An Open Discussion on Split Feeders.
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Anonymous
What you want and what other people want and FCPS will do are not the same thing. |
Anonymous
I'm guessing your base school is Franklin. Franklin will have more academic clubs if there is a demand for them. They had a very good Math Counts team when my second kid was there, so if there's a demand, they'll have them. |
Anonymous
The point is AAP Centers are not equal, which is why some people are not happy with the removal of AAP Centers from MS. Carson has enough kids who are advanced in Math to offer at least one class in Algebra II, Franklin does not. I suspect that is the case for a lot of MS. You can send the Fox Mill and Floris kids to Hughes and you will not end up with the same level clubs. Those things are important for people. Knowing the cut scores at Carson for Mathcounts, the Franklin or Hughes Mathcounts team will get stomped on at chapter. And I get that MS is not based on after school clubs and the like but there is a reason why parents want thier kids at the super centers, there are options there for kids who need a peer group that they won't find at most schools. That is not necessarily a bad thing. |
Anonymous
Are you really that dense? Franklin would have plenty of students for Algebra II if all the Franklin AAP kids returned to Franklin. And the cut scores for Math Counts would change, as well. How is that concept so difficult for you to understand? |
Anonymous
DP. Sounds a lot like the Langley AAP parents who didn’t want to move back to Cooper from Longfellow a decade or so ago. Cooper AAP turned out fine. |
Anonymous
I am at Carson, neither school would have enough for an Algebra 2 class. Both schools would end up with kids in a virtual class . Carson could send kids to Western, I don’t know if Chantilly is within walking distance to Franklin. |
Anonymous
That's very hard to believe, especially with the push for Algebra in 6th grade. |
Anonymous
True, I did not factor that in. |
Anonymous
I agree that Middle-High School alignment is important, but here’s the thing. Scenario 4 boundary changes illustrate Bren Mar Park moving back to Annandale from Edison, with all of Parklawn moving to Justice. The issue lies with Mason Crest. I propose moving Justice Bound Mason Crest Students to Beech Tree or Belvedere, and with them out, adding 6th grade to Mason Crest, zoning it for Jackson to align with Falls Church, or also rezoning it completely to Glasgow/Justice. Poe would shrink to Annandale Terrace and Braddock in this scenario, which could end up resulting in a singular “Annandale Middle School” I think that site would be the Poe site, which would retain its name, with something happening to Holmes (I want to keep it open for capacity reasons due to the lack of Elementary 6th grade in the Annandale Pyramid, where Annandale Terrace, Braddock, Bren Mar Park, Columbia, North Springfield, and Weyanoke may not have the capacity to add 6th grade classrooms, resulting in a snag. Therefore, Poe holds Annandale Terrace, Braddock, and North Springfield, and Holmes takes Bren Mar Park, Columbia, and Weyanoke. If Mason Crest moves to the Justice Pyramid, I fear a second 6-8 MS could be needed. That MS would hold Beech Tree, Belvedere, Mason Crest, and Sleepy Hollow, with Glasgow holding Baileys, Glen Forest, Parklawn, and a new Mason District ES in the Baileys Crossroads/ Skyline area, as well as Justice Pyramid AAP. Unless Glasgow and Justice Pyramid MS II both have AAP. However it might not be needed if AAP is placed into the Annandale Middle Schools, unless only one is needed. Jackson therefore, takes Camelot, Fairhill, Graham Road, Pine Spring, Falls Church Part of Timber Lane (moves to Graham Road to put school in Attendance Area with Pine Spring Island), Westlawn, and Woodburn, with Falls Church losing its part of Mason Crest Feeding into it. With Oakton, we have reached a problem too. If Western HS has comprehensive school boundaries and no magnet program and takes Westfield part of Coates, Crossfield, Floris, Fox Mill, McNair, Navy Island, and Oak Hill (if it has the room after interior work is done) unless it takes just Fox Mill or Crossfield, Carson will redraw boundaries to be consistent with this new HS as one would hope. Furthermore, option maps show Bull Run, Part of Brookfield west of Flatlick Branch, and Chantilly feeding part of Cub Run to Westfield, which would result in that becoming consistent with stone. Say Western takes both Crossfield and Fox Mill plus Navy Island, and Carson aligns its boundaries to that which would mean including Oak Hill, that means Franklin remains with Lees Corner, Navy sans Island, and Waples Mill, meaning it would still be a split feeder for Chantilly and Oakton. This is where my proposal for an Oakton Middle School comes into play. It takes Navy sans Island, Waples Mill, Oakton feeding part of Oakton ES, Mosaic, and Oakton Feeding part of Marshall Road, remaining consistent with the OHS boundaries. It would also as per Scenario 4, take students in from Providence, KJMS, and Fairfax High School north of 66 who are not in the City of Fairfax. Land is available near Oakmont and Flint Hill for a new MS, and at the site of Oakton Elementary School, which if an agreement is made with Flint Hill, the Hazel Lower School moves to that land near Oakmont, and a new middle school is built where Oakton ES stands, and Oakton Elementary Moves to Blake Lane Park, the aforementioned dog park where a Fairfax/Oakton Area ES was originally supposed to be built before Dunn Loring happened. That’s my take after looking into the misalignment of middle schools in FCPS. |
Anonymous
What I didn’t mention is that The Chantilly part of Navy does not join the New Middle School, but gets rezoned to Either Lees Corner or one of the Greenbriars. |
Anonymous
But how do the capacities compare? How does geography compare? What about the 140+ elementary schools that feed into those 26 middle schools? It is not necessarily as easy as you're trying to make it. |
Anonymous
| There is a lot of fantasy in your proposal, including possibly creating a new MS? And you want to move students OUT of Poe, which is already under capacity?? |
Anonymous
| Possible two middle schools? An Annandale one and an Oakton one? But perhaps I am having trouble following your rambling. |
Anonymous
It's sad that you're spending so much time writing about things about which you're so out of touch with residents and FCPS. Let's just talk about your proposals relating to Justice, Annandale and Falls Church. Yes, Scenario 4 moves Bren Mar Park back to Annandale to eliminate the split feeder at Holmes, but then FCPS put out a later proposal to move Bren Mar Park to Lewis, only to table that proposal and announce that Bren Mar Park will remain at Edison for at least the next five years. So you're working with stale information. Second, Scenario 3 proposed to move the Justice part of Mason Crest back to Belvedere, which is where it went before Mason Crest opened around 2012. The families affected pushed hard to stay at Mason Crest, so FCPS undid that change in Scenario 4. Again, you're proposing something already considered and rejected. In fact, they are now proposing to move the Justice part of Mason Crest from Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church, because the local School Board member (Ricardy Anderson) is far more interested in reducing the enrollment at Glasgow than eliminating the split feeder at Poe. In fact, the latest proposal that FCPS staff put out to address Anderson's wants turns Belvedere into a new split feeder to Holmes and Glasgow, turns Beech Tree into a new split feeder to Poe/Falls Church and Glasgow/Justice, and turns Holmes into a three-way split feeder to Annandale, Edison, and Justice. Maybe they'll reconsider and reassign the part of Belvedere moving to Holmes to Annandale, so Holmes stays a two-way split feeder, but they've made no such announcement yet. Your other proposals seem to leave Holmes and Poe too small, and further burden Glasgow when, as noted, the big push has been to reduce the enrollment there. They are no more likely to build another middle school to feed into Justice than they are to build a new middle school that feeds exclusively to Oakton. |
Anonymous
Franklin and all of the other middle schools would be able to offer at least one Algebra 2 class if every middle school had an AAP program with no transfers out The class might only have 15 students, but every middle school would have enough advanced students to offer the class |