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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
FCPS Boundary Review Updates
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Anonymous
The FCPS policy was 2000 for new high schools from the 80s. They violated the policy when they built Westfield (and South County) at 2500. Westfield was nearly immediately expanded to 3100 seats (R-wing and expanded cafeteria). They polished the policy before the slhs redistricting without actually changing the 2000 seat requirement. Sometime later they upped the official policy to 2500. Just before the RD they also ran a "Capacity Study" that conveniently reduced Westfield's capacity from the 3100 we paid for down to 2900... |
Anonymous
ALL centers are redundant and wasteful. |
Anonymous
It's much cheaper to bus a few kids to a different elementary school than to hire more teachers for the small number of AAP kids per grade. You'd just go from whining about your kid not getting into the AAP center to whining about them not getting the better student:teacher ratio forced by eliminating the center. |
Anonymous
Teacher here. This is false. Centers are not needed when there is a large peer group. Example: our third grade class had 16 kids get into AAP. 3 left for center and are being bussed there. No teacher needed to be hired cause there already is one. I am fine with sending kids to a center if there is not a large peer group of kids, but when there is, it should not be allowed. It is wasteful. |
Anonymous
Sorry for typos. Typed quickly with one hand while holding my son. |
Anonymous
The budget for transportation for AAP is $8 million. That is very small in a budget over 2 billion. As a teacher, the real issue with keeping LLIV is that the kids in the class are stuck together from 3-6. No one can switch classes if they don’t get along, no one can request that kids not be placed together and eventually, with no new kids, that cohort becomes too sibling like. In that sense, centers help everyone out because the kids can be regrouped every year. |
Anonymous
Adding capacity when a renovation is necessary and then adjusting boundaries is far more cost-effective than trying to play whack-a-mole with expansions. |
Anonymous
I think it's reasonable to re-look at the agreement with Fairfax City. Not being able to move the City kids has contributed significantly to the "funny lines" that the consultants seem to desperate to fix. If Fairfax City wants to be part of FCPS, then they need to be part of FCPS completely. |
Anonymous
So in this case, are you suggesting a single classroom of 16 AAP kids at the home school? Wouldn't that potentially leave the other classrooms much larger? I'm thinking of our school, for examples, where one class of 16 would mean the other two classes would have 30+ each. How is that fair? |
Anonymous
| As they redraw lines, I hope elementary schools travel together to the same high school. The kids are in school for 7 years together, should be geographically close, and develop consistent friendships groups. 2 years in middle school with different kids might be a necessary evil because of where the schools are located and the Carson/frankin situation. But what if we prioritized keeping elementary school blocks feeding to one high school so their friend groups in high school would at least be familiar and geographically close as well. |
Anonymous
Agree. Local level 4 in elementary causes more problems than it fixes. Middle school, however, is a different story. There are plenty of AAP students at the middle school level to have it at every middle school. Then, not one middle school student will need to go out of pyramid for middle school. This will fix overcrowding in the pyramids with large AAP populations, reducing or eliminating the need to rezone students who actually live in zone for the schools. It will also slow the brain drain from pyramids like Lewis, where all the smartest kids go out of pyramid for middle school, then try to pupil place in other pyramids to stay with their friends from middle school. If Key had AAP, those kids would likely stay with their friend at their zoned high school. Before rezoning, FCPS needs AAP at every middle school with no middle school centers. |
Anonymous
I totally doubt anyone in Fairfax City would support what you suggest They would be absolute fools to agree with anything that gave FCPS power over rezoning their homes. |
Anonymous
Every pyramid in FCPS should have the ability to have the same type of self governance that Fairfax Coty has. Our town would LOVE that type of representation and the ability to lock in a guarantee to our high school without the threat of arbitrary rezoning every 5 years. |
Anonymous
Most schools Principal Place kids in Level III or Advanced Math into the Local Level IV rooms to balance out the classes. There are schools were the LLIV program has 30 kids in it while the Gen Ed classes are smaller. We are at a LI program where the LI classes were at 30 kids in first grade and the Gen Ed classes were at 15-16 kids in first grade. The LI program numbers dropped as kids moved and could not be replaced or dropped out of the program. A few kids left LI for the Center but not too many. The kids who went to the Center were the kids in the Gen Ed program. They moved partly because the Gen Ed classes were small and tended to have a smaller group of kids who were ahead or challenged. The Center worked better for the kids. Interestingly enough, the same Gen Ed kids who have siblings in LI are not moving to the Center, the LI program is a good fit. Kids need an opportunity to be challenged and feel engaged at school. I don't expect many kids to love going to school but it is better when they feel like they are learning something. This is why I like the LI programs and AAP, they are good places for kids who are ahead and need a challenge. I think you could drop AAP if you have tracked classes for each of the subjects, Advanced Math, Advanced LA, Advanced Science, Advanced Social Studies. Some kids will be in all 4 but a good number of kids will be in 1 or 2. Meet kids where they are. |
Anonymous
PP. Obviously Fairfax City wouldn't/shouldn't agree to the rezoning. They have a great situation. I agree that everyone should be able to have that amount of stability. The stability comes from an agreement that says FCPS will educate City kids and the City will pay for it but they can't be moved. It's a two party agreement - FCPS could come back and say "we'll educate your kids but we can't keep the boundaries the same. Too much has changed since we made this agreement and our students are suffering." FCPS can't back out completely though because 2/3 of kids at Fairfax are county kids. There is no where else to put them. But it's worth a look and conversation given what a complete mess things are in. The agreement hasn't been revisited since it was written in the 1960s (if we are keeping track of "things we haven't done is so long they simply must be done.") |