Did Lewis Cancel Its Softball Season?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they can be allowed to play on neighboring teams.

As previously stated, The Virginia High School League VHSL which oversees all interscholastic sports does not allow that. You are limited to the offerings at the high school that serves your neighborhood.

OR, get a AP transfer to a neighboring school then do sports. Since it’s an academic transfer, you can still play sports. Eligibility does get tricky if you transfer in the middle of high school however.

How do they do it in Arlington with that high school that doesn't have sports? HB Woodlawn I think it's called?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they can be allowed to play on neighboring teams.

As previously stated, The Virginia High School League VHSL which oversees all interscholastic sports does not allow that. You are limited to the offerings at the high school that serves your neighborhood.

OR, get a AP transfer to a neighboring school then do sports. Since it’s an academic transfer, you can still play sports. Eligibility does get tricky if you transfer in the middle of high school however.

How do they do it in Arlington with that high school that doesn't have sports? HB Woodlawn I think it's called?

HB Woodlawn is not a school. It’s a program. So under Virginia law, students at HB are actually students of their neighborhood high school, eg Yorktown, W-L, etc. So, HB students play VHSL sports at their neighborhood high school.

[Anonymous]

I am from the area.

They need to get rid of IB and that stupid new social justice magnet dreamed up by the school board that zero people within a reasonable driving distance are interested in, make Lewis a magnet for something desireable to that cohort, like a centralized technical/trades academy (moving the academy classes from far off, overcrowded WestPo to centrally located, just off the beltway Lewis. There are plenty of WSHS, LB, SoCo and surrounding kids who drive all the way to WPo who would love to be able to attend Academy classes in a convenient, centralized location. (ie NOT inconvenient WestPo) There are also a lot of recent immigrant and non-college bound kids at Lewis who whould strongly benefit from having academy classes that are easy to attend and not an insurmountable hardship which they currently are due to location.

OR

Keep IB and make Lewis the only IB magnet in that part of the country. Then, ditch the stupid social justice program, and make Lewis a centralized magnet for all the languages that are hard to get in that half of the county. Keep German, Spanish and French at WSHS, but offer Spanish, plus Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Russian, etc as a magnet specific to Lewis. And with the classical focus of IB and languages, dump some money into the fine arts department, specifically orchestra, band and choir, so the activities that appeal to the IB cohort are robust and top of the line.

This would fix their issues without messing with a single boundary, save money on IB, and gix the West Po crowding an renovation waste issue.

That is what I would do with Lewis if I were king of the day for FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am from the area.

They need to get rid of IB and that stupid new social justice magnet dreamed up by the school board that zero people within a reasonable driving distance are interested in, make Lewis a magnet for something desireable to that cohort, like a centralized technical/trades academy (moving the academy classes from far off, overcrowded WestPo to centrally located, just off the beltway Lewis. There are plenty of WSHS, LB, SoCo and surrounding kids who drive all the way to WPo who would love to be able to attend Academy classes in a convenient, centralized location. (ie NOT inconvenient WestPo) There are also a lot of recent immigrant and non-college bound kids at Lewis who whould strongly benefit from having academy classes that are easy to attend and not an insurmountable hardship which they currently are due to location.

OR

Keep IB and make Lewis the only IB magnet in that part of the country. Then, ditch the stupid social justice program, and make Lewis a centralized magnet for all the languages that are hard to get in that half of the county. Keep German, Spanish and French at WSHS, but offer Spanish, plus Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Russian, etc as a magnet specific to Lewis. And with the classical focus of IB and languages, dump some money into the fine arts department, specifically orchestra, band and choir, so the activities that appeal to the IB cohort are robust and top of the line.

This would fix their issues without messing with a single boundary, save money on IB, and gix the West Po crowding an renovation waste issue.

That is what I would do with Lewis if I were king of the day for FCPS.

People use language availability as an excuse to get to better schools. No one is transferring into Lewis for a language. Likewise, people tolerate IB, no one is transferring to get to in IB school (unless they are using it as an excuse for a transfer that they would already make).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am from the area.

They need to get rid of IB and that stupid new social justice magnet dreamed up by the school board that zero people within a reasonable driving distance are interested in, make Lewis a magnet for something desireable to that cohort, like a centralized technical/trades academy (moving the academy classes from far off, overcrowded WestPo to centrally located, just off the beltway Lewis. There are plenty of WSHS, LB, SoCo and surrounding kids who drive all the way to WPo who would love to be able to attend Academy classes in a convenient, centralized location. (ie NOT inconvenient WestPo) There are also a lot of recent immigrant and non-college bound kids at Lewis who whould strongly benefit from having academy classes that are easy to attend and not an insurmountable hardship which they currently are due to location.

OR

Keep IB and make Lewis the only IB magnet in that part of the country. Then, ditch the stupid social justice program, and make Lewis a centralized magnet for all the languages that are hard to get in that half of the county. Keep German, Spanish and French at WSHS, but offer Spanish, plus Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Russian, etc as a magnet specific to Lewis. And with the classical focus of IB and languages, dump some money into the fine arts department, specifically orchestra, band and choir, so the activities that appeal to the IB cohort are robust and top of the line.

This would fix their issues without messing with a single boundary, save money on IB, and gix the West Po crowding an renovation waste issue.

That is what I would do with Lewis if I were king of the day for FCPS.

All of this has been recommended to FCPS for decades though. They seem determined to have that area fail and do nothing that you suggest. Stagnation is the exact opposite of what is planned for new development making them look dumber and dumber. Can't fix stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am from the area.

They need to get rid of IB and that stupid new social justice magnet dreamed up by the school board that zero people within a reasonable driving distance are interested in, make Lewis a magnet for something desireable to that cohort, like a centralized technical/trades academy (moving the academy classes from far off, overcrowded WestPo to centrally located, just off the beltway Lewis. There are plenty of WSHS, LB, SoCo and surrounding kids who drive all the way to WPo who would love to be able to attend Academy classes in a convenient, centralized location. (ie NOT inconvenient WestPo) There are also a lot of recent immigrant and non-college bound kids at Lewis who whould strongly benefit from having academy classes that are easy to attend and not an insurmountable hardship which they currently are due to location.

OR

Keep IB and make Lewis the only IB magnet in that part of the country. Then, ditch the stupid social justice program, and make Lewis a centralized magnet for all the languages that are hard to get in that half of the county. Keep German, Spanish and French at WSHS, but offer Spanish, plus Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Russian, etc as a magnet specific to Lewis. And with the classical focus of IB and languages, dump some money into the fine arts department, specifically orchestra, band and choir, so the activities that appeal to the IB cohort are robust and top of the line.

This would fix their issues without messing with a single boundary, save money on IB, and gix the West Po crowding an renovation waste issue.

That is what I would do with Lewis if I were king of the day for FCPS.

All of this has been recommended to FCPS for decades though. They seem determined to have that area fail and do nothing that you suggest. Stagnation is the exact opposite of what is planned for new development making them look dumber and dumber. Can't fix stupid.

The schools that are failing are failing because of student demographics. Move low income housing en masse to Langley and it would resemble these schools too. The county is fine with concentrating poverty and a byproduct of concentrated poverty is terrible schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am from the area.

They need to get rid of IB and that stupid new social justice magnet dreamed up by the school board that zero people within a reasonable driving distance are interested in, make Lewis a magnet for something desireable to that cohort, like a centralized technical/trades academy (moving the academy classes from far off, overcrowded WestPo to centrally located, just off the beltway Lewis. There are plenty of WSHS, LB, SoCo and surrounding kids who drive all the way to WPo who would love to be able to attend Academy classes in a convenient, centralized location. (ie NOT inconvenient WestPo) There are also a lot of recent immigrant and non-college bound kids at Lewis who whould strongly benefit from having academy classes that are easy to attend and not an insurmountable hardship which they currently are due to location.

OR

Keep IB and make Lewis the only IB magnet in that part of the country. Then, ditch the stupid social justice program, and make Lewis a centralized magnet for all the languages that are hard to get in that half of the county. Keep German, Spanish and French at WSHS, but offer Spanish, plus Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Russian, etc as a magnet specific to Lewis. And with the classical focus of IB and languages, dump some money into the fine arts department, specifically orchestra, band and choir, so the activities that appeal to the IB cohort are robust and top of the line.

This would fix their issues without messing with a single boundary, save money on IB, and gix the West Po crowding an renovation waste issue.

That is what I would do with Lewis if I were king of the day for FCPS.

People use language availability as an excuse to get to better schools. No one is transferring into Lewis for a language. Likewise, people tolerate IB, no one is transferring to get to in IB school (unless they are using it as an excuse for a transfer that they would already make).

IB has enough appeal so that if Lewis were the only IB school surrounded by AP schools it would benefit from net pupil placements. Years ago before it and other schools further north got crowded Marshall was surrounded by AP schools (Langley, McLean, Madison, Falls Church), three of which were higher rated, and it still was a net beneficiary of pupil placements because most of the kids at the four AP schools who wanted IB went to Marshall (some went to South Lakes). So even though more kids were transferring out of Marshall than were transferring out of each of Langley, Madison, and McLean, on balance it was more kids transferring into Marshall. The same thing could happen at Lewis but for the fact that its part of the county is over-saturated with IB (Annandale, Edison, Justice, Mount Vernon are also IB).

The academy program, on the other hand, won't be a draw, assuming its focus is on "leadership" or "social justice." It won't be a credentialed program, like IB, nor will be it be a practical one, like the academy at West Potomac.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am from the area.

They need to get rid of IB and that stupid new social justice magnet dreamed up by the school board that zero people within a reasonable driving distance are interested in, make Lewis a magnet for something desireable to that cohort, like a centralized technical/trades academy (moving the academy classes from far off, overcrowded WestPo to centrally located, just off the beltway Lewis. There are plenty of WSHS, LB, SoCo and surrounding kids who drive all the way to WPo who would love to be able to attend Academy classes in a convenient, centralized location. (ie NOT inconvenient WestPo) There are also a lot of recent immigrant and non-college bound kids at Lewis who whould strongly benefit from having academy classes that are easy to attend and not an insurmountable hardship which they currently are due to location.

OR

Keep IB and make Lewis the only IB magnet in that part of the country. Then, ditch the stupid social justice program, and make Lewis a centralized magnet for all the languages that are hard to get in that half of the county. Keep German, Spanish and French at WSHS, but offer Spanish, plus Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Russian, etc as a magnet specific to Lewis. And with the classical focus of IB and languages, dump some money into the fine arts department, specifically orchestra, band and choir, so the activities that appeal to the IB cohort are robust and top of the line.

This would fix their issues without messing with a single boundary, save money on IB, and gix the West Po crowding an renovation waste issue.

That is what I would do with Lewis if I were king of the day for FCPS.

All of this has been recommended to FCPS for decades though. They seem determined to have that area fail and do nothing that you suggest. Stagnation is the exact opposite of what is planned for new development making them look dumber and dumber. Can't fix stupid.

The schools that are failing are failing because of student demographics. Move low income housing en masse to Langley and it would resemble these schools too. The county is fine with concentrating poverty and a byproduct of concentrated poverty is terrible schools

No, nobody sends their kids to those schools because of IB and lack of AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am from the area.

They need to get rid of IB and that stupid new social justice magnet dreamed up by the school board that zero people within a reasonable driving distance are interested in, make Lewis a magnet for something desireable to that cohort, like a centralized technical/trades academy (moving the academy classes from far off, overcrowded WestPo to centrally located, just off the beltway Lewis. There are plenty of WSHS, LB, SoCo and surrounding kids who drive all the way to WPo who would love to be able to attend Academy classes in a convenient, centralized location. (ie NOT inconvenient WestPo) There are also a lot of recent immigrant and non-college bound kids at Lewis who whould strongly benefit from having academy classes that are easy to attend and not an insurmountable hardship which they currently are due to location.

OR

Keep IB and make Lewis the only IB magnet in that part of the country. Then, ditch the stupid social justice program, and make Lewis a centralized magnet for all the languages that are hard to get in that half of the county. Keep German, Spanish and French at WSHS, but offer Spanish, plus Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Russian, etc as a magnet specific to Lewis. And with the classical focus of IB and languages, dump some money into the fine arts department, specifically orchestra, band and choir, so the activities that appeal to the IB cohort are robust and top of the line.

This would fix their issues without messing with a single boundary, save money on IB, and gix the West Po crowding an renovation waste issue.

That is what I would do with Lewis if I were king of the day for FCPS.

All of this has been recommended to FCPS for decades though. They seem determined to have that area fail and do nothing that you suggest. Stagnation is the exact opposite of what is planned for new development making them look dumber and dumber. Can't fix stupid.

They don't have a great plan for the areas slated to see the most new development, either, but that's a separate topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am from the area.

They need to get rid of IB and that stupid new social justice magnet dreamed up by the school board that zero people within a reasonable driving distance are interested in, make Lewis a magnet for something desireable to that cohort, like a centralized technical/trades academy (moving the academy classes from far off, overcrowded WestPo to centrally located, just off the beltway Lewis. There are plenty of WSHS, LB, SoCo and surrounding kids who drive all the way to WPo who would love to be able to attend Academy classes in a convenient, centralized location. (ie NOT inconvenient WestPo) There are also a lot of recent immigrant and non-college bound kids at Lewis who whould strongly benefit from having academy classes that are easy to attend and not an insurmountable hardship which they currently are due to location.

OR

Keep IB and make Lewis the only IB magnet in that part of the country. Then, ditch the stupid social justice program, and make Lewis a centralized magnet for all the languages that are hard to get in that half of the county. Keep German, Spanish and French at WSHS, but offer Spanish, plus Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Russian, etc as a magnet specific to Lewis. And with the classical focus of IB and languages, dump some money into the fine arts department, specifically orchestra, band and choir, so the activities that appeal to the IB cohort are robust and top of the line.

This would fix their issues without messing with a single boundary, save money on IB, and gix the West Po crowding an renovation waste issue.

That is what I would do with Lewis if I were king of the day for FCPS.

All of this has been recommended to FCPS for decades though. They seem determined to have that area fail and do nothing that you suggest. Stagnation is the exact opposite of what is planned for new development making them look dumber and dumber. Can't fix stupid.

The schools that are failing are failing because of student demographics. Move low income housing en masse to Langley and it would resemble these schools too. The county is fine with concentrating poverty and a byproduct of concentrated poverty is terrible schools

No, nobody sends their kids to those schools because of IB and lack of AP.

Who knows. With Skills based grading, maybe IB will become more popular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what are the options for parents and kids who want to play these sports that get cancelled? Can they try out for another school?

This seems actually horribly unfair to some kids who have played little league sports growing up and now find themselves unable to demonstrate their abilities for sports scholarships to college scouts.

They play travel softball. I would guess that most athletes that are reruited for college are being recruited out of their year long travel team and not the high school team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what are the options for parents and kids who want to play these sports that get cancelled? Can they try out for another school?

This seems actually horribly unfair to some kids who have played little league sports growing up and now find themselves unable to demonstrate their abilities for sports scholarships to college scouts.

They play travel softball. I would guess that most athletes that are reruited for college are being recruited out of their year long travel team and not the high school team.

This is absolutely true. College coaches recruit at travel showcases. Colorado Sparkler, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am from the area.

They need to get rid of IB and that stupid new social justice magnet dreamed up by the school board that zero people within a reasonable driving distance are interested in, make Lewis a magnet for something desireable to that cohort, like a centralized technical/trades academy (moving the academy classes from far off, overcrowded WestPo to centrally located, just off the beltway Lewis. There are plenty of WSHS, LB, SoCo and surrounding kids who drive all the way to WPo who would love to be able to attend Academy classes in a convenient, centralized location. (ie NOT inconvenient WestPo) There are also a lot of recent immigrant and non-college bound kids at Lewis who whould strongly benefit from having academy classes that are easy to attend and not an insurmountable hardship which they currently are due to location.

OR

Keep IB and make Lewis the only IB magnet in that part of the country. Then, ditch the stupid social justice program, and make Lewis a centralized magnet for all the languages that are hard to get in that half of the county. Keep German, Spanish and French at WSHS, but offer Spanish, plus Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Russian, etc as a magnet specific to Lewis. And with the classical focus of IB and languages, dump some money into the fine arts department, specifically orchestra, band and choir, so the activities that appeal to the IB cohort are robust and top of the line.

This would fix their issues without messing with a single boundary, save money on IB, and gix the West Po crowding an renovation waste issue.

That is what I would do with Lewis if I were king of the day for FCPS.

All of this has been recommended to FCPS for decades though. They seem determined to have that area fail and do nothing that you suggest. Stagnation is the exact opposite of what is planned for new development making them look dumber and dumber. Can't fix stupid.

The schools that are failing are failing because of student demographics. Move low income housing en masse to Langley and it would resemble these schools too. The county is fine with concentrating poverty and a byproduct of concentrated poverty is terrible schools

No, nobody sends their kids to those schools because of IB and lack of AP.

People find an excuse to get their kids out of those schools. Whatever West Springfield offers that Lewis doesn't will become popular.

[Anonymous]

There are 199 'white' students at Lewis this year. Cut that in half to get 100 'white' girls. If your pony-tailed European descent white girl is what you are looking for to fill out a softball team, then you have to reduce this number even further because 'white' includes people of Middle Eastern descent. There may not be 70 European white girls in all of Lewis. How many of them enjoy softball?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am from the area.

They need to get rid of IB and that stupid new social justice magnet dreamed up by the school board that zero people within a reasonable driving distance are interested in, make Lewis a magnet for something desireable to that cohort, like a centralized technical/trades academy (moving the academy classes from far off, overcrowded WestPo to centrally located, just off the beltway Lewis. There are plenty of WSHS, LB, SoCo and surrounding kids who drive all the way to WPo who would love to be able to attend Academy classes in a convenient, centralized location. (ie NOT inconvenient WestPo) There are also a lot of recent immigrant and non-college bound kids at Lewis who whould strongly benefit from having academy classes that are easy to attend and not an insurmountable hardship which they currently are due to location.

OR

Keep IB and make Lewis the only IB magnet in that part of the country. Then, ditch the stupid social justice program, and make Lewis a centralized magnet for all the languages that are hard to get in that half of the county. Keep German, Spanish and French at WSHS, but offer Spanish, plus Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Latin, Korean, Russian, etc as a magnet specific to Lewis. And with the classical focus of IB and languages, dump some money into the fine arts department, specifically orchestra, band and choir, so the activities that appeal to the IB cohort are robust and top of the line.

This would fix their issues without messing with a single boundary, save money on IB, and gix the West Po crowding an renovation waste issue.

That is what I would do with Lewis if I were king of the day for FCPS.

People use language availability as an excuse to get to better schools. No one is transferring into Lewis for a language. Likewise, people tolerate IB, no one is transferring to get to in IB school (unless they are using it as an excuse for a transfer that they would already make).

IB has enough appeal so that if Lewis were the only IB school surrounded by AP schools it would benefit from net pupil placements. Years ago before it and other schools further north got crowded Marshall was surrounded by AP schools (Langley, McLean, Madison, Falls Church), three of which were higher rated, and it still was a net beneficiary of pupil placements because most of the kids at the four AP schools who wanted IB went to Marshall (some went to South Lakes). So even though more kids were transferring out of Marshall than were transferring out of each of Langley, Madison, and McLean, on balance it was more kids transferring into Marshall. The same thing could happen at Lewis but for the fact that its part of the county is over-saturated with IB (Annandale, Edison, Justice, Mount Vernon are also IB).

The academy program, on the other hand, won't be a draw, assuming its focus is on "leadership" or "social justice." It won't be a credentialed program, like IB, nor will be it be a practical one, like the academy at West Potomac.

There is a large difference between Marshall vs Madison and Lake Braddock vs Lewis. There is nothing that Lewis can offer that will draw students from Lake Braddock, West Springfield, South County or even Hayfield.