Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Jackson's membership will continue to rise. That Merrifield area is one of the Fairfax County zones of development (p. 121 of the CIP). The projection is for Jackson to be 100 students above capacity in 5 yrs (assuming 300 are siphoned off with re-zoning now/near term). I wouldn't be surprised if some kids need to be zoned out of Jackson and into Poe at a later date.
The percentage of FARMS being moved out of Jackson is going to be higher than 25% of the moved group. But, even if we don't know that exactly percentage....
You still haven't addressed the other half of the reason for this rezoning.... Thoreau HAS 350 extra seats. You think those should just sit idle while Poe (which already has more than it's share of needy kids) takes on MORE needy kids? That doesn't make sense.
I get it -- you want to protect the LJMS rankings (and property values). But, you're only solving half of the equation. Thoreau has 912 kids in a school that is designed for 1350. I am happy to send my kid to a school that has so much extra space (and is new-ish too!).
Seriously, though... Thoreau has space for more kids. Jackson doesn't have enough space for the kids it has. Whatever else is happening... those are the two primary issues that need to be resolved. Everything else is secondary.
So, which kids from Jackson are going to be sent to Thoreau? It makes sense that the two ES that are ALREADY split feeders to Thoreau/Jackson should be consolidated to Thoreau feeders. Then the only remaining school at issue is Mosby. If it is not re-zoned, then it becomes the only ES feeder at Jackson that goes onto Oakton. That puts those kids in an awkward position (as it also puts the OES->OHS kids and the MRES->OHS kids who move to TMS in an awkward position) b/c their MS-->HS cohorts are very small.
So, logically, it makes sense to move them all so that they create an OHS cohort at TMS.
Sometimes it's not about the racial/economic factors. Sometimes it's just about the logistics and social factors.
If you care about split feeders you ought to be aghast at the prospect of turning Thoreau into a three-way split feeders to Madison, Oakton, and Marshall. And please don’t ask us to pretend you give a rat’s ass about Poe or what FCPS’s proposal to further concentrate poverty at Jackson.
If filling seats at Thoreau while leaving even a higher percentage of empty seats at Poe is really an imperative, FCPS could move part of Kilmer to Thoreau. The plan you favor is just more opportunism by people who never pass up s chance to cry “logistics” when it will distance themselves from lower-income kids.