Skyview is Open for Opt-In from Any Rising 9th and 10th grader in Fairfax County

[Anonymous]

I’m so sick of the union reps and staff acting like Skyview is just a jobs program with absolute guarantees. If this school takes unnecessary money out of the operating budget that means fewer resources available to everyone else.

I've heard nothing about that.
But, if you want to talk about resources, I would love to know what THRU and XYZ got paid. They could have set boundaries last fall and been done and had a lot more kids there.
But, don't punish the community that needs this school. They are the ones who have been left hanging.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t have the enrollment numbers but I do have a close friend who will be teaching at Skyview and they are pumped about what is going on there - this is a teacher with decades of experience at a highly rated HS. Skyview will absolutely offer every advanced class even if there are a handful of kids - sorry, they will. Consider it a start up cost and those handful of kids will get private school ratios. I agree they should leave it a magnet and be clear on transport at and everything changes overnight. You only have to read the western boundary thread to see what a miserable group of parents FCPS has and they will never be happy with anything. If you said it’s TJ East with centralized pick ups you’d have a waiting list. It’s the double talk that has cost them. And what, they want to force a bunch of malcontents to attend? Why? Just properly label it a magnet and get ready for crowd control. I can’t believe the amount of BS on this thread based on insiders I know there. Reid definitely f-ed this up trying to cater to masses. The people who want Skyview are tech-forward AAP kids. Stop pandering to everyone else who seem to all prefer their own school.

This is the silliest thing I’ve ever read. TJ is a regional magnet. Skyview right now is an opt-in school struggling to find kids and opening its doors to any rising 9th or 10th grader in the county with a pulse. I know you are desperate to pretend your Carson kid on a TJ waitlist will be attending some highly coveted TJ replica, but this ain’t it.

Skyview has over 400 kids registered for 9th grade, there are 250 registered for 10th grade. This shouldn't surprise anyone, not many kids want to move going into 10th grade, especially kids who are involved in sports or the arts at their current school. This is what most the people I know expected to happen. There would be 9th graders happy to move and families that would gamble that Skyview will be the in boundary school so have their kid opt-in for transportation services.

Once the boundaries are set, Skyview will be just fine. Next year is going to be small, which surprises no one since the school is 100% opt-in.

If they only have 750 or fewer kids they should not be opening a high school, even one limited to two grades. It’s a ridiculous amount of overhead per student given costs in this area.

Too late for that.

It's not too late. We're four months away from the beginning of the 2026-27 school year and students could attend their current base schools.

They've already hired 60 staff members and their positions have been filled at their current schools.

If kids are back at their base schools and not at Skyview, those schools will need more teachers. The number of students isn't changing, just their location.

We shouldn't be opening a school with few students and massive overhead just because Missy who teaches Geometry and lives in Sterling was looking forward to a shorter commute to Herndon than she has to Chantilly.

750 students spread around the district is not going to make 60 positions available, especially with several staff coming from middle and elementary school. You clearly know nothing about how school systems work.

Do you know how pathetic you sound? Skyview ought to open as a functioning high school for a reasonable number of students, not a public works program for aspiring administrators and teachers looking to jump ship.

If they can't serve more than 750 kids, we should not be opening this school. Period.

Do you know how stupid you sound? You are concerned about overhead but think returning 60 staff members to places that no longer have openings is the answer.

Also, many of those staff members supposedly jumping ship are transferring from highly rated schools.

If Skyview can't find 750 kids for this fall, it should not be opened and FCPS should figure out how to put the folks who'd expected to work there to better use. If there aren't enough kids, they aren't going to be fully occupied and we shouldn't be paying for them to twiddle their thumbs.

Based on the number of staff currently, teachers will have a full load of 5 sections to teach. The classes might be closer to 25 students instead of 30 but, don't worry, they won't be "twiddling their thumbs."

They really need to redouble their efforts to find 1000 kids, which was the number upon which these hiring decisions were made. If they can’t do that some new hires should be de-staffed, as would happen at other schools that see enrollment declines.

Except, as I have already mentioned, there are no longer positions for any destaffed employees to go back to. Also, those staff were hired based on the current enrollment numbers at the time, not 1,000 students. So instead of taking your frustrations on teachers, keep it focused on Reid and other central admin. Saying that teachers who were just hired weeks ago should be destaffed is not the answer.

Further, they should be scaling the number of administrators and staff to the number of students who do show up, just like at any other school.

I literally just told you that they hired staff based on the current enrollment numbers, not 1,000 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I’m so sick of the union reps and staff acting like Skyview is just a jobs program with absolute guarantees. If this school takes unnecessary money out of the operating budget that means fewer resources available to everyone else.

I've heard nothing about that.
But, if you want to talk about resources, I would love to know what THRU and XYZ got paid. They could have set boundaries last fall and been done and had a lot more kids there.
But, don't punish the community that needs this school. They are the ones who have been left hanging.

If they’d set boundaries and assured a reasonable number of students when Skyview opened we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

[Anonymous]

I really hope that it remains county-wide opt in (lottery when it fills), so all kids have a chance without having to engage in the ridiculous testing and elitism of TJ. There are a lot of smart kids would would love the STEM programs and particularly pilot training they are offering, who can't get into TJ. This school is a gift to the county. I am shocked that more haven't opted-in. The campus is amazing. And, the teachers are all so excited to be there (the open houses have been inspiring).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hope that it remains county-wide opt in (lottery when it fills), so all kids have a chance without having to engage in the ridiculous testing and elitism of TJ. There are a lot of smart kids would would love the STEM programs and particularly pilot training they are offering, who can't get into TJ. This school is a gift to the county. I am shocked that more haven't opted-in. The campus is amazing. And, the teachers are all so excited to be there (the open houses have been inspiring).

The Floris/Oak Hill community has been waiting decades for a high school and now that it’s close to happening you want a county-wide lottery school? You must just be trying to stir the pot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hope that it remains county-wide opt in (lottery when it fills), so all kids have a chance without having to engage in the ridiculous testing and elitism of TJ. There are a lot of smart kids would would love the STEM programs and particularly pilot training they are offering, who can't get into TJ. This school is a gift to the county. I am shocked that more haven't opted-in. The campus is amazing. And, the teachers are all so excited to be there (the open houses have been inspiring).

Students can pupil place at schools for specialized programs. Parents have to provide transportation though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hope that it remains county-wide opt in (lottery when it fills), so all kids have a chance without having to engage in the ridiculous testing and elitism of TJ. There are a lot of smart kids would would love the STEM programs and particularly pilot training they are offering, who can't get into TJ. This school is a gift to the county. I am shocked that more haven't opted-in. The campus is amazing. And, the teachers are all so excited to be there (the open houses have been inspiring).

We weren’t that impressed. It’s still a lot of hype with a lot of missing details. DS wanted to go to his base school and we readily agreed.

[Anonymous]

Are there any changes related to athletics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope that it remains county-wide opt in (lottery when it fills), so all kids have a chance without having to engage in the ridiculous testing and elitism of TJ. There are a lot of smart kids would would love the STEM programs and particularly pilot training they are offering, who can't get into TJ. This school is a gift to the county. I am shocked that more haven't opted-in. The campus is amazing. And, the teachers are all so excited to be there (the open houses have been inspiring).

We weren’t that impressed. It’s still a lot of hype with a lot of missing details. DS wanted to go to his base school and we readily agreed.

Skyview will be a strong traditional high school. It will not be TJ West.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any changes related to athletics?

No sports the first year, planning for sports the second year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hope that it remains county-wide opt in (lottery when it fills), so all kids have a chance without having to engage in the ridiculous testing and elitism of TJ. There are a lot of smart kids would would love the STEM programs and particularly pilot training they are offering, who can't get into TJ. This school is a gift to the county. I am shocked that more haven't opted-in. The campus is amazing. And, the teachers are all so excited to be there (the open houses have been inspiring).

This is very well said on all counts. I completely agree with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope that it remains county-wide opt in (lottery when it fills), so all kids have a chance without having to engage in the ridiculous testing and elitism of TJ. There are a lot of smart kids would would love the STEM programs and particularly pilot training they are offering, who can't get into TJ. This school is a gift to the county. I am shocked that more haven't opted-in. The campus is amazing. And, the teachers are all so excited to be there (the open houses have been inspiring).

We weren’t that impressed. It’s still a lot of hype with a lot of missing details. DS wanted to go to his base school and we readily agreed.

If you weren't impressed, I'd be interested to know if this is your first child and if not, where your others went to HS. This is our last child and I was very impressed; and we had a good base school.

[Anonymous]

So we have gone to a county wide opt in policy and still can’t fill a 1,000 seats. Guess that just shows there really was not a boundary problem to solve after all. A lot of time and money spent to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Not to mention the angst caused as neighborhoods pit themselves against one another to keep from being rezoned into a different boundary. A catastrophic failure all around!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So we have gone to a county wide opt in policy and still can’t fill a 1,000 seats. Guess that just shows there really was not a boundary problem to solve after all. A lot of time and money spent to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Not to mention the angst caused as neighborhoods pit themselves against one another to keep from being rezoned into a different boundary. A catastrophic failure all around!

The opt in is for one year. Boundaries are being drawn. There is only pne school that doesn’t want to move to Skyview, that I can tell. There are schools not happy about backfilling Westfield out of Centreville. Boundary changes are always hard but Centreville and Chantilly need relief, only everyone else wants a different school to be the one to move and not them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So we have gone to a county wide opt in policy and still can’t fill a 1,000 seats. Guess that just shows there really was not a boundary problem to solve after all. A lot of time and money spent to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Not to mention the angst caused as neighborhoods pit themselves against one another to keep from being rezoned into a different boundary. A catastrophic failure all around!

The reason it’s been such a catastrophic failure is that the school board failed to anticipate that families largely want to stay in their chosen schools, even if they aren’t ranked well. There are a lot of people who clamor to move other people’s kids for self-interested reasons, but very few who are interested in moving their own.