Reply to FCPS' plans to address concerns at under-enrolled and over-enrolled schools.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]1. Gunston/Halley/Laurel Hill/Lorton Station ES boundaries

2. Bren Mar Park ES feeders[/quote]

My suspicion with these two is that FCPS will fill Lewis with Bren Mar Park elementary, which also serves to take kids out of over-enrolled and still growing with new development Edison. I’m not sure what the middle school situation will be but I suspect they will stay at Holmes.

The first situation is significantly more complicated now that they aren’t moving any students out of WSHS to South County. Let me just say if they WERE moving some of Hunt Valley to South County, the move here would actually be more straightforward: the Hagel Circle (Halley) attendance island would almost certainly go to Lorton Station ES and then to Hayfield. South County is not as large as many other MS and HS and would need to lose some students if it picked up 40% of large HVES. LSES is already at Hayfield so the move is pretty clean.

However, without any new students coming into SC, I believe the right thing to do now in terms of balancing enrollments between SC and Hayfield is sending Hagel Circle to Gunston and keeping them at South County, and not adding new students to LSES and keeping them at Hayfield. But there is a lot going on there. Lorton Station’s PTA is lobbying to have their whole school at South County with or without Hagel Circle. I suspect they would have to take Hagel Circle as a prisoner swap if the powers that be grant their wishes to be zoned for SC, but they are fighting against it. And the influential Mason Neck people are lobbying to keep Hagel Circle out of Gunston ES. South County would be bursting at the seams with an additional large elementary (LSES is quite large) added to its attendance area, especially the middle school would be well over capacity. Hayfield would then be well UNDER capacity if it lost a whole feeder and, with Bren Mar Park being added to Lewis, it doesn’t seem likely that Hayfield would pick up students from Edison. But adding Hagel Circle to Gunston would likely push Gunston into Title 1 status. And the SB members have already announced they want to fill Halley Elementary’s excess capacity once Hagel Circle is gone with a Korean immersion program, so staying at Halley as an attendance island won’t be happening long term.

Also - Lorton Station is the AAP center for the South County pyramid + Saratoga ES which is zoned for Lewis. If LSES was fully added to the SC pyramid, I believe enrollments would go haywire at the other elementary schools in the SC pyramid. Right now barely anyone goes to the center because everyone sees it as “less than” compared to the neighborhood elementaries and it’s not even in pyramid. The center at LSES is full of Saratoga kids backdooring out of there and Key MS. If it was in pyramid - I think people’s decision making would change and you’d see some significant enrollment drops starting in 3rd at Newington Forest and Halley (the two smaller schools - Silverbrook is large enough to support a larger LLIV program and I believe Laurel Hill is as well but not sure on that). [/quote]

The Lorton issue will get ugly. I am glad my kids are out of Gunston soon. The school is becoming overwhelmed with lower income students with behavioral issues. Mason Neck residents should be fighting hard to keep Hagel Circle out. It’s a shame since Mason Neck is a truly beautiful area of the county. [/quote]This has racial implication and a negative connotation.

Lorton Station is in the Hayfield pyramid, and part of Gunston split feeds to hayfield, but yes, it serves the 4 core south county pyramid schools, Gunston, plus 2 others not in the pyramid. [/quote]

If you’re referring to the Lorton Station AAP center impacting its capacity, the numbers are available online. The largest amount of students using the center are from Saratoga Elementary which is not in the South County or Hayfield Pyramid. It’s not students from Gunston or the other South County elementary schools seeking to use the AAP center since they have local level IV. Lorton Station’s capacity is being impacted by parents from a Lewis zoned elementary school seeking a back door out of Lewis. If they use the Lorton Station AAP center, they can attend Lake Braddock for middle school AAP. Without the center, there is plenty of room for Hagel Circle. [/quote]

Parents in the Lewis pyramid with LLIV-eligible kids have as much right to send their kids to an AAP center as any other parents. [/quote]

They do, but it doesn’t need to be an AAP Center in another pyramid. Springfield Estates is the Lewis AAP center. [/quote]

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