How did Herndon/Westfield HS go from top to bottom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The shills for advocating disparate communities be bused into Hutchison HS are probably lower middle-class Asian Coates/McNair parents who see the writing on the wall given Hutchison's immediate surrounding neighborhoods and want to bus in Oak Hill/Floris/Fox Mill to desperately improve their future school's ranking. I say this as an Asian myself. They have the most to gain by proposing this and the most to lose if the proximity standard is utilized as it should be.

OMG - let's not make kids from "disparate communities" attend the same schools! They might end up in the same classrooms, eat lunch together, or even date!

I don't care for the above. My concern is that if the need for "balancing" schools keeps moving in the direction it is going we will have kids from Mount Vernon bused to Langley and Langley to Lewis. Where does it end? The ends of simply diversification do not warrant such cost on resources. Outside of really Madison/Oakton/Woodson/Mclean/ Langley, all FCPS kids go to pretty diverse high schools as is, and even if Hutchinson HS goes through there are still a lot of FRM kids at South Lakes the Flors/Fox Mill kids will be hanging around, and the same for the Oak Hill kids at Chantilly with and as of currently. But nice try suggesting differently.

[Anonymous]

Every FCPS high school is ethnically diverse.

[Anonymous]

I wish they would allow parents from high FARMs school the option to bus their kids to schools like Langley. Don’t make it mandatory but offer it to FARMs kids. Provide the transportation for the kids.

Allow the kids who are interested in attending a different school and are willing to take the longer bus ride the choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would allow parents from high FARMs school the option to bus their kids to schools like Langley. Don’t make it mandatory but offer it to FARMs kids. Provide the transportation for the kids.

Allow the kids who are interested in attending a different school and are willing to take the longer bus ride the choice.

Fcps already has pupil placement. Hundreds of kids choose it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would allow parents from high FARMs school the option to bus their kids to schools like Langley. Don’t make it mandatory but offer it to FARMs kids. Provide the transportation for the kids.

Allow the kids who are interested in attending a different school and are willing to take the longer bus ride the choice.

Fcps already has pupil placement. Hundreds of kids choose it.

Parents have to provide transportation and I don’t believe that you can choose a specific school. So if you are at an IB and want to attend an AP, you have to go to the school nearest to you and if that is closed to transfers then you are out of luck.

Allowing FARMs kids to choose to attend a school that has space and provide them transportation would allow FARMs kids who are interested in attending one of the better HS in the County that happens to have space would deal with at least some small percentage of the massive imbalance that we see in the County.

[Anonymous]

FCPS is not going to pay to bus kids to a school just because it has higher average test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would allow parents from high FARMs school the option to bus their kids to schools like Langley. Don’t make it mandatory but offer it to FARMs kids. Provide the transportation for the kids.

Allow the kids who are interested in attending a different school and are willing to take the longer bus ride the choice.

What about Non FARM kids attending an otherwise poor school? Noble but naive idealism as FCPS cannot accommodate such requests otherwise wouldn’t it have opened up another TJHSST ago meet demand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using VDOE statistics for current 6th graders, it appears a new high school drawing from the current 6th graders from Coates, Fox Mill, Hutchison, McNair, Oak Hill, and 1/2 of Floris would look about like this:

Class size - @ 560-570 kids

FARMS rate: @ 33.5% (slightly above current county-wide rate)

Ethnic composition: Asian 36.7%, Hispanic 27.3%, White 22.4%, Black 9.2%, Multi-Racial 4.4%

So, like Centreville and Chantilly now, it would have a plurality Asian population and would not resemble Mount Vernon, which is currently both majority FARMS and majority Hispanic.

Everyone who was basing their data off of this needs to RE-EVALUATE NOW because for enrollment alone after triple checking, the class size is ~690 kids! Way way off base. I am positive the OP to the original comment didn't realize that McNair was split into a lower and upper school thus effecting the enrollment numbers. No way this could fit both Oak Hill and Fox Mill, it has to drop one. Thus, probably turning this somewhere around 45-50% or so FARMS kids. And then again kids .5 miles from Hutchison HS are being sent to Herndon HS still! The above seems to have been written as a self fulfilling wish and as such neglected data counts.

Nope. It was based on the current 6th graders at Coates, Fox Mill, Hutchison, McNair, Oak Hill, and 1/2 of Floris. Obviously the 6th graders at McNair attend McNair Upper.

The fact that there might be a few Herndon ES kids living closer to the Western HS site at Hutchison than Herndon HS who remained zoned to Herndon wouldn't invalidate the Hutchison-Coates-McNair-Fox Mill-Oak Hill- 50% Floris plan. If you flipped it and moved Herndon ES to the Western HS site, you'd then have kids living within .25 miles of Herndon HS being sent to Hutchison HS.

I hope you save all these corrections of your misstatements for when you really need them.

Pulling Floris and Fox Mill back out of South Lakes will just return South Lakes to its prior to RD death spiral.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using VDOE statistics for current 6th graders, it appears a new high school drawing from the current 6th graders from Coates, Fox Mill, Hutchison, McNair, Oak Hill, and 1/2 of Floris would look about like this:

Class size - @ 560-570 kids

FARMS rate: @ 33.5% (slightly above current county-wide rate)

Ethnic composition: Asian 36.7%, Hispanic 27.3%, White 22.4%, Black 9.2%, Multi-Racial 4.4%

So, like Centreville and Chantilly now, it would have a plurality Asian population and would not resemble Mount Vernon, which is currently both majority FARMS and majority Hispanic.

Everyone who was basing their data off of this needs to RE-EVALUATE NOW because for enrollment alone after triple checking, the class size is ~690 kids! Way way off base. I am positive the OP to the original comment didn't realize that McNair was split into a lower and upper school thus effecting the enrollment numbers. No way this could fit both Oak Hill and Fox Mill, it has to drop one. Thus, probably turning this somewhere around 45-50% or so FARMS kids. And then again kids .5 miles from Hutchison HS are being sent to Herndon HS still! The above seems to have been written as a self fulfilling wish and as such neglected data counts.

Nope. It was based on the current 6th graders at Coates, Fox Mill, Hutchison, McNair, Oak Hill, and 1/2 of Floris. Obviously the 6th graders at McNair attend McNair Upper.

The fact that there might be a few Herndon ES kids living closer to the Western HS site at Hutchison than Herndon HS who remained zoned to Herndon wouldn't invalidate the Hutchison-Coates-McNair-Fox Mill-Oak Hill- 50% Floris plan. If you flipped it and moved Herndon ES to the Western HS site, you'd then have kids living within .25 miles of Herndon HS being sent to Hutchison HS.

I hope you save all these corrections of your misstatements for when you really need them.

Pulling Floris and Fox Mill back out of South Lakes will just return South Lakes to its prior to RD death spiral.

Unlikely, especially if Crossfield areas at Oakton were moved to South Lakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using VDOE statistics for current 6th graders, it appears a new high school drawing from the current 6th graders from Coates, Fox Mill, Hutchison, McNair, Oak Hill, and 1/2 of Floris would look about like this:

Class size - @ 560-570 kids

FARMS rate: @ 33.5% (slightly above current county-wide rate)

Ethnic composition: Asian 36.7%, Hispanic 27.3%, White 22.4%, Black 9.2%, Multi-Racial 4.4%

So, like Centreville and Chantilly now, it would have a plurality Asian population and would not resemble Mount Vernon, which is currently both majority FARMS and majority Hispanic.

Everyone who was basing their data off of this needs to RE-EVALUATE NOW because for enrollment alone after triple checking, the class size is ~690 kids! Way way off base. I am positive the OP to the original comment didn't realize that McNair was split into a lower and upper school thus effecting the enrollment numbers. No way this could fit both Oak Hill and Fox Mill, it has to drop one. Thus, probably turning this somewhere around 45-50% or so FARMS kids. And then again kids .5 miles from Hutchison HS are being sent to Herndon HS still! The above seems to have been written as a self fulfilling wish and as such neglected data counts.

Nope. It was based on the current 6th graders at Coates, Fox Mill, Hutchison, McNair, Oak Hill, and 1/2 of Floris. Obviously the 6th graders at McNair attend McNair Upper.

The fact that there might be a few Herndon ES kids living closer to the Western HS site at Hutchison than Herndon HS who remained zoned to Herndon wouldn't invalidate the Hutchison-Coates-McNair-Fox Mill-Oak Hill- 50% Floris plan. If you flipped it and moved Herndon ES to the Western HS site, you'd then have kids living within .25 miles of Herndon HS being sent to Hutchison HS.

I hope you save all these corrections of your misstatements for when you really need them.

Pulling Floris and Fox Mill back out of South Lakes will just return South Lakes to its prior to RD death spiral.

That poster is advocating such a stupid decision presumably for his own benefit. Doesn’t he realize South Lakes still has high poverty areas too in Lake Anne, Dogwood, Forest Edge, Hunters Woods also? But yet wants to selfishly takeaway the majority of the advantaged kids at South Lakes to push his abomination of a redistricting plan. Whether that poster wants to admit it or not I’m just going to assume he is a McNair/Coates middle class townhouse resident and attacking those that oppose it as racist/classist to project his own insecurities. DO THE MATH. It’s just not possible to save All THREE of Herndon /Soith Lakes/ Hutchison from the resulting demographics in the area. One of them has to get the short end of the stick. Given how the natural boundaries form out in the area he then crazily wants to bus in Oak Hill kids 6 miles away and by his own admission but not have those kids .5 miles away. it’s too fishy. Then got his enrollment numbers completely wrong in his wishcasting scheme.


The majority of Fox Mill/Floris kids have gotten used to South Lakes by now and it is unfair to have redistricting them so soon again, especially given the proximity issue,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using VDOE statistics for current 6th graders, it appears a new high school drawing from the current 6th graders from Coates, Fox Mill, Hutchison, McNair, Oak Hill, and 1/2 of Floris would look about like this:

Class size - @ 560-570 kids

FARMS rate: @ 33.5% (slightly above current county-wide rate)

Ethnic composition: Asian 36.7%, Hispanic 27.3%, White 22.4%, Black 9.2%, Multi-Racial 4.4%

So, like Centreville and Chantilly now, it would have a plurality Asian population and would not resemble Mount Vernon, which is currently both majority FARMS and majority Hispanic.

Everyone who was basing their data off of this needs to RE-EVALUATE NOW because for enrollment alone after triple checking, the class size is ~690 kids! Way way off base. I am positive the OP to the original comment didn't realize that McNair was split into a lower and upper school thus effecting the enrollment numbers. No way this could fit both Oak Hill and Fox Mill, it has to drop one. Thus, probably turning this somewhere around 45-50% or so FARMS kids. And then again kids .5 miles from Hutchison HS are being sent to Herndon HS still! The above seems to have been written as a self fulfilling wish and as such neglected data counts.

Nope. It was based on the current 6th graders at Coates, Fox Mill, Hutchison, McNair, Oak Hill, and 1/2 of Floris. Obviously the 6th graders at McNair attend McNair Upper.

The fact that there might be a few Herndon ES kids living closer to the Western HS site at Hutchison than Herndon HS who remained zoned to Herndon wouldn't invalidate the Hutchison-Coates-McNair-Fox Mill-Oak Hill- 50% Floris plan. If you flipped it and moved Herndon ES to the Western HS site, you'd then have kids living within .25 miles of Herndon HS being sent to Hutchison HS.

I hope you save all these corrections of your misstatements for when you really need them.

Pulling Floris and Fox Mill back out of South Lakes will just return South Lakes to its prior to RD death spiral.

That poster is advocating such a stupid decision presumably for his own benefit. Doesn’t he realize South Lakes still has high poverty areas too in Lake Anne, Dogwood, Forest Edge, Hunters Woods also? But yet wants to selfishly takeaway the majority of the advantaged kids at South Lakes to push his abomination of a redistricting plan. Whether that poster wants to admit it or not I’m just going to assume he is a McNair/Coates middle class townhouse resident and attacking those that oppose it as racist/classist to project his own insecurities. DO THE MATH. It’s just not possible to save All THREE of Herndon /Soith Lakes/ Hutchison from the resulting demographics in the area. One of them has to get the short end of the stick. Given how the natural boundaries form out in the area he then crazily wants to bus in Oak Hill kids 6 miles away and by his own admission but not have those kids .5 miles away. it’s too fishy. Then got his enrollment numbers completely wrong in his wishcasting scheme.


The majority of Fox Mill/Floris kids have gotten used to South Lakes by now and it is unfair to have redistricting them so soon again, especially given the proximity issue,

I've lived in the Floris area for decades... It's not as if the SB or Staff ever gave a f... about fairness to us. We're out at the edge of two magisterial/SB districts so have never had and never will have real representation on the board. We're just UMC numbers to paper over FCPS's demographics/statistical outcomes problems.

[Anonymous]

NP.
But it looks likely the proximity standard would yield the following

Hutchison :
South Herndon/Clearview ES
McNair
Coates
Hutchison
~550 per class size ~ 65 percent FARMS

South Lakes :
Stays the same but gains West Floris
~650 kids per class size ~ 30 percent FARMS

Herndon :
Aldrin
Armstrong
Dranesville
North Clearview/Herndon
Great Falls
Forestville
~550 kids per class size ~20 percent FARMS

Do note however that class sizes reflect entering cohorts. There will be some level of attrition as kids dropout especially FARM kids.

In addition if the additional housing projects in Reston do come to fruition it is likely that South Lakes will give up Dogwood to Hutchison/Herndon in due time.

Westfield will in turn probably take in Brookfield from Chantilly and Bull Run from Centreville. Then McLean and Marshall will give up western lands to Langley relinquished by the removal of Great Falls/Forestville. taking into account the Madison/Oakton additions, and with that the Western high school overcrowding situation is solved!!!!

For those complaining that Oak Hill kids are scared of FARM kids the resulting boundaries still have a good chunk of FARM kids in them each.

[Anonymous]

They aren’t going to open a new high school that’s 65% FARMS from the get-go. It would require all sorts of extra attention and they’d be freaking out about it getting and staying accredited, possibly hitting 70-75% FARMS, and losing the non-FARMS families in short order.

Sorry. I guess you can kill a new school and lock another generation of kids into overcrowded schools in western Fairfax, but they aren’t going to stick most of the poor kids in the area at Western (Hutchison).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The shills for advocating disparate communities be bused into Hutchison HS are probably lower middle-class Asian Coates/McNair parents who see the writing on the wall given Hutchison's immediate surrounding neighborhoods and want to bus in Oak Hill/Floris/Fox Mill to desperately improve their future school's ranking. I say this as an Asian myself. They have the most to gain by proposing this and the most to lose if the proximity standard is utilized as it should be.

OMG - let's not make kids from "disparate communities" attend the same schools! They might end up in the same classrooms, eat lunch together, or even date!

I don't care for the above. My concern is that if the need for "balancing" schools keeps moving in the direction it is going we will have kids from Mount Vernon bused to Langley and Langley to Lewis. Where does it end? The ends of simply diversification do not warrant such cost on resources. Outside of really Madison/Oakton/Woodson/Mclean/ Langley, all FCPS kids go to pretty diverse high schools as is, and even if Hutchinson HS goes through there are still a lot of FRM kids at South Lakes the Flors/Fox Mill kids will be hanging around, and the same for the Oak Hill kids at Chantilly with and as of currently. But nice try suggesting differently.

AGAIN no one but YOU are suggesting bussing situations like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They aren’t going to open a new high school that’s 65% FARMS from the get-go. It would require all sorts of extra attention and they’d be freaking out about it getting and staying accredited, possibly hitting 70-75% FARMS, and losing the non-FARMS families in short order.

Sorry. I guess you can kill a new school and lock another generation of kids into overcrowded schools in western Fairfax, but they aren’t going to stick most of the poor kids in the area at Western (Hutchison).

The problem per say is that even if the FARMS IMHO were evenly distributed via spending millions in extra gas costs to bus around kids all South Lakes/Herndon/Hutchison would all be hovering around ~40 percent FARMS putting all three in potential of failing, whereas the proximity algorithm only puts one in trouble.

Falls church/Mount Vernon/Annandale/Lewis are all 60 percent FARMS. Yet does the School Board care? No, and in fact the school board members were complacent in letting it happen. We will see if they meet expectations again.