FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because planned developments don’t always materialize.

Regardless the Great Falls people who keep bringing up some Herndon development never have an answer when people point out that there are way more planned developments in other areas, such as Tysons. So even if policy were changed to count planned developments, the Herndon ones wouldn’t stand out.

I’m one of those “great falls people” that you speak of, and I clearly told you previously that the Tyson’s projections should absolutely be included. There is no need to lie.

Accurate numbers and projections across the country are essential when they go through this exercise, otherwise the cure is way worse than whatever they claim to be fixing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because planned developments don’t always materialize.

Regardless the Great Falls people who keep bringing up some Herndon development never have an answer when people point out that there are way more planned developments in other areas, such as Tysons. So even if policy were changed to count planned developments, the Herndon ones wouldn’t stand out.

I’m one of those “great falls people” that you speak of, and I clearly told you previously that the Tyson’s projections should absolutely be included. There is no need to lie.

Accurate numbers and projections across the country are essential when they go through this exercise, otherwise the cure is way worse than whatever they claim to be fixing.

Multiple posters have weighed in on these issues so the reference to “you” in your post is misguided.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because planned developments don’t always materialize.

Regardless the Great Falls people who keep bringing up some Herndon development never have an answer when people point out that there are way more planned developments in other areas, such as Tysons. So even if policy were changed to count planned developments, the Herndon ones wouldn’t stand out.

I’m one of those “great falls people” that you speak of, and I clearly told you previously that the Tyson’s projections should absolutely be included. There is no need to lie.

Accurate numbers and projections across the country are essential when they go through this exercise, otherwise the cure is way worse than whatever they claim to be fixing.

The TRG is a local government plan with no developers actively engaged. There are no development plans currently in the works. Delivery on anything in that county plan is at least 15 to 20 years away.

Tysons has approved development plans for more than dozen tall residential buildings, which are slated to add between 4,000 and 6,000 condos and luxury apartments between 2028 and 2040.

Development rarely occurs as fast as planned, so I like the County’s wait-and-see approach and the re-evaluation every five years. There are still lots of unknowns, such as whether the heart of Tyson’s (with tall luxury residential buildings) will ever be accepted as a family-friendly place to live. We are bound to see a large flux of K-6 children in these units. But teenagers bound for HS? Let’s wait and see.

[Anonymous]

I don’t see how you adjust Langley and Herndon before WSHS and Lewis.

The latter are literally a few miles from each other and the optics are horrible.

But it won’t matter if they allow transfers out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see how you adjust Langley and Herndon before WSHS and Lewis.

The latter are literally a few miles from each other and the optics are horrible.

But it won’t matter if they allow transfers out.

If they do a full swap of IB for AP at Lewis it becomes a lot harder to transfer to WS or Lake Braddock.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because planned developments don’t always materialize.

Regardless the Great Falls people who keep bringing up some Herndon development never have an answer when people point out that there are way more planned developments in other areas, such as Tysons. So even if policy were changed to count planned developments, the Herndon ones wouldn’t stand out.

I’m one of those “great falls people” that you speak of, and I clearly told you previously that the Tyson’s projections should absolutely be included. There is no need to lie.

Accurate numbers and projections across the country are essential when they go through this exercise, otherwise the cure is way worse than whatever they claim to be fixing.

The TRG is a local government plan with no developers actively engaged. There are no development plans currently in the works. Delivery on anything in that county plan is at least 15 to 20 years away.

Tysons has approved development plans for more than dozen tall residential buildings, which are slated to add between 4,000 and 6,000 condos and luxury apartments between 2028 and 2040.

Development rarely occurs as fast as planned, so I like the County’s wait-and-see approach and the re-evaluation every five years. There are still lots of unknowns, such as whether the heart of Tyson’s (with tall luxury residential buildings) will ever be accepted as a family-friendly place to live. We are bound to see a large flux of K-6 children in these units. But teenagers bound for HS? Let’s wait and see.

From last month: https://www.ffxnow.com/2024/09/26/herndon-van-buren-office-park-redevelopment-proposed/

Your plan to wait and see will cause HMS to be overcrowded to the detriment of the current Herndon pyramid students.

Wait and see? That invites major problems, especially when the current McLean overcrowding could be solved with Langley and Langley wouldn’t even be overcrowded.

It is a risky solution in search of a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see how you adjust Langley and Herndon before WSHS and Lewis.

The latter are literally a few miles from each other and the optics are horrible.

But it won’t matter if they allow transfers out.

Langley/Herndon doesn’t need to be adjusted right now. It may need to be adjusted in maybe 10+ years if a bunch of development happens in Tysons and adjustments need to be made between Langley, McLean, and Marshall. But I don’t think that’s imminent at all and I would even go as far to say that if you have a kid in FCPS right now in one of those schools, it’s a safe situation.

The WSHS/Lewis situation is more complicated than anyone wants to admit. 1, every HS in that area except WSHS and tiny, land-locked Edison, is UNDER enrolled. Lewis isn’t special or unique when South County, Hayfield, Mount Vernon, and newly huge West Potomac, are in the same boat. Lake Braddock is also a little under capacity.

2, WSHS’s current boundaries are one of the most compact and logical of pretty much any HS. There is no gerrymandering, no weird dog legs to pick up this neighborhood or that. But neighborhoods on the edges of WSHS’s boundaries are closer to South County and possibly Lake Braddock than they are to Lewis.

3, an easy solution to any WSHS crowing is sending all of Sangster ES to Lake Braddock. However this would create a bad situation wrt the AAP situation. The WS pyramid has two LARGE ES (Hunt Valley and Orange Hunt) with NO LLIV AAP. Those students go to the center at Sangster. The students in other WSHS ES can do LLIV or the center at Keene Mill. You can’t add LLIV at HV and OH without worsening the crowding situation at those schools. They could stay going to Sangster for AAP even if all of Sangster goes to LB as a neighborhood school, but people wouldn’t like that. But I guess FCPS doesn’t really care about that since South County has no in pyramid AAP center either.

4, if we’re seriously talking about planned developments in Herndon, look up all the stuff they’re planning for Alexandria. Most of it would be in bounds for Edison - a school that can take no more students and has no room to expand, and is literally on the same road as Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because planned developments don’t always materialize.

Regardless the Great Falls people who keep bringing up some Herndon development never have an answer when people point out that there are way more planned developments in other areas, such as Tysons. So even if policy were changed to count planned developments, the Herndon ones wouldn’t stand out.

I’m one of those “great falls people” that you speak of, and I clearly told you previously that the Tyson’s projections should absolutely be included. There is no need to lie.

Accurate numbers and projections across the country are essential when they go through this exercise, otherwise the cure is way worse than whatever they claim to be fixing.

The TRG is a local government plan with no developers actively engaged. There are no development plans currently in the works. Delivery on anything in that county plan is at least 15 to 20 years away.

Tysons has approved development plans for more than dozen tall residential buildings, which are slated to add between 4,000 and 6,000 condos and luxury apartments between 2028 and 2040.

Development rarely occurs as fast as planned, so I like the County’s wait-and-see approach and the re-evaluation every five years. There are still lots of unknowns, such as whether the heart of Tyson’s (with tall luxury residential buildings) will ever be accepted as a family-friendly place to live. We are bound to see a large flux of K-6 children in these units. But teenagers bound for HS? Let’s wait and see.

From last month: https://www.ffxnow.com/2024/09/26/herndon-van-buren-office-park-redevelopment-proposed/

Your plan to wait and see will cause HMS to be overcrowded to the detriment of the current Herndon pyramid students.

Wait and see? That invites major problems, especially when the current McLean overcrowding could be solved with Langley and Langley wouldn’t even be overcrowded.

It is a risky solution in search of a problem.

DP. As far as I can tell McLean just wants to be left alone until the next renovation, not used as a pawn to move Langley kids to Herndon. It got the 2021 boundary change and the modular. It doesn’t have 20+ trailers like it did five years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because planned developments don’t always materialize.

Regardless the Great Falls people who keep bringing up some Herndon development never have an answer when people point out that there are way more planned developments in other areas, such as Tysons. So even if policy were changed to count planned developments, the Herndon ones wouldn’t stand out.

I’m one of those “great falls people” that you speak of, and I clearly told you previously that the Tyson’s projections should absolutely be included. There is no need to lie.

Accurate numbers and projections across the country are essential when they go through this exercise, otherwise the cure is way worse than whatever they claim to be fixing.

The TRG is a local government plan with no developers actively engaged. There are no development plans currently in the works. Delivery on anything in that county plan is at least 15 to 20 years away.

Tysons has approved development plans for more than dozen tall residential buildings, which are slated to add between 4,000 and 6,000 condos and luxury apartments between 2028 and 2040.

Development rarely occurs as fast as planned, so I like the County’s wait-and-see approach and the re-evaluation every five years. There are still lots of unknowns, such as whether the heart of Tyson’s (with tall luxury residential buildings) will ever be accepted as a family-friendly place to live. We are bound to see a large flux of K-6 children in these units. But teenagers bound for HS? Let’s wait and see.

From last month: https://www.ffxnow.com/2024/09/26/herndon-van-buren-office-park-redevelopment-proposed/

Your plan to wait and see will cause HMS to be overcrowded to the detriment of the current Herndon pyramid students.

Wait and see? That invites major problems, especially when the current McLean overcrowding could be solved with Langley and Langley wouldn’t even be overcrowded.

It is a risky solution in search of a problem.

DP. As far as I can tell McLean just wants to be left alone until the next renovation, not used as a pawn to move Langley kids to Herndon. It got the 2021 boundary change and the modular. It doesn’t have 20+ trailers like it did five years ago.

Without objection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see how you adjust Langley and Herndon before WSHS and Lewis.

The latter are literally a few miles from each other and the optics are horrible.

But it won’t matter if they allow transfers out.

Langley/Herndon doesn’t need to be adjusted right now. It may need to be adjusted in maybe 10+ years if a bunch of development happens in Tysons and adjustments need to be made between Langley, McLean, and Marshall. But I don’t think that’s imminent at all and I would even go as far to say that if you have a kid in FCPS right now in one of those schools, it’s a safe situation.

The WSHS/Lewis situation is more complicated than anyone wants to admit. 1, every HS in that area except WSHS and tiny, land-locked Edison, is UNDER enrolled. Lewis isn’t special or unique when South County, Hayfield, Mount Vernon, and newly huge West Potomac, are in the same boat. Lake Braddock is also a little under capacity.

2, WSHS’s current boundaries are one of the most compact and logical of pretty much any HS. There is no gerrymandering, no weird dog legs to pick up this neighborhood or that. But neighborhoods on the edges of WSHS’s boundaries are closer to South County and possibly Lake Braddock than they are to Lewis.

3, an easy solution to any WSHS crowing is sending all of Sangster ES to Lake Braddock. However this would create a bad situation wrt the AAP situation. The WS pyramid has two LARGE ES (Hunt Valley and Orange Hunt) with NO LLIV AAP. Those students go to the center at Sangster. The students in other WSHS ES can do LLIV or the center at Keene Mill. You can’t add LLIV at HV and OH without worsening the crowding situation at those schools. They could stay going to Sangster for AAP even if all of Sangster goes to LB as a neighborhood school, but people wouldn’t like that. But I guess FCPS doesn’t really care about that since South County has no in pyramid AAP center either.

4, if we’re seriously talking about planned developments in Herndon, look up all the stuff they’re planning for Alexandria. Most of it would be in bounds for Edison - a school that can take no more students and has no room to expand, and is literally on the same road as Lewis.

Lewis has 366 freshmen this fall. West Springfield has 701.

I don’t know how they undertake a boundary review and not address this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see how you adjust Langley and Herndon before WSHS and Lewis.

The latter are literally a few miles from each other and the optics are horrible.

But it won’t matter if they allow transfers out.

Langley/Herndon doesn’t need to be adjusted right now. It may need to be adjusted in maybe 10+ years if a bunch of development happens in Tysons and adjustments need to be made between Langley, McLean, and Marshall. But I don’t think that’s imminent at all and I would even go as far to say that if you have a kid in FCPS right now in one of those schools, it’s a safe situation.

The WSHS/Lewis situation is more complicated than anyone wants to admit. 1, every HS in that area except WSHS and tiny, land-locked Edison, is UNDER enrolled. Lewis isn’t special or unique when South County, Hayfield, Mount Vernon, and newly huge West Potomac, are in the same boat. Lake Braddock is also a little under capacity.

2, WSHS’s current boundaries are one of the most compact and logical of pretty much any HS. There is no gerrymandering, no weird dog legs to pick up this neighborhood or that. But neighborhoods on the edges of WSHS’s boundaries are closer to South County and possibly Lake Braddock than they are to Lewis.

3, an easy solution to any WSHS crowing is sending all of Sangster ES to Lake Braddock. However this would create a bad situation wrt the AAP situation. The WS pyramid has two LARGE ES (Hunt Valley and Orange Hunt) with NO LLIV AAP. Those students go to the center at Sangster. The students in other WSHS ES can do LLIV or the center at Keene Mill. You can’t add LLIV at HV and OH without worsening the crowding situation at those schools. They could stay going to Sangster for AAP even if all of Sangster goes to LB as a neighborhood school, but people wouldn’t like that. But I guess FCPS doesn’t really care about that since South County has no in pyramid AAP center either.

4, if we’re seriously talking about planned developments in Herndon, look up all the stuff they’re planning for Alexandria. Most of it would be in bounds for Edison - a school that can take no more students and has no room to expand, and is literally on the same road as Lewis.

Lewis has 366 freshmen this fall. West Springfield has 701.

I don’t know how they undertake a boundary review and not address this.

Some schools are bigger than others and as already mentioned, enrollment is trending down at many schools in that area. But there is planned development too. The picture could look quite different in 10 years or even 5 years.

In a post upthread someone said that the main things MVHS does not have that wealthier schools do have basically was, they have school dances on Friday to save money and the athletic boosters aren’t as good. 350-400 students per grade is not a small school at all and there’s a lot that can be done with that. It’s not a rural high school with 90 per grade where you really wouldn’t have AP or advanced classes.

[Anonymous]

McLean HS is still very overcrowded - you should see the hallways and common spaces. And the building is falling apart. I think the families have just given up that FCPS will do anything to help. The recent minor boundary changes didn’t help, especially considering how many more kids came to MHS because of the TJ admissions changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t see how you adjust Langley and Herndon before WSHS and Lewis.

The latter are literally a few miles from each other and the optics are horrible.

But it won’t matter if they allow transfers out.

Langley/Herndon doesn’t need to be adjusted right now. It may need to be adjusted in maybe 10+ years if a bunch of development happens in Tysons and adjustments need to be made between Langley, McLean, and Marshall. But I don’t think that’s imminent at all and I would even go as far to say that if you have a kid in FCPS right now in one of those schools, it’s a safe situation.

The WSHS/Lewis situation is more complicated than anyone wants to admit. 1, every HS in that area except WSHS and tiny, land-locked Edison, is UNDER enrolled. Lewis isn’t special or unique when South County, Hayfield, Mount Vernon, and newly huge West Potomac, are in the same boat. Lake Braddock is also a little under capacity.

2, WSHS’s current boundaries are one of the most compact and logical of pretty much any HS. There is no gerrymandering, no weird dog legs to pick up this neighborhood or that. But neighborhoods on the edges of WSHS’s boundaries are closer to South County and possibly Lake Braddock than they are to Lewis.

3, an easy solution to any WSHS crowing is sending all of Sangster ES to Lake Braddock. However this would create a bad situation wrt the AAP situation. The WS pyramid has two LARGE ES (Hunt Valley and Orange Hunt) with NO LLIV AAP. Those students go to the center at Sangster. The students in other WSHS ES can do LLIV or the center at Keene Mill. You can’t add LLIV at HV and OH without worsening the crowding situation at those schools. They could stay going to Sangster for AAP even if all of Sangster goes to LB as a neighborhood school, but people wouldn’t like that. But I guess FCPS doesn’t really care about that since South County has no in pyramid AAP center either.

4, if we’re seriously talking about planned developments in Herndon, look up all the stuff they’re planning for Alexandria. Most of it would be in bounds for Edison - a school that can take no more students and has no room to expand, and is literally on the same road as Lewis.

Lewis has 366 freshmen this fall. West Springfield has 701.

I don’t know how they undertake a boundary review and not address this.

It depends on the priorities. Is fixing split feeders high on the list for the consultants? To cite one example. Or is it balancing enrollment between schools like WSHS and Lewis more or less of a priority? But this should all be done with an updated renovation queue, so FCPS would no longer unnecessarily expand schools like they did with West Potomac.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McLean HS is still very overcrowded - you should see the hallways and common spaces. And the building is falling apart. I think the families have just given up that FCPS will do anything to help. The recent minor boundary changes didn’t help, especially considering how many more kids came to MHS because of the TJ admissions changes.

This. The modular increased overall classroom capacity but the rest of the school (halls, stairwells, etc.) is simply not designed to accommodate the number of students now at the school. Navigating through ports of the school is like bumper-to-bumper traffic in DC during rush hour. Stop and go. The school needs relief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean HS is still very overcrowded - you should see the hallways and common spaces. And the building is falling apart. I think the families have just given up that FCPS will do anything to help. The recent minor boundary changes didn’t help, especially considering how many more kids came to MHS because of the TJ admissions changes.

This. The modular increased overall classroom capacity but the rest of the school (halls, stairwells, etc.) is simply not designed to accommodate the number of students now at the school. Navigating through ports of the school is like bumper-to-bumper traffic in DC during rush hour. Stop and go. The school needs relief.

Well, the good news is that Langley could take the attendance island to provide substantial relief and not be overcrowded. In fact, moving the other attendance island to FCHS solves the overcrowding in its entirety.

No need for anything more drastic than that.