FCPS Boundary Review Updates

[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!

Slide 12 of the 4/11 presentation addresses a Bull Run ES attendance island. I think you are referring to Slide 20 of the 4/25 presentation, which appears to show part of Holmes moving to Justice.

I doubt this was their intent, but Thru Consulting probably should be renamed Sloppy Consulting. I think they used the wrong map, and treated an area that they separately proposed to move from Parklawn ES to Columbia ES (see Slide 36 of the 4/11 presentation) as if that area was zoned for Justice rather than Annandale. That area currently attends Annandale and there would be no reason to move it to Justice, especially if they were moving it from Parklawn (currently a split feeder to Annandale and Justice) to Columbia (a 100% feeder to Annandale).

The whole Edison-to-Annandale move to eliminate the split feeder at Holmes looks like an exercise in rearranging deck chairs. In 2010-11 Annandale HS had an enrollment of slighly over 2500 and this was considered unacceptable. In response, the School Board moved the part of Wakefield Forest that had attended Poe/Annandale to Frost/Woodson and reassigned Bren Mar Park from Annandale to Edison while leaving it at Holmes. Now, because split feeders are being targeted, they are proposing to move Bren Mar Park back to Annandale, which would leave Annandale just shy of 2500 again.

I feel for that community. Some now in the Edsall Park area have to cross both 495 and 395 to get to Edison, but Annandale with 2500 kids is not going to be a great environment. It's an old building that, along with Lewis and McLean, got the cheapest "renovations" of any high schools in the early 2000s, and it currently has a 14-classroom modular. It also has a large ESOL/FARMS population, and 2500 kids at Annandale is a bigger challenge than, say, 2400 kids at McLean. On the other hand, Edison is currently at 107% capacity with no modular, so they thought they were dealing with two issues (split feeder at Holmes, overcrowding at Edison) by reassigning BMP back to Annandale. If you can install a modular at Annandale (28 acres), I'm not sure why they can't install a modular at Edison (43.5 acres).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It can be apples to apples if you make sure it is. But a statement in a town planning document that redevelopment could potentially add 500 high school students is different from a projection of 100 new students from a building that is currently under construction, or a projection of 300 new students from developments that have been specifically vetted and approved by local government but are not yet under construction.

Of course, FCPS should not ignore development in a town served by FCPS schools, whether it's Clifton (Robinson), Herndon (Herndon), or Vienna (Madison). But if you want to make decisions based on potential development in Herndon that may or may not occur, you need to pay equal attention to other areas like Tysons and Reston where a considerable amount of additional development may also occur.

[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.

TJ got a major renovation just a few years ago. It is very much a modern school now that fits its mission. The last thing we should be doing is spending another dime on a magnet facility.

I'm not sure moving Edison kids to Annandale is a great idea, but Lewis is sitting right down Franconia Road with excess capacity if the Annandale move gets show down.

[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 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.

We need a new moniker for Thru Consulting. I remember when Brabrand wouldn't reopen the schools people started calling him "Delaybrand."

It's crass but Screw Consulting would be more accurate than Thru Consulting. "Thru" seems to be an attempt to sound like "thorough," and this group is anything but thorough. All they do is play with licensed software and FCPS's existing SPAs to come up with lazy recommendations that purport to solve one problem yet create another.

[Anonymous]

Sandy Anderson is my school board rep (ugh), and I rarely read her emails, but this caught my eye from yesterday.

"I have heard from many of you about concerns you have with potential lines that you may have seen represented in the work the Boundary Review Advisory Committee has been reviewing. I would like to continue to stress to you that we do not have proposed lines yet. Some of the scenarios that the committee is reviewing could become new proposed lines, but many of the solutions are in direct conflict with each other, and there is no appetite on the Board to create new problems with these “solutions.”"

[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.

We thought Auto Academy was part time and not counted in membership. That would be in the part time academy transportation provided category. FCPS confirmed academies are in buildings but does not break down the square footage like it does for SPED centers like Kilmer Center. Same issue at other major academy sites Chantilly and Marshall. Both have modulars for core instruction.

Edison Global STEM transfer students are counted in membership and show up on the facilities transfer dashboards. I guess thats why it has 80 plus IB to IB school transfers. https://edisonhs.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/inline-files/GSCP%20FAQs%2011.2022_0.pdf

Reid/Thru exclude academies and program locations. Also excluded from review is analysis of elementaries with trailers on site.

Example is Shrevewood in the Tysons area:
program cap 683 membership 575 84%
level iv aap 48 and sends 82 to Lemon Road.
Thru 119 puts it at 102% on a site with 7 trailers. What are the 7 trailers usd for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sandy Anderson is my school board rep (ugh), and I rarely read her emails, but this caught my eye from yesterday.

"I have heard from many of you about concerns you have with potential lines that you may have seen represented in the work the Boundary Review Advisory Committee has been reviewing. I would like to continue to stress to you that we do not have proposed lines yet. Some of the scenarios that the committee is reviewing could become new proposed lines, but many of the solutions are in direct conflict with each other, and there is no appetite on the Board to create new problems with these “solutions.”"

Well, it seems only fair that her kids should be moved as part of this process. Let’s make sure that happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sandy Anderson is my school board rep (ugh), and I rarely read her emails, but this caught my eye from yesterday.

"I have heard from many of you about concerns you have with potential lines that you may have seen represented in the work the Boundary Review Advisory Committee has been reviewing. I would like to continue to stress to you that we do not have proposed lines yet. Some of the scenarios that the committee is reviewing could become new proposed lines, but many of the solutions are in direct conflict with each other, and there is no appetite on the Board to create new problems with these “solutions.”"

Interesting, because Karl Frisch sent out a newsletter yesterday that totally ignores the boundary review, despite the fact that some of the proposals involving the Marshall and McLean pyramids (Marshall is in Providence, and a lot of Providence kids go to McLean) are absurd. At least Sandy Anderson is acknowledging that Thru's cure is often worse than the disease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sandy Anderson is my school board rep (ugh), and I rarely read her emails, but this caught my eye from yesterday.

"I have heard from many of you about concerns you have with potential lines that you may have seen represented in the work the Boundary Review Advisory Committee has been reviewing. I would like to continue to stress to you that we do not have proposed lines yet. Some of the scenarios that the committee is reviewing could become new proposed lines, but many of the solutions are in direct conflict with each other, and there is no appetite on the Board to create new problems with these “solutions.”"

This is a real governance failure on the part of the School Board and Dr. Reid. They should not have released proposals that are in direct conflict with each other without clarifying whether the proposals were intended to be separate options. Instead, they created the opposite impression that each proposal was incremental to its predecessors.

Screw Consulting is a bunch of hacks, and Reid clearly didn't do adequate due diligence before hiring them. How many times does she get to screw up before she gets fired?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sandy Anderson is my school board rep (ugh), and I rarely read her emails, but this caught my eye from yesterday.

"I have heard from many of you about concerns you have with potential lines that you may have seen represented in the work the Boundary Review Advisory Committee has been reviewing. I would like to continue to stress to you that we do not have proposed lines yet. Some of the scenarios that the committee is reviewing could become new proposed lines, but many of the solutions are in direct conflict with each other, and there is no appetite on the Board to create new problems with these “solutions.”"

Interesting, because Karl Frisch sent out a newsletter yesterday that totally ignores the boundary review, despite the fact that some of the proposals involving the Marshall and McLean pyramids (Marshall is in Providence, and a lot of Providence kids go to McLean) are absurd. At least Sandy Anderson is acknowledging that Thru's cure is often worse than the disease.

The entire Graham Road/Timber Lane/Shrevewood/Kilmer/Longfellow abomination that Thru proposed is entirely within his magisterial district!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sandy Anderson is my school board rep (ugh), and I rarely read her emails, but this caught my eye from yesterday.

"I have heard from many of you about concerns you have with potential lines that you may have seen represented in the work the Boundary Review Advisory Committee has been reviewing. I would like to continue to stress to you that we do not have proposed lines yet. Some of the scenarios that the committee is reviewing could become new proposed lines, but many of the solutions are in direct conflict with each other, and there is no appetite on the Board to create new problems with these “solutions.”"

Interesting, because Karl Frisch sent out a newsletter yesterday that totally ignores the boundary review, despite the fact that some of the proposals involving the Marshall and McLean pyramids (Marshall is in Providence, and a lot of Providence kids go to McLean) are absurd. At least Sandy Anderson is acknowledging that Thru's cure is often worse than the disease.

The entire Graham Road/Timber Lane/Shrevewood/Kilmer/Longfellow abomination that Thru proposed is entirely within his magisterial district!

You forgot two schools.

It's the entire Graham Road/Timber Lane/Pine Spring/Shrevewood/Kilmer/Longfellow/Jackson abomination.

I'm sure Karl had something better to do with his time than make sure FCPS consultants weren't proposing to make a hash of his district.

[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.

Lewis should have the auto academy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sandy Anderson is my school board rep (ugh), and I rarely read her emails, but this caught my eye from yesterday.

"I have heard from many of you about concerns you have with potential lines that you may have seen represented in the work the Boundary Review Advisory Committee has been reviewing. I would like to continue to stress to you that we do not have proposed lines yet. Some of the scenarios that the committee is reviewing could become new proposed lines, but many of the solutions are in direct conflict with each other, and there is no appetite on the Board to create new problems with these “solutions.”"

She helped create this problem by being in the group of school board members who spearheaded rezoning with no grandfathering, so...


Take her words with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

They could have avoided all this controversy if they revised 8130 to say:

A) A review will occur when a school building grows beyond 110% capacity.

B) The first step of the review process requires a full residency check of all students attending this school. Students shown to reside out of the school zone will be returned to their home school the following school year and the school population will be recounted with the accurate student enrollment.

C) All schools slated for rezoning must return student transfers to their base school before starting the rezoning process, so that the incoming transfer number is zero students. No incoming transfer students may be counted in the numbers used for rezoning. Only students residing in the base school zone may be counted for rezoning purposes.

D) All students enrolling in the transition years of kindergarten, 7th grade and 9th grade will be required to submit proof of residency to enroll in school.

E) All rezoning will allow grandfathering for any residency confirmed students currently enrolled at the school, with rezoning occuring when the student transitions to a new MS (7th) or HS (9th) school level.

F) FCPS is required to hold the rezoning information meetings at the schools directly impacted by rezoning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They could have avoided all this controversy if they revised 8130 to say:

A) A review will occur when a school building grows beyond 110% capacity.

B) The first step of the review process requires a full residency check of all students attending this school. Students shown to reside out of the school zone will be returned to their home school the following school year and the school population will be recounted with the accurate student enrollment.

C) All schools slated for rezoning must return student transfers to their base school before starting the rezoning process, so that the incoming transfer number is zero students. No incoming transfer students may be counted in the numbers used for rezoning. Only students residing in the base school zone may be counted for rezoning purposes.

D) All students enrolling in the transition years of kindergarten, 7th grade and 9th grade will be required to submit proof of residency to enroll in school.

E) All rezoning will allow grandfathering for any residency confirmed students currently enrolled at the school, with rezoning occuring when the student transitions to a new MS (7th) or HS (9th) school level.

F) FCPS is required to hold the rezoning information meetings at the schools directly impacted by rezoning.

B, C, D, and F totally agree. Would want a higher threshold for A and would want more grandfathering for E.

You should run for school board against Sandy or Kyle. I would vote for you!