Boundary Review Meetings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like they did not have enough votes last night to deny bussing for rezoned kids. Very interesting. I'm assuming they will have to vote on it at the next meeting? Sandy Anderson made the motion, and Lady seconded it...other board members had lots of questions that the head of transportation could not answer.

When pressed by Dunne why it would cost $10 mil to bus the grandfathered kids to school, the head of transportation admitted that number was based on using electric busses when the cost was $3 mil less with diesel busses. And then wouldn’t answer why he used electric as the baseline

He used it as a baseline because Reid and Sandy Anderson don't want to transport these kids anywhere. They want kids to go where they are placed via this review and they want parents to shut up about it. So they came up with a fake number to push forward their agenda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So they didn’t vote on transpiration? Or they did and they approved it? Is meeting on YouTube?

Yes, meeting is on YouTube. The motion put forth basically said they would not provide transportation. The motion failed. It does not mean they will provide transportation, but they will have to either try to pass the motion again at the next meeting or they need to make a new motion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The kids might need to work a little harder to get a part in the musical or make the team, and perhaps they need to wait until junior year, but they learn to push themselves, try new things and learn how to not always get everything they want the first time... all great lessons.

Disagree. You simply won't have the opportunities at a 3000 student school that you would at a 2000 student school. You don't need to "work a little harder" to make the basketball team at Westfield or a part in the play at Chantilly, you just don't get to be on the team or in the play, ever. Honestly, your tone shows you really don't understand at all how hard it is to get opportunities at these mega schools.

[Anonymous]

The "Overcrowded Schools are Great!" people are the RIO people.

[Anonymous]

Sorry but LOL that someone just needs to "work a little harder" and then magically when they are a junior, they will make that basketball team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like they did not have enough votes last night to deny bussing for rezoned kids. Very interesting. I'm assuming they will have to vote on it at the next meeting? Sandy Anderson made the motion, and Lady seconded it...other board members had lots of questions that the head of transportation could not answer.

When pressed by Dunne why it would cost $10 mil to bus the grandfathered kids to school, the head of transportation admitted that number was based on using electric busses when the cost was $3 mil less with diesel busses. And then wouldn’t answer why he used electric as the baseline

He used it as a baseline because Reid and Sandy Anderson don't want to transport these kids anywhere. They want kids to go where they are placed via this review and they want parents to shut up about it. So they came up with a fake number to push forward their agenda.

At one point, when I think she realized that she would not have enough votes for her motion, Sandy through Reid completely under the bus by saying something like 'haven't you been telling parents they would not get transportation'? And she was like, I told parents it was a board decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The kids might need to work a little harder to get a part in the musical or make the team, and perhaps they need to wait until junior year, but they learn to push themselves, try new things and learn how to not always get everything they want the first time... all great lessons.

Disagree. You simply won't have the opportunities at a 3000 student school that you would at a 2000 student school. You don't need to "work a little harder" to make the basketball team at Westfield or a part in the play at Chantilly, you just don't get to be on the team or in the play, ever. Honestly, your tone shows you really don't understand at all how hard it is to get opportunities at these mega schools.

DP. Old enough to remember posters arguing that Lewis doesn’t have opportunities because it’s only 1,500+ kids.

Shows how disingenuous this whole boundary change proponent argument is. Every school from 1,500 to 3,000 has a different set of opportunities based on the size of the school.

Only necessary changes should be made. Not “opportunistic” ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like they did not have enough votes last night to deny bussing for rezoned kids. Very interesting. I'm assuming they will have to vote on it at the next meeting? Sandy Anderson made the motion, and Lady seconded it...other board members had lots of questions that the head of transportation could not answer.

When pressed by Dunne why it would cost $10 mil to bus the grandfathered kids to school, the head of transportation admitted that number was based on using electric busses when the cost was $3 mil less with diesel busses. And then wouldn’t answer why he used electric as the baseline

He used it as a baseline because Reid and Sandy Anderson don't want to transport these kids anywhere. They want kids to go where they are placed via this review and they want parents to shut up about it. So they came up with a fake number to push forward their agenda.

At one point, when I think she realized that she would not have enough votes for her motion, Sandy through Reid completely under the bus by saying something like 'haven't you been telling parents they would not get transportation'? And she was like, I told parents it was a board decision.

So Sandy made an ass out of herself, as always. Just before a larger audience this time.

[Anonymous]

There’s good and bad things about big and small schools. EC’s are obviously very competitive at the big schools, but they’ll be able to offer a very wide variety of classes. So your kid who is talented in art or music or wants to take high level math classes will always have an option. Teams and the school musical will be less competitive at smaller schools but you might not be able to take AP studio art or a specialized English class.

There are 2000-2200 student HS’s in the region and they tend to have more affordable neighborhoods too. Edison is at 2300, Marshall is 2200, Madison and South County are around 2100. The HS’s in Loudoun and PWC are even smaller. You don’t have to buy a house zoned for a 2800+ school if that’s a concern for your family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they are going to pick a handful of changes, make those, and punt the rest to another year due to funding issues.

Yes. The problem is they aren’t making these decisions before the maps are due. Reid needs to know if the scope of changes has to be within a certain transportation budget, but that rule is still unclear. Now she’ll deliver a map with no transportation considered and the board will hem and haw over it and then they’ll push through some haphazard version.

Fix Coates. Fix Parklawn. Figure out what’s going on with Kimer. Figure out how to open your new high school. They’re biting off way more than they can chew and it’s going to crumble the closer they get to that self imposed January deadline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The kids might need to work a little harder to get a part in the musical or make the team, and perhaps they need to wait until junior year, but they learn to push themselves, try new things and learn how to not always get everything they want the first time... all great lessons.

Disagree. You simply won't have the opportunities at a 3000 student school that you would at a 2000 student school. You don't need to "work a little harder" to make the basketball team at Westfield or a part in the play at Chantilly, you just don't get to be on the team or in the play, ever. Honestly, your tone shows you really don't understand at all how hard it is to get opportunities at these mega schools.

The kids have great opportunities at the big schools.

My kid did not make the musical freshman at her 3000 kid school, in spite of being experienced in both singing and acting, and having an older sibling who was in the shows all 4 years, so not an unknown freshman to the director.. The kids who the musical were mostly upperclassmen, with a tiny handful of very talented freshman. All of the kids who made it were exceptional.

Did my kid sulk and blame the school being too large? No. They signed up for choir and volunteered to be a grunt for the tech crew, helping with menial tasks like sweeping and ironing, anything little and tedious that freed the upper classmen up to do the important stuff. They didn't make the mainstage shows that year, but they took advantage of the small black box performances that all of the big schools set up for the less experienced kids and kids who are not ready to make the musical or fall play to get experience and perform.

The large schools have enough students to do this. They can have lots of smaller performamce opportunities that aren't just the fall play and spring musical: black box shows, one acts, musical revues, open mic night, improv club, and so many tech opportunities. They also are able to put on large scale musicals with a 50 kid cast, a full pit orchestra, and huge ensembles of 30 or so students.

Don't make the sports team you want at the big school? Then gather a bunch of kids, find a faculty sponsor and start a club sport. Kids at our large school have started pickleball clubs and ultimate frisbee teams. A lot of the kids on those teams are kids who didn't make their chosen sport freshman year. Or try a different sport. Football, cross country and track take everyone. Large schools have enough kids to run A meet running teams and B meet running teams.

Sulking abiut getting cut from sports or every kid not making the musical and using it as a reason to push for rezoning is silly, especially since there is zero guarantee that your kid will make the musical or baseball team in a school of 2000 any more than they will make the team in a school of 3000. There were 500 fewer students at my kids' high school when my oldest went through, and there were just as many kids cut from the musical when she was trying out as when her sister tried out and was cut. Most of the kids getting cut from shows are freshmen, always freshmen. They almost always find a roll for juniors and seniors, especially in the musicals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The kids might need to work a little harder to get a part in the musical or make the team, and perhaps they need to wait until junior year, but they learn to push themselves, try new things and learn how to not always get everything they want the first time... all great lessons.

Disagree. You simply won't have the opportunities at a 3000 student school that you would at a 2000 student school. You don't need to "work a little harder" to make the basketball team at Westfield or a part in the play at Chantilly, you just don't get to be on the team or in the play, ever. Honestly, your tone shows you really don't understand at all how hard it is to get opportunities at these mega schools.

You get more opportunities at a 3000 kid school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The kids might need to work a little harder to get a part in the musical or make the team, and perhaps they need to wait until junior year, but they learn to push themselves, try new things and learn how to not always get everything they want the first time... all great lessons.

Disagree. You simply won't have the opportunities at a 3000 student school that you would at a 2000 student school. You don't need to "work a little harder" to make the basketball team at Westfield or a part in the play at Chantilly, you just don't get to be on the team or in the play, ever. Honestly, your tone shows you really don't understand at all how hard it is to get opportunities at these mega schools.

Wait, isn't the big argument for rezoning that you don't have opportunities if your school isn't a large school?

[Anonymous]

Meren’s end of the year email said that she was recommending moving FMES to Hughes and staying at SLHS. Never mind that moving anyone to Hughes wasn’t in any of the plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry but LOL that someone just needs to "work a little harder" and then magically when they are a junior, they will make that basketball team.

If they have the height an athletic ability, yes, if they work hard and improve their skills, they could feasibly make the team in a 2nd attempt.

What is more common is making a height required team like volleyball or basketball freshman year, then getting cut from varsity because they never grew like everyone else and are now too short. That happens.