Will Mclean High School ever be able to upsize
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Anonymous
DP. I 100% agree with you. It's always the same fringe poster, parroting the same words and phrases. Very transparent. |
Anonymous
DP. You really are nuts. It’s a matter of record that the Great Falls Citizens Association lobbied to limit the number of McLean kids moved to Langley in 2021. And Elaine Tholen told McLean parents the following year no more kids could be reassigned to the Langley pyramid because it would overcrowd Cooper. At this point there’s nothing that McLean families can “balk” at accepting. The limited number of neighborhoods that Tholen was prepared to move to Langley have already been reassigned, that boundary change has been 75% phased in, and there’s nothing else on the table currently to discuss. It does leave McLean overcrowded, especially with the additional kids coming to McLean from Longfellow after the TJ admissions changes, but we’ll manage. |
Anonymous
That is why Fairfax County needs to plan for such a HS now, and not wait until everything around all the Tyson’s metro stations is developed. Once that happens, it will be extremely challenging for the County build a HS (and potentially a middle school) where parents would actually want to send their kids. Few parents will want to send their kids to public school in a commercial office building with no park and outdoor space. By securing a site (or perhaps future rights to acquire a site) now rather than waiting until after much of the area is developed and area high schools are overflowing, the County can work with the surrounding developers to strategically locate park space, fields, etc. (which developers profer as part of high-density development) so the school has the amenities that parents expect. Even then, the County would almost certainly need to offer advanced academic programs, so that parents currently zoned for McLean HS don’t feel like they are getting screwed. |
Anonymous
Because the building is truly disgusting. Good school, happy my kids are there but the physical plant is poor. |
Anonymous
| We were over there Friday night for a McLean vs. Yorktown basketball game. The building didn't seem disgusting to me, just small for a high school. But the atmosphere at the game was great. |
Anonymous
That’s an old rivalry going back to the old Great Falls District (conference) during my parents’ era if not before, so I’m sure the atmosphere was good. The gyms in the old 1950s-60s era FCPS schools like McLean are very small but well maintained. But the award-winning McLean journalism students have written about the worsening conditions of the overall facilities and overcrowding for a number of years. |
Anonymous
The newspaper has also covered some of the recent maintenance upgrades, such as they are (upgraded bathrooms and new floor tiling). |
Anonymous
No, it’s not one poster suggesting the most logical boundary change. And why are you calling this change a “screw Great Falls” approach? What’s the problem with shifting some kids to the newly renovated Herndon HS IF Langley were to get too crowded after adding McLean kids? And that’s a big IF because renovated Langley is way under capacity. |
Anonymous
The latest projections have Langley at about 99% capacity within the next five years. |
Anonymous
I called it the “screw Great Falls” approach because that’s all it is - seething animosity toward your county neighbors because some of the residents on the east side of Great Falls are well off (they generally go to private schools, btw). Most of the posts on this matter are not looking out for the Herndon High community, who probably don’t really want their school to become overcrowded with Forestville students. It is really just about soaking the western great falls families, who by the way live in houses that are basically on par with a good chunk of the other communities in Fairfax. We all know that anyone advocating for the equity-based redistricting approach is likely just a Herndon property owner hoping that their property values go up further. It’s certainly not out of concern for Fairfax kids, nor is it something that would magically fix whatever you are trying to solve at Herndon High. |
Anonymous
McLean families have no interest in being a pawn between people who vehemently want part of Langley moved to Herndon or vehemently want to take that off the table forever. For over a decade, some of us have lobbied for an addition to McLean that would bring its permanent capacity to 2500, in line with other high schools with similar enrollments. That wasn't a crazy request, since FCPS has built additions outside the queue at numerous other high schools, and had FCPS done this there would have been no need to reassign McLean kids to Langley. But we've never had a School Board member willing to fight hard for us, so it's possible that more McLean kids might be reassigned to Langley in the future. If that happens, it's also possible that FCPS might simultaneously reassign part of Langley to Herndon. It's also possible that FCPS might decide to move some McLean kids to Falls Church in a few years. But that would be on FCPS, not McLean parents, and there's no organized effort on the part of McLean families now to lobby for either an addition or a boundary change, as there was back in 2018 and 2019. Most people accept that the building isn't the nicest, but appreciate the other good things about the school. Those who can't accept that the building isn't as nice as some other facilities, and deem it unacceptable for their kids, can explore other options. But if you want to argue about county-wide boundary changes, or about reassigning part of Langley to Herndon just to "stick it" to Great Falls, this really isn't the thread for you. |
Anonymous
Whenever this gets discussed, people start talking about sending a bunch of McLean to Langley, then moving western GF to Herndon. Like it or not, that’s absolutely part of the discussion. They despise McLean as much as great falls. To the equity minded, it’s all about FARMs. And fwiw, I’m in favor of a McLean expansion. Given your passion, you should reach out to the McLean citizens association. |
Anonymous
If I was in-bounds for Timber Lane - Longfellow - McLean, I would raise absolute hell if redistricted to Timber Lane - Luther Jackson - Falls Church. That would shave at least $100k off the value of every SFH in that area and get rid of most of the diversity that feeds into McLean. Moving some of McLean to Langley is much more "like to like." |
Anonymous
You say that as if they hadn't already moved kids from McLean to Langley. That already happened, so we've seen that movie. FCPS staff wanted Langley to take part of growing Tysons, and the GFCA fought back and got Elaine Tholen and the School Board to move only a limited number of already built-out single-family neighborhoods in Vienna instead. Langley is closer to full capacity now than it was in 2021, so if they move more of McLean to Langley it's more likely that they'll decide they have to bump Great Falls to Herndon. Maybe that's what the new School Board wants, but it's not going to happen without the GFCA getting even more mobilized than they did before. On the other hand, Timber Lane is already a split feeder to McLean and Falls Church, and Falls Church HS is clearly going to have hundreds of available seats when its renovation is finished. Some people would object, as is the case with any boundary change, but FCPS could take credit for eliminating an attendance island (the area is completely contiguous to Falls Church's current northern boundary) and also point out that the renovated Falls Church HS will have a much nicer building than McLean. And this only involves two schools, whereas the McLean to Langley to Herndon scenario involves three. Otherwise, it's not clear why they are bothering to expand Falls Church to 2500 during its renovation. In theory, they could have decided to expand Falls Church with a view towards re-assigning part of Justice, which had been getting crowded, to Falls Church. However, it appears they recognized that moving the Justice neighborhoods closest to Falls Church there would drive up the FARMS rate at Justice, so they just decided to build an addition to Justice as well. |
Anonymous
Was moving part of Oakton and Madison to South Lakes in 2008 "like to like"? With all the multi-family housing planned for Tysons and West Falls Church (all apartments, condos, and townhouses, not SFHs), McLean is probably going to end up more diverse regardless of whether the Timber Lane island moves to Falls Church in a few years. Same for Marshall. Again, I'm not advocating for FCPS to move the Timber Lane island or to impose any other further boundary changes on McLean. They ought to be expanding the school and not wasting money on BS like Dunn Loring ES. However, if they have to redistrict, moving the island seems the most obvious next step and/or path of least resistance. |