FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

Robyn Lady sounded so nervous yesterday. It’s very clear just how unbelievably out of her depth she is.

She should have stuck with her day job providing consulting services to wealthy families to get into elite colleges. Or is she still doing that as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what happened with grandfathering? I am really worried that this will happen my kid’s junior year. I will send my younger kid - who would start 9th at a new school - without drama, but I do not want my rising freshman to have to switch schools junior year.

I think it will be only the oldest grade at each level will be grandfathered in with certainty and then perhaps some discretion for other students as needed. Dr. Anderson and Meren were really taken aback by how McDaniel snuck in his counter amendment at the last moment.

I too have a rising freshman whom I imagine will have to move his junior year. I get that change and disruption will happen with any boundary adjustment, but let's just be honest about the juniors stuck in this situation- they are a sacrificial cohort for the greater good.

I can't believe the Board won't allow students in their all-important junior year to remain at the same school in which they began. I hope they show the discretion they said would not be allowed in the Dr. Anderson amendment they rejected and give rising juniors the choice to stay or go.

I was appalled by this too. I get that they want flexibility and data, but they are really going to leave moving juniors on the table?

[Anonymous]

This is for the greater good. Can’t make an omelette without cracking a few eggs.

The kids will live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is for the greater good. Can’t make an omelette without cracking a few eggs.

The kids will live.

I can’t tell if you are joking.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The best nugget of info out of this meeting (because boundary adjustments are a foregone conclusion) is from Dr. Reid's response to Mateo Dunne's question about boundary changes: she stated that HS boundaries will not change much at all, and most of the boundary changes will be at the ES level.

That’s interesting, I wonder why they decided to do that. Most kids attend the closest ES unless they’re at a split feeder or in an attendance island. The kids who have a long ES bus ride would have one regardless because they live in a far-flung area like Clifton or Great Falls. Or they’re getting bussed to the AAP center …

This is false. Anyone with eyes can look at a map of the school boundaries to see lots of elementary schools completely disconnected from their communities.

Such as??

Westbriar, Keene Mill, Flint Hill, Sangster, etc.

The one no-brainer move coming from a savant who spends too much time on Zillow and has no dog in the fight, the Groveland/Green Garland drive area zoned for Sangster will move to Newington Forest and will become part of the South County pyramid.

I can see that happening, although that’s a really small neighborhood that probably won’t make too much of a difference either way.

As a Lorton resident I wonder if the infamous Hagel Circle will continue to get bussed past 95 to Halley or if they will get sent to the much closer Gunston. That’s a hot potato.

I was shocked to learn that Hagel Ct students didn’t go to Lorton Station ES. It’s only a mile away!

Yes, why would it switch to Gunston? Hagel Circle is closer to Lorton Station.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:The best nugget of info out of this meeting (because boundary adjustments are a foregone conclusion) is from Dr. Reid's response to Mateo Dunne's question about boundary changes: she stated that HS boundaries will not change much at all, and most of the boundary changes will be at the ES level.

That’s interesting, I wonder why they decided to do that. Most kids attend the closest ES unless they’re at a split feeder or in an attendance island. The kids who have a long ES bus ride would have one regardless because they live in a far-flung area like Clifton or Great Falls. Or they’re getting bussed to the AAP center …

This is false. Anyone with eyes can look at a map of the school boundaries to see lots of elementary schools completely disconnected from their communities.

Such as??

Westbriar, Keene Mill, Flint Hill, Sangster, etc.

The one no-brainer move coming from a savant who spends too much time on Zillow and has no dog in the fight, the Groveland/Green Garland drive area zoned for Sangster will move to Newington Forest and will become part of the South County pyramid.

I can see that happening, although that’s a really small neighborhood that probably won’t make too much of a difference either way.

As a Lorton resident I wonder if the infamous Hagel Circle will continue to get bussed past 95 to Halley or if they will get sent to the much closer Gunston. That’s a hot potato.

I was shocked to learn that Hagel Ct students didn’t go to Lorton Station ES. It’s only a mile away!

That’s one of the equity bussing situations. Sending those kids to the comparatively rich Halley makes Halley and Gunston both around 40% FARMS, and Lorton Station around 55%. Otherwise Halley would have demographics similar to Silverbrook which has single digit FARMS, and Gunston or Lorton Station would be much higher needs.

I imagine if they changed it it would be to send those kids to Gunston so they can stay at South County, as opposed to Lorton Station/Hayfield. But also, without that big neighborhood Halley’s population would drop quite a bit and there’s really nowhere for them to pick up kids from since that is not a growth area of the county.

If Hagel Circle gets moved to Gunston it’ll be the last straw and I’ll pull my kids. Many of the Mason Neck residents where Gunston is actually located are wealthy and can afford private.

[Anonymous]

So, did they pass it or did they punt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is for the greater good. Can’t make an omelette without cracking a few eggs.

The kids will live.

I mean if what’s mostly on the table is cleaning up the ES attendance islands and split feeders so they go to their physically closest school and so that communities are kept together - I think it’s a good thing. But the problems are

1) nobody trusts the board to keep it to cleaning up the borders and not get into the weeds on “equity” and propping up schools with sagging enrollments and test scores. Even the teachers union rep said she supported redoing the borders for equity - does she know something the rest of us don’t?

2) Grandfathering of not just seniors but also juniors. I would like to see grandfathering of sophomores as well. It shouldn’t be too many kids if they’re mostly re-tooling at the ES level, right?

3) reviewing every 5 years is far too often. It should be a 10 year review after the new census data is released, because we at least know that’s accurate whereas FCPS’s predictions and modeling are opaque and have been inaccurate in the past.

But whatever. They’re going to railroad this through no matter what the community says.

[Anonymous]

If they can only grandfather 3 grades then do 12, 11 and either 6th or 8th. 11th grade is way too critical a year to force kids to move then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The impression I got was they are going to focus first on the bussing islands and less on entire schools. They also didn’t emphasize that much the high school situation and act like they was an attempt to fill up Lewis high school. I don’t even think they will look at moving elementary to other regions/pyramids if they aren’t bussing them now (ie West Springfield schools).

Wishful thinking. Anderson must have mentioned at least three times that Glasgow MS has more kids than Lewis HS, and St. John-Cunning talked about how Lewis kids were just as proud as Langley kids. The low enrollment at Lewis is very much on their minds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The impression I got was they are going to focus first on the bussing islands and less on entire schools. They also didn’t emphasize that much the high school situation and act like they was an attempt to fill up Lewis high school. I don’t even think they will look at moving elementary to other regions/pyramids if they aren’t bussing them now (ie West Springfield schools).

Wishful thinking. Anderson must have mentioned at least three times that Glasgow MS has more kids than Lewis HS, and St. John-Cunning talked about how Lewis kids were just as proud as Langley kids. The low enrollment at Lewis is very much on their minds.

Yes but Reid emphasized keeping community together. And bussing HV or another school to Key and Lewis goes against that and can’t be the only solution to fix the Lewis under enrollment. I don’t think she’s interested in redoing pyramids and regions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The impression I got was they are going to focus first on the bussing islands and less on entire schools. They also didn’t emphasize that much the high school situation and act like they was an attempt to fill up Lewis high school. I don’t even think they will look at moving elementary to other regions/pyramids if they aren’t bussing them now (ie West Springfield schools).

Wishful thinking. Anderson must have mentioned at least three times that Glasgow MS has more kids than Lewis HS, and St. John-Cunning talked about how Lewis kids were just as proud as Langley kids. The low enrollment at Lewis is very much on their minds.

Ricardy Anderson is fixated on Glasgow’s size and has been for awhile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The impression I got was they are going to focus first on the bussing islands and less on entire schools. They also didn’t emphasize that much the high school situation and act like they was an attempt to fill up Lewis high school. I don’t even think they will look at moving elementary to other regions/pyramids if they aren’t bussing them now (ie West Springfield schools).

Wishful thinking. Anderson must have mentioned at least three times that Glasgow MS has more kids than Lewis HS, and St. John-Cunning talked about how Lewis kids were just as proud as Langley kids. The low enrollment at Lewis is very much on their minds.

Yes but Reid emphasized keeping community together. And bussing HV or another school to Key and Lewis goes against that and can’t be the only solution to fix the Lewis under enrollment. I don’t think she’s interested in redoing pyramids and regions.

I don't know. They are very open to shifting elementary kids. I can see them redoing the HV boundary to put more kids into Saratoga.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they can only grandfather 3 grades then do 12, 11 and either 6th or 8th. 11th grade is way too critical a year to force kids to move then.

I think it will end up 11th and 12th. Also, very easy to allow middle schools to continue, it is only 2 years for most schools. I don't think they should do final year in elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The impression I got was they are going to focus first on the bussing islands and less on entire schools. They also didn’t emphasize that much the high school situation and act like they was an attempt to fill up Lewis high school. I don’t even think they will look at moving elementary to other regions/pyramids if they aren’t bussing them now (ie West Springfield schools).

Wishful thinking. Anderson must have mentioned at least three times that Glasgow MS has more kids than Lewis HS, and St. John-Cunning talked about how Lewis kids were just as proud as Langley kids. The low enrollment at Lewis is very much on their minds.

Yes but Reid emphasized keeping community together. And bussing HV or another school to Key and Lewis goes against that and can’t be the only solution to fix the Lewis under enrollment. I don’t think she’s interested in redoing pyramids and regions.

Moving one part of Springfield to a school in another part of Springfield?

If you allow “community” to be defined by current school assignment you could never make any changes without “breaking up a community.”