FCPS Boundary Review Updates

[Anonymous]

West Springfield is only 17 percent farms. In a school system of what? 35-40 percent farms? Of course its working!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I get a TL;DR on what the worst case scenario here is? Is there some sort of specific secret map somewhere that they are trying to get passed? Considering all the “DEI” being thrown around as I’m skimming, my spidey senses tell me this all boils down to parents being afraid they will be redistricted to a “too poor” or “too brown” school, but honestly I’m having trouble figuring out exactly what all the uproar is over given the lack of details available (that I’ve seen, and admittedly have been paying very little attention).

I'll bite.

You spend a lot of time researching schools when selecting your home, and often pay a premium to buy your home,for whatever reasons you have.

In the case of my kid's high school, WSHS, I am a minority who looked at tests scores at the schools, and picked WSHS because it was the best district we could afford at the top of our budget, with one of the most "middle class" upper middle class communities in FCPS.

Then I looked at test scores, which clearly show that the "too brown" kids as you so disdainfully refer to in your post, have closed the achievement gap at WSHS.

Our black and hispanic Spartans score roughly the same on tests and take the same percentage of advanced courses as the white and asian kids at WSHS. They are academic superstars, and school leaders, in a critical enough percentage of the student population that they are the norm, not the exception. Because of this, they are not seen as "too brown" but rather just regular kids whose skin color is irrelevant, instead of always being singled out in good or bad ways by people in power who only see the students as skin color or ethnic groups.

I know of many WSHS parents, of all colors, races, and backgrounds, but certainly minority parents, who chose to buy in our school zone for exactly the same reason.

Do you know what it is like to be one of a dozen minority students in a school of over 2000 students? I do.

It is insulting and degrading for you who are on the side of the school board to diminish these kids to just their skin color, and to discredit the parents who want to remain in a school that they selected because all of the kids of whatever background are more likely to succeed.

Yes, I love this post. We are a WSHS family that wants to stay. I love our diverse school and love the friend groups my kids have and that we have made friends with the parents as well. West Springfield keeps getting accused of being afraid of moving to Lewis with the "brown kids" and it's insulting. We have a very diverse school that is WORKING. It should be the model for FCPS high schools, not being broken up to fix a different school.

Here’s the thing: moving WSHS kids to Lewis won’t “fix” the school. Plenty of kids there are doing just fine. What the school board is trying to do is mask the fact that many ESOL kids at that school aren’t doing fine and are failing state standardized tests because they can’t keep up with the curriculum while also trying to learn English. The county is failing them and the school board wants to mask the problem by importing in more MC kids to hide that fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:West Springfield is only 17 percent farms. In a school system of what? 35-40 percent farms? Of course its working!

It is relatively low FARMs, but it's actually WSHS's 4.9% English Language Learner percentage that is boosting average scores immensely. Only Langley has less ELL at 4.6%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I get a TL;DR on what the worst case scenario here is? Is there some sort of specific secret map somewhere that they are trying to get passed? Considering all the “DEI” being thrown around as I’m skimming, my spidey senses tell me this all boils down to parents being afraid they will be redistricted to a “too poor” or “too brown” school, but honestly I’m having trouble figuring out exactly what all the uproar is over given the lack of details available (that I’ve seen, and admittedly have been paying very little attention).

I'll bite.

You spend a lot of time researching schools when selecting your home, and often pay a premium to buy your home,for whatever reasons you have.

In the case of my kid's high school, WSHS, I am a minority who looked at tests scores at the schools, and picked WSHS because it was the best district we could afford at the top of our budget, with one of the most "middle class" upper middle class communities in FCPS.

Then I looked at test scores, which clearly show that the "too brown" kids as you so disdainfully refer to in your post, have closed the achievement gap at WSHS.

Our black and hispanic Spartans score roughly the same on tests and take the same percentage of advanced courses as the white and asian kids at WSHS. They are academic superstars, and school leaders, in a critical enough percentage of the student population that they are the norm, not the exception. Because of this, they are not seen as "too brown" but rather just regular kids whose skin color is irrelevant, instead of always being singled out in good or bad ways by people in power who only see the students as skin color or ethnic groups.

I know of many WSHS parents, of all colors, races, and backgrounds, but certainly minority parents, who chose to buy in our school zone for exactly the same reason.

Do you know what it is like to be one of a dozen minority students in a school of over 2000 students? I do.

It is insulting and degrading for you who are on the side of the school board to diminish these kids to just their skin color, and to discredit the parents who want to remain in a school that they selected because all of the kids of whatever background are more likely to succeed.

Yes, I love this post. We are a WSHS family that wants to stay. I love our diverse school and love the friend groups my kids have and that we have made friends with the parents as well. West Springfield keeps getting accused of being afraid of moving to Lewis with the "brown kids" and it's insulting. We have a very diverse school that is WORKING. It should be the model for FCPS high schools, not being broken up to fix a different school.

Here’s the thing: moving WSHS kids to Lewis won’t “fix” the school. Plenty of kids there are doing just fine. What the school board is trying to do is mask the fact that many ESOL kids at that school aren’t doing fine and are failing state standardized tests because they can’t keep up with the curriculum while also trying to learn English. The county is failing them and the school board wants to mask the problem by importing in more MC kids to hide that fact.

Yup- this^^

[Anonymous]

The county is failing them and the school board wants to mask the problem by importing in more MC kids to hide that fact.

That is the only purpose of this boundary study. To mask problems in schools with a large proportion of struggling students.
If they spent the money that this study/bouundary change will cost, they could do a lot for those students. Moving 6th grade to middle school also will not make a difference. In fact, I would think struggling students will struggle more in middle school than in elementary. Has Reid considered that?

And, there is no money for UPK Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I get a TL;DR on what the worst case scenario here is? Is there some sort of specific secret map somewhere that they are trying to get passed? Considering all the “DEI” being thrown around as I’m skimming, my spidey senses tell me this all boils down to parents being afraid they will be redistricted to a “too poor” or “too brown” school, but honestly I’m having trouble figuring out exactly what all the uproar is over given the lack of details available (that I’ve seen, and admittedly have been paying very little attention).

TLR parents don’t want their kids moved. Particularly parents of current middle schoolhigh school kids whose kids may be moved in the middle of high school.

Most schools in FCPS are majority “brown and black” or majority minority.

Agree. People just want to stay where they are. The SB would like to act like the only reason people are against it is "racist," but that is not it. Families are invested in their schools.

I live in a neighborhood that might be moved away from our closest school. We don't want to be moved.

+1

We are in Robinson and may be moved to LB. The schools are equivalent but that does not mean I want DC to have to move mid way through HS.

[Anonymous]

Why are they intent on 6th to MS? Besides Anderson’s campaigning on it I mean?

Is it just to make room for the expanded Pre K program FCPS can’t afford?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I get a TL;DR on what the worst case scenario here is? Is there some sort of specific secret map somewhere that they are trying to get passed? Considering all the “DEI” being thrown around as I’m skimming, my spidey senses tell me this all boils down to parents being afraid they will be redistricted to a “too poor” or “too brown” school, but honestly I’m having trouble figuring out exactly what all the uproar is over given the lack of details available (that I’ve seen, and admittedly have been paying very little attention).

There are certain areas that feel vulnerable to redistricting because they live very far from their assigned school and another school is much closer. Coincidentally, this area is a wealthy area that has routinely fought against any change that might affect it in the past. And they usually got their way. So that area has been fighting tooth and nail against the boundary review process. Hundreds of pages on DCUM, a new FB group formed that has flooded all community meetings. There are no proposed changes yet but they are constant in their fight against any possible changes. And this group makes a lot of noise. The rest of us are waiting for the process to produce proposed changes.

Welcome to the new thread. Ironic that you complain about the hundreds of pages on DCUM when you contributed numerous pages to that thread.

You’re the very transparent Langley hating SB shill, who wants everyone to close their eyes until it is too late.

We’re not interested in accommodating your agenda.

[Anonymous]

I've no idea how many Langley people are on here--probably a lot read it. However, there are plenty of others who are very concerned about this. It is not about being sent to a lower performing school, it is about staying where you are.
I just remember when some Chantilly families were sent to the "better" Oakton. They were very upset. Why? Kids had grown up playing CYA sports. They had siblings at Chantilly and lived VERY close to Chantilly. One parent later attacked Kathy Smith when she was running for Supervisor because she was on the School Board. Neighborhoods were pitted against neighborhoods.
Boundaries should not be changed unless it is absolutely necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've no idea how many Langley people are on here--probably a lot read it. However, there are plenty of others who are very concerned about this. It is not about being sent to a lower performing school, it is about staying where you are.
I just remember when some Chantilly families were sent to the "better" Oakton. They were very upset. Why? Kids had grown up playing CYA sports. They had siblings at Chantilly and lived VERY close to Chantilly. One parent later attacked Kathy Smith when she was running for Supervisor because she was on the School Board. Neighborhoods were pitted against neighborhoods.
Boundaries should not be changed unless it is absolutely necessary.

Amen. This school board thinks kids are just interchangeable cogs in the FCPS machine.

I’m always floored that the SB has such disdain for its students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish that the list of pyramid reps also included the neighborhood or elementary school they are in.
Look at the boundaries and tell me that a rep from the far north of a pyramid is going to rep the person on the far south of the pyramid.

And, also tell me what a special ed rep has to do with boundaries. Or an LGBTQ rep. Etc.

So the special ed reps are fairly critical to the rezoning process.

There are many specific special ed federal laws related to services, 504s, IEPs and Least Restrictive Environment that are critical for FCPS to follow to prevent lawsuits and OCR investigations.

For example, many special ed kids are bussed completely out of their pyramid for school, with no other options, giving hem very long bus rides and preventing them from being educated in the Least Restrictive Environment.

Rezoning impacts all of those federal requirements for special needs students, so having their advocacy groups as part of the rezoning process makes perfect sense and will hopefully save FCPS money on lawyers to defend lawsuits for violating federal special education law.

The same with having a military family representative on the committee.

Because of the high military population in FCPS, particularly the schools just outside of the Mixing Bowl, FCPS receives millions of dollars each year in federal Impact Aid. Military families are also protected by various federal laws that are unique to military dependents, and tied to this Impact Aid funding in some cases. Having a military family rep on the BRAC committee makes sense, as they are often experts in those laws and issues unique to military kids, such as transferring credits between states and continuity for military dependents who PCS into FCPS during high school.

Special Ed and Military Families are two special interest groups that belong on the committee to help FCPS to follow federal law unique to those two groups of students.

I believe that the OCRs have been let go or are on the list of people to cut. If the Department of Education is shuttered or massively scaled back, the Federal ability to track and force compliance for SPED programs will be massively hindered.

I was the poster who suggested that "equitable access to programs" while limiting student transfers might mean an IB program within each pyramid. I don't think for a second that FCPS would do that because it would be expensive and I don't think there is any demand for it. But if they are talking about equitable access that means that they need to have a way to provide the same or similar programs to all students.

My kid is scheduled to attend an IB program and would be thrilled if IB went away, we are planning to principal place to another school for AP.


I did not think principal placing was permitted. We tried to request a transfer from an IB to AP school through the student transfer portal and both schools closest to us are closed to transfers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish that the list of pyramid reps also included the neighborhood or elementary school they are in.
Look at the boundaries and tell me that a rep from the far north of a pyramid is going to rep the person on the far south of the pyramid.

And, also tell me what a special ed rep has to do with boundaries. Or an LGBTQ rep. Etc.

So the special ed reps are fairly critical to the rezoning process.

There are many specific special ed federal laws related to services, 504s, IEPs and Least Restrictive Environment that are critical for FCPS to follow to prevent lawsuits and OCR investigations.

For example, many special ed kids are bussed completely out of their pyramid for school, with no other options, giving hem very long bus rides and preventing them from being educated in the Least Restrictive Environment.

Rezoning impacts all of those federal requirements for special needs students, so having their advocacy groups as part of the rezoning process makes perfect sense and will hopefully save FCPS money on lawyers to defend lawsuits for violating federal special education law.

The same with having a military family representative on the committee.

Because of the high military population in FCPS, particularly the schools just outside of the Mixing Bowl, FCPS receives millions of dollars each year in federal Impact Aid. Military families are also protected by various federal laws that are unique to military dependents, and tied to this Impact Aid funding in some cases. Having a military family rep on the BRAC committee makes sense, as they are often experts in those laws and issues unique to military kids, such as transferring credits between states and continuity for military dependents who PCS into FCPS during high school.

Special Ed and Military Families are two special interest groups that belong on the committee to help FCPS to follow federal law unique to those two groups of students.

I believe that the OCRs have been let go or are on the list of people to cut. If the Department of Education is shuttered or massively scaled back, the Federal ability to track and force compliance for SPED programs will be massively hindered.

I was the poster who suggested that "equitable access to programs" while limiting student transfers might mean an IB program within each pyramid. I don't think for a second that FCPS would do that because it would be expensive and I don't think there is any demand for it. But if they are talking about equitable access that means that they need to have a way to provide the same or similar programs to all students.

My kid is scheduled to attend an IB program and would be thrilled if IB went away, we are planning to principal place to another school for AP.

I did not think principal placing was permitted. We tried to request a transfer from an IB to AP school through the student transfer portal and both schools closest to us are closed to transfers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I get a TL;DR on what the worst case scenario here is? Is there some sort of specific secret map somewhere that they are trying to get passed? Considering all the “DEI” being thrown around as I’m skimming, my spidey senses tell me this all boils down to parents being afraid they will be redistricted to a “too poor” or “too brown” school, but honestly I’m having trouble figuring out exactly what all the uproar is over given the lack of details available (that I’ve seen, and admittedly have been paying very little attention).

TLR parents don’t want their kids moved. Particularly parents of current middle schoolhigh school kids whose kids may be moved in the middle of high school.

Most schools in FCPS are majority “brown and black” or majority minority.

I’ll add that I have children still in daycare and I’m against this! When considering job locations, we decided on northern Virginia for their schools and bought our home in the pyramid we wanted. We’ve made sacrifices to be here. I envisioned my kids going to these schools and growing up in these communities for the next 14-18 years like I did.

I know someone will mention “but you should know it could be redistricted” and/or “your mistake for tying home value to something that could change” yada yada. But the vision I had for my very young family already feels so swiped over this SB’s pettiness and stubbornness to listen to their community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've no idea how many Langley people are on here--probably a lot read it. However, there are plenty of others who are very concerned about this. It is not about being sent to a lower performing school, it is about staying where you are.
I just remember when some Chantilly families were sent to the "better" Oakton. They were very upset. Why? Kids had grown up playing CYA sports. They had siblings at Chantilly and lived VERY close to Chantilly. One parent later attacked Kathy Smith when she was running for Supervisor because she was on the School Board. Neighborhoods were pitted against neighborhoods.
Boundaries should not be changed unless it is absolutely necessary.

Amen. This school board thinks kids are just interchangeable cogs in the FCPS machine.

I’m always floored that the SB has such disdain for its students.

Well technically they are interchangeable for purposes of redistricting. Your house location serves as a proxy for SES and fits the profile of the type of kids they want to move. Anyone who can afford your house will do. There is nothing unique about your child that another child whose parents are in the same economic range couldn't achieve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've no idea how many Langley people are on here--probably a lot read it. However, there are plenty of others who are very concerned about this. It is not about being sent to a lower performing school, it is about staying where you are.
I just remember when some Chantilly families were sent to the "better" Oakton. They were very upset. Why? Kids had grown up playing CYA sports. They had siblings at Chantilly and lived VERY close to Chantilly. One parent later attacked Kathy Smith when she was running for Supervisor because she was on the School Board. Neighborhoods were pitted against neighborhoods.
Boundaries should not be changed unless it is absolutely necessary.

Amen. This school board thinks kids are just interchangeable cogs in the FCPS machine.

I’m always floored that the SB has such disdain for its students.

Well technically they are interchangeable for purposes of redistricting. Your house location serves as a proxy for SES and fits the profile of the type of kids they want to move. Anyone who can afford your house will do. There is nothing unique about your child that another child whose parents are in the same economic range couldn't achieve.

If you want to be a cynic, fine, but don't serve it up with such a word salad.