Voting Against 2017 FCPS School Bond
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
Although I am a strong supporter of public schools, I will be voting against the 2017 bond referendum for FCPS, and urge others to do so. Why? FCPS wants to raise money to expand schools that do not need to be expanded (Madison and West Potomac), while failing to move forward promptly with the construction of a new HS in Western Fairfax. Here are the September 2017 enrollment numbers for the schools that serve students in western Fairfax:
Chantilly 2779 Westfield 2640 Oakton 2632 Centreville 2568 South Lakes 2465 Herndon 2344 FCPS could build a new high school with over 2200 students and bring the enrollment of each of these six schools down to 2200 students as well. Instead, they plan to turn schools like South Lakes and Madison into "mega-schools" and expand the capacity at West Potomac so students won't have to go to under-enrolled, but lower-ranked, Mount Vernon. Sorry, I won't pay for this if I can avoid it. Oakton HS has a freshman class close to 700 kids this year. They need to get the message that building a new high school, not building additions to create giant high school factories, is a top priority. |
Anonymous
| I agree with you on your argument size but will probably be voting for the bond. I wish there was another way to get through to them that expanding these schools is not a good idea. In the long run it will hurt Fairfax's reputation. Millennials are already moving out of the area for less crowded places in the US. Most of the US does not have large high schools like these and it will be too hard to compete against other rising cities. The last thing we need are too large high schools all over Fairfax. It's bad enough that half of Fairfax already has very large high schools. |
Anonymous
| It's possible to do both, OP. Expand and renovate existing high schools and build a new one. Move to Arlington if you want to vote no on bond bills. |
Anonymous
Why do we want to expand schools in Fairfax? They are already huge. |
Anonymous
| NP here. We vote for these bonds nearly every election and the money disappears. Until they can account for the money in the last bond, they can't have any more. |
Anonymous
Huh? The bulk of the money goes to the renovation of existing schools and the occasional new school. Historically, they have been relatively prudent about expanding schools rather than, say, tearing them down and replacing them with new schools with less capacity than the schools they replaced (see, e.g., Arlington). In this instance, however, they are taking it too far and ignoring the obvious need for a new high school in the western part of the county. To a PP's point, most parents don't want their kids in high schools with over 2500 kids, and if that becomes the de facto model for western Fairfax it will spur parents with greater resources to move to Loudoun, where they keep the schools smaller. |
Anonymous
So glad they already prepared this for you, PP. (page 3) https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/cipbookfy2018-22_2.pdf |
Anonymous
Or out of NOVA entirely. |
Anonymous
| You want the CIP to change, you vote for new school board members. You vote against the bond, and the number of kids attending these HSs will still fo up. |
Anonymous
| What will Oakton's capacity be after renovation? For over $90 million they had better have room for everyone |
Anonymous
South Lakes expansion planned to increase capacity to 2700. Oakton expansion planned to increase capacity to 2600. Believe the Madison expansion would take it to at least 2500, but couldn't find the exact number. |
Anonymous
| The problem with the new high school is that it will trigger a massive re-districting that wouldn't just involve its feeders (Oakton, Herndon, SL, Centreville, Westfield, and Chantilly). Schools like Madison, Falls Church, Stuart, McLean, and Woodson would likely be impacted. From what I've heard, facilities hasn't figured out how the map will look. Until they come up with several possible scenarios, they can't plan to build the school. Both things need to be in place, basically. |
Anonymous
Nope. There are six schools in western Fairfax with over 2300 students that can each contribute to a new school that would have over 2200 kids, and still have over 2200 kids themselves. Whatever capacity issues exist at other schools further east can be addressed separately. For example, if Stuart and Woodson gets too crowded, they can move kids to Annandale, and move kids from Annandale to Lee. If Marshall and McLean get too crowded, they can move kids to Langley. Neither would have anything to do with the new school in western Fairfax. |
Anonymous
This. They can easily redistrict the western part of Fairfax without impacting all of Fairfax County and have a new high school. If there are some redistricting needs in central Fairfax, they would be minor. It would help Fairfax compete with Loudoun to have a new high school in Western Fairfax too. |
Anonymous
That's the issue. The other schools are over-capacity (and yes, I think this will likely involve Annandale, for example). The current schools all have expanded capacity. The county isn't going to waste it and just reduce size. That would literally waste hundreds of millions of dollars that the county already spent. What will likely happen is the new school will absorb capacity from its feeders, the feeders will absorb capacity from its overcrowded neighbors and so on. There's a ripple effect. Even the feeders will be impacted. Let's look at Oakton. Yes, some of its students will be moved to the new school. But it's not going to be enough to address the 130 percent capacity issue. What will likely happen is that some of Oakton's feeders will head to Madison or South Lakes (which will probably be the biggest winner in terms of losing students to the new school). And that's just one shuffle. When you have multiple schools feeding in, the process just expands like a web. |