FCPS Boundary Review Updates

[Anonymous]

They shouldn’t be reassigning kids from AP schools to any IB schools, not just Lewis. It’s a niche program and no one who hasn’t specifically sought it out should be dumped into an IB school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The status quo isn't really working for Lewis, boundaries or academics. Yet nothing is being done. People on here talk about community, but Lewis really has no strong community. I would wager the neighborhoods that feed it have some of the highest private, homeschool, or pupil placement rates. Not a lot of Lewis graduate signs up right now.

And, some hope to improve it with a boundary adjustment.

The boundary adjustment is NOT the answer.

The School Board should look to improve Lewis. It is possible. They should not look to other students to improve it, but look to see what can be done to improve opportunities and instruction.
Is that not what a school is for?

I don't know the Lewis community. I live in another part of the county. But, I do remember when the Graham Road community wanted the school to stay put--because they had a community there. Instead the School Board "knew better" and moved them to a brand new school that requires walking along busy streets to get there.
And, now, I've read somewhere on this forum that the School Board wants to change that around and switch them to a different school. And, put another neighborhood in the new school.

How is that for creating community?

More students would be part of the answer for Lewis. It is now very different in size from its neighbors. They could start this by going back to AP and trying to reduce transfers. But the county also set up the STEM academy at Edison (another IB school) that is bleeding students away from Lewis. They also shrank the boundaries too much in 2005 and 2015.

It just seems that the county has undercut Lewis at every opportunity. It is almost like they want it to be a school only for poor, ESL students. Maybe that makes life easier for the staff at Lewis. Only concentrate on this group and let advanced students (or just native speakers) transfer out. Of course they could never say this. But they certainly have had ample time to address the problem and have done nothing.

If the majority of the school is lower income, english as a second language, shouldn't that allow the school system to focus on the unique needs of that student body population? How does bringing in high performing students help these kids? The only thing it does is mask the problem and raise average scores. It takes resources away from the existing population. Then everyone can pretend there is no problem.

This gets sticky legally. They can't intentionally segregate the poor ESL students into a separate high school (or acknowledge that they are doing this). Lewis is zoned as a regular high school just like 23 other regular high schools in the county. There are still native English speakers (American born) zoned to the pyramid but as the years go by Lewis is less and less capable of serving those students - forcing them to transfer and provide their own transportation. But that is where it becomes a legal problem. Why should those students have to go out of their way to seek an education equal (or closer to) to that at WS or other surrounding schools?

Bringing in high performing students would help the current high performing students whether they are ESL or not. Maybe Lewis would keep more of these advanced students. As it is now, many just bail. And then the remaining advanced students have fewer advanced classes or instances of those classes (less schedule flexibility) to choose from.

The bottom line is that FCPS has a problem on its hands with Lewis. It is not resembling the other FCPS schools.

The fairest way to bring 250 high performing students into Lewis is to het rid of IB so 250 students aren't transferring yo other schools each year, NOT bussing in other kids from far off neighborhoods to fill the spots of kids who actually live within the Lewis zone.

That problem needs to be fixed with the kids whose parents bought homes zoned for Lewis, not through bussing based on national origin.

Can you convince them to drop IB? And stop the transfers to the Edison STEM academy? Or for languages since Lewis only seems to be offering Spanish and Arabic (based on their World Languages page)? So it is a bit of a chicken and egg problem. The courses need to be there to get the kids back to Lewis - otherwise the students should be allowed to leave. In a county system the people who purchased houses (recently or many years ago) have every right to expect that their zoned high school provides an education similar to its neighbors.

Right now the kids who really get screwed are the advanced kids who can't provide their own transportation to surrounding schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The status quo isn't really working for Lewis, boundaries or academics. Yet nothing is being done. People on here talk about community, but Lewis really has no strong community. I would wager the neighborhoods that feed it have some of the highest private, homeschool, or pupil placement rates. Not a lot of Lewis graduate signs up right now.

And, some hope to improve it with a boundary adjustment.

The boundary adjustment is NOT the answer.

The School Board should look to improve Lewis. It is possible. They should not look to other students to improve it, but look to see what can be done to improve opportunities and instruction.
Is that not what a school is for?

I don't know the Lewis community. I live in another part of the county. But, I do remember when the Graham Road community wanted the school to stay put--because they had a community there. Instead the School Board "knew better" and moved them to a brand new school that requires walking along busy streets to get there.
And, now, I've read somewhere on this forum that the School Board wants to change that around and switch them to a different school. And, put another neighborhood in the new school.

How is that for creating community?

You're talking about the Graham Road/Timber Lane situation.

The "old" Graham Road ES mostly used to serve kids in the large, low-income Kingsley Commons community right next to the school.

The school was up for a renovation and, rather than renovate on a small plot, FCPS built a new school further away on Graham Road just south of Route 29. However, that site lay within the boundaries of Timber Lane ES, and they didn't want to change the boundaries. So for 13 years Kingsley Commons kids traveled to the "new" Graham Road school inside the Timber Lane attendance area.

Along comes Reid and Thru, and they decide that's a problem and the boundaries should be drawn so Graham Road lies within its attendance area. Sounds logical, but the solution involves moving the Kingsley Commons kids to Timber Lane, which is even further away than "new" Graham Road, and then changing Timber Lane's boundaries so that some of the Timber Lane kids north of Route 29 go to Shrevewood and the Timber Lane kids south of Route 29 flip to Graham Road, while Timber Lane south of Routh 29 is redrawn to pick up kids currently at Pine Spring and Graham Road.

Add to this the fact that Timber Lane north of Route 29 currently goes to McLean and Timber Lane south of Route 29 goes to Falls Church. Thru has proposed to move the area north of Route 29 to Falls Church, apparently to justify their expansion of Falls Church, and those Timber Lane families aren't happy about that. And then the Timber Lane families south of Route 29 feel like they're being disrespected, but they're all being moved to Graham Road anyway, so whatever "community" exists currently at Timber Lane is apparently going to be upended in any event.

It's kind of a mess.

You forgot to mention that the neighborhood (Jefferson Village/Greenway downs) between 50/29 and Annandale and Graham Rd. Currently go to 4 different elementary schools and 2 different MS and HS.
For the sake of economic diversity in schools, kids in this neighborhood go to Timber Lane, Pine Spring, Graham and then there is a small pocket in the corner that go to Beech Tree followed by Justice HS. Talk about a terrible plan that splits up a community. New plan does send them all to Graham.

As far as I was aware all of Greenway Downs went to Falls Church. I knew Jefferson Village splits to Falls Church and Justice. There was a proposal in 2011 to move the rest of Jefferson Village to Beech Tree/Glasgow/Stuart (now Justice) and Patty Reed, who represented Providence at the time, got the School Board to exclude that proposal and retain the Pine Spring attendance island at Jackson/Falls Church. I assume the area wanted to stay at Pine Spring/Jackson/Falls Church. Now they are proposing to move that island from Pine Spring to Westlawn.

Moving that section from pine spring to westlawn makes no sense as it would mean Graham is at 85% and westlawn is 105%. Of course that could change as it’s based on current enrollment.

[Anonymous]

A PP said that Rolling Valley is down to 2 classes per grade in many grades, and I just want to point out that that isn’t true at all. There are 3-4 classes in each grade this year. Many of them with quite large classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A PP said that Rolling Valley is down to 2 classes per grade in many grades, and I just want to point out that that isn’t true at all. There are 3-4 classes in each grade this year. Many of them with quite large classes.

Yeah, I’m not sure where the comments about RVES being under capacity are coming from. It’s at 99% capacity in the dashboard and Saratoga is at 76 or 78%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A PP said that Rolling Valley is down to 2 classes per grade in many grades, and I just want to point out that that isn’t true at all. There are 3-4 classes in each grade this year. Many of them with quite large classes.

Yeah, I’m not sure where the comments about RVES being under capacity are coming from. It’s at 99% capacity in the dashboard and Saratoga is at 76 or 78%.

Rolling Valley and West Springfield Elementary are both pretty small buildings. They are a much smaller footprint than Orange Hunt, Sangster and Hunt Valley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A PP said that Rolling Valley is down to 2 classes per grade in many grades, and I just want to point out that that isn’t true at all. There are 3-4 classes in each grade this year. Many of them with quite large classes.

Pretty sure at Rolling Valley both kindergarten and 4th grade has only 2 classes this year and maybe 1st as well? The program capacity number is large because the special ed and autism classrooms use a lot of building space for a few number of kids. Only to say that moving out the kids to Saratoga will have a pretty big impact, even though it's only about a dozen kids per grade. But maybe Thru thought that would free up space at RV for Orange Hunt or Cardinal Forest to move some kids to RV down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A PP said that Rolling Valley is down to 2 classes per grade in many grades, and I just want to point out that that isn’t true at all. There are 3-4 classes in each grade this year. Many of them with quite large classes.

Pretty sure at Rolling Valley both kindergarten and 4th grade has only 2 classes this year and maybe 1st as well? The program capacity number is large because the special ed and autism classrooms use a lot of building space for a few number of kids. Only to say that moving out the kids to Saratoga will have a pretty big impact, even though it's only about a dozen kids per grade. But maybe Thru thought that would free up space at RV for Orange Hunt or Cardinal Forest to move some kids to RV down the road.

According to membership numbers there’s around 70-80 kids per grade at RVES, which usually translates to 3-4 classes per grade. The smallest grade is 3rd grade with 65.

I guess every school varies, but at our elementary, grades with 60 kids have been split between 3 classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A PP said that Rolling Valley is down to 2 classes per grade in many grades, and I just want to point out that that isn’t true at all. There are 3-4 classes in each grade this year. Many of them with quite large classes.

Pretty sure at Rolling Valley both kindergarten and 4th grade has only 2 classes this year and maybe 1st as well? The program capacity number is large because the special ed and autism classrooms use a lot of building space for a few number of kids. Only to say that moving out the kids to Saratoga will have a pretty big impact, even though it's only about a dozen kids per grade. But maybe Thru thought that would free up space at RV for Orange Hunt or Cardinal Forest to move some kids to RV down the road.

Cardinal Forest could move over some kids.

All of the elementary schools in that area are going to drop enrollment over the next few years. Even large Orange Hunt and Hunt Valley are getting significantly smaller. Both of those schools drop a full 30 students between the current 6th and 5th grade classes, then maintaining that smaller size in 4th and below.

That is why Thru using September 2025 enrollment, plus estimated projections to justify rezoning makes no sense. If they use the real membership numbers on the school dashboards, the enrollment drops significantly in a couple years. It does not grow by hundreds of kids as the CIP estimates show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The status quo isn't really working for Lewis, boundaries or academics. Yet nothing is being done. People on here talk about community, but Lewis really has no strong community. I would wager the neighborhoods that feed it have some of the highest private, homeschool, or pupil placement rates. Not a lot of Lewis graduate signs up right now.

And, some hope to improve it with a boundary adjustment.

The boundary adjustment is NOT the answer.

The School Board should look to improve Lewis. It is possible. They should not look to other students to improve it, but look to see what can be done to improve opportunities and instruction.
Is that not what a school is for?

I don't know the Lewis community. I live in another part of the county. But, I do remember when the Graham Road community wanted the school to stay put--because they had a community there. Instead the School Board "knew better" and moved them to a brand new school that requires walking along busy streets to get there.
And, now, I've read somewhere on this forum that the School Board wants to change that around and switch them to a different school. And, put another neighborhood in the new school.

How is that for creating community?

You're talking about the Graham Road/Timber Lane situation.

The "old" Graham Road ES mostly used to serve kids in the large, low-income Kingsley Commons community right next to the school.

The school was up for a renovation and, rather than renovate on a small plot, FCPS built a new school further away on Graham Road just south of Route 29. However, that site lay within the boundaries of Timber Lane ES, and they didn't want to change the boundaries. So for 13 years Kingsley Commons kids traveled to the "new" Graham Road school inside the Timber Lane attendance area.

Along comes Reid and Thru, and they decide that's a problem and the boundaries should be drawn so Graham Road lies within its attendance area. Sounds logical, but the solution involves moving the Kingsley Commons kids to Timber Lane, which is even further away than "new" Graham Road, and then changing Timber Lane's boundaries so that some of the Timber Lane kids north of Route 29 go to Shrevewood and the Timber Lane kids south of Route 29 flip to Graham Road, while Timber Lane south of Routh 29 is redrawn to pick up kids currently at Pine Spring and Graham Road.

Add to this the fact that Timber Lane north of Route 29 currently goes to McLean and Timber Lane south of Route 29 goes to Falls Church. Thru has proposed to move the area north of Route 29 to Falls Church, apparently to justify their expansion of Falls Church, and those Timber Lane families aren't happy about that. And then the Timber Lane families south of Route 29 feel like they're being disrespected, but they're all being moved to Graham Road anyway, so whatever "community" exists currently at Timber Lane is apparently going to be upended in any event.

It's kind of a mess.

You forgot to mention that the neighborhood (Jefferson Village/Greenway downs) between 50/29 and Annandale and Graham Rd. Currently go to 4 different elementary schools and 2 different MS and HS.
For the sake of economic diversity in schools, kids in this neighborhood go to Timber Lane, Pine Spring, Graham and then there is a small pocket in the corner that go to Beech Tree followed by Justice HS. Talk about a terrible plan that splits up a community. New plan does send them all to Graham.

As far as I was aware all of Greenway Downs went to Falls Church. I knew Jefferson Village splits to Falls Church and Justice. There was a proposal in 2011 to move the rest of Jefferson Village to Beech Tree/Glasgow/Stuart (now Justice) and Patty Reed, who represented Providence at the time, got the School Board to exclude that proposal and retain the Pine Spring attendance island at Jackson/Falls Church. I assume the area wanted to stay at Pine Spring/Jackson/Falls Church. Now they are proposing to move that island from Pine Spring to Westlawn.

Thru’s changes pretty much decimate the Falls Church ES communities between 29 and 50. Pine Spring, Graham Road, and Timber Lane will all look drastically different. Pine Spring loses most of its single family homes and becomes significantly higher FARMS. With the addition of Kingsley Commons, I’m guessing Timber Lane does as well. And sending the Pine Spring island across route 50 to Westlawn makes no sense from a community standpoint either. It’s very sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The status quo isn't really working for Lewis, boundaries or academics. Yet nothing is being done. People on here talk about community, but Lewis really has no strong community. I would wager the neighborhoods that feed it have some of the highest private, homeschool, or pupil placement rates. Not a lot of Lewis graduate signs up right now.

And, some hope to improve it with a boundary adjustment.

The boundary adjustment is NOT the answer.

The School Board should look to improve Lewis. It is possible. They should not look to other students to improve it, but look to see what can be done to improve opportunities and instruction.
Is that not what a school is for?

I don't know the Lewis community. I live in another part of the county. But, I do remember when the Graham Road community wanted the school to stay put--because they had a community there. Instead the School Board "knew better" and moved them to a brand new school that requires walking along busy streets to get there.
And, now, I've read somewhere on this forum that the School Board wants to change that around and switch them to a different school. And, put another neighborhood in the new school.

How is that for creating community?

You're talking about the Graham Road/Timber Lane situation.

The "old" Graham Road ES mostly used to serve kids in the large, low-income Kingsley Commons community right next to the school.

The school was up for a renovation and, rather than renovate on a small plot, FCPS built a new school further away on Graham Road just south of Route 29. However, that site lay within the boundaries of Timber Lane ES, and they didn't want to change the boundaries. So for 13 years Kingsley Commons kids traveled to the "new" Graham Road school inside the Timber Lane attendance area.

Along comes Reid and Thru, and they decide that's a problem and the boundaries should be drawn so Graham Road lies within its attendance area. Sounds logical, but the solution involves moving the Kingsley Commons kids to Timber Lane, which is even further away than "new" Graham Road, and then changing Timber Lane's boundaries so that some of the Timber Lane kids north of Route 29 go to Shrevewood and the Timber Lane kids south of Route 29 flip to Graham Road, while Timber Lane south of Routh 29 is redrawn to pick up kids currently at Pine Spring and Graham Road.

Add to this the fact that Timber Lane north of Route 29 currently goes to McLean and Timber Lane south of Route 29 goes to Falls Church. Thru has proposed to move the area north of Route 29 to Falls Church, apparently to justify their expansion of Falls Church, and those Timber Lane families aren't happy about that. And then the Timber Lane families south of Route 29 feel like they're being disrespected, but they're all being moved to Graham Road anyway, so whatever "community" exists currently at Timber Lane is apparently going to be upended in any event.

It's kind of a mess.

You forgot to mention that the neighborhood (Jefferson Village/Greenway downs) between 50/29 and Annandale and Graham Rd. Currently go to 4 different elementary schools and 2 different MS and HS.
For the sake of economic diversity in schools, kids in this neighborhood go to Timber Lane, Pine Spring, Graham and then there is a small pocket in the corner that go to Beech Tree followed by Justice HS. Talk about a terrible plan that splits up a community. New plan does send them all to Graham.

As far as I was aware all of Greenway Downs went to Falls Church. I knew Jefferson Village splits to Falls Church and Justice. There was a proposal in 2011 to move the rest of Jefferson Village to Beech Tree/Glasgow/Stuart (now Justice) and Patty Reed, who represented Providence at the time, got the School Board to exclude that proposal and retain the Pine Spring attendance island at Jackson/Falls Church. I assume the area wanted to stay at Pine Spring/Jackson/Falls Church. Now they are proposing to move that island from Pine Spring to Westlawn.

Thru’s changes pretty much decimate the Falls Church ES communities between 29 and 50. Pine Spring, Graham Road, and Timber Lane will all look drastically different. Pine Spring loses most of its single family homes and becomes significantly higher FARMS. With the addition of Kingsley Commons, I’m guessing Timber Lane does as well. And sending the Pine Spring island across route 50 to Westlawn makes no sense from a community standpoint either. It’s very sad.

This is the issue. The greenway downs/Jefferson Village neighborhoods have been split between 4 elementary school to balance out the student populations. Somehow the school board and I would guess those not in the neighborhood who benefit from this are fine with it (looks at you PH neighborhood who go to TL) But could you imagine dividing other neighborhoods this way? There are streets where kids across the street from one another go to different elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The status quo isn't really working for Lewis, boundaries or academics. Yet nothing is being done. People on here talk about community, but Lewis really has no strong community. I would wager the neighborhoods that feed it have some of the highest private, homeschool, or pupil placement rates. Not a lot of Lewis graduate signs up right now.

And, some hope to improve it with a boundary adjustment.

The boundary adjustment is NOT the answer.

The School Board should look to improve Lewis. It is possible. They should not look to other students to improve it, but look to see what can be done to improve opportunities and instruction.
Is that not what a school is for?

I don't know the Lewis community. I live in another part of the county. But, I do remember when the Graham Road community wanted the school to stay put--because they had a community there. Instead the School Board "knew better" and moved them to a brand new school that requires walking along busy streets to get there.
And, now, I've read somewhere on this forum that the School Board wants to change that around and switch them to a different school. And, put another neighborhood in the new school.

How is that for creating community?

You're talking about the Graham Road/Timber Lane situation.

The "old" Graham Road ES mostly used to serve kids in the large, low-income Kingsley Commons community right next to the school.

The school was up for a renovation and, rather than renovate on a small plot, FCPS built a new school further away on Graham Road just south of Route 29. However, that site lay within the boundaries of Timber Lane ES, and they didn't want to change the boundaries. So for 13 years Kingsley Commons kids traveled to the "new" Graham Road school inside the Timber Lane attendance area.

Along comes Reid and Thru, and they decide that's a problem and the boundaries should be drawn so Graham Road lies within its attendance area. Sounds logical, but the solution involves moving the Kingsley Commons kids to Timber Lane, which is even further away than "new" Graham Road, and then changing Timber Lane's boundaries so that some of the Timber Lane kids north of Route 29 go to Shrevewood and the Timber Lane kids south of Route 29 flip to Graham Road, while Timber Lane south of Routh 29 is redrawn to pick up kids currently at Pine Spring and Graham Road.

Add to this the fact that Timber Lane north of Route 29 currently goes to McLean and Timber Lane south of Route 29 goes to Falls Church. Thru has proposed to move the area north of Route 29 to Falls Church, apparently to justify their expansion of Falls Church, and those Timber Lane families aren't happy about that. And then the Timber Lane families south of Route 29 feel like they're being disrespected, but they're all being moved to Graham Road anyway, so whatever "community" exists currently at Timber Lane is apparently going to be upended in any event.

It's kind of a mess.

You forgot to mention that the neighborhood (Jefferson Village/Greenway downs) between 50/29 and Annandale and Graham Rd. Currently go to 4 different elementary schools and 2 different MS and HS.
For the sake of economic diversity in schools, kids in this neighborhood go to Timber Lane, Pine Spring, Graham and then there is a small pocket in the corner that go to Beech Tree followed by Justice HS. Talk about a terrible plan that splits up a community. New plan does send them all to Graham.

As far as I was aware all of Greenway Downs went to Falls Church. I knew Jefferson Village splits to Falls Church and Justice. There was a proposal in 2011 to move the rest of Jefferson Village to Beech Tree/Glasgow/Stuart (now Justice) and Patty Reed, who represented Providence at the time, got the School Board to exclude that proposal and retain the Pine Spring attendance island at Jackson/Falls Church. I assume the area wanted to stay at Pine Spring/Jackson/Falls Church. Now they are proposing to move that island from Pine Spring to Westlawn.

Thru’s changes pretty much decimate the Falls Church ES communities between 29 and 50. Pine Spring, Graham Road, and Timber Lane will all look drastically different. Pine Spring loses most of its single family homes and becomes significantly higher FARMS. With the addition of Kingsley Commons, I’m guessing Timber Lane does as well. And sending the Pine Spring island across route 50 to Westlawn makes no sense from a community standpoint either. It’s very sad.

This is the issue. The greenway downs/Jefferson Village neighborhoods have been split between 4 elementary school to balance out the student populations. Somehow the school board and I would guess those not in the neighborhood who benefit from this are fine with it (looks at you PH neighborhood who go to TL) But could you imagine dividing other neighborhoods this way? There are streets where kids across the street from one another go to different elementary schools.

Poplar Heights doesn’t “benefit” if Timber Lane gets Kingsley Commons, even if part of the TL area north of 29 shifts to Shrevewood, and it really doesn’t “benefit” if it gets moved to Jackson and Falls Church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The status quo isn't really working for Lewis, boundaries or academics. Yet nothing is being done. People on here talk about community, but Lewis really has no strong community. I would wager the neighborhoods that feed it have some of the highest private, homeschool, or pupil placement rates. Not a lot of Lewis graduate signs up right now.

And, some hope to improve it with a boundary adjustment.

The boundary adjustment is NOT the answer.

The School Board should look to improve Lewis. It is possible. They should not look to other students to improve it, but look to see what can be done to improve opportunities and instruction.
Is that not what a school is for?

I don't know the Lewis community. I live in another part of the county. But, I do remember when the Graham Road community wanted the school to stay put--because they had a community there. Instead the School Board "knew better" and moved them to a brand new school that requires walking along busy streets to get there.
And, now, I've read somewhere on this forum that the School Board wants to change that around and switch them to a different school. And, put another neighborhood in the new school.

How is that for creating community?

You're talking about the Graham Road/Timber Lane situation.

The "old" Graham Road ES mostly used to serve kids in the large, low-income Kingsley Commons community right next to the school.

The school was up for a renovation and, rather than renovate on a small plot, FCPS built a new school further away on Graham Road just south of Route 29. However, that site lay within the boundaries of Timber Lane ES, and they didn't want to change the boundaries. So for 13 years Kingsley Commons kids traveled to the "new" Graham Road school inside the Timber Lane attendance area.

Along comes Reid and Thru, and they decide that's a problem and the boundaries should be drawn so Graham Road lies within its attendance area. Sounds logical, but the solution involves moving the Kingsley Commons kids to Timber Lane, which is even further away than "new" Graham Road, and then changing Timber Lane's boundaries so that some of the Timber Lane kids north of Route 29 go to Shrevewood and the Timber Lane kids south of Route 29 flip to Graham Road, while Timber Lane south of Routh 29 is redrawn to pick up kids currently at Pine Spring and Graham Road.

Add to this the fact that Timber Lane north of Route 29 currently goes to McLean and Timber Lane south of Route 29 goes to Falls Church. Thru has proposed to move the area north of Route 29 to Falls Church, apparently to justify their expansion of Falls Church, and those Timber Lane families aren't happy about that. And then the Timber Lane families south of Route 29 feel like they're being disrespected, but they're all being moved to Graham Road anyway, so whatever "community" exists currently at Timber Lane is apparently going to be upended in any event.

It's kind of a mess.

You forgot to mention that the neighborhood (Jefferson Village/Greenway downs) between 50/29 and Annandale and Graham Rd. Currently go to 4 different elementary schools and 2 different MS and HS.
For the sake of economic diversity in schools, kids in this neighborhood go to Timber Lane, Pine Spring, Graham and then there is a small pocket in the corner that go to Beech Tree followed by Justice HS. Talk about a terrible plan that splits up a community. New plan does send them all to Graham.

As far as I was aware all of Greenway Downs went to Falls Church. I knew Jefferson Village splits to Falls Church and Justice. There was a proposal in 2011 to move the rest of Jefferson Village to Beech Tree/Glasgow/Stuart (now Justice) and Patty Reed, who represented Providence at the time, got the School Board to exclude that proposal and retain the Pine Spring attendance island at Jackson/Falls Church. I assume the area wanted to stay at Pine Spring/Jackson/Falls Church. Now they are proposing to move that island from Pine Spring to Westlawn.

Thru’s changes pretty much decimate the Falls Church ES communities between 29 and 50. Pine Spring, Graham Road, and Timber Lane will all look drastically different. Pine Spring loses most of its single family homes and becomes significantly higher FARMS. With the addition of Kingsley Commons, I’m guessing Timber Lane does as well. And sending the Pine Spring island across route 50 to Westlawn makes no sense from a community standpoint either. It’s very sad.

This is the issue. The greenway downs/Jefferson Village neighborhoods have been split between 4 elementary school to balance out the student populations. Somehow the school board and I would guess those not in the neighborhood who benefit from this are fine with it (looks at you PH neighborhood who go to TL) But could you imagine dividing other neighborhoods this way? There are streets where kids across the street from one another go to different elementary schools.

Poplar Heights doesn’t “benefit” if Timber Lane gets Kingsley Commons, even if part of the TL area north of 29 shifts to Shrevewood, and it really doesn’t “benefit” if it gets moved to Jackson and Falls Church.

Pretty sure PP meant benefit from the old boundaries, not the new ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The status quo isn't really working for Lewis, boundaries or academics. Yet nothing is being done. People on here talk about community, but Lewis really has no strong community. I would wager the neighborhoods that feed it have some of the highest private, homeschool, or pupil placement rates. Not a lot of Lewis graduate signs up right now.

And, some hope to improve it with a boundary adjustment.

The boundary adjustment is NOT the answer.

The School Board should look to improve Lewis. It is possible. They should not look to other students to improve it, but look to see what can be done to improve opportunities and instruction.
Is that not what a school is for?

I don't know the Lewis community. I live in another part of the county. But, I do remember when the Graham Road community wanted the school to stay put--because they had a community there. Instead the School Board "knew better" and moved them to a brand new school that requires walking along busy streets to get there.
And, now, I've read somewhere on this forum that the School Board wants to change that around and switch them to a different school. And, put another neighborhood in the new school.

How is that for creating community?

You're talking about the Graham Road/Timber Lane situation.

The "old" Graham Road ES mostly used to serve kids in the large, low-income Kingsley Commons community right next to the school.

The school was up for a renovation and, rather than renovate on a small plot, FCPS built a new school further away on Graham Road just south of Route 29. However, that site lay within the boundaries of Timber Lane ES, and they didn't want to change the boundaries. So for 13 years Kingsley Commons kids traveled to the "new" Graham Road school inside the Timber Lane attendance area.

Along comes Reid and Thru, and they decide that's a problem and the boundaries should be drawn so Graham Road lies within its attendance area. Sounds logical, but the solution involves moving the Kingsley Commons kids to Timber Lane, which is even further away than "new" Graham Road, and then changing Timber Lane's boundaries so that some of the Timber Lane kids north of Route 29 go to Shrevewood and the Timber Lane kids south of Route 29 flip to Graham Road, while Timber Lane south of Routh 29 is redrawn to pick up kids currently at Pine Spring and Graham Road.

Add to this the fact that Timber Lane north of Route 29 currently goes to McLean and Timber Lane south of Route 29 goes to Falls Church. Thru has proposed to move the area north of Route 29 to Falls Church, apparently to justify their expansion of Falls Church, and those Timber Lane families aren't happy about that. And then the Timber Lane families south of Route 29 feel like they're being disrespected, but they're all being moved to Graham Road anyway, so whatever "community" exists currently at Timber Lane is apparently going to be upended in any event.

It's kind of a mess.

You forgot to mention that the neighborhood (Jefferson Village/Greenway downs) between 50/29 and Annandale and Graham Rd. Currently go to 4 different elementary schools and 2 different MS and HS.
For the sake of economic diversity in schools, kids in this neighborhood go to Timber Lane, Pine Spring, Graham and then there is a small pocket in the corner that go to Beech Tree followed by Justice HS. Talk about a terrible plan that splits up a community. New plan does send them all to Graham.

As far as I was aware all of Greenway Downs went to Falls Church. I knew Jefferson Village splits to Falls Church and Justice. There was a proposal in 2011 to move the rest of Jefferson Village to Beech Tree/Glasgow/Stuart (now Justice) and Patty Reed, who represented Providence at the time, got the School Board to exclude that proposal and retain the Pine Spring attendance island at Jackson/Falls Church. I assume the area wanted to stay at Pine Spring/Jackson/Falls Church. Now they are proposing to move that island from Pine Spring to Westlawn.

Thru’s changes pretty much decimate the Falls Church ES communities between 29 and 50. Pine Spring, Graham Road, and Timber Lane will all look drastically different. Pine Spring loses most of its single family homes and becomes significantly higher FARMS. With the addition of Kingsley Commons, I’m guessing Timber Lane does as well. And sending the Pine Spring island across route 50 to Westlawn makes no sense from a community standpoint either. It’s very sad.

This is the issue. The greenway downs/Jefferson Village neighborhoods have been split between 4 elementary school to balance out the student populations. Somehow the school board and I would guess those not in the neighborhood who benefit from this are fine with it (looks at you PH neighborhood who go to TL) But could you imagine dividing other neighborhoods this way? There are streets where kids across the street from one another go to different elementary schools.

Poplar Heights doesn’t “benefit” if Timber Lane gets Kingsley Commons, even if part of the TL area north of 29 shifts to Shrevewood, and it really doesn’t “benefit” if it gets moved to Jackson and Falls Church.

Pretty sure PP meant benefit from the old boundaries, not the new ones.

Their school is already 60% FARMS.

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The status quo isn't really working for Lewis, boundaries or academics. Yet nothing is being done. People on here talk about community, but Lewis really has no strong community. I would wager the neighborhoods that feed it have some of the highest private, homeschool, or pupil placement rates. Not a lot of Lewis graduate signs up right now.

And, some hope to improve it with a boundary adjustment.

The boundary adjustment is NOT the answer.

The School Board should look to improve Lewis. It is possible. They should not look to other students to improve it, but look to see what can be done to improve opportunities and instruction.
Is that not what a school is for?

I don't know the Lewis community. I live in another part of the county. But, I do remember when the Graham Road community wanted the school to stay put--because they had a community there. Instead the School Board "knew better" and moved them to a brand new school that requires walking along busy streets to get there.
And, now, I've read somewhere on this forum that the School Board wants to change that around and switch them to a different school. And, put another neighborhood in the new school.

How is that for creating community?

You're talking about the Graham Road/Timber Lane situation.

The "old" Graham Road ES mostly used to serve kids in the large, low-income Kingsley Commons community right next to the school.

The school was up for a renovation and, rather than renovate on a small plot, FCPS built a new school further away on Graham Road just south of Route 29. However, that site lay within the boundaries of Timber Lane ES, and they didn't want to change the boundaries. So for 13 years Kingsley Commons kids traveled to the "new" Graham Road school inside the Timber Lane attendance area.

Along comes Reid and Thru, and they decide that's a problem and the boundaries should be drawn so Graham Road lies within its attendance area. Sounds logical, but the solution involves moving the Kingsley Commons kids to Timber Lane, which is even further away than "new" Graham Road, and then changing Timber Lane's boundaries so that some of the Timber Lane kids north of Route 29 go to Shrevewood and the Timber Lane kids south of Route 29 flip to Graham Road, while Timber Lane south of Routh 29 is redrawn to pick up kids currently at Pine Spring and Graham Road.

Add to this the fact that Timber Lane north of Route 29 currently goes to McLean and Timber Lane south of Route 29 goes to Falls Church. Thru has proposed to move the area north of Route 29 to Falls Church, apparently to justify their expansion of Falls Church, and those Timber Lane families aren't happy about that. And then the Timber Lane families south of Route 29 feel like they're being disrespected, but they're all being moved to Graham Road anyway, so whatever "community" exists currently at Timber Lane is apparently going to be upended in any event.

It's kind of a mess.

You forgot to mention that the neighborhood (Jefferson Village/Greenway downs) between 50/29 and Annandale and Graham Rd. Currently go to 4 different elementary schools and 2 different MS and HS.
For the sake of economic diversity in schools, kids in this neighborhood go to Timber Lane, Pine Spring, Graham and then there is a small pocket in the corner that go to Beech Tree followed by Justice HS. Talk about a terrible plan that splits up a community. New plan does send them all to Graham.

As far as I was aware all of Greenway Downs went to Falls Church. I knew Jefferson Village splits to Falls Church and Justice. There was a proposal in 2011 to move the rest of Jefferson Village to Beech Tree/Glasgow/Stuart (now Justice) and Patty Reed, who represented Providence at the time, got the School Board to exclude that proposal and retain the Pine Spring attendance island at Jackson/Falls Church. I assume the area wanted to stay at Pine Spring/Jackson/Falls Church. Now they are proposing to move that island from Pine Spring to Westlawn.

Thru’s changes pretty much decimate the Falls Church ES communities between 29 and 50. Pine Spring, Graham Road, and Timber Lane will all look drastically different. Pine Spring loses most of its single family homes and becomes significantly higher FARMS. With the addition of Kingsley Commons, I’m guessing Timber Lane does as well. And sending the Pine Spring island across route 50 to Westlawn makes no sense from a community standpoint either. It’s very sad.

This is the issue. The greenway downs/Jefferson Village neighborhoods have been split between 4 elementary school to balance out the student populations. Somehow the school board and I would guess those not in the neighborhood who benefit from this are fine with it (looks at you PH neighborhood who go to TL) But could you imagine dividing other neighborhoods this way? There are streets where kids across the street from one another go to different elementary schools.

Poplar Heights doesn’t “benefit” if Timber Lane gets Kingsley Commons, even if part of the TL area north of 29 shifts to Shrevewood, and it really doesn’t “benefit” if it gets moved to Jackson and Falls Church.

Pretty sure PP meant benefit from the old boundaries, not the new ones.

Their school is already 60% FARMS.

Worth repeating - a lot of them figure out ways not to go to Timber Lane. Whether that be AAP or private.