FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the homes really vulnerable to redistricting is the Mozaic part of Oakton High School. Look at the Falls Church HS versus Oakton HS geography / district. In that area, they intertwine like fingers on two hands.

I deliberately avoided the Riveradale (I think that is the name?) area currently districted for Braddock, and the areas of Mozaic ES closest to Inova Fairfax Hospital. With the addition and renovation of the Falls Church HS, one of them will be moved back - or possibly Mozaic to Falls Church HS, and Riverdale to Annandale HS where it used to be 20 years ago.

Oakton HS sits within the Mosaic ES catchment area, so why would any part of Mosaic get moved to Falls Church HS? It wasn’t that long ago that area got pulled out of Jackson MS and moved to Thoreau MS.

The county is expanding Falls Church HS for a reason. I just look at that weird little "finger" of their district coming up to the Mozaic district, and cannot help but think that the easiest way to increase achievement in FCHS is to redistrict a part of Mozaic there. These townhouses / houses tend to be lower cost and primarily occupied by immigrants, giving a combination of lower influence and higher achievement that the country would want to move around.

Another possibility is that part of Marshall HS would be redistricted to FCHS.

I don't think the county would do anything that lowers the FARMS rate at Oakton and raises it at FCHS

It definitely will not raise the FARMS rate at FCHS, and I suspect it would remain steady at Oakton.

Mosiac is 25% farms, Oakton is 15. Removing Mosiac would lower Oakton's rate. I really don't see the county doing anything that would lower the FARMs rate of any school that already has a sub 20% rate.

I think that will be the math for any of the candidate areas to flow into FCHS. Someone will clearly be moved to FCHS because the county is expanding the building.

Could be Mozaic (or part of Mozaic), could be part of Marshall HS, could be part of McLean HS (that one is least likely in my mind because that would only leave very affluent areas attending McLean HS... I think a part of their far away demographic would be channeled to either South lakes or Herndon HS instead)

It’s Mosaic, not Mozaic.

Since Oakton HS sits within the Mosaic ES area, moving any part of Mosaic to Falls Church creates a new split feeder, so unlikely.

If any part of Marshall were to move, it would more logically be areas further west in Vienna near Wolf Trap that could move to expanded Madison.

The Timber Lane island at McLean may well move to Falls Church st some point, if not soon then eventually when more housing gets built in Tysons or near the WFC metro. There is no area zoned to McLean that logically should move to South Lakes or Herndon. The “far away” areas zoned to McLean were already rezoned to even “further away” Langley in 2021.

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

No current dog in this fight, but I used to live in the Mosaic district townhomes. We could walk to Oakton high school through a fence at the end of our neighborhood. It was a five minute commute, door-to-door. The county is not going to take walkers and put them on a bus across town. Gallows has terrible traffic. You clearly don’t know that part of town.

DP. Do you mean townhouses in the Mosaic ES attendance area? The Mosaic District townhouses built by EYA are south of 29, zoned to Falls Church HS, and not within 5 minutes of Oakton HS.

I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone, right? The Mosaic District is NOT zoned to Mosaic Elementary School.

Correct. The Mosaic District is zoned to Fairhill/Jackson/Falls Church.

Years after the Mosaic District was built, Karl Frisch decided the name of Mosby Woods ES needed to be changed to avoid the Confederate reference (never mind that by now it was just a suburban neighborhood name) and decided Mosaic ES would celebrate diversity. Some of us told them it would create confusion since the Mosaic District wouldn’t feed to Mosaic ES, but of course we were ignored.

Living in the Twilight Zone would be an improvement over half the decisions made by the FCPS School Board. But, sure, no doubt they’ll come up with really sensible county-wide boundary changes…

Has Karl F'ing Frisch made ANY good decisions on the school board? Any decisions supported by anyone other than his teacher partner? Nope. Didn't think so. That guy is such a POS. I say this as an incredibly liberal person who voted for him and deeply regret it.

This is mean, but I’ll say it anyway - whenever he sits next to Sandy Anderson I always think of the twins from through the looking glass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

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

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

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. Almost the entire zone, except parts of Daventry, the far end of Gambrill and Sangster, are a 10 minute bus ride, with most neighborhoods roughly within 2-3 miles to the high school.

It also has almost 2800 kids and is near a school with slightly over 1600 students. So there’s that.

That discrepancy exists because of the school board and board of supervisors. Let’s not forget that it isn’t due to anything that anyone in WSHS pyramid did.

That may be true but if the goal is to manage facilities and provide students with comparable access it’s also largely irrelevant. The purpose of a boundary change isn’t to punish a community for past sins.

There are board members who have said in private that they are looking to move a particular zip code, regardless of need, so you can drop the pretense that the purpose is pure.

Rumors????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

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

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

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. Almost the entire zone, except parts of Daventry, the far end of Gambrill and Sangster, are a 10 minute bus ride, with most neighborhoods roughly within 2-3 miles to the high school.

It also has almost 2800 kids and is near a school with slightly over 1600 students. So there’s that.

That discrepancy exists because of the school board and board of supervisors. Let’s not forget that it isn’t due to anything that anyone in WSHS pyramid did.

That may be true but if the goal is to manage facilities and provide students with comparable access it’s also largely irrelevant. The purpose of a boundary change isn’t to punish a community for past sins.

There are board members who have said in private that they are looking to move a particular zip code, regardless of need, so you can drop the pretense that the purpose is pure.

I wasn’t privy to those conversations but would assume it wasn’t articulated quite that way. It seems more likely they identified a potential area that could be affected by a boundary change and you concluded there was no need.

Feel free to elaborate if you can provide more context.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

Perhaps they could actually fix whatever underlying issues exist at the school to make it undesirable for many families, rather than use FCPS kids as pawns in their equity game.

Come on, everyone knows the issue at Lewis is the overwhelming number of poor, ESL students. That is why people avoid it. Not some terrible teaching, administration, or facilities. Elephant in the room.

Well, yes - of course. I think the PP was pointing out that until those issues are fixed - the ones that dare not be spoken about - nothing is going to change.
DP

That level of concentrated poverty would primarily be fixed through large-scale, long-term changes (to things like zoning, economic development, placing AH in wealthier areas, etc.) that FCPS has no real power or influence over anyway. The only thing they can control are the school boundaries, to react to the realities on the ground, and create the best possible situation for the largest number of county residents as possible given the circumstances. The "they" the PP referred to as needing to fix underlying issues is an entirely different "they" that FCPS can't afford to wait for.

Placing AH in wealthier areas doesn’t change the concentration of poverty in other parts of the county. It just draws more people from other jurisdictions (or countries) looking for cheap rentals.

You drew out one element of my post and represented it as if it were the entirety. There's no one silver bullet. But yes, changing zoning to allow more housing supply will make a contribution towards de-concentrating poverty. Economic development can make a contribution towards de-concentrating poverty. Having a more diverse slate of AH options can make a contribution towards de-concentrating poverty. Do any of these alone solve the problem? No. And they probably aren't sufficient in concert either. I'm sure there are other measures that someone more deeply versed in civic planning can suggest that could also contribute. But "moving the needle" on de-concentrating poverty doesn't require a perfect solution that nobody can throw a stone at, it just requires lots of small incremental progress over time via various components a very broad strategy. And that's not FCPS' purview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

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

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

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. Almost the entire zone, except parts of Daventry, the far end of Gambrill and Sangster, are a 10 minute bus ride, with most neighborhoods roughly within 2-3 miles to the high school.

It also has almost 2800 kids and is near a school with slightly over 1600 students. So there’s that.

That discrepancy exists because of the school board and board of supervisors. Let’s not forget that it isn’t due to anything that anyone in WSHS pyramid did.

That may be true but if the goal is to manage facilities and provide students with comparable access it’s also largely irrelevant. The purpose of a boundary change isn’t to punish a community for past sins.

There are board members who have said in private that they are looking to move a particular zip code, regardless of need, so you can drop the pretense that the purpose is pure.

All the proposed boundary scenarios will dictated by the data and the weights assigned to the priorities outlined in the boundary policy, and the weights will reflect public input into the process. School board members will not get to weigh in on the boundary scenarios and assigned weights before the public (boundary review advisory committee) gets to see them and offer public input.

Many if not all of the board members may have personal preferences about what should happen in their area, just as we all do, but those preferences are meaningless unless the member actually proposes changes to the proposed data-driven boundary scenarios produced by the consultant and presented to the public (boundary review advisory committee).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

Perhaps they could actually fix whatever underlying issues exist at the school to make it undesirable for many families, rather than use FCPS kids as pawns in their equity game.

Come on, everyone knows the issue at Lewis is the overwhelming number of poor, ESL students. That is why people avoid it. Not some terrible teaching, administration, or facilities. Elephant in the room.

Well, yes - of course. I think the PP was pointing out that until those issues are fixed - the ones that dare not be spoken about - nothing is going to change.
DP

That level of concentrated poverty would primarily be fixed through large-scale, long-term changes (to things like zoning, economic development, placing AH in wealthier areas, etc.) that FCPS has no real power or influence over anyway. The only thing they can control are the school boundaries, to react to the realities on the ground, and create the best possible situation for the largest number of county residents as possible given the circumstances. The "they" the PP referred to as needing to fix underlying issues is an entirely different "they" that FCPS can't afford to wait for.

Aww look at you standing up for the school board. Funny thing is that administraton berates and bullies teachers when these kids don’t perform up to standard. Yet, when it is the school board, all of a sudden it is out of their hands.
The school board needs to stand up for these kids too. The same way they expect teachers to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

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

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

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. Almost the entire zone, except parts of Daventry, the far end of Gambrill and Sangster, are a 10 minute bus ride, with most neighborhoods roughly within 2-3 miles to the high school.

It also has almost 2800 kids and is near a school with slightly over 1600 students. So there’s that.

That discrepancy exists because of the school board and board of supervisors. Let’s not forget that it isn’t due to anything that anyone in WSHS pyramid did.

That may be true but if the goal is to manage facilities and provide students with comparable access it’s also largely irrelevant. The purpose of a boundary change isn’t to punish a community for past sins.

There are board members who have said in private that they are looking to move a particular zip code, regardless of need, so you can drop the pretense that the purpose is pure.

All the proposed boundary scenarios will dictated by the data and the weights assigned to the priorities outlined in the boundary policy, and the weights will reflect public input into the process. School board members will not get to weigh in on the boundary scenarios and assigned weights before the public (boundary review advisory committee) gets to see them and offer public input.

Many if not all of the board members may have personal preferences about what should happen in their area, just as we all do, but those preferences are meaningless unless the member actually proposes changes to the proposed data-driven boundary scenarios produced by the consultant and presented to the public (boundary review advisory committee).

The school board members specifically called for one-on-ones with the consultant. You honestly think that the school board is going to stay quiet throughout the process and in those meetings? The only thing Thru is qualified to do is rubber stamp the school board’s moves.

This is obviously a post directly from gatehouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

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

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

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. Almost the entire zone, except parts of Daventry, the far end of Gambrill and Sangster, are a 10 minute bus ride, with most neighborhoods roughly within 2-3 miles to the high school.

It also has almost 2800 kids and is near a school with slightly over 1600 students. So there’s that.

That discrepancy exists because of the school board and board of supervisors. Let’s not forget that it isn’t due to anything that anyone in WSHS pyramid did.

That may be true but if the goal is to manage facilities and provide students with comparable access it’s also largely irrelevant. The purpose of a boundary change isn’t to punish a community for past sins.

There are board members who have said in private that they are looking to move a particular zip code, regardless of need, so you can drop the pretense that the purpose is pure.

I wasn’t privy to those conversations but would assume it wasn’t articulated quite that way. It seems more likely they identified a potential area that could be affected by a boundary change and you concluded there was no need.

Feel free to elaborate if you can provide more context.

Wrong. It was a target on a particular zip code from one of the board members, who said it to a POC not realizing that she lived in that zip code.

[Anonymous]

FCPS news you choose highlighted WSHS cheer/football teams reading to cardinal forest elementary kids. The kind of community building activity that is great for all involved. And yet, the board wants to tear this apart and redo strict a bunch of kids. Hypocrites all of them.

Cardinal forest is safe though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS news you choose highlighted WSHS cheer/football teams reading to cardinal forest elementary kids. The kind of community building activity that is great for all involved. And yet, the board wants to tear this apart and redo strict a bunch of kids. Hypocrites all of them.

Cardinal forest is safe though.

The school board will tear a community apart to slightly raise test score averages at a different school. It’s vile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

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

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

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. Almost the entire zone, except parts of Daventry, the far end of Gambrill and Sangster, are a 10 minute bus ride, with most neighborhoods roughly within 2-3 miles to the high school.

It also has almost 2800 kids and is near a school with slightly over 1600 students. So there’s that.

That discrepancy exists because of the school board and board of supervisors. Let’s not forget that it isn’t due to anything that anyone in WSHS pyramid did.

That may be true but if the goal is to manage facilities and provide students with comparable access it’s also largely irrelevant. The purpose of a boundary change isn’t to punish a community for past sins.

There are board members who have said in private that they are looking to move a particular zip code, regardless of need, so you can drop the pretense that the purpose is pure.

All the proposed boundary scenarios will dictated by the data and the weights assigned to the priorities outlined in the boundary policy, and the weights will reflect public input into the process. School board members will not get to weigh in on the boundary scenarios and assigned weights before the public (boundary review advisory committee) gets to see them and offer public input.

Many if not all of the board members may have personal preferences about what should happen in their area, just as we all do, but those preferences are meaningless unless the member actually proposes changes to the proposed data-driven boundary scenarios produced by the consultant and presented to the public (boundary review advisory committee).

The school board members specifically called for one-on-ones with the consultant. You honestly think that the school board is going to stay quiet throughout the process and in those meetings? The only thing Thru is qualified to do is rubber stamp the school board’s moves.

This is obviously a post directly from gatehouse.

Obviously. Their prior boundary policy consultant explicitly told them that the weighting percentages should be in the boundary policy so that everyone knows going into a boundary review what the priorities would be. The board ignored that best practice and enacted a policy with no weighting. That way they can manipulate the boundaries however they want to manipulate them. Do you really think the board is blindly going to accept whatever weighting is in the new consultant’s recommendation when the consultant now has no guidance from the policy on what the weighting should be? The board or Reid will tell them exactly what to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

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

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

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. Almost the entire zone, except parts of Daventry, the far end of Gambrill and Sangster, are a 10 minute bus ride, with most neighborhoods roughly within 2-3 miles to the high school.

It also has almost 2800 kids and is near a school with slightly over 1600 students. So there’s that.

That discrepancy exists because of the school board and board of supervisors. Let’s not forget that it isn’t due to anything that anyone in WSHS pyramid did.

That may be true but if the goal is to manage facilities and provide students with comparable access it’s also largely irrelevant. The purpose of a boundary change isn’t to punish a community for past sins.

There are board members who have said in private that they are looking to move a particular zip code, regardless of need, so you can drop the pretense that the purpose is pure.

I wasn’t privy to those conversations but would assume it wasn’t articulated quite that way. It seems more likely they identified a potential area that could be affected by a boundary change and you concluded there was no need.

Feel free to elaborate if you can provide more context.

Wrong. It was a target on a particular zip code from one of the board members, who said it to a POC not realizing that she lived in that zip code.

Well come on now, out with that zip code please! Don't assist with school board transparency obfuscation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

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

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

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. Almost the entire zone, except parts of Daventry, the far end of Gambrill and Sangster, are a 10 minute bus ride, with most neighborhoods roughly within 2-3 miles to the high school.

It also has almost 2800 kids and is near a school with slightly over 1600 students. So there’s that.

That discrepancy exists because of the school board and board of supervisors. Let’s not forget that it isn’t due to anything that anyone in WSHS pyramid did.

That may be true but if the goal is to manage facilities and provide students with comparable access it’s also largely irrelevant. The purpose of a boundary change isn’t to punish a community for past sins.

There are board members who have said in private that they are looking to move a particular zip code, regardless of need, so you can drop the pretense that the purpose is pure.

The only zips that go to WSHS are 22152 and 22153. 22153 is big and split between a lot of schools and moving all of 22153 that’s currently in bounds for WSHS would create even more split feeders. Now they might try something because I don’t trust this board but if you were an outside consultant looking at WSHS’s boundaries, I don’t think you’d have a huge bone to pick with them. They look the most normal out of just about anywhere in the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

The problem is that Falls Church homes that kids attend McLean HS will fight tooth and nail against going to FCHS. Doing so will lower the value of their Falls Church homes.

The only area in Falls Church zoned to McLean that might make sense to move to Falls Church is the Timber Lane island and the relevant considerations were discussed earlier in the thread.

Exactly - postal addresses Falls Church from the Timberlane sending area that is an island for Mclean HS. Considering Mclean attendance area has borders with other school divisions there are limited options for what gets changed other than to Langley or Marshall or Falls Church.

The new Graham Road site is in the L shaped Timberlane attendance area-middle of the lines. Old walkable site became a community center. I expect the consultants to notice that one. https://annandaletoday.com/options-considered-for-graham-road/

Mateo Dunne's newsletter pointed out that Whitman is in the Sandburg attendance area.

Mclean has 2 islands and the Shouse change to Langley will be fully implemented in SY2025-26. Haycock and Longfellow's postal address is Falls Church VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they do not take steps to bolster Lewis’s enrollment this entire boundary exercise will have been a fiasco.

I believe they need to keep their options open WRT Lewis. There was talk in the past of turning it into some kind of IB magnet and distributing the ES feeders to the nearby high schools. This may come up again with the state’s new rules on accreditation. Also there is a lot of residential development in the works in that area, not all of which is zoned for Lewis to be sure but they may need to shift borders in the future like 5-10 years off to relieve Edison.

A magic school / program at Lewis sounds kind of interesting. Look at Montgomery Blair and kids competing to get in to its magnet programs. The downside for the Lewis location is the traffic around Springfield and its location nestled in between freeway interchanges making access difficult, especially if it ceases to be a neighborhood school.

Circa 1987, Jefferson HS ceased to be a neighborhood school and became TJHSST.

I don’t understand why FCPS won’t consider making Lewis into a magnet school or language immersion or some special designation to at least keep the doors open. My own ES is now the Plum Center. Lewis has the smallest population - keep those students there but I don’t know - add vo-tech or academy classes.

Jefferson wasn’t near a high school with over 2700 kids in the mid-80. It was near two other schools with small, declining enrollments.

If either Annandale or Stuart had had over 2500 kids at the time they would have redistricted and kept Jefferson open.

How did Jefferson’s quality compare to those two schools at the time? If there was a large disparity then they definitely wouldn’t have redistricted.

They were more sane back then and not focused on bringing the whole county down to the lowest common denominator.

The disparities were not as large but they still would have redistricted.

In Jefferson’s case, given the declining enrollments at the area schools, moving kids into Jefferson wasn’t an option. It is here with Lewis.

Families don’t think it’s an option until the school quality improves.

This is nothing that Madison, Oakton, and Westfield parents didn’t say before they were moved to South Lakes back in 2008.

People forget that South Lakes used to be the school to avoid. A pariah so the speak. Now it’s generally a desirable middle of the pack FCPS school with solid academics and competitive sports teams.

Absolutely this. For all of those who are scared to death of redistricting the case of South Lakes is a great example of what will probably happen. Back in 2008 NOBODY wanted their kids to go to South Lakes. Then they pulled a bunch of UMC kids from Westfield and Oakton and Madison over and now South Lakes is no longer scary.

Lewis and Mount Vernon do not have "a bunch of UMC" to pull from

They are surrounded by working class and middle class neighborhoods, except for the 2 closest neighborhoods to Lewis, Daventry and Keene Mill neighborhoods.

Rezoning to Lewis would yield very different outcomes than what happened to South Lakes.

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

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

WSHS has one of the most compact boundaries in all of FCPS. Almost the entire zone, except parts of Daventry, the far end of Gambrill and Sangster, are a 10 minute bus ride, with most neighborhoods roughly within 2-3 miles to the high school.

It also has almost 2800 kids and is near a school with slightly over 1600 students. So there’s that.

That discrepancy exists because of the school board and board of supervisors. Let’s not forget that it isn’t due to anything that anyone in WSHS pyramid did.

That may be true but if the goal is to manage facilities and provide students with comparable access it’s also largely irrelevant. The purpose of a boundary change isn’t to punish a community for past sins.

There are board members who have said in private that they are looking to move a particular zip code, regardless of need, so you can drop the pretense that the purpose is pure.

All the proposed boundary scenarios will dictated by the data and the weights assigned to the priorities outlined in the boundary policy, and the weights will reflect public input into the process. School board members will not get to weigh in on the boundary scenarios and assigned weights before the public (boundary review advisory committee) gets to see them and offer public input.

Many if not all of the board members may have personal preferences about what should happen in their area, just as we all do, but those preferences are meaningless unless the member actually proposes changes to the proposed data-driven boundary scenarios produced by the consultant and presented to the public (boundary review advisory committee).

This is BS. The policy identifies certain priorities but doesn’t assign weights to them. And SB members can talk to staff, who in turn will meet with the boundary consultants on a weekly basis as the work is being undertaken.

The results can only be “data-driven” to the extent that it is clear what the actual priorities are, and this has been left intentionally vague so political influence can take place behind the scenes.