FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

I can’t imagine the county wanting to magnify the controversy that has surrounded TJ for most of its existence by creating yet another magnet. If we were starting on a blank slate, this School Board would never have created TJHSST.

[Anonymous]

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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.

There is a difference between upside projections that assume all plans come to fruition, and kids actually showing up.

Keep in mind also that larger demographic trends call for a decline in the number of K-12 age children just about everywhere in the coming years, so additional students coming from new housing in Tysons could be offset by declines in other area neighborhoods. The additional 1300 students is not a net number.

Tysons has long been split between two pyramids - Marshall (about 55%) and McLean (about 45%). The most sensible plan would be to prioritize an expansion of McLean HS (an existing HS on an existing site), which stands to have the smallest capacity of any HS despite serving multiple growth areas, and if needed allocate part of Tysons to Langley so not all of Tysons attends McLean and Marshall. That could eliminate a split feeder to Spring Hill ES.

[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.

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.

There’s no easy way of fixing the capacity issues in that region without nuking the boundaries. If the projections hold true, they could close Lewis in 5 years, but you’d need to completely rework the boundaries of Edison and Hayfield to distribute the displaced students to Mount Vernon and West Potomac.

[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:

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.

In the next episode of when liberal agendas attack, we examine what happens when the board members advocate to use some students as a resource to “save” other students and make FCPS subpar everywhere.

[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:

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.

There’s no easy way of fixing the capacity issues in that region without nuking the boundaries. If the projections hold true, they could close Lewis in 5 years, but you’d need to completely rework the boundaries of Edison and Hayfield to distribute the displaced students to Mount Vernon and West Potomac.

LOL. Just as like reworking the boundaries of West Springfield to distribute the displaced students to South County and Lake Braddock.

[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:

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.

In the next episode of when liberal agendas attack, we examine what happens when the board members advocate to use some students as a resource to “save” other students and make FCPS subpar everywhere.

Drama llama.

[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:

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.

In the next episode of when liberal agendas attack, we examine what happens when the board members advocate to use some students as a resource to “save” other students and make FCPS subpar everywhere.

Drama llama.

Says the lady with a clear agenda.

[Anonymous]

We are in an attendance island for our elementary school, which is an AAP center. It seems like they could handle this one of two ways: 1) Close the "gap" by rezoning a few streets near us to our school; or 2) send our streets to the other school. I am going to be very mad if my kid gets pulled away from their friends at their current school, none of whom live in our little island so presumably will stay put, while the kids who qualify for AAP will get the choice to stay at our school since it's the center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in an attendance island for our elementary school, which is an AAP center. It seems like they could handle this one of two ways: 1) Close the "gap" by rezoning a few streets near us to our school; or 2) send our streets to the other school. I am going to be very mad if my kid gets pulled away from their friends at their current school, none of whom live in our little island so presumably will stay put, while the kids who qualify for AAP will get the choice to stay at our school since it's the center.

+1000.

This whole exercise would make infinitely more sense if the School Board figured out what it wants to do with AAP centers, IB, and facilities (new renovation queue) before they unleash a third-party consultant to propose boundary changes that likely will have to be based on assumptions that deserve to be challenged.

On the one hand, they are stirring up a hornet's nest by calling for a "comprehensive boundary review," but on the other hand, they are demonstrating very little courage or commitment by refusing to tackle some of the bigger issues before sending the consultant off to do the review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in an attendance island for our elementary school, which is an AAP center. It seems like they could handle this one of two ways: 1) Close the "gap" by rezoning a few streets near us to our school; or 2) send our streets to the other school. I am going to be very mad if my kid gets pulled away from their friends at their current school, none of whom live in our little island so presumably will stay put, while the kids who qualify for AAP will get the choice to stay at our school since it's the center.

Let your school board rep know now. Don’t wait until they’ve drawn the maps.

[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.

Hunt Valley.

[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:

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.

Hunt Valley.

Yup. They don’t walk to either middle or high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in an attendance island for our elementary school, which is an AAP center. It seems like they could handle this one of two ways: 1) Close the "gap" by rezoning a few streets near us to our school; or 2) send our streets to the other school. I am going to be very mad if my kid gets pulled away from their friends at their current school, none of whom live in our little island so presumably will stay put, while the kids who qualify for AAP will get the choice to stay at our school since it's the center.

Let your school board rep know now. Don’t wait until they’ve drawn the maps.

I will. I also want to bring up the issue of SACC. How will they make sure kids still have a spot at a different school if it is full with a waitlist? Not to mention different start times means people’s needs for morning vs afternoon care could change. What a mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in an attendance island for our elementary school, which is an AAP center. It seems like they could handle this one of two ways: 1) Close the "gap" by rezoning a few streets near us to our school; or 2) send our streets to the other school. I am going to be very mad if my kid gets pulled away from their friends at their current school, none of whom live in our little island so presumably will stay put, while the kids who qualify for AAP will get the choice to stay at our school since it's the center.

+1000.

This whole exercise would make infinitely more sense if the School Board figured out what it wants to do with AAP centers, IB, and facilities (new renovation queue) before they unleash a third-party consultant to propose boundary changes that likely will have to be based on assumptions that deserve to be challenged.

On the one hand, they are stirring up a hornet's nest by calling for a "comprehensive boundary review," but on the other hand, they are demonstrating very little courage or commitment by refusing to tackle some of the bigger issues before sending the consultant off to do the review.

I think that’s part of the consult. Reid kept on throwing out the idiotic “can we fit 6-8 into middle school” as a scenario they’d like to model. There’s a community event before the consultants start running scenarios, which is when these points being discussed need to be addressed.

[Anonymous]

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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)

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.

Sorry, it would leapfrog from Langley to South Lakes / Herndon, and then from McLean or Marshall to Langley.
McLean is overcrowded
Langley is underused
Oakton is at capacity
FCHS is gaining seats, it is having an addition built
Where is it gaining seats from? Open question.
What other schools are underused? Where will they gain students from? OPen question.
You have to look at who needs to have more students, and how needs to lose students.