Reply to FCPS Ready to Screw Poorer/GenEd Kids Again

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How many of those on here that are against this move will be at the hearing on the 22nd when this will be voted on?  Raise your hands please..[/quote]

Not living in the area, I may not show up. I know the school board has read these threads and have talked to them personally about the issues. I have also talked to facilities. It's their responsibility to make a sound decision. I do not feel obligated to show up just to make sure they do the right thing. I cannot show up to every hearing and it is not my responsibility. What if I was sick or had an obligation? These are the people we elected. The responsibility is on their shoulders.[/quote]

But you are not the only one carrying the weight of the opposition on your shoulders, pp (or are you?).  I thought there were a few hundred based on the length of this thread.

While I get your point about the county needing to worry about this vs us, they cannot make any decisions if they have to worry about 3rd and 4th order consequences of every decision.

The issue they are addressing is overcrowding at LJ.  
Potential solutions - Move kids to Thoreau (which has overcapacity).  [b]I'm sure parents were involved in pushing for this solution (OES and the other two schools).  [/b] 
Move kids to Poe - Where are the parents asking for this?  If not them, who else will?   You will not find OES parents asking for this.  In fact, if someone had proposed this, they would have vehemently shot it down because the school is just too far away!

I don't think it's fair for someone to pontificate on this when they are not personally involved.

Other issues you and other bring up such as :LJ will become a "poor people" school, performance will decrease, property values will decrease, etc are second/third order issues that FCPS just doesn't have the mental bandwidth/capacity/ability to address.  Once you bring those issues in you will not be able to change anything.[/quote]

This is nothing more than your conspiracy theory.  The plan to move these particular schools into Thoreau was hatched by the facilities people long ago in the CIP.  Parents at OES, MWES and MRES had nothing to do with it.  OES parents were more unhappy with LJ b/c they were a split ES... so some kids were going to TMS and some to LJ.  That did drive a feeling of some kids getting a higher end school while their friends got somethign else.  MWES was not a split feeder.... people there were fully on-board with LJ and weren't agitating to leave.  Not sure about the MRES kids.  They were a much smaller part of the MRES population.

There was no effort on the part of the ES to get themselves picked to be rezoned.  FCPS simply looked at the map and it was obvious who should move.  You want to social engineer the situation to suit your property values.  Admit that.[/quote]

The whole zoning in the county is social engineering. The Town of Vienna itself is manufactured social engineering. One Fairfax IS a social engineering principle based on previous social engineering that congregated low income properties together. You seem to have a problem with One Fairfax.[/quote]

I have a problem with how some people are trying to use "One Fairfax" as a weapon.  I do not believe it was intended to be used as some on this thread are trying to use it.  I believe it was intended to be used simply as an aspirational statement and as a general goal to make all parts of the county prosperous (i.e. when putting resources toward business development zones, let's not put all the $$ in Tysons and ignore Rt. 1).  I don't think anyone ever intended for One Fairfax to be dictating school rezoning.  It should be used, to make sure that the same classes are offered to the kids at LJ as are offered to the kids at TMS and the kids at Whitman MS and the kids at Liberty MS.

One Fairfax, to me, means that the country distributes resources to each school and to each part of the county with an eye toward making sure all areas/schools have similar (not identical) opportunities.  It does not mean that the county should start re-balancing the number of black kids/white kids/asian kids/hispanic kids/Farms kids/IEP kids/ etc. in each school. [/quote]

The problem with your analysis is that both the Board of Supervisors and the FCPS School Board expressly adopted the One Fairfax resolution.

If it simply meant business as usual for FCPS, there would have been no need for FCPS to debate the resolution or ratify it.

Scott Brabrand has been very clear that he was prepared to consider equity more explicitly than FCPS has done in the past.  I think his staff has dropped the ball on this one, perhaps because the plans were hatched before Brabrand was hired.  But the Jackson-to-Thoreau proposal is not consistent with One Fairfax.

For example, community outreach was limited to those in the wealthier Jackson neighborhoods, who were likely to support a redistricting.  In comparison, One Fairfax provides: "To foster civil discourse and dialogue, community engagement shall ensure that the breadth of interests, ideas, and values of all people are heard and considered. Outreach and public participation processes will be inclusive of diverse races, cultures, ages, and other social statuses. Effective listening, transparency, flexibility, and adaptability will be utilized to overcome barriers (geography, language, time, design, etc.) that prevent or limit participation in public processes. Fairfax County Government and Fairfax County Public Schools will engage with sectors such as higher education, business, nonprofit, faith, philanthropy, civic and others to collectively address barriers to opportunity."

Similarly, FCPS has only looked at the short-term impact on enrollments of moving certain Jackson students to Thoreau.  In comparison, One Fairfax provides: "Consideration will be given to whole community benefits and burdens, identifying strategies to mitigate negative impacts, and promoting success for all people in planning and decision making. Equity tools such as structured questions, equity impact analyses, disparity studies, etc. will be used to ensure that equity is considered intentionally in decision-making and the One Fairfax policy is operationalized."

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