My massive dilemma about school pyramids - low income vs. more affluent? HELP ME!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I faced this dilemma on a different scale when picking which university to attend. Make the move. It's better to have your child surrounded by peers who will challenge him/her, then be in a place where everything is too easy because teh other kids aren't keeping up.

Would you prefer your kid go to Princeton or Iowa State? They may find Princeton more difficult, but isn't that the point -- to be challenged?

This is a ridiculous analogy. Princeton and Iowa State are completely different universities with no relationship to one another. OP is comparing two pyramids within the SAME school system. The students may differ but the curriculum is the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just a quick comment, we don't have the money to do private school, and I would like to begin in one school pyramid in kindergarten and complete that pyramid. I do not really want to switch my kids when they reach seventh grade and they've already made all their friends.

OP, I am guessing this is your comment above.

So you have already answered your "massive dilemma" that you have struggled with FOR YEARS -- and you need not post a HELP ME!! plea as your answer is already set.

Good luck selling your house!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wakefield Forest is a beautiful neighborhood, the elementary school is walking distance, the pool is great, and the community is really friendly. Those are the concrete, right-now things. Even if the high schools were the exact same caliber right now, it sounds like you're saying your family might be happier there because of everything else the neighborhood offers. There's something to be said for that.

Even if Woodson is a competitive rat-race and stays that way for the next 10 years, that doesn't mean your children would necessarily get sucked into it, any more than they would get pulled into gang life, or whatever the heck people are saying Falls Church HS has. If it were my family, I'd rather they deal with super smart type-A kids than worry they might get knifed in the bathroom because they wore the wrong color to school that day.

That's nonsense. How many kids have you heard of getting knifed in the bathroom at FCHS?

OP, I'd base your move/not move decision on whether you like your house and want to stay there, or would rather be in a different neighborhood with the community that you describe. I went to Frost and to FCHS. Granted my experience is many years in the past, and MS and HS are different, but I had a far better experience at FCHS than at Frost. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to make friends who had different backgrounds than I did and came from different socioeconomic groups. Yeah, there were moments that were hard and awkward, but I'd argue that's a good thing, not a bad thing. I certainly think I'm a more well-rounded and productive member of society now because of it. And I did have a lot of opportunity both academically and in extracurricular activities at FCHS that I'm not sure I would have gotten at Woodson.

If you decide to move, I'm sure your kids will do fine in WF/Frost/Woodson also. Sometimes we forget that even the worst-performing schools in FFX are far better than the majority of schools in the rest of the country.

FWIW, I live in the FCHS pyramid now and look forward to my DD attending (she's in 3rd grade now). I do wish that they had done the renovations already, though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wakefield Forest is a beautiful neighborhood, the elementary school is walking distance, the pool is great, and the community is really friendly. Those are the concrete, right-now things. Even if the high schools were the exact same caliber right now, it sounds like you're saying your family might be happier there because of everything else the neighborhood offers. There's something to be said for that.

Even if Woodson is a competitive rat-race and stays that way for the next 10 years, that doesn't mean your children would necessarily get sucked into it, any more than they would get pulled into gang life, or whatever the heck people are saying Falls Church HS has. If it were my family, I'd rather they deal with super smart type-A kids than worry they might get knifed in the bathroom because they wore the wrong color to school that day.

That's nonsense. How many kids have you heard of getting knifed in the bathroom at FCHS?

OP, I'd base your move/not move decision on whether you like your house and want to stay there, or would rather be in a different neighborhood with the community that you describe. I went to Frost and to FCHS. Granted my experience is many years in the past, and MS and HS are different, but I had a far better experience at FCHS than at Frost. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to make friends who had different backgrounds than I did and came from different socioeconomic groups. Yeah, there were moments that were hard and awkward, but I'd argue that's a good thing, not a bad thing. I certainly think I'm a more well-rounded and productive member of society now because of it. And I did have a lot of opportunity both academically and in extracurricular activities at FCHS that I'm not sure I would have gotten at Woodson.

If you decide to move, I'm sure your kids will do fine in WF/Frost/Woodson also. Sometimes we forget that even the worst-performing schools in FFX are far better than the majority of schools in the rest of the country.

FWIW, I live in the FCHS pyramid now and look forward to my DD attending (she's in 3rd grade now). I do wish that they had done the renovations already, though!

+1000.

[Anonymous]

The FCHS staff member is either an idiot and should not be in FCPS or that was an embellishment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a quick comment, we don't have the money to do private school, and I would like to begin in one school pyramid in kindergarten and complete that pyramid. I do not really want to switch my kids when they reach seventh grade and they've already made all their friends.

OP, I am guessing this is your comment above.

So you have already answered your "massive dilemma" that you have struggled with FOR YEARS -- and you need not post a HELP ME!! plea as your answer is already set.

Good luck selling your house!

??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The FCHS staff member is either an idiot and should not be in FCPS or that was an embellishment.

The current queue/schedule for HS renovations is:

Langley (finish renovations in 2017)
West Springfield (bulk of renovations 2017-18)
Herndon (bulk of renovations 2018-20)
Oakton (bulk of renovations 2019-21)
Falls Church (renovations during 2022-24)
Centreville (renovations starting in 2026)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I'm going to say is that if you move to the Wakefield Forest area there is a good chance you'll get rezoned to Poe/Annandale in a few years.

Not going to happen. They just rezoned people from Wakefield Forest out of Poe/Annandale. They're not going to move them back after all that.

Your wishing this does not make it so. The boundary shift was in 2012. The relevant policy (Policy 8130.7) states "Adjustments shall be made without respect to magisterial districts or postal addresses and, whenever possible, shall not affect the same occupied dwellings any more often than once in three years."

The SB's obligation is to all the kids, not just those in Wakefield Forest who think their property values might take a hit if moved or moved back to Annandale.

Given that they just did a boundary adjustment right there, and the school board has bigger fish to fry than dealing with minor overcrowding at Frost and Woodson (like more serious overcrowding at McLean, Marshall, Oakton, Centreville, West Potomac, Carson, Hughes, Kilmer, Longfellow, Jackson, Glasgow), I still think it's not going to happen. I guess we'll see.

It's not just the number of students, although Woodson is over-capacity now by more than many of the schools you asserted had "more serious overcrowding." It's that Woodson is both over-crowded and adjacent to a school that was 400 students under-capacity last year, as well as the fact that Annandale is starting to flirt with accreditation issues and Poe was denied full accreditation.

It was a bad decision to pull so many single-family neighborhoods out of Poe/Annandale, largely engineered by Tessie Wilson on her way out as a School Board member, and now FCPS is going to have to deal with the consequences.

I'm not saying a redistricting shouldn't happen. I see the pros and cons. I'm just saying it is *not going to* happen. They have other priorities, as indicated by the CIP. This isn't even on their radar right now. The only thing in the works that could affect this area would be the plan to open a center at Poe and remove the Annandale AAP kids from Frost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I'm going to say is that if you move to the Wakefield Forest area there is a good chance you'll get rezoned to Poe/Annandale in a few years.

Not going to happen. They just rezoned people from Wakefield Forest out of Poe/Annandale. They're not going to move them back after all that.

Your wishing this does not make it so. The boundary shift was in 2012. The relevant policy (Policy 8130.7) states "Adjustments shall be made without respect to magisterial districts or postal addresses and, whenever possible, shall not affect the same occupied dwellings any more often than once in three years."

The SB's obligation is to all the kids, not just those in Wakefield Forest who think their property values might take a hit if moved or moved back to Annandale.

Given that they just did a boundary adjustment right there, and the school board has bigger fish to fry than dealing with minor overcrowding at Frost and Woodson (like more serious overcrowding at McLean, Marshall, Oakton, Centreville, West Potomac, Carson, Hughes, Kilmer, Longfellow, Jackson, Glasgow), I still think it's not going to happen. I guess we'll see.

It's not just the number of students, although Woodson is over-capacity now by more than many of the schools you asserted had "more serious overcrowding." It's that Woodson is both over-crowded and adjacent to a school that was 400 students under-capacity last year, as well as the fact that Annandale is starting to flirt with accreditation issues and Poe was denied full accreditation.

It was a bad decision to pull so many single-family neighborhoods out of Poe/Annandale, largely engineered by Tessie Wilson on her way out as a School Board member, and now FCPS is going to have to deal with the consequences.

I'm not saying a redistricting shouldn't happen. I see the pros and cons. I'm just saying it is *not going to* happen. They have other priorities, as indicated by the CIP. This isn't even on their radar right now. The only thing in the works that could affect this area would be the plan to open a center at Poe and remove the Annandale AAP kids from Frost.

What they put on the CIP and what they decide to do are not always the same thing. The School Board decided to close Clifton ES when the recent CIPs had identified plans to spend money renovating the school.

I'm just saying two things: (1) FCPS needs to deal with the self-inflicted wound at Poe/Annandale and (2) no one can say exactly when they'll get around to doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wakefield Forest is a beautiful neighborhood, the elementary school is walking distance, the pool is great, and the community is really friendly. Those are the concrete, right-now things. Even if the high schools were the exact same caliber right now, it sounds like you're saying your family might be happier there because of everything else the neighborhood offers. There's something to be said for that.

Even if Woodson is a competitive rat-race and stays that way for the next 10 years, that doesn't mean your children would necessarily get sucked into it, any more than they would get pulled into gang life, or whatever the heck people are saying Falls Church HS has. If it were my family, I'd rather they deal with super smart type-A kids than worry they might get knifed in the bathroom because they wore the wrong color to school that day.

That's nonsense. How many kids have you heard of getting knifed in the bathroom at FCHS?

OP, I'd base your move/not move decision on whether you like your house and want to stay there, or would rather be in a different neighborhood with the community that you describe. I went to Frost and to FCHS. Granted my experience is many years in the past, and MS and HS are different, but I had a far better experience at FCHS than at Frost. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to make friends who had different backgrounds than I did and came from different socioeconomic groups. Yeah, there were moments that were hard and awkward, but I'd argue that's a good thing, not a bad thing. I certainly think I'm a more well-rounded and productive member of society now because of it. And I did have a lot of opportunity both academically and in extracurricular activities at FCHS that I'm not sure I would have gotten at Woodson.

If you decide to move, I'm sure your kids will do fine in WF/Frost/Woodson also. Sometimes we forget that even the worst-performing schools in FFX are far better than the majority of schools in the rest of the country.

FWIW, I live in the FCHS pyramid now and look forward to my DD attending (she's in 3rd grade now). I do wish that they had done the renovations already, though!

PP, I'm curious--what was it about your experiences at Frost and FCHS that made one better than the other?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wakefield Forest is a beautiful neighborhood, the elementary school is walking distance, the pool is great, and the community is really friendly. Those are the concrete, right-now things. Even if the high schools were the exact same caliber right now, it sounds like you're saying your family might be happier there because of everything else the neighborhood offers. There's something to be said for that.

Even if Woodson is a competitive rat-race and stays that way for the next 10 years, that doesn't mean your children would necessarily get sucked into it, any more than they would get pulled into gang life, or whatever the heck people are saying Falls Church HS has. If it were my family, I'd rather they deal with super smart type-A kids than worry they might get knifed in the bathroom because they wore the wrong color to school that day.

That's nonsense. How many kids have you heard of getting knifed in the bathroom at FCHS?

OP, I'd base your move/not move decision on whether you like your house and want to stay there, or would rather be in a different neighborhood with the community that you describe. I went to Frost and to FCHS. Granted my experience is many years in the past, and MS and HS are different, but I had a far better experience at FCHS than at Frost. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to make friends who had different backgrounds than I did and came from different socioeconomic groups. Yeah, there were moments that were hard and awkward, but I'd argue that's a good thing, not a bad thing. I certainly think I'm a more well-rounded and productive member of society now because of it. And I did have a lot of opportunity both academically and in extracurricular activities at FCHS that I'm not sure I would have gotten at Woodson.

If you decide to move, I'm sure your kids will do fine in WF/Frost/Woodson also. Sometimes we forget that even the worst-performing schools in FFX are far better than the majority of schools in the rest of the country.

FWIW, I live in the FCHS pyramid now and look forward to my DD attending (she's in 3rd grade now). I do wish that they had done the renovations already, though!

PP, I'm curious--what was it about your experiences at Frost and FCHS that made one better than the other?

I felt a lot of pressure to fit in at Frost and found it to be very competitive, both academically and in electives (I was in band and participated in theater also). There was a lot of cheating at the time and I found that very frustrating. At FCHS, I felt challenged academically but without the negative pressure I felt at Frost. It was also very easy to be involved in lots of different activities. I was in chorus, theater, marching band, swim team, & field hockey. I wasn't forced to specialized, which was great, and I was able to step up into leadership positions. There were lots of different AP choices available and I got into a good college (W&M) and felt well-prepared for success.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how that is a dilemma for you.
For me it was a no-brainer.

[Anonymous]

Best schools possible.

How is that even an issue?

Also-- in the next couple years, a lot of the AAP kids propping Jackson up will move to Thoreau. Be ready for that GS score to nosedive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wakefield Forest is a beautiful neighborhood, the elementary school is walking distance, the pool is great, and the community is really friendly. Those are the concrete, right-now things. Even if the high schools were the exact same caliber right now, it sounds like you're saying your family might be happier there because of everything else the neighborhood offers. There's something to be said for that.

Even if Woodson is a competitive rat-race and stays that way for the next 10 years, that doesn't mean your children would necessarily get sucked into it, any more than they would get pulled into gang life, or whatever the heck people are saying Falls Church HS has. If it were my family, I'd rather they deal with super smart type-A kids than worry they might get knifed in the bathroom because they wore the wrong color to school that day.

That's nonsense. How many kids have you heard of getting knifed in the bathroom at FCHS?

OP, I'd base your move/not move decision on whether you like your house and want to stay there, or would rather be in a different neighborhood with the community that you describe. I went to Frost and to FCHS. Granted my experience is many years in the past, and MS and HS are different, but I had a far better experience at FCHS than at Frost. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to make friends who had different backgrounds than I did and came from different socioeconomic groups. Yeah, there were moments that were hard and awkward, but I'd argue that's a good thing, not a bad thing. I certainly think I'm a more well-rounded and productive member of society now because of it. And I did have a lot of opportunity both academically and in extracurricular activities at FCHS that I'm not sure I would have gotten at Woodson.

If you decide to move, I'm sure your kids will do fine in WF/Frost/Woodson also. Sometimes we forget that even the worst-performing schools in FFX are far better than the majority of schools in the rest of the country.

FWIW, I live in the FCHS pyramid now and look forward to my DD attending (she's in 3rd grade now). I do wish that they had done the renovations already, though!

PP, I'm curious--what was it about your experiences at Frost and FCHS that made one better than the other?

I felt a lot of pressure to fit in at Frost and found it to be very competitive, both academically and in electives (I was in band and participated in theater also). There was a lot of cheating at the time and I found that very frustrating. At FCHS, I felt challenged academically but without the negative pressure I felt at Frost. It was also very easy to be involved in lots of different activities. I was in chorus, theater, marching band, swim team, & field hockey. I wasn't forced to specialized, which was great, and I was able to step up into leadership positions. There were lots of different AP choices available and I got into a good college (W&M) and felt well-prepared for success.

Data to back this up, please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only thing in the works that could affect this area would be the plan to open a center at Poe and remove the Annandale AAP kids from Frost.

This is not in the works.