FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the School Board have any idea of how disruptive this will be?

I understand that some things don't "look" logical, but these decisions were usually made for valid reasons. And, many of those reasons are still valid.
I live in Sully District. I read about all these things in Springfield, but have a limited idea of where these places are. One thing I know: almost everyone wants to stay where they are. The people in the poorer performing schools also want to stay where they are--they just want to take other people's kids to join theirs.

This will be so disruptive. And, I've still not heard a word about getting rid of IB. IB/AP puts a huge monkey wrench into this whole situation that makes it far more complicated.

And, I just love people on here who are so quick to pick "others" to move out of their current school or choose "others" to join their school.St

Here are some issues I have not seen given serious comment form School Board:

1.AP/IB. They are not only asking others to move, but asking them to accept a whole new curriculum.
2.Bus routes I'm guessing that this will be a nightmare.
3.Staffing: for example--if they add lots of kids to an IB school, how do they intend to address this? Don't teachers have to be given special training?
4. Language instruction varies from school to school. This is sometimes because of interest and sometimes because of teacher availability. This is an additional staffing issue.
5. Community. Not only is this going to disrupt educational instruction, etc, but it is going to divide communities and change so many things.

I hope the Board of Supervisors is paying attention to this. This is not good for Fairfax County. It is ignoring the wishes of the citizens.

Everything you say is true but the Board of Supervisors is cut from the same cloth as the School Board, apart from Pat Herrity. They will distance themselves from the School Board when it’s politically expedient and disclaim any responsibility for FCPS decisions, but they won’t intervene either. For the most part they want the same race to the bottom as the School Board.

Your only recourse is to come to terms with what voting for Ds locally has gotten you and to vote them out in 2027, go private, or move. They otherwise do not care one iota about what you and your neighbors want. It’s ALWAYS a flex to show they are charge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairhill to Fairfax makes some sense as it touches the Fairfax boundary on the edge. 50 and Pickett near Circle tower. Those kids would no longer cross the Beltway. There have always been complaints from people in the far west about having to come to Fairfax. A huge problem with boundaries is how close Fairfax, Oakton and Woodson are to each other. From my house it's one mile walking to Fairfax and 1.5 miles walking to Oakton and and Woodson is 2.8 miles walking . I suspect this all goes back to the rapid growth and the baby boom post WWII so the eastern and Central county have too much high school capacity and the Western not enough. What a mess and the Dunn Loring Debacle makes it worse as all that housing at the ATT site could have gone to the new Blake Lane ES if that project hadn't been killed after funding it.

Add to that the fact that Madison is very close to Oakton as well. School locations are far from ideal - Langley, for example, is in a remote location near Arlington when it should really be closer to Great Falls Village to serve its population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The “leaked” map creates even more high school attendance islands. Moving Waples Mill severs Oakton’s boundaries to Crossfield/Navy and Oakview to Robinson cuts off Woodson from Fairfax Villa. Also, why move Fairhill from newly expanded Falls Church HS (which also would be an attendance island to Fairfax HS?)

They’d need to drastically shift elementary school boundaries for any of this to make sense.

Hunt Valley is the farthest WSHS school from Lewis.

This leaked map just does not make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The “leaked” map creates even more high school attendance islands. Moving Waples Mill severs Oakton’s boundaries to Crossfield/Navy and Oakview to Robinson cuts off Woodson from Fairfax Villa. Also, why move Fairhill from newly expanded Falls Church HS (which also would be an attendance island to Fairfax HS?)

They’d need to drastically shift elementary school boundaries for any of this to make sense.

Hunt Valley is the farthest WSHS school from Lewis.

This leaked map just does not make sense.

I don't know if any leaked map with this reassignment even exists, but one has to laugh at any suggestion that FCPS decisions are getting made based on what makes sense.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if any leaked map with this reassignment even exists, but one has to laugh at any suggestion that FCPS decisions are getting made based on what makes sense.[/quote]


Most accurate statement on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I find it interesting that there is one tiny street in Franklin Farm (Ashvale) that is its own school planning area. This is the one street zoned to Crossfield that goes to Franklin & Chantilly, too. What's up with that street?

SPA 3521 ? County has 27 residences on Ashvale. That street is split between Lees Corner and Crossfield! Maybe houses were built at different times?
I don't remember exactly, but I think one section may be part of Franklin Farm and the other is not and was built later. It is just as odd if you drive there as it looks on the map. It looks like one neighborhood.

I have no idea how it happened. Lee's Corner is much closer than Crossfield--but Crossfield is closer to other parts of Franklin Farm. The part of Franklin Farm on the other side of FFXCounty Pkwy goes to Oak Hill Elementary.

Are the SPA maps available online somewhere? Haven't been able to locate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving 6th to MS is such a boondoggle AND PARENTS DON'T WANT IT.

I'd prefer it, I think it's more developmentally appropriate for the 11-12 year olds in 6th to be in the same school with 13-14yos than it is for them to be in same school with 5-6 year olds. I suspect this is also a case where people who grew up under one system vs. the other are biased by their personal experience (self included).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I find it interesting that there is one tiny street in Franklin Farm (Ashvale) that is its own school planning area. This is the one street zoned to Crossfield that goes to Franklin & Chantilly, too. What's up with that street?

SPA 3521 ? County has 27 residences on Ashvale. That street is split between Lees Corner and Crossfield! Maybe houses were built at different times?
I don't remember exactly, but I think one section may be part of Franklin Farm and the other is not and was built later. It is just as odd if you drive there as it looks on the map. It looks like one neighborhood.

I have no idea how it happened. Lee's Corner is much closer than Crossfield--but Crossfield is closer to other parts of Franklin Farm. The part of Franklin Farm on the other side of FFXCounty Pkwy goes to Oak Hill Elementary.

Are the SPA maps available online somewhere? Haven't been able to locate

DP. As far as I'm aware the SPA maps aren't generally available, but FCPS has posted maps of the SPAs relevant to the current Coates and Parklawn boundary studies. I'd expect them to post similar maps later when the larger county-wide changes are proposed.

Were you looking for maps that included the SPAs for the schools within the scope of the Coates and Parklawn studies, or the SPAs generally?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving 6th to MS is such a boondoggle AND PARENTS DON'T WANT IT.

I'd prefer it, I think it's more developmentally appropriate for the 11-12 year olds in 6th to be in the same school with 13-14yos than it is for them to be in same school with 5-6 year olds. I suspect this is also a case where people who grew up under one system vs. the other are biased by their personal experience (self included).

So you're OK with your kids in a 6-8 middle school that's a converted ES, or are you just counting on your kids staying at an existing middle/secondary school?

Be careful what you ask for in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I find it interesting that there is one tiny street in Franklin Farm (Ashvale) that is its own school planning area. This is the one street zoned to Crossfield that goes to Franklin & Chantilly, too. What's up with that street?

SPA 3521 ? County has 27 residences on Ashvale. That street is split between Lees Corner and Crossfield! Maybe houses were built at different times?
I don't remember exactly, but I think one section may be part of Franklin Farm and the other is not and was built later. It is just as odd if you drive there as it looks on the map. It looks like one neighborhood.

I have no idea how it happened. Lee's Corner is much closer than Crossfield--but Crossfield is closer to other parts of Franklin Farm. The part of Franklin Farm on the other side of FFXCounty Pkwy goes to Oak Hill Elementary.

Are the SPA maps available online somewhere? Haven't been able to locate

DP. As far as I'm aware the SPA maps aren't generally available, but FCPS has posted maps of the SPAs relevant to the current Coates and Parklawn boundary studies. I'd expect them to post similar maps later when the larger county-wide changes are proposed.

Were you looking for maps that included the SPAs for the schools within the scope of the Coates and Parklawn studies, or the SPAs generally?

I’ve also found it for K-6 for all the McLean feeders (and Churchill ES) from the 2023 KG study.

[Anonymous]

Have they asked teachers for input at all?
Personally, I was extremely happy with K-6. My kids had great sixth grade teachers who did a terrific job preparing them for middle school. I guess fifth grade teachers could do the same, but I like it like it is.

I went to Junior High School in another state: 7, 8, and 9. I guess that could solve some high school overcrowding, but I don't recommend it.

I like it like it is. Sixth graders are neither fish nor fowl: children or teens. It varies from one day to the next. send them to middle school, and I'm pretty sure they will be teens every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I find it interesting that there is one tiny street in Franklin Farm (Ashvale) that is its own school planning area. This is the one street zoned to Crossfield that goes to Franklin & Chantilly, too. What's up with that street?

SPA 3521 ? County has 27 residences on Ashvale. That street is split between Lees Corner and Crossfield! Maybe houses were built at different times?
I don't remember exactly, but I think one section may be part of Franklin Farm and the other is not and was built later. It is just as odd if you drive there as it looks on the map. It looks like one neighborhood.

I have no idea how it happened. Lee's Corner is much closer than Crossfield--but Crossfield is closer to other parts of Franklin Farm. The part of Franklin Farm on the other side of FFXCounty Pkwy goes to Oak Hill Elementary.

Are the SPA maps available online somewhere? Haven't been able to locate

DP. As far as I'm aware the SPA maps aren't generally available, but FCPS has posted maps of the SPAs relevant to the current Coates and Parklawn boundary studies. I'd expect them to post similar maps later when the larger county-wide changes are proposed.

Were you looking for maps that included the SPAs for the schools within the scope of the Coates and Parklawn studies, or the SPAs generally?

More generally. They clearly have and use the shapefiles available internally, would be fairly trivial to export a version stripped of any sensitive data, maybe just include some basic data per SPA like the total student yield per level (ES/MS/HS). Can always do the "less than X" thing for areas with small numbers if there are privacy concerns which is a standard practice. I assume by grade level would be too granular. Ideally publish annually and with recent history attached so we can see which SPAs are trending up/down in terms of student yield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have they asked teachers for input at all?
Personally, I was extremely happy with K-6. My kids had great sixth grade teachers who did a terrific job preparing them for middle school. I guess fifth grade teachers could do the same, but I like it like it is.

I went to Junior High School in another state: 7, 8, and 9. I guess that could solve some high school overcrowding, but I don't recommend it.

I like it like it is. Sixth graders are neither fish nor fowl: children or teens. It varies from one day to the next. send them to middle school, and I'm pretty sure they will be teens every day.

The school district I grew up in was K-6, 7-9, and 10-12. They’re now transitioning to K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 because the student population has declined to the point that the HS can absorb the capacity. I wish FCPS would put the idea of 6-8 middle school on ice until they have the MS capacity to support it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving 6th to MS is such a boondoggle AND PARENTS DON'T WANT IT.

I'd prefer it, I think it's more developmentally appropriate for the 11-12 year olds in 6th to be in the same school with 13-14yos than it is for them to be in same school with 5-6 year olds. I suspect this is also a case where people who grew up under one system vs. the other are biased by their personal experience (self included).

So you're OK with your kids in a 6-8 middle school that's a converted ES, or are you just counting on your kids staying at an existing middle/secondary school?

Be careful what you ask for in FCPS.

I'm fine with a converted ES facility. Two 6-8 MS per HS pyramid would be the ideal but probably not achievable in all cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have they asked teachers for input at all?
Personally, I was extremely happy with K-6. My kids had great sixth grade teachers who did a terrific job preparing them for middle school. I guess fifth grade teachers could do the same, but I like it like it is.

I went to Junior High School in another state: 7, 8, and 9. I guess that could solve some high school overcrowding, but I don't recommend it.

I like it like it is. Sixth graders are neither fish nor fowl: children or teens. It varies from one day to the next. send them to middle school, and I'm pretty sure they will be teens every day.

The school district I grew up in was K-6, 7-9, and 10-12. They’re now transitioning to K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 because the student population has declined to the point that the HS can absorb the capacity. I wish FCPS would put the idea of 6-8 middle school on ice until they have the MS capacity to support it.

Honestly that's just a way of saying never. If they want the MS capacity to support it, they're going to need to create it. Near-term projections for enrollments are flat or slightly down, but in the longer-term projected to grow. If they don't actively create additional MS capacity then they can never shift to a 6-8 model.