FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Herndon mom here. I hope my children never have to interact with kids whose parents are happy to bend the rules for their advantage. Is that how the rich get ahead? If that is the case, I will happily stay poor, but honest. Go Herndon Hornets!

Some bend rules to get the perceived advantage of a certain school.

Some break laws to get the advantages of a certain country.

Hey Herndon mom, what do you think about the football players

exploiting the rules to attend Hayfield while living in PWC? Does it bother you, or is it okay because they are minorities and not high SES?

Herndon mom here. Not sure what you are talking about. I would say 70% of football team is White. Many play multiple sports as well. Our Hispanic community does not /cannot participate in athletics as much as the White kids.

Oh right. It probably didn't hit your radar about disadvantaged minorities bending the rules to attend a HS out of both their district and their county. Look it up. Please elaborate on why the hispanic community does not/cannot participate in athletics as much as the white kids. My son was not selected for the Lewis varsity soccer team, comprised of almost exclusively hispanic students, that recently made it to the state championships. Where is my outlet to cry about injustice?

I am sorry to hear about your son not making the boys soccer team. That is tough. Soccer, of course is huge among the Hispanic MALE community. It is a relatively inexpensive sport to play, a flat surface and a ball. Many Hispanic boys grow up playing against their older relatives in Sunday leagues. Yes, they will dominate the boys soccer rosters. However, how many Latinos do you see playing the other sports? Yes, I know about baseball, but we do not have a sizeable Caribbean diaspora in this area. Central American immigrants tend to be on the shorter size. They often won’t make the basketball or football teams. Add to that, rarely do they play on club teams in these sports. Most have to rush to a job after school or take care of their younger siblings.

About Hispanic kids getting rides to a “better” high school to cheat the system? That is a stretch.

This is obviously another equity item FFX needs to address after boundaries. All ethnic populations should be represented across football and basketball teams irrespective of physiological status. If hispanic boys want to play football or soccer someone should create an opportunity, it’s not fair they are limited to soccer. Also what is this nonsense about after school jobs and taking care of siblings? Hispanic families with 4+ kids should have some support system provided by FFX county so the oldest children can do more after school activities. There should be a law that requires only children or children with 1 sibling to provide childcare to families with 4+ children.

Regarding the athletics portion of this post: it is called “tryouts”. You make the team if you are good enough regardless of race or family imcome. Full stop!

We can move to a more equitable sports tryout system.

TJ used to have tryouts and you had to score high enough regardless of race or family income, full stop. The county infused “equity” and TJ no longer accepts the highest scoring, best qualified students. No coincidence TJ has been declining in the rankings and test score metrics ever since. If we can make trying out for a school more equitable why can’t it apply to sports teams?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What exactly is involved in a "residency check?"

Many schools across the country do this.

You bring in a current copy of a utility bill, car tax statement, personal property tax statement, mortgage statement, or signed current lease to the office when you register your kid in FCPS. The address must be located within the school zone and have one parent or guardian's name on it.

A residency check would require parents do this each year, or the year before any rezoning is implemented.

Addresses that do not match must return to their zoned school.

Grandma's address does not work unless she is the legal guardian.

All of my kids knew of several kids attending our high school (one discussed extensively on this thread as a rezoning target) who lived in houses zoned for neighboring schools. One of my kid's friends moved during middle school from their small townhouse in zone, to a very big, nice, newer house zoned for one of the low performing schools discusses in this thread.

Their family moved in 7th grade. The kid graduated with my kid. The kid spend 8th-12th grade attending our school instead of their zoned middle and high school.

Another one of my kids friends moved at the end of elementary school from a nice house in our neighborhood to a huge house zoned for a nearby high school discussed on this thread as a good school with lower enrollment.

That family used a family member's address to stay in our middle and high school for all of 7th through 12th grade graduation. They used this address even after the house was sold to a family with kids.

Every school year my kids end up at a team party or social event at a house not zoned for our high school. Different kids, different grades, different families.

They are able to do this because FCPS only checks residency 1 time.

You could easily register your kid in kindergarten at one address, move to another pyramid in 1st grade, and stay in the original pyramid through high school graduation by not changing your address. I am sure there are plenty of families that do this, especially for middle and high school.

Perhaps the problem is not as big as it seems to me, but I think it is far bigger than FCPS wants to admit.

If they are going to rezone our high school, then they owe it to the families to 1) use accurate numbers, not inflated projections, to justify the rezoning and 2) do a full residency check prior to rezoning so affected families and the district are certain that the school is overcrowded with residents, and not falsely inflated by kids who are zoned to other high schools.

You can require proof of residency to enroll a kid. Once enrolled, it gets a lot more questionable especially if they don't have a plan for what happens if the parents don't bring documents. Regardless of whether or not the parents provide anything, the kid is already enrolled and entitled to a public education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can we see the proposed boundary changes or is everything just speculation for now?

I have a kid at Langley and he said his friends from Great Falls may have to switch schools. I have heard about rezoning for years. These kids are smart and motivated. I don’t know how these smart kids would help the struggling kids at Herndon. On paper, the school would look better but all you are doing is moving smart white and Asian kids to Herndon. I actually think more parents would either move or switch to private before switching to Herndon. I know I would.

OMG. Herndon doesn’t care if those so-called superior kids come or not on the basis of their socio-economic basis. They don’t care if they come at all. They just want the government to make decisions without being bullied by the top 1-3% of households with high income in FCPS to do what is just in their best interest.

+1000. I helped pay for Herndon’s expansion so I expect kids who live two miles from Herndon and 10 miles from Langley to attend Herndon. Period.

They can be re-zoned there, sure. But there are already kids who live 2 miles from Herndon, are currently zoned to that school, and don’t attend.

There are also kids who live two miles from Langley who attend other schools, including Marshall and Potomac. We can’t always force kids to attend the public schools in their area, but we can at least have boundaries that aren’t obviously gerrymandered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What exactly is involved in a "residency check?"

Many schools across the country do this.

You bring in a current copy of a utility bill, car tax statement, personal property tax statement, mortgage statement, or signed current lease to the office when you register your kid in FCPS. The address must be located within the school zone and have one parent or guardian's name on it.

I think before you disrupt an entire county it seems like a logical thing to do. Not that hard to bring in a license or deed or utility bill. At a minimum it should be require when you switch to middle and high.

A residency check would require parents do this each year, or the year before any rezoning is implemented.

Addresses that do not match must return to their zoned school.

Grandma's address does not work unless she is the legal guardian.

All of my kids knew of several kids attending our high school (one discussed extensively on this thread as a rezoning target) who lived in houses zoned for neighboring schools. One of my kid's friends moved during middle school from their small townhouse in zone, to a very big, nice, newer house zoned for one of the low performing schools discusses in this thread.

Their family moved in 7th grade. The kid graduated with my kid. The kid spend 8th-12th grade attending our school instead of their zoned middle and high school.

Another one of my kids friends moved at the end of elementary school from a nice house in our neighborhood to a huge house zoned for a nearby high school discussed on this thread as a good school with lower enrollment.

That family used a family member's address to stay in our middle and high school for all of 7th through 12th grade graduation. They used this address even after the house was sold to a family with kids.

Every school year my kids end up at a team party or social event at a house not zoned for our high school. Different kids, different grades, different families.

They are able to do this because FCPS only checks residency 1 time.

You could easily register your kid in kindergarten at one address, move to another pyramid in 1st grade, and stay in the original pyramid through high school graduation by not changing your address. I am sure there are plenty of families that do this, especially for middle and high school.

Perhaps the problem is not as big as it seems to me, but I think it is far bigger than FCPS wants to admit.

If they are going to rezone our high school, then they owe it to the families to 1) use accurate numbers, not inflated projections, to justify the rezoning and 2) do a full residency check prior to rezoning so affected families and the district are certain that the school is overcrowded with residents, and not falsely inflated by kids who are zoned to other high schools.

You can require proof of residency to enroll a kid. Once enrolled, it gets a lot more questionable especially if they don't have a plan for what happens if the parents don't bring documents. Regardless of whether or not the parents provide anything, the kid is already enrolled and entitled to a public education.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think my post loaded. At a minimum there should be checks when you enter a new school (middle or high). Doing residency checks may alleviate a portion of the over crowding. And cause less disruptions to the kids they plan to move. How over crowded are the schools with kids who actually live in the boundary? Seems like a logical first step. They can do it during this “gathering data” phase

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think my post loaded. At a minimum there should be checks when you enter a new school (middle or high). Doing residency checks may alleviate a portion of the over crowding. And cause less disruptions to the kids they plan to move. How over crowded are the schools with kids who actually live in the boundary? Seems like a logical first step. They can do it during this “gathering data” phase

If the auditing was done it would show that residency fraud and transfers from within the Lewis boundary make up approximately 10% of the WSHS population. This number will increase as those affected by boundary changes ask their community friends to create fake leases renting basements, or paying for the water or trash bill, or something else that suffices for school enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think my post loaded. At a minimum there should be checks when you enter a new school (middle or high). Doing residency checks may alleviate a portion of the over crowding. And cause less disruptions to the kids they plan to move. How over crowded are the schools with kids who actually live in the boundary? Seems like a logical first step. They can do it during this “gathering data” phase

If the auditing was done it would show that residency fraud and transfers from within the Lewis boundary make up approximately 10% of the WSHS population. This number will increase as those affected by boundary changes ask their community friends to create fake leases renting basements, or paying for the water or trash bill, or something else that suffices for school enrollment.

When the system rewards those who do the wrong thing, it incentivizes more to do the wrong thing, and the system eventually breaks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can we see the proposed boundary changes or is everything just speculation for now?

I have a kid at Langley and he said his friends from Great Falls may have to switch schools. I have heard about rezoning for years. These kids are smart and motivated. I don’t know how these smart kids would help the struggling kids at Herndon. On paper, the school would look better but all you are doing is moving smart white and Asian kids to Herndon. I actually think more parents would either move or switch to private before switching to Herndon. I know I would.

OMG. Herndon doesn’t care if those so-called superior kids come or not on the basis of their socio-economic basis. They don’t care if they come at all. They just want the government to make decisions without being bullied by the top 1-3% of households with high income in FCPS to do what is just in their best interest.

+1000. I helped pay for Herndon’s expansion so I expect kids who live two miles from Herndon and 10 miles from Langley to attend Herndon. Period.

They can be re-zoned there, sure. But there are already kids who live 2 miles from Herndon, are currently zoned to that school, and don’t attend.

There are also kids who live two miles from Langley who attend other schools, including Marshall and Potomac. We can’t always force kids to attend the public schools in their area, but we can at least have boundaries that aren’t obviously gerrymandered.

I’m with you. Clean up 🧹 the boundaries and motivate more parents to get their children out of FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can we see the proposed boundary changes or is everything just speculation for now?

I have a kid at Langley and he said his friends from Great Falls may have to switch schools. I have heard about rezoning for years. These kids are smart and motivated. I don’t know how these smart kids would help the struggling kids at Herndon. On paper, the school would look better but all you are doing is moving smart white and Asian kids to Herndon. I actually think more parents would either move or switch to private before switching to Herndon. I know I would.

OMG. Herndon doesn’t care if those so-called superior kids come or not on the basis of their socio-economic basis. They don’t care if they come at all. They just want the government to make decisions without being bullied by the top 1-3% of households with high income in FCPS to do what is just in their best interest.

+1000. I helped pay for Herndon’s expansion so I expect kids who live two miles from Herndon and 10 miles from Langley to attend Herndon. Period.

They can be re-zoned there, sure. But there are already kids who live 2 miles from Herndon, are currently zoned to that school, and don’t attend.

There are also kids who live two miles from Langley who attend other schools, including Marshall and Potomac. We can’t always force kids to attend the public schools in their area, but we can at least have boundaries that aren’t obviously gerrymandered.

I’m with you. Clean up 🧹 the boundaries and motivate more parents to get their children out of FCPS.

If being zoned to the schools their kids should attend leads Great Falls parents to exit FCPS, good riddance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can we see the proposed boundary changes or is everything just speculation for now?

I have a kid at Langley and he said his friends from Great Falls may have to switch schools. I have heard about rezoning for years. These kids are smart and motivated. I don’t know how these smart kids would help the struggling kids at Herndon. On paper, the school would look better but all you are doing is moving smart white and Asian kids to Herndon. I actually think more parents would either move or switch to private before switching to Herndon. I know I would.

OMG. Herndon doesn’t care if those so-called superior kids come or not on the basis of their socio-economic basis. They don’t care if they come at all. They just want the government to make decisions without being bullied by the top 1-3% of households with high income in FCPS to do what is just in their best interest.

+1000. I helped pay for Herndon’s expansion so I expect kids who live two miles from Herndon and 10 miles from Langley to attend Herndon. Period.

They can be re-zoned there, sure. But there are already kids who live 2 miles from Herndon, are currently zoned to that school, and don’t attend.

There are also kids who live two miles from Langley who attend other schools, including Marshall and Potomac. We can’t always force kids to attend the public schools in their area, but we can at least have boundaries that aren’t obviously gerrymandered.

I’m with you. Clean up 🧹 the boundaries and motivate more parents to get their children out of FCPS.

If being zoned to the schools their kids should attend leads Great Falls parents to exit FCPS, good riddance.

What an incredible hatred you have for your neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can we see the proposed boundary changes or is everything just speculation for now?

I have a kid at Langley and he said his friends from Great Falls may have to switch schools. I have heard about rezoning for years. These kids are smart and motivated. I don’t know how these smart kids would help the struggling kids at Herndon. On paper, the school would look better but all you are doing is moving smart white and Asian kids to Herndon. I actually think more parents would either move or switch to private before switching to Herndon. I know I would.

OMG. Herndon doesn’t care if those so-called superior kids come or not on the basis of their socio-economic basis. They don’t care if they come at all. They just want the government to make decisions without being bullied by the top 1-3% of households with high income in FCPS to do what is just in their best interest.

+1000. I helped pay for Herndon’s expansion so I expect kids who live two miles from Herndon and 10 miles from Langley to attend Herndon. Period.

They can be re-zoned there, sure. But there are already kids who live 2 miles from Herndon, are currently zoned to that school, and don’t attend.

There are also kids who live two miles from Langley who attend other schools, including Marshall and Potomac. We can’t always force kids to attend the public schools in their area, but we can at least have boundaries that aren’t obviously gerrymandered.

I’m with you. Clean up 🧹 the boundaries and motivate more parents to get their children out of FCPS.

If being zoned to the schools their kids should attend leads Great Falls parents to exit FCPS, good riddance.

+1. Herndon mom here. We don’t need disgruntled former Langley families complaining about being forced to move to FARMS school. Please go private, but continue paying those Fairfax taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What exactly is involved in a "residency check?"

Many schools across the country do this.

You bring in a current copy of a utility bill, car tax statement, personal property tax statement, mortgage statement, or signed current lease to the office when you register your kid in FCPS. The address must be located within the school zone and have one parent or guardian's name on it.

A residency check would require parents do this each year, or the year before any rezoning is implemented.

Addresses that do not match must return to their zoned school.

Grandma's address does not work unless she is the legal guardian.

All of my kids knew of several kids attending our high school (one discussed extensively on this thread as a rezoning target) who lived in houses zoned for neighboring schools. One of my kid's friends moved during middle school from their small townhouse in zone, to a very big, nice, newer house zoned for one of the low performing schools discusses in this thread.

Their family moved in 7th grade. The kid graduated with my kid. The kid spend 8th-12th grade attending our school instead of their zoned middle and high school.

Another one of my kids friends moved at the end of elementary school from a nice house in our neighborhood to a huge house zoned for a nearby high school discussed on this thread as a good school with lower enrollment.

That family used a family member's address to stay in our middle and high school for all of 7th through 12th grade graduation. They used this address even after the house was sold to a family with kids.

Every school year my kids end up at a team party or social event at a house not zoned for our high school. Different kids, different grades, different families.

They are able to do this because FCPS only checks residency 1 time.

You could easily register your kid in kindergarten at one address, move to another pyramid in 1st grade, and stay in the original pyramid through high school graduation by not changing your address. I am sure there are plenty of families that do this, especially for middle and high school.

Perhaps the problem is not as big as it seems to me, but I think it is far bigger than FCPS wants to admit.

If they are going to rezone our high school, then they owe it to the families to 1) use accurate numbers, not inflated projections, to justify the rezoning and 2) do a full residency check prior to rezoning so affected families and the district are certain that the school is overcrowded with residents, and not falsely inflated by kids who are zoned to other high schools.

You can require proof of residency to enroll a kid. Once enrolled, it gets a lot more questionable especially if they don't have a plan for what happens if the parents don't bring documents. Regardless of whether or not the parents provide anything, the kid is already enrolled and entitled to a public education.

They could reassign the student to another school that has a lower enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think my post loaded. At a minimum there should be checks when you enter a new school (middle or high). Doing residency checks may alleviate a portion of the over crowding. And cause less disruptions to the kids they plan to move. How over crowded are the schools with kids who actually live in the boundary? Seems like a logical first step. They can do it during this “gathering data” phase

If the auditing was done it would show that residency fraud and transfers from within the Lewis boundary make up approximately 10% of the WSHS population. This number will increase as those affected by boundary changes ask their community friends to create fake leases renting basements, or paying for the water or trash bill, or something else that suffices for school enrollment.

That’s the catch 22. Do you perform residency checks and catch the families currently zoned for Herndon and Lewis who are pretending they live elsewhere, which likely negates the whole need for redistricting? Or do you allow liberal residency, which allows people to target a different school for $2,000/$2,500 per year via an empty rental?

The school board seems unlikely to choose the former over the latter. At least that’s how I would read it if I wanted to avoid a direct impact on my kids from redistricting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What exactly is involved in a "residency check?"

Many schools across the country do this.

You bring in a current copy of a utility bill, car tax statement, personal property tax statement, mortgage statement, or signed current lease to the office when you register your kid in FCPS. The address must be located within the school zone and have one parent or guardian's name on it.

A residency check would require parents do this each year, or the year before any rezoning is implemented.

Addresses that do not match must return to their zoned school.

Grandma's address does not work unless she is the legal guardian.

All of my kids knew of several kids attending our high school (one discussed extensively on this thread as a rezoning target) who lived in houses zoned for neighboring schools. One of my kid's friends moved during middle school from their small townhouse in zone, to a very big, nice, newer house zoned for one of the low performing schools discusses in this thread.

Their family moved in 7th grade. The kid graduated with my kid. The kid spend 8th-12th grade attending our school instead of their zoned middle and high school.

Another one of my kids friends moved at the end of elementary school from a nice house in our neighborhood to a huge house zoned for a nearby high school discussed on this thread as a good school with lower enrollment.

That family used a family member's address to stay in our middle and high school for all of 7th through 12th grade graduation. They used this address even after the house was sold to a family with kids.

Every school year my kids end up at a team party or social event at a house not zoned for our high school. Different kids, different grades, different families.

They are able to do this because FCPS only checks residency 1 time.

You could easily register your kid in kindergarten at one address, move to another pyramid in 1st grade, and stay in the original pyramid through high school graduation by not changing your address. I am sure there are plenty of families that do this, especially for middle and high school.

Perhaps the problem is not as big as it seems to me, but I think it is far bigger than FCPS wants to admit.

If they are going to rezone our high school, then they owe it to the families to 1) use accurate numbers, not inflated projections, to justify the rezoning and 2) do a full residency check prior to rezoning so affected families and the district are certain that the school is overcrowded with residents, and not falsely inflated by kids who are zoned to other high schools.

You can require proof of residency to enroll a kid. Once enrolled, it gets a lot more questionable especially if they don't have a plan for what happens if the parents don't bring documents. Regardless of whether or not the parents provide anything, the kid is already enrolled and entitled to a public education.

They could reassign the student to another school that has a lower enrollment.

In what policy is that allowed? And they would have to send a one off bus for that student.

Keep dreaming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can we see the proposed boundary changes or is everything just speculation for now?

I have a kid at Langley and he said his friends from Great Falls may have to switch schools. I have heard about rezoning for years. These kids are smart and motivated. I don’t know how these smart kids would help the struggling kids at Herndon. On paper, the school would look better but all you are doing is moving smart white and Asian kids to Herndon. I actually think more parents would either move or switch to private before switching to Herndon. I know I would.

OMG. Herndon doesn’t care if those so-called superior kids come or not on the basis of their socio-economic basis. They don’t care if they come at all. They just want the government to make decisions without being bullied by the top 1-3% of households with high income in FCPS to do what is just in their best interest.

+1000. I helped pay for Herndon’s expansion so I expect kids who live two miles from Herndon and 10 miles from Langley to attend Herndon. Period.

They can be re-zoned there, sure. But there are already kids who live 2 miles from Herndon, are currently zoned to that school, and don’t attend.

There are also kids who live two miles from Langley who attend other schools, including Marshall and Potomac. We can’t always force kids to attend the public schools in their area, but we can at least have boundaries that aren’t obviously gerrymandered.

I’m with you. Clean up 🧹 the boundaries and motivate more parents to get their children out of FCPS.

If being zoned to the schools their kids should attend leads Great Falls parents to exit FCPS, good riddance.

+1. Herndon mom here. We don’t need disgruntled former Langley families complaining about being forced to move to FARMS school. Please go private, but continue paying those Fairfax taxes.

You don’t realize that you’re the problem, not your kids. You’re lazy and happy to take other people’s resources.

You keep saying you don’t need us, then make comments like this saying the exact opposite. Do you depend on us or do you want nothing to do with us?