FCPS Poverty Rates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, I want to hear the story about the trailer park! Where is there a trailer park in Fairfax county? And how did this lady change the boundaries of her neighborhood school twice?

In Chantilly out near Dulles (Meadows of Chantilly). Used to be zoned for Poplar Tree ES and is now zoned for Virginia Run ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are interested in boundaries, FCPS posted videos of a work session yesterday on boundaries.

It was inconclusive, with staff suggesting that it proposes to expand overcrowded schools because it can't count on the SB to push through boundary changes that parents would accept. and some SB members like Megan McLaughlin suggesting that the staff needs to provide the SB with a framework for considering boundary changes that recommends what the SB's priorities should be when considering changes (capacity utilization, minimizing commutes, demographic balance, etc). Elizabeth Schultz expressed concern about boundary changes that were primarily intended to create more racial or economic diversity.

I think Janie Strauss was the only Board member who mentioned specific boundary changes. Specifically, she said FCPS should not wait too much longer before changing the Langley/McLean/Marshall boundaries. She appears to favor moving some of the multi-family housing in Tysons to Langley. FYI for the Herndon poster, she also mentioned FCPS opening an AAP center soon at Herndon MS.

Herndon MS already has a local level IV, critical mass or not. There are typically only 25 Geometry students in 8th. An AAP center won't help. All of its feeders with the exception of the 2 smaller Reston elementaries have over 50% poverty. It needs to mix in the Langley western boundary and send Hutchison to Carson. That would balance things out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are interested in boundaries, FCPS posted videos of a work session yesterday on boundaries.

It was inconclusive, with staff suggesting that it proposes to expand overcrowded schools because it can't count on the SB to push through boundary changes that parents would accept. and some SB members like Megan McLaughlin suggesting that the staff needs to provide the SB with a framework for considering boundary changes that recommends what the SB's priorities should be when considering changes (capacity utilization, minimizing commutes, demographic balance, etc). Elizabeth Schultz expressed concern about boundary changes that were primarily intended to create more racial or economic diversity.

I think Janie Strauss was the only Board member who mentioned specific boundary changes. Specifically, she said FCPS should not wait too much longer before changing the Langley/McLean/Marshall boundaries. She appears to favor moving some of the multi-family housing in Tysons to Langley. FYI for the Herndon poster, she also mentioned FCPS opening an AAP center soon at Herndon MS.

Herndon MS already has a local level IV, critical mass or not. There are typically only 25 Geometry students in 8th. An AAP center won't help. All of its feeders with the exception of the 2 smaller Reston elementaries have over 50% poverty. It needs to mix in the Langley western boundary and send Hutchison to Carson. That would balance things out.

No way that Hutchison is moving out of Herndon MS/Herndon HS before a new high school gets built. Carson already feeds to Westfield, Oakton, and South Lakes, plus Chantilly if you include AAP.

[Anonymous]

I think Janie Strauss was the only Board member who mentioned specific boundary changes. Specifically, she said FCPS should not wait too much longer before changing the Langley/McLean/Marshall boundaries. She appears to favor moving some of the multi-family housing in Tysons to Langley. FYI for the Herndon poster, she also mentioned FCPS opening an AAP center soon at Herndon MS.

Janie must not be running again. She has protected Langley/Great Falls for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Right. But the zoning that resulted in the concentration of affordable market-rate housing in your school district (which you apparently find so upsetting) is a legacy of decisions made by the BOS when it was controlled by conservative Republicans. Don’t blame liberals because you can’t afford to be with your people in Clifton or Great Falls.

And, it is not the BOS who decides where to build schools or makes boundary decisions. And, it has been a looooong time since our BOS was controlled by conservative Republicans. And, our SB has never been controlled by the GOP since it went to elected positions.

Look no further than the hypocrisy of former SB member Kathy Smith on this issue. She sent the trailer park to her neighborhood school in order to get full day K for the neighborhood school. As soon as all schools got full day K, she moved the trailer park out. Fact.

As opposed to Tessie Wilson, a Republican SB member who orchestrated a number of the boundary changes that concentrated poverty at Poe MS and Annandale HS?

That was a mistake on her party, but was it a republican controlled board then? Doubtful.

The practice at the time was to defer to the School Board member who wanted to change boundaries for a school in his or her district. Democrats went along with Wilson (R) when she wanted to move students in Braddock out of schools in Mason, and Republicans went along with Smith (D) when she played around with Poplar Tree boundaries. Sandy Evans (D) actually opposed the last round of changes affecting Annandale that Wilson engineered, but couldn't stop it. [/quote

People have understood civil rights boundary issues for decades. They just choose to ignore them. We have at large members for the very purpose of using their influence to affect the county as a whole. Not sure what Moon has done all these years to fulfill that responsibility.]

[Anonymous]

This is 13:29. During the work session, Kevin Sneed (Facilities staff) said they'd been very mindful of not "significantly" changing the demographics at Jackson when moving part of Jackson to Thoreau. However, he linked this to keeping the AAP center at Jackson. I don't think they made their projections public, but I'm betting they just assumed the AAP kids at Thoreau would keep going to Jackson.

Kevin Sneed and his group were told several times during meetings that parents of AAP kids wanted to switch. I made it a point to tell them directly however there were also parents telling him this about individual children and even parents of Falls Church kids from schools like Fairhill asking to be moved to Thoreau. Plus they had started the center at Jackson for the specific reason of improving demographics at that school so it's no wonder that if you give options to dilute it and move those kids out of boundary they will most likely pick the weathier school.

School boundaries for poverty balancing isn't some difficult formula. Poverty is concentrated in small old single families and apartments. High achieving children are concentrated in AAP classes. Spread these kids and areas out in a way that kids are still within a reasonable drive to school and have at least 30% of the elementary going to middle and then 30% going onto high together and you have schools that are reasonably aligned as well as balanced. For areas that have zoning issues, work with the supervisors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, I want to hear the story about the trailer park! Where is there a trailer park in Fairfax county? And how did this lady change the boundaries of her neighborhood school twice?

This is a big county and the fcps schools and neighborhoods along Route 1 in Hybla Valley and in the Bailey's Crossroads areas are worlds different from your TJ feeder bubble.

In addition to apartments meant for 2 to 4 people hosting multiple families, there are indeed trailer parks along route 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This is 13:29. During the work session, Kevin Sneed (Facilities staff) said they'd been very mindful of not "significantly" changing the demographics at Jackson when moving part of Jackson to Thoreau. However, he linked this to keeping the AAP center at Jackson. I don't think they made their projections public, but I'm betting they just assumed the AAP kids at Thoreau would keep going to Jackson.

Kevin Sneed and his group were told several times during meetings that parents of AAP kids wanted to switch. I made it a point to tell them directly however there were also parents telling him this about individual children and even parents of Falls Church kids from schools like Fairhill asking to be moved to Thoreau. Plus they had started the center at Jackson for the specific reason of improving demographics at that school so it's no wonder that if you give options to dilute it and move those kids out of boundary they will most likely pick the weathier school.

School boundaries for poverty balancing isn't some difficult formula. Poverty is concentrated in small old single families and apartments. High achieving children are concentrated in AAP classes. Spread these kids and areas out in a way that kids are still within a reasonable drive to school and have at least 30% of the elementary going to middle and then 30% going onto high together and you have schools that are reasonably aligned as well as balanced. For areas that have zoning issues, work with the supervisors.

No. U buy where u buy knowing what the schools are like. Enough of this weird gerrymandering of boundaries to try and ‘balance’ the numbers. I mean it seems that some parents are afraid of their greater community, so why did u but there?

[Anonymous]

The boundaries have already been gerrymandered and zoning decisions made over the years in favor of the wealthy. Do you think the people of Mount Vernon and Herndon lobbied for more apartments in their district? No, other districts like Oakton fought against water and sewer expansion so they could keep their area at 1 acre lots.

We now have Langley parents fighting to get a major artery to the beltway closed because it takes too long to get to the school when in reality they should just be going to Herndon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This is 13:29. During the work session, Kevin Sneed (Facilities staff) said they'd been very mindful of not "significantly" changing the demographics at Jackson when moving part of Jackson to Thoreau. However, he linked this to keeping the AAP center at Jackson. I don't think they made their projections public, but I'm betting they just assumed the AAP kids at Thoreau would keep going to Jackson.

Kevin Sneed and his group were told several times during meetings that parents of AAP kids wanted to switch. I made it a point to tell them directly however there were also parents telling him this about individual children and even parents of Falls Church kids from schools like Fairhill asking to be moved to Thoreau. Plus they had started the center at Jackson for the specific reason of improving demographics at that school so it's no wonder that if you give options to dilute it and move those kids out of boundary they will most likely pick the weathier school.

School boundaries for poverty balancing isn't some difficult formula. Poverty is concentrated in small old single families and apartments. High achieving children are concentrated in AAP classes. Spread these kids and areas out in a way that kids are still within a reasonable drive to school and have at least 30% of the elementary going to middle and then 30% going onto high together and you have schools that are reasonably aligned as well as balanced. For areas that have zoning issues, work with the supervisors.

No. U buy where u buy knowing what the schools are like. Enough of this weird gerrymandering of boundaries to try and ‘balance’ the numbers. I mean it seems that some parents are afraid of their greater community, so why did u but there?

Let them eat cake, huh? Not everyone can afford to live in a top-tier school district. Also, sometimes it makes sense to live in a certain neighborhood for commute, proximity to family/child care, etc. In such a wealthy county, we should expect excellence from all of our schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, I want to hear the story about the trailer park! Where is there a trailer park in Fairfax county? And how did this lady change the boundaries of her neighborhood school twice?

This is a big county and the fcps schools and neighborhoods along Route 1 in Hybla Valley and in the Bailey's Crossroads areas are worlds different from your TJ feeder bubble.

In addition to apartments meant for 2 to 4 people hosting multiple families, there are indeed trailer parks along route 1.

The trailer park in question is nowhere near Route 1, though. It's in Western Fairfax, actually reasonably close to one of the TJ feeder schools (Rocky Run). If a kid who lives in that trailer park gets into AAP right now, they would attend Rocky Run for middle school. Kathy Smith didn't like it that her neighborhood elementary school included these families, which is a shame because there are some very nice kids and parents in that community, so she used them to sell the full-day kindergarten program and then promptly relocated them.

[Anonymous]

And she's the Democrat who blew the 5 cent increase a couple of years ago by not voting for it and then tried to force everyone else to change their vote. Lovely person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The boundaries have already been gerrymandered and zoning decisions made over the years in favor of the wealthy. Do you think the people of Mount Vernon and Herndon lobbied for more apartments in their district? No, other districts like Oakton fought against water and sewer expansion so they could keep their area at 1 acre lots.

We now have Langley parents fighting to get a major artery to the beltway closed because it takes too long to get to the school when in reality they should just be going to Herndon.

At a minimum, they should move Forestville ES in Great Falls to Herndon MS/Herndon HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are interested in boundaries, FCPS posted videos of a work session yesterday on boundaries.


I think Janie Strauss was the only Board member who mentioned specific boundary changes. Specifically, she said FCPS should not wait too much longer before changing the Langley/McLean/Marshall boundaries. She appears to favor moving some of the multi-family housing in Tysons to Langley. FYI for the Herndon poster, she also mentioned FCPS opening an AAP center soon at Herndon MS.

Herndon MS already has a local level IV, critical mass or not. There are typically only 25 Geometry students in 8th. An AAP center won't help. All of its feeders with the exception of the 2 smaller Reston elementaries have over 50% poverty. It needs to mix in the Langley western boundary and send Hutchison to Carson. That would balance things out.

No way that Hutchison is moving out of Herndon MS/Herndon HS before a new high school gets built. Carson already feeds to Westfield, Oakton, and South Lakes, plus Chantilly if you include AAP.

There are plenty of single family neighborhoods just southeast of the Toll road that can be switched from Carson/Westfield or Oakton to Herndon MS/HS. Exchange them for Hutchison and make Franklin a center. It's not that difficult. All these homes are within a few miles of one another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are interested in boundaries, FCPS posted videos of a work session yesterday on boundaries.


I think Janie Strauss was the only Board member who mentioned specific boundary changes. Specifically, she said FCPS should not wait too much longer before changing the Langley/McLean/Marshall boundaries. She appears to favor moving some of the multi-family housing in Tysons to Langley. FYI for the Herndon poster, she also mentioned FCPS opening an AAP center soon at Herndon MS.

Herndon MS already has a local level IV, critical mass or not. There are typically only 25 Geometry students in 8th. An AAP center won't help. All of its feeders with the exception of the 2 smaller Reston elementaries have over 50% poverty. It needs to mix in the Langley western boundary and send Hutchison to Carson. That would balance things out.

No way that Hutchison is moving out of Herndon MS/Herndon HS before a new high school gets built. Carson already feeds to Westfield, Oakton, and South Lakes, plus Chantilly if you include AAP.

There are plenty of single family neighborhoods just southeast of the Toll road that can be switched from Carson/Westfield or Oakton to Herndon MS/HS. Exchange them for Hutchison and make Franklin a center. It's not that difficult. All these homes are within a few miles of one another.