Hearing Testimony on FCPS Proposed CIP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a plan to close Lee:

Move Bren Mar Park back to Annandale from Edison [Annandale is projected to have space]

Move Springfield Estates and Lynbrook from Lee to Edison [Swap at Edison - might need to add modular]

Move Forestdale from Lee to Hayfield [Hayfield is projected to have space]

Move Saratoga from Lee to South County [SoCo is projected to have space]

Move Crestwood and the portion of Rolling Valley at Lee to West Springfield [Swap at West Springfield]

Move Orange Hunt and the portion of Sangster at West Springfield to Lake Braddock [Swap at West Springfield; Lake Braddocik is projected to have space]

They should keep Mount Vernon open, but move Fort Hunt there from West Potomac

[Mount Vernon is projected to have space]

Sorry but this is the silliest, most ridiculous and disruptive idea ever posted on this board about redistricting, and that is saying a lot.

Why? Scared of kids from Lee coming to your school?

Because it shows how very disruptive closing a high school would be.

It may be disruptive to close a high school, but it's also disgraceful to neglect one.

Lee is not get neglected.

They were given IB.

They are given more funds.

They have beautiful athletic fields.

They are smaller than all of the surrounding high schools.

Their building needs updating, but that will come.in time.

They have some great teachers there.

They are not being neglected. They serve a needier population so they have lower achievement in spite of getting more funds and more attention.

Your idea disrupts the lives, plans and yes, real estate values of thousands of families. And it does not guarantee higher achievement anywhere.

It is a silly idea.

Moving 10 or so kids per grade so they are zoned for the same middle and high school as every other kid in their school is a non disruptive, low cost, smart idea.

Getting IB was not helpful to Lee. It has contributed to the flight from Lee.

The turf field was paid for by Vornado when they redeveloped the mall (it was a proffer, basically extorted out of the developer by the county). Other than that, the fields at Lee are OK. The sports boosters struggle to raise the necessary funds every year to make their mandatory contribution to field upkeep.

Being smaller does not necessarily mean smaller class sizes, but it does cause issues as far as the number of course offerings.

Not sure why people think the building needs updating. It was renovated around 2005 and looks fine inside. Maybe not quite as fancy as some of the most recent renovations. Outside the school looks a lot like many of the other FCPS schools.

It won't be 10 or so Rolling Valley students per grade attending Lee. It will likely be twice that. The video testimony by Rolling Valley parents indicates the average has been about 20 per year (per grade) that are supposed to go to Key and Lee. People will stop pupil placing and send their kids to WS. This adds up to about 70-80 students across four grades. They said the same thing about Daventry (about 10 per grade). It has actually been closer to 25. So Daventry will eventually send between 90 and 100 students to WS. Add 70-80 from Rolling Valley to the 90-100 from Daventry and now you have 160-180 students - that is 10% of the current Lee enrollment. And very few of these students are likely to be participants in the F/R lunch program. You see how this spirals out of control when you are only taking a 'small group'.

The current county projection after the construction/expansion of WS is for the school to be at 105% of capacity within a few years (that factors in the new capacity of 2350 students). Lee will only be at 85%.

Now, for the odds of RV moving out of Lee either next year or the year after. I give it about 75/25 that it does happen. When Daventry moved no one outside of the Daventry community knew anything about it until it was pretty much a done deal. They did not need to have it approved by the School Board because it was a small group (<5% - at least that is what they claimed at the time). So I do think the odds say the RV to WS move will likely happen (FCPS is obsessed with closing split feeders, damn the consequences). Though notice from my above paragraph that Rolling Valley and Daventry combined will be about 10% of the Lee enrollment - so you can piecemeal these changes without getting School Board approval as long as each piece is below 5% (and ignoring current pupil placements that alter the numbers). I think the RV parents were told by a School Board member to appear at the CIP hearing to officially testify as part of checking off a box on the way to making the administrative change. I think something is afoot here, so keep your eyes open.

No, they are not closing Lee - the surrounding schools do not have the capacity to absorb 1700 students.

And obviously, One Fairfax is a joke.

If they are already pupil placing to WSHS then they are already counted in the enrollment numbers.

[Anonymous]

Daventry was not 100 kids per grade moving over.

[Anonymous]

Daventry was a small number of kids. Split feeders that are a tiny group of students should all be ended. Daventry is a model on what fcps should do district wide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St. Bernadette’s, nativity, John Paul the great, trinity, Immanuel Christian. There are a lot of private schools.

Those are almost all elementary schools. Not an option for those fleeing Lee.

As stated earlier, there are established carpools to a variety of private schools in the area. People choose private school for many different reasons and one of them is dissatisfaction with the public base school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daventry was not 100 kids per grade moving over.

90-100 students total across four grades. They estimated it would only be around half that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a plan to close Lee:

Move Bren Mar Park back to Annandale from Edison [Annandale is projected to have space]

Move Springfield Estates and Lynbrook from Lee to Edison [Swap at Edison - might need to add modular]

Move Forestdale from Lee to Hayfield [Hayfield is projected to have space]

Move Saratoga from Lee to South County [SoCo is projected to have space]

Move Crestwood and the portion of Rolling Valley at Lee to West Springfield [Swap at West Springfield]

Move Orange Hunt and the portion of Sangster at West Springfield to Lake Braddock [Swap at West Springfield; Lake Braddocik is projected to have space]

They should keep Mount Vernon open, but move Fort Hunt there from West Potomac

[Mount Vernon is projected to have space]

Sorry but this is the silliest, most ridiculous and disruptive idea ever posted on this board about redistricting, and that is saying a lot.

Why? Scared of kids from Lee coming to your school?

Because it shows how very disruptive closing a high school would be.

It may be disruptive to close a high school, but it's also disgraceful to neglect one.

Lee is not get neglected.

They were given IB.

They are given more funds.

They have beautiful athletic fields.

They are smaller than all of the surrounding high schools.

Their building needs updating, but that will come.in time.

They have some great teachers there.

They are not being neglected. They serve a needier population so they have lower achievement in spite of getting more funds and more attention.

Your idea disrupts the lives, plans and yes, real estate values of thousands of families. And it does not guarantee higher achievement anywhere.

It is a silly idea.

Moving 10 or so kids per grade so they are zoned for the same middle and high school as every other kid in their school is a non disruptive, low cost, smart idea.

Getting IB was not helpful to Lee. It has contributed to the flight from Lee.

The turf field was paid for by Vornado when they redeveloped the mall (it was a proffer, basically extorted out of the developer by the county). Other than that, the fields at Lee are OK. The sports boosters struggle to raise the necessary funds every year to make their mandatory contribution to field upkeep.

Being smaller does not necessarily mean smaller class sizes, but it does cause issues as far as the number of course offerings.

Not sure why people think the building needs updating. It was renovated around 2005 and looks fine inside. Maybe not quite as fancy as some of the most recent renovations. Outside the school looks a lot like many of the other FCPS schools.

It won't be 10 or so Rolling Valley students per grade attending Lee. It will likely be twice that. The video testimony by Rolling Valley parents indicates the average has been about 20 per year (per grade) that are supposed to go to Key and Lee. People will stop pupil placing and send their kids to WS. This adds up to about 70-80 students across four grades. They said the same thing about Daventry (about 10 per grade). It has actually been closer to 25. So Daventry will eventually send between 90 and 100 students to WS. Add 70-80 from Rolling Valley to the 90-100 from Daventry and now you have 160-180 students - that is 10% of the current Lee enrollment. And very few of these students are likely to be participants in the F/R lunch program. You see how this spirals out of control when you are only taking a 'small group'.

The current county projection after the construction/expansion of WS is for the school to be at 105% of capacity within a few years (that factors in the new capacity of 2350 students). Lee will only be at 85%.

Now, for the odds of RV moving out of Lee either next year or the year after. I give it about 75/25 that it does happen. When Daventry moved no one outside of the Daventry community knew anything about it until it was pretty much a done deal. They did not need to have it approved by the School Board because it was a small group (<5% - at least that is what they claimed at the time). So I do think the odds say the RV to WS move will likely happen (FCPS is obsessed with closing split feeders, damn the consequences). Though notice from my above paragraph that Rolling Valley and Daventry combined will be about 10% of the Lee enrollment - so you can piecemeal these changes without getting School Board approval as long as each piece is below 5% (and ignoring current pupil placements that alter the numbers). I think the RV parents were told by a School Board member to appear at the CIP hearing to officially testify as part of checking off a box on the way to making the administrative change. I think something is afoot here, so keep your eyes open.

No, they are not closing Lee - the surrounding schools do not have the capacity to absorb 1700 students.

And obviously, One Fairfax is a joke.

If they are already pupil placing to WSHS then they are already counted in the enrollment numbers.

Not pupil placed to WS as it has been closed to pupil placements. More likely South County or LB.

[Anonymous]

I would be interested in seeing data on the number of households in Fairfax Co. with school-aged children that do not attend public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a plan to close Lee:

Move Bren Mar Park back to Annandale from Edison [Annandale is projected to have space]

Move Springfield Estates and Lynbrook from Lee to Edison [Swap at Edison - might need to add modular]

Move Forestdale from Lee to Hayfield [Hayfield is projected to have space]

Move Saratoga from Lee to South County [SoCo is projected to have space]

Move Crestwood and the portion of Rolling Valley at Lee to West Springfield [Swap at West Springfield]

Move Orange Hunt and the portion of Sangster at West Springfield to Lake Braddock [Swap at West Springfield; Lake Braddocik is projected to have space]

They should keep Mount Vernon open, but move Fort Hunt there from West Potomac

[Mount Vernon is projected to have space]

Sorry but this is the silliest, most ridiculous and disruptive idea ever posted on this board about redistricting, and that is saying a lot.

Why? Scared of kids from Lee coming to your school?

Because it shows how very disruptive closing a high school would be.

It may be disruptive to close a high school, but it's also disgraceful to neglect one.

Lee is not get neglected.

They were given IB.

They are given more funds.

They have beautiful athletic fields.

They are smaller than all of the surrounding high schools.

Their building needs updating, but that will come.in time.

They have some great teachers there.

They are not being neglected. They serve a needier population so they have lower achievement in spite of getting more funds and more attention.

Your idea disrupts the lives, plans and yes, real estate values of thousands of families. And it does not guarantee higher achievement anywhere.

It is a silly idea.

Moving 10 or so kids per grade so they are zoned for the same middle and high school as every other kid in their school is a non disruptive, low cost, smart idea.

Getting IB was not helpful to Lee. It has contributed to the flight from Lee.

The turf field was paid for by Vornado when they redeveloped the mall (it was a proffer, basically extorted out of the developer by the county). Other than that, the fields at Lee are OK. The sports boosters struggle to raise the necessary funds every year to make their mandatory contribution to field upkeep.

Being smaller does not necessarily mean smaller class sizes, but it does cause issues as far as the number of course offerings.

Not sure why people think the building needs updating. It was renovated around 2005 and looks fine inside. Maybe not quite as fancy as some of the most recent renovations. Outside the school looks a lot like many of the other FCPS schools.

It won't be 10 or so Rolling Valley students per grade attending Lee. It will likely be twice that. The video testimony by Rolling Valley parents indicates the average has been about 20 per year (per grade) that are supposed to go to Key and Lee. People will stop pupil placing and send their kids to WS. This adds up to about 70-80 students across four grades. They said the same thing about Daventry (about 10 per grade). It has actually been closer to 25. So Daventry will eventually send between 90 and 100 students to WS. Add 70-80 from Rolling Valley to the 90-100 from Daventry and now you have 160-180 students - that is 10% of the current Lee enrollment. And very few of these students are likely to be participants in the F/R lunch program. You see how this spirals out of control when you are only taking a 'small group'.

The current county projection after the construction/expansion of WS is for the school to be at 105% of capacity within a few years (that factors in the new capacity of 2350 students). Lee will only be at 85%.

Now, for the odds of RV moving out of Lee either next year or the year after. I give it about 75/25 that it does happen. When Daventry moved no one outside of the Daventry community knew anything about it until it was pretty much a done deal. They did not need to have it approved by the School Board because it was a small group (<5% - at least that is what they claimed at the time). So I do think the odds say the RV to WS move will likely happen (FCPS is obsessed with closing split feeders, damn the consequences). Though notice from my above paragraph that Rolling Valley and Daventry combined will be about 10% of the Lee enrollment - so you can piecemeal these changes without getting School Board approval as long as each piece is below 5% (and ignoring current pupil placements that alter the numbers). I think the RV parents were told by a School Board member to appear at the CIP hearing to officially testify as part of checking off a box on the way to making the administrative change. I think something is afoot here, so keep your eyes open.

No, they are not closing Lee - the surrounding schools do not have the capacity to absorb 1700 students.

And obviously, One Fairfax is a joke.

If they are already pupil placing to WSHS then they are already counted in the enrollment numbers.

Not pupil placed to WS as it has been closed to pupil placements. More likely South County or LB.

West Springfield will open to pupil placements when construction is finished. At that time, the school will have space available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a plan to close Lee:

Move Bren Mar Park back to Annandale from Edison [Annandale is projected to have space]

Move Springfield Estates and Lynbrook from Lee to Edison [Swap at Edison - might need to add modular]

Move Forestdale from Lee to Hayfield [Hayfield is projected to have space]

Move Saratoga from Lee to South County [SoCo is projected to have space]

Move Crestwood and the portion of Rolling Valley at Lee to West Springfield [Swap at West Springfield]

Move Orange Hunt and the portion of Sangster at West Springfield to Lake Braddock [Swap at West Springfield; Lake Braddocik is projected to have space]

They should keep Mount Vernon open, but move Fort Hunt there from West Potomac

[Mount Vernon is projected to have space]

Sorry but this is the silliest, most ridiculous and disruptive idea ever posted on this board about redistricting, and that is saying a lot.

Why? Scared of kids from Lee coming to your school?

Because it shows how very disruptive closing a high school would be.

It may be disruptive to close a high school, but it's also disgraceful to neglect one.

Lee is not get neglected.

They were given IB.

They are given more funds.

They have beautiful athletic fields.

They are smaller than all of the surrounding high schools.

Their building needs updating, but that will come.in time.

They have some great teachers there.

They are not being neglected. They serve a needier population so they have lower achievement in spite of getting more funds and more attention.

Your idea disrupts the lives, plans and yes, real estate values of thousands of families. And it does not guarantee higher achievement anywhere.

It is a silly idea.

Moving 10 or so kids per grade so they are zoned for the same middle and high school as every other kid in their school is a non disruptive, low cost, smart idea.

Getting IB was not helpful to Lee. It has contributed to the flight from Lee.

The turf field was paid for by Vornado when they redeveloped the mall (it was a proffer, basically extorted out of the developer by the county). Other than that, the fields at Lee are OK. The sports boosters struggle to raise the necessary funds every year to make their mandatory contribution to field upkeep.

Being smaller does not necessarily mean smaller class sizes, but it does cause issues as far as the number of course offerings.

Not sure why people think the building needs updating. It was renovated around 2005 and looks fine inside. Maybe not quite as fancy as some of the most recent renovations. Outside the school looks a lot like many of the other FCPS schools.

It won't be 10 or so Rolling Valley students per grade attending Lee. It will likely be twice that. The video testimony by Rolling Valley parents indicates the average has been about 20 per year (per grade) that are supposed to go to Key and Lee. People will stop pupil placing and send their kids to WS. This adds up to about 70-80 students across four grades. They said the same thing about Daventry (about 10 per grade). It has actually been closer to 25. So Daventry will eventually send between 90 and 100 students to WS. Add 70-80 from Rolling Valley to the 90-100 from Daventry and now you have 160-180 students - that is 10% of the current Lee enrollment. And very few of these students are likely to be participants in the F/R lunch program. You see how this spirals out of control when you are only taking a 'small group'.

The current county projection after the construction/expansion of WS is for the school to be at 105% of capacity within a few years (that factors in the new capacity of 2350 students). Lee will only be at 85%.

Now, for the odds of RV moving out of Lee either next year or the year after. I give it about 75/25 that it does happen. When Daventry moved no one outside of the Daventry community knew anything about it until it was pretty much a done deal. They did not need to have it approved by the School Board because it was a small group (<5% - at least that is what they claimed at the time). So I do think the odds say the RV to WS move will likely happen (FCPS is obsessed with closing split feeders, damn the consequences). Though notice from my above paragraph that Rolling Valley and Daventry combined will be about 10% of the Lee enrollment - so you can piecemeal these changes without getting School Board approval as long as each piece is below 5% (and ignoring current pupil placements that alter the numbers). I think the RV parents were told by a School Board member to appear at the CIP hearing to officially testify as part of checking off a box on the way to making the administrative change. I think something is afoot here, so keep your eyes open.

No, they are not closing Lee - the surrounding schools do not have the capacity to absorb 1700 students.

And obviously, One Fairfax is a joke.

If they are already pupil placing to WSHS then they are already counted in the enrollment numbers.

Not pupil placed to WS as it has been closed to pupil placements. More likely South County or LB.

West Springfield will open to pupil placements when construction is finished. At that time, the school will have space available.

Not likely. Here are the enrollment projections:

18-19: 105%

19-20: 99% (after renovation completion)

20-21: 103%

21-22: 105%

22-23: 105%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would be interested in seeing data on the number of households in Fairfax Co. with school-aged children that do not attend public school.

You can look at the number of private schools as a proxy for that information. The number is low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be interested in seeing data on the number of households in Fairfax Co. with school-aged children that do not attend public school.

You can look at the number of private schools as a proxy for that information. The number is low.

I disagree. The number is quite high and growing in areas of the county where schools are underperforming. People are voting with their feet and bailing on the public schools - esp. in Mount Vernon and Lee neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a plan to close Lee:

Move Bren Mar Park back to Annandale from Edison [Annandale is projected to have space]

Move Springfield Estates and Lynbrook from Lee to Edison [Swap at Edison - might need to add modular]

Move Forestdale from Lee to Hayfield [Hayfield is projected to have space]

Move Saratoga from Lee to South County [SoCo is projected to have space]

Move Crestwood and the portion of Rolling Valley at Lee to West Springfield [Swap at West Springfield]

Move Orange Hunt and the portion of Sangster at West Springfield to Lake Braddock [Swap at West Springfield; Lake Braddocik is projected to have space]

They should keep Mount Vernon open, but move Fort Hunt there from West Potomac

[Mount Vernon is projected to have space]

Sorry but this is the silliest, most ridiculous and disruptive idea ever posted on this board about redistricting, and that is saying a lot.

Why? Scared of kids from Lee coming to your school?

Because it shows how very disruptive closing a high school would be.

I think I can give a little context to the rumor that the county is considering closing Lee. The issue came up once when main office assessment folks were discussing what could happen if Lee runs into trouble with student performance on a state level. One way to avoid having Virginia DOE sanctions is to essentially close the school. Alexandria, for example, did this when it built the new Jefferson Houston elementary school.

The issue for Lee is that it's sort of a perfect storm on the eastern/southern side of the county. There's actually sufficient room in the neighboring schools to redistrict everyone to new middle/high schools.

So, why would the county consider this? If Lee is within spitting distance of running into Virginia DOE sanctions, then a plan of some sort needed to be thought through. The closing of the school was one scenario that could accomplish this.

Then the question is what do you do with Lee? It's a good building and decent property. One thought was to do a consolidation of the IB programs on the eastern/south eastern part of the county. That idea is something that hasn't been developed yet, but the super is likely going to consider putting resources to see if it makes sense from an efficiency standpoint.

-Someone who works in the Gatehouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a plan to close Lee:

Move Bren Mar Park back to Annandale from Edison [Annandale is projected to have space]

Move Springfield Estates and Lynbrook from Lee to Edison [Swap at Edison - might need to add modular]

Move Forestdale from Lee to Hayfield [Hayfield is projected to have space]

Move Saratoga from Lee to South County [SoCo is projected to have space]

Move Crestwood and the portion of Rolling Valley at Lee to West Springfield [Swap at West Springfield]

Move Orange Hunt and the portion of Sangster at West Springfield to Lake Braddock [Swap at West Springfield; Lake Braddocik is projected to have space]

They should keep Mount Vernon open, but move Fort Hunt there from West Potomac

[Mount Vernon is projected to have space]

Sorry but this is the silliest, most ridiculous and disruptive idea ever posted on this board about redistricting, and that is saying a lot.

Why? Scared of kids from Lee coming to your school?

Because it shows how very disruptive closing a high school would be.

I think I can give a little context to the rumor that the county is considering closing Lee. The issue came up once when main office assessment folks were discussing what could happen if Lee runs into trouble with student performance on a state level. One way to avoid having Virginia DOE sanctions is to essentially close the school. Alexandria, for example, did this when it built the new Jefferson Houston elementary school.

The issue for Lee is that it's sort of a perfect storm on the eastern/southern side of the county. There's actually sufficient room in the neighboring schools to redistrict everyone to new middle/high schools.

So, why would the county consider this? If Lee is within spitting distance of running into Virginia DOE sanctions, then a plan of some sort needed to be thought through. The closing of the school was one scenario that could accomplish this.

Then the question is what do you do with Lee? It's a good building and decent property. One thought was to do a consolidation of the IB programs on the eastern/south eastern part of the county. That idea is something that hasn't been developed yet, but the super is likely going to consider putting resources to see if it makes sense from an efficiency standpoint.

-Someone who works in the Gatehouse.

Or Trump does mass deportations. Either or.
It’s not like scores are going to improve.

[Anonymous]

The consolidation of IN into one school in this area has been talked about here for years. I hope it happens.

[Anonymous]

IN should be IB