Boundary Review Meetings

[Anonymous]

It seems as though Sandy has entered the chat. In a neighborhood meeting with us she claimed she does not think residency issues are as big as people make them out to be, but did concede that they do not check every year. So in short, she does not know. And as a parent who is dropping my student off at "school friends" houses all over the place, including Woodbridge and Fairfax City after they moved from our area - I think it is a bigger issue than they realize.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Do you think school board will amend with new changes from Reid’s proposal or just remove some of her changes? I hope nothing new - maybe just add to list of things to look at in future?

They might put some of the Map 4 changes back into play (WSHS comes to mind)

There are some very upset Cardinal Forest families at Reid's last minute changes that switched that Keene Mill island down near White Oaks, Shannon Station, from getting rezoned to White Oaks elementary and Lake Braddock in Map 4, to Reid rezoning them to Cardinal Forest, putting Cardinal Forest well over capacity, and also rezoning walkable Cardinal Forest neighborhoods from Cardinal Forest to farther away Keene Mill elementary.

Moving Shannon Station to White Oaks in Map 4 eliminated an attendance island and decreased West Springfield High School by around 100 students. It also lowered transportation costs by sending them to a closer school, and sent Shannon Station to equivalent schools with the same programs. The Shannon Station move was low hanging fruit and met every last one of the four rezoning mandates given to the BRAC committee by the school board.

Reid's map keeps everyone at WSHS. Reid keeps the recommendation from Map 4 to move two SPAs from Rolling Valley to Saratoga, but leaves one Rolling Valley SPA from the Parkway area at status quo (Rolling Valley > Key > Lewis), which means that instead of being a roughly 60/40 split feeder between WSHS and Lewis, Rolling Valley is now less than 10% split going to Lewis.

What Reid did to the WSHS maps by keeping Emerald Chase at WSHS and rezoning Rolling Valley the way that she did, puts a huge target on WSHS for mid cycle rezoning in the next year or two.

Sandy Anderson openly stated this at the school board meeting last week. Anderson's term goes through 2028. Rezoning WSHS has been her consistent, stated goal since soon after she was sworn in. If she can find a way to rezone neighborhoods out of WSHS in an off cycle rezoning before her term ends, and move RV into WSHS, then she will definitely try.

If you know the history and follow the process, it is clear that Reid's map, trying to keep everyone happy, is the worst case scenario for WSHS as it means continuous, mid cycle rezoning.

I sincerely hope that the school board adopts Map 4 for WSHS, for at least Shannon Station. Or, if they leave Shannon Station at WSHS, then I hope they rezone SPA 8922 along the Parkway to Saratoga, along with the rest of the Rolling Valley Lewis schools.

In my opinion, that is the best way to protect WSHS from mid cycle rezoning.

One correction to my post.

School board elections are odd years in FairfaxCounty, 2019, 2023, 2027...

The term ends in January 2028, while the election is November 2027, roughly 22 months from now.

This school board has roughly 2 years to continue to make their mark on our kids' education. I think they are counting on voters completely forgetting about this rezoning mess by the next election.

Hard to do that when Sandy Anderson promised that this is just the start and they’re planning to continue looking at a variety of schools starting in January from the superintendent’s list.

Is anyone familiar with her origin story? I’m genuinely curious why she’s so singularly focused on WSHS. How does someone wake up one day and decide that rezoning this one school becomes their life’s mission?

Some people just think they know best. They claim to "care more" than you do. "Savior" mentality.

A white suburban woman knows what is good for poor black, Latino and Asian children than their own parents. These women are the real racists.

Correct.

Those two white women who argued for more boundary changes are just trying to get more kids like theirs in their classrooms. I question their motives. The only one who seemed to be truly crunchy was the elderly woman with short hair who clearly doesn’t have kids in the school district, but even her children probably benefited from the system she is now trying to change.

So some FCPS schools are designated for black, Latino, and Asian students? That is what you can read from your statement.

Lewis is closing in on only 1500 students this year and will almost certainly start next year around 1450 if nothing is done. It is not like the other FCPS schools simply in the NUMBER of students, be they white, black, Latino, Asian, or other.

But they are doing something. They’re looking at stopping transfers out by adding programming. That’s what Reid said.

And it looks like they are going to add Bren Mar Park elementary before the 5 year review. Which also helps relieve capacity issues at Edison so is a good change.

I have no idea why we’re suddenly bringing up a NYT podcast from an entirely different cultural era … definitely not a relevant piece of media in these extremely different times.

It’s not clear it’s a good change. It quickly got tabled for this cycle whereas they went ahead with the other last-minute changes to move kids out of Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church and Holmes/Annandale. They ended up getting a lot of push back from the Beech Tree families, but they hadn’t tabled those changes like they had with Bren Mar Park.

It isn’t a change that is being proposed to add kids to Lewis - rather, it is to take kids out of Edison. Edison needs to get rid of some students in order to accommodate growth in the region - they’ve already broken ground on a large neighborhood in Kingstowne where the old Top Golf used to be and that area will for sure be zoned for Edison. Never mind when the Franconia government center gets redeveloped in a few years. I know BMP would like to end up back at Annandale but Annandale also can’t accommodate more students at this point.

All of Bren Mar Park went to Annandale before 2011. Bren Mar Park ES used to be two different schools - Edsall Park ES covered the area north of the Beltway and west of 395, and Bren Mar Park ES the area north of the Beltway an east of 395. One area is Springfield and the other Alexandria. They closed Edsall Park decades ago. To get to Edison now, the Edsall Park area has to cross both 395 and the Beltway. The Bren Mar area just has to cross the Beltway.

Annandale has capacity to take back the Edsall Park area, and that area would no longer have to cross either the Beltway or 395. The Bren Mar area is better served by Edison. None of these folks want to go to Lewis, and they should not be moved there just to give West Springfield families comfort that someone else is getting moved instead.

So you propose making a split feeder out of BMP and sending some to Annandale and keeping some at Edison? It’s not a bad idea on paper and does get some kids out of Edison - but not sure if it’s enough kids to accommodate the new neighborhoods. And then you run into the K-5/K-6 school problems as BMP is currently a K-5 school whereas the rest of Edison and all of Lewis have K-6 elementaries.

And again - this is not about adding kids to Lewis to prop it up, it’s about reducing enrollment at Edison. I would agree if Annandale could pick up all of BMP, that is where they should go. But they can’t at this point without worsening the crowding there and then creating a spillover effect into Justice, Falls Church, Woodson etc. From a purely logistical standpoint and affecting the smallest number of schools, BMP to Lewis makes sense right now.

The CIP now has West Springfield at 114% this fall and Edison at 103%. Any future adjustments should be based on updated numbers.

Annandale could probably pick up all of BMP if needed but it’s those from west of 395 who would be most receptive to that move.

Their starting point with Lewis needs to be replacing IB with AP, which would curtail transfers. As for Edison, they can monitor enrollments to see if the projected increase in students materializes. They have Edison at 109% in 2030, but that still well below West Springfield’s current and projected capacity utilization.

Some of the elementary feeders into WSHS are heading down to below 90% capacity. All of the feeders are smaller than the classes they are replacing, some significantly like class of 2030 being 150 fewer students than graduating class of 2026.

Yet FCPS continues to show growth at WSHS in spite of the WSHS feeder schools steadily losing enrollment each year.

Either the CIP math ain't mathing at WSHS, or there is something really fishy happening with transfers into WSHS, and possible widespread residency fraud.

WSHS needs a residency check and transfer into the school frozen.

What West Springfield needs is for the parents who are so insecure about being redistricted some day to stop pitching alternative scenarios that move around other people’s kids at other schools instead. It only serves to call renewed attention to which high school FCPS currently considers and projects to be the most overcrowded in the county: WSHS.

How about you mind your business and just give those WSHS parents credit. I didn't hear them advocating for kicking or moving anyone out. They did their freaking homework, they understood the assignment, and they pushed back hard. Do the residency checks, keep limiting transfers, keep watching the declining numbers. Improving programing before you start playing ping-ponging kids around.

Residency checks are routinely done. This is a red herring.

I have not once been asked to resubmit residency information after 10 years in the FCPS system. It is very easy to use a previous address to stay at a school. Or to use someone else's address to enroll ... someone on this site asked about doing that just the other week!

Cool anecdotal evidence.

I'm not OP, but this is a fact. Residency checks outside of first registration do not happen. Reid herself said they have literally only one person's job to check for ALL of Fairfax country.

False.

Cite your source, please

Cite yours?

Sure. The Oct. boundary review meeting (Phase II) for the LBSS and WSHS pyramids are where Reid shared they only have one employee responsible for residency checks outside of first registration. Your turn.

Bam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher in a neighboring county - every year my students must submit a current utility bill/ rental agreement /or another form of verification. It takes two seconds for office staff to confirm. It does not need to be one person at central office.

Thank you!

We have had kids in schools around the country.

What you describe is standard practice.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Do you think school board will amend with new changes from Reid’s proposal or just remove some of her changes? I hope nothing new - maybe just add to list of things to look at in future?

They might put some of the Map 4 changes back into play (WSHS comes to mind)

There are some very upset Cardinal Forest families at Reid's last minute changes that switched that Keene Mill island down near White Oaks, Shannon Station, from getting rezoned to White Oaks elementary and Lake Braddock in Map 4, to Reid rezoning them to Cardinal Forest, putting Cardinal Forest well over capacity, and also rezoning walkable Cardinal Forest neighborhoods from Cardinal Forest to farther away Keene Mill elementary.

Moving Shannon Station to White Oaks in Map 4 eliminated an attendance island and decreased West Springfield High School by around 100 students. It also lowered transportation costs by sending them to a closer school, and sent Shannon Station to equivalent schools with the same programs. The Shannon Station move was low hanging fruit and met every last one of the four rezoning mandates given to the BRAC committee by the school board.

Reid's map keeps everyone at WSHS. Reid keeps the recommendation from Map 4 to move two SPAs from Rolling Valley to Saratoga, but leaves one Rolling Valley SPA from the Parkway area at status quo (Rolling Valley > Key > Lewis), which means that instead of being a roughly 60/40 split feeder between WSHS and Lewis, Rolling Valley is now less than 10% split going to Lewis.

What Reid did to the WSHS maps by keeping Emerald Chase at WSHS and rezoning Rolling Valley the way that she did, puts a huge target on WSHS for mid cycle rezoning in the next year or two.

Sandy Anderson openly stated this at the school board meeting last week. Anderson's term goes through 2028. Rezoning WSHS has been her consistent, stated goal since soon after she was sworn in. If she can find a way to rezone neighborhoods out of WSHS in an off cycle rezoning before her term ends, and move RV into WSHS, then she will definitely try.

If you know the history and follow the process, it is clear that Reid's map, trying to keep everyone happy, is the worst case scenario for WSHS as it means continuous, mid cycle rezoning.

I sincerely hope that the school board adopts Map 4 for WSHS, for at least Shannon Station. Or, if they leave Shannon Station at WSHS, then I hope they rezone SPA 8922 along the Parkway to Saratoga, along with the rest of the Rolling Valley Lewis schools.

In my opinion, that is the best way to protect WSHS from mid cycle rezoning.

One correction to my post.

School board elections are odd years in FairfaxCounty, 2019, 2023, 2027...

The term ends in January 2028, while the election is November 2027, roughly 22 months from now.

This school board has roughly 2 years to continue to make their mark on our kids' education. I think they are counting on voters completely forgetting about this rezoning mess by the next election.

Hard to do that when Sandy Anderson promised that this is just the start and they’re planning to continue looking at a variety of schools starting in January from the superintendent’s list.

Is anyone familiar with her origin story? I’m genuinely curious why she’s so singularly focused on WSHS. How does someone wake up one day and decide that rezoning this one school becomes their life’s mission?

Some people just think they know best. They claim to "care more" than you do. "Savior" mentality.

A white suburban woman knows what is good for poor black, Latino and Asian children than their own parents. These women are the real racists.

Correct.

Those two white women who argued for more boundary changes are just trying to get more kids like theirs in their classrooms. I question their motives. The only one who seemed to be truly crunchy was the elderly woman with short hair who clearly doesn’t have kids in the school district, but even her children probably benefited from the system she is now trying to change.

So some FCPS schools are designated for black, Latino, and Asian students? That is what you can read from your statement.

Lewis is closing in on only 1500 students this year and will almost certainly start next year around 1450 if nothing is done. It is not like the other FCPS schools simply in the NUMBER of students, be they white, black, Latino, Asian, or other.

But they are doing something. They’re looking at stopping transfers out by adding programming. That’s what Reid said.

And it looks like they are going to add Bren Mar Park elementary before the 5 year review. Which also helps relieve capacity issues at Edison so is a good change.

I have no idea why we’re suddenly bringing up a NYT podcast from an entirely different cultural era … definitely not a relevant piece of media in these extremely different times.

It’s not clear it’s a good change. It quickly got tabled for this cycle whereas they went ahead with the other last-minute changes to move kids out of Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church and Holmes/Annandale. They ended up getting a lot of push back from the Beech Tree families, but they hadn’t tabled those changes like they had with Bren Mar Park.

It isn’t a change that is being proposed to add kids to Lewis - rather, it is to take kids out of Edison. Edison needs to get rid of some students in order to accommodate growth in the region - they’ve already broken ground on a large neighborhood in Kingstowne where the old Top Golf used to be and that area will for sure be zoned for Edison. Never mind when the Franconia government center gets redeveloped in a few years. I know BMP would like to end up back at Annandale but Annandale also can’t accommodate more students at this point.

All of Bren Mar Park went to Annandale before 2011. Bren Mar Park ES used to be two different schools - Edsall Park ES covered the area north of the Beltway and west of 395, and Bren Mar Park ES the area north of the Beltway an east of 395. One area is Springfield and the other Alexandria. They closed Edsall Park decades ago. To get to Edison now, the Edsall Park area has to cross both 395 and the Beltway. The Bren Mar area just has to cross the Beltway.

Annandale has capacity to take back the Edsall Park area, and that area would no longer have to cross either the Beltway or 395. The Bren Mar area is better served by Edison. None of these folks want to go to Lewis, and they should not be moved there just to give West Springfield families comfort that someone else is getting moved instead.

So you propose making a split feeder out of BMP and sending some to Annandale and keeping some at Edison? It’s not a bad idea on paper and does get some kids out of Edison - but not sure if it’s enough kids to accommodate the new neighborhoods. And then you run into the K-5/K-6 school problems as BMP is currently a K-5 school whereas the rest of Edison and all of Lewis have K-6 elementaries.

And again - this is not about adding kids to Lewis to prop it up, it’s about reducing enrollment at Edison. I would agree if Annandale could pick up all of BMP, that is where they should go. But they can’t at this point without worsening the crowding there and then creating a spillover effect into Justice, Falls Church, Woodson etc. From a purely logistical standpoint and affecting the smallest number of schools, BMP to Lewis makes sense right now.

The CIP now has West Springfield at 114% this fall and Edison at 103%. Any future adjustments should be based on updated numbers.

Annandale could probably pick up all of BMP if needed but it’s those from west of 395 who would be most receptive to that move.

Their starting point with Lewis needs to be replacing IB with AP, which would curtail transfers. As for Edison, they can monitor enrollments to see if the projected increase in students materializes. They have Edison at 109% in 2030, but that still well below West Springfield’s current and projected capacity utilization.

Some of the elementary feeders into WSHS are heading down to below 90% capacity. All of the feeders are smaller than the classes they are replacing, some significantly like class of 2030 being 150 fewer students than graduating class of 2026.

Yet FCPS continues to show growth at WSHS in spite of the WSHS feeder schools steadily losing enrollment each year.

Either the CIP math ain't mathing at WSHS, or there is something really fishy happening with transfers into WSHS, and possible widespread residency fraud.

WSHS needs a residency check and transfer into the school frozen.

What West Springfield needs is for the parents who are so insecure about being redistricted some day to stop pitching alternative scenarios that move around other people’s kids at other schools instead. It only serves to call renewed attention to which high school FCPS currently considers and projects to be the most overcrowded in the county: WSHS.

How about you mind your business and just give those WSHS parents credit. I didn't hear them advocating for kicking or moving anyone out. They did their freaking homework, they understood the assignment, and they pushed back hard. Do the residency checks, keep limiting transfers, keep watching the declining numbers. Improving programing before you start playing ping-ponging kids around.

Residency checks are routinely done. This is a red herring.

I have not once been asked to resubmit residency information after 10 years in the FCPS system. It is very easy to use a previous address to stay at a school. Or to use someone else's address to enroll ... someone on this site asked about doing that just the other week!

A classmate of my kid moved in elementary school to a different area far away, went to Irving and WSHS, never changing their address. No one checked.

My kid's close friend moved to the Lewis zone moved to a larger house zoned for Lewis in 7th grade, never changed their address, and graduated from WSHS.

I could go on. There are many more instances. It is an open secret.

Did you report them? Do you really expect central office to check every kid in Fairfax county? You fill out that federal form every year in addition to lots of other forms.
One person would be capable of doing a check on those reported. I doubt that many are reported and the attending school should be the place.

Again. No question that there is fraud. But, how many kids in West Springfield do you think are being sent there under false pretenses? My guess is that it is not enough to make a difference. I don't like it, but the numbers are likely quite small.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Do you think school board will amend with new changes from Reid’s proposal or just remove some of her changes? I hope nothing new - maybe just add to list of things to look at in future?

They might put some of the Map 4 changes back into play (WSHS comes to mind)

There are some very upset Cardinal Forest families at Reid's last minute changes that switched that Keene Mill island down near White Oaks, Shannon Station, from getting rezoned to White Oaks elementary and Lake Braddock in Map 4, to Reid rezoning them to Cardinal Forest, putting Cardinal Forest well over capacity, and also rezoning walkable Cardinal Forest neighborhoods from Cardinal Forest to farther away Keene Mill elementary.

Moving Shannon Station to White Oaks in Map 4 eliminated an attendance island and decreased West Springfield High School by around 100 students. It also lowered transportation costs by sending them to a closer school, and sent Shannon Station to equivalent schools with the same programs. The Shannon Station move was low hanging fruit and met every last one of the four rezoning mandates given to the BRAC committee by the school board.

Reid's map keeps everyone at WSHS. Reid keeps the recommendation from Map 4 to move two SPAs from Rolling Valley to Saratoga, but leaves one Rolling Valley SPA from the Parkway area at status quo (Rolling Valley > Key > Lewis), which means that instead of being a roughly 60/40 split feeder between WSHS and Lewis, Rolling Valley is now less than 10% split going to Lewis.

What Reid did to the WSHS maps by keeping Emerald Chase at WSHS and rezoning Rolling Valley the way that she did, puts a huge target on WSHS for mid cycle rezoning in the next year or two.

Sandy Anderson openly stated this at the school board meeting last week. Anderson's term goes through 2028. Rezoning WSHS has been her consistent, stated goal since soon after she was sworn in. If she can find a way to rezone neighborhoods out of WSHS in an off cycle rezoning before her term ends, and move RV into WSHS, then she will definitely try.

If you know the history and follow the process, it is clear that Reid's map, trying to keep everyone happy, is the worst case scenario for WSHS as it means continuous, mid cycle rezoning.

I sincerely hope that the school board adopts Map 4 for WSHS, for at least Shannon Station. Or, if they leave Shannon Station at WSHS, then I hope they rezone SPA 8922 along the Parkway to Saratoga, along with the rest of the Rolling Valley Lewis schools.

In my opinion, that is the best way to protect WSHS from mid cycle rezoning.

One correction to my post.

School board elections are odd years in FairfaxCounty, 2019, 2023, 2027...

The term ends in January 2028, while the election is November 2027, roughly 22 months from now.

This school board has roughly 2 years to continue to make their mark on our kids' education. I think they are counting on voters completely forgetting about this rezoning mess by the next election.

Hard to do that when Sandy Anderson promised that this is just the start and they’re planning to continue looking at a variety of schools starting in January from the superintendent’s list.

Is anyone familiar with her origin story? I’m genuinely curious why she’s so singularly focused on WSHS. How does someone wake up one day and decide that rezoning this one school becomes their life’s mission?

Some people just think they know best. They claim to "care more" than you do. "Savior" mentality.

A white suburban woman knows what is good for poor black, Latino and Asian children than their own parents. These women are the real racists.

Correct.

Those two white women who argued for more boundary changes are just trying to get more kids like theirs in their classrooms. I question their motives. The only one who seemed to be truly crunchy was the elderly woman with short hair who clearly doesn’t have kids in the school district, but even her children probably benefited from the system she is now trying to change.

So some FCPS schools are designated for black, Latino, and Asian students? That is what you can read from your statement.

Lewis is closing in on only 1500 students this year and will almost certainly start next year around 1450 if nothing is done. It is not like the other FCPS schools simply in the NUMBER of students, be they white, black, Latino, Asian, or other.

But they are doing something. They’re looking at stopping transfers out by adding programming. That’s what Reid said.

And it looks like they are going to add Bren Mar Park elementary before the 5 year review. Which also helps relieve capacity issues at Edison so is a good change.

I have no idea why we’re suddenly bringing up a NYT podcast from an entirely different cultural era … definitely not a relevant piece of media in these extremely different times.

It’s not clear it’s a good change. It quickly got tabled for this cycle whereas they went ahead with the other last-minute changes to move kids out of Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church and Holmes/Annandale. They ended up getting a lot of push back from the Beech Tree families, but they hadn’t tabled those changes like they had with Bren Mar Park.

It isn’t a change that is being proposed to add kids to Lewis - rather, it is to take kids out of Edison. Edison needs to get rid of some students in order to accommodate growth in the region - they’ve already broken ground on a large neighborhood in Kingstowne where the old Top Golf used to be and that area will for sure be zoned for Edison. Never mind when the Franconia government center gets redeveloped in a few years. I know BMP would like to end up back at Annandale but Annandale also can’t accommodate more students at this point.

All of Bren Mar Park went to Annandale before 2011. Bren Mar Park ES used to be two different schools - Edsall Park ES covered the area north of the Beltway and west of 395, and Bren Mar Park ES the area north of the Beltway an east of 395. One area is Springfield and the other Alexandria. They closed Edsall Park decades ago. To get to Edison now, the Edsall Park area has to cross both 395 and the Beltway. The Bren Mar area just has to cross the Beltway.

Annandale has capacity to take back the Edsall Park area, and that area would no longer have to cross either the Beltway or 395. The Bren Mar area is better served by Edison. None of these folks want to go to Lewis, and they should not be moved there just to give West Springfield families comfort that someone else is getting moved instead.

So you propose making a split feeder out of BMP and sending some to Annandale and keeping some at Edison? It’s not a bad idea on paper and does get some kids out of Edison - but not sure if it’s enough kids to accommodate the new neighborhoods. And then you run into the K-5/K-6 school problems as BMP is currently a K-5 school whereas the rest of Edison and all of Lewis have K-6 elementaries.

And again - this is not about adding kids to Lewis to prop it up, it’s about reducing enrollment at Edison. I would agree if Annandale could pick up all of BMP, that is where they should go. But they can’t at this point without worsening the crowding there and then creating a spillover effect into Justice, Falls Church, Woodson etc. From a purely logistical standpoint and affecting the smallest number of schools, BMP to Lewis makes sense right now.

The CIP now has West Springfield at 114% this fall and Edison at 103%. Any future adjustments should be based on updated numbers.

Annandale could probably pick up all of BMP if needed but it’s those from west of 395 who would be most receptive to that move.

Their starting point with Lewis needs to be replacing IB with AP, which would curtail transfers. As for Edison, they can monitor enrollments to see if the projected increase in students materializes. They have Edison at 109% in 2030, but that still well below West Springfield’s current and projected capacity utilization.

Some of the elementary feeders into WSHS are heading down to below 90% capacity. All of the feeders are smaller than the classes they are replacing, some significantly like class of 2030 being 150 fewer students than graduating class of 2026.

Yet FCPS continues to show growth at WSHS in spite of the WSHS feeder schools steadily losing enrollment each year.

Either the CIP math ain't mathing at WSHS, or there is something really fishy happening with transfers into WSHS, and possible widespread residency fraud.

WSHS needs a residency check and transfer into the school frozen.

What West Springfield needs is for the parents who are so insecure about being redistricted some day to stop pitching alternative scenarios that move around other people’s kids at other schools instead. It only serves to call renewed attention to which high school FCPS currently considers and projects to be the most overcrowded in the county: WSHS.

How about you mind your business and just give those WSHS parents credit. I didn't hear them advocating for kicking or moving anyone out. They did their freaking homework, they understood the assignment, and they pushed back hard. Do the residency checks, keep limiting transfers, keep watching the declining numbers. Improving programing before you start playing ping-ponging kids around.

Some of them are pushing for Bren Mar Park to get moved to Lewis. Try to keep up.

Those are not WSHS parents.

I doubt any WSHS have ever heard of that elementary school or know where it is located.

Don’t be any more ridiculous than you’ve been already. Of course they studied up on other schools that potentially could be rezoned to Lewis rather than a WSHS feeder.

No, of course not.

You are being ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Do you think school board will amend with new changes from Reid’s proposal or just remove some of her changes? I hope nothing new - maybe just add to list of things to look at in future?

They might put some of the Map 4 changes back into play (WSHS comes to mind)

There are some very upset Cardinal Forest families at Reid's last minute changes that switched that Keene Mill island down near White Oaks, Shannon Station, from getting rezoned to White Oaks elementary and Lake Braddock in Map 4, to Reid rezoning them to Cardinal Forest, putting Cardinal Forest well over capacity, and also rezoning walkable Cardinal Forest neighborhoods from Cardinal Forest to farther away Keene Mill elementary.

Moving Shannon Station to White Oaks in Map 4 eliminated an attendance island and decreased West Springfield High School by around 100 students. It also lowered transportation costs by sending them to a closer school, and sent Shannon Station to equivalent schools with the same programs. The Shannon Station move was low hanging fruit and met every last one of the four rezoning mandates given to the BRAC committee by the school board.

Reid's map keeps everyone at WSHS. Reid keeps the recommendation from Map 4 to move two SPAs from Rolling Valley to Saratoga, but leaves one Rolling Valley SPA from the Parkway area at status quo (Rolling Valley > Key > Lewis), which means that instead of being a roughly 60/40 split feeder between WSHS and Lewis, Rolling Valley is now less than 10% split going to Lewis.

What Reid did to the WSHS maps by keeping Emerald Chase at WSHS and rezoning Rolling Valley the way that she did, puts a huge target on WSHS for mid cycle rezoning in the next year or two.

Sandy Anderson openly stated this at the school board meeting last week. Anderson's term goes through 2028. Rezoning WSHS has been her consistent, stated goal since soon after she was sworn in. If she can find a way to rezone neighborhoods out of WSHS in an off cycle rezoning before her term ends, and move RV into WSHS, then she will definitely try.

If you know the history and follow the process, it is clear that Reid's map, trying to keep everyone happy, is the worst case scenario for WSHS as it means continuous, mid cycle rezoning.

I sincerely hope that the school board adopts Map 4 for WSHS, for at least Shannon Station. Or, if they leave Shannon Station at WSHS, then I hope they rezone SPA 8922 along the Parkway to Saratoga, along with the rest of the Rolling Valley Lewis schools.

In my opinion, that is the best way to protect WSHS from mid cycle rezoning.

One correction to my post.

School board elections are odd years in FairfaxCounty, 2019, 2023, 2027...

The term ends in January 2028, while the election is November 2027, roughly 22 months from now.

This school board has roughly 2 years to continue to make their mark on our kids' education. I think they are counting on voters completely forgetting about this rezoning mess by the next election.

Hard to do that when Sandy Anderson promised that this is just the start and they’re planning to continue looking at a variety of schools starting in January from the superintendent’s list.

Is anyone familiar with her origin story? I’m genuinely curious why she’s so singularly focused on WSHS. How does someone wake up one day and decide that rezoning this one school becomes their life’s mission?

Some people just think they know best. They claim to "care more" than you do. "Savior" mentality.

A white suburban woman knows what is good for poor black, Latino and Asian children than their own parents. These women are the real racists.

Correct.

Those two white women who argued for more boundary changes are just trying to get more kids like theirs in their classrooms. I question their motives. The only one who seemed to be truly crunchy was the elderly woman with short hair who clearly doesn’t have kids in the school district, but even her children probably benefited from the system she is now trying to change.

So some FCPS schools are designated for black, Latino, and Asian students? That is what you can read from your statement.

Lewis is closing in on only 1500 students this year and will almost certainly start next year around 1450 if nothing is done. It is not like the other FCPS schools simply in the NUMBER of students, be they white, black, Latino, Asian, or other.

But they are doing something. They’re looking at stopping transfers out by adding programming. That’s what Reid said.

And it looks like they are going to add Bren Mar Park elementary before the 5 year review. Which also helps relieve capacity issues at Edison so is a good change.

I have no idea why we’re suddenly bringing up a NYT podcast from an entirely different cultural era … definitely not a relevant piece of media in these extremely different times.

It’s not clear it’s a good change. It quickly got tabled for this cycle whereas they went ahead with the other last-minute changes to move kids out of Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church and Holmes/Annandale. They ended up getting a lot of push back from the Beech Tree families, but they hadn’t tabled those changes like they had with Bren Mar Park.

It isn’t a change that is being proposed to add kids to Lewis - rather, it is to take kids out of Edison. Edison needs to get rid of some students in order to accommodate growth in the region - they’ve already broken ground on a large neighborhood in Kingstowne where the old Top Golf used to be and that area will for sure be zoned for Edison. Never mind when the Franconia government center gets redeveloped in a few years. I know BMP would like to end up back at Annandale but Annandale also can’t accommodate more students at this point.

All of Bren Mar Park went to Annandale before 2011. Bren Mar Park ES used to be two different schools - Edsall Park ES covered the area north of the Beltway and west of 395, and Bren Mar Park ES the area north of the Beltway an east of 395. One area is Springfield and the other Alexandria. They closed Edsall Park decades ago. To get to Edison now, the Edsall Park area has to cross both 395 and the Beltway. The Bren Mar area just has to cross the Beltway.

Annandale has capacity to take back the Edsall Park area, and that area would no longer have to cross either the Beltway or 395. The Bren Mar area is better served by Edison. None of these folks want to go to Lewis, and they should not be moved there just to give West Springfield families comfort that someone else is getting moved instead.

So you propose making a split feeder out of BMP and sending some to Annandale and keeping some at Edison? It’s not a bad idea on paper and does get some kids out of Edison - but not sure if it’s enough kids to accommodate the new neighborhoods. And then you run into the K-5/K-6 school problems as BMP is currently a K-5 school whereas the rest of Edison and all of Lewis have K-6 elementaries.

And again - this is not about adding kids to Lewis to prop it up, it’s about reducing enrollment at Edison. I would agree if Annandale could pick up all of BMP, that is where they should go. But they can’t at this point without worsening the crowding there and then creating a spillover effect into Justice, Falls Church, Woodson etc. From a purely logistical standpoint and affecting the smallest number of schools, BMP to Lewis makes sense right now.

The CIP now has West Springfield at 114% this fall and Edison at 103%. Any future adjustments should be based on updated numbers.

Annandale could probably pick up all of BMP if needed but it’s those from west of 395 who would be most receptive to that move.

Their starting point with Lewis needs to be replacing IB with AP, which would curtail transfers. As for Edison, they can monitor enrollments to see if the projected increase in students materializes. They have Edison at 109% in 2030, but that still well below West Springfield’s current and projected capacity utilization.

Some of the elementary feeders into WSHS are heading down to below 90% capacity. All of the feeders are smaller than the classes they are replacing, some significantly like class of 2030 being 150 fewer students than graduating class of 2026.

Yet FCPS continues to show growth at WSHS in spite of the WSHS feeder schools steadily losing enrollment each year.

Either the CIP math ain't mathing at WSHS, or there is something really fishy happening with transfers into WSHS, and possible widespread residency fraud.

WSHS needs a residency check and transfer into the school frozen.

What West Springfield needs is for the parents who are so insecure about being redistricted some day to stop pitching alternative scenarios that move around other people’s kids at other schools instead. It only serves to call renewed attention to which high school FCPS currently considers and projects to be the most overcrowded in the county: WSHS.

How about you mind your business and just give those WSHS parents credit. I didn't hear them advocating for kicking or moving anyone out. They did their freaking homework, they understood the assignment, and they pushed back hard. Do the residency checks, keep limiting transfers, keep watching the declining numbers. Improving programing before you start playing ping-ponging kids around.

Residency checks are routinely done. This is a red herring.

I have not once been asked to resubmit residency information after 10 years in the FCPS system. It is very easy to use a previous address to stay at a school. Or to use someone else's address to enroll ... someone on this site asked about doing that just the other week!

A classmate of my kid moved in elementary school to a different area far away, went to Irving and WSHS, never changing their address. No one checked.

My kid's close friend moved to the Lewis zone moved to a larger house zoned for Lewis in 7th grade, never changed their address, and graduated from WSHS.

I could go on. There are many more instances. It is an open secret.

Sharing that my neighbor (literally two doors down) had her granddaughter live with her while her parents first moved to Fairfax. Registered at a WSHS feeder. Parents bought in LBSS the following year. Kid went all through Irving and started at WSHS last year. They never asked for proof of residency again.

A neighbor up the street also used the grandparent's sddress to register their kids for a WSHS elememtary school. They lived in another high school zone, I believe Lewis.

The kids all went through to graduate from WSHS.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think school board will amend with new changes from Reid’s proposal or just remove some of her changes? I hope nothing new - maybe just add to list of things to look at in future?

They might put some of the Map 4 changes back into play (WSHS comes to mind)

There are some very upset Cardinal Forest families at Reid's last minute changes that switched that Keene Mill island down near White Oaks, Shannon Station, from getting rezoned to White Oaks elementary and Lake Braddock in Map 4, to Reid rezoning them to Cardinal Forest, putting Cardinal Forest well over capacity, and also rezoning walkable Cardinal Forest neighborhoods from Cardinal Forest to farther away Keene Mill elementary.

Moving Shannon Station to White Oaks in Map 4 eliminated an attendance island and decreased West Springfield High School by around 100 students. It also lowered transportation costs by sending them to a closer school, and sent Shannon Station to equivalent schools with the same programs. The Shannon Station move was low hanging fruit and met every last one of the four rezoning mandates given to the BRAC committee by the school board.

Reid's map keeps everyone at WSHS. Reid keeps the recommendation from Map 4 to move two SPAs from Rolling Valley to Saratoga, but leaves one Rolling Valley SPA from the Parkway area at status quo (Rolling Valley > Key > Lewis), which means that instead of being a roughly 60/40 split feeder between WSHS and Lewis, Rolling Valley is now less than 10% split going to Lewis.

What Reid did to the WSHS maps by keeping Emerald Chase at WSHS and rezoning Rolling Valley the way that she did, puts a huge target on WSHS for mid cycle rezoning in the next year or two.

Sandy Anderson openly stated this at the school board meeting last week. Anderson's term goes through 2028. Rezoning WSHS has been her consistent, stated goal since soon after she was sworn in. If she can find a way to rezone neighborhoods out of WSHS in an off cycle rezoning before her term ends, and move RV into WSHS, then she will definitely try.

If you know the history and follow the process, it is clear that Reid's map, trying to keep everyone happy, is the worst case scenario for WSHS as it means continuous, mid cycle rezoning.

I sincerely hope that the school board adopts Map 4 for WSHS, for at least Shannon Station. Or, if they leave Shannon Station at WSHS, then I hope they rezone SPA 8922 along the Parkway to Saratoga, along with the rest of the Rolling Valley Lewis schools.

In my opinion, that is the best way to protect WSHS from mid cycle rezoning.

One correction to my post.

School board elections are odd years in FairfaxCounty, 2019, 2023, 2027...

The term ends in January 2028, while the election is November 2027, roughly 22 months from now.

This school board has roughly 2 years to continue to make their mark on our kids' education. I think they are counting on voters completely forgetting about this rezoning mess by the next election.

Hard to do that when Sandy Anderson promised that this is just the start and they’re planning to continue looking at a variety of schools starting in January from the superintendent’s list.

Is anyone familiar with her origin story? I’m genuinely curious why she’s so singularly focused on WSHS. How does someone wake up one day and decide that rezoning this one school becomes their life’s mission?

Some people just think they know best. They claim to "care more" than you do. "Savior" mentality.

A white suburban woman knows what is good for poor black, Latino and Asian children than their own parents. These women are the real racists.

Correct.

Those two white women who argued for more boundary changes are just trying to get more kids like theirs in their classrooms. I question their motives. The only one who seemed to be truly crunchy was the elderly woman with short hair who clearly doesn’t have kids in the school district, but even her children probably benefited from the system she is now trying to change.

So some FCPS schools are designated for black, Latino, and Asian students? That is what you can read from your statement.

Lewis is closing in on only 1500 students this year and will almost certainly start next year around 1450 if nothing is done. It is not like the other FCPS schools simply in the NUMBER of students, be they white, black, Latino, Asian, or other.

But they are doing something. They’re looking at stopping transfers out by adding programming. That’s what Reid said.

And it looks like they are going to add Bren Mar Park elementary before the 5 year review. Which also helps relieve capacity issues at Edison so is a good change.

I have no idea why we’re suddenly bringing up a NYT podcast from an entirely different cultural era … definitely not a relevant piece of media in these extremely different times.

It’s not clear it’s a good change. It quickly got tabled for this cycle whereas they went ahead with the other last-minute changes to move kids out of Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church and Holmes/Annandale. They ended up getting a lot of push back from the Beech Tree families, but they hadn’t tabled those changes like they had with Bren Mar Park.

It isn’t a change that is being proposed to add kids to Lewis - rather, it is to take kids out of Edison. Edison needs to get rid of some students in order to accommodate growth in the region - they’ve already broken ground on a large neighborhood in Kingstowne where the old Top Golf used to be and that area will for sure be zoned for Edison. Never mind when the Franconia government center gets redeveloped in a few years. I know BMP would like to end up back at Annandale but Annandale also can’t accommodate more students at this point.

All of Bren Mar Park went to Annandale before 2011. Bren Mar Park ES used to be two different schools - Edsall Park ES covered the area north of the Beltway and west of 395, and Bren Mar Park ES the area north of the Beltway an east of 395. One area is Springfield and the other Alexandria. They closed Edsall Park decades ago. To get to Edison now, the Edsall Park area has to cross both 395 and the Beltway. The Bren Mar area just has to cross the Beltway.

Annandale has capacity to take back the Edsall Park area, and that area would no longer have to cross either the Beltway or 395. The Bren Mar area is better served by Edison. None of these folks want to go to Lewis, and they should not be moved there just to give West Springfield families comfort that someone else is getting moved instead.

So you propose making a split feeder out of BMP and sending some to Annandale and keeping some at Edison? It’s not a bad idea on paper and does get some kids out of Edison - but not sure if it’s enough kids to accommodate the new neighborhoods. And then you run into the K-5/K-6 school problems as BMP is currently a K-5 school whereas the rest of Edison and all of Lewis have K-6 elementaries.

And again - this is not about adding kids to Lewis to prop it up, it’s about reducing enrollment at Edison. I would agree if Annandale could pick up all of BMP, that is where they should go. But they can’t at this point without worsening the crowding there and then creating a spillover effect into Justice, Falls Church, Woodson etc. From a purely logistical standpoint and affecting the smallest number of schools, BMP to Lewis makes sense right now.

The CIP now has West Springfield at 114% this fall and Edison at 103%. Any future adjustments should be based on updated numbers.

Annandale could probably pick up all of BMP if needed but it’s those from west of 395 who would be most receptive to that move.

Their starting point with Lewis needs to be replacing IB with AP, which would curtail transfers. As for Edison, they can monitor enrollments to see if the projected increase in students materializes. They have Edison at 109% in 2030, but that still well below West Springfield’s current and projected capacity utilization.

Some of the elementary feeders into WSHS are heading down to below 90% capacity. All of the feeders are smaller than the classes they are replacing, some significantly like class of 2030 being 150 fewer students than graduating class of 2026.

Yet FCPS continues to show growth at WSHS in spite of the WSHS feeder schools steadily losing enrollment each year.

Either the CIP math ain't mathing at WSHS, or there is something really fishy happening with transfers into WSHS, and possible widespread residency fraud.

WSHS needs a residency check and transfer into the school frozen.

What West Springfield needs is for the parents who are so insecure about being redistricted some day to stop pitching alternative scenarios that move around other people’s kids at other schools instead. It only serves to call renewed attention to which high school FCPS currently considers and projects to be the most overcrowded in the county: WSHS.

How about you mind your business and just give those WSHS parents credit. I didn't hear them advocating for kicking or moving anyone out. They did their freaking homework, they understood the assignment, and they pushed back hard. Do the residency checks, keep limiting transfers, keep watching the declining numbers. Improving programing before you start playing ping-ponging kids around.

Residency checks are routinely done. This is a red herring.

DP. Sure, in the sense that you bring a lease to school and you’re good for the rest of time 🙄. PP was talking about actual residency checks, not check the box exercises.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spoke at the January 10th meeting and now I keep getting emails from board members and their reps asking for a copy of my remarks. Is this standard or do they really care to help?

The School Board is split 6-5. So the minority group can freely vote against boundary changes or propose amendments knowing they won’t prevail. Some are asking for comments to inform their votes or actions on 1/22.

The Sandy Anderson/Karl Frisch faction controls the SB and can push through whatever they want, now or through the end of 2027. Tom Dannan’s election gives them a majority block.

When is the school board vote and when is the Braddock election?
Braddock may be without a rep for the vote

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Do you think school board will amend with new changes from Reid’s proposal or just remove some of her changes? I hope nothing new - maybe just add to list of things to look at in future?

They might put some of the Map 4 changes back into play (WSHS comes to mind)

There are some very upset Cardinal Forest families at Reid's last minute changes that switched that Keene Mill island down near White Oaks, Shannon Station, from getting rezoned to White Oaks elementary and Lake Braddock in Map 4, to Reid rezoning them to Cardinal Forest, putting Cardinal Forest well over capacity, and also rezoning walkable Cardinal Forest neighborhoods from Cardinal Forest to farther away Keene Mill elementary.

Moving Shannon Station to White Oaks in Map 4 eliminated an attendance island and decreased West Springfield High School by around 100 students. It also lowered transportation costs by sending them to a closer school, and sent Shannon Station to equivalent schools with the same programs. The Shannon Station move was low hanging fruit and met every last one of the four rezoning mandates given to the BRAC committee by the school board.

Reid's map keeps everyone at WSHS. Reid keeps the recommendation from Map 4 to move two SPAs from Rolling Valley to Saratoga, but leaves one Rolling Valley SPA from the Parkway area at status quo (Rolling Valley > Key > Lewis), which means that instead of being a roughly 60/40 split feeder between WSHS and Lewis, Rolling Valley is now less than 10% split going to Lewis.

What Reid did to the WSHS maps by keeping Emerald Chase at WSHS and rezoning Rolling Valley the way that she did, puts a huge target on WSHS for mid cycle rezoning in the next year or two.

Sandy Anderson openly stated this at the school board meeting last week. Anderson's term goes through 2028. Rezoning WSHS has been her consistent, stated goal since soon after she was sworn in. If she can find a way to rezone neighborhoods out of WSHS in an off cycle rezoning before her term ends, and move RV into WSHS, then she will definitely try.

If you know the history and follow the process, it is clear that Reid's map, trying to keep everyone happy, is the worst case scenario for WSHS as it means continuous, mid cycle rezoning.

I sincerely hope that the school board adopts Map 4 for WSHS, for at least Shannon Station. Or, if they leave Shannon Station at WSHS, then I hope they rezone SPA 8922 along the Parkway to Saratoga, along with the rest of the Rolling Valley Lewis schools.

In my opinion, that is the best way to protect WSHS from mid cycle rezoning.

One correction to my post.

School board elections are odd years in FairfaxCounty, 2019, 2023, 2027...

The term ends in January 2028, while the election is November 2027, roughly 22 months from now.

This school board has roughly 2 years to continue to make their mark on our kids' education. I think they are counting on voters completely forgetting about this rezoning mess by the next election.

Hard to do that when Sandy Anderson promised that this is just the start and they’re planning to continue looking at a variety of schools starting in January from the superintendent’s list.

Is anyone familiar with her origin story? I’m genuinely curious why she’s so singularly focused on WSHS. How does someone wake up one day and decide that rezoning this one school becomes their life’s mission?

Some people just think they know best. They claim to "care more" than you do. "Savior" mentality.

A white suburban woman knows what is good for poor black, Latino and Asian children than their own parents. These women are the real racists.

Correct.

Those two white women who argued for more boundary changes are just trying to get more kids like theirs in their classrooms. I question their motives. The only one who seemed to be truly crunchy was the elderly woman with short hair who clearly doesn’t have kids in the school district, but even her children probably benefited from the system she is now trying to change.

So some FCPS schools are designated for black, Latino, and Asian students? That is what you can read from your statement.

Lewis is closing in on only 1500 students this year and will almost certainly start next year around 1450 if nothing is done. It is not like the other FCPS schools simply in the NUMBER of students, be they white, black, Latino, Asian, or other.

But they are doing something. They’re looking at stopping transfers out by adding programming. That’s what Reid said.

And it looks like they are going to add Bren Mar Park elementary before the 5 year review. Which also helps relieve capacity issues at Edison so is a good change.

I have no idea why we’re suddenly bringing up a NYT podcast from an entirely different cultural era … definitely not a relevant piece of media in these extremely different times.

It’s not clear it’s a good change. It quickly got tabled for this cycle whereas they went ahead with the other last-minute changes to move kids out of Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church and Holmes/Annandale. They ended up getting a lot of push back from the Beech Tree families, but they hadn’t tabled those changes like they had with Bren Mar Park.

It isn’t a change that is being proposed to add kids to Lewis - rather, it is to take kids out of Edison. Edison needs to get rid of some students in order to accommodate growth in the region - they’ve already broken ground on a large neighborhood in Kingstowne where the old Top Golf used to be and that area will for sure be zoned for Edison. Never mind when the Franconia government center gets redeveloped in a few years. I know BMP would like to end up back at Annandale but Annandale also can’t accommodate more students at this point.

All of Bren Mar Park went to Annandale before 2011. Bren Mar Park ES used to be two different schools - Edsall Park ES covered the area north of the Beltway and west of 395, and Bren Mar Park ES the area north of the Beltway an east of 395. One area is Springfield and the other Alexandria. They closed Edsall Park decades ago. To get to Edison now, the Edsall Park area has to cross both 395 and the Beltway. The Bren Mar area just has to cross the Beltway.

Annandale has capacity to take back the Edsall Park area, and that area would no longer have to cross either the Beltway or 395. The Bren Mar area is better served by Edison. None of these folks want to go to Lewis, and they should not be moved there just to give West Springfield families comfort that someone else is getting moved instead.

So you propose making a split feeder out of BMP and sending some to Annandale and keeping some at Edison? It’s not a bad idea on paper and does get some kids out of Edison - but not sure if it’s enough kids to accommodate the new neighborhoods. And then you run into the K-5/K-6 school problems as BMP is currently a K-5 school whereas the rest of Edison and all of Lewis have K-6 elementaries.

And again - this is not about adding kids to Lewis to prop it up, it’s about reducing enrollment at Edison. I would agree if Annandale could pick up all of BMP, that is where they should go. But they can’t at this point without worsening the crowding there and then creating a spillover effect into Justice, Falls Church, Woodson etc. From a purely logistical standpoint and affecting the smallest number of schools, BMP to Lewis makes sense right now.

The CIP now has West Springfield at 114% this fall and Edison at 103%. Any future adjustments should be based on updated numbers.

Annandale could probably pick up all of BMP if needed but it’s those from west of 395 who would be most receptive to that move.

Their starting point with Lewis needs to be replacing IB with AP, which would curtail transfers. As for Edison, they can monitor enrollments to see if the projected increase in students materializes. They have Edison at 109% in 2030, but that still well below West Springfield’s current and projected capacity utilization.

Some of the elementary feeders into WSHS are heading down to below 90% capacity. All of the feeders are smaller than the classes they are replacing, some significantly like class of 2030 being 150 fewer students than graduating class of 2026.

Yet FCPS continues to show growth at WSHS in spite of the WSHS feeder schools steadily losing enrollment each year.

Either the CIP math ain't mathing at WSHS, or there is something really fishy happening with transfers into WSHS, and possible widespread residency fraud.

WSHS needs a residency check and transfer into the school frozen.

What West Springfield needs is for the parents who are so insecure about being redistricted some day to stop pitching alternative scenarios that move around other people’s kids at other schools instead. It only serves to call renewed attention to which high school FCPS currently considers and projects to be the most overcrowded in the county: WSHS.

How about you mind your business and just give those WSHS parents credit. I didn't hear them advocating for kicking or moving anyone out. They did their freaking homework, they understood the assignment, and they pushed back hard. Do the residency checks, keep limiting transfers, keep watching the declining numbers. Improving programing before you start playing ping-ponging kids around.

Residency checks are routinely done. This is a red herring.

I have not once been asked to resubmit residency information after 10 years in the FCPS system. It is very easy to use a previous address to stay at a school. Or to use someone else's address to enroll ... someone on this site asked about doing that just the other week!

A classmate of my kid moved in elementary school to a different area far away, went to Irving and WSHS, never changing their address. No one checked.

My kid's close friend moved to the Lewis zone moved to a larger house zoned for Lewis in 7th grade, never changed their address, and graduated from WSHS.

I could go on. There are many more instances. It is an open secret.

Did you report them? Do you really expect central office to check every kid in Fairfax county? You fill out that federal form every year in addition to lots of other forms.
One person would be capable of doing a check on those reported. I doubt that many are reported and the attending school should be the place.

Again. No question that there is fraud. But, how many kids in West Springfield do you think are being sent there under false pretenses? My guess is that it is not enough to make a difference. I don't like it, but the numbers are likely quite small.

I think it is at least a dozen per grade who moved during elementary or middle school and never changed their addresses. Anywhere from 40-60 students in all 4 grades would be a safe estimate. It might be slightly higher or lower.

Combine those 40-60 students with the 50-60 transfers into WSHS, and FCPS could reduce WSHS enrollment by 100 + students without rezoning a single student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think school board will amend with new changes from Reid’s proposal or just remove some of her changes? I hope nothing new - maybe just add to list of things to look at in future?

They might put some of the Map 4 changes back into play (WSHS comes to mind)

There are some very upset Cardinal Forest families at Reid's last minute changes that switched that Keene Mill island down near White Oaks, Shannon Station, from getting rezoned to White Oaks elementary and Lake Braddock in Map 4, to Reid rezoning them to Cardinal Forest, putting Cardinal Forest well over capacity, and also rezoning walkable Cardinal Forest neighborhoods from Cardinal Forest to farther away Keene Mill elementary.

Moving Shannon Station to White Oaks in Map 4 eliminated an attendance island and decreased West Springfield High School by around 100 students. It also lowered transportation costs by sending them to a closer school, and sent Shannon Station to equivalent schools with the same programs. The Shannon Station move was low hanging fruit and met every last one of the four rezoning mandates given to the BRAC committee by the school board.

Reid's map keeps everyone at WSHS. Reid keeps the recommendation from Map 4 to move two SPAs from Rolling Valley to Saratoga, but leaves one Rolling Valley SPA from the Parkway area at status quo (Rolling Valley > Key > Lewis), which means that instead of being a roughly 60/40 split feeder between WSHS and Lewis, Rolling Valley is now less than 10% split going to Lewis.

What Reid did to the WSHS maps by keeping Emerald Chase at WSHS and rezoning Rolling Valley the way that she did, puts a huge target on WSHS for mid cycle rezoning in the next year or two.

Sandy Anderson openly stated this at the school board meeting last week. Anderson's term goes through 2028. Rezoning WSHS has been her consistent, stated goal since soon after she was sworn in. If she can find a way to rezone neighborhoods out of WSHS in an off cycle rezoning before her term ends, and move RV into WSHS, then she will definitely try.

If you know the history and follow the process, it is clear that Reid's map, trying to keep everyone happy, is the worst case scenario for WSHS as it means continuous, mid cycle rezoning.

I sincerely hope that the school board adopts Map 4 for WSHS, for at least Shannon Station. Or, if they leave Shannon Station at WSHS, then I hope they rezone SPA 8922 along the Parkway to Saratoga, along with the rest of the Rolling Valley Lewis schools.

In my opinion, that is the best way to protect WSHS from mid cycle rezoning.

One correction to my post.

School board elections are odd years in FairfaxCounty, 2019, 2023, 2027...

The term ends in January 2028, while the election is November 2027, roughly 22 months from now.

This school board has roughly 2 years to continue to make their mark on our kids' education. I think they are counting on voters completely forgetting about this rezoning mess by the next election.

Hard to do that when Sandy Anderson promised that this is just the start and they’re planning to continue looking at a variety of schools starting in January from the superintendent’s list.

Is anyone familiar with her origin story? I’m genuinely curious why she’s so singularly focused on WSHS. How does someone wake up one day and decide that rezoning this one school becomes their life’s mission?

Some people just think they know best. They claim to "care more" than you do. "Savior" mentality.

A white suburban woman knows what is good for poor black, Latino and Asian children than their own parents. These women are the real racists.

Correct.

Those two white women who argued for more boundary changes are just trying to get more kids like theirs in their classrooms. I question their motives. The only one who seemed to be truly crunchy was the elderly woman with short hair who clearly doesn’t have kids in the school district, but even her children probably benefited from the system she is now trying to change.

So some FCPS schools are designated for black, Latino, and Asian students? That is what you can read from your statement.

Lewis is closing in on only 1500 students this year and will almost certainly start next year around 1450 if nothing is done. It is not like the other FCPS schools simply in the NUMBER of students, be they white, black, Latino, Asian, or other.

But they are doing something. They’re looking at stopping transfers out by adding programming. That’s what Reid said.

And it looks like they are going to add Bren Mar Park elementary before the 5 year review. Which also helps relieve capacity issues at Edison so is a good change.

I have no idea why we’re suddenly bringing up a NYT podcast from an entirely different cultural era … definitely not a relevant piece of media in these extremely different times.

It’s not clear it’s a good change. It quickly got tabled for this cycle whereas they went ahead with the other last-minute changes to move kids out of Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church and Holmes/Annandale. They ended up getting a lot of push back from the Beech Tree families, but they hadn’t tabled those changes like they had with Bren Mar Park.

It isn’t a change that is being proposed to add kids to Lewis - rather, it is to take kids out of Edison. Edison needs to get rid of some students in order to accommodate growth in the region - they’ve already broken ground on a large neighborhood in Kingstowne where the old Top Golf used to be and that area will for sure be zoned for Edison. Never mind when the Franconia government center gets redeveloped in a few years. I know BMP would like to end up back at Annandale but Annandale also can’t accommodate more students at this point.

All of Bren Mar Park went to Annandale before 2011. Bren Mar Park ES used to be two different schools - Edsall Park ES covered the area north of the Beltway and west of 395, and Bren Mar Park ES the area north of the Beltway an east of 395. One area is Springfield and the other Alexandria. They closed Edsall Park decades ago. To get to Edison now, the Edsall Park area has to cross both 395 and the Beltway. The Bren Mar area just has to cross the Beltway.

Annandale has capacity to take back the Edsall Park area, and that area would no longer have to cross either the Beltway or 395. The Bren Mar area is better served by Edison. None of these folks want to go to Lewis, and they should not be moved there just to give West Springfield families comfort that someone else is getting moved instead.

So you propose making a split feeder out of BMP and sending some to Annandale and keeping some at Edison? It’s not a bad idea on paper and does get some kids out of Edison - but not sure if it’s enough kids to accommodate the new neighborhoods. And then you run into the K-5/K-6 school problems as BMP is currently a K-5 school whereas the rest of Edison and all of Lewis have K-6 elementaries.

And again - this is not about adding kids to Lewis to prop it up, it’s about reducing enrollment at Edison. I would agree if Annandale could pick up all of BMP, that is where they should go. But they can’t at this point without worsening the crowding there and then creating a spillover effect into Justice, Falls Church, Woodson etc. From a purely logistical standpoint and affecting the smallest number of schools, BMP to Lewis makes sense right now.

The CIP now has West Springfield at 114% this fall and Edison at 103%. Any future adjustments should be based on updated numbers.

Annandale could probably pick up all of BMP if needed but it’s those from west of 395 who would be most receptive to that move.

Their starting point with Lewis needs to be replacing IB with AP, which would curtail transfers. As for Edison, they can monitor enrollments to see if the projected increase in students materializes. They have Edison at 109% in 2030, but that still well below West Springfield’s current and projected capacity utilization.

Some of the elementary feeders into WSHS are heading down to below 90% capacity. All of the feeders are smaller than the classes they are replacing, some significantly like class of 2030 being 150 fewer students than graduating class of 2026.

Yet FCPS continues to show growth at WSHS in spite of the WSHS feeder schools steadily losing enrollment each year.

Either the CIP math ain't mathing at WSHS, or there is something really fishy happening with transfers into WSHS, and possible widespread residency fraud.

WSHS needs a residency check and transfer into the school frozen.

What West Springfield needs is for the parents who are so insecure about being redistricted some day to stop pitching alternative scenarios that move around other people’s kids at other schools instead. It only serves to call renewed attention to which high school FCPS currently considers and projects to be the most overcrowded in the county: WSHS.

How about you mind your business and just give those WSHS parents credit. I didn't hear them advocating for kicking or moving anyone out. They did their freaking homework, they understood the assignment, and they pushed back hard. Do the residency checks, keep limiting transfers, keep watching the declining numbers. Improving programing before you start playing ping-ponging kids around.

Residency checks are routinely done. This is a red herring.

I have not once been asked to resubmit residency information after 10 years in the FCPS system. It is very easy to use a previous address to stay at a school. Or to use someone else's address to enroll ... someone on this site asked about doing that just the other week!

A classmate of my kid moved in elementary school to a different area far away, went to Irving and WSHS, never changing their address. No one checked.

My kid's close friend moved to the Lewis zone moved to a larger house zoned for Lewis in 7th grade, never changed their address, and graduated from WSHS.

I could go on. There are many more instances. It is an open secret.

Did you report them? Do you really expect central office to check every kid in Fairfax county? You fill out that federal form every year in addition to lots of other forms.
One person would be capable of doing a check on those reported. I doubt that many are reported and the attending school should be the place.

Again. No question that there is fraud. But, how many kids in West Springfield do you think are being sent there under false pretenses? My guess is that it is not enough to make a difference. I don't like it, but the numbers are likely quite small.

I think it is at least a dozen per grade who moved during elementary or middle school and never changed their addresses. Anywhere from 40-60 students in all 4 grades would be a safe estimate. It might be slightly higher or lower.

Combine those 40-60 students with the 50-60 transfers into WSHS, and FCPS could reduce WSHS enrollment by 100 + students without rezoning a single student.

Did you report any of them? If not, why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spoke at the January 10th meeting and now I keep getting emails from board members and their reps asking for a copy of my remarks. Is this standard or do they really care to help?

The School Board is split 6-5. So the minority group can freely vote against boundary changes or propose amendments knowing they won’t prevail. Some are asking for comments to inform their votes or actions on 1/22.

The Sandy Anderson/Karl Frisch faction controls the SB and can push through whatever they want, now or through the end of 2027. Tom Dannan’s election gives them a majority block.

When is the school board vote and when is the Braddock election?
Braddock may be without a rep for the vote

It’s March 3rd but the Sandy Anderson block controls things with a 6-5 edge. Dannan defeating Krezel means it will soon have a 7-5 majority. Krezel would have given the current minority block veto rights.

Saundra Davis has no chance against Dannan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spoke at the January 10th meeting and now I keep getting emails from board members and their reps asking for a copy of my remarks. Is this standard or do they really care to help?

The School Board is split 6-5. So the minority group can freely vote against boundary changes or propose amendments knowing they won’t prevail. Some are asking for comments to inform their votes or actions on 1/22.

The Sandy Anderson/Karl Frisch faction controls the SB and can push through whatever they want, now or through the end of 2027. Tom Dannan’s election gives them a majority block.

When is the school board vote and when is the Braddock election?
Braddock may be without a rep for the vote

It’s March 3rd but the Sandy Anderson block controls things with a 6-5 edge. Dannan defeating Krezel means it will soon have a 7-5 majority. Krezel would have given the current minority block veto rights.

Saundra Davis has no chance against Dannan.

Yep, pretty bummed that the rubber-stamp / prep-for-higher-office faction prevailed here instead of the more independent, oversight-oriented faction (agree or disagree with them, at least they're trying to do their jobs properly). But at the same time entirely unsurprised by the outcome. C'est la vie.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think school board will amend with new changes from Reid’s proposal or just remove some of her changes? I hope nothing new - maybe just add to list of things to look at in future?

They might put some of the Map 4 changes back into play (WSHS comes to mind)

There are some very upset Cardinal Forest families at Reid's last minute changes that switched that Keene Mill island down near White Oaks, Shannon Station, from getting rezoned to White Oaks elementary and Lake Braddock in Map 4, to Reid rezoning them to Cardinal Forest, putting Cardinal Forest well over capacity, and also rezoning walkable Cardinal Forest neighborhoods from Cardinal Forest to farther away Keene Mill elementary.

Moving Shannon Station to White Oaks in Map 4 eliminated an attendance island and decreased West Springfield High School by around 100 students. It also lowered transportation costs by sending them to a closer school, and sent Shannon Station to equivalent schools with the same programs. The Shannon Station move was low hanging fruit and met every last one of the four rezoning mandates given to the BRAC committee by the school board.

Reid's map keeps everyone at WSHS. Reid keeps the recommendation from Map 4 to move two SPAs from Rolling Valley to Saratoga, but leaves one Rolling Valley SPA from the Parkway area at status quo (Rolling Valley > Key > Lewis), which means that instead of being a roughly 60/40 split feeder between WSHS and Lewis, Rolling Valley is now less than 10% split going to Lewis.

What Reid did to the WSHS maps by keeping Emerald Chase at WSHS and rezoning Rolling Valley the way that she did, puts a huge target on WSHS for mid cycle rezoning in the next year or two.

Sandy Anderson openly stated this at the school board meeting last week. Anderson's term goes through 2028. Rezoning WSHS has been her consistent, stated goal since soon after she was sworn in. If she can find a way to rezone neighborhoods out of WSHS in an off cycle rezoning before her term ends, and move RV into WSHS, then she will definitely try.

If you know the history and follow the process, it is clear that Reid's map, trying to keep everyone happy, is the worst case scenario for WSHS as it means continuous, mid cycle rezoning.

I sincerely hope that the school board adopts Map 4 for WSHS, for at least Shannon Station. Or, if they leave Shannon Station at WSHS, then I hope they rezone SPA 8922 along the Parkway to Saratoga, along with the rest of the Rolling Valley Lewis schools.

In my opinion, that is the best way to protect WSHS from mid cycle rezoning.

One correction to my post.

School board elections are odd years in FairfaxCounty, 2019, 2023, 2027...

The term ends in January 2028, while the election is November 2027, roughly 22 months from now.

This school board has roughly 2 years to continue to make their mark on our kids' education. I think they are counting on voters completely forgetting about this rezoning mess by the next election.

Hard to do that when Sandy Anderson promised that this is just the start and they’re planning to continue looking at a variety of schools starting in January from the superintendent’s list.

Is anyone familiar with her origin story? I’m genuinely curious why she’s so singularly focused on WSHS. How does someone wake up one day and decide that rezoning this one school becomes their life’s mission?

Some people just think they know best. They claim to "care more" than you do. "Savior" mentality.

A white suburban woman knows what is good for poor black, Latino and Asian children than their own parents. These women are the real racists.

Correct.

Those two white women who argued for more boundary changes are just trying to get more kids like theirs in their classrooms. I question their motives. The only one who seemed to be truly crunchy was the elderly woman with short hair who clearly doesn’t have kids in the school district, but even her children probably benefited from the system she is now trying to change.

So some FCPS schools are designated for black, Latino, and Asian students? That is what you can read from your statement.

Lewis is closing in on only 1500 students this year and will almost certainly start next year around 1450 if nothing is done. It is not like the other FCPS schools simply in the NUMBER of students, be they white, black, Latino, Asian, or other.

But they are doing something. They’re looking at stopping transfers out by adding programming. That’s what Reid said.

And it looks like they are going to add Bren Mar Park elementary before the 5 year review. Which also helps relieve capacity issues at Edison so is a good change.

I have no idea why we’re suddenly bringing up a NYT podcast from an entirely different cultural era … definitely not a relevant piece of media in these extremely different times.

It’s not clear it’s a good change. It quickly got tabled for this cycle whereas they went ahead with the other last-minute changes to move kids out of Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church and Holmes/Annandale. They ended up getting a lot of push back from the Beech Tree families, but they hadn’t tabled those changes like they had with Bren Mar Park.

It isn’t a change that is being proposed to add kids to Lewis - rather, it is to take kids out of Edison. Edison needs to get rid of some students in order to accommodate growth in the region - they’ve already broken ground on a large neighborhood in Kingstowne where the old Top Golf used to be and that area will for sure be zoned for Edison. Never mind when the Franconia government center gets redeveloped in a few years. I know BMP would like to end up back at Annandale but Annandale also can’t accommodate more students at this point.

All of Bren Mar Park went to Annandale before 2011. Bren Mar Park ES used to be two different schools - Edsall Park ES covered the area north of the Beltway and west of 395, and Bren Mar Park ES the area north of the Beltway an east of 395. One area is Springfield and the other Alexandria. They closed Edsall Park decades ago. To get to Edison now, the Edsall Park area has to cross both 395 and the Beltway. The Bren Mar area just has to cross the Beltway.

Annandale has capacity to take back the Edsall Park area, and that area would no longer have to cross either the Beltway or 395. The Bren Mar area is better served by Edison. None of these folks want to go to Lewis, and they should not be moved there just to give West Springfield families comfort that someone else is getting moved instead.

So you propose making a split feeder out of BMP and sending some to Annandale and keeping some at Edison? It’s not a bad idea on paper and does get some kids out of Edison - but not sure if it’s enough kids to accommodate the new neighborhoods. And then you run into the K-5/K-6 school problems as BMP is currently a K-5 school whereas the rest of Edison and all of Lewis have K-6 elementaries.

And again - this is not about adding kids to Lewis to prop it up, it’s about reducing enrollment at Edison. I would agree if Annandale could pick up all of BMP, that is where they should go. But they can’t at this point without worsening the crowding there and then creating a spillover effect into Justice, Falls Church, Woodson etc. From a purely logistical standpoint and affecting the smallest number of schools, BMP to Lewis makes sense right now.

The CIP now has West Springfield at 114% this fall and Edison at 103%. Any future adjustments should be based on updated numbers.

Annandale could probably pick up all of BMP if needed but it’s those from west of 395 who would be most receptive to that move.

Their starting point with Lewis needs to be replacing IB with AP, which would curtail transfers. As for Edison, they can monitor enrollments to see if the projected increase in students materializes. They have Edison at 109% in 2030, but that still well below West Springfield’s current and projected capacity utilization.

Some of the elementary feeders into WSHS are heading down to below 90% capacity. All of the feeders are smaller than the classes they are replacing, some significantly like class of 2030 being 150 fewer students than graduating class of 2026.

Yet FCPS continues to show growth at WSHS in spite of the WSHS feeder schools steadily losing enrollment each year.

Either the CIP math ain't mathing at WSHS, or there is something really fishy happening with transfers into WSHS, and possible widespread residency fraud.

WSHS needs a residency check and transfer into the school frozen.

What West Springfield needs is for the parents who are so insecure about being redistricted some day to stop pitching alternative scenarios that move around other people’s kids at other schools instead. It only serves to call renewed attention to which high school FCPS currently considers and projects to be the most overcrowded in the county: WSHS.

How about you mind your business and just give those WSHS parents credit. I didn't hear them advocating for kicking or moving anyone out. They did their freaking homework, they understood the assignment, and they pushed back hard. Do the residency checks, keep limiting transfers, keep watching the declining numbers. Improving programing before you start playing ping-ponging kids around.

Agree 100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP. I am a little skeptical about how many are abusing the system. I am confident that some are--but I doubt it is a significant number--although, it is fraud and any fraud is too much.

As for checking, I think it would be ridiculous to have a staff checking every student. However, the schools should be responsible for reporting any situations that they question. That is where it would be found. If other parents are reporting it to the school, the school should report it for investigation.

One person should be enough.

Interesting...$4 billion dollar FCPS budget and 1 person doing residency checks...doesn't make much sense to me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Do you think school board will amend with new changes from Reid’s proposal or just remove some of her changes? I hope nothing new - maybe just add to list of things to look at in future?

They might put some of the Map 4 changes back into play (WSHS comes to mind)

There are some very upset Cardinal Forest families at Reid's last minute changes that switched that Keene Mill island down near White Oaks, Shannon Station, from getting rezoned to White Oaks elementary and Lake Braddock in Map 4, to Reid rezoning them to Cardinal Forest, putting Cardinal Forest well over capacity, and also rezoning walkable Cardinal Forest neighborhoods from Cardinal Forest to farther away Keene Mill elementary.

Moving Shannon Station to White Oaks in Map 4 eliminated an attendance island and decreased West Springfield High School by around 100 students. It also lowered transportation costs by sending them to a closer school, and sent Shannon Station to equivalent schools with the same programs. The Shannon Station move was low hanging fruit and met every last one of the four rezoning mandates given to the BRAC committee by the school board.

Reid's map keeps everyone at WSHS. Reid keeps the recommendation from Map 4 to move two SPAs from Rolling Valley to Saratoga, but leaves one Rolling Valley SPA from the Parkway area at status quo (Rolling Valley > Key > Lewis), which means that instead of being a roughly 60/40 split feeder between WSHS and Lewis, Rolling Valley is now less than 10% split going to Lewis.

What Reid did to the WSHS maps by keeping Emerald Chase at WSHS and rezoning Rolling Valley the way that she did, puts a huge target on WSHS for mid cycle rezoning in the next year or two.

Sandy Anderson openly stated this at the school board meeting last week. Anderson's term goes through 2028. Rezoning WSHS has been her consistent, stated goal since soon after she was sworn in. If she can find a way to rezone neighborhoods out of WSHS in an off cycle rezoning before her term ends, and move RV into WSHS, then she will definitely try.

If you know the history and follow the process, it is clear that Reid's map, trying to keep everyone happy, is the worst case scenario for WSHS as it means continuous, mid cycle rezoning.

I sincerely hope that the school board adopts Map 4 for WSHS, for at least Shannon Station. Or, if they leave Shannon Station at WSHS, then I hope they rezone SPA 8922 along the Parkway to Saratoga, along with the rest of the Rolling Valley Lewis schools.

In my opinion, that is the best way to protect WSHS from mid cycle rezoning.

One correction to my post.

School board elections are odd years in FairfaxCounty, 2019, 2023, 2027...

The term ends in January 2028, while the election is November 2027, roughly 22 months from now.

This school board has roughly 2 years to continue to make their mark on our kids' education. I think they are counting on voters completely forgetting about this rezoning mess by the next election.

Hard to do that when Sandy Anderson promised that this is just the start and they’re planning to continue looking at a variety of schools starting in January from the superintendent’s list.

Is anyone familiar with her origin story? I’m genuinely curious why she’s so singularly focused on WSHS. How does someone wake up one day and decide that rezoning this one school becomes their life’s mission?

Some people just think they know best. They claim to "care more" than you do. "Savior" mentality.

A white suburban woman knows what is good for poor black, Latino and Asian children than their own parents. These women are the real racists.

Correct.

Those two white women who argued for more boundary changes are just trying to get more kids like theirs in their classrooms. I question their motives. The only one who seemed to be truly crunchy was the elderly woman with short hair who clearly doesn’t have kids in the school district, but even her children probably benefited from the system she is now trying to change.

So some FCPS schools are designated for black, Latino, and Asian students? That is what you can read from your statement.

Lewis is closing in on only 1500 students this year and will almost certainly start next year around 1450 if nothing is done. It is not like the other FCPS schools simply in the NUMBER of students, be they white, black, Latino, Asian, or other.

But they are doing something. They’re looking at stopping transfers out by adding programming. That’s what Reid said.

And it looks like they are going to add Bren Mar Park elementary before the 5 year review. Which also helps relieve capacity issues at Edison so is a good change.

I have no idea why we’re suddenly bringing up a NYT podcast from an entirely different cultural era … definitely not a relevant piece of media in these extremely different times.

It’s not clear it’s a good change. It quickly got tabled for this cycle whereas they went ahead with the other last-minute changes to move kids out of Glasgow/Justice to Poe/Falls Church and Holmes/Annandale. They ended up getting a lot of push back from the Beech Tree families, but they hadn’t tabled those changes like they had with Bren Mar Park.

It isn’t a change that is being proposed to add kids to Lewis - rather, it is to take kids out of Edison. Edison needs to get rid of some students in order to accommodate growth in the region - they’ve already broken ground on a large neighborhood in Kingstowne where the old Top Golf used to be and that area will for sure be zoned for Edison. Never mind when the Franconia government center gets redeveloped in a few years. I know BMP would like to end up back at Annandale but Annandale also can’t accommodate more students at this point.

All of Bren Mar Park went to Annandale before 2011. Bren Mar Park ES used to be two different schools - Edsall Park ES covered the area north of the Beltway and west of 395, and Bren Mar Park ES the area north of the Beltway an east of 395. One area is Springfield and the other Alexandria. They closed Edsall Park decades ago. To get to Edison now, the Edsall Park area has to cross both 395 and the Beltway. The Bren Mar area just has to cross the Beltway.

Annandale has capacity to take back the Edsall Park area, and that area would no longer have to cross either the Beltway or 395. The Bren Mar area is better served by Edison. None of these folks want to go to Lewis, and they should not be moved there just to give West Springfield families comfort that someone else is getting moved instead.

So you propose making a split feeder out of BMP and sending some to Annandale and keeping some at Edison? It’s not a bad idea on paper and does get some kids out of Edison - but not sure if it’s enough kids to accommodate the new neighborhoods. And then you run into the K-5/K-6 school problems as BMP is currently a K-5 school whereas the rest of Edison and all of Lewis have K-6 elementaries.

And again - this is not about adding kids to Lewis to prop it up, it’s about reducing enrollment at Edison. I would agree if Annandale could pick up all of BMP, that is where they should go. But they can’t at this point without worsening the crowding there and then creating a spillover effect into Justice, Falls Church, Woodson etc. From a purely logistical standpoint and affecting the smallest number of schools, BMP to Lewis makes sense right now.

The CIP now has West Springfield at 114% this fall and Edison at 103%. Any future adjustments should be based on updated numbers.

Annandale could probably pick up all of BMP if needed but it’s those from west of 395 who would be most receptive to that move.

Their starting point with Lewis needs to be replacing IB with AP, which would curtail transfers. As for Edison, they can monitor enrollments to see if the projected increase in students materializes. They have Edison at 109% in 2030, but that still well below West Springfield’s current and projected capacity utilization.

Some of the elementary feeders into WSHS are heading down to below 90% capacity. All of the feeders are smaller than the classes they are replacing, some significantly like class of 2030 being 150 fewer students than graduating class of 2026.

Yet FCPS continues to show growth at WSHS in spite of the WSHS feeder schools steadily losing enrollment each year.

Either the CIP math ain't mathing at WSHS, or there is something really fishy happening with transfers into WSHS, and possible widespread residency fraud.

WSHS needs a residency check and transfer into the school frozen.

Isn’t that because military members stationed at Belvoir tend to be older, thus having older children who would attend Irving/WSHS without having gone to a West Springfield elementary school? I do think demographics are going to do their thing eventually but maybe not to the extent everyone is thinking.

No.

Military members living on Fort Belvoir tend to be younger, with younger elementary aged kids.

Only the military members living on base can transfer to Irving/WSHS, and there are very few of those families with teenagers living on fort Belvoir

A military member living in Centerville or Annandale or Kingstown working at Fort Belvoir cannot pick their high school and cannot transfer to WSHS. The family must be living on base, and there are not many high school families living on base. It is almost exclusively junior enlisted and junior officers.

Right but they deliberately CHOOSE TO live in bounds for WSHS is what I’m saying. Not that they transfer in from another zoned school.