FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

West Potomac has the capacity to pick up some Edison kids, but Sandburg does not. Lewis gets all the attention, but Mount Vernon is currently sitting at 1800 students. The transfers out has increased by 100 students in the last 2 years, with 200 students transferring to Hayfield alone.

Is there any way to get the reasons for the transfers? Fort Belvoir? AP? Foreign language?

They all fall under “Student Transfer Regulation” which covers military, AP/IB curriculum, and foreign language (as well as a few other criteria.)

I wonder if it is possible to FOIA the reasons given? That would be very interesting.

And, one needs to ask--why do people want out? Doubtful there are 200 high school kids from Belvoir. My guess would be well south of 100.

There are almost 1500 elementary aged kids between Fort Belvoir Primary and Upper ES. Half the base population is under 18.

I taught in DOD schools. The child dependent population drops dramatically when the kids reach high school. It generally drops every grade. For example, I taught in a school with 6 first grades and 3 6th grades. And, the class size of the 6th grades was lower than that of the 1st grades. And, the high school was very small. I would expect the same at Fort Belvoir.

For example: there are 223 first graders and 148 sixth graders at Fort Belvoir schools.
The parents start retiring when the kids get older. Remember, military can retire at 20 years of service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

West Potomac has the capacity to pick up some Edison kids, but Sandburg does not. Lewis gets all the attention, but Mount Vernon is currently sitting at 1800 students. The transfers out has increased by 100 students in the last 2 years, with 200 students transferring to Hayfield alone.

Is there any way to get the reasons for the transfers? Fort Belvoir? AP? Foreign language?

They all fall under “Student Transfer Regulation” which covers military, AP/IB curriculum, and foreign language (as well as a few other criteria.)

I wonder if it is possible to FOIA the reasons given? That would be very interesting.

And, one needs to ask--why do people want out? Doubtful there are 200 high school kids from Belvoir. My guess would be well south of 100.

There are almost 1500 elementary aged kids between Fort Belvoir Primary and Upper ES. Half the base population is under 18.

I taught in DOD schools. The child dependent population drops dramatically when the kids reach high school. It generally drops every grade. For example, I taught in a school with 6 first grades and 3 6th grades. And, the class size of the 6th grades was lower than that of the 1st grades. And, the high school was very small. I would expect the same at Fort Belvoir.

For example: there are 223 first graders and 148 sixth graders at Fort Belvoir schools.
The parents start retiring when the kids get older. Remember, military can retire at 20 years of service.

Sure, there’s a major decline from 5 year olds to 15 year olds, but census data has around 600 high school aged kids listed. 100 kids transfer from Whitman to Hayfield when it isn’t even their AAP center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

West Potomac has the capacity to pick up some Edison kids, but Sandburg does not. Lewis gets all the attention, but Mount Vernon is currently sitting at 1800 students. The transfers out has increased by 100 students in the last 2 years, with 200 students transferring to Hayfield alone.

Is there any way to get the reasons for the transfers? Fort Belvoir? AP? Foreign language?

They all fall under “Student Transfer Regulation” which covers military, AP/IB curriculum, and foreign language (as well as a few other criteria.)

There aren't very many military high school students on Fort Belvoir. A few dozen maybe.

[Anonymous]

Sure, there’s a major decline from 5 year olds to 15 year olds, but census data has around 600 high school aged kids listed. 100 kids transfer from Whitman to Hayfield when it isn’t even their AAP center.

I don't think that census data refers to those actually living on Fort Belvoir. There are around 1800 family units living on Fort Belvoir. I guarantee you that there are not 600 high school aged kids. I'm with the earlier PP who said a few dozen.

Where are you getting the census data?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Sure, there’s a major decline from 5 year olds to 15 year olds, but census data has around 600 high school aged kids listed. 100 kids transfer from Whitman to Hayfield when it isn’t even their AAP center.

I don't think that census data refers to those actually living on Fort Belvoir. There are around 1800 family units living on Fort Belvoir. I guarantee you that there are not 600 high school aged kids. I'm with the earlier PP who said a few dozen.

Where are you getting the census data?

Under 18 also includes an awful lot of enlisted privates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Sure, there’s a major decline from 5 year olds to 15 year olds, but census data has around 600 high school aged kids listed. 100 kids transfer from Whitman to Hayfield when it isn’t even their AAP center.

I don't think that census data refers to those actually living on Fort Belvoir. There are around 1800 family units living on Fort Belvoir. I guarantee you that there are not 600 high school aged kids. I'm with the earlier PP who said a few dozen.

Where are you getting the census data?

World Population Review. I’m not sure how accurate it is. Hayfield is only over capacity due to this influx of Mount Vernon transfers which started around COVID. Do they offer a program not offered at West Potomac or South County? It seems odd they’re not shutting transfers down unless they’re military (or they could all be on the football team, I suppose.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sure, there’s a major decline from 5 year olds to 15 year olds, but census data has around 600 high school aged kids listed. 100 kids transfer from Whitman to Hayfield when it isn’t even their AAP center.

I don't think that census data refers to those actually living on Fort Belvoir. There are around 1800 family units living on Fort Belvoir. I guarantee you that there are not 600 high school aged kids. I'm with the earlier PP who said a few dozen.

Where are you getting the census data?

World Population Review. I’m not sure how accurate it is. Hayfield is only over capacity due to this influx of Mount Vernon transfers which started around COVID. Do they offer a program not offered at West Potomac or South County? It seems odd they’re not shutting transfers down unless they’re military (or they could all be on the football team, I suppose.)

There are not 600 high schoolers on Fort Belvoir.

There might, however, be a couple hundred or more 18 year old junior enlisted included in those figures.

[Anonymous]

I know this is all speculation at this point but I'm wondering if anyone has heard rumors about what is happening in Great Falls with the boundary changes. I understand its fairly official that Forrestville is going to Herndon. I had heard that anything west of Springvale was potentially "on the chopping block" to get rezoned as well. Just recently a friend who is east of Springvale (but pretty darn close) told me they would stay away from anything west of River Bend if you are worried about the rezoning. We are a current Langley pyramid family in the process of moving (for reasons unrelated to the boundary change). We are looking at a home that is between River Bend and Springvale but don't want to risk rezoning if we can help it as our kids are happy with current schools.
Has anyone heard more details about what may happen in that area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sure, there’s a major decline from 5 year olds to 15 year olds, but census data has around 600 high school aged kids listed. 100 kids transfer from Whitman to Hayfield when it isn’t even their AAP center.

I don't think that census data refers to those actually living on Fort Belvoir. There are around 1800 family units living on Fort Belvoir. I guarantee you that there are not 600 high school aged kids. I'm with the earlier PP who said a few dozen.

Where are you getting the census data?

World Population Review. I’m not sure how accurate it is. Hayfield is only over capacity due to this influx of Mount Vernon transfers which started around COVID. Do they offer a program not offered at West Potomac or South County? It seems odd they’re not shutting transfers down unless they’re military (or they could all be on the football team, I suppose.)

West Potomac was/is closed to transfers. It's been "closed" since around 2015 but Principal Alex Case, who was fired in the spring of 2017, allowed MVHS students in. A significant number of UMC students in Mount Vernon used to go to WP. My neighborhood, which is walking distance to MVHS, had more WP stickers on cars than MVHS stickers. Tangy Millard replaced Alex Case in 2017 and she completely shut down the transfers. The only students I know who were still able to transfer into WP were faculty/staff children who did not live in WP boundaries.

Starting in 2018, if a MVHS student wanted AP, they were sent to Hayfield. Tangy Millard left WP at the end of 2023 and I've heard of a couple of MVHS transferring to WP - I'm not sure how they are getting in. FCPS is still reporting that WP is closed to transfers.

With the addition to WP, the CIP shows that WP has space but Hayfield is over 100%. I'm surprised that Hayfield is still allowing transfers. Maybe they will close and South County will be the AP option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this is all speculation at this point but I'm wondering if anyone has heard rumors about what is happening in Great Falls with the boundary changes. I understand its fairly official that Forrestville is going to Herndon. I had heard that anything west of Springvale was potentially "on the chopping block" to get rezoned as well. Just recently a friend who is east of Springvale (but pretty darn close) told me they would stay away from anything west of River Bend if you are worried about the rezoning. We are a current Langley pyramid family in the process of moving (for reasons unrelated to the boundary change). We are looking at a home that is between River Bend and Springvale but don't want to risk rezoning if we can help it as our kids are happy with current schools.
Has anyone heard more details about what may happen in that area?

“fairly official” is certainly not accurate, much as some frequent posters wish it were.

The Great Falls community is a tight-knit small community and most families want their kids to go to school with the other kids in the great falls community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this is all speculation at this point but I'm wondering if anyone has heard rumors about what is happening in Great Falls with the boundary changes. I understand its fairly official that Forrestville is going to Herndon. I had heard that anything west of Springvale was potentially "on the chopping block" to get rezoned as well. Just recently a friend who is east of Springvale (but pretty darn close) told me they would stay away from anything west of River Bend if you are worried about the rezoning. We are a current Langley pyramid family in the process of moving (for reasons unrelated to the boundary change). We are looking at a home that is between River Bend and Springvale but don't want to risk rezoning if we can help it as our kids are happy with current schools.
Has anyone heard more details about what may happen in that area?

Everything is purely speculative. Wait until the Spring after they’ve released drafts of proposed changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is all speculation at this point but I'm wondering if anyone has heard rumors about what is happening in Great Falls with the boundary changes. I understand its fairly official that Forrestville is going to Herndon. I had heard that anything west of Springvale was potentially "on the chopping block" to get rezoned as well. Just recently a friend who is east of Springvale (but pretty darn close) told me they would stay away from anything west of River Bend if you are worried about the rezoning. We are a current Langley pyramid family in the process of moving (for reasons unrelated to the boundary change). We are looking at a home that is between River Bend and Springvale but don't want to risk rezoning if we can help it as our kids are happy with current schools.
Has anyone heard more details about what may happen in that area?

Everything is purely speculative. Wait until the Spring after they’ve released drafts of proposed changes.

I thought that drafts were coming out in June? That's what Rachna said in her newsletter.

"The tentative timeline is as follows:

- First round of draft scenarios by June, followed by additional public input on those draft scenarios.
- The consultant will then create updated draft scenarios taking into account that public input in the fall/early winter of 2025. These would be made publicly available."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this is all speculation at this point but I'm wondering if anyone has heard rumors about what is happening in Great Falls with the boundary changes. I understand its fairly official that Forrestville is going to Herndon. I had heard that anything west of Springvale was potentially "on the chopping block" to get rezoned as well. Just recently a friend who is east of Springvale (but pretty darn close) told me they would stay away from anything west of River Bend if you are worried about the rezoning. We are a current Langley pyramid family in the process of moving (for reasons unrelated to the boundary change). We are looking at a home that is between River Bend and Springvale but don't want to risk rezoning if we can help it as our kids are happy with current schools.
Has anyone heard more details about what may happen in that area?

No one really knows. Great Falls west of Springvale went to Herndon for many years until it moved to Langley in the mid-90s when Herndon was overcrowded and Langley had space.

With McLean’s overcrowding and Herndon’s expansion it’s quite possible they could send west of Springvale to Herndon again, or reassign Forestville (the western-most of the Langley feeders) to Herndon. It’s also possible they could move other kids to Herndon or out of McLean, or just move a piece of Forestville on the other side of Route 7 to Herndon, or leave the HS boundaries alone this round and focus more on ES boundaries, which would be less controversial.

So it all depends on your timetable and risk tolerance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is all speculation at this point but I'm wondering if anyone has heard rumors about what is happening in Great Falls with the boundary changes. I understand its fairly official that Forrestville is going to Herndon. I had heard that anything west of Springvale was potentially "on the chopping block" to get rezoned as well. Just recently a friend who is east of Springvale (but pretty darn close) told me they would stay away from anything west of River Bend if you are worried about the rezoning. We are a current Langley pyramid family in the process of moving (for reasons unrelated to the boundary change). We are looking at a home that is between River Bend and Springvale but don't want to risk rezoning if we can help it as our kids are happy with current schools.
Has anyone heard more details about what may happen in that area?

Everything is purely speculative. Wait until the Spring after they’ve released drafts of proposed changes.

I thought that drafts were coming out in June? That's what Rachna said in her newsletter.

"The tentative timeline is as follows:

- First round of draft scenarios by June, followed by additional public input on those draft scenarios.
- The consultant will then create updated draft scenarios taking into account that public input in the fall/early winter of 2025. These would be made publicly available."

I’ve heard anywhere from March to May cited for potential draft releases. The slides for the review process have phase 1 ending in Spring 2025 and engagement meetings starting in Summer 2025. It wouldn’t be shocking if the schedule slid, and also, in my defense, most of June is in the spring.

[Anonymous]

There is a rumor going around that Delegate Laura Jane Cohen (former FCPS Board member) is attempting to provide state health funds to convert older FCPS facilities into drug rehab centers. Plan is to have 1500 treatment beds by the end of 2025. Apparently that way Medicaid/treatment funds could cover the costs of maintaining the old buildings to free up funds for new construction. I get the desire to have more treatment centers…but putting them in school facilities in the middle of neighborhoods seems a little short sighted.