FCPS Boundary Review Updates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If anyone is curious why the Navy ES island exists, I know the history. I grew up in the Tuckaway section of Franklin Farm, I started at Oak Hill ES and then got moved to Crossfield ES when it opened. The Nestlewood section of Franklin Farm now ironically being proposed to be moved to Oak Hill stayed at Oak Hill. About 3 years later Oak Hill ES was overcrowded and the county proposed moving the Nestlewood section to Crossfield and moving my neighborhood to Navy since we were closer to Navy and you could take Thompson Rd to get there. My parents and all the other parents in Tuckaway strongly objected since we had already had to move schools once, so the county backed off and sent the Nestlewood section to Navy instead thus creating the island that exists.

Thanks, you just expanded on what I was told some years ago when I moved to the area (not Franklin Farm.) I was told the Nestlewood people objected to leaving Oak Hill and organized and that is why they did not go to Crossfield initialy. (This was prior to being divided by 286--FFXCounty Parkway.)

But, now, why are they not sending them to Crossfield? It doesn't make sense to send them to Oak Hill. It remains an island--just a closer one, I guess.

My understanding is cause Nestlewood goes to Franklin, whereas Crossfield goes to Carson. I agree though Crossfield has capacity and they are surrounded by Crossfield neighborhoods

I still don't understand why Crossfield doesn't go to Franklin like all the other schools zoned to Oakton in that area. They really need to swap Crossfield and Oak Hill so that they go to the right middle schools! Oak Hill is much closer to Carson and Franklin Farm is much closer to Franklin..

Oak Hill students live across the street from Franklin. They are walkers. Most of oak Hill students live closer to Franklin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm getting lost in all these different discussions. Are there any communities who truly think their school is overcrowded and boundaries should be changed or are unhappy with a split feeder/attendance island and like the idea of realigning? Any at all?

We are at Irving/West Springfield, I have students at both schools. I am not in a house where there is a proposed boundary change (so I have no dog in the fight), but I don't think either school needs relief from crowding. They are full and large schools, but my kids are having good experiences and don't think the schools are over crowded. Their classrooms are reasonable size and always in a real classroom, the cafeteria has empty tables at every lunch, and it works.

So, no, I don't think anyone in our community was saying, "wow I really wish they'd relieve the overcrowding at our schools" and the boundary study and CIP predictions felt very out of the blue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Woah, my mind is blown re:falls church city!! I had no idea those schools were in Fairfax county

not anymore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm getting lost in all these different discussions. Are there any communities who truly think their school is overcrowded and boundaries should be changed or are unhappy with a split feeder/attendance island and like the idea of realigning? Any at all?

It’s possible, but they are vastly out numbered by the families about to get screwed by these changes. Most people who are advocating for these changes are either die hard extremists looking to equitize the county schools, or homeowners looking to get a bump in property value off the backs of their neighbors.

What you very rarely hear (I only know of one guy) is someone advocating for their own kids to be moved. To them, hurting the mental health of other kids is fine. People generally would even prefer to stay in a middling school pyramid rather than have their kid suffer through a move to a higher performing one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm getting lost in all these different discussions. Are there any communities who truly think their school is overcrowded and boundaries should be changed or are unhappy with a split feeder/attendance island and like the idea of realigning? Any at all?

Emerald Chase parent here. We were actually hoping for changes. We’re not pleased with how FCPS is doing any of this process, but still hoping they’ll fix our double split feeder appropriately. Right now our kids leave all their friends and go to middle school with just our neighborhood, then leave all their friends and go to a really far away high school down 28 (Westfield). This is our chance to get in an actual pyramid so our kids can have stable friend relationships.

[Anonymous]

We’re one of the groups being rezoned. The schools in play our fairly comparable, so I could live with the changes if I knew my kid could at least finish at their currently elementary school because having to change schools midway through would be really rough and traumatic. That said since Dr Reid seems to be against grandfathering, I am against the changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol - just noticed that the Emerald Chase HOA website moved their instructions on how to manipulate the system behind a username/password login now.

That's not what happened. That part of the site is down completely now because there are different opinions in the neighborhood about the high school getting rezoned. There are people here who want to stay at Westfields, or are happy with a change to South Lakes, or want a change to Chantilly--and some who would be fine with any of those options, they just don't want the elementary school to change. Pretty sure most people want grandfathering no matter what.

Neighbors have been urging others not to comment and upvote on Emerald Chase-specific issues on Pigeonhole at community meetings that seem outside our "area." Nobody wanted to make it so that others here felt they couldn't get their voices heard, and everyone I've talked to feels really bad about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lol - just noticed that the Emerald Chase HOA website moved their instructions on how to manipulate the system behind a username/password login now.

That's not what happened. That part of the site is down completely now because there are different opinions in the neighborhood about the high school getting rezoned. There are people here who want to stay at Westfields, or are happy with a change to South Lakes, or want a change to Chantilly--and some who would be fine with any of those options, they just don't want the elementary school to change. Pretty sure most people want grandfathering no matter what.

Neighbors have been urging others not to comment and upvote on Emerald Chase-specific issues on Pigeonhole at community meetings that seem outside our "area." Nobody wanted to make it so that others here felt they couldn't get their voices heard, and everyone I've talked to feels really bad about it.

I suspect that this is representative of what FCPS really looks like. People feel strongly on all sides of the issue but that the ones who are ok with change feel like they are getting shouted down by the ones really passionate about not changing. If you are ok with change, you tend to be ok with the status quo so there is no point in being super vocal.

What is interesting about Emerald Chase is that they are trying to use the process to move the boundary for the HS that they want, which isn't the move suggested or the current location. The problem is they want to move to one of the overcrowded HS and I don't see that happening. I think that bit of politicking is hurting them, but I get it. If FCPS is changing the boundaries, why not try and move to the HS that you are most interested in?

I would love to see what Thru would project if they only focused on getting the schools above 100% to 99%. Remove the split feeder and islands, most of the families at the split feeders and islands seem to prefer their current location to where they would be moved and just address the overcrowding. Those maps would look really different and would probably engender unhappy families who don't want to move but it would be far easier to make the case for moving. I think it might actually address some of the split feed and islands as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only reason timber lane is an island is because in 2013/2014 fairfax sold land to falls church city to end water wars. Unfair to now have our kids leave their schools/friends because of being an island but no other issues.

It was still an island before because there were no homes on the mason/meridian land. Just the old mason high school. And route 7 is a big boundary. It didn’t make sense that those areas went to McLean long before the land transfer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lol - just noticed that the Emerald Chase HOA website moved their instructions on how to manipulate the system behind a username/password login now.

That's not what happened. That part of the site is down completely now because there are different opinions in the neighborhood about the high school getting rezoned. There are people here who want to stay at Westfields, or are happy with a change to South Lakes, or want a change to Chantilly--and some who would be fine with any of those options, they just don't want the elementary school to change. Pretty sure most people want grandfathering no matter what.

Neighbors have been urging others not to comment and upvote on Emerald Chase-specific issues on Pigeonhole at community meetings that seem outside our "area." Nobody wanted to make it so that others here felt they couldn't get their voices heard, and everyone I've talked to feels really bad about it.

I suspect that this is representative of what FCPS really looks like. People feel strongly on all sides of the issue but that the ones who are ok with change feel like they are getting shouted down by the ones really passionate about not changing. If you are ok with change, you tend to be ok with the status quo so there is no point in being super vocal.

What is interesting about Emerald Chase is that they are trying to use the process to move the boundary for the HS that they want, which isn't the move suggested or the current location. The problem is they want to move to one of the overcrowded HS and I don't see that happening. I think that bit of politicking is hurting them, but I get it. If FCPS is changing the boundaries, why not try and move to the HS that you are most interested in?

I would love to see what Thru would project if they only focused on getting the schools above 100% to 99%. Remove the split feeder and islands, most of the families at the split feeders and islands seem to prefer their current location to where they would be moved and just address the overcrowding. Those maps would look really different and would probably engender unhappy families who don't want to move but it would be far easier to make the case for moving. I think it might actually address some of the split feed and islands as well.

Emerald Chase is interested in Chantilly HS because it is geographically closest and would be a single pyramid with their current elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lol - just noticed that the Emerald Chase HOA website moved their instructions on how to manipulate the system behind a username/password login now.

That's not what happened. That part of the site is down completely now because there are different opinions in the neighborhood about the high school getting rezoned. There are people here who want to stay at Westfields, or are happy with a change to South Lakes, or want a change to Chantilly--and some who would be fine with any of those options, they just don't want the elementary school to change. Pretty sure most people want grandfathering no matter what.

Neighbors have been urging others not to comment and upvote on Emerald Chase-specific issues on Pigeonhole at community meetings that seem outside our "area." Nobody wanted to make it so that others here felt they couldn't get their voices heard, and everyone I've talked to feels really bad about it.

I suspect that this is representative of what FCPS really looks like. People feel strongly on all sides of the issue but that the ones who are ok with change feel like they are getting shouted down by the ones really passionate about not changing. If you are ok with change, you tend to be ok with the status quo so there is no point in being super vocal.

What is interesting about Emerald Chase is that they are trying to use the process to move the boundary for the HS that they want, which isn't the move suggested or the current location. The problem is they want to move to one of the overcrowded HS and I don't see that happening. I think that bit of politicking is hurting them, but I get it. If FCPS is changing the boundaries, why not try and move to the HS that you are most interested in?

I would love to see what Thru would project if they only focused on getting the schools above 100% to 99%. Remove the split feeder and islands, most of the families at the split feeders and islands seem to prefer their current location to where they would be moved and just address the overcrowding. Those maps would look really different and would probably engender unhappy families who don't want to move but it would be far easier to make the case for moving. I think it might actually address some of the split feed and islands as well.

What a load of bull crap. The losing side will always pretend that they have the silent majority. But as much as you claim there are proponents who are drowned out, there are many opponents who believe that the school board is not going to listen to them.

So frankly, your post is just sour grapes. People do not want their kids moved, much as you wish it were the opposite. See the community feedback that has been posted - unless I’m missing an objective poll of the county where families indicated they want mass disruption in the county schools? Didn’t think so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What is interesting about Emerald Chase is that they are trying to use the process to move the boundary for the HS that they want, which isn't the move suggested or the current location. The problem is they want to move to one of the overcrowded HS and I don't see that happening. I think that bit of politicking is hurting them, but I get it. If FCPS is changing the boundaries, why not try and move to the HS that you are most interested in?

I think there are parents who have been fighting long before the boundary review process to have the high school changed to Chantilly. It's the closest to our neighborhood by far and that's where most of the kids from elementary school go. So it's my impression that it's not that this process came up and people saw an opportunity -- this has been an ongoing effort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What is interesting about Emerald Chase is that they are trying to use the process to move the boundary for the HS that they want, which isn't the move suggested or the current location. The problem is they want to move to one of the overcrowded HS and I don't see that happening. I think that bit of politicking is hurting them, but I get it. If FCPS is changing the boundaries, why not try and move to the HS that you are most interested in?

I think there are parents who have been fighting long before the boundary review process to have the high school changed to Chantilly. It's the closest to our neighborhood by far and that's where most of the kids from elementary school go. So it's my impression that it's not that this process came up and people saw an opportunity -- this has been an ongoing effort.

I understand that. But, you do realize that the options on Thru involved moving closer neighborhoods out of Chantilly? and, those neighborhoods currently are in Chantilly and want to stay there.

You need to be realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What is interesting about Emerald Chase is that they are trying to use the process to move the boundary for the HS that they want, which isn't the move suggested or the current location. The problem is they want to move to one of the overcrowded HS and I don't see that happening. I think that bit of politicking is hurting them, but I get it. If FCPS is changing the boundaries, why not try and move to the HS that you are most interested in?

I think there are parents who have been fighting long before the boundary review process to have the high school changed to Chantilly. It's the closest to our neighborhood by far and that's where most of the kids from elementary school go. So it's my impression that it's not that this process came up and people saw an opportunity -- this has been an ongoing effort.

There’s a group of parents at Vienna ES doing something similar to try and get moved from Marshall to Madison. About 7% of Vienna ES feeds to Kilmer/Marshall and Thru is proposing to eliminate the split feeder and send them to Freedom Hill ES, which feeds 100% to Kilmer/Marshall. The parents are asking to stay at Vienna ES but get moved to Thoreau/Madison. It’s been on their radar for years and now they see an opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What is interesting about Emerald Chase is that they are trying to use the process to move the boundary for the HS that they want, which isn't the move suggested or the current location. The problem is they want to move to one of the overcrowded HS and I don't see that happening. I think that bit of politicking is hurting them, but I get it. If FCPS is changing the boundaries, why not try and move to the HS that you are most interested in?

I think there are parents who have been fighting long before the boundary review process to have the high school changed to Chantilly. It's the closest to our neighborhood by far and that's where most of the kids from elementary school go. So it's my impression that it's not that this process came up and people saw an opportunity -- this has been an ongoing effort.

There’s a group of parents at Vienna ES doing something similar to try and get moved from Marshall to Madison. About 7% of Vienna ES feeds to Kilmer/Marshall and Thru is proposing to eliminate the split feeder and send them to Freedom Hill ES, which feeds 100% to Kilmer/Marshall. The parents are asking to stay at Vienna ES but get moved to Thoreau/Madison. It’s been on their radar for years and now they see an opportunity.

Cleaning up Vienna and Cunningham Park to make them straight Madison feeders makes a hell of a lot more sense then whatever they’re trying to do to pick up more Madison kids from Westbriar.