Langley/McLean/Marshall Boundaries
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Anonymous
Three reasons: 1. The messaging regarding grounds for transfer has been inconsistent. Can anyone transfer from an over-capacity school in FCPS to an under-enrolled school, or do you need to meet the traditional pupil placement requirements? Under the traditional requirements, the only basis to transfer from McLean to Langley is for a foreign language sequence (Japanese, Russian) not offered at McLean. 2. Everyone at Longfellow now feeds into McLean (or TJHSST), so Langley is a new group of peers. 3. FCPS isn't providing transportation. |
Anonymous
I disagree for these reasons, among others: First, there's been little suggestion that the outcome of the ongoing discussions will actually be a county wide-redistricting at the ES/MS/HS level. So I think the premise of your post is wrong. Second, while McLean is currently only the fourth most overcrowded high school out of the county's 25 high/secondary schools, FCPS already has identified a solution to overcrowding at Oakton (addition as part of ongoing renovation), Centreville (addition as part of upcoming renovation), and West Potomac (addition outside the normal renovation cycle, even though there is space at Mount Vernon). It has not identified a solution to overcrowding at McLean, which is projected to the most overcrowded high school in the county by 2023. FCPS already gave McLean second-hand treatment when it decided to build additions outside the normal renovation cycle at Justice (even though there is space at Annandale), West Potomac (even though there is space at Mount Vernon), and Madison (for reasons that aren't clear), but not McLean. Now they are adding insult to injury by delaying a boundary study with Langley. Third, the argument that you can't go ahead and implement an easy solution that need involve only two schools (overcrowded McLean and under-enrolled Langley) because the solutions to problems elsewhere in the county aren't as easy or might require boundary changes involving multiple schools suggests that FCPS has become too big to manage properly. They already paid to expand Langley during its recent renovation, even though they knew its enrollment was declining, so why not go ahead and take advantage of the money that's been spent and the additional space? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| What's the point of developing a CIP and identifying which elementary, middle, and high schools are expected to be the most overcrowded in the county by FY 2023, if you then do nothing about it? It's kind of a useless planning tool in that case. |
Anonymous
No, the problem is the School Board does not have the guts to make the necessary boundary changes. They are petrified to move students to the "less desirable" schools. So they add on. The West Potomac case is probably the most egregious. It is just crazy they are not moving students to Mt. Vernon. Even with their new policies in place they are not likely to make any changes that will make a difference. |
Anonymous
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I disagree for these reasons, among others:
First, there's been little suggestion that the outcome of the ongoing discussions will actually be a county wide-redistricting at the ES/MS/HS level. So I think the premise of your post is wrong. Second, while McLean is currently only the fourth most overcrowded high school out of the county's 25 high/secondary schools, FCPS already has identified a solution to overcrowding at Oakton (addition as part of ongoing renovation), Centreville (addition as part of upcoming renovation), and West Potomac (addition outside the normal renovation cycle, even though there is space at Mount Vernon). It has not identified a solution to overcrowding at McLean, which is projected to the most overcrowded high school in the county by 2023. FCPS already gave McLean second-hand treatment when it decided to build additions outside the normal renovation cycle at Justice (even though there is space at Annandale), West Potomac (even though there is space at Mount Vernon), and Madison (for reasons that aren't clear), but not McLean. Now they are adding insult to injury by delaying a boundary study with Langley. Third, the argument that you can't go ahead and implement an easy solution that need involve only two schools (overcrowded McLean and under-enrolled Langley) because the solutions to problems elsewhere in the county aren't as easy or might require boundary changes involving multiple schools suggests that FCPS has become too big to manage properly. They already paid to expand Langley during its recent renovation, even though they knew its enrollment was declining, so why not go ahead and take advantage of the money that's been spent and the additional space? It is so unfair! |
Anonymous
Probably because those kids can go to Langley. |
Anonymous
Probably because those kids can go to Langley. That was clearly their plan all along. It also keeps FCPS from having to ask why Langley‘s enrollment is the lowest it’s been in over 15 years. |
Anonymous
This! Year after year folks could see what schools were getting more and more overcrowded, such as McLean HS and Shrevewood ES. And yet, nothing has been done about these two schools. What is the point of the exercise? Seems that the renovation/expansion queue was set in motion 20 years ago, and that's what FCPS is sticking with going forward. (With the exception of Falls Church HS, which was literally falling down on the students.) So why even bother with capacity projections? So they can track which schools need more trailers? |
Anonymous
They should bus kids at McLean HS and Shrevewood ES to classes at their Taj Mahal in Gatehouse and stick Brabrand and the School Board in trailers. |
Anonymous
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You can watch the 3/11 work session on You Tube. They couldn't decide on anything. They told Brabrand to go back and put together a draft of a revised policy to discuss at yet another work session.
It's painful to watch. Kids will sit in trailers because most of them have no ability to focus on managing facilities or using taxpayer funds efficiently. They want to complain about how past decisions were "unfair," and how everything should now be done through a "One Fairfax lens," whatever that means, but they won't take responsibility for their own past decisions. |
Anonymous
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Corbett Sanders is such a joke. If she's so concerned that moving McLean kids to Langley won't transform Langley overnight into a much higher FARMS school, why isn't she objecting to the plan to build an addition at West Potomac so wealthy white kids in HER district don't have to go to Mount Vernon?
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Anonymous
There are hundreds of open seats at Mt. Vernon and the CIP shows that continuing for a number of years. There is no reason not to move students from West Potomac to Mt. Vernon. After all, capacity is king (watch the work session). They are even right next to each other so proximity is not a factor. If Corbett Sanders won't do what is a very obvious move, why should she expect other School Board members to be open to changes? You can tell they are delaying as long as possible on making any decisions. They boxed themselves in with the OneFairfax policy that they don't really want to implement. I think the staff has done good work on this and Brabrand was clearly getting frustrated. The staff provided the top factors for school success relative to school boundaries and attempted to line them up with OneFairfax. Now that looks like it might mean changes they don't want to make. Hypocrisy at its finest. I don't think this policy would mean they start making changes just to balance socioeconomics, but when boundaries do come up for review (for overcrowding, falling enrollment, or other reasons), then you do look at making changes that will help and not hurt schools - see what happened to Annandale as an example. I think it is pretty simple. Where there is an issue such as overcrowding or falling enrollment, you need to look at moving students in such a way that you don't exacerbate F/R lunch numbers (and hopefully may even lower them at schools where they are high). And clearly you don't want to bus students across the county, but if it helps to balance things by creating a few islands and busing students 6 miles vs. 3 miles, that should not be a big deal (particularly at the middle and high school levels). If students can ride a bus all the way from the Loudoun County border to Langley, then I think we can find a few bus loads of less well off kids and send them there as well. Just don't hold your breath for any real change. |
Anonymous
| Unfortunately, you are far more sensible than most of the current School Board members. Most of them just want to proclaim their values over and over again and leave the solutions to the actual problems to someone else. |
Anonymous
| Does anyone have a report on the PTSA meeting at Langley yesterday morning? The school’s under-enrollment was one of the topics on the agenda for discussion with Janie Strauss and Principal Greer. |