FCPS Boundary Review Updates

[Anonymous]

It looks like Emerald Chase has been pushed out of the top five:

https://pigeonhole.at/TJZ4AS/q/6705517

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is my suggestion for Emerald Chase:

1. Lobby to stay at Oak Hill along with the Franklin Farm/Navy Island kids being sent there. There is room, I think according to the slides.
2. Go to Franklin along with the Navy Island. Again, I think there is room.
3. Lobby to go to Oakton along with the Navy Island. Chantilly is a non-starter.

I disagree with this gambit. If you want to attend Oakton HS pony up the cash to buy a house in Oakton. I don’t want to be fighting five years from now to keep my Oakton address home zoned to Oakton HS to accommodate “zone stability” for the Emerald Chase vultures.

Just because your town name is Oakton and the high school name is Oakton doesn't make it your community high school. Ask all the children all over FCPS who live much closer to one high school and go to a different one. The name doesn't matter, you can't use it as an excuse.

This is the silliest post.

Of course, if you live in Oakton you should attend the Oakton neighborhood high school. If you live in Lorton you should attend the Lorton neighborhood high school. If you live in Falls Church, you should attend the Falls Church neighborhood high school. It really is that simple.

At a minimum, students should be zoned for the high school that shares their home zip code, with all boundary tweaks limited to neighborhoods with zip codes outside of the immediate high school zip code.

You realize there are more than 1 Falls Church “neighborhood” schools right?

They all have different zip codes...

Falls Church high school 22042
Marshall High School 22043
Justice High School 22044

Not to mention the southern portion of McLean HS is also Falls Church (22046)

Whoever is suggesting doing ANYTHING related to school boundaries based on zipcodes really has no clue. Zipcodes are based on logistical convenience for a POST OFFICE from which your particular mail carrier's route originates. They are different in size and scope than schools, not typically co-located, and are not necessarily based on any notion of neighborhood or convenience, even if there does tend to be SOME degree of overlap in some cases with schools, it's by happenstance moreso than by design.

Agree. Some zips have more than one high school and some have none at all. I think there are a lot that apply to this.

If you don't live in the same zip code as a high school, then you would have the current status quo where you (hopefully) go to the nearest high school, but you are at risk of being rezoned every 5 years.

FCPS needs to lock in the closest neighborhoods to each high school if we are going to go through this 2 year process every 5 years. The zip code is an obvious non partial, concrete method to establish a compact area associated with each high school that will not be rezoned.

Or you could just prioritize buying a home as close as you can get to the high school. My neighborhood walks to HS. I think the chances of us ever getting rezoned to another HS- which would require a bus- are approximately 0%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is my suggestion for Emerald Chase:

1. Lobby to stay at Oak Hill along with the Franklin Farm/Navy Island kids being sent there. There is room, I think according to the slides.
2. Go to Franklin along with the Navy Island. Again, I think there is room.
3. Lobby to go to Oakton along with the Navy Island. Chantilly is a non-starter.

I disagree with this gambit. If you want to attend Oakton HS pony up the cash to buy a house in Oakton. I don’t want to be fighting five years from now to keep my Oakton address home zoned to Oakton HS to accommodate “zone stability” for the Emerald Chase vultures.

Just because your town name is Oakton and the high school name is Oakton doesn't make it your community high school. Ask all the children all over FCPS who live much closer to one high school and go to a different one. The name doesn't matter, you can't use it as an excuse.

This is the silliest post.

Of course, if you live in Oakton you should attend the Oakton neighborhood high school. If you live in Lorton you should attend the Lorton neighborhood high school. If you live in Falls Church, you should attend the Falls Church neighborhood high school. It really is that simple.

At a minimum, students should be zoned for the high school that shares their home zip code, with all boundary tweaks limited to neighborhoods with zip codes outside of the immediate high school zip code.

You realize there are more than 1 Falls Church “neighborhood” schools right?

They all have different zip codes...

Falls Church high school 22042
Marshall High School 22043
Justice High School 22044

Not to mention the southern portion of McLean HS is also Falls Church (22046)

Whoever is suggesting doing ANYTHING related to school boundaries based on zipcodes really has no clue. Zipcodes are based on logistical convenience for a POST OFFICE from which your particular mail carrier's route originates. They are different in size and scope than schools, not typically co-located, and are not necessarily based on any notion of neighborhood or convenience, even if there does tend to be SOME degree of overlap in some cases with schools, it's by happenstance moreso than by design.

Agree. Some zips have more than one high school and some have none at all. I think there are a lot that apply to this.

If you don't live in the same zip code as a high school, then you would have the current status quo where you (hopefully) go to the nearest high school, but you are at risk of being rezoned every 5 years.

FCPS needs to lock in the closest neighborhoods to each high school if we are going to go through this 2 year process every 5 years. The zip code is an obvious non partial, concrete method to establish a compact area associated with each high school that will not be rezoned.

Or you could just prioritize buying a home as close as you can get to the high school. My neighborhood walks to HS. I think the chances of us ever getting rezoned to another HS- which would require a bus- are approximately 0%.

Great idea! There is a walking distance HS to every address in the county!

While we are at it, I hear the peasants calling for bread. Something about starving. What’s they you say? Let them eat cake? Wow, two amazing ideas in a row. You are on fire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is my suggestion for Emerald Chase:

1. Lobby to stay at Oak Hill along with the Franklin Farm/Navy Island kids being sent there. There is room, I think according to the slides.
2. Go to Franklin along with the Navy Island. Again, I think there is room.
3. Lobby to go to Oakton along with the Navy Island. Chantilly is a non-starter.

I disagree with this gambit. If you want to attend Oakton HS pony up the cash to buy a house in Oakton. I don’t want to be fighting five years from now to keep my Oakton address home zoned to Oakton HS to accommodate “zone stability” for the Emerald Chase vultures.

Just because your town name is Oakton and the high school name is Oakton doesn't make it your community high school. Ask all the children all over FCPS who live much closer to one high school and go to a different one. The name doesn't matter, you can't use it as an excuse.

This is the silliest post.

Of course, if you live in Oakton you should attend the Oakton neighborhood high school. If you live in Lorton you should attend the Lorton neighborhood high school. If you live in Falls Church, you should attend the Falls Church neighborhood high school. It really is that simple.

At a minimum, students should be zoned for the high school that shares their home zip code, with all boundary tweaks limited to neighborhoods with zip codes outside of the immediate high school zip code.

You realize there are more than 1 Falls Church “neighborhood” schools right?

They all have different zip codes...

Falls Church high school 22042
Marshall High School 22043
Justice High School 22044

Not to mention the southern portion of McLean HS is also Falls Church (22046)

Whoever is suggesting doing ANYTHING related to school boundaries based on zipcodes really has no clue. Zipcodes are based on logistical convenience for a POST OFFICE from which your particular mail carrier's route originates. They are different in size and scope than schools, not typically co-located, and are not necessarily based on any notion of neighborhood or convenience, even if there does tend to be SOME degree of overlap in some cases with schools, it's by happenstance moreso than by design.

Agree. Some zips have more than one high school and some have none at all. I think there are a lot that apply to this.

If you don't live in the same zip code as a high school, then you would have the current status quo where you (hopefully) go to the nearest high school, but you are at risk of being rezoned every 5 years.

FCPS needs to lock in the closest neighborhoods to each high school if we are going to go through this 2 year process every 5 years. The zip code is an obvious non partial, concrete method to establish a compact area associated with each high school that will not be rezoned.

Or you could just prioritize buying a home as close as you can get to the high school. My neighborhood walks to HS. I think the chances of us ever getting rezoned to another HS- which would require a bus- are approximately 0%.

You need to look at the Westgate and Lemon Road recommendations. Mind you, these are only recommendations that haven’t been implemented. But walk zones don’t matter to these consultants.

[Anonymous]

Question for any BRAC member following - were you given access to the SPA information in the meetings? It’s clear Thru treats the SPAs as its building blocks, as FCPS staff prefers, but SPAs can be as weird as school boundaries and the number of kids in SPAs can vary widely from roughly 10 kids to over 150. Treating SPAs as inviolate and the only areas that can be moved appears to compound the other inefficiencies in this process, but when they refuse to publish the SPAs county-wide (they’ve published them for some smaller studies) people are limited in their ability to push back or suggest alternatives.

[Anonymous]

What does SPA mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question for any BRAC member following - were you given access to the SPA information in the meetings? It’s clear Thru treats the SPAs as its building blocks, as FCPS staff prefers, but SPAs can be as weird as school boundaries and the number of kids in SPAs can vary widely from roughly 10 kids to over 150. Treating SPAs as inviolate and the only areas that can be moved appears to compound the other inefficiencies in this process, but when they refuse to publish the SPAs county-wide (they’ve published them for some smaller studies) people are limited in their ability to push back or suggest alternatives.

No. We have asked for an SPA-level map and associated information, but it has not been provided. One of many unfulfilled requests for data that would enable us as an advisory committee to provide meaningful input and feedback…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does SPA mean?

Student planning area. It calculates how many elementary/middle/high school students each area might yield. But some of them are quite random. That weird cutout of Churchill Elementary is an SPA.

[Anonymous]

I am so so thankful nothing is changing for our neighborhood. Zero changes. Praise God!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is my suggestion for Emerald Chase:

1. Lobby to stay at Oak Hill along with the Franklin Farm/Navy Island kids being sent there. There is room, I think according to the slides.
2. Go to Franklin along with the Navy Island. Again, I think there is room.
3. Lobby to go to Oakton along with the Navy Island. Chantilly is a non-starter.

I disagree with this gambit. If you want to attend Oakton HS pony up the cash to buy a house in Oakton. I don’t want to be fighting five years from now to keep my Oakton address home zoned to Oakton HS to accommodate “zone stability” for the Emerald Chase vultures.

Just because your town name is Oakton and the high school name is Oakton doesn't make it your community high school. Ask all the children all over FCPS who live much closer to one high school and go to a different one. The name doesn't matter, you can't use it as an excuse.

This is the silliest post.

Of course, if you live in Oakton you should attend the Oakton neighborhood high school. If you live in Lorton you should attend the Lorton neighborhood high school. If you live in Falls Church, you should attend the Falls Church neighborhood high school. It really is that simple.

At a minimum, students should be zoned for the high school that shares their home zip code, with all boundary tweaks limited to neighborhoods with zip codes outside of the immediate high school zip code.

You realize there are more than 1 Falls Church “neighborhood” schools right?

They all have different zip codes...

Falls Church high school 22042
Marshall High School 22043
Justice High School 22044

Not to mention the southern portion of McLean HS is also Falls Church (22046)

Whoever is suggesting doing ANYTHING related to school boundaries based on zipcodes really has no clue. Zipcodes are based on logistical convenience for a POST OFFICE from which your particular mail carrier's route originates. They are different in size and scope than schools, not typically co-located, and are not necessarily based on any notion of neighborhood or convenience, even if there does tend to be SOME degree of overlap in some cases with schools, it's by happenstance moreso than by design.

Agree. Some zips have more than one high school and some have none at all. I think there are a lot that apply to this.

If you don't live in the same zip code as a high school, then you would have the current status quo where you (hopefully) go to the nearest high school, but you are at risk of being rezoned every 5 years.

FCPS needs to lock in the closest neighborhoods to each high school if we are going to go through this 2 year process every 5 years. The zip code is an obvious non partial, concrete method to establish a compact area associated with each high school that will not be rezoned.

Or you could just prioritize buying a home as close as you can get to the high school. My neighborhood walks to HS. I think the chances of us ever getting rezoned to another HS- which would require a bus- are approximately 0%.

Great idea! There is a walking distance HS to every address in the county!

While we are at it, I hear the peasants calling for bread. Something about starving. What’s they you say? Let them eat cake? Wow, two amazing ideas in a row. You are on fire.

Location, location, location... We could have had a wonderful home on the cusp of a border but passed and found something not as nice nearby to the school we wanted. If a particular school is important to you then you need to prioritize location. I'm sorry that's just how it is with the nature of this sort of thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am so so thankful nothing is changing for our neighborhood. Zero changes. Praise God!

There is still another round of changes.

It is too early to rejoice.

Keep praying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for any BRAC member following - were you given access to the SPA information in the meetings? It’s clear Thru treats the SPAs as its building blocks, as FCPS staff prefers, but SPAs can be as weird as school boundaries and the number of kids in SPAs can vary widely from roughly 10 kids to over 150. Treating SPAs as inviolate and the only areas that can be moved appears to compound the other inefficiencies in this process, but when they refuse to publish the SPAs county-wide (they’ve published them for some smaller studies) people are limited in their ability to push back or suggest alternatives.

No. We have asked for an SPA-level map and associated information, but it has not been provided. One of many unfulfilled requests for data that would enable us as an advisory committee to provide meaningful input and feedback…

Arlington’s interactive model allowed parents and community members to move SPAs, not just see what has already been proposed. In comparison, Thru’s model is really lackluster IMHO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for any BRAC member following - were you given access to the SPA information in the meetings? It’s clear Thru treats the SPAs as its building blocks, as FCPS staff prefers, but SPAs can be as weird as school boundaries and the number of kids in SPAs can vary widely from roughly 10 kids to over 150. Treating SPAs as inviolate and the only areas that can be moved appears to compound the other inefficiencies in this process, but when they refuse to publish the SPAs county-wide (they’ve published them for some smaller studies) people are limited in their ability to push back or suggest alternatives.

No. We have asked for an SPA-level map and associated information, but it has not been provided. One of many unfulfilled requests for data that would enable us as an advisory committee to provide meaningful input and feedback…

Arlington’s interactive model allowed parents and community members to move SPAs, not just see what has already been proposed. In comparison, Thru’s model is really lackluster IMHO.

That was my recollection from a round a prior HS changes in APS involving the three main schools there.

FCPS has its SPAs readily available. They just don’t want to share maps with that information because it empowers parents and community residents to propose changes on their own.

I’m thinking of some of Thru’s proposals impacting Marshall and McLean. I would bet that groups of well-intentioned Marshall and McLean parents, given the SPAs, could come up with proposals that wouldn’t bus kids next door to Marshall to McLean, create an unbalanced split feeder at Shrevewood, reassign walkers to Westgate to Franklin Sherman, reassign areas at Westbriar that have been at Marshall for decades to Madison, etc.

But they won’t provide us with the SPAs and it’s completely random whether we’ll even be talking to each other in the same sessions, especially with McLean in Region 2 and Marshall in Region 5. And they won’t share them with BRAC members, either.

[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:Here is my suggestion for Emerald Chase:

1. Lobby to stay at Oak Hill along with the Franklin Farm/Navy Island kids being sent there. There is room, I think according to the slides.
2. Go to Franklin along with the Navy Island. Again, I think there is room.
3. Lobby to go to Oakton along with the Navy Island. Chantilly is a non-starter.

I disagree with this gambit. If you want to attend Oakton HS pony up the cash to buy a house in Oakton. I don’t want to be fighting five years from now to keep my Oakton address home zoned to Oakton HS to accommodate “zone stability” for the Emerald Chase vultures.

Just because your town name is Oakton and the high school name is Oakton doesn't make it your community high school. Ask all the children all over FCPS who live much closer to one high school and go to a different one. The name doesn't matter, you can't use it as an excuse.

This is the silliest post.

Of course, if you live in Oakton you should attend the Oakton neighborhood high school. If you live in Lorton you should attend the Lorton neighborhood high school. If you live in Falls Church, you should attend the Falls Church neighborhood high school. It really is that simple.

At a minimum, students should be zoned for the high school that shares their home zip code, with all boundary tweaks limited to neighborhoods with zip codes outside of the immediate high school zip code.

You realize there are more than 1 Falls Church “neighborhood” schools right?

They all have different zip codes...

Falls Church high school 22042
Marshall High School 22043
Justice High School 22044

Not to mention the southern portion of McLean HS is also Falls Church (22046)

Whoever is suggesting doing ANYTHING related to school boundaries based on zipcodes really has no clue. Zipcodes are based on logistical convenience for a POST OFFICE from which your particular mail carrier's route originates. They are different in size and scope than schools, not typically co-located, and are not necessarily based on any notion of neighborhood or convenience, even if there does tend to be SOME degree of overlap in some cases with schools, it's by happenstance moreso than by design.

Agree. Some zips have more than one high school and some have none at all. I think there are a lot that apply to this.

If you don't live in the same zip code as a high school, then you would have the current status quo where you (hopefully) go to the nearest high school, but you are at risk of being rezoned every 5 years.

FCPS needs to lock in the closest neighborhoods to each high school if we are going to go through this 2 year process every 5 years. The zip code is an obvious non partial, concrete method to establish a compact area associated with each high school that will not be rezoned.

Or you could just prioritize buying a home as close as you can get to the high school. My neighborhood walks to HS. I think the chances of us ever getting rezoned to another HS- which would require a bus- are approximately 0%.

Great idea! There is a walking distance HS to every address in the county!

While we are at it, I hear the peasants calling for bread. Something about starving. What’s they you say? Let them eat cake? Wow, two amazing ideas in a row. You are on fire.

Location, location, location... We could have had a wonderful home on the cusp of a border but passed and found something not as nice nearby to the school we wanted. If a particular school is important to you then you need to prioritize location. I'm sorry that's just how it is with the nature of this sort of thing.

The Lemon Road ES rezoning takes kids who are literally across the street from Marshall HS and moves them to another HS. These kids could walk toMarshall in 2 minutes but will now have to take a 20 minute bus. So much for those parents' planning, eh?.

[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:Here is my suggestion for Emerald Chase:

1. Lobby to stay at Oak Hill along with the Franklin Farm/Navy Island kids being sent there. There is room, I think according to the slides.
2. Go to Franklin along with the Navy Island. Again, I think there is room.
3. Lobby to go to Oakton along with the Navy Island. Chantilly is a non-starter.

I disagree with this gambit. If you want to attend Oakton HS pony up the cash to buy a house in Oakton. I don’t want to be fighting five years from now to keep my Oakton address home zoned to Oakton HS to accommodate “zone stability” for the Emerald Chase vultures.

Just because your town name is Oakton and the high school name is Oakton doesn't make it your community high school. Ask all the children all over FCPS who live much closer to one high school and go to a different one. The name doesn't matter, you can't use it as an excuse.

This is the silliest post.

Of course, if you live in Oakton you should attend the Oakton neighborhood high school. If you live in Lorton you should attend the Lorton neighborhood high school. If you live in Falls Church, you should attend the Falls Church neighborhood high school. It really is that simple.

At a minimum, students should be zoned for the high school that shares their home zip code, with all boundary tweaks limited to neighborhoods with zip codes outside of the immediate high school zip code.

You realize there are more than 1 Falls Church “neighborhood” schools right?

They all have different zip codes...

Falls Church high school 22042
Marshall High School 22043
Justice High School 22044

Not to mention the southern portion of McLean HS is also Falls Church (22046)

Whoever is suggesting doing ANYTHING related to school boundaries based on zipcodes really has no clue. Zipcodes are based on logistical convenience for a POST OFFICE from which your particular mail carrier's route originates. They are different in size and scope than schools, not typically co-located, and are not necessarily based on any notion of neighborhood or convenience, even if there does tend to be SOME degree of overlap in some cases with schools, it's by happenstance moreso than by design.

Agree. Some zips have more than one high school and some have none at all. I think there are a lot that apply to this.

If you don't live in the same zip code as a high school, then you would have the current status quo where you (hopefully) go to the nearest high school, but you are at risk of being rezoned every 5 years.

FCPS needs to lock in the closest neighborhoods to each high school if we are going to go through this 2 year process every 5 years. The zip code is an obvious non partial, concrete method to establish a compact area associated with each high school that will not be rezoned.

Or you could just prioritize buying a home as close as you can get to the high school. My neighborhood walks to HS. I think the chances of us ever getting rezoned to another HS- which would require a bus- are approximately 0%.

Great idea! There is a walking distance HS to every address in the county!

While we are at it, I hear the peasants calling for bread. Something about starving. What’s they you say? Let them eat cake? Wow, two amazing ideas in a row. You are on fire.

Location, location, location... We could have had a wonderful home on the cusp of a border but passed and found something not as nice nearby to the school we wanted. If a particular school is important to you then you need to prioritize location. I'm sorry that's just how it is with the nature of this sort of thing.

The Lemon Road ES rezoning takes kids who are literally across the street from Marshall HS and moves them to another HS. These kids could walk toMarshall in 2 minutes but will now have to take a 20 minute bus. So much for those parents' planning, eh?.

They shouldn’t move any of that area around Idylwood that’s currently split between Freedom Hill/Lemon Road/Shrevewood because those lines are going to be redrawn in a few years anyway when Dunn Loring elementary opens.

Does Pimmit Hills walk to Marshall? I’ve only ever seen high schoolers get off the bus there while directly across Magarity there are walkers heading to McLean.