FCPS Boundary Review Updates

[Anonymous]

Come on, folks.

Let’s be realistic. The school board will never approve a move from Langley to Herndon. Herndon is over 60% capacity, and when/if South Lakes High School (SLHS) closes to transfers, Herndon’s enrollment will only increase.

Let’s stop talking about that scenario. It’s a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dos anyone know what happens after the next BRAC meeting? Like where do they go from there?

Thru releases one or more full draft scenarios (the slides have been just isolated examples looking at one factor) in early summer. Then they do community engagement over the summer while everyone is gone and then try to cram the changes through.

Thru scenarioss or current boundaries that bus walkers should be fixed. Westgate according to Thru: enter Westgate Elementary School on google maps and directions to Violet Ridge Place. I see the walk and sidewalks - 4.2 minutes - google street view.

Union Park at Mclean- new Toll Brothers replaced apartments- Providence District. https://www.tysonsreporter.com/2019/06/27/new-condos-expected-to-replace-tysons-east-residential-property/

Why isn't Thru first placing the walkers? That Westgate mess, the Timberlane bridge, plus no refinement on Spring Hill and Westbriar islands, is unacceptable.

SY 2029-30 Marshall and Mclean are overcapacity even with modulars. Totally wrong to use capacity range of 60% to 105%. . Elementary is basic K-6, 7 years. HS 4 years. MS 2 so it frankly should be flex especially since FCPS/school board never got off on what to do about AAP at every middle school [Dunne budget question].

For SY 2029-30 total capacities for Falls Church, Langley, Madison, Marshall, Mclean are:

capacity with modulars 11680
capacity without modulars 11270
membership 11161
average total with modulars 96% - Marshall and Mclean at 103%
average without modulars 99% - Marshall 109% and Mclean 118%

What's the available space for staging trailers during construction at HS's with modulars and trailers?

FCPS doesn't really look at those five high schools together. They are in multiple regions (Regions 1, 2, and 5).

If they really just wanted to align membership at those five schools with capacity without modulars, they'd be moving Marshall kids in Vienna to Madison (got expansion it didn't need) and McLean kids to Falls Church (to take advantage of the FCHS expansion), and leaving Langley alone. They've given no indication they are thinking that way.

They are all Tyson’s adjacent and need to be seen together for planning for the growth that is expected in Tysons. It might be easier if they were in the same region. I don’t think leaving Langely alone is the answer, Langley can certainly take some of Tysons from Marshall and McLean very easily.

what is the current enrollment at Langley and what is it at Herndon?

300 in boundary leave with pupil transfer out for Herndon

Lewis is just a little bit less than Herndon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don’t get the sense Thru has any agency to recommend closing transfers. If they were going to dabble in that space, they should have focused on it earlier. That’s really a SB call.

There is no current justification for moving anyone directly to
Herndon from South Lakes. Given their current framework, they would have to focus on Chantilly first, and then chart a path that moves Chantilly kids to Westfield and Westfield kids to Herndon. And then the SB has to grapple with the implications of further concentrating poverty at Herndon.

Langley may escape any move to Herndon now, but if it picks up some of Tysons and FCPS creates plenty of surplus capacity at Dranesville ES and Armstrong ES when renovating those schools, they may get redistricted in the next cycle if the SB really is committing to five-year reviews.

They absolutely should count in boundary kids. This skews everything. If so many kids are placing out, this is not about not having enough students, it is about why these kids are placing out.

Lewis and Herndon are both much discussed on this forum. Both would have more students if we eliminated the IB option.
It is malpractice if the SB does not take this into consideration and admit the problem publicly. You know they have to admit it privately.

Perhaps they’ll have multiple scenarios for capacity since the 3/26 BRAC meeting showed the impact of bringing kids back to their home schools. They’ve done the analysis and I hope they use that.

How is CIP even accurate if they can’t predict transfers? (Yes, I know it’s it’s flawed)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Come on, folks.

Let’s be realistic. The school board will never approve a move from Langley to Herndon. Herndon is over 60% capacity, and when/if South Lakes High School (SLHS) closes to transfers, Herndon’s enrollment will only increase.

Let’s stop talking about that scenario. It’s a waste of time.

They seem fairly anchored to leaving schools within the 60-105% range alone, but that's just one of their "guiding principles." They also refer to alignment with Policy 8130 and the SB (if not Thru) could identify that as an independent basis to move kids from Langley to Herndon regardless of whether Langley is over 105% or Herndon under 60%.

I'm not advocating for this. I just think that, politically, the optics are horrible if they propose to move kids who live within a mile or two of West Springfield to Lewis or South County, and do nothing to move at least some Langley kids to Herndon when Herndon is much closer. It makes it look as if all the talk about transportation efficiencies was a sham and they got bullied into leaving Langley alone. I've heard all the arguments about how traffic is worse in Herndon so the commuting times wouldn't be reduced as much as you'd think, but people will look at the maps and draw their own conclusions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Significant changes have to be coming to the boundaries in the coming years.

Take Centreville High School for example. Centreville's enrollment has been steadily declining over the past 5 years, by hundreds of students per year, yet FCPS is doing all they can to push through the Centreville Capital Improvement Project to renovate Centreville in hopes of expanding capacity to more than 3,000 students which is almost 1,000 more than 24-25 SY enrollment.

Well, according to Thru, as long as a school is at 60% capacity or greater, it’s fine. We can just keep ignoring when FCPS wastes money on unnecessary expansions and occasionally move kids out of schools where the investments should have been made.

This is why accurate projections matter. Without them, they’re flying blind.

The 60% must be because they don’t want to deal with the fallback from the parents if their students are reasoned to Lewis or Herndon. Those are some of the most vocal against the boundary changes. I don’t know any parents who would be happy to be reasoned to either of those schools.

You have to look at both sides of the equation. A 60% threshold keeps Lewis from triggering a boundary change specifically to address under-enrollment there, but a 105% threshold triggers a change to address purported overcrowding at West Springfield, in which case Lewis and/or South County could be part of the “fix.”

But with a 60-105% range, Herndon is above 60% and Langley is below 105%, so they both may get a pass. It’s also possible they’ll propose to move kids into Herndon as part of a multi-school move to bring down the enrollment at Chantilly, which is also over 105%.

Ding, ding, ding.

That would be fine with me. We live in Great Falls and our son goes to Langley, and we would much prefer he stay there than go to Herndon.

I’m in support of leaving Herndon and Langley alone. But WSHS and Lewis are a problem. Not saying you need to love kids from one to the other, but WSHS needs to love some kids. South County is the only alternative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Significant changes have to be coming to the boundaries in the coming years.

Take Centreville High School for example. Centreville's enrollment has been steadily declining over the past 5 years, by hundreds of students per year, yet FCPS is doing all they can to push through the Centreville Capital Improvement Project to renovate Centreville in hopes of expanding capacity to more than 3,000 students which is almost 1,000 more than 24-25 SY enrollment.

Well, according to Thru, as long as a school is at 60% capacity or greater, it’s fine. We can just keep ignoring when FCPS wastes money on unnecessary expansions and occasionally move kids out of schools where the investments should have been made.

This is why accurate projections matter. Without them, they’re flying blind.

The 60% must be because they don’t want to deal with the fallback from the parents if their students are reasoned to Lewis or Herndon. Those are some of the most vocal against the boundary changes. I don’t know any parents who would be happy to be reasoned to either of those schools.

You have to look at both sides of the equation. A 60% threshold keeps Lewis from triggering a boundary change specifically to address under-enrollment there, but a 105% threshold triggers a change to address purported overcrowding at West Springfield, in which case Lewis and/or South County could be part of the “fix.”

But with a 60-105% range, Herndon is above 60% and Langley is below 105%, so they both may get a pass. It’s also possible they’ll propose to move kids into Herndon as part of a multi-school move to bring down the enrollment at Chantilly, which is also over 105%.

Ding, ding, ding.

That would be fine with me. We live in Great Falls and our son goes to Langley, and we would much prefer he stay there than go to Herndon.

I’m in support of leaving Herndon and Langley alone. But WSHS and Lewis are a problem. Not saying you need to love kids from one to the other, but WSHS needs to love some kids. South County is the only alternative.

*move

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Significant changes have to be coming to the boundaries in the coming years.

Take Centreville High School for example. Centreville's enrollment has been steadily declining over the past 5 years, by hundreds of students per year, yet FCPS is doing all they can to push through the Centreville Capital Improvement Project to renovate Centreville in hopes of expanding capacity to more than 3,000 students which is almost 1,000 more than 24-25 SY enrollment.

Well, according to Thru, as long as a school is at 60% capacity or greater, it’s fine. We can just keep ignoring when FCPS wastes money on unnecessary expansions and occasionally move kids out of schools where the investments should have been made.

This is why accurate projections matter. Without them, they’re flying blind.

The 60% must be because they don’t want to deal with the fallback from the parents if their students are reasoned to Lewis or Herndon. Those are some of the most vocal against the boundary changes. I don’t know any parents who would be happy to be reasoned to either of those schools.

You have to look at both sides of the equation. A 60% threshold keeps Lewis from triggering a boundary change specifically to address under-enrollment there, but a 105% threshold triggers a change to address purported overcrowding at West Springfield, in which case Lewis and/or South County could be part of the “fix.”

But with a 60-105% range, Herndon is above 60% and Langley is below 105%, so they both may get a pass. It’s also possible they’ll propose to move kids into Herndon as part of a multi-school move to bring down the enrollment at Chantilly, which is also over 105%.

Ding, ding, ding.

That would be fine with me. We live in Great Falls and our son goes to Langley, and we would much prefer he stay there than go to Herndon.

I’m in support of leaving Herndon and Langley alone. But WSHS and Lewis are a problem. Not saying you need to love kids from one to the other, but WSHS needs to love some kids. South County is the only alternative.

WSHS already loves its students very much.

And the kids and parents love WSHS back.

That is why no one wants to leave WSHS.

So much love at that school.

[Anonymous]

West Springfield has a lot of government employees. Really the whole area does including Burke, Lorton, and parts of Alexandria. They need to put any movement out of the WS pyramid on hold for now. The current federal job cuts would be most harmful to that area. WSHS might not be overcrowded in a few years; current HS families probably won’t move out, but current MS/ES families would be more impacted and then in 5 years, any moves out won’t have been needed at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Significant changes have to be coming to the boundaries in the coming years.

Take Centreville High School for example. Centreville's enrollment has been steadily declining over the past 5 years, by hundreds of students per year, yet FCPS is doing all they can to push through the Centreville Capital Improvement Project to renovate Centreville in hopes of expanding capacity to more than 3,000 students which is almost 1,000 more than 24-25 SY enrollment.

Well, according to Thru, as long as a school is at 60% capacity or greater, it’s fine. We can just keep ignoring when FCPS wastes money on unnecessary expansions and occasionally move kids out of schools where the investments should have been made.

This is why accurate projections matter. Without them, they’re flying blind.

The 60% must be because they don’t want to deal with the fallback from the parents if their students are reasoned to Lewis or Herndon. Those are some of the most vocal against the boundary changes. I don’t know any parents who would be happy to be reasoned to either of those schools.

You have to look at both sides of the equation. A 60% threshold keeps Lewis from triggering a boundary change specifically to address under-enrollment there, but a 105% threshold triggers a change to address purported overcrowding at West Springfield, in which case Lewis and/or South County could be part of the “fix.”

But with a 60-105% range, Herndon is above 60% and Langley is below 105%, so they both may get a pass. It’s also possible they’ll propose to move kids into Herndon as part of a multi-school move to bring down the enrollment at Chantilly, which is also over 105%.

Ding, ding, ding.

That would be fine with me. We live in Great Falls and our son goes to Langley, and we would much prefer he stay there than go to Herndon.

I’m in support of leaving Herndon and Langley alone. But WSHS and Lewis are a problem. Not saying you need to love kids from one to the other, but WSHS needs to love some kids. South County is the only alternative.

No one at WSHS is asking for kids to be moved because of overcrowding. The school was renovated and the community isn't asking for kids to be moved out. They could close that split feeder at Sangster and send those kids to LBSS which is equally as good as WSHS (if not better). No one is going to complain about that and that alleviates whatever "overcrowding" Gatehouse staff seems hell bent and determined to fix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Significant changes have to be coming to the boundaries in the coming years.

Take Centreville High School for example. Centreville's enrollment has been steadily declining over the past 5 years, by hundreds of students per year, yet FCPS is doing all they can to push through the Centreville Capital Improvement Project to renovate Centreville in hopes of expanding capacity to more than 3,000 students which is almost 1,000 more than 24-25 SY enrollment.

Well, according to Thru, as long as a school is at 60% capacity or greater, it’s fine. We can just keep ignoring when FCPS wastes money on unnecessary expansions and occasionally move kids out of schools where the investments should have been made.

This is why accurate projections matter. Without them, they’re flying blind.

The 60% must be because they don’t want to deal with the fallback from the parents if their students are reasoned to Lewis or Herndon. Those are some of the most vocal against the boundary changes. I don’t know any parents who would be happy to be reasoned to either of those schools.

You have to look at both sides of the equation. A 60% threshold keeps Lewis from triggering a boundary change specifically to address under-enrollment there, but a 105% threshold triggers a change to address purported overcrowding at West Springfield, in which case Lewis and/or South County could be part of the “fix.”

But with a 60-105% range, Herndon is above 60% and Langley is below 105%, so they both may get a pass. It’s also possible they’ll propose to move kids into Herndon as part of a multi-school move to bring down the enrollment at Chantilly, which is also over 105%.

Ding, ding, ding.

That would be fine with me. We live in Great Falls and our son goes to Langley, and we would much prefer he stay there than go to Herndon.

I’m in support of leaving Herndon and Langley alone. But WSHS and Lewis are a problem. Not saying you need to love kids from one to the other, but WSHS needs to love some kids. South County is the only alternative.

What pyramid do you live in???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Significant changes have to be coming to the boundaries in the coming years.

Take Centreville High School for example. Centreville's enrollment has been steadily declining over the past 5 years, by hundreds of students per year, yet FCPS is doing all they can to push through the Centreville Capital Improvement Project to renovate Centreville in hopes of expanding capacity to more than 3,000 students which is almost 1,000 more than 24-25 SY enrollment.

Well, according to Thru, as long as a school is at 60% capacity or greater, it’s fine. We can just keep ignoring when FCPS wastes money on unnecessary expansions and occasionally move kids out of schools where the investments should have been made.

This is why accurate projections matter. Without them, they’re flying blind.

The 60% must be because they don’t want to deal with the fallback from the parents if their students are reasoned to Lewis or Herndon. Those are some of the most vocal against the boundary changes. I don’t know any parents who would be happy to be reasoned to either of those schools.

You have to look at both sides of the equation. A 60% threshold keeps Lewis from triggering a boundary change specifically to address under-enrollment there, but a 105% threshold triggers a change to address purported overcrowding at West Springfield, in which case Lewis and/or South County could be part of the “fix.”

But with a 60-105% range, Herndon is above 60% and Langley is below 105%, so they both may get a pass. It’s also possible they’ll propose to move kids into Herndon as part of a multi-school move to bring down the enrollment at Chantilly, which is also over 105%.

Ding, ding, ding.

That would be fine with me. We live in Great Falls and our son goes to Langley, and we would much prefer he stay there than go to Herndon.

Of course you would. It is the rich kid school. But that's not how these things should be determined.

There you are! I knew it wouldn't be long.
DP

[Anonymous]

In keeping with moving all in-boundary kids back to their schools, they should also be ending the AAP center school model. Send every kid back to their base school.

[Anonymous]

No one at WSHS is asking for kids to be moved because of overcrowding. The school was renovated and the community isn't asking for kids to be moved out. They could close that split feeder at Sangster and send those kids to LBSS which is equally as good as WSHS (if not better). No one is going to complain about that and that alleviates whatever "overcrowding" Gatehouse staff seems hell bent and determined to fix.


I think there would be many families and students who would complain about moving from WSHS to LB, and not because one school is better or worse… This is their community. Sangster’s split feeder would have minimal impact on WSHS population and was not part of the split feeder discussion.

[Anonymous]

We would be part of the cohort getting moved from WSHS to LB. We are so much closer to WS. Honestly, more people should be moved from OH to Sangster and all of them go to WS. Location wise it makes the most sense. And as mentioned several pages back, eliminating the Sangster kids from WS would only remove a small Handful of kids from each grade.

[Anonymous]

Is the 60% to 105% threshold based on current population or what the CIP projects in next few years?