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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
School Board Forum on "Boundary and Capacity"
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Anonymous
DP. Herndon and Lewis present rather differently. Herndon is considerably larger than Lewis. It has two feeders - Aldrin and Armstrong - that are relatively low FARMS or at over 10% below the county average. If it has another low FARMS feeder, whether it was a school to the north or to the east, that might shore up the critical mass of kids that support the ability to offer multiple sessions of AP classes and various extra-curriculars (Herndon is actually pretty good at some sports, though not all). In other words, even though Herndon's FARMS rate has spiked in recent years, it has more in common with South Lakes than you acknowledge. Lewis is a different situation, because it's much smaller and all its feeders are very high FARMS. It's been neglected for a long time, and FCPS has boxed itself into a corner with respect to future options. The strategy there is likely going to be to do nothing with the boundaries, even though it borders a large, crowded school (West Springfield), but then turbo-charge Lewis with opportunities (i.e., both IB and AP courses, a leadership academy, internship programs not available at other schools, etc.) to try and compensate. |
Anonymous
Just an observation: Interesting how some contributors here think that above 50% (or even 60%) FARMs is too high but below that is ideal. On the other end of the spectrum, others have stated that anything above roughly 15% FARMs is high and only below that is ideal. Schools across the board in the DC Metro area are becoming higher FARMs, so I’m sure the degree of acceptability will shift higher over time. I personally don’t think 30% FARMs at a large school is high in the context of the DC region. The regular (not intensified) classes should not suffer all that much in quality at that percentage, but I recognize that others believe quality drops significantly. |
Anonymous
The "appropriate" threshold shifts with the times. At one point when the average FARMS rate in FCPS was in the high teens or early 20s, FCPS commissioned a report that said anything over 20% FARMS started to create challenges and anything over 40% was crisis mode. But as the average FARMS rate creeped into the high 20s and low 30s, they deep-sixed the whole "tipping point" study, for reasons that aren't hard to figure out. |
Anonymous
That was not my argument. Communities like Herndon, Vienna, Oakton, and South Lakes have their own high schools. 20171, whether it’s called Herndon or Oak Hill, doesn’t have one. 20171 is solidly middle class and quite distinct from 20170 Herndon or Reston. Instead of building a high school, the county continues the four way split. Thus an identity crisis (is it part of Herndon or unqiue enough to have a distinct name such as Oak Hill?). |
Anonymous
I am well aware that Herndon and SLHA have a lot in common. The only difference that I can see is that SLHS succeeded in moving a MC/UMC ES into SLHS, in Fox Mill, which has improved SLHS test scores and moved it closer to the middle of the County. I think Herndon has a higher ELL population, SLHS is at 11% I think, which also makes a difference. Both Herndon and SLHS have a system that is base don a school within a school. The kids in the ELL and Gen Ed classes have a different experience then the kids in the AP or IB programs. Everyone I know at Herndon who has had positive experiences there was in the AP program. Everyone of the families I know who have kids at SLHS have their kids in honors or IB classes. I suspect that schools like Great Falls saw what happened with Fox Mill and SLHS and are doing their best to not become the Herndon version of Fox Mill. I think my child will do well and have a good experience at SLHS. We are not looking for private schools or anything like that. We might think about an AP transfer because we don't think he will want to do the IB diploma, he is a more STEM focused kid. The AP math and science classes are more likely to be of interest to him then the IB classes at SLHS. |
Anonymous
You do know your argument is frivolous, right? If your area has an identity crisis, it’s because it’s just part of the unincorporated Fairfax suburbs. It’s not because it doesn’t have its own high school. You could just as easily say Reston has an identity crisis because some students attend Langley, Oakton has an identity crisis because some of its students attend Madison, Vienna has an identity crisis because some of its students attend Marshall, etc. |
Anonymous
Disagree. High schools are big part of community. Let’s say there is no Oakton high school. What’s the point of Oakton area then? Yes some kids in Reston attend Langley or Herndon High. Reston as a community still does have its own high school. That makes a big difference. |
Anonymous
I dunno, what was the point of Oakton before OHS got built in the late 60s? And there's no high school in Great Falls. Are you saying there's no community there? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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I dunno, what was the point of Oakton before OHS got built in the late 60s?
Oakton before OHS was probably just another unincorporated Fairfax suburbs. And there's no high school in Great Falls. Are you saying there's no community there? Langley is a de facto high school for Great Falls. |
Anonymous
Oakton is still another unincorporated Fairfax suburb, and one that sends kids to multiple schools (Oakton, Madison, Fairfax). Just like Oak Hill. Great Falls may feed into Langley, but Langley isn't in Great Falls, so it's not like the school is a big community resource for Great Falls. |
Anonymous
Politicians could just as well have drawn some lines to send Hybla Valley trailer parks to Langley HS - after all Hybla Valley to Langley is the same 14 miles as western Great Falls to Langley. But in that case few would say Langley is the community school for Hybla Valley. |
Anonymous
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They’ve now updated the forum topic request on boundaries to the agenda for the 2/13 work session. It is now broken out separately from the discussion of the FY 2025 budget, but part of the work session.
The specific request is to renew the process of updating the county-wide boundary policy (Policy 8130). They’d taken that up back in 2018, but offloaded the work to an outside consultant in 2019 once it became a hot button in a School Board election year. It seems they’ve concluded the political risk isn’t as high now since the new board just took office. |
Anonymous
Because all of those schools are closer to our area than Herndon High. Look on a map. |
Anonymous
Go away, Mclean mommy. |