Wiki version of what happened at Lemon Road
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Anonymous
| I've seen postings about how the got moved from a center and became a center.. there are so many pages on this change.. can someone please summarize what happened there? thanks |
Anonymous
|
Haycock AAP center was overcrowded so they took the kids form Westgate, Lemon Road and Shrevewood and assigned them to a new AAP center at Lemon Road instead of Haycock. The rising 6th graders that year were grandfathered, but the rising 4th and 5th graders were not. This was 2 years ago.
Does that work? |
Anonymous
| Wasn't there also an issue with construction? |
Anonymous
| Not really. They were going to be beginning a renovation, but the parents were upset with the overcrowding in the old space so I'm not sure the renovation really played into it (although I'm sure there are those who will disagree). |
Anonymous
|
Years and years and years ago, Lemon Road's boundary was going to be expanded toward Kent Garden's to help with its overcrowding. If it did not have its boundary expanded it would have been closed because it was too small. A compromise was negotiated where Lemon Road became a school to which people could transfer their children from other schools without the usual required reasons. The former Principal managed the transfers so that there were two small classes for each grade. On average about 80 students, schoolwide, were transfers. It also kept the numbers down so that LemonRoad qualified as a 'small" school which meant they had different formulas for specialist hours from FCPS. It has been a split feeder to Longfellow and Kilmer for generations of students (although only a handful go to Longfellow). It has had a fair amount of economic diversity and the free and reduced lunch %'s were around 25%. A few years ago, a boundary change was proposed from the other side - instigated by Freedom Hill to help with their overcrowding. However, their idea was to pawn off most of the free and reduced meal students to Lemon Road. It would have meant Lemon Road becoming a Title I school. Lemon Road fought back and a compromise ensued and they took half of those students and half of another section of more affluent neighborhood. They were able to absorb this by increasing class sizes and possibly an addition. This was done in one calendar school year, where the original proposal was presented and the final one was done before the next school year started. Historically very swift. The following school year, Lemon Road was presented with the addition and another change- the opening of a AAP Center for the following fall. The AAP Center would take the students currently attending Haycock from the former District II schools. At the time Longfellow was in District I and Kilmer was in District II, although may district II AAP students from several ES attended Haycock (district I) . This was to alleviate Haycock's tremendous overcrowding which was much more severe than Freedom Hill's. All of this decision making, again, was done within a school year. Again, historically very swift. In the midst of the above, their longtime Principal retired. An experienced interim came in to manage the addition and now they have a permanent Principal. Most of the Haycock drama was recorded on DCUM. Most of the Lemon Road's was not. I think the Lemon Road community did extremely well coping with so much change over so little time. It doubled the size of the school in a three year timeframe. |
Anonymous
|
Fascinating.
Although I'm still not over the "severe overcrowding" that just HAD to be fixed immediately at haycock.... Meanwhile, at GBW... |
Anonymous
The Haycock parents were very vocal and very organized. That's what GBW needs to do if it wants action. It wasn't pretty (as you could see on DCUM) but they got what they wanted. |
Anonymous
Both schools are/were incredibly overcrowded. GBW should have fought better to remove the grandfathering of kids there and really to remove those kids earlier than this year. But they didn't so now you have to wait several years for your school to even out. In 3 years GBW should be fine. Louse Archer was in the same situation with grandfathering kept and now might even have open classrooms. At least there's a plan now for GBW. McNair is the new school that needs to be relooked at, but parents keep fighting to keep their kids in boundary. FCPS should have a trigger in place that when an elementary school has over 900 students, they start looking at redistricting. |
Anonymous
| Well, I know I tried like hell. There was horrible apathy in our community. The school and PTA were absolutely silent on the issue. I like the principal, but she has an unwritten policy that teachers are not allowed to get involved in such matters. But they were behind the scenes thanking those of us who were fighting to keep going. There was a lot of confusion and very poor communication from key players on what was actually happening. |
Anonymous
|
We got a compromise with the 4th grade - the original proposal was for just the rising 3rd graders. Which would have done absolutely zip in terms of alleviating the mess they created for us.
I think the trigger idea makes sense, especially when there is a center involved. A center should not creat this nightmare for a school. Next up is getting the Powell kids kept at their own school. |
Anonymous
I know it fits the preferred narrative for some people to claim the Haycock parents were loud and pushy, but there were two factors present with Haycock not present with Archer or GBW: (1) Haycock was about to undergo its first major renovation since the school was built in the early 1950s and temporarily lose capacity; and (2) there was another school less than two miles away (Lemon Road) that had just been expanded, had surplus capacity, and was closer to the homes of many of the AAP students than Haycock. Had those factors been present at Archer or GBW, things might have played out differently there. |
Anonymous
| And the parents were loud and pushy. Sorry, there is no way you can deny that. |
Anonymous
| Meanwhile, parents of some of the schools who were to have sent their AAP kids to Lemon Road opted for local level IV or in Westbriar's case, their own center. Westbriar, which is currently getting it's own addition, is expected to max out on capacity shortly after it is completed (more than 900 kids by 2017) Meanwhile, Lemon Road is under capacity in large part because activist Westbriar parents didn't want to have to send their AAP darlings to what they considered a sub-par and lower income school. The fact that FCPS admin. let them get away with this is appalling. Meanwhile, Stenwood AAP kids are bused to Westbriar (through Tysons traffic) when Lemon Road is actually the closer school. |
Anonymous
| Why in the world does fcps make such stupid decisions just to appease a small group of parents? |
Anonymous
| In a few years people will be begging to go to Lemon Road. |