Langley/McLean/Marshall Boundaries

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Resolution can't hurt. But given the speed of potential solutions that aren't even approved yet, I dont understand why citizens aren't actually taking action - that is, moving kids from McLean to Langley pyramid. Apparently its quite doable. I get that kids already in HS don't want to move, but what about lower down...

Anonymous wrote:The McLean Citizens Association has passed a resolution calling on the School Board to take immediate steps to address the overcrowding at McLean and under-enrollment at Langley:

https://www.insidenova.com/news/education/mca-wants-fcps-to-move-forward-with-high-school-boundary/article_167e4ce2-41a1-11e9-bf3c-7b8ba54990f0.html

This is getting more and more attention in the community. It's funny that people talk about the School Board being overly political, because there are many people in that area who've voted Democratic in local elections for years and are now planning to vote against any candidates endorsed by the Democrats in local elections unless the current School Board (with its 10-2 Democratic majority) starts doing their jobs.

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.

What I have heard regarding reasons 1 and 3 is that if you live near the Langley/McLean border, you can transfer pretty easily now that Langley pyramid construction is done. This isn't well known and some coordination needs to occur. Reason 2 is more of a kid issue but the younger the kid, the more likely they will be willing to transfer, or be agnostic to it.

Administrators and organizations should get together and make this happen...now....primary target current 6th graders heading to middle school next year...stop waiting for the board...this thread is enough proof as to why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Resolution can't hurt. But given the speed of potential solutions that aren't even approved yet, I dont understand why citizens aren't actually taking action - that is, moving kids from McLean to Langley pyramid. Apparently its quite doable. I get that kids already in HS don't want to move, but what about lower down...

Anonymous wrote:The McLean Citizens Association has passed a resolution calling on the School Board to take immediate steps to address the overcrowding at McLean and under-enrollment at Langley:

https://www.insidenova.com/news/education/mca-wants-fcps-to-move-forward-with-high-school-boundary/article_167e4ce2-41a1-11e9-bf3c-7b8ba54990f0.html

This is getting more and more attention in the community. It's funny that people talk about the School Board being overly political, because there are many people in that area who've voted Democratic in local elections for years and are now planning to vote against any candidates endorsed by the Democrats in local elections unless the current School Board (with its 10-2 Democratic majority) starts doing their jobs.

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.

What I have heard regarding reasons 1 and 3 is that if you live near the Langley/McLean border, you can transfer pretty easily now that Langley pyramid construction is done. This isn't well known and some coordination needs to occur. Reason 2 is more of a kid issue but the younger the kid, the more likely they will be willing to transfer, or be agnostic to it.

Administrators and organizations should get together and make this happen...now....primary target current 6th graders heading to middle school next year...stop waiting for the board...this thread is enough proof as to why.

Maybe self-help makes the most sense, but there's something perverse about the School Board deciding it can't move ahead with a boundary study/change because it needs to drill down on the implications of One Fairfax first, and then tolerating a free-for-all where the families most likely to take matters into their own hands and find a way to move their kids to Langley probably have greater financial resources than the typical family within FCPS or at McLean.

As for the other point, I'm not sure too many families with rising 7th graders would transfer their kids to Cooper when Longfellow was renovated not too long ago and Cooper is about to become a giant construction site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people always complaining about the lack of FARMS at Langley? The school is literally surrounded by multi million dollar houses. We live in a $3m house down the road. Our house is quite average in the area.

Where would these low income people come from?

Even the dilapidated knock down houses go for 800k.

That being said, not everyone is rich. Plenty of middle class families. Just not low income free lunch kids.

All you need to do is look at a map of the current Langley boundaries to know they could have been drawn differently. Some Langley parents like to emphasize that they aren’t personally responsible for those boundaries, which may be true but is also not especially relevant to this discussion.

Within the next few years, Langley’s boundaries will be expanded to pick up some of Tysons, which will increase the FARMS rate there slightly. FCPS has also signaled that, when the western high school is built in about a decade, it will move western Great Falls to Herndon. With these changes, Langley will continue to be among the smaller high schools in the county, unless more of the parents in the area stop sending their kids to privates.

Those Tysons apartments aren’t cheap. 2 bedrooms will cost $3000+. They aren’t low income housing.

They have section 8 housing

[Anonymous]

Not from Fairfax but looking at moving there--why can't the School Board just take the McLean boundary neighborhoods closest to the Langley zone and give people the option of going to Cooper/Langley? Wouldn't that solve the problem? IF things are so crowded lots of parents would probably opt to go to Langley instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not from Fairfax but looking at moving there--why can't the School Board just take the McLean boundary neighborhoods closest to the Langley zone and give people the option of going to Cooper/Langley? Wouldn't that solve the problem? IF things are so crowded lots of parents would probably opt to go to Langley instead.

Kids can already transfer to Langley if desired. This issue for some folks is transportation - FCPS is not offering to bus kids not zoned to Langley - plus not wanting neighborhoods to feed to two different HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not from Fairfax but looking at moving there--why can't the School Board just take the McLean boundary neighborhoods closest to the Langley zone and give people the option of going to Cooper/Langley? Wouldn't that solve the problem? IF things are so crowded lots of parents would probably opt to go to Langley instead.

Kids can already transfer to Langley if desired. This issue for some folks is transportation - FCPS is not offering to bus kids not zoned to Langley - plus not wanting neighborhoods to feed to two different HS.

You are expected to meet specific criteria to pupil place under the student transfer regulations. It's easy enough to pupil place from Marshall to Langley if you prefer AP to IB. But transferring from one AP school to another AP school is trickier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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!


Awwww..."it is sooooo unfair!!!!" Boo hoo. McLean votes Democratic time and time and time again. You got the local government you voted for and now you are upset that they are making decisions that don't protect your little darling. You sound like the elites who paid for their kids to go to elite universities and got busted. McLean is getting what it deserves and pretty soon the BOS and SB will find a way to get more of your resources to "distribute" to the rest of the county. I'm sure the next step will be too pool all PTA contributions and redistribute them "equally" to all FCPS schools. Welcome to you "One Fairfax" comrade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Awwww..."it is sooooo unfair!!!!" Boo hoo. McLean votes Democratic time and time and time again. You got the local government you voted for and now you are upset that they are making decisions that don't protect your little darling. You sound like the elites who paid for their kids to go to elite universities and got busted. McLean is getting what it deserves and pretty soon the BOS and SB will find a way to get more of your resources to "distribute" to the rest of the county. I'm sure the next step will be too pool all PTA contributions and redistribute them "equally" to all FCPS schools. Welcome to you "One Fairfax" comrade.

Is this the new post? I hope it made you feel better.

Our local School Board member (Janie Strauss) tried to do something. And so will any candidate running for School Board in Dranesville, if he or she wants to get elected and/or not get constantly bombarded with emails from constituents for four years.

[Anonymous]

There are some really interesting articles coming out of Montgomery County on students leading the way for school inclusion.

https://wamu.org/story/19/04/02/how-students-in-montgomery-county-are-leading-the-push-for-school-redistricting/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some really interesting articles coming out of Montgomery County on students leading the way for school inclusion.

https://wamu.org/story/19/04/02/how-students-in-montgomery-county-are-leading-the-push-for-school-redistricting/

The student School Board member in MoCo pushing for a county-wide redistricting attends the magnet IB program within Richard Montgomery HS. She'll probably be at Yale when MCPS starting bussing high school kids in Potomac to Germantown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Awwww..."it is sooooo unfair!!!!" Boo hoo. McLean votes Democratic time and time and time again. You got the local government you voted for and now you are upset that they are making decisions that don't protect your little darling. You sound like the elites who paid for their kids to go to elite universities and got busted. McLean is getting what it deserves and pretty soon the BOS and SB will find a way to get more of your resources to "distribute" to the rest of the county. I'm sure the next step will be too pool all PTA contributions and redistribute them "equally" to all FCPS schools. Welcome to you "One Fairfax" comrade.

Is this the new post? I hope it made you feel better.

Our local School Board member (Janie Strauss) tried to do something. And so will any candidate running for School Board in Dranesville, if he or she wants to get elected and/or not get constantly bombarded with emails from constituents for four years.

How is it like the college admissions scandal to expect FCPS to manage enrollments so they don’t have an overcrowded school next door to one that’s well under capacity?

PP sounds like an asshole with a giant chip on his shoulder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Awwww..."it is sooooo unfair!!!!" Boo hoo. McLean votes Democratic time and time and time again. You got the local government you voted for and now you are upset that they are making decisions that don't protect your little darling. You sound like the elites who paid for their kids to go to elite universities and got busted. McLean is getting what it deserves and pretty soon the BOS and SB will find a way to get more of your resources to "distribute" to the rest of the county. I'm sure the next step will be too pool all PTA contributions and redistribute them "equally" to all FCPS schools. Welcome to you "One Fairfax" comrade.

Is this the new post? I hope it made you feel better.

Our local School Board member (Janie Strauss) tried to do something. And so will any candidate running for School Board in Dranesville, if he or she wants to get elected and/or not get constantly bombarded with emails from constituents for four years.

Who do you think voted for the ONE FAIRFAX policy that is prohibiting Janie from making the quick fix on MHS overcapacity? Janie Strauss you fool. Without ONE FAIRFAX in place, the School Board could have easily agreed to the quick fix of moving Tyson's to LHS. Now, you'll have to wait. Sorry not sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Awwww..."it is sooooo unfair!!!!" Boo hoo. McLean votes Democratic time and time and time again. You got the local government you voted for and now you are upset that they are making decisions that don't protect your little darling. You sound like the elites who paid for their kids to go to elite universities and got busted. McLean is getting what it deserves and pretty soon the BOS and SB will find a way to get more of your resources to "distribute" to the rest of the county. I'm sure the next step will be too pool all PTA contributions and redistribute them "equally" to all FCPS schools. Welcome to you "One Fairfax" comrade.

Is this the new post? I hope it made you feel better.

Our local School Board member (Janie Strauss) tried to do something. And so will any candidate running for School Board in Dranesville, if he or she wants to get elected and/or not get constantly bombarded with emails from constituents for four years.

Who do you think voted for the ONE FAIRFAX policy that is prohibiting Janie from making the quick fix on MHS overcapacity? Janie Strauss you fool. Without ONE FAIRFAX in place, the School Board could have easily agreed to the quick fix of moving Tyson's to LHS. Now, you'll have to wait. Sorry not sorry.

One Fairfax is a fairly general set of principles that in no way prohibits FCPS from getting its act together to address the overcrowding at MHS, particularly when there is an obvious solution that would increase diversity at LHS.

[Anonymous]

I have an idea: why don't they build the Western Ffx HS first, then shift people into that from Herndon HS and other close-by schools; then shift people from LHS into HHS; then shift kids from MHS to HHS. Done. In an orderly fashion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an idea: why don't they build the Western Ffx HS first, then shift people into that from Herndon HS and other close-by schools; then shift people from LHS into HHS; then shift kids from MHS to HHS. Done. In an orderly fashion.

correcting last bit: "shift kids from MHS to LHS."