FCPS talks a lot about equity and then creates the conditions that makes solutions that might mitigate disparities all but impossible. To take one example, Langley HS is in a very high-income corner of the county just a few miles away from another HS, McLean. Moreover, the parents in the Langley catchment area are the most likely of any parents in the county to send their kids to privates. FCPS can't change the school's location, which is a sunk cost, but logically it should be one of the smallest 2-3 high schools in the county. So what did FCPS do Langley came up for its scheduled renovation? Rather than renovate the school with a modest addition, they added hundreds of additional seats to the school that weren't needed and weren't part of the original plan. So now Langley has a capacity of almost 2400, and FCPS is not only continuing to send kids who live closer to other schools like Herndon and Marshall to Langley, but also now moving more kids who live closer to McLean to Langley, when they should have been adding more permanent capacity to Herndon, Marshall, and McLean instead. Of course, once those neighborhoods are at Langley, they'll fight like hell to stay there and point to the fact that the school remains under-enrolled, which would no longer be the case but for the additional seats that were needed elsewhere. And the School Board members will nod their heads and agree with them, at the same time as they sign up a Kendi or Angelo for their next big staff event in the summer of 2022. It's actually almost comical that they spend so much time on their virtue-signaling exercises when their operating decisions undercut "equity" at every point. The whole IB/AP pupil placement dynamic (where families can arbitrage academic programs to get out of a poorer IB school by enrolling their kids in a few AP classes at another school) is another example. |
And Chap Peterson, a democrat, was a big proponent. Never mind he was actually working on the case with his law firm. Yes, charter schools are a problem, but honestly FCPS does not do anything to fix the problem and they've had decades to do so. West Potomac was a disaster of a decision. Same for the Annandale/Woodson boundary decision. |
I think this is a good thing. Tysons can go to Langley. |
I guess you missed that movie. |
I am all in favor of a redistricting across the entire county. Lets shift all the boundaries so that over enrolled schools see relief and under enrolled schools see their seats being used. Families who are unhappy with their new schools are welcome to move to Private but the boundaries, as they stand right now, are bullshit. |
| Good luck with that. |
I see you truly do want to create a school board reckoning, and get the superintendent fired to boot. "Families who are unhappy with their new schools are welcome to move to Private" ... as if there are enough privates to absorb all the kids whose families would like to switch and as if everyone could afford it. Funding doesn't follow kids. |
When they've played games this long, no one would want to be the one left holding the bag if they were to change course and just make full use of existing capacity. So let's assume there are 5000 grumpy taxpayers who don't want to spend another dollar on capital improvements until full use is made of existing capacity and favor county-wide redistricting to make that happen (which, at the high school level, would entail a massive shift of students in northern and western Fairfax to southern Fairfax). They'll still be 10,000 parents who don't want their schools to be the ones that get no money, when they've already seen how much FCPS has been spending on other schools. And there will be 10,000 more who'll object to the boundary changes. Guess which ones are likely to be the most vocal. |
We live in the Fox Mill boundary and have been here before they moved Fox Mill ES to the South Lakes pyramid. We did not have a child when we bought the house. People were pissed but most stayed in Public School and the kids that I know who have gone to or are at South Lakes are happy there. I am sure that there are some kids in the neighborhood who are attending private school but all the teens that I know are at South Lakes. I am not so sure that there are going to be that many people who move to private. The only places that I can see where people would choose private over a different HS in moderate numbers are families moved from McLean or Langley. Do I want a different school board? Yes. I want policies that are meant to help kids and improve education. I want a better reading and writing program. I want spelling and vocabulary tests. I want kids to have access to differentiation that supports those who are struggling and who are advanced. I want Local Level IV at every school and Centers to go away. I want a real gifted and talented program, one for kids who are legitimately gifted and who are years ahead of their peers. I am fine with seat allocation at TJ based on MS class size. I think allocating the 1.5% of seats to the top kids from each MS is a great idea. I think that the current standards are fine, let kids be judged on the classes that they can all take and the math essay that they did last year. There are plenty of seats that can be filled through the regular application process. Kids should be based on programs that are available to all and not based on what they can afford to do outside of school. I don't want social justice surveys at school. I don't understand the need for a counseling special for ES kids. I don't want a school board that is hostile to LBGTQ kids. I don't want a school board that is closed to listen to legitimate concerns about the education gap. I don't want a school board that blows off concerns about systemic racism in the school. I don't want a school board that ignores the needs of ESL and SPED kids. I don't want prayer in school. I don't want vouchers or Charter Schools. I would n't mind more magnet schools in the ES and MS and HS. I think the idea of one IB school per pyramid as a magnet school is a good one. I think more Votechnical magnet schools is a good one. I think STEM and Arts Magnet schools would be great. We can't recreate TJ but we can develop a less intense STEM magnet school for kids interested in STEM. We really could use a good Arts Magnet school. I doubt that the Republican Party is going to run any moderates. As sick as I am with the Progressive movement, I fear the damage done by the Trump like candidates and the right wing, Tea Party folks out there. |
Mass chaos. I suspect you have never been through a redistricting. Bad idea. |
For who? The parents of kids that are in the higher income families maybe but better for the rest of the county. We have schools with declining population and schools that are bursting at the seems. We can alleviate a good amount of that by shifting the boundaries. We won't because the wealthy families will scream bloody murder and will contribute to whatever campaign they have to so that their kids don't have to attend school with kids who are under privileged. |
It won't happen. Local politicians aren't dumb enough to stir up that hornets nest. If you think the Loudon parents that helped Youngkin get elected was bad, bring Lewis, Mt Vernon, and Annandale up to capacity and see what happens in the next election. |
I have been wildly curious if all the signs I saw about 8 years ago by parents in the Wakefield Chapel area begging to stay at Annandale would still be there if FCPS decided to move them back. |
Annandale is a different school a decade later, after all the boundary changes, than it was back in 2011. And, of course, people have now moved into Wakefield Forest specifically for Frost/Woodson. What the School Board did to Annandale (and even more so Poe) while controlled by Democrats is a shame. |
Redistricting drops property values. This impacts all families. Keeps your hands off my school district. You won't like it if you don't. |