FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2022 data:

https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-high-schools-ranked-among-best-virginia-and-nation-us-news-and-world-report

There is a reason that parents with students at the top of this list don’t want their children to be redistricted to schools at the bottom of the list. It has nothing to do with racism. Why would any parent welcome a boundary adjustment from one of the top high schools in the county/country to one of high schools on the bottom of this list?

You are 100% correct - and any parent in that situation would fight it (see WSHS / Lewis). But be prepared to be called a “racist” for pointing out the obvious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2022 data:

https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-high-schools-ranked-among-best-virginia-and-nation-us-news-and-world-report

There is a reason that parents with students at the top of this list don’t want their children to be redistricted to schools at the bottom of the list. It has nothing to do with racism. Why would any parent welcome a boundary adjustment from one of the top high schools in the county/country to one of high schools on the bottom of this list?

2023

https://www.fcps.edu/news/six-fcps-high-schools-rank-among-virginias-best-us-news-world-report

The only FCPS high schools listed are the schools in the top 10 in VA:

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, #1
McLean High School, #4
Langley High School, #5
Oakton High School, #6
Marshall High School, #9
W.T. Woodson High School, #10

Why did you list 2023 instead of 2024?

#1 - TJ
#2 - Langley
#3 - McLean
#4 - Oakton
#5 - McLean
#6 - Marshall
#9 - Madison
#10 - West Springfield

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s be honest. Langley HS will get special exemptions. McLean will take the hits for Langley.

Oh, please. McLean has had ample opportunities to send large numbers to Langley to alleviate McLean’s crowding. But then people like you claim “no one” wants that. But sure, poor McLean.

I posted earlier that the statement that "McLean will take the hits for Langley" is inaccurate, but so is your post.

There was an FCPS proposal back in 2021 to send more McLean kids to Langley. The Great Falls Citizens Association fought against it and Elaine Tholen persuaded her School Board colleagues to go along with the GFCA recommendation and against the FCPS staff recommendation. A smaller number of kids in Vienna were moved instead. The GFCA said at the time it was the best outcome possible under the circumstances from its perspective.

Three years later McLean remains overcrowded, the Cooper/Langley enrollment has not increased as much as expected, and it appears an attendance island in Tysons now zoned to Longfellow/McLean may get moved to Cooper/Langley as part of the ongoing study. I haven't heard similar GFCA opposition this time, only arguments that moving more kids into Cooper/Langley should not require moving anyone out of Cooper/Langley.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know when these decisions plan to be finalized, most importantly regarding the Langley pyramid?

NO. No one knows anything and this entire thread is speculative. There are a few posters who seem to love getting everyone riled up with their hypotheticals, but they don't know anything more than the rest of us. Best to just ignore them.

Are you including the Langley posters who keep coming up with hypotheticals to move anyone but Langley kids into Herndon? They’ve been quite active here.

I'm including anyone and everyone who keeps throwing out hypotheticals of any kind - to include all of the posters who don't even have kids at Langley but feel entitled to opine about where those kids should be moved.

Tell your neighbors to pipe down then. There’s no group that spends more time trying to map out boundary changes that would move kids at other schools, but not their schools, than Langley parents.

F off. No one in the Langley pyramid wants ANY kids moved. We just want you to stop pushing to move our kids when there is no justification for it.

You’re obsessed with Langley for some reason. Get over it.

No justification 🤣🤣🤣did you forget the part where there is a highschool 3 miles away instead of 12. You just don't like the justifications. That doesn't mean they don't exist.

New Year, same drivel from the equity warriors.

Lolllllllllll.....i don't think equity means what you think it means.
Laughable how some folks try to use one word to scare away people when presented with sound and reasonable arguments.

The only type of “equity” some of these folks acknowledge as legitimate is the equity in their homes. They treat any other notion of equity or fairness as an obscenity.

I believe strongly in equality. That’s how I was raised, and I believe most people, even most democrats, believe strongly in those principles over equity. I also think that the left is hemorrhaging votes based on its insistence on equity over equality.

Attention friends! Do you need equity versus equality explained to you?!

https://interactioninstitute.org/illustrating-equality-vs-equity/

Your take isn't as great as you think it is.

I’ve seen that before, I just don’t believe that society should be picking winners and losers that way.

I spoke intentionally and with understanding of what I was saying, but you’ve never really been interested in a dialogue.

I’m fairly confident most people reject that worldview. But don’t take my word for it, just look back to November. Dems are bleeding support from almost every cross section. That’s not by accident.

In the interest of dialogue...i too used to think like you. Then people/situations kind of opened my eyes to the fact that not everybody experiences life in the same way because everybody is starting at different points.

This can easily be related to the school scenarios by comparing and contrasting different resources students are offered in different pyramids.

DP. Which is why Title 1 schools receive far more funding than other schools. And what do they have to show for it?

You sound like the type who'd remove the Title I funding just to find out. It's hard to imagine ELL students would learn more quickly if they were in larger classrooms.

We could just stop teaching ELL. Does anyone expect that requirement to last the year?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Again, school age population in decline, test scores and school ratings down across the board. The whole boundary study is designed to get parents fighting with one another, and it is working, to keep eyes of the horrendous job the administration and school board in managing FCPS.

Wake up people. There is no need for this study. Make Reid and the SB focus on and fix the real problems.

Agreed, this fixes no problems but creates many.

They aren’t even sticking to their supposed transparency and open dialogue principles with the half hand-picked BRAC making decisions in secret.

it’s not secret, they just are not updating it as fast as you think they should.

My definition of secret is not allowing the public to attend the meetings, nor recording them. Them giving us the agenda and printouts is nowhere close to adequate disclosure.

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I am on the BRAC. Dr. Reid explained that we are an adivsory committee to the superintendent and therefore our meetings are not open to the public. If we were an advisory committee to the board, then they would be open to the public. The boundary review website is being updated with high level meeting minutes. We were told the website would be updated NLT close of business on the next business day following a meeting. So meetings that are held on Fridays, the website would be updated NLT Monday evening. Meetings held Monday - Thursday would be updated the following day. So far we've only had two meetings and minutes from those meetings were updated the next business day.

I don't think this is correct.

She is a public employee.

Miyares needs to get involved.

At a minimum the AG’s office should kick the tires.

And I still think you should be able to FOIA FCPS for whatever information it is providing to or receiving from the BRAC even if you can’t FOIA BRAC directly.

Submitting a FOIA for material is no substitute for observing an unrecorded meeting. I fear that this is a significant violation that we’re dealing with. This and the hayfield thing are really starting to feel like a pattern and practice of FCPS thinking that it is above the law.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Again, school age population in decline, test scores and school ratings down across the board. The whole boundary study is designed to get parents fighting with one another, and it is working, to keep eyes of the horrendous job the administration and school board in managing FCPS.

Wake up people. There is no need for this study. Make Reid and the SB focus on and fix the real problems.

Agreed, this fixes no problems but creates many.

They aren’t even sticking to their supposed transparency and open dialogue principles with the half hand-picked BRAC making decisions in secret.

it’s not secret, they just are not updating it as fast as you think they should.

My definition of secret is not allowing the public to attend the meetings, nor recording them. Them giving us the agenda and printouts is nowhere close to adequate disclosure.

.

I am on the BRAC. Dr. Reid explained that we are an adivsory committee to the superintendent and therefore our meetings are not open to the public. If we were an advisory committee to the board, then they would be open to the public. The boundary review website is being updated with high level meeting minutes. We were told the website would be updated NLT close of business on the next business day following a meeting. So meetings that are held on Fridays, the website would be updated NLT Monday evening. Meetings held Monday - Thursday would be updated the following day. So far we've only had two meetings and minutes from those meetings were updated the next business day.

I don't think this is correct.

She is a public employee.

Miyares needs to get involved.

At a minimum the AG’s office should kick the tires.

And I still think you should be able to FOIA FCPS for whatever information it is providing to or receiving from the BRAC even if you can’t FOIA BRAC directly.

Submitting a FOIA for material is no substitute for observing an unrecorded meeting. I fear that this is a significant violation that we’re dealing with. This and the hayfield thing are really starting to feel like a pattern and practice of FCPS thinking that it is above the law.

It seems like a prime example of "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

When you have one party that has total control of the SB and is able to install its people within FCPS and on all the advisory committees, you stop thinking of other voices as potentially raising good challenges to your data and assumptions, or bringing up issues you may have overlooked. You just think of them as impediments who might slow down your fantastic plans.

You can see this with the Policy 8130 revisions and the ongoing review with the BRAC. They had every opportunity to slow down with the 8130 revisions and they sped up. They had every opportunity to put some skeptics and independent thinkers on the BRAC, and they went with the usual suspects. Maybe the pyramid representatives will come to the rescue, or Moon and McElveen will put some brakes on the other SB members, but it's not looking good.

[Anonymous]

In the interest of dialogue...i too used to think like you. Then people/situations kind of opened my eyes to the fact that not everybody experiences life in the same way because everybody is starting at different points.

This can easily be related to the school scenarios by comparing and contrasting different resources students are offered in different pyramids.


DP. Which is why Title 1 schools receive far more funding than other schools. And what do they have to show for it?

Neither PP here:
I taught Title I a long time ago. Here is my observation: Title I funds are not always used in the best interests of the students.
Bureaucrats skim off funds for many useless things and programs. The funds do not always get to the classroom instruction and students. I don't know about FCPS today, but I would suggest that someone do a really good audit.
For example: how much of the funds go to administrators and others who do not work with the students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2022 data:

https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-high-schools-ranked-among-best-virginia-and-nation-us-news-and-world-report

There is a reason that parents with students at the top of this list don’t want their children to be redistricted to schools at the bottom of the list. It has nothing to do with racism. Why would any parent welcome a boundary adjustment from one of the top high schools in the county/country to one of high schools on the bottom of this list?

2023

https://www.fcps.edu/news/six-fcps-high-schools-rank-among-virginias-best-us-news-world-report

The only FCPS high schools listed are the schools in the top 10 in VA:

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, #1
McLean High School, #4
Langley High School, #5
Oakton High School, #6
Marshall High School, #9
W.T. Woodson High School, #10

Why did you list 2023 instead of 2024?

#1 - TJ
#2 - Langley
#3 - McLean
#4 - Oakton
#5 - McLean
#6 - Marshall
#9 - Madison
#10 - West Springfield

FCPS didn’t do a press release for 2024. It doesn’t seem wise for them to show how much better some FCPS schools are compared to others (according to state/national rankings). With so many people upset about potential boundary adjustments, I’m sure FCPS will try to limit rankings or anything else that would show the education students receive is not the same at every high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2022 data:

https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-high-schools-ranked-among-best-virginia-and-nation-us-news-and-world-report

There is a reason that parents with students at the top of this list don’t want their children to be redistricted to schools at the bottom of the list. It has nothing to do with racism. Why would any parent welcome a boundary adjustment from one of the top high schools in the county/country to one of high schools on the bottom of this list?

2023

https://www.fcps.edu/news/six-fcps-high-schools-rank-among-virginias-best-us-news-world-report

The only FCPS high schools listed are the schools in the top 10 in VA:

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, #1
McLean High School, #4
Langley High School, #5
Oakton High School, #6
Marshall High School, #9
W.T. Woodson High School, #10

Why did you list 2023 instead of 2024?

#1 - TJ
#2 - Langley
#3 - McLean
#4 - Oakton
#5 - McLean
#6 - Marshall
#9 - Madison
#10 - West Springfield

How can McLean be #3 and #5?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2022 data:

https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-high-schools-ranked-among-best-virginia-and-nation-us-news-and-world-report

There is a reason that parents with students at the top of this list don’t want their children to be redistricted to schools at the bottom of the list. It has nothing to do with racism. Why would any parent welcome a boundary adjustment from one of the top high schools in the county/country to one of high schools on the bottom of this list?

2023

https://www.fcps.edu/news/six-fcps-high-schools-rank-among-virginias-best-us-news-world-report

The only FCPS high schools listed are the schools in the top 10 in VA:

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, #1
McLean High School, #4
Langley High School, #5
Oakton High School, #6
Marshall High School, #9
W.T. Woodson High School, #10

Why did you list 2023 instead of 2024?

#1 - TJ
#2 - Langley
#3 - McLean
#4 - Oakton
#5 - McLean
#6 - Marshall
#9 - Madison
#10 - West Springfield

How can McLean be #3 and #5?

These were the FCPS schools in the state top 10 in 2024:

TJ #1
Langley #2
Oakton #4
McLean #5
Marshall #6
Madison #9
West Springfield #10

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2022 data:

https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-high-schools-ranked-among-best-virginia-and-nation-us-news-and-world-report

There is a reason that parents with students at the top of this list don’t want their children to be redistricted to schools at the bottom of the list. It has nothing to do with racism. Why would any parent welcome a boundary adjustment from one of the top high schools in the county/country to one of high schools on the bottom of this list?

Lower-ranked school has space, was more recently renovated, may offer more opportunities for kids to make teams or get certain positions in plays or in bands, may be perceived as friendlier, etc. Reactions could also depend on whether families know each other from existing split feeders.

The numbers don’t support this:

Transfers out of school 2024-2025 School Year:
Herndon 309
Lewis 251
Mount Vernon 367
West Potomac 189

Current Capacity/Capacity if students stayed at zoned school:
Herndon 81%/92.4%
Lewis 87%/99.8%
Mount Vernon 75%/90%
West Potomac 92%/98%

The school board really needs to look at the schools that are over and under capacity and limit the number of transfers out of low capacity schools and into high capacity schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2022 data:

https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-high-schools-ranked-among-best-virginia-and-nation-us-news-and-world-report

There is a reason that parents with students at the top of this list don’t want their children to be redistricted to schools at the bottom of the list. It has nothing to do with racism. Why would any parent welcome a boundary adjustment from one of the top high schools in the county/country to one of high schools on the bottom of this list?

Lower-ranked school has space, was more recently renovated, may offer more opportunities for kids to make teams or get certain positions in plays or in bands, may be perceived as friendlier, etc. Reactions could also depend on whether families know each other from existing split feeders.

The numbers don’t support this:

Transfers out of school 2024-2025 School Year:
Herndon 309
Lewis 251
Mount Vernon 367
West Potomac 189

Current Capacity/Capacity if students stayed at zoned school:
Herndon 81%/92.4%
Lewis 87%/99.8%
Mount Vernon 75%/90%
West Potomac 92%/98%

The school board really needs to look at the schools that are over and under capacity and limit the number of transfers out of low capacity schools and into high capacity schools.

The question was whether anyone would see advantages with being reassigned to a lower ranked school, not whether lower ranked schools have net transfers out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2022 data:

https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-high-schools-ranked-among-best-virginia-and-nation-us-news-and-world-report

There is a reason that parents with students at the top of this list don’t want their children to be redistricted to schools at the bottom of the list. It has nothing to do with racism. Why would any parent welcome a boundary adjustment from one of the top high schools in the county/country to one of high schools on the bottom of this list?

Lower-ranked school has space, was more recently renovated, may offer more opportunities for kids to make teams or get certain positions in plays or in bands, may be perceived as friendlier, etc. Reactions could also depend on whether families know each other from existing split feeders.

The numbers don’t support this:

Transfers out of school 2024-2025 School Year:
Herndon 309
Lewis 251
Mount Vernon 367
West Potomac 189

Current Capacity/Capacity if students stayed at zoned school:
Herndon 81%/92.4%
Lewis 87%/99.8%
Mount Vernon 75%/90%
West Potomac 92%/98%

The school board really needs to look at the schools that are over and under capacity and limit the number of transfers out of low capacity schools and into high capacity schools.

Uh, no. Not unless all programs are offered at all schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2022 data:

https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-high-schools-ranked-among-best-virginia-and-nation-us-news-and-world-report

There is a reason that parents with students at the top of this list don’t want their children to be redistricted to schools at the bottom of the list. It has nothing to do with racism. Why would any parent welcome a boundary adjustment from one of the top high schools in the county/country to one of high schools on the bottom of this list?

2023

https://www.fcps.edu/news/six-fcps-high-schools-rank-among-virginias-best-us-news-world-report

The only FCPS high schools listed are the schools in the top 10 in VA:

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, #1
McLean High School, #4
Langley High School, #5
Oakton High School, #6
Marshall High School, #9
W.T. Woodson High School, #10

Why did you list 2023 instead of 2024?

#1 - TJ
#2 - Langley
#3 - McLean
#4 - Oakton
#5 - McLean
#6 - Marshall
#9 - Madison
#10 - West Springfield

How can McLean be #3 and #5?

Whoops, my mistake. McLean is ranked as #5 this year. The #3 slot was a school not in FCPS (Open HS in Richmond).

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know when these decisions plan to be finalized, most importantly regarding the Langley pyramid?

NO. No one knows anything and this entire thread is speculative. There are a few posters who seem to love getting everyone riled up with their hypotheticals, but they don't know anything more than the rest of us. Best to just ignore them.

Are you including the Langley posters who keep coming up with hypotheticals to move anyone but Langley kids into Herndon? They’ve been quite active here.

I'm including anyone and everyone who keeps throwing out hypotheticals of any kind - to include all of the posters who don't even have kids at Langley but feel entitled to opine about where those kids should be moved.

Tell your neighbors to pipe down then. There’s no group that spends more time trying to map out boundary changes that would move kids at other schools, but not their schools, than Langley parents.

F off. No one in the Langley pyramid wants ANY kids moved. We just want you to stop pushing to move our kids when there is no justification for it.

You’re obsessed with Langley for some reason. Get over it.

No justification 🤣🤣🤣did you forget the part where there is a highschool 3 miles away instead of 12. You just don't like the justifications. That doesn't mean they don't exist.

New Year, same drivel from the equity warriors.

Lolllllllllll.....i don't think equity means what you think it means.
Laughable how some folks try to use one word to scare away people when presented with sound and reasonable arguments.

The only type of “equity” some of these folks acknowledge as legitimate is the equity in their homes. They treat any other notion of equity or fairness as an obscenity.

I believe strongly in equality. That’s how I was raised, and I believe most people, even most democrats, believe strongly in those principles over equity. I also think that the left is hemorrhaging votes based on its insistence on equity over equality.

Attention friends! Do you need equity versus equality explained to you?!

https://interactioninstitute.org/illustrating-equality-vs-equity/

Your take isn't as great as you think it is.

I’ve seen that before, I just don’t believe that society should be picking winners and losers that way.

I spoke intentionally and with understanding of what I was saying, but you’ve never really been interested in a dialogue.

I’m fairly confident most people reject that worldview. But don’t take my word for it, just look back to November. Dems are bleeding support from almost every cross section. That’s not by accident.

In the interest of dialogue...i too used to think like you. Then people/situations kind of opened my eyes to the fact that not everybody experiences life in the same way because everybody is starting at different points.

This can easily be related to the school scenarios by comparing and contrasting different resources students are offered in different pyramids.

DP. Which is why Title 1 schools receive far more funding than other schools. And what do they have to show for it?

You sound like the type who'd remove the Title I funding just to find out. It's hard to imagine ELL students would learn more quickly if they were in larger classrooms.

Huh? I wouldn't remove Title 1 funding - I'd simply like to see it be put to good use. So far, it doesn't seem like all that extra funding has done one thing to improve those schools.