FCPS Boundary Review Updates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live nowhere near Langley/Herndon and so it doesn’t affect me at all. But at this point, neither school is over-enrolled or under-enrolled. So why not just leave it alone for now? The kids at the far end of the county would have a big bus ride no matter where they went. Now if Langley was bursting at the seams and crying out for an expansion or modular classrooms, while Herndon sat at 75% capacity, I would say that people have a point and that the already available capacity needs to be used. But that’s not the situation at this point. It may be in the future if Langley has to pick up more kids that are closer to the school due to ongoing growth in Tyson’s … but we’re not there yet. BTW middle class areas got a boost for years on the east end of the county when West Potomac was expanded and had its borders expanded as well when MVHS sat well under capacity nearby. So this definitely isn’t a SES/protecting the rich school thing as plenty of people all over the economic spectrum live near West Potomac HS.

You, Sir or Madam, have far too much common sense to be spending your time here. Excellent points.

Too bad the points aren’t so compelling.

The kids at “the far end of the county” would have a shorter bus ride to Herndon than to Langley.

Also, Herndon is now just at 81% capacity (not that different than 75%).

Facts matter.

Good luck getting over your Langley Derangement Syndrome.

Yes. And, Herndon actually has a few more students than Langley.

Again, until someone comes up with a proposal of how to fill Langley and Herndon without creating a troubling domino effect, this is just talk.

I'm not familiar with Langley/McLean/Marshall neighborhoods, but it appears to me that this would not be an easy task without making other students drive very long distances.

Marshall/McLean/Langley are not that far apart. You move kids from the Westbriar Island to Langley and they have pretty much an identical commute as they do to Marshall. Chesterbrook to Langley is similar to Chesterbrook to McLean. There is no “very long distance” it’s an added mile at most.

Most McLean families don’t want to be moved, though. That’s the domino effect. The idea that there aren’t enough students in that pocket of Fairfax County to fill all three schools is wrong when you consider the modulars they’ve added.

This isn’t an extreme leftist opinion, it is the factual enrollment and capacity numbers. Is it worth shuffling around a bunch of students who don’t want to move? No. Unless there’s a compelling reason, like the cost of maintaining a modular or the impacts of long bus routes limiting school start times. Since these issues have never been raised, I assume there’s little impact and the status quo is well enough to leave alone.

[Anonymous]

Cooper will get overcrowded before Langley with the Spring Hill move that is already proposed but they will work the system in a few years to get modulars installed at Cooper and Langley to add more capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cooper will get overcrowded before Langley with the Spring Hill move that is already proposed but they will work the system in a few years to get modulars installed at Cooper and Langley to add more capacity.

Now do an analysis on the upcoming Herndon development.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone on here talk about Annandale High school. The school is close to capacity and projected to hit higher (with modulars) yet they are moving Lewis students and putting it above capacity.

Why would they do that? This seems to go against the whole point of this review and sets the school for failure when it is finally turning itself around.

1. They are only looking at September enrollments for capacity, not projections.
2. They are considering capacity with the modulars, not without.

So while there’s projected growth in Annandale, and the current capacity is perfect for phasing out the modulars, they’re going to fill them back up.

And, look at that, in the efforts to fix the Holmes to Annandale and Edison split feeder, they’ve created a Holmes to Annandale/Justice split feeder in the 4-11 presentation, slide 12 that’s never addressed!

So they are against split feeders but creating them? Is Edison in really bad shape currently? Are there other options for Edison?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone on here talk about Annandale High school. The school is close to capacity and projected to hit higher (with modulars) yet they are moving Lewis students and putting it above capacity.

Why would they do that? This seems to go against the whole point of this review and sets the school for failure when it is finally turning itself around.

1. They are only looking at September enrollments for capacity, not projections.
2. They are considering capacity with the modulars, not without.

So while there’s projected growth in Annandale, and the current capacity is perfect for phasing out the modulars, they’re going to fill them back up.

And, look at that, in the efforts to fix the Holmes to Annandale and Edison split feeder, they’ve created a Holmes to Annandale/Justice split feeder in the 4-11 presentation, slide 12 that’s never addressed!

Shouldn't part of the whole boundary review process try and phase out modulars?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone on here talk about Annandale High school. The school is close to capacity and projected to hit higher (with modulars) yet they are moving Lewis students and putting it above capacity.

Why would they do that? This seems to go against the whole point of this review and sets the school for failure when it is finally turning itself around.

1. They are only looking at September enrollments for capacity, not projections.
2. They are considering capacity with the modulars, not without.

So while there’s projected growth in Annandale, and the current capacity is perfect for phasing out the modulars, they’re going to fill them back up.

And, look at that, in the efforts to fix the Holmes to Annandale and Edison split feeder, they’ve created a Holmes to Annandale/Justice split feeder in the 4-11 presentation, slide 12 that’s never addressed!

So they are against split feeders, but creating them? Is Edison in really bad shape currently? Are there other options for Edison?

Edison is full because the auto academy there is popular and it's getting kids pupil placing in to go there, which is something you'd expect and is actually really great. I don't know it's exactly full now, but there are some new housing developments planned nearby, especially on the old Top Golf property and around the former county government center, so it has the potential to be very full in the next five years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone on here talk about Annandale High school. The school is close to capacity and projected to hit higher (with modulars) yet they are moving Lewis students and putting it above capacity.

Why would they do that? This seems to go against the whole point of this review and sets the school for failure when it is finally turning itself around.

1. They are only looking at September enrollments for capacity, not projections.
2. They are considering capacity with the modulars, not without.

So while there’s projected growth in Annandale, and the current capacity is perfect for phasing out the modulars, they’re going to fill them back up.

And, look at that, in the efforts to fix the Holmes to Annandale and Edison split feeder, they’ve created a Holmes to Annandale/Justice split feeder in the 4-11 presentation, slide 12 that’s never addressed!

So they are against split feeders, but creating them? Is Edison in really bad shape currently? Are there other options for Edison?

Edison is full because the auto academy there is popular and it's getting kids pupil placing in to go there, which is something you'd expect and is actually really great. I don't know it's exactly full now, but there are some new housing developments planned nearby, especially on the old Top Golf property and around the former county government center, so it has the potential to be very full in the next five years.

But then wouldn't you just limit the pupil placements? So the school's boundaries direct its population.

Also, create another auto academy in a different portion of the county to meet the needs for a successful program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone on here talk about Annandale High school. The school is close to capacity and projected to hit higher (with modulars) yet they are moving Lewis students and putting it above capacity.

Why would they do that? This seems to go against the whole point of this review and sets the school for failure when it is finally turning itself around.

1. They are only looking at September enrollments for capacity, not projections.
2. They are considering capacity with the modulars, not without.

So while there’s projected growth in Annandale, and the current capacity is perfect for phasing out the modulars, they’re going to fill them back up.

And, look at that, in the efforts to fix the Holmes to Annandale and Edison split feeder, they’ve created a Holmes to Annandale/Justice split feeder in the 4-11 presentation, slide 12 that’s never addressed!

So they are against split feeders, but creating them? Is Edison in really bad shape currently? Are there other options for Edison?

Edison is full because the auto academy there is popular and it's getting kids pupil placing in to go there, which is something you'd expect and is actually really great. I don't know it's exactly full now, but there are some new housing developments planned nearby, especially on the old Top Golf property and around the former county government center, so it has the potential to be very full in the next five years.

If the county were serious and really looking at the whole county - it would relocate TJHSST and return the current site as a local high school. TJSHSST would be better placed centrally in the county and they could find an old commercial site and retrofit it to be a high tech facility. Save on bussing and gives the kids a modern school to fit its mission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone on here talk about Annandale High school. The school is close to capacity and projected to hit higher (with modulars) yet they are moving Lewis students and putting it above capacity.

Why would they do that? This seems to go against the whole point of this review and sets the school for failure when it is finally turning itself around.

1. They are only looking at September enrollments for capacity, not projections.
2. They are considering capacity with the modulars, not without.

So while there’s projected growth in Annandale, and the current capacity is perfect for phasing out the modulars, they’re going to fill them back up.

And, look at that, in the efforts to fix the Holmes to Annandale and Edison split feeder, they’ve created a Holmes to Annandale/Justice split feeder in the 4-11 presentation, slide 12 that’s never addressed!

So they are against split feeders but creating them? Is Edison in really bad shape currently? Are there other options for Edison?

Edison has a nice building due to renovations. The problems there are 1) it is land-locked on a busy corner and it’s really just a bad physical location for a large HS (it’s not large by FCPS standards compared to the largest schools but it’s still over 2000 students). Seriously - drive past it some time if you can. On one side is Van Dorn St. (4-6 lanes), on the other is Franconia Rd. (4 lanes with a turning lane in parts), behind it is its own athletic fields that back directly to a neighborhood and private property with a church and funeral home, and to the other side is another neighborhood.

And 2) seemingly all the development in the county is coming to that area. The old Top Golf and Ruby Tuesday plaza, which is a good size and walkable to Edison so no chance it gets shifted elsewhere, is slated to be torn down and redeveloped into townhomes. Nicer townhomes that will attract families - they might even become part of Kingstowne’s HOA. They have been making noise about redeveloping the Rose Hill shopping center, this would probably have more apartments and condos but would still attract some children. And when the new police and library building is done on Beulah, the current police station area off Franconia will be prime for redevelopment as well.

They do need to get some students out of that area unfortunately. There are options - Lewis is right there also on Franconia, the kids on the far east end of the boundary are fairly close to West Potomac, but that would likely mean shifting WP kids to MV which has seemingly been a non-starter thus far. Hayfield could take some more students as well, although they do already stand to gain some with the proposed boundary adjustments so might create another split feeder somewhere.

Of course all of this development is speculative at this point, and if there is some kind of economic crash a la 2008, it might not end up happening.

[Anonymous]

And I do agree they need another auto body/auto tech program somewhere else if they don’t already have one. It was always the most popular vocational program when I was in HS in the bad old days too … lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone on here talk about Annandale High school. The school is close to capacity and projected to hit higher (with modulars) yet they are moving Lewis students and putting it above capacity.

Why would they do that? This seems to go against the whole point of this review and sets the school for failure when it is finally turning itself around.

1. They are only looking at September enrollments for capacity, not projections.
2. They are considering capacity with the modulars, not without.

So while there’s projected growth in Annandale, and the current capacity is perfect for phasing out the modulars, they’re going to fill them back up.

And, look at that, in the efforts to fix the Holmes to Annandale and Edison split feeder, they’ve created a Holmes to Annandale/Justice split feeder in the 4-11 presentation, slide 12 that’s never addressed!

So they are against split feeders, but creating them? Is Edison in really bad shape currently? Are there other options for Edison?

Edison is full because the auto academy there is popular and it's getting kids pupil placing in to go there, which is something you'd expect and is actually really great. I don't know it's exactly full now, but there are some new housing developments planned nearby, especially on the old Top Golf property and around the former county government center, so it has the potential to be very full in the next five years.

If the county were serious and really looking at the whole county - it would relocate TJHSST and return the current site as a local high school. TJSHSST would be better placed centrally in the county and they could find an old commercial site and retrofit it to be a high tech facility. Save on bussing and gives the kids a modern school to fit its mission.

The TJ parents would lose their minds. And for some reason they have a lot of sway with the county. The idea makes sense though. Centralize them to save on bus costs and commute times. These kids have hellish commutes. And take an old office complex and turn it into an amazing campus with a college feel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cooper will get overcrowded before Langley with the Spring Hill move that is already proposed but they will work the system in a few years to get modulars installed at Cooper and Langley to add more capacity.

Now do an analysis on the upcoming Herndon development.

That's tougher.

Insofar as Cooper and Langley are concerned, the Spring Hill move immediately puts Cooper at 101% capacity and Langley at 102%. And the latest CIP put Cooper at 102% and 103% capacity in a few years without regard to the Spring Hill move. Add the Spring Hill kids and it's looking like Cooper will be at 112% or 113% capacity by 2030, assuming a consistent number of middle school students from the Spring Hill island. That seems reasonable, since if anything there could be additional development within that section of Tysons.

Insofar as Herndon is concerned, the latest CIP projects that Herndon HS will be at 69% capacity by 2029 and Herndon MS at 85%. I recall some claiming that FCPS wasn't taking into account potential development in Herndon, but it's apparently within the Town of Herndon and the county's residential development applications dashboard doesn't track that potential development. You could come up with information from some of the town's planning documents, but it wouldn't really allow for an apples-to-apples comparison.

Both Langley and Cooper, but especially Cooper, will likely surpass 105% capacity within the next five years. But that doesn't mean they'll be redistricted then. We don't know who'll be in charge of FCPS then and, even if the same approach is followed in 2030 as is currently being applied by Thru Consulting, modulars could be installed at one or both schools to keep them under 105% capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone on here talk about Annandale High school. The school is close to capacity and projected to hit higher (with modulars) yet they are moving Lewis students and putting it above capacity.

Why would they do that? This seems to go against the whole point of this review and sets the school for failure when it is finally turning itself around.

1. They are only looking at September enrollments for capacity, not projections.
2. They are considering capacity with the modulars, not without.

So while there’s projected growth in Annandale, and the current capacity is perfect for phasing out the modulars, they’re going to fill them back up.

And, look at that, in the efforts to fix the Holmes to Annandale and Edison split feeder, they’ve created a Holmes to Annandale/Justice split feeder in the 4-11 presentation, slide 12 that’s never addressed!

So they are against split feeders but creating them? Is Edison in really bad shape currently? Are there other options for Edison?

Edison has a nice building due to renovations. The problems there are 1) it is land-locked on a busy corner and it’s really just a bad physical location for a large HS (it’s not large by FCPS standards compared to the largest schools but it’s still over 2000 students). Seriously - drive past it some time if you can. On one side is Van Dorn St. (4-6 lanes), on the other is Franconia Rd. (4 lanes with a turning lane in parts), behind it is its own athletic fields that back directly to a neighborhood and private property with a church and funeral home, and to the other side is another neighborhood.

And 2) seemingly all the development in the county is coming to that area. The old Top Golf and Ruby Tuesday plaza, which is a good size and walkable to Edison so no chance it gets shifted elsewhere, is slated to be torn down and redeveloped into townhomes. Nicer townhomes that will attract families - they might even become part of Kingstowne’s HOA. They have been making noise about redeveloping the Rose Hill shopping center, this would probably have more apartments and condos but would still attract some children. And when the new police and library building is done on Beulah, the current police station area off Franconia will be prime for redevelopment as well.

They do need to get some students out of that area unfortunately. There are options - Lewis is right there also on Franconia, the kids on the far east end of the boundary are fairly close to West Potomac, but that would likely mean shifting WP kids to MV which has seemingly been a non-starter thus far. Hayfield could take some more students as well, although they do already stand to gain some with the proposed boundary adjustments so might create another split feeder somewhere.

Of course all of this development is speculative at this point, and if there is some kind of economic crash a la 2008, it might not end up happening.

It sounds like your proposals make more sense than what is being tossed around right now in the boundary review but you have a better handle on the dynamics than a third party consulting firm that just seems to be haphazard in their choices and not understanding the geography beyond what is on paper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And I do agree they need another auto body/auto tech program somewhere else if they don’t already have one. It was always the most popular vocational program when I was in HS in the bad old days too … lol.

These programs should be throughout the county and readily available for students.

I wish they would look at the country programs - AAP, IB, Auto Tech, etc. - look at pupil placement, cost, etc. It could be done so much better and probably save money. I do not feel there is any comprehensive review of these programs and how they factor into the numbers at these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cooper will get overcrowded before Langley with the Spring Hill move that is already proposed but they will work the system in a few years to get modulars installed at Cooper and Langley to add more capacity.

Now do an analysis on the upcoming Herndon development.

That's tougher.

Insofar as Cooper and Langley are concerned, the Spring Hill move immediately puts Cooper at 101% capacity and Langley at 102%. And the latest CIP put Cooper at 102% and 103% capacity in a few years without regard to the Spring Hill move. Add the Spring Hill kids and it's looking like Cooper will be at 112% or 113% capacity by 2030, assuming a consistent number of middle school students from the Spring Hill island. That seems reasonable, since if anything there could be additional development within that section of Tysons.

Insofar as Herndon is concerned, the latest CIP projects that Herndon HS will be at 69% capacity by 2029 and Herndon MS at 85%. I recall some claiming that FCPS wasn't taking into account potential development in Herndon, but it's apparently within the Town of Herndon and the county's residential development applications dashboard doesn't track that potential development. You could come up with information from some of the town's planning documents, but it wouldn't really allow for an apples-to-apples comparison.

Both Langley and Cooper, but especially Cooper, will likely surpass 105% capacity within the next five years. But that doesn't mean they'll be redistricted then. We don't know who'll be in charge of FCPS then and, even if the same approach is followed in 2030 as is currently being applied by Thru Consulting, modulars could be installed at one or both schools to keep them under 105% capacity.

I don’t buy an argument that it isn’t apples to apples. A student is a student, and there is no reason that FCPS can ignore Herndon development just because it isn’t in the dashboard.