FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[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:Do the people representing each pyramid all have children currently enrolled in FCPS?

No they do not, this was confirmed at the Mount Vernon community meeting when one of the community reps had only older children who had already graduated.

I think this is good. Most adults in Fairfax County do not have children in the schools, but since they are also part of the community and also pay taxes that fund the schools, they should have a say too.

Except when this argument is applied to the immigration issue, the same folks say stfu "just because you pay property taxes doesn't mean your kid has priority over the new arrival undocumented ESL kids". So yeah miss me with this. They should not have an equal say as parents with children in FCPS.

Parents already have an outsized role here, not asking for parity - but it’s nice that some of the committee member represent the majority.
If you don’t include their voices, you will have a problem with community support and a much harder time paying for it all.

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the key to better schools is getting more people who don’t have any significant stake more involved. 🙄

Thinking that people who live in your community with no children in public schools means they do not have a stake in the public schools is not correct. Of course they have a stake. They are part of the community.

Thinking that non parents should have more than minimal representation on the committee that primarily affects school kids is like saying I should have a say in the California interstate Highway system because I drive there once every couple of years.

+1
2 or 3 seats out of 50 would be the right amount of voice. The vast majority should have been parents.

According to the census, there are 412,663 households in Fairfax County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/HSD410223#HSD410223

According to FCPS, there are almost 183,000 students in FCPS.

Some households have more than one adult and some households have more than one child in the public schools. So, any guesses for what percentage of adults in the county have no children currently in the schools? My guess is between 60-70%.

You seem to be saying that the very large majority of households with no children currently enrolled in the public schools only deserve 4-6% representation. I am not suggesting that it should be commensurate with the population or even close to it, but it should be more than 4-6%. Perhaps, 2-3 seats for those with under 5 year olds, 2-3 seats for those whose children are within 5 years of their high school graduation and 2-3 for the others.

DP. My biggest issue with the whole process is that the school board has intentionally marginalized the very families who will be most affected by the changes. That’s of course intentional but it’s just so richly ironic that the left now seeks to silence its victims.

It's ironic that all your assumptions are based on conspiracy.

DP. It all starts with the fact that no one associated with FCPS has remotely made a compelling case for boundary adjustments at a time when enrollment is flat and birth rates are declining. Add to that the fact that, as discussed earlier, the purported benefits described by FCPS seem contrived.

All told, it feels like we’re being asked to go along with some Orwellian farce, where anything can be done to advance an “equity” agenda, so long as that word is replaced with “efficiency” as often as possible.

Maybe the concerns expressed by posters here will turn out to be unfounded, and the scale of the changes will be more modest and aligned with what the affected communities actually want. If so, that will be despite the lack of candor on the part of Reid and the School Board, and largely due to people finding other avenues to express their concerns even when Reid and the School Board tried their hardest to orchestrate a process where those concerns would be ignored.

Overall enrollment is flat to declining but that isn’t true across the system. Enrollment is projected to decline in many boundaries but increase in other boundaries. That’s a great argument for redistricting. Reading through this thread, many say the solution for those growing areas is not redistricting but school expansions (“other schools got them so we should too”). But both FCPS administration and the school board have said in the last year that FCPS cannot afford to undertake the extensive renovations and expansions it has pursued to date, and that, given budget realities and interest rates, FCPS needs to focus its capital budget on renovstions that are much more limited in scope, i.e., which are necessary to keep its aging facilities / construction safe for children. In other words, more capacity isn’t coming where needed and FCPS needs to live within its means, so kids need to be moved.

“We screwed up and added seats where they weren’t most needed, so now we’re going to move your kids to Herndon to cover up our mistakes. Otherwise we can’t keep giving ourselves raises. Please accept our apologies.”

Why is moving some kids to Herndon so terrible? Do your kids know any current students? From what we hear, it’s not a hell-hole as many hear believe it to be.

[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:Do the people representing each pyramid all have children currently enrolled in FCPS?

No they do not, this was confirmed at the Mount Vernon community meeting when one of the community reps had only older children who had already graduated.

I think this is good. Most adults in Fairfax County do not have children in the schools, but since they are also part of the community and also pay taxes that fund the schools, they should have a say too.

Except when this argument is applied to the immigration issue, the same folks say stfu "just because you pay property taxes doesn't mean your kid has priority over the new arrival undocumented ESL kids". So yeah miss me with this. They should not have an equal say as parents with children in FCPS.

Parents already have an outsized role here, not asking for parity - but it’s nice that some of the committee member represent the majority.
If you don’t include their voices, you will have a problem with community support and a much harder time paying for it all.

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the key to better schools is getting more people who don’t have any significant stake more involved. 🙄

Thinking that people who live in your community with no children in public schools means they do not have a stake in the public schools is not correct. Of course they have a stake. They are part of the community.

Thinking that non parents should have more than minimal representation on the committee that primarily affects school kids is like saying I should have a say in the California interstate Highway system because I drive there once every couple of years.

+1
2 or 3 seats out of 50 would be the right amount of voice. The vast majority should have been parents.

According to the census, there are 412,663 households in Fairfax County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/HSD410223#HSD410223

According to FCPS, there are almost 183,000 students in FCPS.

Some households have more than one adult and some households have more than one child in the public schools. So, any guesses for what percentage of adults in the county have no children currently in the schools? My guess is between 60-70%.

You seem to be saying that the very large majority of households with no children currently enrolled in the public schools only deserve 4-6% representation. I am not suggesting that it should be commensurate with the population or even close to it, but it should be more than 4-6%. Perhaps, 2-3 seats for those with under 5 year olds, 2-3 seats for those whose children are within 5 years of their high school graduation and 2-3 for the others.

DP. My biggest issue with the whole process is that the school board has intentionally marginalized the very families who will be most affected by the changes. That’s of course intentional but it’s just so richly ironic that the left now seeks to silence its victims.

It's ironic that all your assumptions are based on conspiracy.

DP. It all starts with the fact that no one associated with FCPS has remotely made a compelling case for boundary adjustments at a time when enrollment is flat and birth rates are declining. Add to that the fact that, as discussed earlier, the purported benefits described by FCPS seem contrived.

All told, it feels like we’re being asked to go along with some Orwellian farce, where anything can be done to advance an “equity” agenda, so long as that word is replaced with “efficiency” as often as possible.

Maybe the concerns expressed by posters here will turn out to be unfounded, and the scale of the changes will be more modest and aligned with what the affected communities actually want. If so, that will be despite the lack of candor on the part of Reid and the School Board, and largely due to people finding other avenues to express their concerns even when Reid and the School Board tried their hardest to orchestrate a process where those concerns would be ignored.

Overall enrollment is flat to declining but that isn’t true across the system. Enrollment is projected to decline in many boundaries but increase in other boundaries. That’s a great argument for redistricting. Reading through this thread, many say the solution for those growing areas is not redistricting but school expansions (“other schools got them so we should too”). But both FCPS administration and the school board have said in the last year that FCPS cannot afford to undertake the extensive renovations and expansions it has pursued to date, and that, given budget realities and interest rates, FCPS needs to focus its capital budget on renovstions that are much more limited in scope, i.e., which are necessary to keep its aging facilities / construction safe for children. In other words, more capacity isn’t coming where needed and FCPS needs to live within its means, so kids need to be moved.

“We screwed up and added seats where they weren’t most needed, so now we’re going to move your kids to Herndon to cover up our mistakes. Otherwise we can’t keep giving ourselves raises. Please accept our apologies.”

Why is moving some kids to Herndon so terrible? Do your kids know any current students? From what we hear, it’s not a hell-hole as many hear believe it to be.

The issue is not the quality of Herndon. It's expanding the school substantially only for FCPS to turn around very shortly thereafter, significantly reduce its enrollment projections for HHS, and say it's going to be over 800 students under capacity. Meanwhile schools that have been overcrowded for years are ignored and told to expect redistricting. If you think this is OK, you're part of the problem, because it's not.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:Do the people representing each pyramid all have children currently enrolled in FCPS?

No they do not, this was confirmed at the Mount Vernon community meeting when one of the community reps had only older children who had already graduated.

I think this is good. Most adults in Fairfax County do not have children in the schools, but since they are also part of the community and also pay taxes that fund the schools, they should have a say too.

Except when this argument is applied to the immigration issue, the same folks say stfu "just because you pay property taxes doesn't mean your kid has priority over the new arrival undocumented ESL kids". So yeah miss me with this. They should not have an equal say as parents with children in FCPS.

Parents already have an outsized role here, not asking for parity - but it’s nice that some of the committee member represent the majority.
If you don’t include their voices, you will have a problem with community support and a much harder time paying for it all.

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the key to better schools is getting more people who don’t have any significant stake more involved. 🙄

Thinking that people who live in your community with no children in public schools means they do not have a stake in the public schools is not correct. Of course they have a stake. They are part of the community.

Thinking that non parents should have more than minimal representation on the committee that primarily affects school kids is like saying I should have a say in the California interstate Highway system because I drive there once every couple of years.

+1
2 or 3 seats out of 50 would be the right amount of voice. The vast majority should have been parents.

According to the census, there are 412,663 households in Fairfax County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/HSD410223#HSD410223

According to FCPS, there are almost 183,000 students in FCPS.

Some households have more than one adult and some households have more than one child in the public schools. So, any guesses for what percentage of adults in the county have no children currently in the schools? My guess is between 60-70%.

You seem to be saying that the very large majority of households with no children currently enrolled in the public schools only deserve 4-6% representation. I am not suggesting that it should be commensurate with the population or even close to it, but it should be more than 4-6%. Perhaps, 2-3 seats for those with under 5 year olds, 2-3 seats for those whose children are within 5 years of their high school graduation and 2-3 for the others.

DP. My biggest issue with the whole process is that the school board has intentionally marginalized the very families who will be most affected by the changes. That’s of course intentional but it’s just so richly ironic that the left now seeks to silence its victims.

It's ironic that all your assumptions are based on conspiracy.

DP. It all starts with the fact that no one associated with FCPS has remotely made a compelling case for boundary adjustments at a time when enrollment is flat and birth rates are declining. Add to that the fact that, as discussed earlier, the purported benefits described by FCPS seem contrived.

All told, it feels like we’re being asked to go along with some Orwellian farce, where anything can be done to advance an “equity” agenda, so long as that word is replaced with “efficiency” as often as possible.

Maybe the concerns expressed by posters here will turn out to be unfounded, and the scale of the changes will be more modest and aligned with what the affected communities actually want. If so, that will be despite the lack of candor on the part of Reid and the School Board, and largely due to people finding other avenues to express their concerns even when Reid and the School Board tried their hardest to orchestrate a process where those concerns would be ignored.

Overall enrollment is flat to declining but that isn’t true across the system. Enrollment is projected to decline in many boundaries but increase in other boundaries. That’s a great argument for redistricting. Reading through this thread, many say the solution for those growing areas is not redistricting but school expansions (“other schools got them so we should too”). But both FCPS administration and the school board have said in the last year that FCPS cannot afford to undertake the extensive renovations and expansions it has pursued to date, and that, given budget realities and interest rates, FCPS needs to focus its capital budget on renovstions that are much more limited in scope, i.e., which are necessary to keep its aging facilities / construction safe for children. In other words, more capacity isn’t coming where needed and FCPS needs to live within its means, so kids need to be moved.

“We screwed up and added seats where they weren’t most needed, so now we’re going to move your kids to Herndon to cover up our mistakes. Otherwise we can’t keep giving ourselves raises. Please accept our apologies.”

Why is moving some kids to Herndon so terrible? Do your kids know any current students? From what we hear, it’s not a hell-hole as many hear believe it to be.

The issue is not the quality of Herndon. It's expanding the school substantially only for FCPS to turn around very shortly thereafter, significantly reduce its enrollment projections for HHS, and say it's going to be over 800 students under capacity. Meanwhile schools that have been overcrowded for years are ignored and told to expect redistricting. If you think this is OK, you're part of the problem, because it's not.

No one wants to be moved to a school perceived as worse than their current school. You don't hear complaining about moves in the opposite direction, but this rezoning is likely going to heavily focus on movement to worse schools

[Anonymous]

^ Similar issue with Madison. For whatever reason, it was expanded to 2500. Now it's at under 2100 students with limited growth projected in its catchment areas, while schools that are overcrowded or projected to see more growth are getting screwed.

Madison is a fine school but, time and time again, the FCPS response isn't to admit mistakes, or improve capital planning, but rather to threaten families with disruptive boundary changes that may not even grandfather kids. FCPS really needs to get its house in order, and address the needs of students in their existing communities, rather than try to sell people on the notion that boundary changes are the only or best solution.

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to see which elementary schools are overcrowded?

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the people representing each pyramid all have children currently enrolled in FCPS?

No they do not, this was confirmed at the Mount Vernon community meeting when one of the community reps had only older children who had already graduated.

I think this is good. Most adults in Fairfax County do not have children in the schools, but since they are also part of the community and also pay taxes that fund the schools, they should have a say too.

Except when this argument is applied to the immigration issue, the same folks say stfu "just because you pay property taxes doesn't mean your kid has priority over the new arrival undocumented ESL kids". So yeah miss me with this. They should not have an equal say as parents with children in FCPS.

Parents already have an outsized role here, not asking for parity - but it’s nice that some of the committee member represent the majority.
If you don’t include their voices, you will have a problem with community support and a much harder time paying for it all.

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the key to better schools is getting more people who don’t have any significant stake more involved. 🙄

Thinking that people who live in your community with no children in public schools means they do not have a stake in the public schools is not correct. Of course they have a stake. They are part of the community.

Thinking that non parents should have more than minimal representation on the committee that primarily affects school kids is like saying I should have a say in the California interstate Highway system because I drive there once every couple of years.

+1
2 or 3 seats out of 50 would be the right amount of voice. The vast majority should have been parents.

According to the census, there are 412,663 households in Fairfax County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/HSD410223#HSD410223

According to FCPS, there are almost 183,000 students in FCPS.

Some households have more than one adult and some households have more than one child in the public schools. So, any guesses for what percentage of adults in the county have no children currently in the schools? My guess is between 60-70%.

You seem to be saying that the very large majority of households with no children currently enrolled in the public schools only deserve 4-6% representation. I am not suggesting that it should be commensurate with the population or even close to it, but it should be more than 4-6%. Perhaps, 2-3 seats for those with under 5 year olds, 2-3 seats for those whose children are within 5 years of their high school graduation and 2-3 for the others.

DP. My biggest issue with the whole process is that the school board has intentionally marginalized the very families who will be most affected by the changes. That’s of course intentional but it’s just so richly ironic that the left now seeks to silence its victims.

It's ironic that all your assumptions are based on conspiracy.

DP. It all starts with the fact that no one associated with FCPS has remotely made a compelling case for boundary adjustments at a time when enrollment is flat and birth rates are declining. Add to that the fact that, as discussed earlier, the purported benefits described by FCPS seem contrived.

All told, it feels like we’re being asked to go along with some Orwellian farce, where anything can be done to advance an “equity” agenda, so long as that word is replaced with “efficiency” as often as possible.

Maybe the concerns expressed by posters here will turn out to be unfounded, and the scale of the changes will be more modest and aligned with what the affected communities actually want. If so, that will be despite the lack of candor on the part of Reid and the School Board, and largely due to people finding other avenues to express their concerns even when Reid and the School Board tried their hardest to orchestrate a process where those concerns would be ignored.

Overall enrollment is flat to declining but that isn’t true across the system. Enrollment is projected to decline in many boundaries but increase in other boundaries. That’s a great argument for redistricting. Reading through this thread, many say the solution for those growing areas is not redistricting but school expansions (“other schools got them so we should too”). But both FCPS administration and the school board have said in the last year that FCPS cannot afford to undertake the extensive renovations and expansions it has pursued to date, and that, given budget realities and interest rates, FCPS needs to focus its capital budget on renovstions that are much more limited in scope, i.e., which are necessary to keep its aging facilities / construction safe for children. In other words, more capacity isn’t coming where needed and FCPS needs to live within its means, so kids need to be moved.

“We screwed up and added seats where they weren’t most needed, so now we’re going to move your kids to Herndon to cover up our mistakes. Otherwise we can’t keep giving ourselves raises. Please accept our apologies.”

Why is moving some kids to Herndon so terrible? Do your kids know any current students? From what we hear, it’s not a hell-hole as many hear believe it to be.

The issue is not the quality of Herndon. It's expanding the school substantially only for FCPS to turn around very shortly thereafter, significantly reduce its enrollment projections for HHS, and say it's going to be over 800 students under capacity. Meanwhile schools that have been overcrowded for years are ignored and told to expect redistricting. If you think this is OK, you're part of the problem, because it's not.

No one wants to be moved to a school perceived as worse than their current school. You don't hear complaining about moves in the opposite direction, but this rezoning is likely going to heavily focus on movement to worse schools

A lot of Annandale families were unhappy when they were moved to Woodson years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a way to see which elementary schools are overcrowded?

https://www.fcps.edu/facilities-planning-future/facilities-and-membership-dashboards

Look at the capacity overview section for the most recent information.

[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:Do the people representing each pyramid all have children currently enrolled in FCPS?

No they do not, this was confirmed at the Mount Vernon community meeting when one of the community reps had only older children who had already graduated.

I think this is good. Most adults in Fairfax County do not have children in the schools, but since they are also part of the community and also pay taxes that fund the schools, they should have a say too.

Except when this argument is applied to the immigration issue, the same folks say stfu "just because you pay property taxes doesn't mean your kid has priority over the new arrival undocumented ESL kids". So yeah miss me with this. They should not have an equal say as parents with children in FCPS.

Parents already have an outsized role here, not asking for parity - but it’s nice that some of the committee member represent the majority.
If you don’t include their voices, you will have a problem with community support and a much harder time paying for it all.

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the key to better schools is getting more people who don’t have any significant stake more involved. 🙄

Thinking that people who live in your community with no children in public schools means they do not have a stake in the public schools is not correct. Of course they have a stake. They are part of the community.

Thinking that non parents should have more than minimal representation on the committee that primarily affects school kids is like saying I should have a say in the California interstate Highway system because I drive there once every couple of years.

+1
2 or 3 seats out of 50 would be the right amount of voice. The vast majority should have been parents.

According to the census, there are 412,663 households in Fairfax County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/HSD410223#HSD410223

According to FCPS, there are almost 183,000 students in FCPS.

Some households have more than one adult and some households have more than one child in the public schools. So, any guesses for what percentage of adults in the county have no children currently in the schools? My guess is between 60-70%.

You seem to be saying that the very large majority of households with no children currently enrolled in the public schools only deserve 4-6% representation. I am not suggesting that it should be commensurate with the population or even close to it, but it should be more than 4-6%. Perhaps, 2-3 seats for those with under 5 year olds, 2-3 seats for those whose children are within 5 years of their high school graduation and 2-3 for the others.

DP. My biggest issue with the whole process is that the school board has intentionally marginalized the very families who will be most affected by the changes. That’s of course intentional but it’s just so richly ironic that the left now seeks to silence its victims.

It's ironic that all your assumptions are based on conspiracy.

DP. It all starts with the fact that no one associated with FCPS has remotely made a compelling case for boundary adjustments at a time when enrollment is flat and birth rates are declining. Add to that the fact that, as discussed earlier, the purported benefits described by FCPS seem contrived.

All told, it feels like we’re being asked to go along with some Orwellian farce, where anything can be done to advance an “equity” agenda, so long as that word is replaced with “efficiency” as often as possible.

Maybe the concerns expressed by posters here will turn out to be unfounded, and the scale of the changes will be more modest and aligned with what the affected communities actually want. If so, that will be despite the lack of candor on the part of Reid and the School Board, and largely due to people finding other avenues to express their concerns even when Reid and the School Board tried their hardest to orchestrate a process where those concerns would be ignored.

Overall enrollment is flat to declining but that isn’t true across the system. Enrollment is projected to decline in many boundaries but increase in other boundaries. That’s a great argument for redistricting. Reading through this thread, many say the solution for those growing areas is not redistricting but school expansions (“other schools got them so we should too”). But both FCPS administration and the school board have said in the last year that FCPS cannot afford to undertake the extensive renovations and expansions it has pursued to date, and that, given budget realities and interest rates, FCPS needs to focus its capital budget on renovstions that are much more limited in scope, i.e., which are necessary to keep its aging facilities / construction safe for children. In other words, more capacity isn’t coming where needed and FCPS needs to live within its means, so kids need to be moved.

“We screwed up and added seats where they weren’t most needed, so now we’re going to move your kids to Herndon to cover up our mistakes. Otherwise we can’t keep giving ourselves raises. Please accept our apologies.”

Why is moving some kids to Herndon so terrible? Do your kids know any current students? From what we hear, it’s not a hell-hole as many hear believe it to be.

I’m not interested in anyone trying to convince me where I should send my kids, especially when there is a bigger gang presence in that school. That’s a full stop for us. Hard no.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:Do the people representing each pyramid all have children currently enrolled in FCPS?

No they do not, this was confirmed at the Mount Vernon community meeting when one of the community reps had only older children who had already graduated.

I think this is good. Most adults in Fairfax County do not have children in the schools, but since they are also part of the community and also pay taxes that fund the schools, they should have a say too.

Except when this argument is applied to the immigration issue, the same folks say stfu "just because you pay property taxes doesn't mean your kid has priority over the new arrival undocumented ESL kids". So yeah miss me with this. They should not have an equal say as parents with children in FCPS.

Parents already have an outsized role here, not asking for parity - but it’s nice that some of the committee member represent the majority.
If you don’t include their voices, you will have a problem with community support and a much harder time paying for it all.

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the key to better schools is getting more people who don’t have any significant stake more involved. 🙄

Thinking that people who live in your community with no children in public schools means they do not have a stake in the public schools is not correct. Of course they have a stake. They are part of the community.

Thinking that non parents should have more than minimal representation on the committee that primarily affects school kids is like saying I should have a say in the California interstate Highway system because I drive there once every couple of years.

+1
2 or 3 seats out of 50 would be the right amount of voice. The vast majority should have been parents.

According to the census, there are 412,663 households in Fairfax County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/HSD410223#HSD410223

According to FCPS, there are almost 183,000 students in FCPS.

Some households have more than one adult and some households have more than one child in the public schools. So, any guesses for what percentage of adults in the county have no children currently in the schools? My guess is between 60-70%.

You seem to be saying that the very large majority of households with no children currently enrolled in the public schools only deserve 4-6% representation. I am not suggesting that it should be commensurate with the population or even close to it, but it should be more than 4-6%. Perhaps, 2-3 seats for those with under 5 year olds, 2-3 seats for those whose children are within 5 years of their high school graduation and 2-3 for the others.

DP. My biggest issue with the whole process is that the school board has intentionally marginalized the very families who will be most affected by the changes. That’s of course intentional but it’s just so richly ironic that the left now seeks to silence its victims.

It's ironic that all your assumptions are based on conspiracy.

DP. It all starts with the fact that no one associated with FCPS has remotely made a compelling case for boundary adjustments at a time when enrollment is flat and birth rates are declining. Add to that the fact that, as discussed earlier, the purported benefits described by FCPS seem contrived.

All told, it feels like we’re being asked to go along with some Orwellian farce, where anything can be done to advance an “equity” agenda, so long as that word is replaced with “efficiency” as often as possible.

Maybe the concerns expressed by posters here will turn out to be unfounded, and the scale of the changes will be more modest and aligned with what the affected communities actually want. If so, that will be despite the lack of candor on the part of Reid and the School Board, and largely due to people finding other avenues to express their concerns even when Reid and the School Board tried their hardest to orchestrate a process where those concerns would be ignored.

Overall enrollment is flat to declining but that isn’t true across the system. Enrollment is projected to decline in many boundaries but increase in other boundaries. That’s a great argument for redistricting. Reading through this thread, many say the solution for those growing areas is not redistricting but school expansions (“other schools got them so we should too”). But both FCPS administration and the school board have said in the last year that FCPS cannot afford to undertake the extensive renovations and expansions it has pursued to date, and that, given budget realities and interest rates, FCPS needs to focus its capital budget on renovstions that are much more limited in scope, i.e., which are necessary to keep its aging facilities / construction safe for children. In other words, more capacity isn’t coming where needed and FCPS needs to live within its means, so kids need to be moved.

“We screwed up and added seats where they weren’t most needed, so now we’re going to move your kids to Herndon to cover up our mistakes. Otherwise we can’t keep giving ourselves raises. Please accept our apologies.”

Why is moving some kids to Herndon so terrible? Do your kids know any current students? From what we hear, it’s not a hell-hole as many hear believe it to be.

I’m not interested in anyone trying to convince me where I should send my kids, especially when there is a bigger gang presence in that school. That’s a full stop for us. Hard no.

No one is trying to convince you. They are going to draw lines and you are free to accept them, move, or pay for private school

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the people representing each pyramid all have children currently enrolled in FCPS?

No they do not, this was confirmed at the Mount Vernon community meeting when one of the community reps had only older children who had already graduated.

I think this is good. Most adults in Fairfax County do not have children in the schools, but since they are also part of the community and also pay taxes that fund the schools, they should have a say too.

Except when this argument is applied to the immigration issue, the same folks say stfu "just because you pay property taxes doesn't mean your kid has priority over the new arrival undocumented ESL kids". So yeah miss me with this. They should not have an equal say as parents with children in FCPS.

Parents already have an outsized role here, not asking for parity - but it’s nice that some of the committee member represent the majority.
If you don’t include their voices, you will have a problem with community support and a much harder time paying for it all.

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the key to better schools is getting more people who don’t have any significant stake more involved. 🙄

Thinking that people who live in your community with no children in public schools means they do not have a stake in the public schools is not correct. Of course they have a stake. They are part of the community.

Thinking that non parents should have more than minimal representation on the committee that primarily affects school kids is like saying I should have a say in the California interstate Highway system because I drive there once every couple of years.

+1
2 or 3 seats out of 50 would be the right amount of voice. The vast majority should have been parents.

According to the census, there are 412,663 households in Fairfax County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/HSD410223#HSD410223

According to FCPS, there are almost 183,000 students in FCPS.

Some households have more than one adult and some households have more than one child in the public schools. So, any guesses for what percentage of adults in the county have no children currently in the schools? My guess is between 60-70%.

You seem to be saying that the very large majority of households with no children currently enrolled in the public schools only deserve 4-6% representation. I am not suggesting that it should be commensurate with the population or even close to it, but it should be more than 4-6%. Perhaps, 2-3 seats for those with under 5 year olds, 2-3 seats for those whose children are within 5 years of their high school graduation and 2-3 for the others.

DP. My biggest issue with the whole process is that the school board has intentionally marginalized the very families who will be most affected by the changes. That’s of course intentional but it’s just so richly ironic that the left now seeks to silence its victims.

It's ironic that all your assumptions are based on conspiracy.

DP. It all starts with the fact that no one associated with FCPS has remotely made a compelling case for boundary adjustments at a time when enrollment is flat and birth rates are declining. Add to that the fact that, as discussed earlier, the purported benefits described by FCPS seem contrived.

All told, it feels like we’re being asked to go along with some Orwellian farce, where anything can be done to advance an “equity” agenda, so long as that word is replaced with “efficiency” as often as possible.

Maybe the concerns expressed by posters here will turn out to be unfounded, and the scale of the changes will be more modest and aligned with what the affected communities actually want. If so, that will be despite the lack of candor on the part of Reid and the School Board, and largely due to people finding other avenues to express their concerns even when Reid and the School Board tried their hardest to orchestrate a process where those concerns would be ignored.

Overall enrollment is flat to declining but that isn’t true across the system. Enrollment is projected to decline in many boundaries but increase in other boundaries. That’s a great argument for redistricting. Reading through this thread, many say the solution for those growing areas is not redistricting but school expansions (“other schools got them so we should too”). But both FCPS administration and the school board have said in the last year that FCPS cannot afford to undertake the extensive renovations and expansions it has pursued to date, and that, given budget realities and interest rates, FCPS needs to focus its capital budget on renovstions that are much more limited in scope, i.e., which are necessary to keep its aging facilities / construction safe for children. In other words, more capacity isn’t coming where needed and FCPS needs to live within its means, so kids need to be moved.

“We screwed up and added seats where they weren’t most needed, so now we’re going to move your kids to Herndon to cover up our mistakes. Otherwise we can’t keep giving ourselves raises. Please accept our apologies.”

Why is moving some kids to Herndon so terrible? Do your kids know any current students? From what we hear, it’s not a hell-hole as many hear believe it to be.

I’m not interested in anyone trying to convince me where I should send my kids, especially when there is a bigger gang presence in that school. That’s a full stop for us. Hard no.

No one is trying to convince you. They are going to draw lines and you are free to accept them, move, or pay for private school

DP. The question for you is why you apparently think it's a good thing for them to redraw the lines when the main reason the lines may be redrawn is to gloss over their own incompetence. Accepting this is tantamount to rewarding them for malfeasance.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the people representing each pyramid all have children currently enrolled in FCPS?

No they do not, this was confirmed at the Mount Vernon community meeting when one of the community reps had only older children who had already graduated.

I think this is good. Most adults in Fairfax County do not have children in the schools, but since they are also part of the community and also pay taxes that fund the schools, they should have a say too.

Except when this argument is applied to the immigration issue, the same folks say stfu "just because you pay property taxes doesn't mean your kid has priority over the new arrival undocumented ESL kids". So yeah miss me with this. They should not have an equal say as parents with children in FCPS.

Parents already have an outsized role here, not asking for parity - but it’s nice that some of the committee member represent the majority.
If you don’t include their voices, you will have a problem with community support and a much harder time paying for it all.

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the key to better schools is getting more people who don’t have any significant stake more involved. 🙄

Thinking that people who live in your community with no children in public schools means they do not have a stake in the public schools is not correct. Of course they have a stake. They are part of the community.

Thinking that non parents should have more than minimal representation on the committee that primarily affects school kids is like saying I should have a say in the California interstate Highway system because I drive there once every couple of years.

+1
2 or 3 seats out of 50 would be the right amount of voice. The vast majority should have been parents.

According to the census, there are 412,663 households in Fairfax County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/HSD410223#HSD410223

According to FCPS, there are almost 183,000 students in FCPS.

Some households have more than one adult and some households have more than one child in the public schools. So, any guesses for what percentage of adults in the county have no children currently in the schools? My guess is between 60-70%.

You seem to be saying that the very large majority of households with no children currently enrolled in the public schools only deserve 4-6% representation. I am not suggesting that it should be commensurate with the population or even close to it, but it should be more than 4-6%. Perhaps, 2-3 seats for those with under 5 year olds, 2-3 seats for those whose children are within 5 years of their high school graduation and 2-3 for the others.

DP. My biggest issue with the whole process is that the school board has intentionally marginalized the very families who will be most affected by the changes. That’s of course intentional but it’s just so richly ironic that the left now seeks to silence its victims.

It's ironic that all your assumptions are based on conspiracy.

DP. It all starts with the fact that no one associated with FCPS has remotely made a compelling case for boundary adjustments at a time when enrollment is flat and birth rates are declining. Add to that the fact that, as discussed earlier, the purported benefits described by FCPS seem contrived.

All told, it feels like we’re being asked to go along with some Orwellian farce, where anything can be done to advance an “equity” agenda, so long as that word is replaced with “efficiency” as often as possible.

Maybe the concerns expressed by posters here will turn out to be unfounded, and the scale of the changes will be more modest and aligned with what the affected communities actually want. If so, that will be despite the lack of candor on the part of Reid and the School Board, and largely due to people finding other avenues to express their concerns even when Reid and the School Board tried their hardest to orchestrate a process where those concerns would be ignored.

Overall enrollment is flat to declining but that isn’t true across the system. Enrollment is projected to decline in many boundaries but increase in other boundaries. That’s a great argument for redistricting. Reading through this thread, many say the solution for those growing areas is not redistricting but school expansions (“other schools got them so we should too”). But both FCPS administration and the school board have said in the last year that FCPS cannot afford to undertake the extensive renovations and expansions it has pursued to date, and that, given budget realities and interest rates, FCPS needs to focus its capital budget on renovstions that are much more limited in scope, i.e., which are necessary to keep its aging facilities / construction safe for children. In other words, more capacity isn’t coming where needed and FCPS needs to live within its means, so kids need to be moved.

“We screwed up and added seats where they weren’t most needed, so now we’re going to move your kids to Herndon to cover up our mistakes. Otherwise we can’t keep giving ourselves raises. Please accept our apologies.”

Why is moving some kids to Herndon so terrible? Do your kids know any current students? From what we hear, it’s not a hell-hole as many hear believe it to be.

I’m not interested in anyone trying to convince me where I should send my kids, especially when there is a bigger gang presence in that school. That’s a full stop for us. Hard no.

No one is trying to convince you. They are going to draw lines and you are free to accept them, move, or pay for private school

DP. The question for you is why you apparently think it's a good thing for them to redraw the lines when the main reason the lines may be redrawn is to gloss over their own incompetence. Accepting this is tantamount to rewarding them for malfeasance.

She’s looking for a handout.

[Anonymous]

The SB needs to face the problem and figure out how to educate the students instead of moving them around on a chess board.

Kind of like decluttering a closet when you just decide to throw it all in the basement. It doesn't fix anything --except maybe the closet and mess up the basement.

Just like shifting the kids doesn't solve the problem. It just means that one is a winner and another is a loser.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the people representing each pyramid all have children currently enrolled in FCPS?

No they do not, this was confirmed at the Mount Vernon community meeting when one of the community reps had only older children who had already graduated.

I think this is good. Most adults in Fairfax County do not have children in the schools, but since they are also part of the community and also pay taxes that fund the schools, they should have a say too.

Except when this argument is applied to the immigration issue, the same folks say stfu "just because you pay property taxes doesn't mean your kid has priority over the new arrival undocumented ESL kids". So yeah miss me with this. They should not have an equal say as parents with children in FCPS.

Parents already have an outsized role here, not asking for parity - but it’s nice that some of the committee member represent the majority.
If you don’t include their voices, you will have a problem with community support and a much harder time paying for it all.

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the key to better schools is getting more people who don’t have any significant stake more involved. 🙄

Thinking that people who live in your community with no children in public schools means they do not have a stake in the public schools is not correct. Of course they have a stake. They are part of the community.

Thinking that non parents should have more than minimal representation on the committee that primarily affects school kids is like saying I should have a say in the California interstate Highway system because I drive there once every couple of years.

+1
2 or 3 seats out of 50 would be the right amount of voice. The vast majority should have been parents.

According to the census, there are 412,663 households in Fairfax County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/HSD410223#HSD410223

According to FCPS, there are almost 183,000 students in FCPS.

Some households have more than one adult and some households have more than one child in the public schools. So, any guesses for what percentage of adults in the county have no children currently in the schools? My guess is between 60-70%.

You seem to be saying that the very large majority of households with no children currently enrolled in the public schools only deserve 4-6% representation. I am not suggesting that it should be commensurate with the population or even close to it, but it should be more than 4-6%. Perhaps, 2-3 seats for those with under 5 year olds, 2-3 seats for those whose children are within 5 years of their high school graduation and 2-3 for the others.

DP. My biggest issue with the whole process is that the school board has intentionally marginalized the very families who will be most affected by the changes. That’s of course intentional but it’s just so richly ironic that the left now seeks to silence its victims.

It's ironic that all your assumptions are based on conspiracy.

DP. It all starts with the fact that no one associated with FCPS has remotely made a compelling case for boundary adjustments at a time when enrollment is flat and birth rates are declining. Add to that the fact that, as discussed earlier, the purported benefits described by FCPS seem contrived.

All told, it feels like we’re being asked to go along with some Orwellian farce, where anything can be done to advance an “equity” agenda, so long as that word is replaced with “efficiency” as often as possible.

Maybe the concerns expressed by posters here will turn out to be unfounded, and the scale of the changes will be more modest and aligned with what the affected communities actually want. If so, that will be despite the lack of candor on the part of Reid and the School Board, and largely due to people finding other avenues to express their concerns even when Reid and the School Board tried their hardest to orchestrate a process where those concerns would be ignored.

Overall enrollment is flat to declining but that isn’t true across the system. Enrollment is projected to decline in many boundaries but increase in other boundaries. That’s a great argument for redistricting. Reading through this thread, many say the solution for those growing areas is not redistricting but school expansions (“other schools got them so we should too”). But both FCPS administration and the school board have said in the last year that FCPS cannot afford to undertake the extensive renovations and expansions it has pursued to date, and that, given budget realities and interest rates, FCPS needs to focus its capital budget on renovstions that are much more limited in scope, i.e., which are necessary to keep its aging facilities / construction safe for children. In other words, more capacity isn’t coming where needed and FCPS needs to live within its means, so kids need to be moved.

“We screwed up and added seats where they weren’t most needed, so now we’re going to move your kids to Herndon to cover up our mistakes. Otherwise we can’t keep giving ourselves raises. Please accept our apologies.”

Why is moving some kids to Herndon so terrible? Do your kids know any current students? From what we hear, it’s not a hell-hole as many hear believe it to be.

I’m not interested in anyone trying to convince me where I should send my kids, especially when there is a bigger gang presence in that school. That’s a full stop for us. Hard no.

No one is trying to convince you. They are going to draw lines and you are free to accept them, move, or pay for private school

DP. The question for you is why you apparently think it's a good thing for them to redraw the lines when the main reason the lines may be redrawn is to gloss over their own incompetence. Accepting this is tantamount to rewarding them for malfeasance.

They are going to push families into Lewis and Mt Vernon. Doing that while leaving Langley alone won't happen. You don't have to like it, but having a school with less than 5% FARMS while pushing kids into majority FARMS schools isn't going to happen

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the people representing each pyramid all have children currently enrolled in FCPS?

No they do not, this was confirmed at the Mount Vernon community meeting when one of the community reps had only older children who had already graduated.

I think this is good. Most adults in Fairfax County do not have children in the schools, but since they are also part of the community and also pay taxes that fund the schools, they should have a say too.

Except when this argument is applied to the immigration issue, the same folks say stfu "just because you pay property taxes doesn't mean your kid has priority over the new arrival undocumented ESL kids". So yeah miss me with this. They should not have an equal say as parents with children in FCPS.

Parents already have an outsized role here, not asking for parity - but it’s nice that some of the committee member represent the majority.
If you don’t include their voices, you will have a problem with community support and a much harder time paying for it all.

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the key to better schools is getting more people who don’t have any significant stake more involved. 🙄

Thinking that people who live in your community with no children in public schools means they do not have a stake in the public schools is not correct. Of course they have a stake. They are part of the community.

Thinking that non parents should have more than minimal representation on the committee that primarily affects school kids is like saying I should have a say in the California interstate Highway system because I drive there once every couple of years.

+1
2 or 3 seats out of 50 would be the right amount of voice. The vast majority should have been parents.

According to the census, there are 412,663 households in Fairfax County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fairfaxcountyvirginia/HSD410223#HSD410223

According to FCPS, there are almost 183,000 students in FCPS.

Some households have more than one adult and some households have more than one child in the public schools. So, any guesses for what percentage of adults in the county have no children currently in the schools? My guess is between 60-70%.

You seem to be saying that the very large majority of households with no children currently enrolled in the public schools only deserve 4-6% representation. I am not suggesting that it should be commensurate with the population or even close to it, but it should be more than 4-6%. Perhaps, 2-3 seats for those with under 5 year olds, 2-3 seats for those whose children are within 5 years of their high school graduation and 2-3 for the others.

DP. My biggest issue with the whole process is that the school board has intentionally marginalized the very families who will be most affected by the changes. That’s of course intentional but it’s just so richly ironic that the left now seeks to silence its victims.

It's ironic that all your assumptions are based on conspiracy.

DP. It all starts with the fact that no one associated with FCPS has remotely made a compelling case for boundary adjustments at a time when enrollment is flat and birth rates are declining. Add to that the fact that, as discussed earlier, the purported benefits described by FCPS seem contrived.

All told, it feels like we’re being asked to go along with some Orwellian farce, where anything can be done to advance an “equity” agenda, so long as that word is replaced with “efficiency” as often as possible.

Maybe the concerns expressed by posters here will turn out to be unfounded, and the scale of the changes will be more modest and aligned with what the affected communities actually want. If so, that will be despite the lack of candor on the part of Reid and the School Board, and largely due to people finding other avenues to express their concerns even when Reid and the School Board tried their hardest to orchestrate a process where those concerns would be ignored.

Overall enrollment is flat to declining but that isn’t true across the system. Enrollment is projected to decline in many boundaries but increase in other boundaries. That’s a great argument for redistricting. Reading through this thread, many say the solution for those growing areas is not redistricting but school expansions (“other schools got them so we should too”). But both FCPS administration and the school board have said in the last year that FCPS cannot afford to undertake the extensive renovations and expansions it has pursued to date, and that, given budget realities and interest rates, FCPS needs to focus its capital budget on renovstions that are much more limited in scope, i.e., which are necessary to keep its aging facilities / construction safe for children. In other words, more capacity isn’t coming where needed and FCPS needs to live within its means, so kids need to be moved.

“We screwed up and added seats where they weren’t most needed, so now we’re going to move your kids to Herndon to cover up our mistakes. Otherwise we can’t keep giving ourselves raises. Please accept our apologies.”

Why is moving some kids to Herndon so terrible? Do your kids know any current students? From what we hear, it’s not a hell-hole as many hear believe it to be.

I’m not interested in anyone trying to convince me where I should send my kids, especially when there is a bigger gang presence in that school. That’s a full stop for us. Hard no.

No one is trying to convince you. They are going to draw lines and you are free to accept them, move, or pay for private school

This. I grew up abroad and when you were dissatisfied with the state run service (health, schools) you sacrificed, saved up, and paid for the private option. We are lucky to have choices in this country. Nobody is forcing you to send your kid to the “gang infested” school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The SB needs to face the problem and figure out how to educate the students instead of moving them around on a chess board.

Kind of like decluttering a closet when you just decide to throw it all in the basement. It doesn't fix anything --except maybe the closet and mess up the basement.

Just like shifting the kids doesn't solve the problem. It just means that one is a winner and another is a loser.

The closet solution is to throw away the excess. Do you think they should throw away the kids at Lewis?