Hearing Testimony on FCPS Proposed CIP
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
Because it shows how very disruptive closing a high school would be. |
Anonymous
Good point. Move Crestwood and Garfield to West Springfield, and then add the Lee part of Rolling Valley to South County. |
Anonymous
It may be disruptive to close a high school, but it's also disgraceful to neglect one. |
Anonymous
My kids schools are not on that list. You suggested rezoning nine elementary schools, many to schools farther or at vastly lower achievement levels from the one they currently attend. And you left off Garfield (maybe more schools?) Apparently the kids at Garfield get to max out their education at the 8th grade. |
Anonymous
Lee is not get neglected. They were given IB. They are given more funds. They have beautiful athletic fields. They are smaller than all of the surrounding high schools. Their building needs updating, but that will come.in time. They have some great teachers there. They are not being neglected. They serve a needier population so they have lower achievement in spite of getting more funds and more attention. Your idea disrupts the lives, plans and yes, real estate values of thousands of families. And it does not guarantee higher achievement anywhere. It is a silly idea. Moving 10 or so kids per grade so they are zoned for the same middle and high school as every other kid in their school is a non disruptive, low cost, smart idea. |
Anonymous
|
Fortunately, neither FCPS staff nor the School Board has suggested moving even more higher SES families out of Lee to West Springfield. It’s just something being pushed by some families who probably don’t have ties to Lee yet, and are indifferent to further actions to weaken the school.
Were this ever to become an action item, rest assured supporters of greater equity in FCPS will turn out to both object and support further boundary changes to move students from WS to Lee. |
Anonymous
|
Out of curiosity, what do those handful of Rolling Valley (or Daventry before rezoning) kids do when the 6th grade goes to Irving for the school tours (fine arts day and curriculum day).
Is it a case where everyone gets on the bus to take a field trip, and the 6 or so kids zoned for Key and Lee sit by themselves left behind? |
Anonymous
It’s just plain stupid to think that a shopping mall renovation will improve the situation at Lee HS. Low-paying retail/service jobs will not attract the higher SES families that the school needs. Yes, there has been some McMansion infill development in the vicinity, but most likely those buyers aren’t sending their kids to Lee. Most likely, they are going private or homeschooling. |
Anonymous
| What private high school is someone going to attend from Springfield? |
Anonymous
There are kids in Springfield who commute into DC or Alexandria with their parents to places like St. Stephens/St. Agnes,Bishop O’Connell or Bishop Ireton, Immanuel Christian, Madeira, etc. A lot of privates in NoVA have carpools - Paul VI, Nysmith, Commonwealth Academy, the New School, etc. |
Anonymous
| St. Bernadette’s, nativity, John Paul the great, trinity, Immanuel Christian. There are a lot of private schools. |
Anonymous
Getting IB was not helpful to Lee. It has contributed to the flight from Lee. The turf field was paid for by Vornado when they redeveloped the mall (it was a proffer, basically extorted out of the developer by the county). Other than that, the fields at Lee are OK. The sports boosters struggle to raise the necessary funds every year to make their mandatory contribution to field upkeep. Being smaller does not necessarily mean smaller class sizes, but it does cause issues as far as the number of course offerings. Not sure why people think the building needs updating. It was renovated around 2005 and looks fine inside. Maybe not quite as fancy as some of the most recent renovations. Outside the school looks a lot like many of the other FCPS schools. It won't be 10 or so Rolling Valley students per grade attending Lee. It will likely be twice that. The video testimony by Rolling Valley parents indicates the average has been about 20 per year (per grade) that are supposed to go to Key and Lee. People will stop pupil placing and send their kids to WS. This adds up to about 70-80 students across four grades. They said the same thing about Daventry (about 10 per grade). It has actually been closer to 25. So Daventry will eventually send between 90 and 100 students to WS. Add 70-80 from Rolling Valley to the 90-100 from Daventry and now you have 160-180 students - that is 10% of the current Lee enrollment. And very few of these students are likely to be participants in the F/R lunch program. You see how this spirals out of control when you are only taking a 'small group'. The current county projection after the construction/expansion of WS is for the school to be at 105% of capacity within a few years (that factors in the new capacity of 2350 students). Lee will only be at 85%. Now, for the odds of RV moving out of Lee either next year or the year after. I give it about 75/25 that it does happen. When Daventry moved no one outside of the Daventry community knew anything about it until it was pretty much a done deal. They did not need to have it approved by the School Board because it was a small group (<5% - at least that is what they claimed at the time). So I do think the odds say the RV to WS move will likely happen (FCPS is obsessed with closing split feeders, damn the consequences). Though notice from my above paragraph that Rolling Valley and Daventry combined will be about 10% of the Lee enrollment - so you can piecemeal these changes without getting School Board approval as long as each piece is below 5% (and ignoring current pupil placements that alter the numbers). I think the RV parents were told by a School Board member to appear at the CIP hearing to officially testify as part of checking off a box on the way to making the administrative change. I think something is afoot here, so keep your eyes open. No, they are not closing Lee - the surrounding schools do not have the capacity to absorb 1700 students. And obviously, One Fairfax is a joke. |
Anonymous
What do you think Springfield is like? Are you a kid? |
Anonymous
Those people are going because they are Catholic. It is not like DC where mostly non Catholics attend Catholic schools. They are not going to Catholic School to flee WSHS. |
Anonymous
Those are almost all elementary schools. Not an option for those fleeing Lee. |