School Board Forum on "Boundary and Capacity"

[Anonymous]

Is there a current map of the capacity and actual/anticipated enrollment in the county? I know there was one a few years ago but I don't remember where it was or whether it's been updated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please fix the school boundaries in and around 20171. Thank you.

What’s broken? There are other zip codes where kids go to multiple schools.

Carson feeds to 4 HSs plus TJ. Parents still have a choice between Franklin AAP and Carson AAP, despite the Franklin program having been up and running (with great word of mouth) for a decade. A bunch of 20171 feeds to Chantilly, which is so overcrowded. And that’s just scratching the surface.

A slit feeder and a 4 way split feeder are very different things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a current map of the capacity and actual/anticipated enrollment in the county? I know there was one a few years ago but I don't remember where it was or whether it's been updated.

Do you mean the maps like those spread out in pp. 86-101 of the latest CIP?

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Proposed-FCPS-FY-2025-29-CIP.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some Franklin Farm kids need to be sent to Herndon. Franklin Middle needs to feed to Oakton.

Some Westfield and Chantilly kids need to be sent to Centerville (Virginia Run/Bull Run and Poplar Tree (make is a split feeder).

No and no. You have no idea what you are talking about.

First you say you would you send kids a mile or two from Chantilly and not far from Westfield to Herndon. And then you say send all of Franklin to Oakton. The non-Oakton piece of Franklin IS Franklin Farm.

So are you sending the kids who live the closest to Chantilly HS to Herndon or Oakton (45 minute rush hour commute)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please fix the school boundaries in and around 20171. Thank you.

What’s broken? There are other zip codes where kids go to multiple schools.

Carson feeds to 4 HSs plus TJ. Parents still have a choice between Franklin AAP and Carson AAP, despite the Franklin program having been up and running (with great word of mouth) for a decade. A bunch of 20171 feeds to Chantilly, which is so overcrowded. And that’s just scratching the surface.

A slit feeder and a 4 way split feeder are very different things.

I thought Carson fed to Oakton, Westfield, and South Lakes. Does it also pick up part of Chantilly when you include AAP options?

Thoreau is also is a three-way split feeder now. That was a conscious decision by the School Board because it wanted to keep an AAP center at Jackson but not open one at Thoreau. Otherwise they could have just aligned Madison’s boundaries with Thoreau’s and Marshall’s boundaries with Kilmer’s, and those schools would have had straight feeder patterns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Franklin Farm kids need to be sent to Herndon. Franklin Middle needs to feed to Oakton.

Some Westfield and Chantilly kids need to be sent to Centerville (Virginia Run/Bull Run and Poplar Tree (make is a split feeder).

No and no. You have no idea what you are talking about.

First you say you would you send kids a mile or two from Chantilly and not far from Westfield to Herndon. And then you say send all of Franklin to Oakton. The non-Oakton piece of Franklin IS Franklin Farm.

So are you sending the kids who live the closest to Chantilly HS to Herndon or Oakton (45 minute rush hour commute)?

Not to poster to whom you’re responding, but curious as to who you think will get moved to Centreville since it’s now clear that at some level they’ve decided the solution to the overcrowding at Chantilly is to expand Centreville to 3000 (just as they previously, though incorrectly, decided the solution to overcrowding at McLean was to expand Langley to 2370).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please fix the school boundaries in and around 20171. Thank you.

What’s broken? There are other zip codes where kids go to multiple schools.

Carson feeds to 4 HSs plus TJ. Parents still have a choice between Franklin AAP and Carson AAP, despite the Franklin program having been up and running (with great word of mouth) for a decade. A bunch of 20171 feeds to Chantilly, which is so overcrowded. And that’s just scratching the surface.

A slit feeder and a 4 way split feeder are very different things.

As a Carson parent to a non-AAP kid, I wish they would get rid of the AAP "center" there and send all of the Franklin kids back to their AAP program. Friends have said it's really good. Carson is no longer a "feeder" to TJ under the new admission policies, so let's get rid of that stigma, and get rid of all the hyper competitive, super rude Navy kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Franklin Farm kids need to be sent to Herndon. Franklin Middle needs to feed to Oakton.

Some Westfield and Chantilly kids need to be sent to Centerville (Virginia Run/Bull Run and Poplar Tree (make is a split feeder).

No and no. You have no idea what you are talking about.

First you say you would you send kids a mile or two from Chantilly and not far from Westfield to Herndon. And then you say send all of Franklin to Oakton. The non-Oakton piece of Franklin IS Franklin Farm.

So are you sending the kids who live the closest to Chantilly HS to Herndon or Oakton (45 minute rush hour commute)?

This is that same person who thinks everyone in Oak Hill should go to Herndon High School because our address is technically Herndon - even though there are two other high schools much closer than Herndon (and never mind that the other half of neighborhood already goes to a high school that's really far away).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a current map of the capacity and actual/anticipated enrollment in the county? I know there was one a few years ago but I don't remember where it was or whether it's been updated.

Do you mean the maps like those spread out in pp. 86-101 of the latest CIP?

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Proposed-FCPS-FY-2025-29-CIP.pdf

Yes, thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Need is still there. Zip code 20171 is a mess. Schools are flooding with students in that zip code and so many new housing developments popping up there with townhomes and apartments. It’s a real disappointment. It’s a vastly ignored community.

Oakton and Herndon were both recently renovated and expanded. South Lakes also got an expansion even though it wasn’t in the renovation queue.

It’s easier to renovate and expand existing schools (or tear down/rebuild) than going through the very long process, sometimes controversial, of opening a new high school.

Also, the FCPS demographers are probably predicting a long term school age population plateau or decline.

Locally, for comparison, only MCPS is building new high schools and reopening closed ones to keep the population of schools below 3,000, except for the largest schools like Montgomery Blair. On the other hand, FCPS has not reopened one closed high school or built a new one in almost 20 years. They prefer to build additions like at West Potomac. It’s just a different philosophy, not a better or worse one.

I'm so surprised by this because I live in 20171 and there are several neighborhoods built in the 90s that have original owners that are getting ready to sell and move out - I foresee a HUGE influx of families into this area as they move out. We were the first family with young children to move into our neighborhood in about 5 years, and after we bought, three houses went on the market, and I've heard there are at least 5 going on the market this spring. I bet this neighborhood turns over into families with babies and toddlers in the next 10 years.

This is one poster spamming this discussion with “20171”, right? I wonder if the motive to redistricting is wanting a property value increase.

It’s not. That’s Franklin Farm and surrounding, similar neighborhoods, many zoned for Chantill (some Westfield, but they will nevER get rezoned to Chantilly— THEy need to move kids out, not in). There is no better HS they could rezone too. Amd no, no one has any interest in the rush hour traffic nightmare of a rezoning to Oakton). That said. The ES/MS feeders for that zip are a mess, esp. Carson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Need is still there. Zip code 20171 is a mess. Schools are flooding with students in that zip code and so many new housing developments popping up there with townhomes and apartments. It’s a real disappointment. It’s a vastly ignored community.

Oakton and Herndon were both recently renovated and expanded. South Lakes also got an expansion even though it wasn’t in the renovation queue.

It’s easier to renovate and expand existing schools (or tear down/rebuild) than going through the very long process, sometimes controversial, of opening a new high school.

Also, the FCPS demographers are probably predicting a long term school age population plateau or decline.

Locally, for comparison, only MCPS is building new high schools and reopening closed ones to keep the population of schools below 3,000, except for the largest schools like Montgomery Blair. On the other hand, FCPS has not reopened one closed high school or built a new one in almost 20 years. They prefer to build additions like at West Potomac. It’s just a different philosophy, not a better or worse one.

I'm so surprised by this because I live in 20171 and there are several neighborhoods built in the 90s that have original owners that are getting ready to sell and move out - I foresee a HUGE influx of families into this area as they move out. We were the first family with young children to move into our neighborhood in about 5 years, and after we bought, three houses went on the market, and I've heard there are at least 5 going on the market this spring. I bet this neighborhood turns over into families with babies and toddlers in the next 10 years.

This is one poster spamming this discussion with “20171”, right? I wonder if the motive to redistricting is wanting a property value increase.

Not the 20171 poster, but 20171 has the Carson quad feeder and Chantilly overcrowding. These are legitimate gripes. That parents have had for a decade and that Pekarsky blew off.

[Anonymous]

I would love for the MS Centers to go away. We are at Carson as a base school. I would love for it to be easier for my kid to get into his first choice electives, Engineering and Computers. Not to mention decreasing the kids in the after school clubs and decreasing the traffic into the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did South Lakes get renovated if it wasn't in the que? Some special pet project of Meren's because she has kids going there or something else?

My guess, it has alarge number of FARMs families, a large number of ELL students, and the Fox Mill ES and some parts of other ES were moved there when they didn’t want to move. Changing the boundaries so that the school had a better balance of kids, even marginally, and then allowing the school to be overcrowded would have been an even bigger slap in the face to those families.

I live in the Fox Mill boundary and there are parents who are miffed with the boundary change. I know some families thinking about moving now that their kids are entering MS because they had wanted the Fox Mill, Carson, Oakton route. Moving after 8th grade would not be all that disruptive to their kids HS career because there are so few kids from Carson that move from Carson to SLHS. The kids are pretty much starting over in HS as it is.

Most the families I know are fine with being at South Lakes, the Honors and IB program are well received. There are some solid clubs and sports teams. I think there would have been a lot of complaints and more kids trying to place out for AP if the school was overcrowded.

Wasn’t the boundary change to South Lakes roughly 15 years ago? How are the current elem and middle school parents even aware of that today?

I get that split feeders aren’t the best, but at least most families are fine with South Lakes. It’s a solid school today, and hopefully won’t get overcrowded in the future. Reston is one of the last bastions of housing affordability in Northern Virginia. Many lakefront townhomes and single family homes are still well under a million.

Parents bought houses in the area anticipating having kids. The JI program is popular and the area has been more reasonably priced for the area. We bought right when the boundary change happened and started our family a few years later. We were aware of the change when we were buying but were more focused on the ES at that time. Not to mention, there are a good number of parents who grew up here and attended Fox Mill and Oakton HS. We know parents who went through JI as kids in the neighborhood.

In the end, there are plenty of parents who knew about the change. I have been hearing more people wish for AP and want to find away to send their kids to Oakton. The parents of kids at Oak Hill for LIV would prefer Oakton because their kids have been going to ES with kids attending Oakton. So few kids from Carson go to South Lakes and that is really bothering more people I know in the neighborhood but no one wants to move to Langston Hughes for MS. Pretty much the only kids from Carson who will end up at South Lakes are the Fox Mill kids. And Carson does not do a good job prepping parents for IB at South Lakes. The MS info video flat out said that no one needs to take a language in MS, which is not true for anyone interested in the IB program at SL. It was like Carson ignores the Fox Mill kids counseling needs.

Incorrect. Most (I think all) Oak Hill is Franklin or Carson, then Chantilly or Westfield. I don’t think Oak Hill has any Oakton kids. You have to cross FFX Co Parkway to get to Oakton boundaries, and by then it’s more Fox Hill, Navy, etc. No one who lives near Oak Hill area want to deal with the traffic nightmare of Oakton— especially since the kids who would get that rezoning go to Chantilly. Which ties, and sometimes exceeds, Oakton on all publish metrics (SAT, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please fix the school boundaries in and around 20171. Thank you.

What’s broken? There are other zip codes where kids go to multiple schools.

20171 is Herndon.

20171 kids go to four different high schools (Chantily, Oakton, Westfield, and SLHS in Reston) but none of them are assigned to Herndon High.

Something is seriously messed up.

+1. And many go to Carson, which also feeds to all 4 HSs. Find me another quad feeder MS or ES in the county. I’ll wait.

[Anonymous]

The recent posts illustrate the problem with the new School Board pretending that they can just get out of boundary discussions by leaving it all up to staff and third-party consultants; boundaries are very much tied to decisions about programs and facilities.

If they aren’t planning to make decisions about programs and facilities they really had no business running for office. But others aren’t going to be in any position to make good recommendations about boundaries without knowing, for example, whether the board intends to leave some middle schools as big AAP centers that draw ifrom multiple pyramids, leave some high schools with less than 2/3 the permanent capacity of other high schools, etc.