FCPS's "Obvious Elephant in the Room" - Does the West Potomac Expansion Foster Intolerance?
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Anonymous
The "pyramids" are just groupings of schools for internal purposes at FCPS. It's hit or miss as to whether the elementary schools feed into a middle school that feeds into a high school. There are a lot of schools that feed into multiple schools. In western Fairfax, Herndon probably has the least split feeders. Oakton has always been crazy. Carson is in the Oakton pyramid, but the neighborhood includes areas zoned for Oakton, South Lakes and Westfield, and also picks up some kids from Chantilly for AAP as well. Even when FCPS has a chance to streamline some of the feeder patterns, they don't. They could have aligned Madison with Thoreau, and Marshall with Kilmer, but then they decided to turn Thoreau into a three-way feeder to Madison, Marshall and Oakton. |
Anonymous
My DS will attend Carson and then South Lakes. Carson sends kids ot a ridiculous number of high schools. |
Anonymous
| Does this conversation about Westfield and AAP programs relate to what’s happening at Mount Vernon High School? |
Anonymous
People were talking about pyramids that don’t have an AAP center at the ES or MS level. An earlier poster had mentioned kids from the MV pyramid go to Sandburg for AAP at MS and then want to stay with their friends at West Potomac. |
Anonymous
| Is the point that the AAP situation justifies the addition to West Potomac? |
Anonymous
It is my understanding that the would-be Whitman walkers go to Sandburg because of the way the boundaries are drawn, not because they tested into AAP. |
Anonymous
Correct, the AAP issue is completely separate. WestPo is now pushing the MVHS transfers for AP (who don’t want IB) to Hayfield, but there are still plenty of families in the MVHS area sending their kids to WestPo via a loophole. The point is, they shouldn’t be constructing a huge addition at WestPo while there is a ton of room at MVHS. It is pandering. This needs to be a logical decision not a decision made on the behalf of the select parents who lobby Karen Corbett-Sanders. |
Anonymous
The point is that FCPS systematically favors the West Potomac pyramid and disfavors the Mount Vernon pyramid, which accounts in part for its large enrollment. That doesn’t justify the monster addition when the alternative is treating Mount Vernon fairly. |
Anonymous
| Corbett Sanders is pushing a huge addition at her school when she has been the single biggest impediment on the School Board to addressing overcrowding anywhere else in the county. Biggest hypocrite on the Board since Kathy Smith. |
Anonymous
| ^^^But the Centreville people loved Kathy Smith, just as the Fort Hunt people love Karen Corbett Sanders. So they get fuel and become extremely myopic to the plight of other schools. |
Anonymous
| Why would the county pay for such a large addition when there is sooo much capacity at the adjacent school? |
Anonymous
Corbett Sanders needs to go! Having school board meetings so well attended via the internet has really highlighted her failures as a leader. I had never heard of Rachna before three months ago. But watching her in the school board meetings and seeing how carefully she thinks through the issues, I truly believe that Rachna should be the new chair. She is an amazing leader that is dedicated to science, the community and helping every child learn. She also is a black woman, so this would be a PERFECT way for the board to show that they truly value BLM. |
Anonymous
To maintain segregation. Duh. |
Anonymous
I think it does. Take the WSHS and LBSS en4ollment as an example. Irving did not have an AAP center. Lake Braddock served all of the middle schools in that area, including Irving and Robinson. 6 years ago, Irving (still not a center) added a LLIV AAP class to its school. Prior to that, the AAP kids would do everything they could to stay at Lake Braddock for high school, such as signing up for specific languages like Japanese that were only offered at LB, so they could stay at that school with all their friends, the only kids they went to school with since 3rd grade. Some would transfer back to WS, but many would stay at LB, even if they were zoned for WS. That original pilot class at Irving was fairly small, around 24 kids. A good number of the kids who went to LB for AAP stayed there for high school. The Irving program continued to grow. Last year it had 2 very full classes, and I suspect it will be up to 3 classes in the next year or two. My neighbor has a rising 9th graders. A majority of that kids AAP classmates chose Irving for middle school over AAP because of attending WSHS for high school. It was the opposite when my oldest went to Irving 5 years ago. Most of their peers chose LB, because they expected to be able to find ways to continue at LB for high school with their friends. I have a rising 7th grader, and all of the kids we know who were at the 2 AAP centers in our area have chosen Irving over LB for 7th grade AAP. One of the top 3 reasons given by their parents is that the kids want to go to the middle school that all their friends are going to so they can get to know kids they will be going to high school with. The only 7th grade AAP kid i know who is zoned for WSHS and choosing Lake Braddock is the kid with older siblings already at LB, who are there on foreign language waivers. But even that parent has waffled a bit, because all of her kids friends are choosing Irving over LB. The friends matter so much at that age. If the AAP kids are with this same group from 3rd through 8th, they are going to do everything they can to stay with those friends for high school. And if the district allows them through back channels such as foreign language waivers, who can blame them. FCPS needs to change that first, by making sure every pyramid has an AAP elementary and middle school feeder. It won't fix the WestPo MV issue right away, but it will in 2 to 5 years, as a ever growing cohort of the advanced kids start to see MV as a viable option. Look at the Irving to WS numbers. |
Anonymous
Rachna is Indian-American and identifies as South Asian rather than Black. But, yes, she is very good. So are Frisch, Meren, Pekarsky and Tholen. I also think Cohen has been been a pleasant surprise. |