School Board Forum on "Boundary and Capacity"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

I don’t know enough about those schools to weigh in on your first question, but the school board member who brought up the study said the conclusion was that redistricting clearly hurts students and poor students in particular.

I’m not sure that your aspirational benefits are based on a study or not (I’m guessing not) but as I’ve said before, kids shouldn’t be Guinea pigs for your social experiment, especially given the catalogued risk of harm here.

+1. Preach, sister.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

I don’t know enough about those schools to weigh in on your first question, but the school board member who brought up the study said the conclusion was that redistricting clearly hurts students and poor students in particular.

I’m not sure that your aspirational benefits are based on a study or not (I’m guessing not) but as I’ve said before, kids shouldn’t be Guinea pigs for your social experiment, especially given the catalogued risk of harm here.

Perhaps the better solution then is too FCPS to move towards open boundaries. As it stands now, it is often the poorest kids that are forced to go to failing schools and it is prohibitive for them to attend successful schools. The ethical decision is to provide optional transportation to any and all kids who are willing to transfer to a different school.

[Anonymous]

There are no failing schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

I don’t know enough about those schools to weigh in on your first question, but the school board member who brought up the study said the conclusion was that redistricting clearly hurts students and poor students in particular.

I’m not sure that your aspirational benefits are based on a study or not (I’m guessing not) but as I’ve said before, kids shouldn’t be Guinea pigs for your social experiment, especially given the catalogued risk of harm here.

Perhaps the better solution then is too FCPS to move towards open boundaries. As it stands now, it is often the poorest kids that are forced to go to failing schools and it is prohibitive for them to attend successful schools. The ethical decision is to provide optional transportation to any and all kids who are willing to transfer to a different school.

The state has specified criteria for determining when schools are sufficiently under-performing that students are given an option to attend other schools. Dogwood ES in Reston was in that category years ago but it’s not in that status now and I don’t think any other FCPS schools have since ended up so categorized.

So I’m not sure what you mean by failing schools. I have an idea, but perhaps you should elaborate. Unless you can be more specific people will assume you’re simply more interested in disrupting some kids’ education than helping anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

DP. So, are those *your* WSF kids you're suggesting be moved to Lewis? I'm certain you could request a transfer there for them. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

Is that the one we're really talking about?

Moving some students from West Springfield wouldn't hurt the poor students there. The questions needs to be asked, however, whether it would help them.

It's not like Lewis doesn't serve a fairly dense area with a lot of kids. It also has six elementary schools that feed entirely to Lewis, as well as part of a seventh school that is a split feeder. It seems like that ought to be a big enough pool to have a fairly large high school, yet it seems like kids are peeling off to privates and other schools.

So take a hard look at Lewis's issues. The silly "social justice" academy championed by Karen Keys Gamarra was a personal vanity project that she undertook because she wanted to be personally compared to John Lewis as some social justice warrior. It's not going to do much to shore up Lewis or attract kids from other pyramids. On the other hand, replacing one of the county's weakest IB programs with AP courses would make a difference, as might Academy courses that focused on STEM rather than social activism.

Strengthen Lewis and its enrollment will stabilize. Move West Springfield kids there just to change the demographics and Lewis is going to remain a sieve. You can push people in, and they will still find a way out. And then, maybe then, if West Springfield were over 110% capacity (which people can live with), you might consider moving kids to Lewis. But not before then.

ding ding ding, we have a winner! I still can't believe that a ridiculous "social justice" academy was even allowed to proceed. What a complete farce. I'm truly embarrassed for anyone who backed that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

I don’t know enough about those schools to weigh in on your first question, but the school board member who brought up the study said the conclusion was that redistricting clearly hurts students and poor students in particular.

I’m not sure that your aspirational benefits are based on a study or not (I’m guessing not) but as I’ve said before, kids shouldn’t be Guinea pigs for your social experiment, especially given the catalogued risk of harm here.

Perhaps the better solution then is too FCPS to move towards open boundaries. As it stands now, it is often the poorest kids that are forced to go to failing schools and it is prohibitive for them to attend successful schools. The ethical decision is to provide optional transportation to any and all kids who are willing to transfer to a different school.

Why does FCPS have “failing schools” at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

I don’t know enough about those schools to weigh in on your first question, but the school board member who brought up the study said the conclusion was that redistricting clearly hurts students and poor students in particular.

I’m not sure that your aspirational benefits are based on a study or not (I’m guessing not) but as I’ve said before, kids shouldn’t be Guinea pigs for your social experiment, especially given the catalogued risk of harm here.

Perhaps the better solution then is too FCPS to move towards open boundaries. As it stands now, it is often the poorest kids that are forced to go to failing schools and it is prohibitive for them to attend successful schools. The ethical decision is to provide optional transportation to any and all kids who are willing to transfer to a different school.

Why does FCPS have “failing schools” at all?

It doesn’t, according to the state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will the Langley bastion finally fall? I hope so. Rooting for this board.

Bitter much?

Gatehouse should make the best use of facilities, giving weight to efficiency and budget.
If the Langley boundaries change due to that then whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

DP. So, are those *your* WSF kids you're suggesting be moved to Lewis? I'm certain you could request a transfer there for them. Good luck!

+100
Don’t you love the morons who see fit to opine on where other people’s kids should go to school? Especially when they have nothing to do with the schools in question. So pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

DP. So, are those *your* WSF kids you're suggesting be moved to Lewis? I'm certain you could request a transfer there for them. Good luck!

+100
Don’t you love the morons who see fit to opine on where other people’s kids should go to school? Especially when they have nothing to do with the schools in question. So pathetic.

DP. None of the School Board members who'll eventually be deciding what to do with West Springfield and Lewis have a connection to either school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will the Langley bastion finally fall? I hope so. Rooting for this board.

Bitter much?

Gatehouse should make the best use of facilities, giving weight to efficiency and budget.
If the Langley boundaries change due to that then whatever.

The Langley boundaries may well need to change in a few years based on capacity and logistical issues, but if that happens they'll still claim it's being done to "punish" them. Hopefully with Robyn Lady representing the district rather than Elaine Tholen, decisions will be based on the merits and not just a desire to place Langley's interests over everyone else's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

DP. So, are those *your* WSF kids you're suggesting be moved to Lewis? I'm certain you could request a transfer there for them. Good luck!

+100
Don’t you love the morons who see fit to opine on where other people’s kids should go to school? Especially when they have nothing to do with the schools in question. So pathetic.

DP. None of the School Board members who'll eventually be deciding what to do with West Springfield and Lewis have a connection to either school.

The problem really isn't WS or Lewis and no matter how many times you post about this, that's not going to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

DP. So, are those *your* WSF kids you're suggesting be moved to Lewis? I'm certain you could request a transfer there for them. Good luck!

+100
Don’t you love the morons who see fit to opine on where other people’s kids should go to school? Especially when they have nothing to do with the schools in question. So pathetic.

DP. None of the School Board members who'll eventually be deciding what to do with West Springfield and Lewis have a connection to either school.

The problem really isn't WS or Lewis and no matter how many times you post about this, that's not going to change.

If you look upthread you were responding to posts (not mine) about WS and Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB should take the bandaid off and redraw the lines across the board. Call people’s bluff about leaving the system and/or county. Truth is people make a lot of money off jobs in this area and they’re addicted or have jobs here that don’t really exist elsewhere.

The bluff isn't people leaving the system, the bluff is political careers ending. Even if they could deal with the blow back, your county rep doesn't want to deal with irate calls from parents and pressure to vote against school budgets until the idea dies, but that's what would happen. For redistricting county wide to work, all of the county level politicians representing the areas that lose out would have to accept that their careers are over. Depending on how widespread the anger is, McKay might be done too. It's not worth it for any of them

And really, it’s not a bluff. Some people have no concept of how much a redistricting is playing with fire. Want a really bad school district? Have all the rich families that you so despise leave the system.

So what? A poorly performing district can still get lots of money per student and pay its school board and superintendent very well. They can use that money to send their own children to private school.

I’m sorry, I thought that the primary motive for your redistricting agenda was to couple the poors with the rich kids. If the rich all leave, then you’ll just have poors and deflated property values which will hurt the whole system.

It’s funny, I feel like I would have a sliver of sympathy for you if you truly cared about the downtrodden, but it’s pretty clear by now that you just really don’t like that some of your neighbors aren’t poor.

I'm a DP, but yes that's my primary motive. I grew up very poor and went to an equally poor high school. But I'm one of the lucky ones that ended up in grad school despite having parents that didn't know anything.

Anyway, I've seen the significant negative effects of concentrating all the poor kids in a few places. I appreciate wealthy families and respect the effort they put into their communities. They have the luxury of time that poor parents simply don't. Teachers and principals at the poor schools really do try hard to create community but it always lacks in comparison to a healthy PTSA. FCPS has suggested they will make efforts to give funds to schools with weak community donations but we have yet to see that roll out. It's not just money but also clubs and activities. So yes, I think sending poor kids to wealthy high schools has plenty of benefits.

Yeah, to your Herndon property values.

I actually agree with PP to a large extent, having looked into this issue. The problem is that to maintain a high- performing school, you have to keep the percentage of children from poorer families pretty low.

FCPS might well be able to bring some benefit to a certain number of poorer children with a boundary change, but it could only do so with a limited number of schools. (Because of the high percentage of poorer students that it now has— see the tipping point study)

Picture the uproar if they changed boundaries in the top ten pyramids and those schools remained strong while the others statistically performed even worse than before.

It could prove untenable politically.
Imagine the bitterness of the parents whose children did not luck into one of the high performing schools.

On the other hand, it could well be counter balanced by the parents who were reboundaried to a higher-ranking school.

And imagine if you are totally wrong, and all the schools end up awful. I, for one, am not interested in finding out whether your agenda would work in practice. And I don’t want my kids being your Guinea pigs.

Hypothetically if a redistricting went through that was perfectly "equitable" and distributed kids at each pyramid to represent the true demographics of FCPS, we'd have schools that are 37% White, 28% Hispanic, 20% Asian, and 10% Black, the rest Other. And 33% FARMs. That's Fairfax County.

Coincidentally, Fairfax HS matches that demographic and FARMs split very closely. So, if every school in FCPS was a replica of Fairfax HS would that be "awful" and a deal-breaker for everyone to up and leave? Of course not. Now that's only a thought experiment, but the melodrama about terrible schools is unwarranted.

Yes, let’s talk about impossible hypotheticals rather than reality.

Hypothetically, if we all had a billion dollars, then we could genetically engineer unicorns that fart rainbows.

Or maybe we should just stick to the reality we have. Namely, that redistricting would be a horrible, disruptive idea that would likely exacerbate the counties problems and hurt students, and poor students in particular.

How would moving some students from West Springfield to Lewis hurt the poor students? More classes would likely be available. They might be able to field teams in every sport. Sounds terrible.

DP. So, are those *your* WSF kids you're suggesting be moved to Lewis? I'm certain you could request a transfer there for them. Good luck!

+100
Don’t you love the morons who see fit to opine on where other people’s kids should go to school? Especially when they have nothing to do with the schools in question. So pathetic.

Any taxpayer should opine if money and resources are handled efficiently and effectively.