FCPS Boundary Review Updates

[Anonymous]

What are the numbers shared here?? Poster - can you please share the header or some way to interpret this data??

2 Jackson falles church 96 Thoreau
5 Frost woodson 62 47 Poe + 15 Holmes
5 Kilmer marshall 39 Thorau
2 Longfellow mclean 14 Kilmer immersion?

[Anonymous]

11:23 is mostly inaccurate.

Policy 8130 guides the boundary review. It is focused on efficiencies in capacity, transportation… it isn’t about one Fairfax or equity. Italso doesn’t envision changes every five years. Just a check to see if any adjustments should be made. If we can get through this initial painful change (painful because this common sense review has been neglected for forty years), it will be so much better. FCPS has been making one off boundary changes that cause as many problems as they fix. It’s been a waste of resources with very little positive change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

They are only grandfathering rising 12th graders .

Source?

Watching the school board daytime planning meetings posted on board docs from last summer and fall.

It is all available online. Take some time to do your own research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the numbers shared here?? Poster - can you please share the header or some way to interpret this data??

2 Jackson falles church 96 Thoreau
5 Frost woodson 62 47 Poe + 15 Holmes
5 Kilmer marshall 39 Thorau
2 Longfellow mclean 14 Kilmer immersion?

Another poster who is confused by the numbers. Would love to know what they mean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11:23 is mostly inaccurate.

Policy 8130 guides the boundary review. It is focused on efficiencies in capacity, transportation… it isn’t about one Fairfax or equity. Italso doesn’t envision changes every five years. Just a check to see if any adjustments should be made. If we can get through this initial painful change (painful because this common sense review has been neglected for forty years), it will be so much better. FCPS has been making one off boundary changes that cause as many problems as they fix. It’s been a waste of resources with very little positive change.

Not 11:23, but if the 4/11 proposals were adopted without major modifications, it will be much worse, not so much better. The proposed changes are largely solutions in search of a problem - next to no one was complaining about the existing attendance islands - and they do things like creating multiple new split feeders (while purporting to "fix" the attendance islands), requiring kids to actually have to travel longer distances, including longer distances through areas assigned to other schools, and busing kids who would benefit the most by living close to their schools to schools further away.

Meanwhile, they've said nothing about what, if any, grandfathering might apply.

You can put as much lipstick on this piglet as you want, but this is a self-inflicted wound in the making, every bit as harmful to FCPS's future as Trump's current missteps are the American economy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the numbers shared here?? Poster - can you please share the header or some way to interpret this data??

2 Jackson falles church 96 Thoreau
5 Frost woodson 62 47 Poe + 15 Holmes
5 Kilmer marshall 39 Thorau
2 Longfellow mclean 14 Kilmer immersion?

Not PP, but it's:

[Region] [Middle School A] [High School Pyramid for Middle School A] [# of Transfers from Middle School B to Middle School A] [Middle School B].

So, to take the first entry, Jackson Middle School is in Region 2 and the Falls Church pyramid, and there are 96 transfers to Jackson this year from Thoreau.

The second entiry is Frost Middle School is in Region 5 and Woodson pyramid, and there are 62 transfers to Frost, 47 from Poe and 15 from Holmes.

And so on

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11:23 is mostly inaccurate.

Policy 8130 guides the boundary review. It is focused on efficiencies in capacity, transportation… it isn’t about one Fairfax or equity. Italso doesn’t envision changes every five years. Just a check to see if any adjustments should be made. If we can get through this initial painful change (painful because this common sense review has been neglected for forty years), it will be so much better. FCPS has been making one off boundary changes that cause as many problems as they fix. It’s been a waste of resources with very little positive change.

You clearly have not watched any of the daytime planning meetings.

It was 100% initiated based on One Fairfax and equity.

The school board placed Nardos King (DEI office head) on the Brac committee explicitly so she could make sure all rezoning aligned with One Fairfax.

FCPS published the history of this rezoning push on its website and explicitly states this round of rezoning is motivated by equity and One Fairfax. It was there for several years up to a few months ago, unless FCPS purged it to make trump happy.

Until very recently, like September/October 2024, the main justification for this rezoning was One Fairfax. The other stuff was added later to give legitimately to the process.

If it was really about making programs equal between schools, they would have started with eliminating IB and putting AAP in every elementary and middle school, then looked at rezoning a few years later, instead of starting with rezoning by looking at demographics and achievement on an individual street address level to determine who gets rezoned (from one of their fall 2024 daytime planning meetings with Thru, available online on board docs) and working backwards with a solution in search of a problem.

If it was truly about fixing overcrowded schools, FCPS did not need to change policy 8130. The old policy 8130 was a solid framework to rezone overcrowded schools while protecting consistency for students. It also had a framework to fix split feeders (used by Daventry recently) and attendance islands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the numbers shared here?? Poster - can you please share the header or some way to interpret this data??

2 Jackson falles church 96 Thoreau
5 Frost woodson 62 47 Poe + 15 Holmes
5 Kilmer marshall 39 Thorau
2 Longfellow mclean 14 Kilmer immersion?

Not PP, but it's:

[Region] [Middle School A] [High School Pyramid for Middle School A] [# of Transfers from Middle School B to Middle School A] [Middle School B].

So, to take the first entry, Jackson Middle School is in Region 2 and the Falls Church pyramid, and there are 96 transfers to Jackson this year from Thoreau.

The second entiry is Frost Middle School is in Region 5 and Woodson pyramid, and there are 62 transfers to Frost, 47 from Poe and 15 from Holmes.

And so on

^ Mostly these transfers are for AAP, but since both Longfellow and Kilmer have AAP PP is speculating that the 14 transfers into Longfellow from Kilmer this year are for continued French immersion (i.e., kids zoned to Kilmer who went to the Kent Gardens French Immersion program and then pupil placed to Longfellow for continued French).

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think connecting the timber lane island with a bit from falls hill so it’s “connected” on map is fine if it’s needed but don’t think we need to extend to 50. My kid went to timber lane. Longfellow, and now is at McLean. We are equal distant to McLean, Marshall, and Falls church but the kids by 50 are much closer to falls church.

They are doing anything to bump capacity up at Cooper and Langley to cut FHES to Herndon.

Sending kids that border Loudoun Co. to Langley is insane.

As insane as sending kids near 50 to McLean? because I looked and it adds the exact same amount of time to their commute.

Like it or not, the difference to HMS is within a couple minutes commute of Cooper and less than ten to HHS vs Langley.

Your equity obsession is showing.

They aren't proposing (yet) to send kids near Route 50 to McLean, just to Longfellow. They would leave these kids at Falls Church. Of course, that's even more bizarre, since about 95% of Longfellow goes to McLean. I guess they left them at Falls Church because they didn't want to add kids to overcrowded McLean, and maybe they even realized Falls Church is getting expanded, but all that should have also suggested leaving these kids at Jackson and maintaining the fairly even split feeder at Timber Lane.

Same analysis holds for Longfellow. The person who thinks it’s insane to send great falls to Langley surely feels the same about busing these poor kids to Longfellow, right?

I don't think that the proposed Timber Lane/Longfellow adjustment to 50 makes any sense. But if you are trying to convince me that Forestville should go anywhere other than Herndon, you'll fail. If I pick a nice central location on Seneca, it is 4 miles and less than 10 min from Herndon. It is 11 miles and 22 minutes (non-rush!) to Langley. There's simply no argument except people want to go to the rich school.

But I'm not just going to call out Forestville. Why is Westbriar the way it is, and why on earth would the western kids go to Marshall? Langley, Marshall, Madison, and McLean need to be more compact and be prepped to divide up any growth in Tysons.

You are picking the furthest point in Forestville intentionally, and it’s clear what your agenda is. The fact is that on average from Forestville you save two minutes to HMS than Cooper, and 9 to HHS from Langley. Those are rounding errors, despite you trying to convince everyone that it’s otherwise.

I already know you’ll call me an “equity warrior” but Katy Perry could have seen that FVES should go to Herndon from her little outer space jaunt.

[Anonymous]

This page used to have a big section on One Fairfax and rezoning. Now it just has a tiny blurb that doesn't make sense in the context of everything else.

I wonder when the district changed the page.

https://www.fcps.edu/facilities-planning-future/school-boundary-adjustments/boundary-policy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think connecting the timber lane island with a bit from falls hill so it’s “connected” on map is fine if it’s needed but don’t think we need to extend to 50. My kid went to timber lane. Longfellow, and now is at McLean. We are equal distant to McLean, Marshall, and Falls church but the kids by 50 are much closer to falls church.

They are doing anything to bump capacity up at Cooper and Langley to cut FHES to Herndon.

Sending kids that border Loudoun Co. to Langley is insane.

As insane as sending kids near 50 to McLean? because I looked and it adds the exact same amount of time to their commute.

Like it or not, the difference to HMS is within a couple minutes commute of Cooper and less than ten to HHS vs Langley.

Your equity obsession is showing.

They aren't proposing (yet) to send kids near Route 50 to McLean, just to Longfellow. They would leave these kids at Falls Church. Of course, that's even more bizarre, since about 95% of Longfellow goes to McLean. I guess they left them at Falls Church because they didn't want to add kids to overcrowded McLean, and maybe they even realized Falls Church is getting expanded, but all that should have also suggested leaving these kids at Jackson and maintaining the fairly even split feeder at Timber Lane.

Same analysis holds for Longfellow. The person who thinks it’s insane to send great falls to Langley surely feels the same about busing these poor kids to Longfellow, right?

I don't think that the proposed Timber Lane/Longfellow adjustment to 50 makes any sense. But if you are trying to convince me that Forestville should go anywhere other than Herndon, you'll fail. If I pick a nice central location on Seneca, it is 4 miles and less than 10 min from Herndon. It is 11 miles and 22 minutes (non-rush!) to Langley. There's simply no argument except people want to go to the rich school.

But I'm not just going to call out Forestville. Why is Westbriar the way it is, and why on earth would the western kids go to Marshall? Langley, Marshall, Madison, and McLean need to be more compact and be prepped to divide up any growth in Tysons.

You are picking the furthest point in Forestville intentionally, and it’s clear what your agenda is. The fact is that on average from Forestville you save two minutes to HMS than Cooper, and 9 to HHS from Langley. Those are rounding errors, despite you trying to convince everyone that it’s otherwise.

I already know you’ll call me an “equity warrior” but Katy Perry could have seen that FVES should go to Herndon from her little outer space jaunt.

So, who should go to Langley to replace them?

[Anonymous]

Here is Fairfax County One Fairfax:

"...One Fairfax

One Fairfax is a joint racial and social equity policy of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and School Board. The 2016 One Fairfax Resolution commits the county and schools to intentionally consider equity when making policies or delivering programs and services.

It is the commitment to promote fairness and justice in the formation of public policy that results in all residents – regardless of age, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, marital status, disability, socio-economic status or neighborhood of residence or other characteristics – having opportunity to fully participate in the region’s economic vitality, contribute to its readiness for the future, and connect to its assets and resources.

The One Fairfax Policy establishes shared definitions, focus areas, processes and organizational structure to help county and school leaders to look intentionally, comprehensively and systematically at barriers that may be creating gaps in opportunity. The One Fairfax Policy includes a purpose, definitions, areas of focus to promote equity, process and roles...."

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/topics/one-fairfax

Whether you are pro DEI or not, One Fairfax is clearly about infusing equity into all government decisions and processes.

[Anonymous]

Thank you to the poster who shared the numbers for MS transfers! Eye-opening! Also, thank you to the posters who shared who explained the data!

[Anonymous]

“1 Carson oakton 273 Franklin”

Franklin sending 273 kids to Carson for AAP is crazy!! Yeah - they are ripe for being their own AAP center and eliminating one source of split feeder from Carson!

[Anonymous]

Here is a 2019 board meeting work session on boundaries. https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/D35VG780A222/$file/Boundaries%20Research%20and%20Practice%20Presentation.pdf

It literally says on page 5 that socioeconomic, demographics, and achievements are things that impact “equity and excellence” and on the next page, that considering costs, “natural or man made boundaries” aka highways and rivers and such, development, and stability is “not supported by educational research.”

Now this was from 2019 and the board and the political climate is different now. For one, they say that “contiguous boundaries” was not on the priority list in 2019 but it seems to be a priority now, hence trying to eliminate the attendance islands as a first step. The problem is that research in social sciences can basically reach whatever conclusion you want. A few decades ago, it was thought that bussing lower income kids/neighborhoods to higher income schools was the way to go, now it more seems to be the “research” is it’s better for community involvement and attendance for students to go to school closer to home. They can pick and choose whatever studies they figure will support their current agenda.