FCPS's "Obvious Elephant in the Room" - Does the West Potomac Expansion Foster Intolerance?

[Anonymous]

Great question, thank you! I would like to help in any effort to stop this, and I know others who would as well.

Maybe first and foremost we have to halt the construction. FCPS is expediting some construction projects. Let's hope it isn't this one.

[Anonymous]

The people that benefit are homeowners that will continue to feed into West Potomac versus Mount Vernon. They believe the value of their home will decrease if they are sent to MVHS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Corbett Sanders is pushing a huge addition at her school when she has been the single biggest impediment on the School Board to addressing overcrowding anywhere else in the county. Biggest hypocrite on the Board since Kathy Smith.

Corbett Sanders needs to go! Having school board meetings so well attended via the internet has really highlighted her failures as a leader.

I had never heard of Rachna before three months ago. But watching her in the school board meetings and seeing how carefully she thinks through the issues, I truly believe that Rachna should be the new chair. She is an amazing leader that is dedicated to science, the community and helping every child learn.

She also is a black woman, so this would be a PERFECT way for the board to show that they truly value BLM.

Nope.

And please give her the respect of using her last name as you did with Corbett Sanders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what can be done at this point to prevent this waste? Clearly what they plan to do at West Potomac is motivated by racism and bias towards the Mount Vernon-area residents, and someone also needs to follow the money trail to see who benefits the most financially from these expenditures.

Yes, how can we get this project stopped? It's hurtful to our community and wasteful spending as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Corbett Sanders is pushing a huge addition at her school when she has been the single biggest impediment on the School Board to addressing overcrowding anywhere else in the county. Biggest hypocrite on the Board since Kathy Smith.

Corbett Sanders needs to go! Having school board meetings so well attended via the internet has really highlighted her failures as a leader.

I had never heard of Rachna before three months ago. But watching her in the school board meetings and seeing how carefully she thinks through the issues, I truly believe that Rachna should be the new chair. She is an amazing leader that is dedicated to science, the community and helping every child learn.

She also is a black woman, so this would be a PERFECT way for the board to show that they truly value BLM.

Nope.

And please give her the respect of using her last name as you did with Corbett Sanders.

Not PP, but I suspect this means PP actually respects Rachna Sizemore Heizer, even if PP did not realize that she is South Asian.

Corbett Sanders is lucky to be called anything that is not an expletive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what can be done at this point to prevent this waste? Clearly what they plan to do at West Potomac is motivated by racism and bias towards the Mount Vernon-area residents, and someone also needs to follow the money trail to see who benefits the most financially from these expenditures.

Yes, how can we get this project stopped? It's hurtful to our community and wasteful spending as well.

Try contacting the Fairfax chapter of the NAACP:

http://www.fairfaxnaacp.org/pages/contact-us/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what can be done at this point to prevent this waste? Clearly what they plan to do at West Potomac is motivated by racism and bias towards the Mount Vernon-area residents, and someone also needs to follow the money trail to see who benefits the most financially from these expenditures.

Yes, how can we get this project stopped? It's hurtful to our community and wasteful spending as well.

Try contacting the Fairfax chapter of the NAACP:

http://www.fairfaxnaacp.org/pages/contact-us/

You can remind the NAACP that Corbett Sanders, who is pushing the expansion of West Potomac to Mount Vernon's detriment, was a very lukewarm supporter of changing the name of JEB Stuart HS and part of the reason it dragged on for years.

[Anonymous]

Chairman McKay of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors just announced an action item they approved, to make a list of all Confederate street names, etc. in the county. This could be a good point of entry to ask them to add another action item - defund the 3,000 seat expansion of West Potomac and stop wasting county and environmental resources to bus students from Whitman Middle School to Sandburg. By using our tax dollars and bond money to do this, they are making us complicit.

[Anonymous]

Changing names in 2020 is low-hanging fruit. Don’t expect them to do anything that might really ruffle the feathers of Corbett Sanders’ cronies. FCPS will continue to waste money and mismanage its resources.

[Anonymous]

I hear you! But with the groundswell of Covid and BLM it feels like all the (political) chess pieces have been wiped off the board and we can start over. But it will take a lot of voices - like Whoville — to give these people the cover they need to go against Corbett-Sanders.

[Anonymous]

Here's our chance - FCPS Superintendent Dr. Brabrand and NAACP are hosting a virtual town hall tomorrow night to discuss systemic racism within the FCPS system. FCPS's recent decisions concerning Mount Vernon HS, and the busing/segregation that surrounds Whitman MS are important examples of systemic, institutional racism. You don't have to believe me... the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, who is from that area and went to Whitman Middle School, called this the "obvious elephant in the room" when he was asked at a public meeting to approve the bond funding for adding 700 seats to the adjacent school. Dealing with this long-standing deep-rooted problem should be a no-brainer.

Read the OP post for more background, but in a nutshell:

Mount Vernon HS is mostly brown and black students, and is in desperate need of students. Specifically, all 194 FCPS schools are accredited, but 3 are at risk of losing accreditation. See here: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/accreditation_federal_reports/accreditation/index.shtml. According to the Virginia Board of Education website, Mount Vernon is one of the three. The issue is Mount Vernon's inability to keep students at the school. In fact, they are the most under-capacity school in the entire 194-school FCPS system. Why? FCPS goes to great lengths to allow families to avoid the school. These are the decisions that we can and should fight to stop:

a. De-fund the West Potomac Expansion. FCPS is spending $36 million dollars to add 700 seats to the adjacent school, so that those neighborhoods can avoid going to Mount Vernon. This is the most expensive addition in FCPS school history by more than 100%. See 2021 CIP at p. 38 (https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Adopted-CIP-FY2021-25.pdf). Moreover, Mount Vernon could absorb all of the extra West Potomac students, and both schools would still be significantly under capacity. The FCPS Ed Spec says all FCPS high schools should be built to a design capacity of 2,500 students. In direct violation of their Ed Spec, however, FCPS is building the adjacent school (West Potomac HS) to 3,000 students, even though their projected enrollment is nowhere near that, and Mount Vernon can (and needs to) absorb all of the extra students.


b. Stop busing students from Whitman Middle School to Sandburg MS. The middle school that feeds into Mount Vernon HS has *literally no walkers*! The middle school that feeds into Mount Vernon HS is Whitman Middle School. However, the would-be walkers to Whitman don't want to go to Mount Vernon high school. So, FCPS puts these students on a bus, and sends them 15 minutes away to Sandburg Middle School, so that they can feed into West Potomac instead. What?!?!As a result, Whitman MS is the only school in the system that has no walkers, and is not even in the geographic boundaries of the high school that it feeds into. See 2021 CIP at p. 170, here:https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Adopted-CIP-FY2021-25.pdf. This is state-sponsored, FCPS-sponsored, and taxpyer-funded segregation. It is also an environmental waste, and a fiscal waste.

c. Stop the Programmatic Gymnastics. FCPS has created a system where the more privileged families who are within the geographic boundary of Mount Vernon can choose other elementary and middles schools based on programmatic choices, like language immersion, so they can avoid being sent to Mount Vernon (provided these families can provide their own transportation).

This issue has been dubbed "the obvious elephant" because it has been lingering for decades - probably since the very days the Gum Springs area was born. If FCPS really means what it says, and it wants to take action to take steps to combat intolerance and racism, they should de-fund the West Potomac expansion, stop busing students that live within walking distance to Whitman Middle School to Sandburg MS, and stop giving parents a way to pick programming in a way that allows them to avoid Mount Vernon HS.

Here is the registration for the town hall: thttps://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkcuGorTgpHNwzRrVuINvifHwE0A_OIMeF

And here is an article with the relevant meeting info: https://www.restonnow.com/2020/07/16/fairfax-naacp-brabrand-to-host-town-hall-on-systemic-racism-in-public-schools/

I hope you consider joining this call and shining a light on these issues!

[Anonymous]

Amen! These people have been wasting our money for years and it is racism that doesn’t even bother to disguise itself.

[Anonymous]

Rally the Whitman MS and Mount Vernon HS students to participate in the town hall and ask about these decisions!

Rally the student school board rep!

[Anonymous]

My daughter just finished 9th. grade at MVHS.
We loved it!
My son is at Whitman MS-love it there too.
I honestly don’t understand people’s problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's our chance - FCPS Superintendent Dr. Brabrand and NAACP are hosting a virtual town hall tomorrow night to discuss systemic racism within the FCPS system. FCPS's recent decisions concerning Mount Vernon HS, and the busing/segregation that surrounds Whitman MS are important examples of systemic, institutional racism. You don't have to believe me... the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, who is from that area and went to Whitman Middle School, called this the "obvious elephant in the room" when he was asked at a public meeting to approve the bond funding for adding 700 seats to the adjacent school. Dealing with this long-standing deep-rooted problem should be a no-brainer.

Read the OP post for more background, but in a nutshell:

Mount Vernon HS is mostly brown and black students, and is in desperate need of students. Specifically, all 194 FCPS schools are accredited, but 3 are at risk of losing accreditation. See here: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/accreditation_federal_reports/accreditation/index.shtml. According to the Virginia Board of Education website, Mount Vernon is one of the three. The issue is Mount Vernon's inability to keep students at the school. In fact, they are the most under-capacity school in the entire 194-school FCPS system. Why? FCPS goes to great lengths to allow families to avoid the school. These are the decisions that we can and should fight to stop:

a. De-fund the West Potomac Expansion. FCPS is spending $36 million dollars to add 700 seats to the adjacent school, so that those neighborhoods can avoid going to Mount Vernon. This is the most expensive addition in FCPS school history by more than 100%. See 2021 CIP at p. 38 (https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Adopted-CIP-FY2021-25.pdf). Moreover, Mount Vernon could absorb all of the extra West Potomac students, and both schools would still be significantly under capacity. The FCPS Ed Spec says all FCPS high schools should be built to a design capacity of 2,500 students. In direct violation of their Ed Spec, however, FCPS is building the adjacent school (West Potomac HS) to 3,000 students, even though their projected enrollment is nowhere near that, and Mount Vernon can (and needs to) absorb all of the extra students.


b. Stop busing students from Whitman Middle School to Sandburg MS. The middle school that feeds into Mount Vernon HS has *literally no walkers*! The middle school that feeds into Mount Vernon HS is Whitman Middle School. However, the would-be walkers to Whitman don't want to go to Mount Vernon high school. So, FCPS puts these students on a bus, and sends them 15 minutes away to Sandburg Middle School, so that they can feed into West Potomac instead. What?!?!As a result, Whitman MS is the only school in the system that has no walkers, and is not even in the geographic boundaries of the high school that it feeds into. See 2021 CIP at p. 170, here:https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Adopted-CIP-FY2021-25.pdf. This is state-sponsored, FCPS-sponsored, and taxpyer-funded segregation. It is also an environmental waste, and a fiscal waste.

c. Stop the Programmatic Gymnastics. FCPS has created a system where the more privileged families who are within the geographic boundary of Mount Vernon can choose other elementary and middles schools based on programmatic choices, like language immersion, so they can avoid being sent to Mount Vernon (provided these families can provide their own transportation).

This issue has been dubbed "the obvious elephant" because it has been lingering for decades - probably since the very days the Gum Springs area was born. If FCPS really means what it says, and it wants to take action to take steps to combat intolerance and racism, they should de-fund the West Potomac expansion, stop busing students that live within walking distance to Whitman Middle School to Sandburg MS, and stop giving parents a way to pick programming in a way that allows them to avoid Mount Vernon HS.

Here is the registration for the town hall: thttps://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkcuGorTgpHNwzRrVuINvifHwE0A_OIMeF

And here is an article with the relevant meeting info: https://www.restonnow.com/2020/07/16/fairfax-naacp-brabrand-to-host-town-hall-on-systemic-racism-in-public-schools/

I hope you consider joining this call and shining a light on these issues!
[/
I agree that the addition at West Potomac should not happen. However, point B is not entirely incorrect. Whitman students are not bused To Sandburg. 30 years ago, FCPS merged Groveton HS and Ft Hunt high school & created West Potomac High. They merged the two feeder middle schools and created Sandburg - and made the old Ft Hunt HS into Sandburg. Whitman, which at the time was in the original MVHS building on Rt 1, was in need of serious renovation. So they decided to move Whitman to what was Stephen Foster. The building (old Whitman) was sold to Fairfax County Government (FCPS no longer owns the original MVHS/old Whitman building.). So all of the kids who go to Whitman are MV pyramid kids. Yes, it’s awful that MV’s middle school is out of bounds and 100% of its population is bused. The only way to give MV kids a walkable middle school would be to somehow get the original MV high school building back from the FairfaxCounty Government or build a new one.

C. Thankfully, the new administration at West Potomac has cracked down on transfers into WestPo. A small number still get in but nothing like a few years ago when almost every MV AAP kid went there. The ones who absolutely refuse to go to MV either move or send their kids to Hayfield.