FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is all speculation. Nothing has been announced yet. Maybe take a deep breath and wait to see what the school board proposes.

Sandy Anderson says nothing to see here, even though they are in record saying all pyramids will be impacted.

They want you to be quiet until the maps are drawn and it’s too late to stop them.

How do you propose to stop them now?

Perhaps it’s too late.

But at the very least, it’ll be worthwhile to let them know that it is political career suicide.

The people on the BOE in MCPS, who voted last minute to take a starter home, largely immigrant community of newly built homes (about 1/2 were unfinished, but deposits were already in) and move it to the most dysfunctional school pyramid in MoCo, all remained on the board.

Half the people in that subdivision did not even have a right to vote, and the rest of the grateful county chose to keep the board unchanged. Their careers will be fine, and as I learned from that experience, BOE will do what it wants, but will likely target the areas where friends and family of the BOE members are unlikely to live.

Hence my vote is for part of Mozaic ES to be moved to FCHS, but I may well be wrong.

An FCPS approach that goes after the UMC and MC families across the county will have a much different outcome. The oft-talked about schools here have a much different demographic than what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is all speculation. Nothing has been announced yet. Maybe take a deep breath and wait to see what the school board proposes.

Sandy Anderson says nothing to see here, even though they are in record saying all pyramids will be impacted.

They want you to be quiet until the maps are drawn and it’s too late to stop them.

How do you propose to stop them now?

Perhaps it’s too late.

But at the very least, it’ll be worthwhile to let them know that it is political career suicide.

The people on the BOE in MCPS, who voted last minute to take a starter home, largely immigrant community of newly built homes (about 1/2 were unfinished, but deposits were already in) and move it to the most dysfunctional school pyramid in MoCo, all remained on the board.

Half the people in that subdivision did not even have a right to vote, and the rest of the grateful county chose to keep the board unchanged. Their careers will be fine, and as I learned from that experience, BOE will do what it wants, but will likely target the areas where friends and family of the BOE members are unlikely to live.

Hence my vote is for part of Mozaic ES to be moved to FCHS, but I may well be wrong.

An FCPS approach that goes after the UMC and MC families across the county will have a much different outcome. The oft-talked about schools here have a much different demographic than what you are talking about.

I am fascinated to see what FCPS will do. I put my best guess down just to stay honest to myself (on the anonymous board haha).

For my part, having observed the MCPS situation and anticipating redistricting in FCPS coming up, I deliberately bought in Fairfax City. If I could have afforded it, we would have done Falls Church City.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

That why it worked. Pulling one or two ESs into lewis or Mt Vernon won't change anything. Pull in enough to shift the demographics of the whole school and people will be fine with it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Yeah, parents really desire a “middle of the pack” school. You totally sold me. 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the homes really vulnerable to redistricting is the Mozaic part of Oakton High School. Look at the Falls Church HS versus Oakton HS geography / district. In that area, they intertwine like fingers on two hands.

I deliberately avoided the Riveradale (I think that is the name?) area currently districted for Braddock, and the areas of Mozaic ES closest to Inova Fairfax Hospital. With the addition and renovation of the Falls Church HS, one of them will be moved back - or possibly Mozaic to Falls Church HS, and Riverdale to Annandale HS where it used to be 20 years ago.

Oakton HS sits within the Mosaic ES catchment area, so why would any part of Mosaic get moved to Falls Church HS? It wasn’t that long ago that area got pulled out of Jackson MS and moved to Thoreau MS.

The county is expanding Falls Church HS for a reason. I just look at that weird little "finger" of their district coming up to the Mozaic district, and cannot help but think that the easiest way to increase achievement in FCHS is to redistrict a part of Mozaic there. These townhouses / houses tend to be lower cost and primarily occupied by immigrants, giving a combination of lower influence and higher achievement that the country would want to move around.

Another possibility is that part of Marshall HS would be redistricted to FCHS.

I don't think the county would do anything that lowers the FARMS rate at Oakton and raises it at FCHS

It definitely will not raise the FARMS rate at FCHS, and I suspect it would remain steady at Oakton.

Mosiac is 25% farms, Oakton is 15. Removing Mosiac would lower Oakton's rate. I really don't see the county doing anything that would lower the FARMs rate of any school that already has a sub 20% rate.

If they are true to their stated goal of eliminating attendance islands and reducing the number of split feeders this is exactly what will happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the homes really vulnerable to redistricting is the Mozaic part of Oakton High School. Look at the Falls Church HS versus Oakton HS geography / district. In that area, they intertwine like fingers on two hands.

I deliberately avoided the Riveradale (I think that is the name?) area currently districted for Braddock, and the areas of Mozaic ES closest to Inova Fairfax Hospital. With the addition and renovation of the Falls Church HS, one of them will be moved back - or possibly Mozaic to Falls Church HS, and Riverdale to Annandale HS where it used to be 20 years ago.

Oakton HS sits within the Mosaic ES catchment area, so why would any part of Mosaic get moved to Falls Church HS? It wasn’t that long ago that area got pulled out of Jackson MS and moved to Thoreau MS.

The county is expanding Falls Church HS for a reason. I just look at that weird little "finger" of their district coming up to the Mozaic district, and cannot help but think that the easiest way to increase achievement in FCHS is to redistrict a part of Mozaic there. These townhouses / houses tend to be lower cost and primarily occupied by immigrants, giving a combination of lower influence and higher achievement that the country would want to move around.

Another possibility is that part of Marshall HS would be redistricted to FCHS.

I don't think the county would do anything that lowers the FARMS rate at Oakton and raises it at FCHS

It definitely will not raise the FARMS rate at FCHS, and I suspect it would remain steady at Oakton.

Mosiac is 25% farms, Oakton is 15. Removing Mosiac would lower Oakton's rate. I really don't see the county doing anything that would lower the FARMs rate of any school that already has a sub 20% rate.

If they are true to their stated goal of eliminating attendance islands and reducing the number of split feeders this is exactly what will happen.

Same with timberlane McLean

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Yeah, parents really desire a “middle of the pack” school. You totally sold me. 🙄

They took a "boogeyman" school and improved it to "performing well" without lowering outcomes at the surrounding schools. What's wrong with that? The high performing students are still performing high (they would no matter where they went) and the lower performing students are getting a boost. Property values are increasing. It's making a better situation for more families than they had before. Isn't that the goal? Why should a small percentage of the county get an elite experience while large pockets are stuck with a subpar experience just because "that's the way it's always been?"

The same hysteria that is gripping people now is the same hysteria that was going around in 2008. People in the Oakton/Westfield/Madison/SL areas were losing their ever-loving minds back then. They raised $125K to sue FCPS and lost. Seems like it all turned out ok in the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the homes really vulnerable to redistricting is the Mozaic part of Oakton High School. Look at the Falls Church HS versus Oakton HS geography / district. In that area, they intertwine like fingers on two hands.

I deliberately avoided the Riveradale (I think that is the name?) area currently districted for Braddock, and the areas of Mozaic ES closest to Inova Fairfax Hospital. With the addition and renovation of the Falls Church HS, one of them will be moved back - or possibly Mozaic to Falls Church HS, and Riverdale to Annandale HS where it used to be 20 years ago.

Oakton HS sits within the Mosaic ES catchment area, so why would any part of Mosaic get moved to Falls Church HS? It wasn’t that long ago that area got pulled out of Jackson MS and moved to Thoreau MS.

The county is expanding Falls Church HS for a reason. I just look at that weird little "finger" of their district coming up to the Mozaic district, and cannot help but think that the easiest way to increase achievement in FCHS is to redistrict a part of Mozaic there. These townhouses / houses tend to be lower cost and primarily occupied by immigrants, giving a combination of lower influence and higher achievement that the country would want to move around.

Another possibility is that part of Marshall HS would be redistricted to FCHS.

I don't think the county would do anything that lowers the FARMS rate at Oakton and raises it at FCHS

It definitely will not raise the FARMS rate at FCHS, and I suspect it would remain steady at Oakton.

Mosiac is 25% farms, Oakton is 15. Removing Mosiac would lower Oakton's rate. I really don't see the county doing anything that would lower the FARMs rate of any school that already has a sub 20% rate.

I think that will be the math for any of the candidate areas to flow into FCHS. Someone will clearly be moved to FCHS because the county is expanding the building.

Could be Mozaic (or part of Mozaic), could be part of Marshall HS, could be part of McLean HS (that one is least likely in my mind because that would only leave very affluent areas attending McLean HS... I think a part of their far away demographic would be channeled to either South lakes or Herndon HS instead)

It’s Mosaic, not Mozaic.

Since Oakton HS sits within the Mosaic ES area, moving any part of Mosaic to Falls Church creates a new split feeder, so unlikely.

If any part of Marshall were to move, it would more logically be areas further west in Vienna near Wolf Trap that could move to expanded Madison.

The Timber Lane island at McLean may well move to Falls Church st some point, if not soon then eventually when more housing gets built in Tysons or near the WFC metro. There is no area zoned to McLean that logically should move to South Lakes or Herndon. The “far away” areas zoned to McLean were already rezoned to even “further away” Langley in 2021.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the homes really vulnerable to redistricting is the Mozaic part of Oakton High School. Look at the Falls Church HS versus Oakton HS geography / district. In that area, they intertwine like fingers on two hands.

I deliberately avoided the Riveradale (I think that is the name?) area currently districted for Braddock, and the areas of Mozaic ES closest to Inova Fairfax Hospital. With the addition and renovation of the Falls Church HS, one of them will be moved back - or possibly Mozaic to Falls Church HS, and Riverdale to Annandale HS where it used to be 20 years ago.

Oakton HS sits within the Mosaic ES catchment area, so why would any part of Mosaic get moved to Falls Church HS? It wasn’t that long ago that area got pulled out of Jackson MS and moved to Thoreau MS.

The county is expanding Falls Church HS for a reason. I just look at that weird little "finger" of their district coming up to the Mozaic district, and cannot help but think that the easiest way to increase achievement in FCHS is to redistrict a part of Mozaic there. These townhouses / houses tend to be lower cost and primarily occupied by immigrants, giving a combination of lower influence and higher achievement that the country would want to move around.

Another possibility is that part of Marshall HS would be redistricted to FCHS.

I don't think the county would do anything that lowers the FARMS rate at Oakton and raises it at FCHS

It definitely will not raise the FARMS rate at FCHS, and I suspect it would remain steady at Oakton.

Mosiac is 25% farms, Oakton is 15. Removing Mosiac would lower Oakton's rate. I really don't see the county doing anything that would lower the FARMs rate of any school that already has a sub 20% rate.

I think that will be the math for any of the candidate areas to flow into FCHS. Someone will clearly be moved to FCHS because the county is expanding the building.

Could be Mozaic (or part of Mozaic), could be part of Marshall HS, could be part of McLean HS (that one is least likely in my mind because that would only leave very affluent areas attending McLean HS... I think a part of their far away demographic would be channeled to either South lakes or Herndon HS instead)

They could pull from McLean proper

When McLean HS has two attendance islands (one in Tysons and one in Falls Church) outside “McLean proper”? Seems quite unlikely.

Are you just trolling to try and get others as agitated about potential redistricting as you are?

[Anonymous]

By the time this thread is done, Thru will just have to read through to get all their good ideas from DCUM!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

That why it worked. Pulling one or two ESs into lewis or Mt Vernon won't change anything. Pull in enough to shift the demographics of the whole school and people will be fine with it

It was probably about the equivalent of 1.5 to 2.0 ES moved into South Lakes - all of Fox Mill was pulled from Oakton, part of Floris was pulled from Westfield, and an island zoned to Wolftrap/Thoreau/Madison was reassigned to an existing Hughes/South Lakes feeder, Sunrise Valley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

If Daventry et al won’t help Lewis, should Lewis just become a magnet school then as one of the ppp’s suggested.

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Anonymous wrote:I think the homes really vulnerable to redistricting is the Mozaic part of Oakton High School. Look at the Falls Church HS versus Oakton HS geography / district. In that area, they intertwine like fingers on two hands.

I deliberately avoided the Riveradale (I think that is the name?) area currently districted for Braddock, and the areas of Mozaic ES closest to Inova Fairfax Hospital. With the addition and renovation of the Falls Church HS, one of them will be moved back - or possibly Mozaic to Falls Church HS, and Riverdale to Annandale HS where it used to be 20 years ago.

Oakton HS sits within the Mosaic ES catchment area, so why would any part of Mosaic get moved to Falls Church HS? It wasn’t that long ago that area got pulled out of Jackson MS and moved to Thoreau MS.

The county is expanding Falls Church HS for a reason. I just look at that weird little "finger" of their district coming up to the Mozaic district, and cannot help but think that the easiest way to increase achievement in FCHS is to redistrict a part of Mozaic there. These townhouses / houses tend to be lower cost and primarily occupied by immigrants, giving a combination of lower influence and higher achievement that the country would want to move around.

Another possibility is that part of Marshall HS would be redistricted to FCHS.

I don't think the county would do anything that lowers the FARMS rate at Oakton and raises it at FCHS

It definitely will not raise the FARMS rate at FCHS, and I suspect it would remain steady at Oakton.

Mosiac is 25% farms, Oakton is 15. Removing Mosiac would lower Oakton's rate. I really don't see the county doing anything that would lower the FARMs rate of any school that already has a sub 20% rate.

I think that will be the math for any of the candidate areas to flow into FCHS. Someone will clearly be moved to FCHS because the county is expanding the building.

Could be Mozaic (or part of Mozaic), could be part of Marshall HS, could be part of McLean HS (that one is least likely in my mind because that would only leave very affluent areas attending McLean HS... I think a part of their far away demographic would be channeled to either South lakes or Herndon HS instead)

They could pull from McLean proper

When McLean HS has two attendance islands (one in Tysons and one in Falls Church) outside “McLean proper”? Seems quite unlikely.

Are you just trolling to try and get others as agitated about potential redistricting as you are?

I am curious to see how the board splits up Tyson’s and handles split ES and MS feeders. Approved residential development plans for Tysons Central and Tysons East estimate that more than 1300 students will be added, and several hundred more students would be added by residential development in Tysons West. Obviously, the County can’t send all these students to one school (unless they build something new), so they’ll have to split it up somehow among multiple schools.