Cooper Middle School New AAP center

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I go to school board meetings and pay attention to the demographic shifts in the county. It isn't that difficult. Two schools will be be chronically over crowded, one next door is chronically under enrolled. Population in the in the over crowded ones are expected to rise significantly due to significant additional residential building, exacerbating the problem. Plus the school board has been trying to get rid of islands and peninsulas where possible.

We should also see expansion of Falls Church HS area on the other side of McLean and Marshall.

Will these happen tomorrow? No, more probably in the next 5+/- years. Or if they wait until it is too late, 10 years.

It will be somewhat controversial, but not particularly so, to have kids whose base school is already Cooper attend an AAP center there. There is room at Cooper, and it would immediately become one of the larger AAP centers in the county, but there are some Langley parents who think it would be an outrage to take their kids out of "proven" AAP centers or have their kids attend Cooper before it is renovated.

Given how the Cooper/Langley area consistently tries to unseat Janie Strauss, and how Strauss gets the vast majority of her support from areas zoned for Longfellow and Kilmer, I'd expect Janie to be sensitive to the actual overcrowding at Kilmer, and impending overcrowding at Longfellow, and press for a new AAP center at Cooper ASAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not as though they are going to redistrict a lot of the Hispanic communities off Route 50 into Cooper/Langley-at most, more of the Franklin Sherman kods and more of the communities in McLean next to 123 will be redistricted there Instead of Longfellow/McLean.

And yes-property taxes may be the same rate but property VALUES are a different story, much higher in Langley vs McLean districts. The North side of McLean couldn't be more different than the South side.

You're funny. If you look at sales of SFH by school district, the district in NoVa with the highest median sales price is Langley. The district with the second highest median sales prices is McLean.

So, yes, they are different, but they could also be a lot "more different."

It's also by no means clear there will be any need to move any kids out of Longfellow/McLean to Cooper/Langley, if they move the Cooper AAP kids at Longfellow back to Cooper. It has turned out that some of the earlier projections that were the basis for prior statements that they might need to move kids from McLean to Langley were off by a wide margin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not as though they are going to redistrict a lot of the Hispanic communities off Route 50 into Cooper/Langley-at most, more of the Franklin Sherman kods and more of the communities in McLean next to 123 will be redistricted there Instead of Longfellow/McLean.

And yes-property taxes may be the same rate but property VALUES are a different story, much higher in Langley vs McLean districts. The North side of McLean couldn't be more different than the South side.

LOL, keep telling yourself that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not as though they are going to redistrict a lot of the Hispanic communities off Route 50 into Cooper/Langley-at most, more of the Franklin Sherman kods and more of the communities in McLean next to 123 will be redistricted there Instead of Longfellow/McLean.

And yes-property taxes may be the same rate but property VALUES are a different story, much higher in Langley vs McLean districts. The North side of McLean couldn't be more different than the South side.

You're funny. If you look at sales of SFH by school district, the district in NoVa with the highest median sales price is Langley. The district with the second highest median sales prices is McLean.

So, yes, they are different, but they could also be a lot "more different."

It's also by no means clear there will be any need to move any kids out of Longfellow/McLean to Cooper/Langley, if they move the Cooper AAP kids at Longfellow back to Cooper. It has turned out that some of the earlier projections that were the basis for prior statements that they might need to move kids from McLean to Langley were off by a wide margin.

If you drill down further, the properly values near the border are even more similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they were truly interested in community feedback, they would have realized long ago just how many families in this area feel AAP has gone off the rails. If AAP hadn't exploded unnecessarily in the past years, there wouldn't be overcrowding issues at Kilmer and Longfellow to begin with. And Cooper could remain AAP free.

This has been discussed on the school committee for several years. Plenty of time for the community to give its feedback. It isn't new. It is the reason Cooper (and otehr MS) have LLIV AAP now. It was a way to have it be voluntary first before it became mandatory.

There was a big drop in the number of Cooper 7th graders placing to Kilmer and Longfellow for AAP this fall. The writing is on the wall.

Not sure where you got that info-from Churchill Road alone, approximately 90% of the 6th graders from last year elected to go to Longfellow. Longfellow is one of the best middle schools in the state, so don't expect this switch to be well-received by everyone, esp from those parents wanting their kids to apply to TJ eventually (not me, but given the attitude of several Cooper parents over remaining AAP free I'd still pick Longfellow in a NY minute!)

Oh boo, f-ing hoo! It's a freaking middle school for goodness sake and anyone who thinks going to TJ is dependent on where their kid goes to middle school is sadly mistaken (and unlikely to have a kid smart enough to get into TJ anyway). This is a PUBLIC school system and other kids at other middle schools have suffered long enough while McLean residents were coddled into accepting the need for another center. With all the parental pushiness and insistence that your kids are "special" you brought this on yourselves. Get over it and lets make some decisions that make sense for ALL middle school children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I go to school board meetings and pay attention to the demographic shifts in the county. It isn't that difficult. Two schools will be be chronically over crowded, one next door is chronically under enrolled. Population in the in the over crowded ones are expected to rise significantly due to significant additional residential building, exacerbating the problem. Plus the school board has been trying to get rid of islands and peninsulas where possible.

We should also see expansion of Falls Church HS area on the other side of McLean and Marshall.

Will these happen tomorrow? No, more probably in the next 5+/- years. Or if they wait until it is too late, 10 years.

It will be somewhat controversial, but not particularly so, to have kids whose base school is already Cooper attend an AAP center there. There is room at Cooper, and it would immediately become one of the larger AAP centers in the county, but there are some Langley parents who think it would be an outrage to take their kids out of "proven" AAP centers or have their kids attend Cooper before it is renovated.

Given how the Cooper/Langley area consistently tries to unseat Janie Strauss, and how Strauss gets the vast majority of her support from areas zoned for Longfellow and Kilmer, I'd expect Janie to be sensitive to the actual overcrowding at Kilmer, and impending overcrowding at Longfellow, and press for a new AAP center at Cooper ASAP.

Proven, schmooven. We've long ago surrendered any idea that AAP is a "gifted" program, so why should it matter if everyone's "special and advanced" kids are in a old or new AAP program. They're so brilliant, they should do fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I go to school board meetings and pay attention to the demographic shifts in the county. It isn't that difficult. Two schools will be be chronically over crowded, one next door is chronically under enrolled. Population in the in the over crowded ones are expected to rise significantly due to significant additional residential building, exacerbating the problem. Plus the school board has been trying to get rid of islands and peninsulas where possible.

We should also see expansion of Falls Church HS area on the other side of McLean and Marshall.

Will these happen tomorrow? No, more probably in the next 5+/- years. Or if they wait until it is too late, 10 years.

It will be somewhat controversial, but not particularly so, to have kids whose base school is already Cooper attend an AAP center there. There is room at Cooper, and it would immediately become one of the larger AAP centers in the county, but there are some Langley parents who think it would be an outrage to take their kids out of "proven" AAP centers or have their kids attend Cooper before it is renovated.

Given how the Cooper/Langley area consistently tries to unseat Janie Strauss, and how Strauss gets the vast majority of her support from areas zoned for Longfellow and Kilmer, I'd expect Janie to be sensitive to the actual overcrowding at Kilmer, and impending overcrowding at Longfellow, and press for a new AAP center at Cooper ASAP.

Proven, schmooven. We've long ago surrendered any idea that AAP is a "gifted" program, so why should it matter if everyone's "special and advanced" kids are in a old or new AAP program. They're so brilliant, they should do fine.

+100
I think it's both hilarious and sickening that the AAP parents feel they can actually demand a "proven" AAP program for their special snowflakes. The biggest mistake FCPS ever made was allowing these parents the choice over where their kids would attend school, when that choice wasn't given to every other child. I have zero sympathies for what I call the "AAP complainers." I guess they've never heard, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" (unless it applies to others, of course). And FCPS is to blame for capitulating to them, time and again.

[Anonymous]

It is obvious that the only people writing currently are the AAP haters and the Kilmer/Longfellow base-how about if we actually hear from some parents who's kids this will actually affect?

[Anonymous]

I have one-I was looking forward to getting my kid out of the base school district and meeting some new kids in MS-DC has not found a great peer group at the base and I was hoping MS would be different and a new opportunity for DC-think Longfellow would be better in that respect than Cooper. Don't think going private is the answer but too late anyway to apply at this point!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is obvious that the only people writing currently are the AAP haters and the Kilmer/Longfellow base-how about if we actually hear from some parents who's kids this will actually affect?

Huh? Doesn't it actually affect the Kilmer and Longfellow base kids if their schools are less crowded?

[Anonymous]

I'm a Longfellow parent who will miss this peer group for my rising 6th grader. My 8th grader has found such a great group of new friends and like-minded kids from the Cooper kids and I know my 5th grader would have loved to have these additional peers. It will be a less good experience for her if they are not allowed to come.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Longfellow parent who will miss this peer group for my rising 6th grader. My 8th grader has found such a great group of new friends and like-minded kids from the Cooper kids and I know my 5th grader would have loved to have these additional peers. It will be a less good experience for her if they are not allowed to come.

Thank you for this! No one mentions any of the benefits to the kids that have come from having strong centers!

It seems as though the overcrowding mainly affects Kilmer-so why not do a phased approach with Kilmer transfers to Cooper for next year and see how that goes? I think the current Cooper population needs some time to absorb these changes-the school is used to being on the smaller side and the transfers from Kilmer alone are going to be overwhelming enough-the building is old and resources will be stretched!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Longfellow parent who will miss this peer group for my rising 6th grader. My 8th grader has found such a great group of new friends and like-minded kids from the Cooper kids and I know my 5th grader would have loved to have these additional peers. It will be a less good experience for her if they are not allowed to come.

Thank you for this! No one mentions any of the benefits to the kids that have come from having strong centers!

It seems as though the overcrowding mainly affects Kilmer-so why not do a phased approach with Kilmer transfers to Cooper for next year and see how that goes? I think the current Cooper population needs some time to absorb these changes-the school is used to being on the smaller side and the transfers from Kilmer alone are going to be overwhelming enough-the building is old and resources will be stretched!

So you think the importance of having a large AAP peer group at Longfellow should receive more attention, but that it would be a good idea to create a small center at Cooper with AAP kids who otherwise would have gone to Kilmer to "see how it goes"?

I'm not seeing the logic here, other than perhaps you're just advocating for some way to keep the Cooper AAP kids at Longfellow until your own kid has finished middle school.

[Anonymous]

Not going to be a small center-adding the Kilmer kids alone would be an extra 200 kids or so, and would alleviate their overcrowding-you can't have it both ways. The fact is that the Cooper based kids constitute a large critical mass-so either accept them at Longfellow and Kilmer and deal with overcrowding or divert them and deal with the negative consequences of loss of the peer group with a smaller environment for the base students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not going to be a small center-adding the Kilmer kids alone would be an extra 200 kids or so, and would alleviate their overcrowding-you can't have it both ways. The fact is that the Cooper based kids constitute a large critical mass-so either accept them at Longfellow and Kilmer and deal with overcrowding or divert them and deal with the negative consequences of loss of the peer group with a smaller environment for the base students.

Yes, it should be neither or both. And FCPS ought to be looking at the mega-centers at Carson and Rocky Run as well.