Karl Frisch and the Stupidity of Dunn Loring ES

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doubt it’s going to sync up well with the whole “you can live, work, and play in Tysons” marketing pitch if they end up telling people with kids moving into some of the hundreds of new Tysons condos that their kids can schlep to some school in Dunn Loring, which is between Vienna and Merrifield.

It really isn’t that far. What is it a mile or 2. We bus kids halfway across the county from Herndon to Great Falls/Langley. And yes I do believe families will eventually be drawn to the condos in Tysons. It is how much of the world lives. Small spaces that is.

And those people still have a neighborhood elementary school in Great Falls.

Dunn Loring is going to be more of a nuisance than a solution.

[Anonymous]

I don't know that this is a Frisch issue. During that election, every single SB candidate plus Connolly came out against the Blake Lane school. I was furious. I talked to my local candidates and their door knockers, and all of them said there were ways to address crowding without touching the dog park - but when I asked what those were, no one had any specifics or would commit to anything.

We are nearby the Blake Lane site and zoned for Mosaic, which is overcrowded.
A Blake Lane school would have taken the pressure off our school and other nearby schools. According to the CIP at the time, the new school would have opened this fall.

Yes there are a lot of schools clustered in this area, but there are also a lot of students so the schools are very crowded. And schools do offer green space (fields, playground). It's absolutely ridiculous that a school won't be built on a lot that is actually named Blake Lane School Site. It's not a park, it's a vacant lot that people temporarily got to use as a dog run.

[Anonymous]

Mosby Woods/Mosaic was big and crowded. And there was concern that the City of Fairfax at some point might demand that FCPS pull county kids out of Providence, just like they did at one point with Fairfax HS (requiring kids to be moved to Woodson).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Karl Frisch+the pandemic really screwed Shrevewood over. Three years ago, we were promised a boundary study the following fall, which was then postponed to the next fall, and then of course the pandemic happened so that was postponed again, and somehow Karl managed to slide in the Dunn Loring proposal under the radar.

How are things at Shrevewood? Did the pandemic help with the capacity issues?

I don't know about other grades, but Kindergarten classes are huge (larger than normal, according to neighbors with older kids). I really hope they hire a new teacher for first grade because those classes are only going to get bigger. I had heard that a few home schoolers were going to start their Kindergarteners in January, but I imagine that they have postponed their plans due to Omicron.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hard to believe any of these comments are anything other than astroturfing. Repurposing Dunn Loring makes much more sense than building a brand new school outright. Why anyone thinks any of this has to do with a DOG PARK only makes sense when you understand that 90% of the criticism about Frisch is very thinly veiled anti-gay stuff. That he cares more about phis than children. That he has no children in the schools.

Look, I’d having a vested interest in the schools and expertise in public education was a requirement for being elected to the school board, we’d be electing experienced FCPS teachers who are also FCPS parents. But that is explicitly Not allowed. So let’s let go of the criticism that Frisch has no children. He is a member of our community.

Nope, I don't care about his sexuality, I care that he didn't do anything immediate about the overcrowding at our ES. Fortunately the pandemic seems to have taken care of that for most grades, but I have a Kindergartener and based on how large his class is, I don't think the situation is going to get any better in the next 5-7 years.

[Anonymous]

I don't have a dog in this fight (punintentional) but I am not seeing how Blake Lane makes geographic sense as an ES given the proximity to Mosaic ES and Oakton ES. The Dunn Loring site seems like it will be able to ease capacity pressure at BOTH Mosaic AND the various schools in greater Tysons area / FC outskirts. It's the frustration just because it's going to take longer to achieve the relief this way? Because long-term it seems the obviously superior choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Karl Frisch+the pandemic really screwed Shrevewood over. Three years ago, we were promised a boundary study the following fall, which was then postponed to the next fall, and then of course the pandemic happened so that was postponed again, and somehow Karl managed to slide in the Dunn Loring proposal under the radar.

How are things at Shrevewood? Did the pandemic help with the capacity issues?

I don't know about other grades, but Kindergarten classes are huge (larger than normal, according to neighbors with older kids). I really hope they hire a new teacher for first grade because those classes are only going to get bigger. I had heard that a few home schoolers were going to start their Kindergarteners in January, but I imagine that they have postponed their plans due to Omicron.

What are the class sizes for K? We are zoned for Shrevewood but put our kinder in private. Not sure what we will do down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a dog in this fight (punintentional) but I am not seeing how Blake Lane makes geographic sense as an ES given the proximity to Mosaic ES and Oakton ES. The Dunn Loring site seems like it will be able to ease capacity pressure at BOTH Mosaic AND the various schools in greater Tysons area / FC outskirts. It's the frustration just because it's going to take longer to achieve the relief this way? Because long-term it seems the obviously superior choice.

The Dunn Loring site is not remotely close enough to Mosaic to relieve any future overcrowding there, nor is it especially close to the parts of Tysons that are expected to see the most growth.

They will end up with multiple ES near Dunn Loring well below capacity for years. Many of the grades may end up with just enough kids to warrant only two teachers per grade, each with large class sizes. And the further downside is that the school’s existence may be used as an excuse to delay building a new ES in Tysons where it otherwise would be needed and give that growing area a better sense of community.

There was absolutely no interest in accelerating Dunn Loring’s renovation until Frisch seized upon it as a means to put the final nail in the coffin of the Blake Lane school. He likely won’t still be around on the SB in 2026 to clean up the mess he’s created, but it will still be a mess.

[Anonymous]

Our K at Marshall road started at 24 and had 30 by Christmas. It was waaaay too big to control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a dog in this fight (punintentional) but I am not seeing how Blake Lane makes geographic sense as an ES given the proximity to Mosaic ES and Oakton ES. The Dunn Loring site seems like it will be able to ease capacity pressure at BOTH Mosaic AND the various schools in greater Tysons area / FC outskirts. It's the frustration just because it's going to take longer to achieve the relief this way? Because long-term it seems the obviously superior choice.

Dunn Loring ES will be almost 6 miles from Mosaic ES. It won’t do anything to ease future capacity pressure there.

Maybe you’re confusing Mosaic ES with the Mosaic District, which feeds to Fairhill ES in a different pyramid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our K at Marshall road started at 24 and had 30 by Christmas. It was waaaay too big to control.

Yikes. That sounds chaotic.

But class sizes and whether schools are above or below capacity are different issues. If you have a small school with 60 kids in K or 1st grade, and it’s not a Title I school, you run the risk that you’ll end up with two classes each with 30 kids, even if the total number of kids leaves the school enrollment at 60-70% of building capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our K at Marshall road started at 24 and had 30 by Christmas. It was waaaay too big to control.

Yikes. That sounds chaotic.

But class sizes and whether schools are above or below capacity are different issues. If you have a small school with 60 kids in K or 1st grade, and it’s not a Title I school, you run the risk that you’ll end up with two classes each with 30 kids, even if the total number of kids leaves the school enrollment at 60-70% of building capacity.

I’m the Marshall Road poster. There were four kindergarten classes that year(2019?) I believe…I could be wrong it might been three… Each class was between 28 and 30 by Christmas. It was not a good situation but the teachers and aides did the best they could. The aids made a difference as if they were children with behavior issues they would focus on controlling them. Unfortunately 30 kids in kindergarten usually rolls into about the same number in first grade but there’s one less adult in the room since there’s no aides. The classes are too damn big.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s appears that Karl Frish’s priorities during his time as a School Board member have been to push the sexual ideology indoctrination of students in FCPS and to preserve the dog park in his area. Both causes serve his personal interests, as opposed to those of the majority of the community members he represents. Enough of these activists making self-serving decisions that affect all children and are financed by tax payers.

I agree the guy is a dum dum but can we not spew this garbage here?

[Anonymous]

I thought people liked Stenwood. It’s going to end up a very different school when this is finished. It won’t be good for Dunn Loring Woods, that’s for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a dog in this fight (punintentional) but I am not seeing how Blake Lane makes geographic sense as an ES given the proximity to Mosaic ES and Oakton ES. The Dunn Loring site seems like it will be able to ease capacity pressure at BOTH Mosaic AND the various schools in greater Tysons area / FC outskirts. It's the frustration just because it's going to take longer to achieve the relief this way? Because long-term it seems the obviously superior choice.

Dunn Loring ES will be almost 6 miles from Mosaic ES. It won’t do anything to ease future capacity pressure there.

Maybe you’re confusing Mosaic ES with the Mosaic District, which feeds to Fairhill ES in a different pyramid.

What future capacity issues? Mosaic is being expanded.