Boundary Review Meetings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the meeting last night, clearly something else needs to be done. But I'm sure the school board/Reid are not bold enough to do it and will cave to parents. Parents raised concerns over crowding at WSHS, and also that moving students from WSHS to LB will cause over-crowding issues in the next few years. Why is the only solution for WSHS over-crowding is to move them to LB?

Lewis borders WSHS and is severely under-enrolled. The change that needs to happen is that WSHS students need to be moved to Lewis, not to LB. But hearing parents raise concerns about moving from WSHS to LB, I'm sure the board is too scared to propose this change. I've lost faith in this entire process.

Not one parent said they were concerned WSHS is overcrowded.

That is not completely accurate.

The Keene Mill mom on zoom though that WSHS will still be overcrowded and more need to get rezoned out of WSHS.

Not what she said. And it’s wild how families are actively targeting other neighborhoods thru the tool.

[Anonymous]

How was meeting today?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For some reason I can’t comment on the boundary explorer tool

Me neither, and I really want to record my comment before tomorrow's meeting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i assume they will have to switch centers. i think the AAP centers not changing means right now they aren’t putting AAP in all middle schools and elementary will still have centers. if you move elementary schools and the new school has a center or the center assigned to that elementary is different you’ll go to the new center

What they need to do is simply put AAP in every elementary and middle school and get rid of the centers. All they do is confuse everything and they are completely redundant at this point.

Middle school AAP is unnecessary. Every middle school has enough students for multiple classes of AAP so everyone can take what courses they want. Not every elementary school has enough AAP kids to even fill one classroom. That is why elementary centers will never go away. Now if they could just fix it so every elementary school's AAP center is in its same pyramid that would be great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Attending tonight’s meeting, the Superintendent opened by addressing Hagel Circle and it looks like they’ll be making corrections to the maps to send the kids to their community school of Lorton Station vs Halley (current school) or Gunston (proposed school)

Keep in mind, Lorton Station already has over 700 students. An additional 146 students would lead to overcrowding. Lorton Station is not their community school. Gunston was built at the time Hagel Circle was. That was the original elementary school for Hagel.

Better solution is keeping Gunston or having them go to Halley which both schools could easily handle that amount of students. Keep in mind, there is a reason why Hagel Circle was zoned for Halley, it was a capacity issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Attending tonight’s meeting, the Superintendent opened by addressing Hagel Circle and it looks like they’ll be making corrections to the maps to send the kids to their community school of Lorton Station vs Halley (current school) or Gunston (proposed school)

Keep in mind, Lorton Station already has over 700 students. An additional 146 students would lead to overcrowding. Lorton Station is not their community school. Gunston was built at the time Hagel Circle was. That was the original elementary school for Hagel.

Better solution is keeping Gunston or having them go to Halley which both schools could easily handle that amount of students. Keep in mind, there is a reason why Hagel Circle was zoned for Halley, it was a capacity issue.

Really? That doesn't sound right.

The story at the time was that a wealthy school in the area (Not Halley, but a 3rd school) wanted some program like full day kindergarten or preK that was only available to poor schools back then, so they got the school board rep to move the Hagel Circle kids into their school for a year or two to get the special early childhood program. Then as soon as the program was in place, the rich school worked with the same school board rep to move the Hagel Circle kids to an even farther away elementary school, Halley, because they didn't want the poor kids in their rich school, they only wanted that special program. I think it was full day kindergarten, but I could be mistaken. There wasn't enough room at Halley for the Hagel Circle kids, but some houses were rezoned out of Halley to make it happen.

Once they got the Hagel Circle kids out of their school, they got that school board rep to move the AAP center into their school to fill the now empty Hagel Circle slots.

The Hagel Circle kids got moved between 3 different schools in like 3 years, and ended up at the farthest school from their neighborhood, Halley, on the other side of 95. It was around 2010-2011.

They were treated horribly by that community and FCPS that moved them around so the wealthier elementary could get that program. There was a lot of buzz at the time about how the Hagel Circle kids were really taken advantage of. I think it was one of the reasons why that school board rep lost her election. It was really scandalous at the time, blatantly used and moved around a bunch of poor kids. There might even be an old dcum thread about it.

Does someone who lived in that area at that time remember the full story? If so, someone who lived there at the time should let Dr. Reid know about the historic mistreatment of the Hagel Circle kids, so that wrong can be remedied with this rezoning process by sending them to the closer elementary school.

This thread talks about it briefly:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1320/1192167.page#27518693

[Anonymous]

Is Lorton Station the school that hosted the Hagel Circle kids for a year or two?

If so, that is where they should go, not Halley or Gunston.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the meeting last night, clearly something else needs to be done. But I'm sure the school board/Reid are not bold enough to do it and will cave to parents. Parents raised concerns over crowding at WSHS, and also that moving students from WSHS to LB will cause over-crowding issues in the next few years. Why is the only solution for WSHS over-crowding is to move them to LB?

Lewis borders WSHS and is severely under-enrolled. The change that needs to happen is that WSHS students need to be moved to Lewis, not to LB. But hearing parents raise concerns about moving from WSHS to LB, I'm sure the board is too scared to propose this change. I've lost faith in this entire process.

Not one parent said they were concerned WSHS is overcrowded.

That is not completely accurate.

The Keene Mill mom on zoom though that WSHS will still be overcrowded and more need to get rezoned out of WSHS.

Not what she said. And it’s wild how families are actively targeting other neighborhoods thru the tool.

Redistricting has always brought out the worst in people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the meeting last night, clearly something else needs to be done. But I'm sure the school board/Reid are not bold enough to do it and will cave to parents. Parents raised concerns over crowding at WSHS, and also that moving students from WSHS to LB will cause over-crowding issues in the next few years. Why is the only solution for WSHS over-crowding is to move them to LB?

Lewis borders WSHS and is severely under-enrolled. The change that needs to happen is that WSHS students need to be moved to Lewis, not to LB. But hearing parents raise concerns about moving from WSHS to LB, I'm sure the board is too scared to propose this change. I've lost faith in this entire process.

Not one parent said they were concerned WSHS is overcrowded.

That is not completely accurate.

The Keene Mill mom on zoom though that WSHS will still be overcrowded and more need to get rezoned out of WSHS.

Not what she said. And it’s wild how families are actively targeting other neighborhoods thru the tool.

FCPS is openly telling families at the meeting to use the tool to give them specific suggestions and alternatives, if you don't want your neighborhood rezoned.

The Thru consultant must have told us that 2-3 times at our community meeting.

What did the Keene Mill mom online say?

I heard her say that going down to 106% was not enough and we need to look at other ways. (Paraphrasing)

[Anonymous]

The Saturday meeting to discuss the new Western HS maps is at the new Western HS. She mentioned a second meeting too, maybe Friday evening

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the meeting last night, clearly something else needs to be done. But I'm sure the school board/Reid are not bold enough to do it and will cave to parents. Parents raised concerns over crowding at WSHS, and also that moving students from WSHS to LB will cause over-crowding issues in the next few years. Why is the only solution for WSHS over-crowding is to move them to LB?

Lewis borders WSHS and is severely under-enrolled. The change that needs to happen is that WSHS students need to be moved to Lewis, not to LB. But hearing parents raise concerns about moving from WSHS to LB, I'm sure the board is too scared to propose this change. I've lost faith in this entire process.

Not one parent said they were concerned WSHS is overcrowded.

That is not completely accurate.

The Keene Mill mom on zoom though that WSHS will still be overcrowded and more need to get rezoned out of WSHS.

Not what she said. And it’s wild how families are actively targeting other neighborhoods thru the tool.

How would you know? The comments aren’t publicly available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the meeting last night, clearly something else needs to be done. But I'm sure the school board/Reid are not bold enough to do it and will cave to parents. Parents raised concerns over crowding at WSHS, and also that moving students from WSHS to LB will cause over-crowding issues in the next few years. Why is the only solution for WSHS over-crowding is to move them to LB?

Lewis borders WSHS and is severely under-enrolled. The change that needs to happen is that WSHS students need to be moved to Lewis, not to LB. But hearing parents raise concerns about moving from WSHS to LB, I'm sure the board is too scared to propose this change. I've lost faith in this entire process.

Not one parent said they were concerned WSHS is overcrowded.

That is not completely accurate.

The Keene Mill mom on zoom though that WSHS will still be overcrowded and more need to get rezoned out of WSHS.

Not what she said. And it’s wild how families are actively targeting other neighborhoods thru the tool.

FCPS is openly telling families at the meeting to use the tool to give them specific suggestions and alternatives, if you don't want your neighborhood rezoned.

The Thru consultant must have told us that 2-3 times at our community meeting.

What did the Keene Mill mom online say?

I heard her say that going down to 106% was not enough and we need to look at other ways. (Paraphrasing)

No wonder the comment feature crashed yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Attending tonight’s meeting, the Superintendent opened by addressing Hagel Circle and it looks like they’ll be making corrections to the maps to send the kids to their community school of Lorton Station vs Halley (current school) or Gunston (proposed school)

Keep in mind, Lorton Station already has over 700 students. An additional 146 students would lead to overcrowding. Lorton Station is not their community school. Gunston was built at the time Hagel Circle was. That was the original elementary school for Hagel.

Better solution is keeping Gunston or having them go to Halley which both schools could easily handle that amount of students. Keep in mind, there is a reason why Hagel Circle was zoned for Halley, it was a capacity issue.

Really? That doesn't sound right.

The story at the time was that a wealthy school in the area (Not Halley, but a 3rd school) wanted some program like full day kindergarten or preK that was only available to poor schools back then, so they got the school board rep to move the Hagel Circle kids into their school for a year or two to get the special early childhood program. Then as soon as the program was in place, the rich school worked with the same school board rep to move the Hagel Circle kids to an even farther away elementary school, Halley, because they didn't want the poor kids in their rich school, they only wanted that special program. I think it was full day kindergarten, but I could be mistaken. There wasn't enough room at Halley for the Hagel Circle kids, but some houses were rezoned out of Halley to make it happen.

Once they got the Hagel Circle kids out of their school, they got that school board rep to move the AAP center into their school to fill the now empty Hagel Circle slots.

The Hagel Circle kids got moved between 3 different schools in like 3 years, and ended up at the farthest school from their neighborhood, Halley, on the other side of 95. It was around 2010-2011.

They were treated horribly by that community and FCPS that moved them around so the wealthier elementary could get that program. There was a lot of buzz at the time about how the Hagel Circle kids were really taken advantage of. I think it was one of the reasons why that school board rep lost her election. It was really scandalous at the time, blatantly used and moved around a bunch of poor kids. There might even be an old dcum thread about it.

Does someone who lived in that area at that time remember the full story? If so, someone who lived there at the time should let Dr. Reid know about the historic mistreatment of the Hagel Circle kids, so that wrong can be remedied with this rezoning process by sending them to the closer elementary school.

This thread talks about it briefly:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1320/1192167.page#27518693

I think you’re thinking about Virginia Run and Poplar Tree in western Fairfax.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/1135463.page

[Anonymous]

The programs Dr Domenech started at specific sites included:
Success by 8- used multi grade grouping
Project Excell- full day K - including Halley due to Hagel Circle Island
Modified calendar- year round school with intersessions breaks- winter break cut down on absentee rate when people returned to home countries

https://www.washingtonpost.com/subscribe/signin/signout/?next_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Farchive%2Flocal%2F1999%2F09%2F02%2Fschools-target-higher-marks%2F40748ff5-49d3-4e9b-bd2f-f767d9af1e08%2F&nid=top_pb_signin&arcId=IB2I75KJ2NHJXPJP65T5TLY6BA&itid=nav_sign_in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the meeting last night, clearly something else needs to be done. But I'm sure the school board/Reid are not bold enough to do it and will cave to parents. Parents raised concerns over crowding at WSHS, and also that moving students from WSHS to LB will cause over-crowding issues in the next few years. Why is the only solution for WSHS over-crowding is to move them to LB?

Lewis borders WSHS and is severely under-enrolled. The change that needs to happen is that WSHS students need to be moved to Lewis, not to LB. But hearing parents raise concerns about moving from WSHS to LB, I'm sure the board is too scared to propose this change. I've lost faith in this entire process.

Not one parent said they were concerned WSHS is overcrowded.

Because they don’t want to get rezoned. They’d rather their kids attend an overcrowded school than attend Lewis.