Boundary Review Meetings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like they’ll just add 6th to Bren Mar Park in order to send it to Key and Lewis.

Is there not an elementary school in the West Springfield pyramid that could be moved to Lewis instead with K - 6? Seems like so many unnecessary changes to move Bren Mar. Plus they'll either pass Edison HS or have to take 395 to get to Lewis.
Or another ES that's currently in the Edison pyramid?

The only other schools that make even a slight amount of sense, on paper, to move would be North Springfield from Annandale (but you get the K-5/K-6 problem in that case) or Franconia from Edison. I doubt the whole schools could move in either case, there are kids who walk to both Franconia and Edison, and if BMP is saying they can’t move because they’re inside the beltway, North Springfield is also largely inside the beltway.

Lewis is inside the beltway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like they’ll just add 6th to Bren Mar Park in order to send it to Key and Lewis.

Is there not an elementary school in the West Springfield pyramid that could be moved to Lewis instead with K - 6? Seems like so many unnecessary changes to move Bren Mar. Plus they'll either pass Edison HS or have to take 395 to get to Lewis.
Or another ES that's currently in the Edison pyramid?

The only other schools that make even a slight amount of sense, on paper, to move would be North Springfield from Annandale (but you get the K-5/K-6 problem in that case) or Franconia from Edison. I doubt the whole schools could move in either case, there are kids who walk to both Franconia and Edison, and if BMP is saying they can’t move because they’re inside the beltway, North Springfield is also largely inside the beltway.

Lewis is inside the beltway

Try again. Lewis is outside the Beltway. Bren Mar Park is inside the Beltway.

[Anonymous]

Limiting transfers across the county and reverting back to the old 8130 policy is what the vast majority of Fairfax families want.

Every controversial move stirs up a hornets’ nest and rightly encounters significant pushback, and the school board should really move on to other things at this point.

The comprehensive boundary review is, and was always destined to be, an utter failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reid just threw the school board under the bus when a lady asked about the transportation of phased/grandfathered students. Said it's their decision and they can't afford a $10 million price tag.

That's nothing new. Reid already made that recommendation to the School Board and it will be up to the School Board to go along with the recommendation or not. Ultimately, the School Board owns every decision relating to this boundary review, whether it's a new boundary or a denial of transportation.

They started down this road because they thought it would be a back-door route to achieving some of their "One Fairfax" goals and it's devolved into a complete mess that accomplishes next to nothing.

[Anonymous]

So if I understand it the brilliant minds at FCPS want to take a few SPAs at Belvedere ES and send them to Holmes MS when the vast majority of Belvedere goes to Glasgow MS, and then have them be an even smaller percentage of students at Holmes who'd go to Justice HS rather than Annandale HS or Edison HS?

At least with Bren Mar Park ES, the entire school goes to Edison now after Holmes. With this proposal, they'd split Belvedere and then further split Holmes, so that one small group of kids is a small minority going to their MS and then an even smaller minority going to their HS.

This may be an overdue effort to respond to Ricardy Anderson's requests for relief at Glasgow, but it's completely half-baked. It proves that FCPS can't solve one problem without creating another one that is at least as bad. And it's the exact sort of thing that would NEVER get floated if it involved a Langley, Oakton, or Madison feeder, rather than some kids going to Justice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if I understand it the brilliant minds at FCPS want to take a few SPAs at Belvedere ES and send them to Holmes MS when the vast majority of Belvedere goes to Glasgow MS, and then have them be an even smaller percentage of students at Holmes who'd go to Justice HS rather than Annandale HS or Edison HS?

At least with Bren Mar Park ES, the entire school goes to Edison now after Holmes. With this proposal, they'd split Belvedere and then further split Holmes, so that one small group of kids is a small minority going to their MS and then an even smaller minority going to their HS.

This may be an overdue effort to respond to Ricardy Anderson's requests for relief at Glasgow, but it's completely half-baked. It proves that FCPS can't solve one problem without creating another one that is at least as bad. And it's the exact sort of thing that would NEVER get floated if it involved a Langley, Oakton, or Madison feeder, rather than some kids going to Justice.

I completely agree with what is in bold.

They shouldn’t have been floating new changes at the last minute - whether for the relief at Glasgow or for what they just proposed to do (and apparently canceled) at Bren Mar. There is no way they would propose a scenario in the wealthier schools and schedule a vote on it only a month later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One Lewis mom is complaining that the school won't get any new kids in this process and want some students from other schools sent there immediately. So maybe those Rolling Valley kids will stay at WSHS.

Also, Reid said they're going to look at stopping transfers out of Lewis. Maybe getting rid of IB? She didn't say.

I wouldn't say she's complaining. She was advocating for her school that the school board is turning it's back on. Nothing is being done to fix Lewis now. That's a serious problem. The school is severely unenrolled and no one is doing anything.

Didn’t Lewis get a Distinguished rating?

Yes. Reid made sure that got mentioned tonight.

That is awesome- go Lewis! You know what is nice about the VDOE new site is that it says the per pupil spending per school. For example Oakton is around 16K per kid while Lewis is at 20K per kid. I am in favor of this and glad money is going to schools that need it. That said, I am opposed to moving kids around like money just to “help” out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One Lewis mom is complaining that the school won't get any new kids in this process and want some students from other schools sent there immediately. So maybe those Rolling Valley kids will stay at WSHS.

Also, Reid said they're going to look at stopping transfers out of Lewis. Maybe getting rid of IB? She didn't say.

I wouldn't say she's complaining. She was advocating for her school that the school board is turning it's back on. Nothing is being done to fix Lewis now. That's a serious problem. The school is severely unenrolled and no one is doing anything.

Didn’t Lewis get a Distinguished rating?

Yes. Reid made sure that got mentioned tonight.

That is awesome- go Lewis! You know what is nice about the VDOE new site is that it says the per pupil spending per school. For example Oakton is around 16K per kid while Lewis is at 20K per kid. I am in favor of this and glad money is going to schools that need it. That said, I am opposed to moving kids around like money just to “help” out.

From my understanding the issue with Lewis at least is that the school is so underenrolled that it doesn’t have enough kids for clubs/sports/music/advanced classes.
So yes in this case changing the boundaries to move more kids into that school will definitely help out. I don’t think stopping transfers out will be enough based on the discussion at the meeting last night and it seems like no one is transferring in to Lewis.

We have many overcrowded schools in the county. Surely something could have been done to ease crowding at a nearby school and fix underenrollment at Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One Lewis mom is complaining that the school won't get any new kids in this process and want some students from other schools sent there immediately. So maybe those Rolling Valley kids will stay at WSHS.

Also, Reid said they're going to look at stopping transfers out of Lewis. Maybe getting rid of IB? She didn't say.

I wouldn't say she's complaining. She was advocating for her school that the school board is turning it's back on. Nothing is being done to fix Lewis now. That's a serious problem. The school is severely unenrolled and no one is doing anything.

Didn’t Lewis get a Distinguished rating?

Yes. Reid made sure that got mentioned tonight.

That is awesome- go Lewis! You know what is nice about the VDOE new site is that it says the per pupil spending per school. For example Oakton is around 16K per kid while Lewis is at 20K per kid. I am in favor of this and glad money is going to schools that need it. That said, I am opposed to moving kids around like money just to “help” out.

From my understanding the issue with Lewis at least is that the school is so underenrolled that it doesn’t have enough kids for clubs/sports/music/advanced classes.
So yes in this case changing the boundaries to move more kids into that school will definitely help out. I don’t think stopping transfers out will be enough based on the discussion at the meeting last night and it seems like no one is transferring in to Lewis.

We have many overcrowded schools in the county. Surely something could have been done to ease crowding at a nearby school and fix underenrollment at Lewis.

DP. Only an equity agendaist would proclaim that 1,517 high school students is critically under-enrolled.

Our kids are not your MF-ing property to move around just because you want a robust GD chess team. Gtfoh.

[Anonymous]

Telling people they cannot transfer and that they have to participate in a program that is not a good fit for most people is BS. Either place AP at every school or allow for transfers.

IB is harder to get college credits for and there are fewer credits to be had than AP. The math and science classes are not as rigorous as AP class options.

[Anonymous]

Reid said last night the last BRAC meeting is Friday. Seems like we won’t see next map “scenario 5” until Jan right before vote at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Telling people they cannot transfer and that they have to participate in a program that is not a good fit for most people is BS. Either place AP at every school or allow for transfers.

IB is harder to get college credits for and there are fewer credits to be had than AP. The math and science classes are not as rigorous as AP class options.

People shouldn’t choose to live at an IB base school and then try to transfer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Telling people they cannot transfer and that they have to participate in a program that is not a good fit for most people is BS. Either place AP at every school or allow for transfers.

IB is harder to get college credits for and there are fewer credits to be had than AP. The math and science classes are not as rigorous as AP class options.

People shouldn’t choose to live at an IB base school and then try to transfer

Nvm misunderstood the premise - I agree people shouldn’t be forced to attend IB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Telling people they cannot transfer and that they have to participate in a program that is not a good fit for most people is BS. Either place AP at every school or allow for transfers.

IB is harder to get college credits for and there are fewer credits to be had than AP. The math and science classes are not as rigorous as AP class options.

People shouldn’t choose to live at an IB base school and then try to transfer

+1. I don’t have a principled objection to transfers, but if you all are going to push for boundary changes, then the in-boundary chickens need to come home to roost first.

[Anonymous]

FCPS cannot deny student transfers for Lewis-boundary students and just those students alone. This could result in a severe crackdown on ALL transfers across the board.