FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This forum feels like it has spiraled into a panic. You will feel better if you stop yelling into the void and do something.

They are passing the new policy next Thursday. Show up to the board meeting to protest.

Call your member.

Call the at large members.

Call your board of supervisors member and let them know that you are a life-long democrat that is going to turn on the party in local elections if this happens.

Call the Fairfax Dems and tell them and let them know it is because their SB endorse candidates are playing with dynamite.

They are reasonably easy to reach in my limited experience.

You won’t stop the policy change but the more vocal you are the more likely the members (and the superintendent) will receive the message that this is politically dangerous for them.

Insist that the communities have to have a say and can’t just be rolled over.

Then do it all again.

Thank you for coming to my Tedtalk.

Calling to tell them I actually support them on something for once.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree. No one here seems to comprehend this.

No, they understand. They are just posting every negative lie they can think of to try to bring as many people to their cause as possible. They are taking the Chicken Little approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2003
Lee - 2092 students
Roughly 23% F/R lunch, 42% white, medium ESL rate (17.3%)

WS - 2259 students
Roughly 7% F/R lunch, 64% white, low ESL rate (7.5%)

2024
Lewis - 1675 students
Roughly 63% F/R lunch, 12% white, high ESL rate (30%)

WS - 2761 students
Roughly 17% F/R lunch, 48% white, low ESL rate (5%)

In 2003 Lee was middle of the road in FCPS. What happened?

IB put into Lee and several other schools

IB actually enabled easier transfer out with the liberal pupil placement policy

Immigrants concentrated in certain schools

2005 boundary change - removed hundreds of students from Lee just as it was getting expanded - some to South County, some to West Springfield; students that departed were on the wealthier end of the spectrum. FCPS knew this was the case

Pupil placement accelerated - FCPS refuses to budge on dropping IB and Lee

2015 boundary change - removed Daventry students - a relatively wealthy neighborhood

In the middle of all of this Great Schools came along and created winners and losers - English speaking Americans, particularly white, just stopped choosing houses in the Lee/Lewis boundary

That is how we got here. Notice the total number of students in 2003 at the two schools. Only different by 167 students. Now in 2024 - different by 1086 students.

Lewis is much smaller, much poorer, and has many more ESL students. The ESL rate at WS actually went down over the years.

The quality of the school (teachers, admin) is not necessarily different or subpar, but the demographics of the students is much different.

How should this be resolved? Long time homeowner wants to know.

This is an unpopular reality to bring up: there is a relationship between the foreign born population and academic performance of an area. And fairfax county has grown its immigrant population over the past 25 years at a per capita rate that exceeds NYC. Lewis #s over 20 years are an example of this. FCPS has failed this population over time and now wants to shuffle kids around to see if it treats the symptoms of high immigrant areas. Living here means accepting that the county will continue to import a (mostly) disadvantaged immigrant population and concentrate it in pockets that need extra resources to be successful. FCPS’ position is that your children are the those resources that will fix that population.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Lots of assumptions being made about who does and doesn't support adjustments. This is going to be akin to the common "boomer" vs. new generation conflict. As usual, older folks want to maintain what they feel they rightfully deserve, and younger families want a slice of the same pie.

There are a lot of young, very well-educated families who are completely priced out of top 10 schools. You bet they support boundary changes that make more schools acceptable and affordable. You'd be crazy not to in that position.

spot on! Especially in 22153 (Saratoga/Newington). I’ve talked to many families over the years who either moved or are planning to move/pupil place/private school before HS. Unfortunately our little community of students isn’t large enough to help Lewis get on equal footing with other FCPS schools. Geographically, im not even sure why we are in the Lewis pyramid given that South County is closer in distance and ease of transportation. I wholeheartedly support the SB’s efforts to reasses boundaries and bring more kids to Lewis.

Why would you want people to suffer with you? You gotta sell. Luckily Saratoga is fairly desirable - decent housing stock, community pools and amenities, and convenient. And there’s plenty of “dog mom/dad” DINK buyers who like having more space vs. a condo in Arlington, as well as empty nesters, families with babies who will move out when their kid hits 1st grade, and Catholic school families, not to mention FCPS teachers who pupil place where mom or dad works. Or you could list for rent and get a nice military family to rent for a few years. Just sell and move to the other side of Pohick and your kids could be in bounds for Newington Forest and South County. Or move up the parkway to West Springfield! There’s nothing much that can help Lewis at this point as almost every other school surrounding it is high poverty or also under enrolled.

The only way Saratoga is getting out of Lewis is if ALL the development zoned for Edison comes to pass, and they decide to revisit the Lewis/Edison borders and end up shunting off Saratoga to South County, or if Lewis is closed entirely. Either scenario is AT LEAST 10 years off, conservatively.

I don’t view this as us “suffering together” rather bringing in more students and families like us, to help bring more balance (and thus, opportunities) to Lewis.

Our kids aren’t close to HS age yet, but this boundary assessment will definitely influence whether we join our neighbors in moving/pupil place/go private or if stick around and see if anything can be done to improve Lewis.

This seems like a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation for the SB. If they move kids, people will leave. If they don’t move kids, people will move. They can’t win either way.

Aha.

Well, first, you need to disabuse yourself of the notion that those being redistricted to Lewis are "families like us." They aren't, because they prioritized finding a house zoned to West Springfield rather than settling for Lewis.

Second, you need to anticipate that there will be a lot of attrition, because just because someone gets redistricted to Lewis doesn't mean they will passively accept this and not explore other options.

Third, you need to acknowledge that there are possibilities other than the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario you outlined. Schools can improve if the county encourages development in the surrounding area, or the school does a better job of meeting the needs of the kids who are already zoned for the school. Rezoning - just like adding IB - can be a very crude and not necessarily effective tool for trying to enhance a school's perceived quality.

Oh I see. So, because we were priced out of neighborhoods zoned for WS, our kids don’t deserve an equivalent education? Got it.

To your second point, I guess you missed the part where I suggested that families like mine also have options, and we will continue to exercise them if the SB continues to neglect the needs of the students at Lewis. Trying to stop pupil placements as a retention method ain’t gonna fly!

And as to your third point, there is quite literally no action that the SB can take that will appease everyone. So yes, damned if you do/don’t still applies.

You were never going to get an equivalent education at Lewis and WS, starting with the fact that Lewis has a leadership program that WS doesn't have and WS has an AP curriculum that Lewis hasn't had.

So tell us again, what is it that you really want? Do you think a few hundred WS kids will put Lewis on the same footing as WS, or will it just make you feel better about having bought in the Lewis district if a few hundred more kids are similarly stranded there?

DP, but it will allow kids at Lewis to take more classes because more classes will be offered. If more kids want to take an AP class, it will be offered. Same for electives.


Hunt Valley is coming.

And again, why do you think that adding WSHS kids means you'll get more AP classes? Are they going to pick a specific neighborhood with academically high-achieving kids? That's insane. It's not like we are across the board filled with smart kids or something. What a weird idea. In fact our elementary school has dismally low test scores.

Elementary boundaries will be redrawn as well and yes, sending high performing kids to Lewis is exactly what the school board will do.
This is about making schools, all the schools closer in test scores, average parental income and racial mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2003
Lee - 2092 students
Roughly 23% F/R lunch, 42% white, medium ESL rate (17.3%)

WS - 2259 students
Roughly 7% F/R lunch, 64% white, low ESL rate (7.5%)

2024
Lewis - 1675 students
Roughly 63% F/R lunch, 12% white, high ESL rate (30%)

WS - 2761 students
Roughly 17% F/R lunch, 48% white, low ESL rate (5%)

In 2003 Lee was middle of the road in FCPS. What happened?

IB put into Lee and several other schools

IB actually enabled easier transfer out with the liberal pupil placement policy

Immigrants concentrated in certain schools

2005 boundary change - removed hundreds of students from Lee just as it was getting expanded - some to South County, some to West Springfield; students that departed were on the wealthier end of the spectrum. FCPS knew this was the case

Pupil placement accelerated - FCPS refuses to budge on dropping IB and Lee

2015 boundary change - removed Daventry students - a relatively wealthy neighborhood

In the middle of all of this Great Schools came along and created winners and losers - English speaking Americans, particularly white, just stopped choosing houses in the Lee/Lewis boundary

That is how we got here. Notice the total number of students in 2003 at the two schools. Only different by 167 students. Now in 2024 - different by 1086 students.

Lewis is much smaller, much poorer, and has many more ESL students. The ESL rate at WS actually went down over the years.

The quality of the school (teachers, admin) is not necessarily different or subpar, but the demographics of the students is much different.

How should this be resolved? Long time homeowner wants to know.

Sooner or later someone always says that schools can’t be good without white kids. That a substantial number of poor kids and ELL kids and poor ELL kids drag a school down. It’s quite something.

The solution is to have ESL centers. The benefits of attending a regular school go away for the ELL child when a critical mass of students also don’t speak English, especially when they speak the plant language of the child’s home country.

Give those children dedicated centers and the ones who reach proficiency go to their base schools. Make the eventual transition easier for those who reach proficiency by allowing the high schoolers to play sports and join clubs at their base school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:DP - I get what the Lewis parent is saying (and no, my kids are not in the Lewis boundaries nor is it possible they’ll go there). I think what s/he is saying is all FCPS schools should be good by meeting a minimum threshold. And in the case of Lewis, what it needs is a larger number of students so that it can offer a range of APs like other schools. The SB seems to want all of the schools to be desirable and successful, which is admirable and what they should be doing. I would hope we can all agree on that. Likewise, if there are schools that are overcrowded, it makes sense to draw new boundaries to relieve that overcrowding. Thing is, I would guess most would agree with this - until they think it might affect their kid in what they perceive to be a negative way. We can’t just keep building additions when there is space. Any money available should be spent on renovations so that all schools are on similar footing. And re-drawing boundaries makes that possible.

This exactly, thank you PP!

Um... Lewis is an IB school.

They aren't going to have a full slate of AP classes no matter how many WSHS students you pull from their neighborhood school.

Well yes, that’s true as of right now. But more kids will translate to additional offerings. Plenty of runway between now and the 2026/2027 school year to make some positive changes at Lewis (don’t see how this could be accomplished any sooner, but I guess we will see)

So basically, you want to screw the WSHS 9th, 10th and 11th graders who lose the draw and have to move to IB Lewis, then in 5 years do it again.

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. In 2 rezoning cycles, you could end up with only 3 feeders to WSHS if you get your way.

They are not changing boundaries every 5 years. They are reviewing them every 5 years. Big difference.

Here is the thing: you have to trust them that this is what they mean. Here is their track record;

1. Running for school board without talking about boundaries. Then redoing boundaries

2. Saying this is just about a new boundary policy and they aren’t redoing boundaries. And then saying they have to do something

3. Referring to having a boundary study done when there was one recently that said no parents wants to redo boundaries. Then saying they are holistically redoing boundaries

So no I’m not so sure they will just “review” the boundaries. Why are you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Once you acknowledge the disruption and support it, know that in your support you are actively harming kids like mine. Your child’s future classmates, you are supporting to harm them.

A one time move for some portion of WSHS kids that will benefit all the kids going through Lewis for years to come. Sounds like a good deal to me. All while fixing overcrowding at one and under-enrollment at the other. Why is it even a discussion? This should have happened yesterday.

Because the WSHS kids will have disruption in their high school years. If this were done with heavy grandfathering, you have a fair point. Without grandfathering, you are giving hundreds of WSHS kids added disruption after they have already gone through covid disruptions during their school career.

It is not in the best interest of any high schooler to switch in the middle of high school. A school system doing that to kids is a poor one. As much as they go one about how important mental health and social/emotional learning is, they seem very quick to pull the rug out from under students mental health for the sake of numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:DP - I get what the Lewis parent is saying (and no, my kids are not in the Lewis boundaries nor is it possible they’ll go there). I think what s/he is saying is all FCPS schools should be good by meeting a minimum threshold. And in the case of Lewis, what it needs is a larger number of students so that it can offer a range of APs like other schools. The SB seems to want all of the schools to be desirable and successful, which is admirable and what they should be doing. I would hope we can all agree on that. Likewise, if there are schools that are overcrowded, it makes sense to draw new boundaries to relieve that overcrowding. Thing is, I would guess most would agree with this - until they think it might affect their kid in what they perceive to be a negative way. We can’t just keep building additions when there is space. Any money available should be spent on renovations so that all schools are on similar footing. And re-drawing boundaries makes that possible.

This exactly, thank you PP!

Um... Lewis is an IB school.

They aren't going to have a full slate of AP classes no matter how many WSHS students you pull from their neighborhood school.

Well yes, that’s true as of right now. But more kids will translate to additional offerings. Plenty of runway between now and the 2026/2027 school year to make some positive changes at Lewis (don’t see how this could be accomplished any sooner, but I guess we will see)

So basically, you want to screw the WSHS 9th, 10th and 11th graders who lose the draw and have to move to IB Lewis, then in 5 years do it again.

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. In 2 rezoning cycles, you could end up with only 3 feeders to WSHS if you get your way.

They are not changing boundaries every 5 years. They are reviewing them every 5 years. Big difference.

Hold the phone, Lady. I keep hearing how dumb people are because they bought their homes Assuming static pyramid despite the fact that the SB could technically move boundaries (even though they didn’t make any significant moves over the last few decades). People keep saying, “you should have planned better, dummy.”

Now they are requiring a review every five years, but you’re assuring us that they won’t move the boundaries as part of the process.

So can we rely on your statement or are we dumb because we assumed the status quo would be maintained?

You SJWs are super freaking inconsistent and just make stuff up to suit your agenda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP - I get what the Lewis parent is saying (and no, my kids are not in the Lewis boundaries nor is it possible they’ll go there). I think what s/he is saying is all FCPS schools should be good by meeting a minimum threshold. And in the case of Lewis, what it needs is a larger number of students so that it can offer a range of APs like other schools. The SB seems to want all of the schools to be desirable and successful, which is admirable and what they should be doing. I would hope we can all agree on that. Likewise, if there are schools that are overcrowded, it makes sense to draw new boundaries to relieve that overcrowding. Thing is, I would guess most would agree with this - until they think it might affect their kid in what they perceive to be a negative way. We can’t just keep building additions when there is space. Any money available should be spent on renovations so that all schools are on similar footing. And re-drawing boundaries makes that possible.

This exactly, thank you PP!

Um... Lewis is an IB school.

They aren't going to have a full slate of AP classes no matter how many WSHS students you pull from their neighborhood school.

Well yes, that’s true as of right now. But more kids will translate to additional offerings. Plenty of runway between now and the 2026/2027 school year to make some positive changes at Lewis (don’t see how this could be accomplished any sooner, but I guess we will see)

So basically, you want to screw the WSHS 9th, 10th and 11th graders who lose the draw and have to move to IB Lewis, then in 5 years do it again.

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. In 2 rezoning cycles, you could end up with only 3 feeders to WSHS if you get your way.

They are not changing boundaries every 5 years. They are reviewing them every 5 years. Big difference.

Here is the thing: you have to trust them that this is what they mean. Here is their track record;

1. Running for school board without talking about boundaries. Then redoing boundaries

2. Saying this is just about a new boundary policy and they aren’t redoing boundaries. And then saying they have to do something

3. Referring to having a boundary study done when there was one recently that said no parents wants to redo boundaries. Then saying they are holistically redoing boundaries

So no I’m not so sure they will just “review” the boundaries. Why are you?

1. They’ve been working on boundary-related activities since before the pandemic. The current board is just picking up where the old board left off.

2. They NEVER SAID they weren’t adjusting boundaries. They said that revisions to 8130 was the first step and that no boundary decisions had been made, which is true.

3. The study didn’t conclude that “no parents want to redo boundaries”. It affirmed that the parents who responded so the survey were not in favor of adjustments. There is a difference.

Sounds like you’re upset now because you made a lot of assumptions about what the board would or wouldn’t do.

Regular assessments of the boundaries will help ensure that school resources (buildings, not students) are used in the most efficient way and to the benefit of the FCPS student community at large.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2003
Lee - 2092 students
Roughly 23% F/R lunch, 42% white, medium ESL rate (17.3%)

WS - 2259 students
Roughly 7% F/R lunch, 64% white, low ESL rate (7.5%)

2024
Lewis - 1675 students
Roughly 63% F/R lunch, 12% white, high ESL rate (30%)

WS - 2761 students
Roughly 17% F/R lunch, 48% white, low ESL rate (5%)

In 2003 Lee was middle of the road in FCPS. What happened?

IB put into Lee and several other schools

IB actually enabled easier transfer out with the liberal pupil placement policy

Immigrants concentrated in certain schools

2005 boundary change - removed hundreds of students from Lee just as it was getting expanded - some to South County, some to West Springfield; students that departed were on the wealthier end of the spectrum. FCPS knew this was the case

Pupil placement accelerated - FCPS refuses to budge on dropping IB and Lee

2015 boundary change - removed Daventry students - a relatively wealthy neighborhood

In the middle of all of this Great Schools came along and created winners and losers - English speaking Americans, particularly white, just stopped choosing houses in the Lee/Lewis boundary

That is how we got here. Notice the total number of students in 2003 at the two schools. Only different by 167 students. Now in 2024 - different by 1086 students.

Lewis is much smaller, much poorer, and has many more ESL students. The ESL rate at WS actually went down over the years.

The quality of the school (teachers, admin) is not necessarily different or subpar, but the demographics of the students is much different.

How should this be resolved? Long time homeowner wants to know.

If you sent the 230 Lewis students pupil placing to other high schools back to Lewis, Lewis would have over 1900 students, without rezoning.

Maybe. But this doesn’t do anything to alleviate the overcrowding at WS.

And until there is a good faith effort to make Lewis more attractive, parents in my community will continue to pupil place to higher rated schools.

WSHS doesn't need to alleviate any overcrowding.

They still have empty classrooms.

I have one kid at WSHS and one at Irving and have never heard them or any parent or teacher (of which I know quite a few) complain about overcrowding. I've heard people complain it's too competitive on sports teams, which is a symptom of such a big school, but I've never heard anyone wish there were fewer students at the school or that they would change our boundary. We are just going through a swell that I think will naturally correct itself. In the early 2000s, housing prices in 22152 were fairly reasonable and a lot of families or couples intending to have kids moved here. These were (for DC area) "middle class" families. Government jobs, couples with one parent staying at home, teachers, etc. But the people moving in now are not these families. Our housing prices are too high now. I really think the CIP projections are incorrect. There is no new development in West Springfield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP - I get what the Lewis parent is saying (and no, my kids are not in the Lewis boundaries nor is it possible they’ll go there). I think what s/he is saying is all FCPS schools should be good by meeting a minimum threshold. And in the case of Lewis, what it needs is a larger number of students so that it can offer a range of APs like other schools. The SB seems to want all of the schools to be desirable and successful, which is admirable and what they should be doing. I would hope we can all agree on that. Likewise, if there are schools that are overcrowded, it makes sense to draw new boundaries to relieve that overcrowding. Thing is, I would guess most would agree with this - until they think it might affect their kid in what they perceive to be a negative way. We can’t just keep building additions when there is space. Any money available should be spent on renovations so that all schools are on similar footing. And re-drawing boundaries makes that possible.

This exactly, thank you PP!

Um... Lewis is an IB school.

They aren't going to have a full slate of AP classes no matter how many WSHS students you pull from their neighborhood school.

Well yes, that’s true as of right now. But more kids will translate to additional offerings. Plenty of runway between now and the 2026/2027 school year to make some positive changes at Lewis (don’t see how this could be accomplished any sooner, but I guess we will see)

So basically, you want to screw the WSHS 9th, 10th and 11th graders who lose the draw and have to move to IB Lewis, then in 5 years do it again.

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. In 2 rezoning cycles, you could end up with only 3 feeders to WSHS if you get your way.

They are not changing boundaries every 5 years. They are reviewing them every 5 years. Big difference.

Hold the phone, Lady. I keep hearing how dumb people are because they bought their homes Assuming static pyramid despite the fact that the SB could technically move boundaries (even though they didn’t make any significant moves over the last few decades). People keep saying, “you should have planned better, dummy.”

Now they are requiring a review every five years, but you’re assuring us that they won’t move the boundaries as part of the process.

So can we rely on your statement or are we dumb because we assumed the status quo would be maintained?

You SJWs are super freaking inconsistent and just make stuff up to suit your agenda.

Anyone with half a brain can assume that some changes may come after every 5 year review. Highly unlikely that those changes would impact students more than once during their time in FCPS.

But again, if you are that worried about it, just move deep within the boundary of your assigned school. Problem-solved!

[Anonymous]

We are missing the real problem here. There has been a HUGE drop in the quality of education in FCPS. The difference in the academics from when my oldest graduated Langley in 2019 and my now rising senior is night and day. We are not sending my rising freshman to Langley. We should have pulled him from Cooper. I couldn't care less about the quality of the facilities - I just want an educated child. So just know we can keep fighting about boundaries but the whole thing is crumbling underneath and we should hold the SB to account for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP - I get what the Lewis parent is saying (and no, my kids are not in the Lewis boundaries nor is it possible they’ll go there). I think what s/he is saying is all FCPS schools should be good by meeting a minimum threshold. And in the case of Lewis, what it needs is a larger number of students so that it can offer a range of APs like other schools. The SB seems to want all of the schools to be desirable and successful, which is admirable and what they should be doing. I would hope we can all agree on that. Likewise, if there are schools that are overcrowded, it makes sense to draw new boundaries to relieve that overcrowding. Thing is, I would guess most would agree with this - until they think it might affect their kid in what they perceive to be a negative way. We can’t just keep building additions when there is space. Any money available should be spent on renovations so that all schools are on similar footing. And re-drawing boundaries makes that possible.

This exactly, thank you PP!

Um... Lewis is an IB school.

They aren't going to have a full slate of AP classes no matter how many WSHS students you pull from their neighborhood school.

Well yes, that’s true as of right now. But more kids will translate to additional offerings. Plenty of runway between now and the 2026/2027 school year to make some positive changes at Lewis (don’t see how this could be accomplished any sooner, but I guess we will see)

So basically, you want to screw the WSHS 9th, 10th and 11th graders who lose the draw and have to move to IB Lewis, then in 5 years do it again.

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. In 2 rezoning cycles, you could end up with only 3 feeders to WSHS if you get your way.

They are not changing boundaries every 5 years. They are reviewing them every 5 years. Big difference.

Here is the thing: you have to trust them that this is what they mean. Here is their track record;

1. Running for school board without talking about boundaries. Then redoing boundaries

2. Saying this is just about a new boundary policy and they aren’t redoing boundaries. And then saying they have to do something

3. Referring to having a boundary study done when there was one recently that said no parents wants to redo boundaries. Then saying they are holistically redoing boundaries

So no I’m not so sure they will just “review” the boundaries. Why are you?

1. They’ve been working on boundary-related activities since before the pandemic. The current board is just picking up where the old board left off.

2. They NEVER SAID they weren’t adjusting boundaries. They said that revisions to 8130 was the first step and that no boundary decisions had been made, which is true.

3. The study didn’t conclude that “no parents want to redo boundaries”. It affirmed that the parents who responded so the survey were not in favor of adjustments. There is a difference.

Sounds like you’re upset now because you made a lot of assumptions about what the board would or wouldn’t do.

Regular assessments of the boundaries will help ensure that school resources (buildings, not students) are used in the most efficient way and to the benefit of the FCPS student community at large.

1. No they aren’t just picking it up - see number three.

2. My school board rep said she had no idea what Kyle McDaniel was talking about when he said the board is going to act in the new policy.

3. Everyday schools send out surveys that not everyone responds to. It is like voting some people just don’t do it and then they don’t get a say. It was pretty clear that the people who filled out the survey didn’t want adjustments. That should speak for itself.


If you are telling me to mistrust the board and that I was stupid for believing them, I agree. But how does that allow them to govern if I believe nothing they say. For example, why would I believe they will only review the policyevery 5 years and won’t switch kids around every 5 years? Why should I believe that they have any idea about any policy they make?

Trust has to be there to make a democracy work. By faulting me for not trusting in something that has been policy for years, you are also eroding faith in government during a very trying time both locally and federally for our government. Be careful what you wish and advocate for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP - I get what the Lewis parent is saying (and no, my kids are not in the Lewis boundaries nor is it possible they’ll go there). I think what s/he is saying is all FCPS schools should be good by meeting a minimum threshold. And in the case of Lewis, what it needs is a larger number of students so that it can offer a range of APs like other schools. The SB seems to want all of the schools to be desirable and successful, which is admirable and what they should be doing. I would hope we can all agree on that. Likewise, if there are schools that are overcrowded, it makes sense to draw new boundaries to relieve that overcrowding. Thing is, I would guess most would agree with this - until they think it might affect their kid in what they perceive to be a negative way. We can’t just keep building additions when there is space. Any money available should be spent on renovations so that all schools are on similar footing. And re-drawing boundaries makes that possible.

This exactly, thank you PP!

Um... Lewis is an IB school.

They aren't going to have a full slate of AP classes no matter how many WSHS students you pull from their neighborhood school.

Well yes, that’s true as of right now. But more kids will translate to additional offerings. Plenty of runway between now and the 2026/2027 school year to make some positive changes at Lewis (don’t see how this could be accomplished any sooner, but I guess we will see)

So basically, you want to screw the WSHS 9th, 10th and 11th graders who lose the draw and have to move to IB Lewis, then in 5 years do it again.

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. In 2 rezoning cycles, you could end up with only 3 feeders to WSHS if you get your way.

They are not changing boundaries every 5 years. They are reviewing them every 5 years. Big difference.

Hold the phone, Lady. I keep hearing how dumb people are because they bought their homes Assuming static pyramid despite the fact that the SB could technically move boundaries (even though they didn’t make any significant moves over the last few decades). People keep saying, “you should have planned better, dummy.”

Now they are requiring a review every five years, but you’re assuring us that they won’t move the boundaries as part of the process.

So can we rely on your statement or are we dumb because we assumed the status quo would be maintained?

You SJWs are super freaking inconsistent and just make stuff up to suit your agenda.

Anyone with half a brain can assume that some changes may come after every 5 year review. Highly unlikely that those changes would impact students more than once during their time in FCPS.

But again, if you are that worried about it, just move deep within the boundary of your assigned school. Problem-solved!

APS guarantees that, FCPS’ new policy doesn’t.
And yes, houses within walking distance of a high school have just gained about 50K value. I don’t say that because I care about housing prices, but just to show you how that argument will play out in real life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are missing the real problem here. There has been a HUGE drop in the quality of education in FCPS. The difference in the academics from when my oldest graduated Langley in 2019 and my now rising senior is night and day. We are not sending my rising freshman to Langley. We should have pulled him from Cooper. I couldn't care less about the quality of the facilities - I just want an educated child. So just know we can keep fighting about boundaries but the whole thing is crumbling underneath and we should hold the SB to account for that.

+1,000

Nero fiddles as Rome burns. If FCPS was offering quality education in its schools then issues like over and under enrollment at individual schools would be much easier to address.

Because the school board and superintendent focus on everything but actual eduction in core subjects education in FCPS continues to decline rapidly.

The only kids that get any education in FCPS are those that want to learn, are lucky enough to get the shrinking number of good teachers and have parental support for education at home.