FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Common sense would be focusing on where students actually live and are expected to live in the future, and then making sure that the schools serving those areas have adequate seats.

Common sense would be focusing on what principals and teachers at schools like West Springfield are doing right that are making the school so desirable that fqmilies are moving there in droves and happy to be in an overcrowded school.

In my opionion, the admin and community of West Springfield has done a fantastic job making balancing high achievement with fun and traditional high school experiences. The admin and staff generally, with only a few exceptions, work hard to keep things neutral and middle of the road, which attracts moderate, centrist and conservative families. They have very strong community involvement that makes the high school feel like a small town school. There are generational families there, including many teachers who were former students of WS. Old people in the community are involved in WS, and still consider it "their school" so they are very invested in the success of the school. And the military population gives it a unique character that is appealing to many, with students who are generalluly pro America and proud of their country.

Look at what they are doing right at making a huge school feel like a small town community school, and try to duplicate that.

When everyone around you is invested in the success of the school, it makes a difference.

What are they doing to achieve this result? The biggest thing is successfully keeping poor immigrant families out of West Springfield. And the students they did take from Lee were among the wealthiest. There is no secret sauce at WS.

The free / reduced lunch number at WS: 17%, at Lewis: 62%. Percentage of English learners at WS: 5%, at Lewis: 30%.

The School Board threw Lee under the school bus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just put those daventry kids back.

Didn’t that neighborhood try for quite some time to get their rezoning, and it was finally approved w/o public hearings since the impact on either high school was so minuscule. I don’t think they would take too kindly to your suggestion.

Well, the Daventry kids back to Lewis or the Sangster split feeder removed with the entire school sent to Lale Braddock makes the most sense.

Sangster to Lake Braddock would be completely non controversial with almost zero complaints. Property values would not be impacted, schools are very equivalent by every metric, kids would stay with their friends since LB and WS have so much overlap already. It wouldn't even be a blip on the radar for anyone, especially not the students.

Daventry to Lewis would create a shit storm, especially since their property values jumped significantly when they were rezoned to WS (6 figure increases almost overnight). They would lose around $100,000 in equity instantly. Messing with people's nest eggs and biggest investment like that , in the interest of social engineering, would be really crappy and underhanded.

Just a side note, the Daventry switch brought over WAY more students than the data used to rezone them indicated. I believe the figure used was fewer than 20 students. However, they did not take intl account that Daventry is PACKED with kids.

When Daventry was zoned for Lewis (then Lee) many high school students went to Catholic school or home schooled, or they pupil placed to Lake Braddock for Japanese, West Springfield for German, or other schools for AP.. The younger families had Catholic/home schooling/pupil placement within FCPS as their plan for high school, with no intention of sending their kids to Lewis.

All of those families sending their kids elsewhere for high school immediately returned to their local high school once they were rezoned for WS, and more families tried to buy in that neighborhood because of the high school.

If Daventry is rezoned back to Lewis, the same thing will happen in reverse, and it will be only 3 or 4 kids per grade making the switch just like before, instead of the dozens of kids from Daventry who currently attend WSHS.

I guess it’s OK as long as the county keeps putting low income housing else where and pushes the values down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting about Daventry, PP. My sister lives there and as you said, that neighborhood is PACKED full of kids.

We’re in the Hunt Valley neighborhood, and I’ve heard that some of those families would’ve been zoned for Lee/Lewis in the past. Do you know which neighborhoods that would’ve been? I think we’re squarely in the WS zone as we live near Hunt Valley pool. In any case, I have 8th and 10th graders so I’m guessing my kids will be gone before any boundary change happened.

The other side of the parkway, off Gambrill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SB floated three proposals in the latest draft. Do a comprehensive review 1) every 5 years, 2) every 5 years but not until 2035, and 3) every 10 years.

They shouldn't be worrying about the frequency yet. They should see if they can pull it off just once.

And start with the most obvious one - moving 400 kids out of crowded West Springfield to Lewis (which now only has about 1650 kids).

They can see how well that trial balloon goes and then start making the other changes they are salivating to make, like moving 1/2 of Great Falls to Herndon.

It's no skin off Kyle McDaniel's back, since he's zoned for recently expanded and renovated Oakton. But his old boss Pat Herrity might want to have a word or two with him.

The fact that some SB member is or isn’t at a renovated school is independent of boundary changes. The schools are what they are when looking at balancing student numbers. Some school or another will be older than others any time a study is done.

The draft proposed boundary policy recommended by County staff seems like common sense.

The major updates to the new policy mandate that the superintendent adhere to a specific set of criteria when drawing school boundary lines and require a county-wide review of school boundaries every five years.

The revised policy retains elements of the existing one, such as assigning students to schools based on proximity to their homes. However, under the proposed changes, when establishing new boundaries, the superintendent must ensure that schools have sufficient capacity for future students; avoid splitting students from the same neighborhood among different schools; minimize student travel times; and provide equal access to programming.

https://www.ffxnow.com/2024/04/19/fairfax-school-board-to-review-initial-draft-of-new-boundary-adjustment-policy-next-month/

So basically some event, like opening a new school, building a huge new addition to an existing school, or closing an underutilized school, would have to trigger the boundary changes for the revised policy to take effect. So the Board isn't just going to willy nilly move the tiny number of students in Daventry back to Lewis/Lee. Another scenario is that all the future and planned growth in Tysons, both affordable and market rate, will necessitate boundary changes among the Marshall, McLean, and neighboring school pyramids. I wonder what the capacity at Marshall is since that school was recently renovated.

Sounds like a large number of Longfellow kids got into TJ this year, probably takes any pressure to rezone McLean again off for a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Common sense would be focusing on where students actually live and are expected to live in the future, and then making sure that the schools serving those areas have adequate seats.

Common sense would be focusing on what principals and teachers at schools like West Springfield are doing right that are making the school so desirable that fqmilies are moving there in droves and happy to be in an overcrowded school.

In my opionion, the admin and community of West Springfield has done a fantastic job making balancing high achievement with fun and traditional high school experiences. The admin and staff generally, with only a few exceptions, work hard to keep things neutral and middle of the road, which attracts moderate, centrist and conservative families. They have very strong community involvement that makes the high school feel like a small town school. There are generational families there, including many teachers who were former students of WS. Old people in the community are involved in WS, and still consider it "their school" so they are very invested in the success of the school. And the military population gives it a unique character that is appealing to many, with students who are generalluly pro America and proud of their country.

Look at what they are doing right at making a huge school feel like a small town community school, and try to duplicate that.

When everyone around you is invested in the success of the school, it makes a difference.

Are you the WSHS principal? There are many concerns about standards based grading there. It’s not utopia.

Where would you get that from my post?

I am axparent who has had multiple kids go through West Springfield over 10 years, including before, during and after the pandemic.

Of course no school is perfect. But WSHS is doing a LOT of things right. They are not the highest SAT school in the district, but they are as sought out as the top tier schools, arguably one of the most sought after schools based on the explosion of growth in an area that has zero new housing stock and homes that are starting to outpace the military BAQ allowance.

I have taught all over the country and have kids in schools all over the country. The administration, teachers and community at WSHS do a wonderful job at making the school feel like a small, local, community school instead of a giant, behemoth, overcrowded school.

The administration and teachers deserve credit for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just put those daventry kids back.

Didn’t that neighborhood try for quite some time to get their rezoning, and it was finally approved w/o public hearings since the impact on either high school was so minuscule. I don’t think they would take too kindly to your suggestion.

Well, the Daventry kids back to Lewis or the Sangster split feeder removed with the entire school sent to Lale Braddock makes the most sense.

Sangster to Lake Braddock would be completely non controversial with almost zero complaints. Property values would not be impacted, schools are very equivalent by every metric, kids would stay with their friends since LB and WS have so much overlap already. It wouldn't even be a blip on the radar for anyone, especially not the students.

Daventry to Lewis would create a shit storm, especially since their property values jumped significantly when they were rezoned to WS (6 figure increases almost overnight). They would lose around $100,000 in equity instantly. Messing with people's nest eggs and biggest investment like that , in the interest of social engineering, would be really crappy and underhanded.

Just a side note, the Daventry switch brought over WAY more students than the data used to rezone them indicated. I believe the figure used was fewer than 20 students. However, they did not take intl account that Daventry is PACKED with kids.

When Daventry was zoned for Lewis (then Lee) many high school students went to Catholic school or home schooled, or they pupil placed to Lake Braddock for Japanese, West Springfield for German, or other schools for AP.. The younger families had Catholic/home schooling/pupil placement within FCPS as their plan for high school, with no intention of sending their kids to Lewis.

All of those families sending their kids elsewhere for high school immediately returned to their local high school once they were rezoned for WS, and more families tried to buy in that neighborhood because of the high school.

If Daventry is rezoned back to Lewis, the same thing will happen in reverse, and it will be only 3 or 4 kids per grade making the switch just like before, instead of the dozens of kids from Daventry who currently attend WSHS.

I guess it’s OK as long as the county keeps putting low income housing else where and pushes the values down.

And she’s back - the SJW who thinks everything is a massive conspiracy against the poor. Unfortunately, I think she espouses the views of many of the current board extremists and thus can’t be totally ignored.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Common sense would be focusing on where students actually live and are expected to live in the future, and then making sure that the schools serving those areas have adequate seats.

Common sense would be focusing on what principals and teachers at schools like West Springfield are doing right that are making the school so desirable that fqmilies are moving there in droves and happy to be in an overcrowded school.

In my opionion, the admin and community of West Springfield has done a fantastic job making balancing high achievement with fun and traditional high school experiences. The admin and staff generally, with only a few exceptions, work hard to keep things neutral and middle of the road, which attracts moderate, centrist and conservative families. They have very strong community involvement that makes the high school feel like a small town school. There are generational families there, including many teachers who were former students of WS. Old people in the community are involved in WS, and still consider it "their school" so they are very invested in the success of the school. And the military population gives it a unique character that is appealing to many, with students who are generalluly pro America and proud of their country.

Look at what they are doing right at making a huge school feel like a small town community school, and try to duplicate that.

When everyone around you is invested in the success of the school, it makes a difference.

This sounds awful. Hard pass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting about Daventry, PP. My sister lives there and as you said, that neighborhood is PACKED full of kids.

We’re in the Hunt Valley neighborhood, and I’ve heard that some of those families would’ve been zoned for Lee/Lewis in the past. Do you know which neighborhoods that would’ve been? I think we’re squarely in the WS zone as we live near Hunt Valley pool. In any case, I have 8th and 10th graders so I’m guessing my kids will be gone before any boundary change happened.

The Gambrill neighborhoods outside the parkway.

That rezoning happened long ago, before any current Lewis or WS pyramid students were in school and before most of them were even born, back when south county was built. The current eeniors were either not yeat born oe newborn infants when that HV neighborhood was rezoned to WS (2005) to give you some perspective of how long ago that was.

The story as I understand it was that when that rezoning happened to accomodate the new high school, Saratoga families fought tooth and nail to remain at Lee (Lewis) instead of transferring to nearby South County only a few minutes from their houses. They were successful, but it did not turn out the way they had hoped in the long term as they were the only neighborhood successful at staying at Lee/Lewis.

There was a very unhappy Saratoga mom who posted about it for years here. That is where I got this background story, so there might be some holes in it. That Saratoga person posted regularly in any rezoning thread very angrily about West Springfield, and specifically that Hunt Valley (the farthest out WS elementary school from Lewis and the farthest out school rezoned to the much closer WS) needs to be rezoned to Lewis. The only justification to their arguments is that part of HV outside the parkway used to be zoned for Lee 20 years ago.

It is a weird story that you would not know if you moved here in the past 2 decades, or if you don't often visit these message boards. That person's kids must have long graduated fcps by now, but suspect that they still posts in threads advocating to rezone WS based on the tone and arguments of some of those posts.

Really, except for the Sangster neighborhoods, HV is the farthest away from Lewis and makes the least sense to rezone to Lewis out of all the WS neighborhoods. The one that makes the most sense out of all the elementary schools geographically is Keene Mill, which would also bring an AAP center to the Lewis pyramid.

But really, if the school board wants to rezone WSHS without a headache, Sangster split feeder to Lake Braddock makes the most sense. At most, they will get a few resigned sighs from families that are generational West Springfield families, but the complaints, appeals and push back would be minimal.

I don’t know much about the rest of the schools, but can say that all the Keene Mill kids are walk-zone to Irving, so that would be an issue. Why add a bunch of buses to lee and eliminate a walk zone or why make kids go k-8 together and then mix for high school. Also, that is where a good chunk of the diversity for WSHS is as the housing stock is less expensive than the surrounding areas. (With the exception of Cardinal Forest Condos). I thought Springfield Estates fed to Lewis, or does it not have an AAP school? Most of the Keene mill AAP kids go to Lake Braddock and all the AAP kids can choose between Braddock and Irving so the argument that it would add AAP to Lewis isn’t really true. Those kids already go somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Common sense would be focusing on where students actually live and are expected to live in the future, and then making sure that the schools serving those areas have adequate seats.

Common sense would be focusing on what principals and teachers at schools like West Springfield are doing right that are making the school so desirable that fqmilies are moving there in droves and happy to be in an overcrowded school.

In my opionion, the admin and community of West Springfield has done a fantastic job making balancing high achievement with fun and traditional high school experiences. The admin and staff generally, with only a few exceptions, work hard to keep things neutral and middle of the road, which attracts moderate, centrist and conservative families. They have very strong community involvement that makes the high school feel like a small town school. There are generational families there, including many teachers who were former students of WS. Old people in the community are involved in WS, and still consider it "their school" so they are very invested in the success of the school. And the military population gives it a unique character that is appealing to many, with students who are generalluly pro America and proud of their country.

Look at what they are doing right at making a huge school feel like a small town community school, and try to duplicate that.

When everyone around you is invested in the success of the school, it makes a difference.

This sounds awful. Hard pass.

I don’t quite get the same impression of WSHS that PP has. I have children there too and while I have mostly positive feelings of the school, I don’t share her impressions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting about Daventry, PP. My sister lives there and as you said, that neighborhood is PACKED full of kids.

We’re in the Hunt Valley neighborhood, and I’ve heard that some of those families would’ve been zoned for Lee/Lewis in the past. Do you know which neighborhoods that would’ve been? I think we’re squarely in the WS zone as we live near Hunt Valley pool. In any case, I have 8th and 10th graders so I’m guessing my kids will be gone before any boundary change happened.

The Gambrill neighborhoods outside the parkway.

That rezoning happened long ago, before any current Lewis or WS pyramid students were in school and before most of them were even born, back when south county was built. The current eeniors were either not yeat born oe newborn infants when that HV neighborhood was rezoned to WS (2005) to give you some perspective of how long ago that was.

The story as I understand it was that when that rezoning happened to accomodate the new high school, Saratoga families fought tooth and nail to remain at Lee (Lewis) instead of transferring to nearby South County only a few minutes from their houses. They were successful, but it did not turn out the way they had hoped in the long term as they were the only neighborhood successful at staying at Lee/Lewis.

There was a very unhappy Saratoga mom who posted about it for years here. That is where I got this background story, so there might be some holes in it. That Saratoga person posted regularly in any rezoning thread very angrily about West Springfield, and specifically that Hunt Valley (the farthest out WS elementary school from Lewis and the farthest out school rezoned to the much closer WS) needs to be rezoned to Lewis. The only justification to their arguments is that part of HV outside the parkway used to be zoned for Lee 20 years ago.

It is a weird story that you would not know if you moved here in the past 2 decades, or if you don't often visit these message boards. That person's kids must have long graduated fcps by now, but suspect that they still posts in threads advocating to rezone WS based on the tone and arguments of some of those posts.

Really, except for the Sangster neighborhoods, HV is the farthest away from Lewis and makes the least sense to rezone to Lewis out of all the WS neighborhoods. The one that makes the most sense out of all the elementary schools geographically is Keene Mill, which would also bring an AAP center to the Lewis pyramid.

But really, if the school board wants to rezone WSHS without a headache, Sangster split feeder to Lake Braddock makes the most sense. At most, they will get a few resigned sighs from families that are generational West Springfield families, but the complaints, appeals and push back would be minimal.

I don’t know much about the rest of the schools, but can say that all the Keene Mill kids are walk-zone to Irving, so that would be an issue. Why add a bunch of buses to lee and eliminate a walk zone or why make kids go k-8 together and then mix for high school. Also, that is where a good chunk of the diversity for WSHS is as the housing stock is less expensive than the surrounding areas. (With the exception of Cardinal Forest Condos). I thought Springfield Estates fed to Lewis, or does it not have an AAP school? Most of the Keene mill AAP kids go to Lake Braddock and all the AAP kids can choose between Braddock and Irving so the argument that it would add AAP to Lewis isn’t really true. Those kids already go somewhere else.

Geographically, Keene Mill is the closest zone to Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting about Daventry, PP. My sister lives there and as you said, that neighborhood is PACKED full of kids.

We’re in the Hunt Valley neighborhood, and I’ve heard that some of those families would’ve been zoned for Lee/Lewis in the past. Do you know which neighborhoods that would’ve been? I think we’re squarely in the WS zone as we live near Hunt Valley pool. In any case, I have 8th and 10th graders so I’m guessing my kids will be gone before any boundary change happened.

The Gambrill neighborhoods outside the parkway.

That rezoning happened long ago, before any current Lewis or WS pyramid students were in school and before most of them were even born, back when south county was built. The current eeniors were either not yeat born oe newborn infants when that HV neighborhood was rezoned to WS (2005) to give you some perspective of how long ago that was.

The story as I understand it was that when that rezoning happened to accomodate the new high school, Saratoga families fought tooth and nail to remain at Lee (Lewis) instead of transferring to nearby South County only a few minutes from their houses. They were successful, but it did not turn out the way they had hoped in the long term as they were the only neighborhood successful at staying at Lee/Lewis.

There was a very unhappy Saratoga mom who posted about it for years here. That is where I got this background story, so there might be some holes in it. That Saratoga person posted regularly in any rezoning thread very angrily about West Springfield, and specifically that Hunt Valley (the farthest out WS elementary school from Lewis and the farthest out school rezoned to the much closer WS) needs to be rezoned to Lewis. The only justification to their arguments is that part of HV outside the parkway used to be zoned for Lee 20 years ago.

It is a weird story that you would not know if you moved here in the past 2 decades, or if you don't often visit these message boards. That person's kids must have long graduated fcps by now, but suspect that they still posts in threads advocating to rezone WS based on the tone and arguments of some of those posts.

Really, except for the Sangster neighborhoods, HV is the farthest away from Lewis and makes the least sense to rezone to Lewis out of all the WS neighborhoods. The one that makes the most sense out of all the elementary schools geographically is Keene Mill, which would also bring an AAP center to the Lewis pyramid.

But really, if the school board wants to rezone WSHS without a headache, Sangster split feeder to Lake Braddock makes the most sense. At most, they will get a few resigned sighs from families that are generational West Springfield families, but the complaints, appeals and push back would be minimal.

I don’t know much about the rest of the schools, but can say that all the Keene Mill kids are walk-zone to Irving, so that would be an issue. Why add a bunch of buses to lee and eliminate a walk zone or why make kids go k-8 together and then mix for high school. Also, that is where a good chunk of the diversity for WSHS is as the housing stock is less expensive than the surrounding areas. (With the exception of Cardinal Forest Condos). I thought Springfield Estates fed to Lewis, or does it not have an AAP school? Most of the Keene mill AAP kids go to Lake Braddock and all the AAP kids can choose between Braddock and Irving so the argument that it would add AAP to Lewis isn’t really true. Those kids already go somewhere else.

Geographically, Keene Mill is the closest zone to Lewis.

Kind of looks like WS neighbors are starting to nominate other WS neighbors to be sent to Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting about Daventry, PP. My sister lives there and as you said, that neighborhood is PACKED full of kids.

We’re in the Hunt Valley neighborhood, and I’ve heard that some of those families would’ve been zoned for Lee/Lewis in the past. Do you know which neighborhoods that would’ve been? I think we’re squarely in the WS zone as we live near Hunt Valley pool. In any case, I have 8th and 10th graders so I’m guessing my kids will be gone before any boundary change happened.

The Gambrill neighborhoods outside the parkway.

That rezoning happened long ago, before any current Lewis or WS pyramid students were in school and before most of them were even born, back when south county was built. The current eeniors were either not yeat born oe newborn infants when that HV neighborhood was rezoned to WS (2005) to give you some perspective of how long ago that was.

The story as I understand it was that when that rezoning happened to accomodate the new high school, Saratoga families fought tooth and nail to remain at Lee (Lewis) instead of transferring to nearby South County only a few minutes from their houses. They were successful, but it did not turn out the way they had hoped in the long term as they were the only neighborhood successful at staying at Lee/Lewis.

There was a very unhappy Saratoga mom who posted about it for years here. That is where I got this background story, so there might be some holes in it. That Saratoga person posted regularly in any rezoning thread very angrily about West Springfield, and specifically that Hunt Valley (the farthest out WS elementary school from Lewis and the farthest out school rezoned to the much closer WS) needs to be rezoned to Lewis. The only justification to their arguments is that part of HV outside the parkway used to be zoned for Lee 20 years ago.

It is a weird story that you would not know if you moved here in the past 2 decades, or if you don't often visit these message boards. That person's kids must have long graduated fcps by now, but suspect that they still posts in threads advocating to rezone WS based on the tone and arguments of some of those posts.

Really, except for the Sangster neighborhoods, HV is the farthest away from Lewis and makes the least sense to rezone to Lewis out of all the WS neighborhoods. The one that makes the most sense out of all the elementary schools geographically is Keene Mill, which would also bring an AAP center to the Lewis pyramid.

But really, if the school board wants to rezone WSHS without a headache, Sangster split feeder to Lake Braddock makes the most sense. At most, they will get a few resigned sighs from families that are generational West Springfield families, but the complaints, appeals and push back would be minimal.

I don’t know much about the rest of the schools, but can say that all the Keene Mill kids are walk-zone to Irving, so that would be an issue. Why add a bunch of buses to lee and eliminate a walk zone or why make kids go k-8 together and then mix for high school. Also, that is where a good chunk of the diversity for WSHS is as the housing stock is less expensive than the surrounding areas. (With the exception of Cardinal Forest Condos). I thought Springfield Estates fed to Lewis, or does it not have an AAP school? Most of the Keene mill AAP kids go to Lake Braddock and all the AAP kids can choose between Braddock and Irving so the argument that it would add AAP to Lewis isn’t really true. Those kids already go somewhere else.

Geographically, Keene Mill is the closest zone to Lewis.

Kind of looks like WS neighbors are starting to nominate other WS neighbors to be sent to Lewis.

This dozens of times over will be the end result of the Board’s push, and they’re planning to revisit every five years. TLDR, they are about to permanently unsettle the kids in FCPS, and there will be no way to predict what school your kids will wind up at.

Imagine the impact on Fairfax County home values across the county when home buyers can’t rely on the school pyramids. And imagine the hit to the tax base. This is going to get really ugly, really fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting about Daventry, PP. My sister lives there and as you said, that neighborhood is PACKED full of kids.

We’re in the Hunt Valley neighborhood, and I’ve heard that some of those families would’ve been zoned for Lee/Lewis in the past. Do you know which neighborhoods that would’ve been? I think we’re squarely in the WS zone as we live near Hunt Valley pool. In any case, I have 8th and 10th graders so I’m guessing my kids will be gone before any boundary change happened.

The Gambrill neighborhoods outside the parkway.

That rezoning happened long ago, before any current Lewis or WS pyramid students were in school and before most of them were even born, back when south county was built. The current eeniors were either not yeat born oe newborn infants when that HV neighborhood was rezoned to WS (2005) to give you some perspective of how long ago that was.

The story as I understand it was that when that rezoning happened to accomodate the new high school, Saratoga families fought tooth and nail to remain at Lee (Lewis) instead of transferring to nearby South County only a few minutes from their houses. They were successful, but it did not turn out the way they had hoped in the long term as they were the only neighborhood successful at staying at Lee/Lewis.

There was a very unhappy Saratoga mom who posted about it for years here. That is where I got this background story, so there might be some holes in it. That Saratoga person posted regularly in any rezoning thread very angrily about West Springfield, and specifically that Hunt Valley (the farthest out WS elementary school from Lewis and the farthest out school rezoned to the much closer WS) needs to be rezoned to Lewis. The only justification to their arguments is that part of HV outside the parkway used to be zoned for Lee 20 years ago.

It is a weird story that you would not know if you moved here in the past 2 decades, or if you don't often visit these message boards. That person's kids must have long graduated fcps by now, but suspect that they still posts in threads advocating to rezone WS based on the tone and arguments of some of those posts.

Really, except for the Sangster neighborhoods, HV is the farthest away from Lewis and makes the least sense to rezone to Lewis out of all the WS neighborhoods. The one that makes the most sense out of all the elementary schools geographically is Keene Mill, which would also bring an AAP center to the Lewis pyramid.

But really, if the school board wants to rezone WSHS without a headache, Sangster split feeder to Lake Braddock makes the most sense. At most, they will get a few resigned sighs from families that are generational West Springfield families, but the complaints, appeals and push back would be minimal.

I don’t know much about the rest of the schools, but can say that all the Keene Mill kids are walk-zone to Irving, so that would be an issue. Why add a bunch of buses to lee and eliminate a walk zone or why make kids go k-8 together and then mix for high school. Also, that is where a good chunk of the diversity for WSHS is as the housing stock is less expensive than the surrounding areas. (With the exception of Cardinal Forest Condos). I thought Springfield Estates fed to Lewis, or does it not have an AAP school? Most of the Keene mill AAP kids go to Lake Braddock and all the AAP kids can choose between Braddock and Irving so the argument that it would add AAP to Lewis isn’t really true. Those kids already go somewhere else.

Geographically, Keene Mill is the closest zone to Lewis.

Kind of looks like WS neighbors are starting to nominate other WS neighbors to be sent to Lewis.

But why send anything all the way down the parkway to Lewis, when they could do other stuff already mentioned (send all of Sangster to LB, retool boundaries so south of the parkway Hunt Valley goes to probably Newington Forest and South County and then send some of Orange Hunt to HV to relieve its own overcrowding problem) and no one has to end up as the sacrificial lambs to bring up a failing school? Just giving one or two higher income neighborhoods or even a whole feeder ES to Lewis isn’t going to help it. You’d need at least two and sending one of Lewis’s existing feeders elsewhere (would have to be WSHS because everything other HS and there is already on the brink) to have a marked improvement.

[Anonymous]

With the projected growth in and around Tysons Corner, I wonder if Marshall would get the addition over McLean since it has a much larger site. FCPS should hire an architecture/engineering consultant to study such scenarios for all the schools and pyramids, i.e., where to strategically expand schools to minimise boundary disruptions?

Also where should high school growth be capped at? 3,000 sounds reasonable. I don’t think we’d want high schools larger than that at all, where the cons begin to outweigh the benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting about Daventry, PP. My sister lives there and as you said, that neighborhood is PACKED full of kids.

We’re in the Hunt Valley neighborhood, and I’ve heard that some of those families would’ve been zoned for Lee/Lewis in the past. Do you know which neighborhoods that would’ve been? I think we’re squarely in the WS zone as we live near Hunt Valley pool. In any case, I have 8th and 10th graders so I’m guessing my kids will be gone before any boundary change happened.

The Gambrill neighborhoods outside the parkway.

That rezoning happened long ago, before any current Lewis or WS pyramid students were in school and before most of them were even born, back when south county was built. The current eeniors were either not yeat born oe newborn infants when that HV neighborhood was rezoned to WS (2005) to give you some perspective of how long ago that was.

The story as I understand it was that when that rezoning happened to accomodate the new high school, Saratoga families fought tooth and nail to remain at Lee (Lewis) instead of transferring to nearby South County only a few minutes from their houses. They were successful, but it did not turn out the way they had hoped in the long term as they were the only neighborhood successful at staying at Lee/Lewis.

There was a very unhappy Saratoga mom who posted about it for years here. That is where I got this background story, so there might be some holes in it. That Saratoga person posted regularly in any rezoning thread very angrily about West Springfield, and specifically that Hunt Valley (the farthest out WS elementary school from Lewis and the farthest out school rezoned to the much closer WS) needs to be rezoned to Lewis. The only justification to their arguments is that part of HV outside the parkway used to be zoned for Lee 20 years ago.

It is a weird story that you would not know if you moved here in the past 2 decades, or if you don't often visit these message boards. That person's kids must have long graduated fcps by now, but suspect that they still posts in threads advocating to rezone WS based on the tone and arguments of some of those posts.

Really, except for the Sangster neighborhoods, HV is the farthest away from Lewis and makes the least sense to rezone to Lewis out of all the WS neighborhoods. The one that makes the most sense out of all the elementary schools geographically is Keene Mill, which would also bring an AAP center to the Lewis pyramid.

But really, if the school board wants to rezone WSHS without a headache, Sangster split feeder to Lake Braddock makes the most sense. At most, they will get a few resigned sighs from families that are generational West Springfield families, but the complaints, appeals and push back would be minimal.

I don’t know much about the rest of the schools, but can say that all the Keene Mill kids are walk-zone to Irving, so that would be an issue. Why add a bunch of buses to lee and eliminate a walk zone or why make kids go k-8 together and then mix for high school. Also, that is where a good chunk of the diversity for WSHS is as the housing stock is less expensive than the surrounding areas. (With the exception of Cardinal Forest Condos). I thought Springfield Estates fed to Lewis, or does it not have an AAP school? Most of the Keene mill AAP kids go to Lake Braddock and all the AAP kids can choose between Braddock and Irving so the argument that it would add AAP to Lewis isn’t really true. Those kids already go somewhere else.

Geographically, Keene Mill is the closest zone to Lewis.

Kind of looks like WS neighbors are starting to nominate other WS neighbors to be sent to Lewis.

This dozens of times over will be the end result of the Board’s push, and they’re planning to revisit every five years. TLDR, they are about to permanently unsettle the kids in FCPS, and there will be no way to predict what school your kids will wind up at.

Imagine the impact on Fairfax County home values across the county when home buyers can’t rely on the school pyramids. And imagine the hit to the tax base. This is going to get really ugly, really fast.

Actually, it will be great if they do this on a regular basis. People won’t freak out like they are doing now because it will be expected. Resources will be used more efficiently. People will realize that all FCPS schools are fine to good and their kids will be just fine. Other districts do boundary changes regularly. The only reason this will be so painful is because so many school boards have punted instead of being good stewards of the system.