FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Herndon?

Coates Elementary School.

Coates feeds into Westfield, not Herndon.

I believe Herndon is not a split feeder.

Are you sure? Some of the Coates kids were going to Herndon a couple years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Carson is split feeder into Westfields, South Lakes, Oakton and Chantilly. Four school split feeder.

Floris ES is split feeder into Westfields, Chantilly, and South Lakes. Three school split feeder at elementary school level.

Florida is very small so that should be an easy fix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember, it's not about actually addressing WSHS capacity. If it was this could be solved a number of ways through auditing student residence documentation and transfer ins. Instead, the goal is how to slice away the most high performing population to Lewis to save a failing school.

Resources should instead be poured into salvaging Lewis or shuttering it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

Perhaps they could actually fix whatever underlying issues exist at the school to make it undesirable for many families, rather than use FCPS kids as pawns in their equity game.

Bingo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Foresee anything happening in Woodson pyramid?

FWIW in FCPS’s capacity projections for 2028-29 on the capacity dashboard, the only HS’s that are projected to be “in the red” and significantly over capacity are Woodson and WSHS.

Can you show us where to find that dashboard please?

It’s a little convoluted but hopefully these instructions make sense.

1) go here: https://www.fcps.edu/facilities-planning-future/facilities-and-membership-dashboards and tap on the “Capacity overview …” link

2) tap on capacity utilization maps

3) change school level to HS

4) scroll down on the page until you see the second map for 28-29 projected capacity (it is my understanding this is the projection given the current maps with no changes/redistricting)

WSHS they are projecting at 117% and Woodson at 108%. The yellows are around 100% plus or minus a few and the blue are under capacity.

WSHS is using inaccurate inflated data.

The school doesn’t come up with its own projections. That is done by FCPS staff.

Yes. Of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Foresee anything happening in Woodson pyramid?

Mantua is probably safe since it’s so close to Woodson.

I believe the apartments right across the street from Woodson may be zoned for Fairfax HS, and Fairfax Villa ES sure looks like an attendance island that should have been in FHS.

FHS pyramid has dual superintendent though, Dr Reid and the Ffx City superintendent so maybe they don't touch it and instead ship Wakefield Forest and Canterbury Woods off to Annandale instead? Pure speculation

Fairfax HS is its own city, so none of those schools should be touched, and no other schools should be rezoned into Fairfax HS.

Is the town of Vienna also immune from redistricting? Or is it just Fairfax City?

Vienna and Herndon are towns and a part of Fairfax County. Fairfax City is an independent city just like The City of Falls Church but chose to utilize Fairfax Public Schools instead of establishing their own.

They do have their own schools - two ES, one MS, and one HS are owned by Fairfax City. But they contract with FCPS to operate those schools, and the schools have some space for kids who live outside Fairfax City. Falls Church City also owns multiple schools that, unlike Fairfax City, it operates as a separate school system.

Some of that surplus Fairfax HS space is used for academy classes.

None of it matters though as Fairfax HS is the safest school pyramid ehen it comes to rezoning.

Congratulations to them. Their housing value just jumped way up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

There is a lot of new housing going in the Lewis zone, and the Edison pyramid.

FCPS could quite simply shore up Lewis with that new housing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Foresee anything happening in Woodson pyramid?

Mantua is probably safe since it’s so close to Woodson.

I believe the apartments right across the street from Woodson may be zoned for Fairfax HS, and Fairfax Villa ES sure looks like an attendance island that should have been in FHS.

FHS pyramid has dual superintendent though, Dr Reid and the Ffx City superintendent so maybe they don't touch it and instead ship Wakefield Forest and Canterbury Woods off to Annandale instead? Pure speculation

Fairfax HS is its own city, so none of those schools should be touched, and no other schools should be rezoned into Fairfax HS.

Is the town of Vienna also immune from redistricting? Or is it just Fairfax City?

Vienna and Herndon are towns and a part of Fairfax County. Fairfax City is an independent city just like The City of Falls Church but chose to utilize Fairfax Public Schools instead of establishing their own.

They do have their own schools - two ES, one MS, and one HS are owned by Fairfax City. But they contract with FCPS to operate those schools, and the schools have some space for kids who live outside Fairfax City. Falls Church City also owns multiple schools that, unlike Fairfax City, it operates as a separate school system.

Some of that surplus Fairfax HS space is used for academy classes.

None of it matters though as Fairfax HS is the safest school pyramid ehen it comes to rezoning.

Congratulations to them. Their housing value just jumped way up

That’s probably true. For now, the quiet, stable neighborhoods in the city remain surprisingly relatively affordable. Moreover developments like the one at the historic Fairfax HS site, and in Old Town Fairfax, are giving the city more appeal. Vienna will get a rude wake up call if Madison will no longer be the town’s exclusive high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

Totally agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

Perhaps they could actually fix whatever underlying issues exist at the school to make it undesirable for many families, rather than use FCPS kids as pawns in their equity game.

They don't know how to actually fix the problem so they will move high performing kids to Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

There is a lot of new housing going in the Lewis zone, and the Edison pyramid.

FCPS could quite simply shore up Lewis with that new housing.

The new housing going up will be apartments. That won't help raise the test scores at Lewis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.