Boundary Review Meetings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

How do we sign up?

[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.

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

They rather not get rezoned. Period. They’ve been offered South County and Lake Braddock. Nobody wants to move.

[Anonymous]

McLean/madison meeting today - I assume a lot of focus on Vienna folks proposed move to Marshall?

[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)

Not sure if that’s the same person but someone who raised overcrowding was talking about residency check and transfers to a closed school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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)

Not sure if that’s the same person but someone who raised overcrowding was talking about residency check and transfers to a closed school.

I think that was the woman who suggested no moves should be made until those things happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)

Not sure if that’s the same person but someone who raised overcrowding was talking about residency check and transfers to a closed school.

I think that was the woman who suggested no moves should be made until those things happened.

I do not think that parent is wrong. There is a lot of issues in the calculations. Modulars are considered part of the utilization but not trailers. Which is insane. We should try to have kids back in the schools. No students should be moved into a school that is close to 100% (because likely that school is using modulars as well - are there any schools that don't have them?) But they are doing that. That should be the first priority of boundary review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)

Not sure if that’s the same person but someone who raised overcrowding was talking about residency check and transfers to a closed school.

I think that was the woman who suggested no moves should be made until those things happened.

I do not think that parent is wrong. There is a lot of issues in the calculations. Modulars are considered part of the utilization but not trailers. Which is insane. We should try to have kids back in the schools. No students should be moved into a school that is close to 100% (because likely that school is using modulars as well - are there any schools that don't have them?) But they are doing that. That should be the first priority of boundary review.

I get what you’re saying, but modulars are a longer term solution than trailers, so I understand why they expand program capacity for them. I would say if a school requires a trailer their program capacity should be reduced to reflect that the primary structure does not have space to accommodate all programs. The fact that there are so many schools with less than 100% utilization that also have temporary classrooms isn’t right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

i don’t think they are getting rid of AAP centers at the elementary level yet. but there are definitely instances even at that level where there are plenty of kids to make up level 4 classes at the base school but kids still go to the center.

reid and the school board want AAP at every middle school. i think 12 middle schools don’t have it and tons of MS kids go to centers. they want those kids back at base schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

i don’t think they are getting rid of AAP centers at the elementary level yet. but there are definitely instances even at that level where there are plenty of kids to make up level 4 classes at the base school but kids still go to the center.

reid and the school board want AAP at every middle school. i think 12 middle schools don’t have it and tons of MS kids go to centers. they want those kids back at base schools

Having an AAP program at schools like Key would help improve high schools like Lewis.

[Anonymous]

But also putting AAP at Irving will make it even more crowded. Plus some of those AAP kids that choose to go to LBSS for AAP find a way to stay there for high school years. Now they'll all be at Irving/WSHS.

I was also interested to hear at the region 4 meeting that, when pushed on the numbers predicting capacity for 26-27 with the boundary changes, they never ran the numbers for what the 26-27 numbers would be without any changes. Everything is based on the 24-25 student numbers, even though it should be pretty easy to calculate/predict accurate 26-27 numbers.

I know a lot of people think WSHS will be smaller anyway in the coming years (I think the 2026 class is enormous), so again people were annoyed that the consulting company didn't do this when it seems like it shouldn't be that hard and would be common sense to look at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But also putting AAP at Irving will make it even more crowded. Plus some of those AAP kids that choose to go to LBSS for AAP find a way to stay there for high school years. Now they'll all be at Irving/WSHS.

I was also interested to hear at the region 4 meeting that, when pushed on the numbers predicting capacity for 26-27 with the boundary changes, they never ran the numbers for what the 26-27 numbers would be without any changes. Everything is based on the 24-25 student numbers, even though it should be pretty easy to calculate/predict accurate 26-27 numbers.

I know a lot of people think WSHS will be smaller anyway in the coming years (I think the 2026 class is enormous), so again people were annoyed that the consulting company didn't do this when it seems like it shouldn't be that hard and would be common sense to look at.

Yes, it would hit differently to have to accept hard choices when data has really been looked at and reflects reality with all options exhausted vs. having to accept this mess of isolated "projections" that miss huge pieces of the actual puzzle.

[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.

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

They rather not get rezoned. Period. They’ve been offered South County and Lake Braddock. Nobody wants to move.

Seems like the school board is too scared to even suggest Lewis as another option.

[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.

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

They rather not get rezoned. Period. They’ve been offered South County and Lake Braddock. Nobody wants to move.

Seems like the school board is too scared to even suggest Lewis as another option.

It should not be another option, at least not from the Hunt Valley/Sangster end of WSHS on the opposite side of the boundaries to Lewis.

The only 2 areas that are reasonable options to Lewis are the edge of Keene Mill and Daventry, which are both the closest areas to Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But also putting AAP at Irving will make it even more crowded. Plus some of those AAP kids that choose to go to LBSS for AAP find a way to stay there for high school years. Now they'll all be at Irving/WSHS.

I was also interested to hear at the region 4 meeting that, when pushed on the numbers predicting capacity for 26-27 with the boundary changes, they never ran the numbers for what the 26-27 numbers would be without any changes. Everything is based on the 24-25 student numbers, even though it should be pretty easy to calculate/predict accurate 26-27 numbers.

I know a lot of people think WSHS will be smaller anyway in the coming years (I think the 2026 class is enormous), so again people were annoyed that the consulting company didn't do this when it seems like it shouldn't be that hard and would be common sense to look at.

Putting AAP in at all the middle schools would definitely change some things. I think if they added it at Irving, they’d definitely have to take a hard look at the WS-LB boundaries because that would take kids out of LB and add them to Irving and WS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But also putting AAP at Irving will make it even more crowded. Plus some of those AAP kids that choose to go to LBSS for AAP find a way to stay there for high school years. Now they'll all be at Irving/WSHS.

I was also interested to hear at the region 4 meeting that, when pushed on the numbers predicting capacity for 26-27 with the boundary changes, they never ran the numbers for what the 26-27 numbers would be without any changes. Everything is based on the 24-25 student numbers, even though it should be pretty easy to calculate/predict accurate 26-27 numbers.

I know a lot of people think WSHS will be smaller anyway in the coming years (I think the 2026 class is enormous), so again people were annoyed that the consulting company didn't do this when it seems like it shouldn't be that hard and would be common sense to look at.

It would be 2 additional classrooms per grade, 4 total classes of kids.

The 6th grade classes are smaller than the 8th grade classes, when you factor in the class of out of bound AAP kids who attend Keene Mill Elementary


My suggestion for the WSHS pyramid is:

Stick with Map 3 for Rolling Valley, sending the entire RV island to Saratoga and keeping them at Lewis.

This will open up a lot of space at RV.

Move the WSHS AAP program to Rolling Valley. Send ALL of the WSHS AAP level 4 kids to Rolling Valley, including the OH and HV kids at Sangster. It is centrally located and will have space.

Send all the non WSHS pyramid AAP kids at Keene Mill back to their own pyramid AAP schools.

Move the Cardinal Forest neighborhoods in Map 4 to Keene Mill as planned

Move Sangster to LB as recommended in all the maps

Move the Keene Mill island to White Oaks/ LB as recommended in map 4


*** for the White Oaks neighborhood upset about getting rezoned to Cherry Run because siblings will be split up since White Oaks is AAP and Cherry Run is not, send those few streets to Sangster instead, which will have space if the OH and HV kids go to the WSHS pyramid AAP center instead of the LB AAP center.