Does the proposed AAP Changes mean AAP in every MS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, it still sucks to move your kids due to career requirements. Ask anyone serving our country in the military and they will tell you that disrupting their kids' lives is one of the suckiest parts of the job.

Those of us who have moved their kids' schools out of job necessity know more than anyone else that moving children's schools unnecessarily is ill advised.

If you have a fourth grade AAP student, and are in one of the base schools slated for change, you will end up with 4 different schools in 5 years: base school (2nd grade), AAP center #1 (3rd-4th grade), AAP center #2 (5th-6th grade), middle school.

We have done 4 schools in 5 years with our military child, as have many of our friends. I promise you, it is a difficult thing for a child to face, and requires real effort on the part of the child, the schools and the families to get through that kind of change.

PP, you sound very bitter about the AAP center, and almost gleeful that kids are going to have to change schools. Why don't you spend a few years switching around your kids assigned schools so that your child can be a new kid at school 3-4 times, then come back and tell me if you feel differently about the matter.

No, I'm not bitter. I'm just pointing out that some of you have accepted or embraced multiple school changes in the past for various reasons, but want to treat this proposal as the straw that breaks the camel's back. I happen not to find it particularly convincing.

Well, when you buy a house or sign a multi year lease expecting that your child will finally get to spend 2-3 consecutive years in the same school, and someone changes the rules 1 year into it, yes, that is the straw that breaks the camel's back.

I don't have a horse in this race, but I think it sucks any time you have to have a child change schools. Sometimes it can't be helped, but I find FCPS's approach to boundary changes and decisions like the one here to be half-assed at best. I hope that we never have this happen to us. As a child, I went to 5 elementary schools and 3 high schools and it really messed me up. Even worse for my brother.

Agreed! Some of these very same kids were re-districted JUST LAST YEAR from FH/LA to LR/Haycock, now for a second year in a row, FCPS makes the arbitrary and capricious decision to change the boundary again. It's very unfair to those children. FCPS knew Haycock was overcrowded, yet they sent these kids there anyway, only to move them again! It's shameful.

[Anonymous]

Agree. The Freedom Hill AAP kids should have never been sent from Louise Archer to Haycock. They should have just stayed at Louise Archer. Was it a switch for all grades or just the lower ones? I forget. So say those children can be grandfathered though. Is there any other issue with the current proposal? Seems like it alleviates a lot of overcrowding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree. The Freedom Hill AAP kids should have never been sent from Louise Archer to Haycock. They should have just stayed at Louise Archer. Was it a switch for all grades or just the lower ones? I forget. So say those children can be grandfathered though. Is there any other issue with the current proposal? Seems like it alleviates a lot of overcrowding.

Commute.

The Sangster (Orange Hunt, Hunt Valley) switch with the Keene Mill (Kings Glen, Kings Park, Ravensworth) schools.

Suddenly, all those schools go from short commutes with neighborhood and back road options, to having to go out on Old Keene Mill, FC Pkwy and Rolling Road during morning rush hour.

Based on the time of the Rolling Rd/Old Keene Mill stoplight alone, the morning bus ride easily doubles for many of the kids, going from just over 35 minutes to nearly an hour.

Right now the schools are grouped in a way that cuts back on traffic and commute times. The feeder schools for Sangster are geographically flanked by Sydenstricker (Pohick Park), Old Keene Mill and FC Pkwy. The feeder schools for Keene are all in the area around Lake Acontick Park, right around Rolling, Old Keene Mill and Braddock Rd. The way it is grouped now is so logical based on commute and neighborhoods. All that goes out the window with the new plan.

Additionally, if I am reading the chart correctly, Sangster (which is at/near capacity) goes from 263 AAP students to 345 AAP students, a gain of nearly 100 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree. The Freedom Hill AAP kids should have never been sent from Louise Archer to Haycock. They should have just stayed at Louise Archer. Was it a switch for all grades or just the lower ones? I forget. So say those children can be grandfathered though. Is there any other issue with the current proposal? Seems like it alleviates a lot of overcrowding.

If they would grandfather the current kids at Haycock and LA and build the new center starting with next year's third graders there would be a lot less angst. One concern is that they intend to build it at Lemon Road (or so people believe -- of course FCPS isn't saying). That would be a 45 minute commute for the Westbriar kids, so many of them would choose not to go. Haycock and LA are such good centers partially because they have so many AAP kids. The smaller centers don't generally seem to have as good of reputations. I think without a critical mass of students, there aren't enough to have some of the activities that make the centers desirable (science olympiad, math contest, competition chess, etc.). That's what I hear. My kid isn't into that stuff, so it doesn't mean a lot to me, but it's a big deal to some people and a big reason why people choose the centers.

[Anonymous]

One thing from all this discussion I wonder about is how all these center changes will change local level iv or are they just treating it as separate issues. Also, one poster was suggesting there would not be a big enough cohort at the new ms center, but I don't think we can know that unless we know the total number of center eligible kids out there... Not just the ones electing the center.

[Anonymous]

Where will kids from Kent Gardens currently at Churchill center end up? It looks like Haycock, but am not sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where will kids from Kent Gardens currently at Churchill center end up? It looks like Haycock, but am not sure.

I agree - looks like Haycock.

[Anonymous]

Moving the Marshall/Cluster 2 kids out of Haycock would allow the Kent Gardens kids to return to Haycock.

[Anonymous]

As somone whose center is outside our pyramid, I support the move, although whether it makes sense for every center/pyramid, I don't know. I am unhappy that if my kids want to go to the center, they are with kids who will not be in their middle school or high school.

[Anonymous]

At the last meeting they had at Haycock, the school board rep specifically stated that the Kent Gardens kids were staying at Churchill Road. If they move them back, then they will still be too overcrowded at Haycock.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving the Marshall/Cluster 2 kids out of Haycock would allow the Kent Gardens kids to return to Haycock.

This is an interesting issue. They claim they are moving our kids out immediately because of the severe overcrowding. If they move the KG kids back in, the reduction is rather small and doesn't help the overcrowding. Janie Strauss claimed at the Haycock meeting that she does not support bringing the KG kids back, but that's what's on the task force plan. So who are they lying to? Is this about overcrowding or pyramid arrangement or something else entirely? There is a hidden agenda here and I can't quite figure it out.

[Anonymous]

This is what I'm confused about too. Are they aligning pyramids? Aligning clusters? Reducing overcrowding? Because they can't do all 3. Doing one undoes the others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving the Marshall/Cluster 2 kids out of Haycock would allow the Kent Gardens kids to return to Haycock.

This is an interesting issue. They claim they are moving our kids out immediately because of the severe overcrowding. If they move the KG kids back in, the reduction is rather small and doesn't help the overcrowding. Janie Strauss claimed at the Haycock meeting that she does not support bringing the KG kids back, but that's what's on the task force plan. So who are they lying to? Is this about overcrowding or pyramid arrangement or something else entirely? There is a hidden agenda here and I can't quite figure it out.

You're right - there's an inconsistency. My guess is that, in the short-term, the Kent Gardens kids will stay at Churchill Road. In other words, FCPS will more quickly open an AAP center at a school in the Marshall pyramid to relieve over-crowding at Archer and Haycock than implement a broader alignment of AAP centers by pyramid. Just because a task force has come up with some numbers and proposals doesn't mean that it can be done quickly on a wider basis.

If I were in the Marshall pyramid, this is what I'd want, with perhaps some grandfathering.

[Anonymous]

The only people in the Westbriar school area who would have a hard time getting to another school are the ones in that Westbriar Island which should probably go to Colvin Run anyway.

[Anonymous]

On the contrary, we live less than a mile from the WFC metro and my child is currently at Haycock. If they put the new center at Westbriar, the drie through tysons to get there would be a nightmare.