Bren Mar Park to Key/Lewis

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Daventry

Keene Mill (the parts next to St. Bernadette) really should be the neighborhood to get rezoned to Lewis. They are closer than Daventry.

So you’re creating a bunch of split feeders out of Keene Mill ES and West Springfield ES rather than moving a whole elementary school. You get fewer students at Lewis and create more complicated feeder patterns. Makes sense …

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Daventry

Keene Mill (the parts next to St. Bernadette) really should be the neighborhood to get rezoned to Lewis. They are closer than Daventry.

So you’re creating a bunch of split feeders out of Keene Mill ES and West Springfield ES rather than moving a whole elementary school. You get fewer students at Lewis and create more complicated feeder patterns. Makes sense …

They are creating a bunch of split feeders with the Skyview proposals.

It’s bizarre how BMP is singled out as the solution to under-enrollment at Lewis while overcrowding at West Springfield, the other side of the equation, just gets ignored. If they can’t acknowledge that, they should just leave things alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Lewis families were informed about the meeting. The Lewis community has been begging for more communities to be zoned into the school.

And please, no comments about eliminating IB and adding more programs. It's been said and done, so thank you.

What Lewis needs is more kids. What happens when there's not enough students to enroll in a class? The class gets cancelled. That means the more specialized classes end up not being offered because the population's not large enough to support that niche subject.

Then parents move into other school districts, because they want the more course offerings, and Lewis shrinks even more.

The school needs a healthy, growing population.

Either the school board grow a freaking backbone and move kids into Lewis, or they just admit that they don't want to invest in the school and shut the damn school down. They don't seem concerned about student population or overcrowded schools, so let's just let the other high schools absorb the population.

WSHS has had classes cancelled and they have tons of students.

Music Theory, for example, was cancelled several years because the number of students registered did not meet the staffing ratios.

Advanced robotics was combined with a lower level class due to low enrollment. The entire latin program was cancelled. Theater 3 and 4 are often combined due to not meeting the staffing ratios. German combines upper levels to meet staffing ratios. The list goes on and on. WSHS is one of the fullest schools in the county, and every year they cancel or combine classes due to low enrollment.

Lewis should offer smaller classes, or combine levels into one class, such as a level 3/4/AP class (one of my kid's German classes one year.)

Such a tone deaf comment

Why do you say that?

Did you miss the part that said Lewis should be allowed to run smaller classes? If they only have 12-15 students capable of calculu, run a 12-15 student class. If they only have 10 or so, in a specialty elective, combine levels amd do a 3/4 class or a 1/2 class.

Lewis is bigger than most private high schools. They can find ways to offer a robust selection of courses

The original comment was saying WSHS can’t offer music theory and advanced robotics.

Meanwhile Lewis is so small they didn’t even have a baseball (or was it softball?) team.

What other advanced courses is Lewis not offering because it is so small. I’m sure it’s more popular courses than music theory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shout out to the Bren Mar Park parents who spoke at the School Board meeting tonight about FCPS's shameful attempt to ignore overcrowding at West Springfield HS and make Bren Mar Park the solution to under-enrollment at Lewis HS even though BMP is not overcrowded and the change, if implemented, results in an even worse commute to high school for BMP students.

Listen carefully, Michelle Reid: We are sick and tired of your ALWAYS looking for the easiest way out and your willingness to throw less affluent families under the bus to "fix" problems of FCPS's own making. Enough is enough. Either include West Springfield within the study or table it entirely!

I see the meeting was posted on YouTube but is 5 hours long. Curious what was said regarding this - do you have a rough idea when this discussion occurred during the meeting?

[Anonymous]

If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

Moving some edge boundary kids from WS to Lewis isn’t going to yield the number of students needed to really bump up enrollment at Lewis. It will be the opposite of Daventry. They thought they were closing a small split feeder since there were very few HS students living there. In reality, when the area was moved from Lewis to WSHS, the number of HS students ballooned because people were no longer seeking pupil placements, moving right before high school started, or lying about their address. What looked like maybe 20-30 students on paper ended up being many more.

If you move some Keene Mill or West Springfield border neighborhoods, people will just start moving when they hit middle or high school age. You’ll think you’re getting maybe 75-100 high school students (which really is not a lot compared to the numbers at a whole elementary school …) but they’d be lucky to end up with 25 when all is said and done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

Moving some edge boundary kids from WS to Lewis isn’t going to yield the number of students needed to really bump up enrollment at Lewis. It will be the opposite of Daventry. They thought they were closing a small split feeder since there were very few HS students living there. In reality, when the area was moved from Lewis to WSHS, the number of HS students ballooned because people were no longer seeking pupil placements, moving right before high school started, or lying about their address. What looked like maybe 20-30 students on paper ended up being many more.

If you move some Keene Mill or West Springfield border neighborhoods, people will just start moving when they hit middle or high school age. You’ll think you’re getting maybe 75-100 high school students (which really is not a lot compared to the numbers at a whole elementary school …) but they’d be lucky to end up with 25 when all is said and done.

This is the exact logic employed to justify moving another group of people to Lewis who don’t want to go there: “they won’t have the same options as we have, so you’ll get more bodies if you move BMP rather than us.”

Never mind that WSHS is the most overcrowded HS in the county and moving BMP would leave Holmes seriously under-capacity.

Our empress has no clothes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

Moving some edge boundary kids from WS to Lewis isn’t going to yield the number of students needed to really bump up enrollment at Lewis. It will be the opposite of Daventry. They thought they were closing a small split feeder since there were very few HS students living there. In reality, when the area was moved from Lewis to WSHS, the number of HS students ballooned because people were no longer seeking pupil placements, moving right before high school started, or lying about their address. What looked like maybe 20-30 students on paper ended up being many more.

If you move some Keene Mill or West Springfield border neighborhoods, people will just start moving when they hit middle or high school age. You’ll think you’re getting maybe 75-100 high school students (which really is not a lot compared to the numbers at a whole elementary school …) but they’d be lucky to end up with 25 when all is said and done.

This is the exact logic employed to justify moving another group of people to Lewis who don’t want to go there: “they won’t have the same options as we have, so you’ll get more bodies if you move BMP rather than us.”

Never mind that WSHS is the most overcrowded HS in the county and moving BMP would leave Holmes seriously under-capacity.

Our empress has no clothes.

I’m sorry but it’s the truth. People zoned for West Springfield now have more options than Lewis if they are moved. They are going to disappear from the system. We’ve already seen the opposite happen. I don’t think Bren Mar Park should move either unless it’s to Annandale. But IF the goal is just getting more bodies into Lewis, Bren Mar Park is the low hanging fruit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

Moving some edge boundary kids from WS to Lewis isn’t going to yield the number of students needed to really bump up enrollment at Lewis. It will be the opposite of Daventry. They thought they were closing a small split feeder since there were very few HS students living there. In reality, when the area was moved from Lewis to WSHS, the number of HS students ballooned because people were no longer seeking pupil placements, moving right before high school started, or lying about their address. What looked like maybe 20-30 students on paper ended up being many more.

If you move some Keene Mill or West Springfield border neighborhoods, people will just start moving when they hit middle or high school age. You’ll think you’re getting maybe 75-100 high school students (which really is not a lot compared to the numbers at a whole elementary school …) but they’d be lucky to end up with 25 when all is said and done.

This is the exact logic employed to justify moving another group of people to Lewis who don’t want to go there: “they won’t have the same options as we have, so you’ll get more bodies if you move BMP rather than us.”

Never mind that WSHS is the most overcrowded HS in the county and moving BMP would leave Holmes seriously under-capacity.

Our empress has no clothes.

I’m sorry but it’s the truth. People zoned for West Springfield now have more options than Lewis if they are moved. They are going to disappear from the system. We’ve already seen the opposite happen. I don’t think Bren Mar Park should move either unless it’s to Annandale. But IF the goal is just getting more bodies into Lewis, Bren Mar Park is the low hanging fruit.

It's a cop-out to pretend under-enrollment at Lewis is the only issue. If they are going to change boundaries, they should be looking to solve both sides of the equation: under-enrollment at Lewis and overcrowding at West Springfield.

Moving BMP (the "low hanging fruit") to Lewis only addresses one side of the equation, and it aggravates an existing problem, which is the low enrollment at Holmes.

Why is Michelle Reid so stunningly incompetent at addressing these issues?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

Moving some edge boundary kids from WS to Lewis isn’t going to yield the number of students needed to really bump up enrollment at Lewis. It will be the opposite of Daventry. They thought they were closing a small split feeder since there were very few HS students living there. In reality, when the area was moved from Lewis to WSHS, the number of HS students ballooned because people were no longer seeking pupil placements, moving right before high school started, or lying about their address. What looked like maybe 20-30 students on paper ended up being many more.

If you move some Keene Mill or West Springfield border neighborhoods, people will just start moving when they hit middle or high school age. You’ll think you’re getting maybe 75-100 high school students (which really is not a lot compared to the numbers at a whole elementary school …) but they’d be lucky to end up with 25 when all is said and done.

This is the exact logic employed to justify moving another group of people to Lewis who don’t want to go there: “they won’t have the same options as we have, so you’ll get more bodies if you move BMP rather than us.”

Never mind that WSHS is the most overcrowded HS in the county and moving BMP would leave Holmes seriously under-capacity.

Our empress has no clothes.

I’m sorry but it’s the truth. People zoned for West Springfield now have more options than Lewis if they are moved. They are going to disappear from the system. We’ve already seen the opposite happen. I don’t think Bren Mar Park should move either unless it’s to Annandale. But IF the goal is just getting more bodies into Lewis, Bren Mar Park is the low hanging fruit.

It's a cop-out to pretend under-enrollment at Lewis is the only issue. If they are going to change boundaries, they should be looking to solve both sides of the equation: under-enrollment at Lewis and overcrowding at West Springfield.

Moving BMP (the "low hanging fruit") to Lewis only addresses one side of the equation, and it aggravates an existing problem, which is the low enrollment at Holmes.

Why is Michelle Reid so stunningly incompetent at addressing these issues?

Also add the Franconia school board rep to the list of incompetent people. What exactly has she done to help the situation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

Moving some edge boundary kids from WS to Lewis isn’t going to yield the number of students needed to really bump up enrollment at Lewis. It will be the opposite of Daventry. They thought they were closing a small split feeder since there were very few HS students living there. In reality, when the area was moved from Lewis to WSHS, the number of HS students ballooned because people were no longer seeking pupil placements, moving right before high school started, or lying about their address. What looked like maybe 20-30 students on paper ended up being many more.

If you move some Keene Mill or West Springfield border neighborhoods, people will just start moving when they hit middle or high school age. You’ll think you’re getting maybe 75-100 high school students (which really is not a lot compared to the numbers at a whole elementary school …) but they’d be lucky to end up with 25 when all is said and done.

This is the exact logic employed to justify moving another group of people to Lewis who don’t want to go there: “they won’t have the same options as we have, so you’ll get more bodies if you move BMP rather than us.”

Never mind that WSHS is the most overcrowded HS in the county and moving BMP would leave Holmes seriously under-capacity.

Our empress has no clothes.

I’m sorry but it’s the truth. People zoned for West Springfield now have more options than Lewis if they are moved. They are going to disappear from the system. We’ve already seen the opposite happen. I don’t think Bren Mar Park should move either unless it’s to Annandale. But IF the goal is just getting more bodies into Lewis, Bren Mar Park is the low hanging fruit.

It's a cop-out to pretend under-enrollment at Lewis is the only issue. If they are going to change boundaries, they should be looking to solve both sides of the equation: under-enrollment at Lewis and overcrowding at West Springfield.

Moving BMP (the "low hanging fruit") to Lewis only addresses one side of the equation, and it aggravates an existing problem, which is the low enrollment at Holmes.

Why is Michelle Reid so stunningly incompetent at addressing these issues?

Also add the Franconia school board rep to the list of incompetent people. What exactly has she done to help the situation?

Why do they default to boundary changes that redistrict people who do not want to be moved to Lewis, when there are obvious things that can be done in the Lewis pyramid to increase enrollment such as making Key an AAP center and replacing IB with AP at Lewis?

Ricardy Anderson and Marcia St. John-Cunning need to put their heads together and come up with something that isn't a band aid that leaves BMP families feeling like "low hanging fruit" and doesn't trash Holmes MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

Moving some edge boundary kids from WS to Lewis isn’t going to yield the number of students needed to really bump up enrollment at Lewis. It will be the opposite of Daventry. They thought they were closing a small split feeder since there were very few HS students living there. In reality, when the area was moved from Lewis to WSHS, the number of HS students ballooned because people were no longer seeking pupil placements, moving right before high school started, or lying about their address. What looked like maybe 20-30 students on paper ended up being many more.

If you move some Keene Mill or West Springfield border neighborhoods, people will just start moving when they hit middle or high school age. You’ll think you’re getting maybe 75-100 high school students (which really is not a lot compared to the numbers at a whole elementary school …) but they’d be lucky to end up with 25 when all is said and done.

This is the exact logic employed to justify moving another group of people to Lewis who don’t want to go there: “they won’t have the same options as we have, so you’ll get more bodies if you move BMP rather than us.”

Never mind that WSHS is the most overcrowded HS in the county and moving BMP would leave Holmes seriously under-capacity.

Our empress has no clothes.

I’m sorry but it’s the truth. People zoned for West Springfield now have more options than Lewis if they are moved. They are going to disappear from the system. We’ve already seen the opposite happen. I don’t think Bren Mar Park should move either unless it’s to Annandale. But IF the goal is just getting more bodies into Lewis, Bren Mar Park is the low hanging fruit.

It's a cop-out to pretend under-enrollment at Lewis is the only issue. If they are going to change boundaries, they should be looking to solve both sides of the equation: under-enrollment at Lewis and overcrowding at West Springfield.

Moving BMP (the "low hanging fruit") to Lewis only addresses one side of the equation, and it aggravates an existing problem, which is the low enrollment at Holmes.

Why is Michelle Reid so stunningly incompetent at addressing these issues?

Also add the Franconia school board rep to the list of incompetent people. What exactly has she done to help the situation?

Why do they default to boundary changes that redistrict people who do not want to be moved to Lewis, when there are obvious things that can be done in the Lewis pyramid to increase enrollment such as making Key an AAP center and replacing IB with AP at Lewis?

Ricardy Anderson and Marcia St. John-Cunning need to put their heads together and come up with something that isn't a band aid that leaves BMP families feeling like "low hanging fruit" and doesn't trash Holmes MS.

I think the school has such low enrollment that they need to do both things at the same time.

The BMP PTA rep at last nights meeting requested that the school board study specific SPAs in the WSHS and Edison pyramids that directly border Lewis being moved into Lewis before doing anything with BMP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

Moving some edge boundary kids from WS to Lewis isn’t going to yield the number of students needed to really bump up enrollment at Lewis. It will be the opposite of Daventry. They thought they were closing a small split feeder since there were very few HS students living there. In reality, when the area was moved from Lewis to WSHS, the number of HS students ballooned because people were no longer seeking pupil placements, moving right before high school started, or lying about their address. What looked like maybe 20-30 students on paper ended up being many more.

If you move some Keene Mill or West Springfield border neighborhoods, people will just start moving when they hit middle or high school age. You’ll think you’re getting maybe 75-100 high school students (which really is not a lot compared to the numbers at a whole elementary school …) but they’d be lucky to end up with 25 when all is said and done.

This is the exact logic employed to justify moving another group of people to Lewis who don’t want to go there: “they won’t have the same options as we have, so you’ll get more bodies if you move BMP rather than us.”

Never mind that WSHS is the most overcrowded HS in the county and moving BMP would leave Holmes seriously under-capacity.

Our empress has no clothes.

I’m sorry but it’s the truth. People zoned for West Springfield now have more options than Lewis if they are moved. They are going to disappear from the system. We’ve already seen the opposite happen. I don’t think Bren Mar Park should move either unless it’s to Annandale. But IF the goal is just getting more bodies into Lewis, Bren Mar Park is the low hanging fruit.

It's a cop-out to pretend under-enrollment at Lewis is the only issue. If they are going to change boundaries, they should be looking to solve both sides of the equation: under-enrollment at Lewis and overcrowding at West Springfield.

Moving BMP (the "low hanging fruit") to Lewis only addresses one side of the equation, and it aggravates an existing problem, which is the low enrollment at Holmes.

Why is Michelle Reid so stunningly incompetent at addressing these issues?

Also add the Franconia school board rep to the list of incompetent people. What exactly has she done to help the situation?

Why do they default to boundary changes that redistrict people who do not want to be moved to Lewis, when there are obvious things that can be done in the Lewis pyramid to increase enrollment such as making Key an AAP center and replacing IB with AP at Lewis?

Ricardy Anderson and Marcia St. John-Cunning need to put their heads together and come up with something that isn't a band aid that leaves BMP families feeling like "low hanging fruit" and doesn't trash Holmes MS.

I think the school has such low enrollment that they need to do both things at the same time.

The BMP PTA rep at last nights meeting requested that the school board study specific SPAs in the WSHS and Edison pyramids that directly border Lewis being moved into Lewis before doing anything with BMP

The problem with that on the Edison side is it would remove Edison’s walkers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

Moving some edge boundary kids from WS to Lewis isn’t going to yield the number of students needed to really bump up enrollment at Lewis. It will be the opposite of Daventry. They thought they were closing a small split feeder since there were very few HS students living there. In reality, when the area was moved from Lewis to WSHS, the number of HS students ballooned because people were no longer seeking pupil placements, moving right before high school started, or lying about their address. What looked like maybe 20-30 students on paper ended up being many more.

If you move some Keene Mill or West Springfield border neighborhoods, people will just start moving when they hit middle or high school age. You’ll think you’re getting maybe 75-100 high school students (which really is not a lot compared to the numbers at a whole elementary school …) but they’d be lucky to end up with 25 when all is said and done.

This is the exact logic employed to justify moving another group of people to Lewis who don’t want to go there: “they won’t have the same options as we have, so you’ll get more bodies if you move BMP rather than us.”

Never mind that WSHS is the most overcrowded HS in the county and moving BMP would leave Holmes seriously under-capacity.

Our empress has no clothes.

I’m sorry but it’s the truth. People zoned for West Springfield now have more options than Lewis if they are moved. They are going to disappear from the system. We’ve already seen the opposite happen. I don’t think Bren Mar Park should move either unless it’s to Annandale. But IF the goal is just getting more bodies into Lewis, Bren Mar Park is the low hanging fruit.

It's a cop-out to pretend under-enrollment at Lewis is the only issue. If they are going to change boundaries, they should be looking to solve both sides of the equation: under-enrollment at Lewis and overcrowding at West Springfield.

Moving BMP (the "low hanging fruit") to Lewis only addresses one side of the equation, and it aggravates an existing problem, which is the low enrollment at Holmes.

Why is Michelle Reid so stunningly incompetent at addressing these issues?

Also add the Franconia school board rep to the list of incompetent people. What exactly has she done to help the situation?

Why do they default to boundary changes that redistrict people who do not want to be moved to Lewis, when there are obvious things that can be done in the Lewis pyramid to increase enrollment such as making Key an AAP center and replacing IB with AP at Lewis?

Ricardy Anderson and Marcia St. John-Cunning need to put their heads together and come up with something that isn't a band aid that leaves BMP families feeling like "low hanging fruit" and doesn't trash Holmes MS.

I think the school has such low enrollment that they need to do both things at the same time.

The BMP PTA rep at last nights meeting requested that the school board study specific SPAs in the WSHS and Edison pyramids that directly border Lewis being moved into Lewis before doing anything with BMP

It’s unfortunate that Reid and the School Board force BMP parents into a position where they have to flag other neighborhoods zoned for other schools to potentially move to Lewis, when that should have been Reid’s job.

BMP got kicked out of Annandale in the 2010s and moved to Edison when Annandale was probably less overcrowded than West Springfield is now, but they give WSHS a pass while proposing to screw over BMP yet again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they move BMP to Key/Lewis then Holmes ends up seriously under capacity. They just trade the problem at Lewis for a new problem at Holmes.

They should either be moving kids from Irving/West Springfield to Key/Lewis or leaving the boundaries alone and looking for other ways to improve Key/Lewis, such as adding AAP to Key and replacing IB at Lewis with AP.

Moving some edge boundary kids from WS to Lewis isn’t going to yield the number of students needed to really bump up enrollment at Lewis. It will be the opposite of Daventry. They thought they were closing a small split feeder since there were very few HS students living there. In reality, when the area was moved from Lewis to WSHS, the number of HS students ballooned because people were no longer seeking pupil placements, moving right before high school started, or lying about their address. What looked like maybe 20-30 students on paper ended up being many more.

If you move some Keene Mill or West Springfield border neighborhoods, people will just start moving when they hit middle or high school age. You’ll think you’re getting maybe 75-100 high school students (which really is not a lot compared to the numbers at a whole elementary school …) but they’d be lucky to end up with 25 when all is said and done.

This is the exact logic employed to justify moving another group of people to Lewis who don’t want to go there: “they won’t have the same options as we have, so you’ll get more bodies if you move BMP rather than us.”

Never mind that WSHS is the most overcrowded HS in the county and moving BMP would leave Holmes seriously under-capacity.

Our empress has no clothes.

I’m sorry but it’s the truth. People zoned for West Springfield now have more options than Lewis if they are moved. They are going to disappear from the system. We’ve already seen the opposite happen. I don’t think Bren Mar Park should move either unless it’s to Annandale. But IF the goal is just getting more bodies into Lewis, Bren Mar Park is the low hanging fruit.

It's a cop-out to pretend under-enrollment at Lewis is the only issue. If they are going to change boundaries, they should be looking to solve both sides of the equation: under-enrollment at Lewis and overcrowding at West Springfield.

Moving BMP (the "low hanging fruit") to Lewis only addresses one side of the equation, and it aggravates an existing problem, which is the low enrollment at Holmes.

Why is Michelle Reid so stunningly incompetent at addressing these issues?

Also add the Franconia school board rep to the list of incompetent people. What exactly has she done to help the situation?

Why do they default to boundary changes that redistrict people who do not want to be moved to Lewis, when there are obvious things that can be done in the Lewis pyramid to increase enrollment such as making Key an AAP center and replacing IB with AP at Lewis?

Ricardy Anderson and Marcia St. John-Cunning need to put their heads together and come up with something that isn't a band aid that leaves BMP families feeling like "low hanging fruit" and doesn't trash Holmes MS.

I think the school has such low enrollment that they need to do both things at the same time.

The BMP PTA rep at last nights meeting requested that the school board study specific SPAs in the WSHS and Edison pyramids that directly border Lewis being moved into Lewis before doing anything with BMP

The problem with that on the Edison side is it would remove Edison’s walkers.

Which brings us back to Lewis’ other neighbor right next door ……..the school at the highest capacity and double the size of Lewis. -WSHS