FCPS Boundary Review - New Maps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious. Why is this the only result we have heard from the BRAC meeting? Is this the only concern of FairFacts Matters?

We have heard nothing about the other Regions.

Well, FairFacts does have a lot of membership and people who are concerned about that area. But the fact that the region 5 folks said that one of their top priorities was moving an ES that’s not even in their region, and has not been the subject of any serious discussion or changes on any of the proposed maps so far does stand out … a lot. Maybe if region 2 said their top priority was Hunt Valley to Lewis, we would hear that too.

I hope it's not too late, and that Region 1 BRAC members can highlight at the next meeting that one of their top priorities in making sure Mantua is moved from Woodson to Falls Church.

LOL! IYKYK

[Anonymous]

Moving Mantua to Falls Church could actually make a lot of sense, especially if KAA takes an Oakton feeder like Crossfield. In that case, Oakton could take Fairhill from Falls Church, and Mantua could move over to Falls Church from Woodson.

It's something that's been talked about from time to time, but now the pieces are starting to fall in place to make it a real possibility. Keep in mind that the existing AAP center from Mantua largely draws from Falls Church feeders, so it will simplify things.

I do hope that no one from Mantua is inconvenienced or upset about moving over to Falls Church, especially the Mantua member(s) on the BRAC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving Mantua to Falls Church could actually make a lot of sense, especially if KAA takes an Oakton feeder like Crossfield. In that case, Oakton could take Fairhill from Falls Church, and Mantua could move over to Falls Church from Woodson.

It's something that's been talked about from time to time, but now the pieces are starting to fall in place to make it a real possibility. Keep in mind that the existing AAP center from Mantua largely draws from Falls Church feeders, so it will simplify things.

I do hope that no one from Mantua is inconvenienced or upset about moving over to Falls Church, especially the Mantua member(s) on the BRAC.

Tots and pears. 😂😂😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious. Why is this the only result we have heard from the BRAC meeting? Is this the only concern of FairFacts Matters?

We have heard nothing about the other Regions.

Well, FairFacts does have a lot of membership and people who are concerned about that area. But the fact that the region 5 folks said that one of their top priorities was moving an ES that’s not even in their region, and has not been the subject of any serious discussion or changes on any of the proposed maps so far does stand out … a lot. Maybe if region 2 said their top priority was Hunt Valley to Lewis, we would hear that too.

I hope it's not too late, and that Region 1 BRAC members can highlight at the next meeting that one of their top priorities in making sure Mantua is moved from Woodson to Falls Church.

I think this is meant to be satire, but I think it’s worthwhile to mention that region 1 has not and will not meddle in other regions’ schools. We’re better than that.

[Anonymous]

Reading the region 6 comments it is clear no one wants to attend Lewis. Even some folks off the parkway next to Greenspring Village are pushing for West Springfield.

I wonder if they could find a way to shut it down and spread the students elsewhere. Might save some operating expenses for the new western high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading the region 6 comments it is clear no one wants to attend Lewis. Even some folks off the parkway next to Greenspring Village are pushing for West Springfield.

I wonder if they could find a way to shut it down and spread the students elsewhere. Might save some operating expenses for the new western high school.

Greenspring Parkway is far from WSHS.

That is a crazy jump to request.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading the region 6 comments it is clear no one wants to attend Lewis. Even some folks off the parkway next to Greenspring Village are pushing for West Springfield.

I wonder if they could find a way to shut it down and spread the students elsewhere. Might save some operating expenses for the new western high school.

I do feel like they should explore closing nearby Edison as a neighborhood school - it’s on the worst physical site you can pretty much imagine, on a very busy corner of a 6 lane and a 5 lane road. It has no room to expand, yet the nearby area is slated for a bunch of development. It also holds a good number of vocational programs with the specialized equipment needed, so that’s stuff that can’t easily be moved to another school. If they kept Edison as a vocational HS for the whole county or at least the eastern and middle portions - they could nicely renovate and expand Lewis and combine their enrollments, and the end result would probably be about as large as Chantilly is now. The lower income and mixed income schools do better when they are larger enrollment, because they need more kids to be able to offer a lot of advanced and specialty classes and to compete in HS sports (ACHS is a prime example). And it wouldn’t be a stretch in terms of commute for many of Edison’s neighborhood kids to go to Lewis instead, although it might make more sense to send a few neighborhoods on the edges to Hayfield or West Potomac.

Closing Lewis was on the table maybe 10-12 years ago when it was in danger of losing full accreditation, but then the rules changed and now it’s apparently fine. I remember a few “Gatehouse insider” posts about it and how the ES feeders would have been divided up between all the surrounding schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading the region 6 comments it is clear no one wants to attend Lewis. Even some folks off the parkway next to Greenspring Village are pushing for West Springfield.

I wonder if they could find a way to shut it down and spread the students elsewhere. Might save some operating expenses for the new western high school.

Off the parkway next to the Greenspring Village is a neighborhood of nice new homes so that’s not super surprising lol.

[Anonymous]

Wow, Region 6 comments.

Hamptom near Greenspring has some crazy comments.

They are closer to lewis than WSHS and have zero overlap with the WSHS community socially, sports leagues or pools. With a over 100 houses, they would bring hundreds of kids to WSHS in s couple years, far more than Daventry brought. It is crazy that houses alm the way down by Greenspring would try to argue that they should be zoned to far away WSHS when their neighborhood has no connection to WSHS.

Arguing to get moved to Hayfield would make a little sense, but not much. Lewis is their closest high school.

[Anonymous]

The Hapton Greenspring comments all say that they either attend private school, or lie about residency to attend WSHS.

A wealthy neighborhood saying they should get rezoned to a farther, crowded high school outside their neighborhood so the honest people can stop paying private school tuition and the dishonest people will no longer have to lie about where they actually live is not a good argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Hapton Greenspring comments all say that they either attend private school, or lie about residency to attend WSHS.

A wealthy neighborhood saying they should get rezoned to a farther, crowded high school outside their neighborhood so the honest people can stop paying private school tuition and the dishonest people will no longer have to lie about where they actually live is not a good argument.

Boom- these are the “transfers” that should be looked at, not transfers that are allowed forFCPS programs.

Our comments need to coalesce behind: residency needs to be established at every transition AND yearly for those in over crowded schools BEFORE boundary changes are permitted.

[Anonymous]

The Region 1 and Region 5 comments include a lot of comments from Marshall families:

Marshall families in Vienna generally jump at any chance to get rezoned to Madison.

Marshall families in the "Westbriar Island" in Vienna generally would rather get reassigned to Colvin Run ES than to Wolftrap ES to eliminate the island, and then moved from Kilmer/Marshall to Cooper/Langley. [This may factor into the BRAC Region 5 "priority" recommendation to move Forestville from Langley to Herndon, which would open up more space at Cooper/Langley for Kilmer/Marshall kids.]

Marshall families near the school in Falls Church typically see Marshall as "their" school and don't want to get reassigned to McLean.

[Anonymous]

How can anyone read the Region 6 comments where multiple Hampton - Greenspring Lewis zoned families openly admit that many in their neighborhood are committing residency fraud and lying about addresses to attend West Springfield instead of Lewis, and not agree with WSHS families that West Springfield HS must have a full residency check before any rezoning is allowed to occur?

[Anonymous]

One of the Hampton posts states that they are one of a handful in that neighborhood who attend their Lewis zoned school, while the rest go to private school or West Springfield High School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading the region 6 comments it is clear no one wants to attend Lewis. Even some folks off the parkway next to Greenspring Village are pushing for West Springfield.

I wonder if they could find a way to shut it down and spread the students elsewhere. Might save some operating expenses for the new western high school.

I do feel like they should explore closing nearby Edison as a neighborhood school - it’s on the worst physical site you can pretty much imagine, on a very busy corner of a 6 lane and a 5 lane road. It has no room to expand, yet the nearby area is slated for a bunch of development. It also holds a good number of vocational programs with the specialized equipment needed, so that’s stuff that can’t easily be moved to another school. If they kept Edison as a vocational HS for the whole county or at least the eastern and middle portions - they could nicely renovate and expand Lewis and combine their enrollments, and the end result would probably be about as large as Chantilly is now. The lower income and mixed income schools do better when they are larger enrollment, because they need more kids to be able to offer a lot of advanced and specialty classes and to compete in HS sports (ACHS is a prime example). And it wouldn’t be a stretch in terms of commute for many of Edison’s neighborhood kids to go to Lewis instead, although it might make more sense to send a few neighborhoods on the edges to Hayfield or West Potomac.

Closing Lewis was on the table maybe 10-12 years ago when it was in danger of losing full accreditation, but then the rules changed and now it’s apparently fine. I remember a few “Gatehouse insider” posts about it and how the ES feeders would have been divided up between all the surrounding schools.

I’ve never understood this argument, which has shown up a few times on this forum. Edison has a decent amount of acreage (43 acres), the location near Franconia and Van Dorn means it’s easily accessible, and it was renovated in 2013. I don’t think Edison families want to move to Lewis, and it would cost a ton of money to renovate and expand Lewis to accommodate the 3000 or so students you have mind (and even that number assumes some kids getting moved to Hayfield or West Potomac).

At some point Lewis will get renovated again, but logically only after Annandale and McLean, and there will be a limit as to how much money they can plow into any one of these renovations.