Boundary Review Meetings

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am coming to the discussion late. can someone catch me up - what is wrong with keeping the boundaries as they are?

There are a number of schools that are overcrowded and some schools underutilized. At the very least, the overcrowded schools need relief by shifting boundaries. The problem is most ES families wants to stay at their HS while wanting other ES to be moved so that the school is no longer over crowded. The parents don’t like the crowded hallways, cafeteria schedules, and all the trailers and modulars but they don’t want to move because they like the school.

Reducing the overcrowding at one HS means shifting kids to nearby HS, which might overcrowd those HSs forcing kids on the boundaries of those schools to be moved to a different HS. This upsets those families who like their school and don’t feel like they should have to move because there are kids being moved into the school to reduce overcrowding at a different school.

Parents at a strong school really don’t want to be moved to a school that is not perceived to be a similar strength. Parents at an AP school don’t want to be moved to an IB school.

But we have a series of HS, MS, and ES that are overcrowded and need relief. So we need boundary changes.

It wouldn’t have been smooth but the process would have been better if the School Board just said they were going to meet the needs of the overcrowded schools and that meant that there would be some ripple effects in order to better distribute students so schools were not overcrowded. WSHS families would still be throwing each other under the bus to avoid going to Lewis.

This is simplistic thinking. We ought to ask why some schools are overcrowded and others are under-enrolled. Is it because of pupil placements out of AP or IB schools? Is it because of safety concerns? Is it because FCPS has been misallocating its scarce capital dollars?

Boundary changes are the last resort of people lacking in imagination and unwilling to examine how their own actions and inactions may have contributed to capacity imbalances. And they can be a band aid if they don't address the underlying issues.

Chantilly and Centerville are not overcrowded because of people pupil placing to get away from another school. The ES are not overcrowded because of pupil placing.

They should be investing more in Centreville. Maybe they still will. No one really knows what they are doing there at this point.

So your solution for overcrowding is to build expansions and not use available space by redistricting?

I think that IB needs to go away or, at the very least, be an opt in option with all schools having AP classes. That would reduce pupil placement for programs to kids opting in for IB. I also think kids opting in for IB need to be completing the IB Diploma and not just taking a few IB classes to move from one school to another.

I think that they need to be checking for residency fraud and sending kids back to their base school when they find it. That office needs more then one person or some system for parents bringing proof of residency when moving from ES to MS or MS to HS.

I think those are reasonable and responsible changes that should be implemented. And those still won’t do much for many of the over enrolled schools. WSHS might be the exception because of Lewis and people pupil placing out and the knowing residency fraud into WSHS. I don’t think it touches the other overcrowded HS or any of the overcrowded ES and MS.

Prioritize the addition of capacity where it is needed. Don’t redistrict kids just to paper over bad planning decisions of the past.

Did you pay attention to just how many of the Thru Consulting recommendations would require kids to travel longer distances? It wasn’t a small percentage.

And given the money being dropped on Western and the claimed $280 million in savings that $280 million can be put to good use at other schools that our School Board has deliberately chosen to neglect.

I didn’t say the boundaries they recommended made sense or that Thru dud a good job. I said that there is a need for boundary reviews and how I what schools I would be looking at. Those are the overcrowded schools. Most of the overcrowded schools are not oever crowded because of people pupil placing or commiting fraud, so those solutions won’t fix the problem.

For example, Chantilly and Centerville are fixed by either adding extensions or moving boundaries. With the new HS, moving boundaries has become the solution. The Oak Hill families I know are not happy to be leaving to Chantilly but understand that someone has to move and Oak Hill is the closest to Western, so Oak Hill is moving. Outside of preferring to stay at Chantilly, my friends there seem to understand the way even if they don’t love the move.

The impact is rather different if you are voluntarily opting in to Western because you don't like IB at South Lakes vs. looking at involuntarily being displaced from Centreville or other schools because of the sustained incompetence within FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Sharing a maybe unpopular opinion but true: some overcrowding is actually a good thing. It brings additional resources to a school (more grants, more teachers, etc). One of the reasons overpopulated schools in this region perform so well is because of those additional resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sharing a maybe unpopular opinion but true: some overcrowding is actually a good thing. It brings additional resources to a school (more grants, more teachers, etc). One of the reasons overpopulated schools in this region perform so well is because of those additional resources.

True for the high achievers. Not true for the other end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sharing a maybe unpopular opinion but true: some overcrowding is actually a good thing. It brings additional resources to a school (more grants, more teachers, etc). One of the reasons overpopulated schools in this region perform so well is because of those additional resources.

Nonsense. Its nearly impossible to make sports teams, get a part in the play, be on student govt, etc. with overcrowded schools. Let alone the bathroom situation and the hallways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sharing a maybe unpopular opinion but true: some overcrowding is actually a good thing. It brings additional resources to a school (more grants, more teachers, etc). One of the reasons overpopulated schools in this region perform so well is because of those additional resources.

True, and they always want to find a way to punish some schools for their success.