apartments, who have gummed up this whole process. Most parents just want a boundary that makes sense. Split-feeders are ridiculous. I’m glad they fixed that.

If you want to traffic in what's good planning, building out a school with a declining enrollment in a remote corner of the county to over 2350 students, as FCPS did with Langley, probably isn't going to win any awards.

Every student they decided to move to make the boundaries "cleaner" will travel further to Langley than it would take them to travel to McLean.

Listen, bitter McLean mom. It’s been correctly pointed out, time and again, that it makes sense to enlarge a school if a renovation is going on anyhow, and there is room to do so - which there was. With the added space at Langley, there was/is room to bring over some McLean kids to alleviate the overcrowding at your school - which we all know the SB has no intention of doing anything about (beyond adding a modular). If you don’t want some McLean kids to go to Langley, that’s your problem. It’s a common sense solution. Sadly, neither you nor the SB seem to have any common sense at all, or this would’ve been implemented by now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depressing how political everything with this SB is - why even have staff recommendations if the loudest parent groups with the most $ drive the decisions.

VA needs to start adding party affiliation for SB candidates to the ballot - it is a farce that they are independent.

We all knew this last crop had D next to their names. Many of us tried to warn the rest of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am confused because it seems many are suggesting this is a negative for McLean. How is this a negative for those in McLean district long term if it will relieve some overcrowding and McLean will likely get in the line for expansion?

GREAT QUESTION!! There is clearly one prolific McLean mom who will not shut up about how “unfair” it all is. Yet I bet she voted for the current SB. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hadn’t been inclined to support those seeking Elaine Tholen’s recall until now, but this breach of trust has changed my mind. It is unconscionable after all these years to switch the plan at the last minute. Like they really couldn’t have bothered to tell people they’d changed their mind, explained why, and scheduled a follow-up hearing? It’s so obvious she didn’t want to deal with people honestly.

As one of the affected families, this times a million.

She will say they had to make a decision so kids could move forward with course registration for next year, but it was just incredibly underhanded to change course at the last minute. Option B was always an option, but they deliberately kept it from parents until a few hours before the meeting that they’d decided to elevate it over the staff’s recommendation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am confused because it seems many are suggesting this is a negative for McLean. How is this a negative for those in McLean district long term if it will relieve some overcrowding and McLean will likely get in the line for expansion?

From reading this thread, it appears that some of the wealthier families from McLean High are getting moved to Langley. There was a pp who said that some of the most involved families are in the neighborhoods that have been assigned to Langley.

DP. Yes, I laughed when I read that. There are “involved” families everywhere. What a ridiculous, whiny comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am confused because it seems many are suggesting this is a negative for McLean. How is this a negative for those in McLean district long term if it will relieve some overcrowding and McLean will likely get in the line for expansion?

This is not a negative for McLean. It is good.

I wish it were, but I've seen this movie before and it's not. No school comes out ahead when the School Board both under-invests in its facilities and moves a significant proportion of its higher-achieving kids to other schools.

The only school this is good for is Langley.

Aha! So the real reason you’re upset comes out. You’re mad that some “higher-achieving” kids will be among those moving. Wow. That chip on your shoulder can probably be seen from space.
DP