FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

Hunt Valley was a split school long ago. In fact, the homes near Gambrill either went to Hunt Valley/Irving/Lee or Newington Forest/Hayfield.

I think there is still a townhome neighborhood right off the parkway that still feeds to Lee/Lewis and is very close the single family homes that get WSHS.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Your argument is absurd. The number one reason people with kids buy a house is the school pyramid. And people want predictability. You’re just arguing based on a wish and a prayer not grounded in any reality whatsoever.

And it’d be hard for the county to reverse course once they start down this ridiculous path. What programs do you want to get rid of when the tax base falls off a cliff? Or should we axe teachers instead? At the end of the day we all live with the consequences of these decisions, including you assuming you live here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

I don't think any boundary changes will enjoy legitimacy unless accompanied by a new renovation queue with commitments to invest in the most neglected schools, including Annandale, Lewis, and McLean HS (the latter of which has been overcrowded for over a decade). The School Board has been under Democratic control for many years and they've expanded the majority of high schools to 2300 to 3000 permanent seats. Leaving just a handful with fewer (Annandale has a design capacity of 2279 seats, Lewis 2139, and McLean only 1993) while other schools have reaped the benefits of capital investments is unfair.

Once the most obvious disparities in terms of the number of seats has been addressed, they can talk about routine periodic adjustments. Not every school needs to have the exact same number of permanent seats, but leaving some high schools with 2000 or so seats when others now or will have 3000 demonstrates poor management.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Tysons splits about 55% to Marshall (south and west Tysons) and 45% to McLean (north and east Tysons). Since McLean has a larger enrollment and is more overcrowded than Marshall, and Marshall has been renovated and expanded more recently, it makes sense to add capacity to McLean before Marshall. You raise a good point about Marshall's having more acreage, but Justice and Madison have less acreage than McLean and both schools have been or are being expanded to 2500 permanent seats while McLean remains with under 2000 permanent seats.

That doesn't mean there might not be the need for a further expansion of Marshall later, if Tysons/WFC growth continues and FCPS doesn't build a new school in Tysons itself. McLean probably maxes out at about 2500 and Marshall theoretically could be somewhat larger. The long term projections that FCPS posted back in March 2023 (which reflect more potential residential growth than incorporated into the CIP forecasts) indicated that Marshall and McLean could potentially pick more additional kids from future residential growth than any other high schools. Specifically, they indicated Marshall could pick up 719 more kids and McLean 617 more kids over time due to new development. That could be offset to some degree by enrollment declines in other existing Marshall and McLean neighborhoods, but it gives some flavor of what may happen in the general Tysons/WFC area.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Yeah- but they just yanked IB from Lewis so that will bring some kids back into Lewis who placed out. Wasn’t that the point of taking IB out of Lewis?

It appears they are keeping IB at Lewis but also adding a lot of AP courses. That will still make it harder to pupil place out of the school. The enrollment is really low this year.

Could just be the process to phase out IB. Can't pull those courses if students are already enrolled in the IB Diploma program. With such low enrollment it is hard to imagine them keeping IB and adding even more AP courses (they already had some).

And West Springfield is already over capacity and projected to be more so in the next five years. Move some kids to Lewis. Enrollment and proper use of available space is the only argument you need to justify this move.

Curious- why do you want this so badly? It seems like more than wanting to create a better environment at Lewis (changing Ap vs IB), you want to stick it to people who you think have something you don’t.

+1
These are the people who will never tell you where their own kids go to school. They’re far more invested in moving YOUR kids to different schools.

[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.

DP. What a totally bizarre comment - says so very much about you.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Bye bye FCPS!

[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.

Like I said most of the kids go to lake braddock. This will get you 60 kids a year tops. Not much for all the disruption it will cause. I’m betting the board will go for a school that brings in higher numbers and doesn’t disturb a middle school walk zone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Bye bye FCPS!

Some of us have lived through the federal and local officials destroying our FCPS schools. The crux of the problem is at the border whether people want to admit it or not. The FCPS F/R lunch rate didn't go from roughly 20% to 32-33% (average) without lack of immigration enforcement. Some FCPS schools have been shielded which is why the rate is so much higher at other schools. That may be ending.

[Anonymous]

When I lived elsewhere, there were
Minor boundary adjustments every year. This meant there was no need for a huge boundary jump in a single year. It was a system which worked very well. I would love to see that adopted here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I lived elsewhere, there were
Minor boundary adjustments every year. This meant there was no need for a huge boundary jump in a single year. It was a system which worked very well. I would love to see that adopted here.

That would stink to have to make all new friends potentially out of nowhere. Probably opt for private if we had a boundary change that had us all of the sudden going to Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I lived elsewhere, there were
Minor boundary adjustments every year. This meant there was no need for a huge boundary jump in a single year. It was a system which worked very well. I would love to see that adopted here.

That is how FCPS used to operate, but there weren’t such big differences in school programs, facilities, and demographics in the past. Now people spend a lot more time making sure they are buying or leasing in a school pyramid that meets their needs. The School Board ignores this at their peril.

If the School Board just pretends it’s 1975 all over again, without taking into account the differences among schools that they are themselves largely responsible for creating over the intervening years, they will destroy FCPS for good.

[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.

Like I said most of the kids go to lake braddock. This will get you 60 kids a year tops. Not much for all the disruption it will cause. I’m betting the board will go for a school that brings in higher numbers and doesn’t disturb a middle school walk zone.

Most of the Keene Mill kids do NOT go to Lake Braddock.

You clearly don't know what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I lived elsewhere, there were
Minor boundary adjustments every year. This meant there was no need for a huge boundary jump in a single year. It was a system which worked very well. I would love to see that adopted here.

Most places in the country do not have behemoth county wide districts.

Districts are by town or several adjacent zip codes, with 1-4 high schools in a district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I lived elsewhere, there were
Minor boundary adjustments every year. This meant there was no need for a huge boundary jump in a single year. It was a system which worked very well. I would love to see that adopted here.

That would stink to have to make all new friends potentially out of nowhere. Probably opt for private if we had a boundary change that had us all of the sudden going to Lewis.

The redistricting advocate on this board would have you believe that there is absolutely no cost to kids when a redistricting occurs. Her desire to homogenous poverty rates at each school blinds her to the horrible costs of redistricting.