FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious if people would be in favor of closing Lewis and sending half of Lewis to WSHS, 1/4 to Hayfield and 1/4 to Edison? And closing MVHS and sending all kids to West Po and sending some amount of West Po to Edison. Just close the underenrolled “bad” schools and shoehorn kids into “good” schools. Because it’s clear that Lewis and MVHS cannot recover their reputations enough in this climate.

Not in favor. Lewis is in the Franconia Magisterial District and Mount Vernon in the Mount Vernon Magisterial District. Change these schools to AP and provide transportation for the few IB diploma candidates that exist to Edison. Move Global Stem out of Edison to either site and a fine STEM course at the other. IMHO each of those school has been impacted by Magisterial District school board members who favored their base schools, Edison and West Potomac.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Re: grandfathering, the school board did seem sometime split on the issue, but they ultimately voted down a grandfathering amendment/ requirement so that they could have flexibility in how they implement the boundary changes. Grandfathering goes directly against the transportation cost savings that they are using as a pretext for some changes. And before you say, “well I can just drive my kids,” ask yourself how “equitable” that is and whether Sandy Anderson would ever allow it.

I suspect they will pivot towards saying the cost savings have less to do with transportation costs and more to do with capital expenditures they can avoid if they forego additions at crowded schools like Chantilly and McLean.

I don’t think so. Transportation costs are the County’s largest discretionary expense at $200-210 million. It is the only opportunity for significant savings in the FCPS budget that doesn’t rely on eliminating teachers and teachers assistants (which FCPS will also have to do with the looming fiscal cliff). There is easily the potential to save $20 to $40 million per year in transportation. In contrast, gutting Gatehouse would save $2 to $4 million. Which FCPS will likely also do before cutting a lot of teachers.

Capital expenditures are still necessary to keep schools safe / structurally sound but higher interest rates/ borrowing rates and out-of-control renovation costs have brought an end to new massive renovations + expansions for the foreseeable future.

How? It’s not an “easy” savings opportunity if it entails boundary changes with no HS grandfathering, which will piss people off towards FCPS and the county government in a way that no current elected officials likely have ever experienced before. You can’t overstate how strongly people would feel about this.

I almost want to see them propose it just so they can see what it looks like to have their heads handed to them on a platter.

But maybe they dial it back and just deal with ES boundaries, which would not raise the same hackles, but also would change fewer boundaries and transportation routes.

No one is talking about no high school grandfathering. The % of the population that will be affected is a fraction of the total population and some will be positively affected. It will not be enough to flip the school board red, even if people remember it in 3 1/2 years.

Well, they adopted a policy that gives them discretion not to grandfather any students, and they maximize these purportedly large potential transportation savings by not grandfathering any students, including high school kids.

As to the political fall-out, they won’t start implementing this until the fall of 2026 - a mere one year before the 2027 School Board elections. It will still be very fresh in people’s minds and will shape those elections, as even those not affected this coming round will wonder about subsequent boundary changes. And those affected negatively will be far more vocal about it, and likely to vote in what is otherwise an off-year election.

The majority of Fairfax County voters don’t care. This area will be blue forever. Just accept and move on.

Not sure if that comment comes from a place of confidence or despair, but significant boundary changes in FCPS with limited or no grandfathering has no precedent in recent history and would rock the political landscape in Fairfax. It would be the local political elites - all Democrats - extending a giant middle finger to Fairfax families. Just wait and see (although ultimately I don’t think they will pull that trigger).

Our family normally votes blue, but voted red for the school board based on talks of redistributing. If the red school board candidates can keep away from talking about bathrooms, pronouns, and banning books they would have a lot better of a chance of winning local elections.

Serious question - is redistricting more of a "blue" thing than a "red" thing? I understand people throw around the equity word, that gets associated with blue more.....but in reality is there a divide among party lines here?
I dont think there is. I think people from both parties come on here against it, and of those that support it, they are in both political camps and swayed more by what district they live in.

I don’t think it is divided along political lines. I feel like it is divided along neighborhood lines. The neighborhoods that seem to be most vulnerable to being redistricted are the ones that are most against it (which is entirely predictable). I see people who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum working together. There is one, maybe it’s two or three, very active anti democratic poster who posts here quite a bit on numerous threads and I think that distorts the discussion here.

Yeah, I agree. I get the sense it's more about what pyramid you are in and if you're happy with your school or not. As you said, predictably- those that bought in neighborhoods for their current schools and are happy with them would be more opposed to any changes.
I do think some folks are trying to fan political flames here for whatever reasons people do that nowadays.

Until this year, I voted reliably blue. Because of this redistricting push I’m now reliably red. I hate how far left the school board has gone on this, and my only recourse is to always vote against the party that allows it.

I don’t think it is a fair to assume every (or any) Republican candidate would oppose redistricting. They would certainly oppose it on any equity grounds but they would be just as likely, if not more so, to support it in the name of efficiency or cost cutting. Past Republican candidates have claimed that FCPS is bloated and inefficient and has too many educational programs. Past Republican candidates have opposed many of the renovations and expansions that so many here love. Republican candidates are unlikely to support tax increases to maintain the status quo is light of budget challenges.

There are no compelling reasons to change boundaries comprehensively at this point. Based on the actions of democrats on the school board over the last decade, it’s clear this is their social experiment to try to level the playing field at all schools, using kids as pawns - mental health be damned. For anyone paying attention it’s clearly an equity venture.

I also have never heard that republicans have said they want to break up Great Falls just because. I can’t say the same for some of the democrats on the current school board. I’ve never heard of such disdain for constituents. The Dems on the school board hate certain residents in the county - really eye opening.

In sum, republicans are far from perfect, but the Dems act like certain citizens are the enemy. That’s why I will never vote for one again.

FFS the results of the study will answer that question. There will have to be justification and rationale for why some boundaries change. Can you all simmer down and wait until the results are before you start claiming it's comprehensive changes. You know comprehensive review doesn't= comprehensive changes. Perhaps you will not like what ends up happening because your afraid of change. Can everyone agree that certain boundaries exist the way they do today because of past bad decisions. Should we never correct anything because change is bad?

No. We disagree with you.

Moving Daventry to WSHS ten years ago and closing a ridiculous split feeder was a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Returning the Gambrill neighborhoods back to their original neighborhood high school 20 years ago, WSHS where they had been zoned since the schools opened in the 1960s, and closing the split feeder was also a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Both of those rezoning actions corrected "past bad decisions" by FCPS, closing split feeders, making boundaries more compact and maintaining neighborhood connections and continuity.

What you see as a "bad decisions" are actually wise planning that respects constituents, puts students first and efficient and responsible stewardship of taxpayer money.

If that compact WSHS boundary is adjusted, then the only changes should be moving the Sangster split feeder and Keene Mill attendance islands to Lake Braddock, so FCPS can close the Rolling Valley split feeder, sending the small remaining cluster of RV streets back to WSHS.

Equity rezoning is a bad decision.

Rezoning every 5 years and destroying stability for students and homeowners is a bad decision.

Gerrymandering boundaries for equity and destroying neighborhood schools is a bad decision.

Making boundaries more compact and seemless, like what happened in the Daventry and Gambrill examples above, were smart zoning decisions that should be the model county wide.

I agree with the original poster. In your response, you were mostly focused on the Springfield area - but fairfax is huge and there have been a lot of weird decisions and boundaries implemented. Wshs pyramid is relatively compact.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Re: grandfathering, the school board did seem sometime split on the issue, but they ultimately voted down a grandfathering amendment/ requirement so that they could have flexibility in how they implement the boundary changes. Grandfathering goes directly against the transportation cost savings that they are using as a pretext for some changes. And before you say, “well I can just drive my kids,” ask yourself how “equitable” that is and whether Sandy Anderson would ever allow it.

I suspect they will pivot towards saying the cost savings have less to do with transportation costs and more to do with capital expenditures they can avoid if they forego additions at crowded schools like Chantilly and McLean.

I don’t think so. Transportation costs are the County’s largest discretionary expense at $200-210 million. It is the only opportunity for significant savings in the FCPS budget that doesn’t rely on eliminating teachers and teachers assistants (which FCPS will also have to do with the looming fiscal cliff). There is easily the potential to save $20 to $40 million per year in transportation. In contrast, gutting Gatehouse would save $2 to $4 million. Which FCPS will likely also do before cutting a lot of teachers.

Capital expenditures are still necessary to keep schools safe / structurally sound but higher interest rates/ borrowing rates and out-of-control renovation costs have brought an end to new massive renovations + expansions for the foreseeable future.

How? It’s not an “easy” savings opportunity if it entails boundary changes with no HS grandfathering, which will piss people off towards FCPS and the county government in a way that no current elected officials likely have ever experienced before. You can’t overstate how strongly people would feel about this.

I almost want to see them propose it just so they can see what it looks like to have their heads handed to them on a platter.

But maybe they dial it back and just deal with ES boundaries, which would not raise the same hackles, but also would change fewer boundaries and transportation routes.

No one is talking about no high school grandfathering. The % of the population that will be affected is a fraction of the total population and some will be positively affected. It will not be enough to flip the school board red, even if people remember it in 3 1/2 years.

Well, they adopted a policy that gives them discretion not to grandfather any students, and they maximize these purportedly large potential transportation savings by not grandfathering any students, including high school kids.

As to the political fall-out, they won’t start implementing this until the fall of 2026 - a mere one year before the 2027 School Board elections. It will still be very fresh in people’s minds and will shape those elections, as even those not affected this coming round will wonder about subsequent boundary changes. And those affected negatively will be far more vocal about it, and likely to vote in what is otherwise an off-year election.

The majority of Fairfax County voters don’t care. This area will be blue forever. Just accept and move on.

Not sure if that comment comes from a place of confidence or despair, but significant boundary changes in FCPS with limited or no grandfathering has no precedent in recent history and would rock the political landscape in Fairfax. It would be the local political elites - all Democrats - extending a giant middle finger to Fairfax families. Just wait and see (although ultimately I don’t think they will pull that trigger).

Our family normally votes blue, but voted red for the school board based on talks of redistributing. If the red school board candidates can keep away from talking about bathrooms, pronouns, and banning books they would have a lot better of a chance of winning local elections.

Serious question - is redistricting more of a "blue" thing than a "red" thing? I understand people throw around the equity word, that gets associated with blue more.....but in reality is there a divide among party lines here?
I dont think there is. I think people from both parties come on here against it, and of those that support it, they are in both political camps and swayed more by what district they live in.

I don’t think it is divided along political lines. I feel like it is divided along neighborhood lines. The neighborhoods that seem to be most vulnerable to being redistricted are the ones that are most against it (which is entirely predictable). I see people who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum working together. There is one, maybe it’s two or three, very active anti democratic poster who posts here quite a bit on numerous threads and I think that distorts the discussion here.

Yeah, I agree. I get the sense it's more about what pyramid you are in and if you're happy with your school or not. As you said, predictably- those that bought in neighborhoods for their current schools and are happy with them would be more opposed to any changes.
I do think some folks are trying to fan political flames here for whatever reasons people do that nowadays.

Until this year, I voted reliably blue. Because of this redistricting push I’m now reliably red. I hate how far left the school board has gone on this, and my only recourse is to always vote against the party that allows it.

I don’t think it is a fair to assume every (or any) Republican candidate would oppose redistricting. They would certainly oppose it on any equity grounds but they would be just as likely, if not more so, to support it in the name of efficiency or cost cutting. Past Republican candidates have claimed that FCPS is bloated and inefficient and has too many educational programs. Past Republican candidates have opposed many of the renovations and expansions that so many here love. Republican candidates are unlikely to support tax increases to maintain the status quo is light of budget challenges.

There are no compelling reasons to change boundaries comprehensively at this point. Based on the actions of democrats on the school board over the last decade, it’s clear this is their social experiment to try to level the playing field at all schools, using kids as pawns - mental health be damned. For anyone paying attention it’s clearly an equity venture.

I also have never heard that republicans have said they want to break up Great Falls just because. I can’t say the same for some of the democrats on the current school board. I’ve never heard of such disdain for constituents. The Dems on the school board hate certain residents in the county - really eye opening.

In sum, republicans are far from perfect, but the Dems act like certain citizens are the enemy. That’s why I will never vote for one again.

FFS the results of the study will answer that question. There will have to be justification and rationale for why some boundaries change. Can you all simmer down and wait until the results are before you start claiming it's comprehensive changes. You know comprehensive review doesn't= comprehensive changes. Perhaps you will not like what ends up happening because your afraid of change. Can everyone agree that certain boundaries exist the way they do today because of past bad decisions. Should we never correct anything because change is bad?

No. We disagree with you.

Moving Daventry to WSHS ten years ago and closing a ridiculous split feeder was a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Returning the Gambrill neighborhoods back to their original neighborhood high school 20 years ago, WSHS where they had been zoned since the schools opened in the 1960s, and closing the split feeder was also a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Both of those rezoning actions corrected "past bad decisions" by FCPS, closing split feeders, making boundaries more compact and maintaining neighborhood connections and continuity.

What you see as a "bad decisions" are actually wise planning that respects constituents, puts students first and efficient and responsible stewardship of taxpayer money.

If that compact WSHS boundary is adjusted, then the only changes should be moving the Sangster split feeder and Keene Mill attendance islands to Lake Braddock, so FCPS can close the Rolling Valley split feeder, sending the small remaining cluster of RV streets back to WSHS.

Equity rezoning is a bad decision.

Rezoning every 5 years and destroying stability for students and homeowners is a bad decision.

Gerrymandering boundaries for equity and destroying neighborhood schools is a bad decision.

Making boundaries more compact and seemless, like what happened in the Daventry and Gambrill examples above, were smart zoning decisions that should be the model county wide.

I agree with the original poster. In your response, you were mostly focused on the Springfield area - but fairfax is huge and there have been a lot of weird decisions and boundaries implemented. Wshs pyramid is relatively compact.

So going after “weird” boundaries is more important than addressing a situation where a school with 2800 students is next to one with 1600? Hmm.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Re: grandfathering, the school board did seem sometime split on the issue, but they ultimately voted down a grandfathering amendment/ requirement so that they could have flexibility in how they implement the boundary changes. Grandfathering goes directly against the transportation cost savings that they are using as a pretext for some changes. And before you say, “well I can just drive my kids,” ask yourself how “equitable” that is and whether Sandy Anderson would ever allow it.

I suspect they will pivot towards saying the cost savings have less to do with transportation costs and more to do with capital expenditures they can avoid if they forego additions at crowded schools like Chantilly and McLean.

I don’t think so. Transportation costs are the County’s largest discretionary expense at $200-210 million. It is the only opportunity for significant savings in the FCPS budget that doesn’t rely on eliminating teachers and teachers assistants (which FCPS will also have to do with the looming fiscal cliff). There is easily the potential to save $20 to $40 million per year in transportation. In contrast, gutting Gatehouse would save $2 to $4 million. Which FCPS will likely also do before cutting a lot of teachers.

Capital expenditures are still necessary to keep schools safe / structurally sound but higher interest rates/ borrowing rates and out-of-control renovation costs have brought an end to new massive renovations + expansions for the foreseeable future.

How? It’s not an “easy” savings opportunity if it entails boundary changes with no HS grandfathering, which will piss people off towards FCPS and the county government in a way that no current elected officials likely have ever experienced before. You can’t overstate how strongly people would feel about this.

I almost want to see them propose it just so they can see what it looks like to have their heads handed to them on a platter.

But maybe they dial it back and just deal with ES boundaries, which would not raise the same hackles, but also would change fewer boundaries and transportation routes.

No one is talking about no high school grandfathering. The % of the population that will be affected is a fraction of the total population and some will be positively affected. It will not be enough to flip the school board red, even if people remember it in 3 1/2 years.

Well, they adopted a policy that gives them discretion not to grandfather any students, and they maximize these purportedly large potential transportation savings by not grandfathering any students, including high school kids.

As to the political fall-out, they won’t start implementing this until the fall of 2026 - a mere one year before the 2027 School Board elections. It will still be very fresh in people’s minds and will shape those elections, as even those not affected this coming round will wonder about subsequent boundary changes. And those affected negatively will be far more vocal about it, and likely to vote in what is otherwise an off-year election.

The majority of Fairfax County voters don’t care. This area will be blue forever. Just accept and move on.

Not sure if that comment comes from a place of confidence or despair, but significant boundary changes in FCPS with limited or no grandfathering has no precedent in recent history and would rock the political landscape in Fairfax. It would be the local political elites - all Democrats - extending a giant middle finger to Fairfax families. Just wait and see (although ultimately I don’t think they will pull that trigger).

Our family normally votes blue, but voted red for the school board based on talks of redistributing. If the red school board candidates can keep away from talking about bathrooms, pronouns, and banning books they would have a lot better of a chance of winning local elections.

Serious question - is redistricting more of a "blue" thing than a "red" thing? I understand people throw around the equity word, that gets associated with blue more.....but in reality is there a divide among party lines here?
I dont think there is. I think people from both parties come on here against it, and of those that support it, they are in both political camps and swayed more by what district they live in.

I don’t think it is divided along political lines. I feel like it is divided along neighborhood lines. The neighborhoods that seem to be most vulnerable to being redistricted are the ones that are most against it (which is entirely predictable). I see people who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum working together. There is one, maybe it’s two or three, very active anti democratic poster who posts here quite a bit on numerous threads and I think that distorts the discussion here.

Yeah, I agree. I get the sense it's more about what pyramid you are in and if you're happy with your school or not. As you said, predictably- those that bought in neighborhoods for their current schools and are happy with them would be more opposed to any changes.
I do think some folks are trying to fan political flames here for whatever reasons people do that nowadays.

Until this year, I voted reliably blue. Because of this redistricting push I’m now reliably red. I hate how far left the school board has gone on this, and my only recourse is to always vote against the party that allows it.

I don’t think it is a fair to assume every (or any) Republican candidate would oppose redistricting. They would certainly oppose it on any equity grounds but they would be just as likely, if not more so, to support it in the name of efficiency or cost cutting. Past Republican candidates have claimed that FCPS is bloated and inefficient and has too many educational programs. Past Republican candidates have opposed many of the renovations and expansions that so many here love. Republican candidates are unlikely to support tax increases to maintain the status quo is light of budget challenges.

There are no compelling reasons to change boundaries comprehensively at this point. Based on the actions of democrats on the school board over the last decade, it’s clear this is their social experiment to try to level the playing field at all schools, using kids as pawns - mental health be damned. For anyone paying attention it’s clearly an equity venture.

I also have never heard that republicans have said they want to break up Great Falls just because. I can’t say the same for some of the democrats on the current school board. I’ve never heard of such disdain for constituents. The Dems on the school board hate certain residents in the county - really eye opening.

In sum, republicans are far from perfect, but the Dems act like certain citizens are the enemy. That’s why I will never vote for one again.

FFS the results of the study will answer that question. There will have to be justification and rationale for why some boundaries change. Can you all simmer down and wait until the results are before you start claiming it's comprehensive changes. You know comprehensive review doesn't= comprehensive changes. Perhaps you will not like what ends up happening because your afraid of change. Can everyone agree that certain boundaries exist the way they do today because of past bad decisions. Should we never correct anything because change is bad?

No. We disagree with you.

Moving Daventry to WSHS ten years ago and closing a ridiculous split feeder was a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Returning the Gambrill neighborhoods back to their original neighborhood high school 20 years ago, WSHS where they had been zoned since the schools opened in the 1960s, and closing the split feeder was also a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Both of those rezoning actions corrected "past bad decisions" by FCPS, closing split feeders, making boundaries more compact and maintaining neighborhood connections and continuity.

What you see as a "bad decisions" are actually wise planning that respects constituents, puts students first and efficient and responsible stewardship of taxpayer money.

If that compact WSHS boundary is adjusted, then the only changes should be moving the Sangster split feeder and Keene Mill attendance islands to Lake Braddock, so FCPS can close the Rolling Valley split feeder, sending the small remaining cluster of RV streets back to WSHS.

Equity rezoning is a bad decision.

Rezoning every 5 years and destroying stability for students and homeowners is a bad decision.

Gerrymandering boundaries for equity and destroying neighborhood schools is a bad decision.

Making boundaries more compact and seemless, like what happened in the Daventry and Gambrill examples above, were smart zoning decisions that should be the model county wide.

I agree with the original poster. In your response, you were mostly focused on the Springfield area - but fairfax is huge and there have been a lot of weird decisions and boundaries implemented. Wshs pyramid is relatively compact.

Looking at you: Homes with Herndon addresses, south of Route 7 that are zoned for Langley. That just makes zero sense!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious if people would be in favor of closing Lewis and sending half of Lewis to WSHS, 1/4 to Hayfield and 1/4 to Edison? And closing MVHS and sending all kids to West Po and sending some amount of West Po to Edison. Just close the underenrolled “bad” schools and shoehorn kids into “good” schools. Because it’s clear that Lewis and MVHS cannot recover their reputations enough in this climate.

No.

Your suggestion makes no sense given capacity of surrounding schools.

You would need to add Annandale, Hayfield, South County and Lake Braddock to the mix, and remove WSHS based on capacity.

And then you would have to move from those schools to other schools.

The domino effects would be awful.

The smartest thing is for FCPS to take advantage of Lewis' low enrollment an schedule a 4 year renovation for the school. They could do it without trailers.

While renovating, close the IB program and stand up a fully functional AP program, even if that means class sizes of 10 students for the more advanced APs, just like private schools.

Take advantage of the tiny AP class sizes to push the students to get the AP pass rates up from their current 10% rate to a more palatable pass rate comparable to a Hayfield or South County. Or shoot for the stars and aim for something in the 60 to 70% pass rate. With tiny AP classes, that is attainable in 4 years.

Then, in 4 years, Lewis is now an AP school with a beautiful new campus comparable to all of their neighboring schools, and respectable AP pass rates so parents are no longer afraid to send their kids to Lewis.

With all the development in the area, Lewis could in 4 years go from a pariah school to one that is acceptable, or even desirable.

But that would take effort and smart planning by FCPS, which seems to be in short supply.

It is easier to rezone to mask the issues, even if the rezoning perpetuates the issues and makes Lewis even more undesirable from the bad press of the rezoning fight and the transient local population blacklisting the newly rezoned Lewis neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious if people would be in favor of closing Lewis and sending half of Lewis to WSHS, 1/4 to Hayfield and 1/4 to Edison? And closing MVHS and sending all kids to West Po and sending some amount of West Po to Edison. Just close the underenrolled “bad” schools and shoehorn kids into “good” schools. Because it’s clear that Lewis and MVHS cannot recover their reputations enough in this climate.

If the development slated for that area comes to pass, the excess capacity at Lewis will be needed in 10-15 years. Until then they should give it a nice renovation to sweeten the deal for families.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: grandfathering, the school board did seem sometime split on the issue, but they ultimately voted down a grandfathering amendment/ requirement so that they could have flexibility in how they implement the boundary changes. Grandfathering goes directly against the transportation cost savings that they are using as a pretext for some changes. And before you say, “well I can just drive my kids,” ask yourself how “equitable” that is and whether Sandy Anderson would ever allow it.

I suspect they will pivot towards saying the cost savings have less to do with transportation costs and more to do with capital expenditures they can avoid if they forego additions at crowded schools like Chantilly and McLean.

I don’t think so. Transportation costs are the County’s largest discretionary expense at $200-210 million. It is the only opportunity for significant savings in the FCPS budget that doesn’t rely on eliminating teachers and teachers assistants (which FCPS will also have to do with the looming fiscal cliff). There is easily the potential to save $20 to $40 million per year in transportation. In contrast, gutting Gatehouse would save $2 to $4 million. Which FCPS will likely also do before cutting a lot of teachers.

Capital expenditures are still necessary to keep schools safe / structurally sound but higher interest rates/ borrowing rates and out-of-control renovation costs have brought an end to new massive renovations + expansions for the foreseeable future.

How? It’s not an “easy” savings opportunity if it entails boundary changes with no HS grandfathering, which will piss people off towards FCPS and the county government in a way that no current elected officials likely have ever experienced before. You can’t overstate how strongly people would feel about this.

I almost want to see them propose it just so they can see what it looks like to have their heads handed to them on a platter.

But maybe they dial it back and just deal with ES boundaries, which would not raise the same hackles, but also would change fewer boundaries and transportation routes.

No one is talking about no high school grandfathering. The % of the population that will be affected is a fraction of the total population and some will be positively affected. It will not be enough to flip the school board red, even if people remember it in 3 1/2 years.

Well, they adopted a policy that gives them discretion not to grandfather any students, and they maximize these purportedly large potential transportation savings by not grandfathering any students, including high school kids.

As to the political fall-out, they won’t start implementing this until the fall of 2026 - a mere one year before the 2027 School Board elections. It will still be very fresh in people’s minds and will shape those elections, as even those not affected this coming round will wonder about subsequent boundary changes. And those affected negatively will be far more vocal about it, and likely to vote in what is otherwise an off-year election.

The majority of Fairfax County voters don’t care. This area will be blue forever. Just accept and move on.

Not sure if that comment comes from a place of confidence or despair, but significant boundary changes in FCPS with limited or no grandfathering has no precedent in recent history and would rock the political landscape in Fairfax. It would be the local political elites - all Democrats - extending a giant middle finger to Fairfax families. Just wait and see (although ultimately I don’t think they will pull that trigger).

Our family normally votes blue, but voted red for the school board based on talks of redistributing. If the red school board candidates can keep away from talking about bathrooms, pronouns, and banning books they would have a lot better of a chance of winning local elections.

Serious question - is redistricting more of a "blue" thing than a "red" thing? I understand people throw around the equity word, that gets associated with blue more.....but in reality is there a divide among party lines here?
I dont think there is. I think people from both parties come on here against it, and of those that support it, they are in both political camps and swayed more by what district they live in.

I don’t think it is divided along political lines. I feel like it is divided along neighborhood lines. The neighborhoods that seem to be most vulnerable to being redistricted are the ones that are most against it (which is entirely predictable). I see people who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum working together. There is one, maybe it’s two or three, very active anti democratic poster who posts here quite a bit on numerous threads and I think that distorts the discussion here.

Yeah, I agree. I get the sense it's more about what pyramid you are in and if you're happy with your school or not. As you said, predictably- those that bought in neighborhoods for their current schools and are happy with them would be more opposed to any changes.
I do think some folks are trying to fan political flames here for whatever reasons people do that nowadays.

Until this year, I voted reliably blue. Because of this redistricting push I’m now reliably red. I hate how far left the school board has gone on this, and my only recourse is to always vote against the party that allows it.

I don’t think it is a fair to assume every (or any) Republican candidate would oppose redistricting. They would certainly oppose it on any equity grounds but they would be just as likely, if not more so, to support it in the name of efficiency or cost cutting. Past Republican candidates have claimed that FCPS is bloated and inefficient and has too many educational programs. Past Republican candidates have opposed many of the renovations and expansions that so many here love. Republican candidates are unlikely to support tax increases to maintain the status quo is light of budget challenges.

There are no compelling reasons to change boundaries comprehensively at this point. Based on the actions of democrats on the school board over the last decade, it’s clear this is their social experiment to try to level the playing field at all schools, using kids as pawns - mental health be damned. For anyone paying attention it’s clearly an equity venture.

I also have never heard that republicans have said they want to break up Great Falls just because. I can’t say the same for some of the democrats on the current school board. I’ve never heard of such disdain for constituents. The Dems on the school board hate certain residents in the county - really eye opening.

In sum, republicans are far from perfect, but the Dems act like certain citizens are the enemy. That’s why I will never vote for one again.

FFS the results of the study will answer that question. There will have to be justification and rationale for why some boundaries change. Can you all simmer down and wait until the results are before you start claiming it's comprehensive changes. You know comprehensive review doesn't= comprehensive changes. Perhaps you will not like what ends up happening because your afraid of change. Can everyone agree that certain boundaries exist the way they do today because of past bad decisions. Should we never correct anything because change is bad?

No. We disagree with you.

Moving Daventry to WSHS ten years ago and closing a ridiculous split feeder was a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Returning the Gambrill neighborhoods back to their original neighborhood high school 20 years ago, WSHS where they had been zoned since the schools opened in the 1960s, and closing the split feeder was also a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Both of those rezoning actions corrected "past bad decisions" by FCPS, closing split feeders, making boundaries more compact and maintaining neighborhood connections and continuity.

What you see as a "bad decisions" are actually wise planning that respects constituents, puts students first and efficient and responsible stewardship of taxpayer money.

If that compact WSHS boundary is adjusted, then the only changes should be moving the Sangster split feeder and Keene Mill attendance islands to Lake Braddock, so FCPS can close the Rolling Valley split feeder, sending the small remaining cluster of RV streets back to WSHS.

Equity rezoning is a bad decision.

Rezoning every 5 years and destroying stability for students and homeowners is a bad decision.

Gerrymandering boundaries for equity and destroying neighborhood schools is a bad decision.

Making boundaries more compact and seemless, like what happened in the Daventry and Gambrill examples above, were smart zoning decisions that should be the model county wide.

I agree with the original poster. In your response, you were mostly focused on the Springfield area - but fairfax is huge and there have been a lot of weird decisions and boundaries implemented. Wshs pyramid is relatively compact.

Because the original poster citing "bad decisions" is Saratoga Mom, who is specifically referring to WSHS and Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious if people would be in favor of closing Lewis and sending half of Lewis to WSHS, 1/4 to Hayfield and 1/4 to Edison? And closing MVHS and sending all kids to West Po and sending some amount of West Po to Edison. Just close the underenrolled “bad” schools and shoehorn kids into “good” schools. Because it’s clear that Lewis and MVHS cannot recover their reputations enough in this climate.

If the development slated for that area comes to pass, the excess capacity at Lewis will be needed in 10-15 years. Until then they should give it a nice renovation to sweeten the deal for families.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Re: grandfathering, the school board did seem sometime split on the issue, but they ultimately voted down a grandfathering amendment/ requirement so that they could have flexibility in how they implement the boundary changes. Grandfathering goes directly against the transportation cost savings that they are using as a pretext for some changes. And before you say, “well I can just drive my kids,” ask yourself how “equitable” that is and whether Sandy Anderson would ever allow it.

I suspect they will pivot towards saying the cost savings have less to do with transportation costs and more to do with capital expenditures they can avoid if they forego additions at crowded schools like Chantilly and McLean.

I don’t think so. Transportation costs are the County’s largest discretionary expense at $200-210 million. It is the only opportunity for significant savings in the FCPS budget that doesn’t rely on eliminating teachers and teachers assistants (which FCPS will also have to do with the looming fiscal cliff). There is easily the potential to save $20 to $40 million per year in transportation. In contrast, gutting Gatehouse would save $2 to $4 million. Which FCPS will likely also do before cutting a lot of teachers.

Capital expenditures are still necessary to keep schools safe / structurally sound but higher interest rates/ borrowing rates and out-of-control renovation costs have brought an end to new massive renovations + expansions for the foreseeable future.

How? It’s not an “easy” savings opportunity if it entails boundary changes with no HS grandfathering, which will piss people off towards FCPS and the county government in a way that no current elected officials likely have ever experienced before. You can’t overstate how strongly people would feel about this.

I almost want to see them propose it just so they can see what it looks like to have their heads handed to them on a platter.

But maybe they dial it back and just deal with ES boundaries, which would not raise the same hackles, but also would change fewer boundaries and transportation routes.

No one is talking about no high school grandfathering. The % of the population that will be affected is a fraction of the total population and some will be positively affected. It will not be enough to flip the school board red, even if people remember it in 3 1/2 years.

Well, they adopted a policy that gives them discretion not to grandfather any students, and they maximize these purportedly large potential transportation savings by not grandfathering any students, including high school kids.

As to the political fall-out, they won’t start implementing this until the fall of 2026 - a mere one year before the 2027 School Board elections. It will still be very fresh in people’s minds and will shape those elections, as even those not affected this coming round will wonder about subsequent boundary changes. And those affected negatively will be far more vocal about it, and likely to vote in what is otherwise an off-year election.

The majority of Fairfax County voters don’t care. This area will be blue forever. Just accept and move on.

Not sure if that comment comes from a place of confidence or despair, but significant boundary changes in FCPS with limited or no grandfathering has no precedent in recent history and would rock the political landscape in Fairfax. It would be the local political elites - all Democrats - extending a giant middle finger to Fairfax families. Just wait and see (although ultimately I don’t think they will pull that trigger).

Our family normally votes blue, but voted red for the school board based on talks of redistributing. If the red school board candidates can keep away from talking about bathrooms, pronouns, and banning books they would have a lot better of a chance of winning local elections.

Serious question - is redistricting more of a "blue" thing than a "red" thing? I understand people throw around the equity word, that gets associated with blue more.....but in reality is there a divide among party lines here?
I dont think there is. I think people from both parties come on here against it, and of those that support it, they are in both political camps and swayed more by what district they live in.

I don’t think it is divided along political lines. I feel like it is divided along neighborhood lines. The neighborhoods that seem to be most vulnerable to being redistricted are the ones that are most against it (which is entirely predictable). I see people who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum working together. There is one, maybe it’s two or three, very active anti democratic poster who posts here quite a bit on numerous threads and I think that distorts the discussion here.

Yeah, I agree. I get the sense it's more about what pyramid you are in and if you're happy with your school or not. As you said, predictably- those that bought in neighborhoods for their current schools and are happy with them would be more opposed to any changes.
I do think some folks are trying to fan political flames here for whatever reasons people do that nowadays.

Until this year, I voted reliably blue. Because of this redistricting push I’m now reliably red. I hate how far left the school board has gone on this, and my only recourse is to always vote against the party that allows it.

I don’t think it is a fair to assume every (or any) Republican candidate would oppose redistricting. They would certainly oppose it on any equity grounds but they would be just as likely, if not more so, to support it in the name of efficiency or cost cutting. Past Republican candidates have claimed that FCPS is bloated and inefficient and has too many educational programs. Past Republican candidates have opposed many of the renovations and expansions that so many here love. Republican candidates are unlikely to support tax increases to maintain the status quo is light of budget challenges.

There are no compelling reasons to change boundaries comprehensively at this point. Based on the actions of democrats on the school board over the last decade, it’s clear this is their social experiment to try to level the playing field at all schools, using kids as pawns - mental health be damned. For anyone paying attention it’s clearly an equity venture.

I also have never heard that republicans have said they want to break up Great Falls just because. I can’t say the same for some of the democrats on the current school board. I’ve never heard of such disdain for constituents. The Dems on the school board hate certain residents in the county - really eye opening.

In sum, republicans are far from perfect, but the Dems act like certain citizens are the enemy. That’s why I will never vote for one again.

FFS the results of the study will answer that question. There will have to be justification and rationale for why some boundaries change. Can you all simmer down and wait until the results are before you start claiming it's comprehensive changes. You know comprehensive review doesn't= comprehensive changes. Perhaps you will not like what ends up happening because your afraid of change. Can everyone agree that certain boundaries exist the way they do today because of past bad decisions. Should we never correct anything because change is bad?

No. We disagree with you.

Moving Daventry to WSHS ten years ago and closing a ridiculous split feeder was a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Returning the Gambrill neighborhoods back to their original neighborhood high school 20 years ago, WSHS where they had been zoned since the schools opened in the 1960s, and closing the split feeder was also a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Both of those rezoning actions corrected "past bad decisions" by FCPS, closing split feeders, making boundaries more compact and maintaining neighborhood connections and continuity.

What you see as a "bad decisions" are actually wise planning that respects constituents, puts students first and efficient and responsible stewardship of taxpayer money.

If that compact WSHS boundary is adjusted, then the only changes should be moving the Sangster split feeder and Keene Mill attendance islands to Lake Braddock, so FCPS can close the Rolling Valley split feeder, sending the small remaining cluster of RV streets back to WSHS.

Equity rezoning is a bad decision.

Rezoning every 5 years and destroying stability for students and homeowners is a bad decision.

Gerrymandering boundaries for equity and destroying neighborhood schools is a bad decision.

Making boundaries more compact and seemless, like what happened in the Daventry and Gambrill examples above, were smart zoning decisions that should be the model county wide.

I agree with the original poster. In your response, you were mostly focused on the Springfield area - but fairfax is huge and there have been a lot of weird decisions and boundaries implemented. Wshs pyramid is relatively compact.

So going after “weird” boundaries is more important than addressing a situation where a school with 2800 students is next to one with 1600? Hmm.

Yes? Unusual split feeders and attendance islands decrease a neighborhood’s sense of community with the schools. This has been noted as part of the boundary review committee’s work. There’s not much they can do about long term population trends leading to uneven growth (or even loss) in certain areas. But they can fix the maps where 90% of the population of whatever ES goes to the same MS and HS and 10% goes somewhere else entirely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious if people would be in favor of closing Lewis and sending half of Lewis to WSHS, 1/4 to Hayfield and 1/4 to Edison? And closing MVHS and sending all kids to West Po and sending some amount of West Po to Edison. Just close the underenrolled “bad” schools and shoehorn kids into “good” schools. Because it’s clear that Lewis and MVHS cannot recover their reputations enough in this climate.

No.

Your suggestion makes no sense given capacity of surrounding schools.

You would need to add Annandale, Hayfield, South County and Lake Braddock to the mix, and remove WSHS based on capacity.

And then you would have to move from those schools to other schools.

The domino effects would be awful.

The smartest thing is for FCPS to take advantage of Lewis' low enrollment an schedule a 4 year renovation for the school. They could do it without trailers.

While renovating, close the IB program and stand up a fully functional AP program, even if that means class sizes of 10 students for the more advanced APs, just like private schools.

Take advantage of the tiny AP class sizes to push the students to get the AP pass rates up from their current 10% rate to a more palatable pass rate comparable to a Hayfield or South County. Or shoot for the stars and aim for something in the 60 to 70% pass rate. With tiny AP classes, that is attainable in 4 years.

Then, in 4 years, Lewis is now an AP school with a beautiful new campus comparable to all of their neighboring schools, and respectable AP pass rates so parents are no longer afraid to send their kids to Lewis.

With all the development in the area, Lewis could in 4 years go from a pariah school to one that is acceptable, or even desirable.

But that would take effort and smart planning by FCPS, which seems to be in short supply.

It is easier to rezone to mask the issues, even if the rezoning perpetuates the issues and makes Lewis even more undesirable from the bad press of the rezoning fight and the transient local population blacklisting the newly rezoned Lewis neighborhoods.

Annandale and McLean are older and should be renovated before Lewis.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Re: grandfathering, the school board did seem sometime split on the issue, but they ultimately voted down a grandfathering amendment/ requirement so that they could have flexibility in how they implement the boundary changes. Grandfathering goes directly against the transportation cost savings that they are using as a pretext for some changes. And before you say, “well I can just drive my kids,” ask yourself how “equitable” that is and whether Sandy Anderson would ever allow it.

I suspect they will pivot towards saying the cost savings have less to do with transportation costs and more to do with capital expenditures they can avoid if they forego additions at crowded schools like Chantilly and McLean.

I don’t think so. Transportation costs are the County’s largest discretionary expense at $200-210 million. It is the only opportunity for significant savings in the FCPS budget that doesn’t rely on eliminating teachers and teachers assistants (which FCPS will also have to do with the looming fiscal cliff). There is easily the potential to save $20 to $40 million per year in transportation. In contrast, gutting Gatehouse would save $2 to $4 million. Which FCPS will likely also do before cutting a lot of teachers.

Capital expenditures are still necessary to keep schools safe / structurally sound but higher interest rates/ borrowing rates and out-of-control renovation costs have brought an end to new massive renovations + expansions for the foreseeable future.

How? It’s not an “easy” savings opportunity if it entails boundary changes with no HS grandfathering, which will piss people off towards FCPS and the county government in a way that no current elected officials likely have ever experienced before. You can’t overstate how strongly people would feel about this.

I almost want to see them propose it just so they can see what it looks like to have their heads handed to them on a platter.

But maybe they dial it back and just deal with ES boundaries, which would not raise the same hackles, but also would change fewer boundaries and transportation routes.

No one is talking about no high school grandfathering. The % of the population that will be affected is a fraction of the total population and some will be positively affected. It will not be enough to flip the school board red, even if people remember it in 3 1/2 years.

Well, they adopted a policy that gives them discretion not to grandfather any students, and they maximize these purportedly large potential transportation savings by not grandfathering any students, including high school kids.

As to the political fall-out, they won’t start implementing this until the fall of 2026 - a mere one year before the 2027 School Board elections. It will still be very fresh in people’s minds and will shape those elections, as even those not affected this coming round will wonder about subsequent boundary changes. And those affected negatively will be far more vocal about it, and likely to vote in what is otherwise an off-year election.

The majority of Fairfax County voters don’t care. This area will be blue forever. Just accept and move on.

Not sure if that comment comes from a place of confidence or despair, but significant boundary changes in FCPS with limited or no grandfathering has no precedent in recent history and would rock the political landscape in Fairfax. It would be the local political elites - all Democrats - extending a giant middle finger to Fairfax families. Just wait and see (although ultimately I don’t think they will pull that trigger).

Our family normally votes blue, but voted red for the school board based on talks of redistributing. If the red school board candidates can keep away from talking about bathrooms, pronouns, and banning books they would have a lot better of a chance of winning local elections.

Serious question - is redistricting more of a "blue" thing than a "red" thing? I understand people throw around the equity word, that gets associated with blue more.....but in reality is there a divide among party lines here?
I dont think there is. I think people from both parties come on here against it, and of those that support it, they are in both political camps and swayed more by what district they live in.

I don’t think it is divided along political lines. I feel like it is divided along neighborhood lines. The neighborhoods that seem to be most vulnerable to being redistricted are the ones that are most against it (which is entirely predictable). I see people who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum working together. There is one, maybe it’s two or three, very active anti democratic poster who posts here quite a bit on numerous threads and I think that distorts the discussion here.

Yeah, I agree. I get the sense it's more about what pyramid you are in and if you're happy with your school or not. As you said, predictably- those that bought in neighborhoods for their current schools and are happy with them would be more opposed to any changes.
I do think some folks are trying to fan political flames here for whatever reasons people do that nowadays.

Until this year, I voted reliably blue. Because of this redistricting push I’m now reliably red. I hate how far left the school board has gone on this, and my only recourse is to always vote against the party that allows it.

I don’t think it is a fair to assume every (or any) Republican candidate would oppose redistricting. They would certainly oppose it on any equity grounds but they would be just as likely, if not more so, to support it in the name of efficiency or cost cutting. Past Republican candidates have claimed that FCPS is bloated and inefficient and has too many educational programs. Past Republican candidates have opposed many of the renovations and expansions that so many here love. Republican candidates are unlikely to support tax increases to maintain the status quo is light of budget challenges.

There are no compelling reasons to change boundaries comprehensively at this point. Based on the actions of democrats on the school board over the last decade, it’s clear this is their social experiment to try to level the playing field at all schools, using kids as pawns - mental health be damned. For anyone paying attention it’s clearly an equity venture.

I also have never heard that republicans have said they want to break up Great Falls just because. I can’t say the same for some of the democrats on the current school board. I’ve never heard of such disdain for constituents. The Dems on the school board hate certain residents in the county - really eye opening.

In sum, republicans are far from perfect, but the Dems act like certain citizens are the enemy. That’s why I will never vote for one again.

FFS the results of the study will answer that question. There will have to be justification and rationale for why some boundaries change. Can you all simmer down and wait until the results are before you start claiming it's comprehensive changes. You know comprehensive review doesn't= comprehensive changes. Perhaps you will not like what ends up happening because your afraid of change. Can everyone agree that certain boundaries exist the way they do today because of past bad decisions. Should we never correct anything because change is bad?

No. We disagree with you.

Moving Daventry to WSHS ten years ago and closing a ridiculous split feeder was a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Returning the Gambrill neighborhoods back to their original neighborhood high school 20 years ago, WSHS where they had been zoned since the schools opened in the 1960s, and closing the split feeder was also a wise decision correcting a stupid decision.

Both of those rezoning actions corrected "past bad decisions" by FCPS, closing split feeders, making boundaries more compact and maintaining neighborhood connections and continuity.

What you see as a "bad decisions" are actually wise planning that respects constituents, puts students first and efficient and responsible stewardship of taxpayer money.

If that compact WSHS boundary is adjusted, then the only changes should be moving the Sangster split feeder and Keene Mill attendance islands to Lake Braddock, so FCPS can close the Rolling Valley split feeder, sending the small remaining cluster of RV streets back to WSHS.

Equity rezoning is a bad decision.

Rezoning every 5 years and destroying stability for students and homeowners is a bad decision.

Gerrymandering boundaries for equity and destroying neighborhood schools is a bad decision.

Making boundaries more compact and seemless, like what happened in the Daventry and Gambrill examples above, were smart zoning decisions that should be the model county wide.

I agree with the original poster. In your response, you were mostly focused on the Springfield area - but fairfax is huge and there have been a lot of weird decisions and boundaries implemented. Wshs pyramid is relatively compact.

So going after “weird” boundaries is more important than addressing a situation where a school with 2800 students is next to one with 1600? Hmm.

Yes? Unusual split feeders and attendance islands decrease a neighborhood’s sense of community with the schools. This has been noted as part of the boundary review committee’s work. There’s not much they can do about long term population trends leading to uneven growth (or even loss) in certain areas. But they can fix the maps where 90% of the population of whatever ES goes to the same MS and HS and 10% goes somewhere else entirely.

You’re conflating attendance islands with split feeders. Only a subset of the attendance islands involve the type of 90-10% split you describe. Some attendance islands are also much closer to the assigned schools than certain neighborhoods in a contiguous catchment area are to the assigned schools, so the sense of community is just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious if people would be in favor of closing Lewis and sending half of Lewis to WSHS, 1/4 to Hayfield and 1/4 to Edison? And closing MVHS and sending all kids to West Po and sending some amount of West Po to Edison. Just close the underenrolled “bad” schools and shoehorn kids into “good” schools. Because it’s clear that Lewis and MVHS cannot recover their reputations enough in this climate.

No.

Your suggestion makes no sense given capacity of surrounding schools.

You would need to add Annandale, Hayfield, South County and Lake Braddock to the mix, and remove WSHS based on capacity.

And then you would have to move from those schools to other schools.

The domino effects would be awful.

The smartest thing is for FCPS to take advantage of Lewis' low enrollment an schedule a 4 year renovation for the school. They could do it without trailers.

While renovating, close the IB program and stand up a fully functional AP program, even if that means class sizes of 10 students for the more advanced APs, just like private schools.

Take advantage of the tiny AP class sizes to push the students to get the AP pass rates up from their current 10% rate to a more palatable pass rate comparable to a Hayfield or South County. Or shoot for the stars and aim for something in the 60 to 70% pass rate. With tiny AP classes, that is attainable in 4 years.

Then, in 4 years, Lewis is now an AP school with a beautiful new campus comparable to all of their neighboring schools, and respectable AP pass rates so parents are no longer afraid to send their kids to Lewis.

With all the development in the area, Lewis could in 4 years go from a pariah school to one that is acceptable, or even desirable.

But that would take effort and smart planning by FCPS, which seems to be in short supply.

It is easier to rezone to mask the issues, even if the rezoning perpetuates the issues and makes Lewis even more undesirable from the bad press of the rezoning fight and the transient local population blacklisting the newly rezoned Lewis neighborhoods.

IOW, don’t re-boundary my kids to Lewis and don’t re-boundary Lewis kids to my kids’ school because Lewis kids are “pariahs” (to use your word).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: grandfathering, the school board did seem sometime split on the issue, but they ultimately voted down a grandfathering amendment/ requirement so that they could have flexibility in how they implement the boundary changes. Grandfathering goes directly against the transportation cost savings that they are using as a pretext for some changes. And before you say, “well I can just drive my kids,” ask yourself how “equitable” that is and whether Sandy Anderson would ever allow it.

I suspect they will pivot towards saying the cost savings have less to do with transportation costs and more to do with capital expenditures they can avoid if they forego additions at crowded schools like Chantilly and McLean.

I don’t think so. Transportation costs are the County’s largest discretionary expense at $200-210 million. It is the only opportunity for significant savings in the FCPS budget that doesn’t rely on eliminating teachers and teachers assistants (which FCPS will also have to do with the looming fiscal cliff). There is easily the potential to save $20 to $40 million per year in transportation. In contrast, gutting Gatehouse would save $2 to $4 million. Which FCPS will likely also do before cutting a lot of teachers.

Capital expenditures are still necessary to keep schools safe / structurally sound but higher interest rates/ borrowing rates and out-of-control renovation costs have brought an end to new massive renovations + expansions for the foreseeable future.

How? It’s not an “easy” savings opportunity if it entails boundary changes with no HS grandfathering, which will piss people off towards FCPS and the county government in a way that no current elected officials likely have ever experienced before. You can’t overstate how strongly people would feel about this.

I almost want to see them propose it just so they can see what it looks like to have their heads handed to them on a platter.

But maybe they dial it back and just deal with ES boundaries, which would not raise the same hackles, but also would change fewer boundaries and transportation routes.

No one is talking about no high school grandfathering. The % of the population that will be affected is a fraction of the total population and some will be positively affected. It will not be enough to flip the school board red, even if people remember it in 3 1/2 years.

Well, they adopted a policy that gives them discretion not to grandfather any students, and they maximize these purportedly large potential transportation savings by not grandfathering any students, including high school kids.

As to the political fall-out, they won’t start implementing this until the fall of 2026 - a mere one year before the 2027 School Board elections. It will still be very fresh in people’s minds and will shape those elections, as even those not affected this coming round will wonder about subsequent boundary changes. And those affected negatively will be far more vocal about it, and likely to vote in what is otherwise an off-year election.

The majority of Fairfax County voters don’t care. This area will be blue forever. Just accept and move on.

Not sure if that comment comes from a place of confidence or despair, but significant boundary changes in FCPS with limited or no grandfathering has no precedent in recent history and would rock the political landscape in Fairfax. It would be the local political elites - all Democrats - extending a giant middle finger to Fairfax families. Just wait and see (although ultimately I don’t think they will pull that trigger).

Our family normally votes blue, but voted red for the school board based on talks of redistributing. If the red school board candidates can keep away from talking about bathrooms, pronouns, and banning books they would have a lot better of a chance of winning local elections.

Serious question - is redistricting more of a "blue" thing than a "red" thing? I understand people throw around the equity word, that gets associated with blue more.....but in reality is there a divide among party lines here?
I dont think there is. I think people from both parties come on here against it, and of those that support it, they are in both political camps and swayed more by what district they live in.

I don’t think it is divided along political lines. I feel like it is divided along neighborhood lines. The neighborhoods that seem to be most vulnerable to being redistricted are the ones that are most against it (which is entirely predictable). I see people who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum working together. There is one, maybe it’s two or three, very active anti democratic poster who posts here quite a bit on numerous threads and I think that distorts the discussion here.

Yeah, I agree. I get the sense it's more about what pyramid you are in and if you're happy with your school or not. As you said, predictably- those that bought in neighborhoods for their current schools and are happy with them would be more opposed to any changes.
I do think some folks are trying to fan political flames here for whatever reasons people do that nowadays.

Until this year, I voted reliably blue. Because of this redistricting push I’m now reliably red. I hate how far left the school board has gone on this, and my only recourse is to always vote against the party that allows it.

I don’t think it is a fair to assume every (or any) Republican candidate would oppose redistricting. They would certainly oppose it on any equity grounds but they would be just as likely, if not more so, to support it in the name of efficiency or cost cutting. Past Republican candidates have claimed that FCPS is bloated and inefficient and has too many educational programs. Past Republican candidates have opposed many of the renovations and expansions that so many here love. Republican candidates are unlikely to support tax increases to maintain the status quo is light of budget challenges.

Which recent Republican candidates have opposed which renovations or expansions? They aren’t all the same since the Democrats expanded one high school to 3000 but then kept two other schools with far fewer seats overcrowded with no additions.

DP. To my knowledge, the Republican Party has opposed every FCPS bond referendum in the past 15 years.

[Anonymous]

FCPS delivers IB poorly, so scrap it. Go back to GT, no more watered down equity based AAP, offer same AP courses at all high schools and get enough language teachers to rotate through schools. Problems solved for far less money than boundary changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious if people would be in favor of closing Lewis and sending half of Lewis to WSHS, 1/4 to Hayfield and 1/4 to Edison? And closing MVHS and sending all kids to West Po and sending some amount of West Po to Edison. Just close the underenrolled “bad” schools and shoehorn kids into “good” schools. Because it’s clear that Lewis and MVHS cannot recover their reputations enough in this climate.

No.

Your suggestion makes no sense given capacity of surrounding schools.

You would need to add Annandale, Hayfield, South County and Lake Braddock to the mix, and remove WSHS based on capacity.

And then you would have to move from those schools to other schools.

The domino effects would be awful.

The smartest thing is for FCPS to take advantage of Lewis' low enrollment an schedule a 4 year renovation for the school. They could do it without trailers.

While renovating, close the IB program and stand up a fully functional AP program, even if that means class sizes of 10 students for the more advanced APs, just like private schools.

Take advantage of the tiny AP class sizes to push the students to get the AP pass rates up from their current 10% rate to a more palatable pass rate comparable to a Hayfield or South County. Or shoot for the stars and aim for something in the 60 to 70% pass rate. With tiny AP classes, that is attainable in 4 years.

Then, in 4 years, Lewis is now an AP school with a beautiful new campus comparable to all of their neighboring schools, and respectable AP pass rates so parents are no longer afraid to send their kids to Lewis.

With all the development in the area, Lewis could in 4 years go from a pariah school to one that is acceptable, or even desirable.

But that would take effort and smart planning by FCPS, which seems to be in short supply.

It is easier to rezone to mask the issues, even if the rezoning perpetuates the issues and makes Lewis even more undesirable from the bad press of the rezoning fight and the transient local population blacklisting the newly rezoned Lewis neighborhoods.

Annandale and McLean are older and should be renovated before Lewis.

Renovate all 3.

But Lewis is unique in that its current enrollment means a renovation could be completed without having to bring in trailers.

FCPS should take advantage of this enrollment and move them up in the queue.