Langley vs McLean vs Madison

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Cooper and Langley which is newly renovated and looks amazing inside. The kids love going there and learning is fun with so many electives and brand new music rooms. There are so many academic and social clubs at Langley and so many opportunities that the otter schools don’t have. I have other friends in the county and their experience is not so great with bullying and fighting. There is something for everyone in this pyramid.

And yet OP’s own neighbors at Cooper and Langley have reported some experiences that are giving her pause.

I think these posts are mostly coming from Langley posters who think it would be an act of treason to move to another pyramid.

If they find a new house zoned to Madison or McLean that’s within their budget and that they prefer to available Langley properties, that’s where they should go.

DP. Regarding your last sentence - absolutely! But the OP asked for experiences and opinions from people in all three pyramids. Are you trying to claim only your experience is valid? We've heard from McLean Mom, as well as several Madison parents. Langley parents are adding their two cents as well.

As for OP's neighbors, they would be "reporting some experiences" to her regardless of what the school was. Find one middle or high school in FCPS (or anywhere, really) that doesn't have certain kids vaping in the bathroom or picking occasional fights. We'll wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
We need to move either way because the home we are in now can’t accommodate our family.

I’m thankful for everyone’s insights about all the schools. We weren’t sure if we should use this as an opportunity to reevaluate our pyramid due to what we’ve heard from neighbors.

I hadn’t considered the AAP aspect. Our 2 kiddos are both AAP and our zoned school is our center school so with Langley pyramid we could potentially keep the same friend group throughout their education.
I didn’t realize Madison was so messy for AAP. I wonder if all the split feeding will be addressed with all these new boundary changes?

I don’t think there’s anyway to know if FCPS will address the split feeder situation at Madison until they come out with boundary proposals later this year.

In theory they could have aligned Madison’s boundaries with Thoreau’s and Marshall’s boundaries with Kilmer a few years ago and made both schools AAP centers, but they went in an opposite direction by expanding Thoreau’s boundaries to include areas that also feed to Oakton while keeping Jackson as an AAP center. So that would require a lot of changes to simplify now.

In general you’d find Madison families roll with it and are happy as long as their kids end up at Madison. Lots of kids attend the AAP centers at Kilmer and Jackson, but there’s less of a focus on AAP and TJ generally than in the Langley and McLean pyramids.

Vienna is very small town feel. I appreciate the diversity of schools to broaden the experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Cooper and Langley which is newly renovated and looks amazing inside. The kids love going there and learning is fun with so many electives and brand new music rooms. There are so many academic and social clubs at Langley and so many opportunities that the otter schools don’t have. I have other friends in the county and their experience is not so great with bullying and fighting. There is something for everyone in this pyramid.

And yet OP’s own neighbors at Cooper and Langley have reported some experiences that are giving her pause.

I think these posts are mostly coming from Langley posters who think it would be an act of treason to move to another pyramid.

If they find a new house zoned to Madison or McLean that’s within their budget and that they prefer to available Langley properties, that’s where they should go.

DP. Regarding your last sentence - absolutely! But the OP asked for experiences and opinions from people in all three pyramids. Are you trying to claim only your experience is valid? We've heard from McLean Mom, as well as several Madison parents. Langley parents are adding their two cents as well.

As for OP's neighbors, they would be "reporting some experiences" to her regardless of what the school was. Find one middle or high school in FCPS (or anywhere, really) that doesn't have certain kids vaping in the bathroom or picking occasional fights. We'll wait.

No doubt there have been multiple posters from each of the three pyramids. The Langley feedback comes across as more canned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
We need to move either way because the home we are in now can’t accommodate our family.

I’m thankful for everyone’s insights about all the schools. We weren’t sure if we should use this as an opportunity to reevaluate our pyramid due to what we’ve heard from neighbors.

I hadn’t considered the AAP aspect. Our 2 kiddos are both AAP and our zoned school is our center school so with Langley pyramid we could potentially keep the same friend group throughout their education.
I didn’t realize Madison was so messy for AAP. I wonder if all the split feeding will be addressed with all these new boundary changes?

I don’t think there’s anyway to know if FCPS will address the split feeder situation at Madison until they come out with boundary proposals later this year.

In theory they could have aligned Madison’s boundaries with Thoreau’s and Marshall’s boundaries with Kilmer a few years ago and made both schools AAP centers, but they went in an opposite direction by expanding Thoreau’s boundaries to include areas that also feed to Oakton while keeping Jackson as an AAP center. So that would require a lot of changes to simplify now.

In general you’d find Madison families roll with it and are happy as long as their kids end up at Madison. Lots of kids attend the AAP centers at Kilmer and Jackson, but there’s less of a focus on AAP and TJ generally than in the Langley and McLean pyramids.

Vienna is very small town feel. I appreciate the diversity of schools to broaden the experience.

I know a bunch of Madison parents who have great things to say about the AAP program at Jackson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Cooper and Langley which is newly renovated and looks amazing inside. The kids love going there and learning is fun with so many electives and brand new music rooms. There are so many academic and social clubs at Langley and so many opportunities that the otter schools don’t have. I have other friends in the county and their experience is not so great with bullying and fighting. There is something for everyone in this pyramid.

And yet OP’s own neighbors at Cooper and Langley have reported some experiences that are giving her pause.

I think these posts are mostly coming from Langley posters who think it would be an act of treason to move to another pyramid.

If they find a new house zoned to Madison or McLean that’s within their budget and that they prefer to available Langley properties, that’s where they should go.

Different Langley pyramid poster. Exact opposite for me. If families don’t want Langley, I won’t object at all, more space for those of us that do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good morning!
We are currently zoned for Langley with kiddos mid elementary age. We are extremely happy with our elementary school, but are a little wary about Cooper and Langley based on what neighbors have shared

We are looking to move homes (for reasons unrelated to schools) and are now reconsidering whether we want to stay zoned for Langely.
We are currently looking at homes zoned for Langley, Mclean and Madison.

All other non school things being equal (housing prices, commute, etc) if you could chose to be zoned for Langley, McLean or Madison which would you choose and why?

Main difference between the 3 now are these negatives Thoreau-Madison and AAP, Mclean decrepit/overcapacity, Kent Gardens a mess and JIP at Great Falls. And IB looms as a bookend for Madison with Marshall /South Lakes on either side. Not good.

Boundary absurdities can be seen on Coates maps: https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/Coates-Area-Boundary-Maps.pdf That's 16 elementary schools with student counts per SPA.

Disagree. Biggest issues are the administrative turnover at Langley and Cooper (new principal at Langley and Cooper principal just left suddenly for another middle school) and continued angst over part of Langley possibly getting reassigned to Herndon.

McLean and Longfellow have stable leadership and no one at Madison cares if it’s bordered by two IB schools. Marshall shares boundaries with Langley and McLean and South Lakes also shares a boundary with Langley.

The immersion programs at Kent Gardens (French) and Great Falls (Japanese) are generally viewed as positives, not negatives.

Site based administrators come and go. Some are fine and others average or poor. So I stand by my post on the pyramid negatives but am adding the Madison split feeders. So on immersion. Kent Gardens French is a "hot" program located at a site with a concise base school boundary- 2 lane residential streets leading to the site. 12 trailers. No breakdown on FLI immersion: enrollment totals at either site - in or out of boundary, budgets, class sizes. JIP 28 transfers in for immersion and over 15 schools transferring in. All Great Falls transfer numbers <10 including Forestville and Colvin Run. Transfer numbers would be higher especially from those 2 if the program was desired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good morning!
We are currently zoned for Langley with kiddos mid elementary age. We are extremely happy with our elementary school, but are a little wary about Cooper and Langley based on what neighbors have shared

We are looking to move homes (for reasons unrelated to schools) and are now reconsidering whether we want to stay zoned for Langely.
We are currently looking at homes zoned for Langley, Mclean and Madison.

All other non school things being equal (housing prices, commute, etc) if you could chose to be zoned for Langley, McLean or Madison which would you choose and why?

Main difference between the 3 now are these negatives Thoreau-Madison and AAP, Mclean decrepit/overcapacity, Kent Gardens a mess and JIP at Great Falls. And IB looms as a bookend for Madison with Marshall /South Lakes on either side. Not good.

Boundary absurdities can be seen on Coates maps: https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/Coates-Area-Boundary-Maps.pdf That's 16 elementary schools with student counts per SPA.

Disagree. Biggest issues are the administrative turnover at Langley and Cooper (new principal at Langley and Cooper principal just left suddenly for another middle school) and continued angst over part of Langley possibly getting reassigned to Herndon.

McLean and Longfellow have stable leadership and no one at Madison cares if it’s bordered by two IB schools. Marshall shares boundaries with Langley and McLean and South Lakes also shares a boundary with Langley.

The immersion programs at Kent Gardens (French) and Great Falls (Japanese) are generally viewed as positives, not negatives.

Site based administrators come and go. Some are fine and others average or poor. So I stand by my post on the pyramid negatives but am adding the Madison split feeders. So on immersion. Kent Gardens French is a "hot" program located at a site with a concise base school boundary- 2 lane residential streets leading to the site. 12 trailers. No breakdown on FLI immersion: enrollment totals at either site - in or out of boundary, budgets, class sizes. JIP 28 transfers in for immersion and over 15 schools transferring in. All Great Falls transfer numbers <10 including Forestville and Colvin Run. Transfer numbers would be higher especially from those 2 if the program was desired.

You say site-based administrators “come and go” but the McLean principal has been there for over 12 years and the administration is held in high enough regard that the current principals of Falls Church, Justice, and Oakton all cut their teeth as APs under the McLean principal. The Longfellow principal also has a long history with the pyramid, apart from a few years he spent at Lake Braddock. The KG principal has a great reputation, too, and it’s not easy to run an immersion program and keep others happy. Sure, they won’t be there forever, but it’s a group of very solid administrators. The Haycock principal also just won the Region 2 “principal of the year” award.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reporting isn’t necessarily consistent across schools. One SB member has said some schools underreport because they don’t want to deal with aggressive parents who lawyer up, etc. That may not reflect well on FCPS but at least it’s candid.

So, if what you say is true about a SB member's statement then either

A. they'll endanger student safety because they don't want to deal with lawyers, but issues may be the same in that school as one with less-resourced parents or

B. in a more middle/working class school teachers/admin are allowed to be petty tyrant's messing with kid's lives by falsely accusing them or blowing some action out of proportion, because their parents don't have the money to fight them.

Just great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Cooper and Langley which is newly renovated and looks amazing inside. The kids love going there and learning is fun with so many electives and brand new music rooms. There are so many academic and social clubs at Langley and so many opportunities that the otter schools don’t have. I have other friends in the county and their experience is not so great with bullying and fighting. There is something for everyone in this pyramid.

And yet OP’s own neighbors at Cooper and Langley have reported some experiences that are giving her pause.

I think these posts are mostly coming from Langley posters who think it would be an act of treason to move to another pyramid.

If they find a new house zoned to Madison or McLean that’s within their budget and that they prefer to available Langley properties, that’s where they should go.

DP. Regarding your last sentence - absolutely! But the OP asked for experiences and opinions from people in all three pyramids. Are you trying to claim only your experience is valid? We've heard from McLean Mom, as well as several Madison parents. Langley parents are adding their two cents as well.

As for OP's neighbors, they would be "reporting some experiences" to her regardless of what the school was. Find one middle or high school in FCPS (or anywhere, really) that doesn't have certain kids vaping in the bathroom or picking occasional fights. We'll wait.

No doubt there have been multiple posters from each of the three pyramids. The Langley feedback comes across as more canned.

Oh, stop. McLean Mom has her usual silly brag list and does so on every thread comparing these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Cooper and Langley which is newly renovated and looks amazing inside. The kids love going there and learning is fun with so many electives and brand new music rooms. There are so many academic and social clubs at Langley and so many opportunities that the otter schools don’t have. I have other friends in the county and their experience is not so great with bullying and fighting. There is something for everyone in this pyramid.

And yet OP’s own neighbors at Cooper and Langley have reported some experiences that are giving her pause.

I think these posts are mostly coming from Langley posters who think it would be an act of treason to move to another pyramid.

If they find a new house zoned to Madison or McLean that’s within their budget and that they prefer to available Langley properties, that’s where they should go.

DP. Regarding your last sentence - absolutely! But the OP asked for experiences and opinions from people in all three pyramids. Are you trying to claim only your experience is valid? We've heard from McLean Mom, as well as several Madison parents. Langley parents are adding their two cents as well.

As for OP's neighbors, they would be "reporting some experiences" to her regardless of what the school was. Find one middle or high school in FCPS (or anywhere, really) that doesn't have certain kids vaping in the bathroom or picking occasional fights. We'll wait.

No doubt there have been multiple posters from each of the three pyramids. The Langley feedback comes across as more canned.

Oh, stop. McLean Mom has her usual silly brag list and does so on every thread comparing these schools.

DP. I think it’s more informative when posters explain a school’s strengths. What’s your problem?

[Anonymous]

I agree that it is helpful to hear everyone’s perspective of their pyramid based on their own experiences. I imagine there are very few people who have actual firsthand experience with multiple pyramids. So all anyone can do is share the strengths and weaknesses of the pyramid they know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good morning!
We are currently zoned for Langley with kiddos mid elementary age. We are extremely happy with our elementary school, but are a little wary about Cooper and Langley based on what neighbors have shared

We are looking to move homes (for reasons unrelated to schools) and are now reconsidering whether we want to stay zoned for Langely.
We are currently looking at homes zoned for Langley, Mclean and Madison.

All other non school things being equal (housing prices, commute, etc) if you could chose to be zoned for Langley, McLean or Madison which would you choose and why?

Main difference between the 3 now are these negatives Thoreau-Madison and AAP, Mclean decrepit/overcapacity, Kent Gardens a mess and JIP at Great Falls. And IB looms as a bookend for Madison with Marshall /South Lakes on either side. Not good.

Boundary absurdities can be seen on Coates maps: https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/Coates-Area-Boundary-Maps.pdf That's 16 elementary schools with student counts per SPA.

Disagree. Biggest issues are the administrative turnover at Langley and Cooper (new principal at Langley and Cooper principal just left suddenly for another middle school) and continued angst over part of Langley possibly getting reassigned to Herndon.

McLean and Longfellow have stable leadership and no one at Madison cares if it’s bordered by two IB schools. Marshall shares boundaries with Langley and McLean and South Lakes also shares a boundary with Langley.

The immersion programs at Kent Gardens (French) and Great Falls (Japanese) are generally viewed as positives, not negatives.

Site based administrators come and go. Some are fine and others average or poor. So I stand by my post on the pyramid negatives but am adding the Madison split feeders. So on immersion. Kent Gardens French is a "hot" program located at a site with a concise base school boundary- 2 lane residential streets leading to the site. 12 trailers. No breakdown on FLI immersion: enrollment totals at either site - in or out of boundary, budgets, class sizes. JIP 28 transfers in for immersion and over 15 schools transferring in. All Great Falls transfer numbers <10 including Forestville and Colvin Run. Transfer numbers would be higher especially from those 2 if the program was desired.

You say site-based administrators “come and go” but the McLean principal has been there for over 12 years and the administration is held in high enough regard that the current principals of Falls Church, Justice, and Oakton all cut their teeth as APs under the McLean principal. The Longfellow principal also has a long history with the pyramid, apart from a few years he spent at Lake Braddock. The KG principal has a great reputation, too, and it’s not easy to run an immersion program and keep others happy. Sure, they won’t be there forever, but it’s a group of very solid administrators. The Haycock principal also just won the Region 2 “principal of the year” award.

Immersion used to get 1 extra teacher and an aid. Full load classes for all grades 1-6 immersion should mean NO extra staffing.
How many immersion students in and out of boundary at each site per grade level? Class sizes for immersion and non immersion subjects? Kent Gardens split on out of boundary immersion for Langley, Mclean, and other pyramids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good morning!
We are currently zoned for Langley with kiddos mid elementary age. We are extremely happy with our elementary school, but are a little wary about Cooper and Langley based on what neighbors have shared

We are looking to move homes (for reasons unrelated to schools) and are now reconsidering whether we want to stay zoned for Langely.
We are currently looking at homes zoned for Langley, Mclean and Madison.

All other non school things being equal (housing prices, commute, etc) if you could chose to be zoned for Langley, McLean or Madison which would you choose and why?

Main difference between the 3 now are these negatives Thoreau-Madison and AAP, Mclean decrepit/overcapacity, Kent Gardens a mess and JIP at Great Falls. And IB looms as a bookend for Madison with Marshall /South Lakes on either side. Not good.

Boundary absurdities can be seen on Coates maps: https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/Coates-Area-Boundary-Maps.pdf That's 16 elementary schools with student counts per SPA.

Disagree. Biggest issues are the administrative turnover at Langley and Cooper (new principal at Langley and Cooper principal just left suddenly for another middle school) and continued angst over part of Langley possibly getting reassigned to Herndon.

McLean and Longfellow have stable leadership and no one at Madison cares if it’s bordered by two IB schools. Marshall shares boundaries with Langley and McLean and South Lakes also shares a boundary with Langley.

The immersion programs at Kent Gardens (French) and Great Falls (Japanese) are generally viewed as positives, not negatives.

Site based administrators come and go. Some are fine and others average or poor. So I stand by my post on the pyramid negatives but am adding the Madison split feeders. So on immersion. Kent Gardens French is a "hot" program located at a site with a concise base school boundary- 2 lane residential streets leading to the site. 12 trailers. No breakdown on FLI immersion: enrollment totals at either site - in or out of boundary, budgets, class sizes. JIP 28 transfers in for immersion and over 15 schools transferring in. All Great Falls transfer numbers <10 including Forestville and Colvin Run. Transfer numbers would be higher especially from those 2 if the program was desired.

You say site-based administrators “come and go” but the McLean principal has been there for over 12 years and the administration is held in high enough regard that the current principals of Falls Church, Justice, and Oakton all cut their teeth as APs under the McLean principal. The Longfellow principal also has a long history with the pyramid, apart from a few years he spent at Lake Braddock. The KG principal has a great reputation, too, and it’s not easy to run an immersion program and keep others happy. Sure, they won’t be there forever, but it’s a group of very solid administrators. The Haycock principal also just won the Region 2 “principal of the year” award.

Immersion used to get 1 extra teacher and an aid. Full load classes for all grades 1-6 immersion should mean NO extra staffing.
How many immersion students in and out of boundary at each site per grade level? Class sizes for immersion and non immersion subjects? Kent Gardens split on out of boundary immersion for Langley, Mclean, and other pyramids?

Kent Gardens has out of boundary kids for immersion. Langley also has over 100 kids this year pupil placed from other pyramids. It’s a positive for these schools, not a negative, that they attract kids from other pyramids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good morning!
We are currently zoned for Langley with kiddos mid elementary age. We are extremely happy with our elementary school, but are a little wary about Cooper and Langley based on what neighbors have shared

We are looking to move homes (for reasons unrelated to schools) and are now reconsidering whether we want to stay zoned for Langely.
We are currently looking at homes zoned for Langley, Mclean and Madison.

All other non school things being equal (housing prices, commute, etc) if you could chose to be zoned for Langley, McLean or Madison which would you choose and why?

Main difference between the 3 now are these negatives Thoreau-Madison and AAP, Mclean decrepit/overcapacity, Kent Gardens a mess and JIP at Great Falls. And IB looms as a bookend for Madison with Marshall /South Lakes on either side. Not good.

Boundary absurdities can be seen on Coates maps: https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/Coates-Area-Boundary-Maps.pdf That's 16 elementary schools with student counts per SPA.

Disagree. Biggest issues are the administrative turnover at Langley and Cooper (new principal at Langley and Cooper principal just left suddenly for another middle school) and continued angst over part of Langley possibly getting reassigned to Herndon.

McLean and Longfellow have stable leadership and no one at Madison cares if it’s bordered by two IB schools. Marshall shares boundaries with Langley and McLean and South Lakes also shares a boundary with Langley.

The immersion programs at Kent Gardens (French) and Great Falls (Japanese) are generally viewed as positives, not negatives.

Site based administrators come and go. Some are fine and others average or poor. So I stand by my post on the pyramid negatives but am adding the Madison split feeders. So on immersion. Kent Gardens French is a "hot" program located at a site with a concise base school boundary- 2 lane residential streets leading to the site. 12 trailers. No breakdown on FLI immersion: enrollment totals at either site - in or out of boundary, budgets, class sizes. JIP 28 transfers in for immersion and over 15 schools transferring in. All Great Falls transfer numbers <10 including Forestville and Colvin Run. Transfer numbers would be higher especially from those 2 if the program was desired.

You say site-based administrators “come and go” but the McLean principal has been there for over 12 years and the administration is held in high enough regard that the current principals of Falls Church, Justice, and Oakton all cut their teeth as APs under the McLean principal. The Longfellow principal also has a long history with the pyramid, apart from a few years he spent at Lake Braddock. The KG principal has a great reputation, too, and it’s not easy to run an immersion program and keep others happy. Sure, they won’t be there forever, but it’s a group of very solid administrators. The Haycock principal also just won the Region 2 “principal of the year” award.

Immersion used to get 1 extra teacher and an aid. Full load classes for all grades 1-6 immersion should mean NO extra staffing.
How many immersion students in and out of boundary at each site per grade level? Class sizes for immersion and non immersion subjects? Kent Gardens split on out of boundary immersion for Langley, Mclean, and other pyramids?

Kent Gardens has out of boundary kids for immersion. Langley also has over 100 kids this year pupil placed from other pyramids. It’s a positive for these schools, not a negative, that they attract kids from other pyramids.

Of course anyone can see the transfer data. That was not the question. FCPS used to give details on AAP per sending school and program enrollment per grade level. But that information is/was omitted on immersion. CIP capacity on Kent Gardens should have more details. Design and program capacity plus enrollment do not provide a clear picture on the site.

Clearly the French Immersion is an established program that is desired. It should be able to field 2 or 1 [attrition?] full load classes per grade level without negatively impacting staffing ratios for non immersion students. That is the real challenge and negative in these programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good morning!
We are currently zoned for Langley with kiddos mid elementary age. We are extremely happy with our elementary school, but are a little wary about Cooper and Langley based on what neighbors have shared

We are looking to move homes (for reasons unrelated to schools) and are now reconsidering whether we want to stay zoned for Langely.
We are currently looking at homes zoned for Langley, Mclean and Madison.

All other non school things being equal (housing prices, commute, etc) if you could chose to be zoned for Langley, McLean or Madison which would you choose and why?

Main difference between the 3 now are these negatives Thoreau-Madison and AAP, Mclean decrepit/overcapacity, Kent Gardens a mess and JIP at Great Falls. And IB looms as a bookend for Madison with Marshall /South Lakes on either side. Not good.

Boundary absurdities can be seen on Coates maps: https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/Coates-Area-Boundary-Maps.pdf That's 16 elementary schools with student counts per SPA.

Disagree. Biggest issues are the administrative turnover at Langley and Cooper (new principal at Langley and Cooper principal just left suddenly for another middle school) and continued angst over part of Langley possibly getting reassigned to Herndon.

McLean and Longfellow have stable leadership and no one at Madison cares if it’s bordered by two IB schools. Marshall shares boundaries with Langley and McLean and South Lakes also shares a boundary with Langley.

The immersion programs at Kent Gardens (French) and Great Falls (Japanese) are generally viewed as positives, not negatives.

Site based administrators come and go. Some are fine and others average or poor. So I stand by my post on the pyramid negatives but am adding the Madison split feeders. So on immersion. Kent Gardens French is a "hot" program located at a site with a concise base school boundary- 2 lane residential streets leading to the site. 12 trailers. No breakdown on FLI immersion: enrollment totals at either site - in or out of boundary, budgets, class sizes. JIP 28 transfers in for immersion and over 15 schools transferring in. All Great Falls transfer numbers <10 including Forestville and Colvin Run. Transfer numbers would be higher especially from those 2 if the program was desired.

You say site-based administrators “come and go” but the McLean principal has been there for over 12 years and the administration is held in high enough regard that the current principals of Falls Church, Justice, and Oakton all cut their teeth as APs under the McLean principal. The Longfellow principal also has a long history with the pyramid, apart from a few years he spent at Lake Braddock. The KG principal has a great reputation, too, and it’s not easy to run an immersion program and keep others happy. Sure, they won’t be there forever, but it’s a group of very solid administrators. The Haycock principal also just won the Region 2 “principal of the year” award.

Immersion used to get 1 extra teacher and an aid. Full load classes for all grades 1-6 immersion should mean NO extra staffing.
How many immersion students in and out of boundary at each site per grade level? Class sizes for immersion and non immersion subjects? Kent Gardens split on out of boundary immersion for Langley, Mclean, and other pyramids?

Kent Gardens has out of boundary kids for immersion. Langley also has over 100 kids this year pupil placed from other pyramids. It’s a positive for these schools, not a negative, that they attract kids from other pyramids.

Of course anyone can see the transfer data. That was not the question. FCPS used to give details on AAP per sending school and program enrollment per grade level. But that information is/was omitted on immersion. CIP capacity on Kent Gardens should have more details. Design and program capacity plus enrollment do not provide a clear picture on the site.

Clearly the French Immersion is an established program that is desired. It should be able to field 2 or 1 [attrition?] full load classes per grade level without negatively impacting staffing ratios for non immersion students. That is the real challenge and negative in these programs.

There is a Japanese immersion program at Great Falls and AAP centers at Colvin Run and Churchill Road in the Langley pyramid, so you could raise the same issues as to whether these programs somehow have a detrimental effect on staffing ratios and other students at those schools.

Instead, you seem to have a particular fixation on Kent Gardens in the McLean pyramid. People I know are very happy there and think Holly McGuigan is great.