Is Falls Church High School bad?
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Anonymous
| My son has gone there for 2 years. He has taken 4 AP classes this year and is on the Japanese Honor Society. It's a decent school and offers a variety of World Language studies. We bought a home in the area specifically for this school. Lower class sizes, Japanese language classes, cultural diversity. Yes, there are a lot of low income families with children in the school. Woodson is nice but keep in mind that school dealt with a rash of suicides. I am pretty sure Columbine had students from higher SES families. Falls Church may not be pretty but it does have a lot to offer. Yes, their testing scores may be lower on average but many of those kids taking the tests are still learning English. They do offer many AP classes as well as dual enrollment for college level classes that are taught on campus. Those who apply themselves do well there and have the same opportunities as those in surrounding schools. |
Anonymous
| I am about to graduate from Falls Church High School and I just want to say that all the reputation outside of the actual building has no ground. The reason we get a rap is because most of our families are middle and lower income so we do not get a lot of funding from the district. I myself have had a wonderful time at the school and still don't think going to any other high school in the srea would have served me well. |
Anonymous
I'm glad you had a good experience. I'm sorry, however, that you're about to graduate and don't appreciate that the schools like Falls Church that have more lower-income kids than average get more funding per student from the school district than wealthier schools, not less. |
Anonymous
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We pupil placed into FCHS from Stuart, and my child has had a good experience there. AP was a better fit for him because he could take more advanced science classes than Stuart offered. And when he and some of his classmates ran through all the CS courses that were offered, they made a new advanced level one for them.
The previous poster is correct that the county gives lower income schools more money per student but that doesn't account for the capital costs, and FCHS hasn't gotten the upgrades that many other schools have gotten. And the PTA at places like McLean raise obscene amounts of money. |
Anonymous
Much of the capital spending by FCPS in recent years has gone into schools that serve low-income kids. Mason Crest ES is relatively new and feeds into Falls Church and Stuart. FCPS rebuilt Glasgow MS in the Stuart pyramid from scratch, while renovating other middle schools. When Bailey's got overcrowded, FCPS built a new school for the upper grades. Coates ES in Herndon is one of the newer elementary schools and is also Title I. Falls Church HS arguably should have been higher on the renovation queue that it is, but when the renovation queue was created FCHS was under-enrolled and schools that were at or above capacity got a bump. Add to that the fact that Mason District representative on the School Board has come from the Stuart pyramid for decades, so FCHS didn't have a strong advocate on its behalf when the queue was created. I'm also not sure there's much evidence that the PTA at any schools other than maybe Langley are rolling in money. It's less that the PTAs have a lot of money than that the parents will spend the extra money directly on their own kids. |
Anonymous
| How do the Falls Church parents feel about Stuart getting new uniforms and signs as part of its change to "Justice High" while FCHS is falling apart? |
Anonymous
Anonymous
| Renovating FCHS will be a big boost for the school - happy to see them start to at least unveil the plans. |
Anonymous
As a parent of a student who attends Falls Church HS, the new uniforms and signs don't bother me. It's not as if without the Justice name change Falls Church HS would have moved up on the renovation list, nor would that money have been specifically designated for improvements at Falls Church. |
Anonymous
Why do you think it will be a big boost to the school? Do you mean moral of those attending, or that people will think more favorably about the school? If you mean the latter, that would be a minor uptick, if any. |
Anonymous
Improved morale, better facilities, greater incentive to buy in FCHS-zoned areas, reduced incentive to pupil place. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| Did anyone go to the meeting? Would love to hear a report back. |
Anonymous
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i guess after reading all this i'll answer the question 7 years later. i would forget about zip codes, renovations, and how comparably bad the school is to others. it depends on who you hang around.
i attended the school from 2017-2021. the school was attended by over 85% minorities at this time. 60% of the school was economically disadvantaged. the diversity is incredible. in that time i met both really well off honor students and gang members. i found a lot of the people who got down with trouble either didn't finish, stopped attending, or got expelled. the school staff took criminal behavior very seriously, and i think they did a good job while i was attending. MS-13 largely ran the noticeable operations in the surrounding neighborhoods. i remember multiple times skipping class and avoiding groups of 40-50+ dudes in the streets leaving the campus midday. the bathrooms were sometimes occupied with large groups selling drugs and weapons. i took weapons to school for protection. typically 4, 5 or so kids in the immediate area would die a year from a range of preventable reasons. a student i had met and talked to a few times was murdered in 2019 over circumstances related to MS-13, and it really damaged me. it is not something that is out of the way or subtle. it is there, but on a positive note, very avoidable. however, if your child is esol and economically disadvantaged, it could be genuinely dangerous depending on their friend group. i struggled with some things because i happened to have and keep poor influences around me. that's all it came down to. to protect your kids if you think they're at risk, pay attention to the energy they keep around them. on a positive note, the school itself is very nice. the participating student body is quality. the education and opportunities are amazing and above average. i played in band until covid happened and cut off my junior and senior year. the school is getting renovated now and my younger brother is attending. it seems things are improved, but my brother still does tell similar accounts of the issues i mentioned. it is what it is. compared to a lot of nova it's a bit of a mess, but overall i'd say it's very good. just wanted to give the perspective of a kid actually in the school. no disrespect to the previous posts, but most of these i feel hardly answered the original question. it's not as much about the broader scheme, just what it's like to be a part of the hallways |
Anonymous
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It should be noted that according to the Annandale Blog, the funding has now been restored to complete the renovated Falls Church HS as originally planned. I think the only major changes to reduce cost included the elimination of a concrete courtyard, now planned as a grassy courtyard, and the retention of an old auxiliary gymnasium.
This is great news, especially as construction costs have continued to skyrocket. |