FCPS Skyview Boundary Revised Scenario 1 / 2

[Anonymous]

This might be a stupid question, but are these changes ACTUALLY supposed to occur this fall? The FCPS website says these are for the 26-27 school year, but I can't imagine how they are going to make that work.

Please be kind in your responses to me. I am overwhelmed by being the "sandwich generation," currently caring for a parent and a child with a life-threatening diagnosis, so I may not be processing as well as I typically would.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can kindly help me understand.

[Anonymous]

In summary : the skyview boundary is planned to be finalized beginning the 2027 school year. For 2026-2027 school year, sky view is an opt in school. Also for the 2026-2027 school year, VHSL sports will not be available at SkyView. FCPS has not provided any clarity on phasing for current middle schoolers or kids with siblings as of yet. FCPS has only confirmed that if you are attending a different high school after boundary is finalized, you will not be asked to change school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing was solved here. Schools are still overcrowded or now, possibly half empty.

They should have made it an AI/Robotics/Engineering magnet school. They would have had a full school and it would have drawn from all the other schools - with no arguing.

This is an epic disaster.

You have no understanding of how badly this school is needed. You would not get kids from the overcrowded schools..
You would instead get kids from those schools who don't need to lose students.

I disagree. Chantilly would have likely been the biggest contributor AND is the most overcrowded. Chantilly families are looking at the Skyview chaos and thinking, "I'll stay in my modular and use the academy classes" instead. If they were just CLEAR and PURPOSED as a magnet, they would have probably had my entire neighborhood opt in. Now, even I am second guessing it and we are currently opted in. What did they achieve in these plans? Chantilly and Oakton still way over population and a bunch of schools now way under. Explain exactly how NEEDED this school was as a traditional school? Other than for Chantilly, which is does not change meaningfully in the new model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This might be a stupid question, but are these changes ACTUALLY supposed to occur this fall? The FCPS website says these are for the 26-27 school year, but I can't imagine how they are going to make that work.

Please be kind in your responses to me. I am overwhelmed by being the "sandwich generation," currently caring for a parent and a child with a life-threatening diagnosis, so I may not be processing as well as I typically would.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can kindly help me understand.

There are other boundary changes that were adopted in January 2026 that will occur starting this fall for the 2026-27 school year. These changes are discussed at https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/maps/boundary-adjustments-information/adopted-2024-2026-boundary-review

However, any boundary adjustments relating to the opening of Skyview HS, which are discussed at https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/maps/boundary-adjustments-information/skyview-high-school-and-western-pyramids-boundary, would not take place until the fall of 2027 for the 2027-28 school year, and even then families affected may be allowed to "opt out." It's a bit murky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing was solved here. Schools are still overcrowded or now, possibly half empty.

They should have made it an AI/Robotics/Engineering magnet school. They would have had a full school and it would have drawn from all the other schools - with no arguing.

This is an epic disaster.

You have no understanding of how badly this school is needed. You would not get kids from the overcrowded schools..
You would instead get kids from those schools who don't need to lose students.

I disagree. Chantilly would have likely been the biggest contributor AND is the most overcrowded. Chantilly families are looking at the Skyview chaos and thinking, "I'll stay in my modular and use the academy classes" instead. If they were just CLEAR and PURPOSED as a magnet, they would have probably had my entire neighborhood opt in. Now, even I am second guessing it and we are currently opted in. What did they achieve in these plans? Chantilly and Oakton still way over population and a bunch of schools now way under. Explain exactly how NEEDED this school was as a traditional school? Other than for Chantilly, which is does not change meaningfully in the new model.

Agree that a big problem is the lack of clarity. But, I strongly disagree. If it were a magnet you would not have the variety of activities that come with a comprehensive high school. Sports, for one, are important to so many kids.
Would it be a magnet that provided transportation like TJ? Likely not. You would have kids come from way outside the boundaries and it is highly unlikely that you would get 400 kids from Chantilly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This might be a stupid question, but are these changes ACTUALLY supposed to occur this fall? The FCPS website says these are for the 26-27 school year, but I can't imagine how they are going to make that work.

Please be kind in your responses to me. I am overwhelmed by being the "sandwich generation," currently caring for a parent and a child with a life-threatening diagnosis, so I may not be processing as well as I typically would.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can kindly help me understand.

There are other boundary changes that were adopted in January 2026 that will occur starting this fall for the 2026-27 school year. These changes are discussed at https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/maps/boundary-adjustments-information/adopted-2024-2026-boundary-review

However, any boundary adjustments relating to the opening of Skyview HS, which are discussed at https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/maps/boundary-adjustments-information/skyview-high-school-and-western-pyramids-boundary, would not take place until the fall of 2027 for the 2027-28 school year, and even then families affected may be allowed to "opt out." It's a bit murky.

Thank you! So my rising 7th grade child might go to a different middle school than my rising 9th grade child attended the past two years, I guess. Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a Crossfield parent and literally every Crossfield parent I've talked to wants to go to Skyview and is disappointed by this outcome. They've all commented on the boundary tool, sent out letters, talked to school board members, come to meetings, but they haven't been able to drown out the very loud RIO mommas. I haven't talked to anyone, literally anyone, who is active in RIO. I know a few people who are in the Facebook group for awareness, but even those people talk about how much closer Skyview is and it would be nice. So I don't understand what is going on here.

Honestly, it sounds like there are a lot of Crossfield parents who are very vocal about wanting to stay at Oakton, a fair number of Crossfield parents who want to stay at Oakton but will humor those who want to move to Skyview, and some Crossfield parents who are very vocal about wanting to move to Skyview.

No one said they are a monolith, but it's a lot of noise compared to the wider support among Fox Mill parents for moving to Skyview. Under the circumstances, what do you think is the easy way out for Reid and the School Board?

In this morning's meeting, they basically said that they received a lot of mixed feedback from the Crossfield community and they put together Scenario 1 BECAUSE a lot of Crossfield families said they wanted to go to Skyview because it was closer to their homes. Therefore, they picked the closest neighborhoods to Skyview for that scenario. They didn't realize kids might want to stay with their friends, which I think is so dumb, but yes, I agree with y'all that it was more that Fox Mill families wanted to get into an AP school and were loud about it. More families from Fox Mill wanted AP than families from Crossfield that wanted to be closer to home. I think if AP/IB weren't an issue, then Crossfield would be at Skyview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there are a lot of Crossfield parents who would prefer Skyview but, more important to them is to stay with their Crossfield community.
The RIO people jumped very quickly to deny a move to Skyview. Almost immediately they had a petition--before many of us even realized the first options were published.

Their reasons for staying at Oakton could be written by Chantilly people. Centreville people also wrote the same things.

Mostly that we like our school and do not want to move.

The School Board's job is to do what is best. Listening to the loudest voices is important, but acting on behalf of those who don't speak up is also important.

School Board should make wise decisions. Not sure they are doing that.

Look at the map comments on Scenarios 1 and 2.

Many red dots in Crossfield and Fox Mill boundary for high school under Scenario 1, indicating Crossfield and Fox Mill parents largely reject Scenario 1.

And so many green dots in Crossfield and Fox Mill boundary for high school under Scenario 2.

Of course I don't doubt there are some Crossfield parents who would send their kids to Skyview but the results are super clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a Crossfield parent and literally every Crossfield parent I've talked to wants to go to Skyview and is disappointed by this outcome. They've all commented on the boundary tool, sent out letters, talked to school board members, come to meetings, but they haven't been able to drown out the very loud RIO mommas. I haven't talked to anyone, literally anyone, who is active in RIO. I know a few people who are in the Facebook group for awareness, but even those people talk about how much closer Skyview is and it would be nice. So I don't understand what is going on here.

It seems that the few pro-Skyview parents from Crossfield, in terms of the folks I’ve spoken with, anyway, all have very young kids. Which is fine. Moving to a brand new HS is different when your kid has 5-10 years before they get there. That gives time for the school to be established and work out the various kinks. For those of us with older kids, nobody wants to be a guinea pig for a new school when our kids are already thriving in the existing communities we are part of.

Clearly that means people you have talked with, who wants to go sky view, are only a small part of Crossfield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there are a lot of Crossfield parents who would prefer Skyview but, more important to them is to stay with their Crossfield community.
The RIO people jumped very quickly to deny a move to Skyview. Almost immediately they had a petition--before many of us even realized the first options were published.

Their reasons for staying at Oakton could be written by Chantilly people. Centreville people also wrote the same things.

Mostly that we like our school and do not want to move.

The School Board's job is to do what is best. Listening to the loudest voices is important, but acting on behalf of those who don't speak up is also important.

School Board should make wise decisions. Not sure they are doing that.

Look at the map comments on Scenarios 1 and 2.

Many red dots in Crossfield and Fox Mill boundary for high school under Scenario 1, indicating Crossfield and Fox Mill parents largely reject Scenario 1.

And so many green dots in Crossfield and Fox Mill boundary for high school under Scenario 2.

Of course I don't doubt there are some Crossfield parents who would send their kids to Skyview but the results are super clear.

100% this was more about Fox Mill. If there was space for both schools, they would have both been moved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there are a lot of Crossfield parents who would prefer Skyview but, more important to them is to stay with their Crossfield community.
The RIO people jumped very quickly to deny a move to Skyview. Almost immediately they had a petition--before many of us even realized the first options were published.

Their reasons for staying at Oakton could be written by Chantilly people. Centreville people also wrote the same things.

Mostly that we like our school and do not want to move.

The School Board's job is to do what is best. Listening to the loudest voices is important, but acting on behalf of those who don't speak up is also important.

School Board should make wise decisions. Not sure they are doing that.

Look at the map comments on Scenarios 1 and 2.

Many red dots in Crossfield and Fox Mill boundary for high school under Scenario 1, indicating Crossfield and Fox Mill parents largely reject Scenario 1.

And so many green dots in Crossfield and Fox Mill boundary for high school under Scenario 2.

Of course I don't doubt there are some Crossfield parents who would send their kids to Skyview but the results are super clear.

What it doesn't show is how many Crossfield parents would want to go to Skyview were the whole school were assigned there. I suspect it would be greater than you think. Many of the comments here and on Meren's Facebook show that the biggest objection is splitting the kids. Some even say they would happily go to Skyview but don't want to be split from their friends.

[Anonymous]

For all the folks saying they’d rather go to skyview instead of Oakton because of the commute time, remember that you CAN opt in to attend skyview (actually, you can do this from anywhere in the county - there are a few Madison Hs kids going there, in fact). This seems like a pretty easy fix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all the folks saying they’d rather go to skyview instead of Oakton because of the commute time, remember that you CAN opt in to attend skyview (actually, you can do this from anywhere in the county - there are a few Madison Hs kids going there, in fact). This seems like a pretty easy fix.

That's only for rising 9th graders this fall. After that it would be a standard pupil placement, dependent upon availability. Transportation also remains unclear at this point. Some may able to go to a central hub, but others would probably always be on their own to arrange transportation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there are a lot of Crossfield parents who would prefer Skyview but, more important to them is to stay with their Crossfield community.
The RIO people jumped very quickly to deny a move to Skyview. Almost immediately they had a petition--before many of us even realized the first options were published.

Their reasons for staying at Oakton could be written by Chantilly people. Centreville people also wrote the same things.

Mostly that we like our school and do not want to move.

The School Board's job is to do what is best. Listening to the loudest voices is important, but acting on behalf of those who don't speak up is also important.

School Board should make wise decisions. Not sure they are doing that.

Look at the map comments on Scenarios 1 and 2.

Many red dots in Crossfield and Fox Mill boundary for high school under Scenario 1, indicating Crossfield and Fox Mill parents largely reject Scenario 1.

And so many green dots in Crossfield and Fox Mill boundary for high school under Scenario 2.

Of course I don't doubt there are some Crossfield parents who would send their kids to Skyview but the results are super clear.

What it doesn't show is how many Crossfield parents would want to go to Skyview were the whole school were assigned there. I suspect it would be greater than you think. Many of the comments here and on Meren's Facebook show that the biggest objection is splitting the kids. Some even say they would happily go to Skyview but don't want to be split from their friends.

I think “would want to go to Skyview” isn’t quite accurate. Most of these parents, understandably, want to keep their kids in schools where they are already thriving and established, especially those who already have older kids at Oakton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This might be a stupid question, but are these changes ACTUALLY supposed to occur this fall? The FCPS website says these are for the 26-27 school year, but I can't imagine how they are going to make that work.

Please be kind in your responses to me. I am overwhelmed by being the "sandwich generation," currently caring for a parent and a child with a life-threatening diagnosis, so I may not be processing as well as I typically would.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can kindly help me understand.

There are other boundary changes that were adopted in January 2026 that will occur starting this fall for the 2026-27 school year. These changes are discussed at https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/maps/boundary-adjustments-information/adopted-2024-2026-boundary-review

However, any boundary adjustments relating to the opening of Skyview HS, which are discussed at https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/maps/boundary-adjustments-information/skyview-high-school-and-western-pyramids-boundary, would not take place until the fall of 2027 for the 2027-28 school year, and even then families affected may be allowed to "opt out." It's a bit murky.

Thank you! So my rising 7th grade child might go to a different middle school than my rising 9th grade child attended the past two years, I guess. Wow.

If you have a rising 7th grade child this fall (starting 7th grade in the fall of 2026), I believe the only scenario where they'd go to a different middle school than your rising 9th grade child attended would be if you live in an area affected by the boundary changes adopted in January 2026 - which don't relate to the opening of Skyview.

So, for example, you could live in an area that's been rezoned from Kilmer/Marshall to Thoreau/Madison starting this fall. Your rising 7th grader would go to Thoreau even if your rising 9th grader went to Kilmer, and your rising 9th grader would go to Madison even though most of Kilmer going forward continues to go to Marshall.

But if you live in an area that might be rezoned from, say, Carson to Franklin in connection with the upcoming Skyview-related changes that are still under discussion, your rising 7th grader would still go to Carson this fall, whereas kids starting 7th grade in the fall of 2027 might go to Franklin.

Hope that makes sense. It's complicated when they are dealing with so many boundary changes at the same time. I haven't even mentioned the other boundary changes they are considering as a follow-up to the county-wide study and the changes adopted in January. Those changes aren't part of the Skyview study, and could affect some other middle schools starting in the fall of 2027.