FCPS comprehensive boundary review

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis and split the kids between WSHS, Edison, and Hayfield. Move some kids out of WSHS to Robinson and Lake Braddock to accommodate. Done!

That’s what will happen if they end up closing Lewis as a neighborhood school. Keep an eye on the new accreditation and quality metrics coming out of the state and how FCPS is going to try to deal with it.

I don't think FCPS will close a school that is named after a Black Civil Rights Icon b/c they fear it will look like they are against or not supporting Black Civil Rights. FCPS would think like that. Other people would just look at the school objectively and make decisions without regard to the name. But, FCPS and Anderson will definitely make hay about that.

The last time they toyed with the idea of closing a high school was probably Marshall in the 90s when its enrollment was around 1100. It was no doubt tempting given how much money they could have gotten for selling a site around Tysons. But they didn’t, and that’s fortunate, since the school’s enrollment eventually doubled.

MCPS closed a lot of high schools like Northwood HS in the 1980s as a result of the previous decade’s baby boom bust. They have slowly been reopening them over the past 25 years or so. APS planned to close Yorktown HS when its population hovered around the point of no return, far below 1000 students in the 80s. FCPS only closed original TJ and Fort Hunt.

Lewis High School is no where near as small as those schools were in the 1980s. The difference today is that the minimum baseline of acceptability is now around 1500 students. And on average we now build high schools to just under 3,000 students. It’s cheaper than operating multiple smaller schools.

Depending on the outcome of the election, more may be coming in from the border to Lewis.

Regardless of one’s view on immigration, pro or anti, districts around the country have come up with novel approaches to educating students new to the country.

PGCPS a number of years ago created a separate school for immigrants with limited English proficiency. Near Langley Park and also Bladensburg I believe. Of course there are pluses and minuses to creating such schools. And there may be yet unchallenged legal issues with that approach.

I believe in Virginia, most school districts prefer the approach of mainstreaming those students with the general population. Different states approach this differently.

Regarding Lewis, it’s a similar challenge to the one PGCPS “solved” a few years back. Should FCPS create a separate “International High School” for those students? Where would FCPS locate such a school and how would it impact the population of Lewis? Would it be challenged in the courts? Unlike Maryland, Va prefers to mainstream students.

I'm pretty sure La Casa sued and shut down that school in PG County. We should not follow any model laid out by PG county public schools. The only thing that can save public schools is for Plyler to be overturned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will all the rezoning be completely finished?

Never? I mean, the current round of "we haven't really done this in decades" boundary review is likely to be implemented for 26-27 or 27-28 school year, but part of the policy change is to continue these reviews going forward and making small adjustments as appropriate so we don't end up in the same situation we are now where people have such strong entrenched expectations about being entitled to attend certain schools, and to be able to respond to growth and redevelopment in a responsible way in the future, and that entails making reasonable boundary adjustments as one of the tools in the toolkit.

Howard County has been known for years to move boundaries at a comprehensive level on a regular basis. That’s how they’ve maintained fairly well integrated schools in the progressive spirit of Columbia’s founding families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis and split the kids between WSHS, Edison, and Hayfield. Move some kids out of WSHS to Robinson and Lake Braddock to accommodate. Done!

That’s what will happen if they end up closing Lewis as a neighborhood school. Keep an eye on the new accreditation and quality metrics coming out of the state and how FCPS is going to try to deal with it.

I don't think FCPS will close a school that is named after a Black Civil Rights Icon b/c they fear it will look like they are against or not supporting Black Civil Rights. FCPS would think like that. Other people would just look at the school objectively and make decisions without regard to the name. But, FCPS and Anderson will definitely make hay about that.

The last time they toyed with the idea of closing a high school was probably Marshall in the 90s when its enrollment was around 1100. It was no doubt tempting given how much money they could have gotten for selling a site around Tysons. But they didn’t, and that’s fortunate, since the school’s enrollment eventually doubled.

MCPS closed a lot of high schools like Northwood HS in the 1980s as a result of the previous decade’s baby boom bust. They have slowly been reopening them over the past 25 years or so. APS planned to close Yorktown HS when its population hovered around the point of no return, far below 1000 students in the 80s. FCPS only closed original TJ and Fort Hunt.

Lewis High School is no where near as small as those schools were in the 1980s. The difference today is that the minimum baseline of acceptability is now around 1500 students. And on average we now build high schools to just under 3,000 students. It’s cheaper than operating multiple smaller schools.

Depending on the outcome of the election, more may be coming in from the border to Lewis.

Regardless of one’s view on immigration, pro or anti, districts around the country have come up with novel approaches to educating students new to the country.

PGCPS a number of years ago created a separate school for immigrants with limited English proficiency. Near Langley Park and also Bladensburg I believe. Of course there are pluses and minuses to creating such schools. And there may be yet unchallenged legal issues with that approach.

I believe in Virginia, most school districts prefer the approach of mainstreaming those students with the general population. Different states approach this differently.

Regarding Lewis, it’s a similar challenge to the one PGCPS “solved” a few years back. Should FCPS create a separate “International High School” for those students? Where would FCPS locate such a school and how would it impact the population of Lewis? Would it be challenged in the courts? Unlike Maryland, Va prefers to mainstream students.

I'm pretty sure La Casa sued and shut down that school in PG County. We should not follow any model laid out by PG county public schools. The only thing that can save public schools is for Plyler to be overturned.

The International High School in PHCPS still exists. I just did a web search.

[Anonymous]

International HS: https://www.pgcps.org/schools/international-high-school-at-langley-park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will all the rezoning be completely finished?

Never? I mean, the current round of "we haven't really done this in decades" boundary review is likely to be implemented for 26-27 or 27-28 school year, but part of the policy change is to continue these reviews going forward and making small adjustments as appropriate so we don't end up in the same situation we are now where people have such strong entrenched expectations about being entitled to attend certain schools, and to be able to respond to growth and redevelopment in a responsible way in the future, and that entails making reasonable boundary adjustments as one of the tools in the toolkit.

It's certainly debatable what is a "responsible way" to proceed, as opposed to a "convenient" way or a "self-serving" way.

Are they really being guided by what's in the best long-term interests of FCPS as a school system? I think the odds are greater than 50% that they'll come up with something that drives families that FCPS would otherwise like to keep out of the system, and leads to a further decline in both FCPS's enrollment and its reputation.

[Anonymous]

Turn Lewis into a pure Votech school. Move the Academy classes to Lewis, keep the core classes (Math, Science, History, LA), and add traditional votech classes. Set up a school for kids who don’t want to go to college and want to look at the trades. Give them a place where they feel supported and have access to career choices to explore.

I would have no problem with a ELL school that is focused on teaching kids English and getting them caught up in core subjects. Many of the ELL students arrive in school with no or limited academic history. They need a school that is able to address their unique concerns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Turn Lewis into a pure Votech school. Move the Academy classes to Lewis, keep the core classes (Math, Science, History, LA), and add traditional votech classes. Set up a school for kids who don’t want to go to college and want to look at the trades. Give them a place where they feel supported and have access to career choices to explore.

I would have no problem with a ELL school that is focused on teaching kids English and getting them caught up in core subjects. Many of the ELL students arrive in school with no or limited academic history. They need a school that is able to address their unique concerns.

Who is paying for all of this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis and split the kids between WSHS, Edison, and Hayfield. Move some kids out of WSHS to Robinson and Lake Braddock to accommodate. Done!

That’s what will happen if they end up closing Lewis as a neighborhood school. Keep an eye on the new accreditation and quality metrics coming out of the state and how FCPS is going to try to deal with it.

I don't think FCPS will close a school that is named after a Black Civil Rights Icon b/c they fear it will look like they are against or not supporting Black Civil Rights. FCPS would think like that. Other people would just look at the school objectively and make decisions without regard to the name. But, FCPS and Anderson will definitely make hay about that.

The last time they toyed with the idea of closing a high school was probably Marshall in the 90s when its enrollment was around 1100. It was no doubt tempting given how much money they could have gotten for selling a site around Tysons. But they didn’t, and that’s fortunate, since the school’s enrollment eventually doubled.

MCPS closed a lot of high schools like Northwood HS in the 1980s as a result of the previous decade’s baby boom bust. They have slowly been reopening them over the past 25 years or so. APS planned to close Yorktown HS when its population hovered around the point of no return, far below 1000 students in the 80s. FCPS only closed original TJ and Fort Hunt.

Lewis High School is no where near as small as those schools were in the 1980s. The difference today is that the minimum baseline of acceptability is now around 1500 students. And on average we now build high schools to just under 3,000 students. It’s cheaper than operating multiple smaller schools.

Depending on the outcome of the election, more may be coming in from the border to Lewis.

Regardless of one’s view on immigration, pro or anti, districts around the country have come up with novel approaches to educating students new to the country.

PGCPS a number of years ago created a separate school for immigrants with limited English proficiency. Near Langley Park and also Bladensburg I believe. Of course there are pluses and minuses to creating such schools. And there may be yet unchallenged legal issues with that approach.

I believe in Virginia, most school districts prefer the approach of mainstreaming those students with the general population. Different states approach this differently.

Regarding Lewis, it’s a similar challenge to the one PGCPS “solved” a few years back. Should FCPS create a separate “International High School” for those students? Where would FCPS locate such a school and how would it impact the population of Lewis? Would it be challenged in the courts? Unlike Maryland, Va prefers to mainstream students.

I'm pretty sure La Casa sued and shut down that school in PG County. We should not follow any model laid out by PG county public schools. The only thing that can save public schools is for Plyler to be overturned.

The International High School in PHCPS still exists. I just did a web search.

This is the same school. I looked it up and it was he NAACP that opposed it.

Still wouldnt model anything that PG County schools uses.

[Anonymous]

*This is not the same school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis and split the kids between WSHS, Edison, and Hayfield. Move some kids out of WSHS to Robinson and Lake Braddock to accommodate. Done!

That’s what will happen if they end up closing Lewis as a neighborhood school. Keep an eye on the new accreditation and quality metrics coming out of the state and how FCPS is going to try to deal with it.

I don't think FCPS will close a school that is named after a Black Civil Rights Icon b/c they fear it will look like they are against or not supporting Black Civil Rights. FCPS would think like that. Other people would just look at the school objectively and make decisions without regard to the name. But, FCPS and Anderson will definitely make hay about that.

The last time they toyed with the idea of closing a high school was probably Marshall in the 90s when its enrollment was around 1100. It was no doubt tempting given how much money they could have gotten for selling a site around Tysons. But they didn’t, and that’s fortunate, since the school’s enrollment eventually doubled.

MCPS closed a lot of high schools like Northwood HS in the 1980s as a result of the previous decade’s baby boom bust. They have slowly been reopening them over the past 25 years or so. APS planned to close Yorktown HS when its population hovered around the point of no return, far below 1000 students in the 80s. FCPS only closed original TJ and Fort Hunt.

Lewis High School is no where near as small as those schools were in the 1980s. The difference today is that the minimum baseline of acceptability is now around 1500 students. And on average we now build high schools to just under 3,000 students. It’s cheaper than operating multiple smaller schools.

Depending on the outcome of the election, more may be coming in from the border to Lewis.

Regardless of one’s view on immigration, pro or anti, districts around the country have come up with novel approaches to educating students new to the country.

PGCPS a number of years ago created a separate school for immigrants with limited English proficiency. Near Langley Park and also Bladensburg I believe. Of course there are pluses and minuses to creating such schools. And there may be yet unchallenged legal issues with that approach.

I believe in Virginia, most school districts prefer the approach of mainstreaming those students with the general population. Different states approach this differently.

Regarding Lewis, it’s a similar challenge to the one PGCPS “solved” a few years back. Should FCPS create a separate “International High School” for those students? Where would FCPS locate such a school and how would it impact the population of Lewis? Would it be challenged in the courts? Unlike Maryland, Va prefers to mainstream students.

I'm not sure the student profile at Lewis is too different from Annandale or Falls Church. Herndon and Justice are also similar, though they have more UMC families. Mount Vernon is also similar, although it probably has more AA poverty and fewer first-generation students.

The main thing that gives rise to all the suggestions to offer a pilot or magnet program at Lewis is that it's near a school - West Springfield - that has a huge enrollment yet has parents that are constantly looking for ways to distance themselves from Lewis.

Doesn’t Falls Church have a significant number of UMC families from Holmes Run and Camelot? They pushed for the renovation for over a decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Turn Lewis into a pure Votech school. Move the Academy classes to Lewis, keep the core classes (Math, Science, History, LA), and add traditional votech classes. Set up a school for kids who don’t want to go to college and want to look at the trades. Give them a place where they feel supported and have access to career choices to explore.

I would have no problem with a ELL school that is focused on teaching kids English and getting them caught up in core subjects. Many of the ELL students arrive in school with no or limited academic history. They need a school that is able to address their unique concerns.

Who is paying for all of this?

The Academy classes already exist, they are moving locations. So you are paying to move some equipment and revamp a few rooms. The payoff is a school for kids who have no interest in traditional HS who are more likely to be interested in attending school and learning a trade. More kids who graduate and have skills needed for good jobs.

The ELL class would allow the County to move staff and supports to one location, share a curriculum, and provide better services for ELL kids. That might help the ELL kids learn what they need so they can move into the regular gen ed program and hopefully have an increase in attendance and graduation rate.

We already pay a lot for specialized programs to help these communities and what we are doing is not working. Try something new that might work using that money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Turn Lewis into a pure Votech school. Move the Academy classes to Lewis, keep the core classes (Math, Science, History, LA), and add traditional votech classes. Set up a school for kids who don’t want to go to college and want to look at the trades. Give them a place where they feel supported and have access to career choices to explore.

I would have no problem with a ELL school that is focused on teaching kids English and getting them caught up in core subjects. Many of the ELL students arrive in school with no or limited academic history. They need a school that is able to address their unique concerns.

You write this as if every kid who lives within the Lewis boundaries would only benefit from vocational options. That is not the case, and it’s educational redlining.

In the other hand, if you’re suggesting that Lewis become a vocational center for students across the county, lots of boundaries would need to change since, among other things, several of the current Lewis feeders would be reassigned to West Springfield. Also, to maintain feeder patterns Key also has to close or be repurposed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Close Lewis and split the kids between WSHS, Edison, and Hayfield. Move some kids out of WSHS to Robinson and Lake Braddock to accommodate. Done!

That’s what will happen if they end up closing Lewis as a neighborhood school. Keep an eye on the new accreditation and quality metrics coming out of the state and how FCPS is going to try to deal with it.

I don't think FCPS will close a school that is named after a Black Civil Rights Icon b/c they fear it will look like they are against or not supporting Black Civil Rights. FCPS would think like that. Other people would just look at the school objectively and make decisions without regard to the name. But, FCPS and Anderson will definitely make hay about that.

The last time they toyed with the idea of closing a high school was probably Marshall in the 90s when its enrollment was around 1100. It was no doubt tempting given how much money they could have gotten for selling a site around Tysons. But they didn’t, and that’s fortunate, since the school’s enrollment eventually doubled.

MCPS closed a lot of high schools like Northwood HS in the 1980s as a result of the previous decade’s baby boom bust. They have slowly been reopening them over the past 25 years or so. APS planned to close Yorktown HS when its population hovered around the point of no return, far below 1000 students in the 80s. FCPS only closed original TJ and Fort Hunt.

Lewis High School is no where near as small as those schools were in the 1980s. The difference today is that the minimum baseline of acceptability is now around 1500 students. And on average we now build high schools to just under 3,000 students. It’s cheaper than operating multiple smaller schools.

Depending on the outcome of the election, more may be coming in from the border to Lewis.

Regardless of one’s view on immigration, pro or anti, districts around the country have come up with novel approaches to educating students new to the country.

PGCPS a number of years ago created a separate school for immigrants with limited English proficiency. Near Langley Park and also Bladensburg I believe. Of course there are pluses and minuses to creating such schools. And there may be yet unchallenged legal issues with that approach.

I believe in Virginia, most school districts prefer the approach of mainstreaming those students with the general population. Different states approach this differently.

Regarding Lewis, it’s a similar challenge to the one PGCPS “solved” a few years back. Should FCPS create a separate “International High School” for those students? Where would FCPS locate such a school and how would it impact the population of Lewis? Would it be challenged in the courts? Unlike Maryland, Va prefers to mainstream students.

I'm not sure the student profile at Lewis is too different from Annandale or Falls Church. Herndon and Justice are also similar, though they have more UMC families. Mount Vernon is also similar, although it probably has more AA poverty and fewer first-generation students.

The main thing that gives rise to all the suggestions to offer a pilot or magnet program at Lewis is that it's near a school - West Springfield - that has a huge enrollment yet has parents that are constantly looking for ways to distance themselves from Lewis.

Doesn’t Falls Church have a significant number of UMC families from Holmes Run and Camelot? They pushed for the renovation for over a decade.

There are UMC families at Lewis, too. Percentage wise maybe slightly lower at Lewis than Falls Church and Annandale.

Falls Church’s renovation happened later because it was built after Annandale and Lewis. No high school in FCPS has been in worse condition than Falls Church before its renovation began. It will benefit, however, since the renovations are nicer than the cheap renovations that the oldest schools got.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will all the rezoning be completely finished?

Never? I mean, the current round of "we haven't really done this in decades" boundary review is likely to be implemented for 26-27 or 27-28 school year, but part of the policy change is to continue these reviews going forward and making small adjustments as appropriate so we don't end up in the same situation we are now where people have such strong entrenched expectations about being entitled to attend certain schools, and to be able to respond to growth and redevelopment in a responsible way in the future, and that entails making reasonable boundary adjustments as one of the tools in the toolkit.

Everyone should read this and know it’s likely either someone at gatehouse or connected to gatehouse. This is how they think.

Continued uncertainty is the name of the game. They don’t give a flying f about stability, your kids, your neighborhood, your kids’ friends, or even ultimately that they are turning Fairfax into a much worse system on average through these adjustments.

They just think that FARMS needs to be as close to equal as possible, regardless of the actual cost to our kids and their mental health.

We bring this upon ourselves by allowing one party rule in the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will all the rezoning be completely finished?

Never? I mean, the current round of "we haven't really done this in decades" boundary review is likely to be implemented for 26-27 or 27-28 school year, but part of the policy change is to continue these reviews going forward and making small adjustments as appropriate so we don't end up in the same situation we are now where people have such strong entrenched expectations about being entitled to attend certain schools, and to be able to respond to growth and redevelopment in a responsible way in the future, and that entails making reasonable boundary adjustments as one of the tools in the toolkit.

Everyone should read this and know it’s likely either someone at gatehouse or connected to gatehouse. This is how they think.

Continued uncertainty is the name of the game. They don’t give a flying f about stability, your kids, your neighborhood, your kids’ friends, or even ultimately that they are turning Fairfax into a much worse system on average through these adjustments.

They just think that FARMS needs to be as close to equal as possible, regardless of the actual cost to our kids and their mental health.

We bring this upon ourselves by allowing one party rule in the county.

There is Herrity though, who is a stalwart on the Board of Supervisor, and still very popular.