Reply to Tell me about the schools in Herndon/Chantilly - Crossfield, Oak Hill, Navy, Fox Mill, Lees Corner

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Reply to "Tell me about the schools in Herndon/Chantilly - Crossfield, Oak Hill, Navy, Fox Mill, Lees Corner"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Westfield has 2800 students. [/quote]

According to the profile, Westfield has fewer than 2700 students.

However, when the SL boundary study was initiated, it was just a year or so after the School Board had expanded capacity at Westfield to greater than 3000.

Then, in order to "justify" the study, the SB decided that all high schools should have a membership of 2000.  That was the only way they could justify taking so many kids from Westfield.

Then, they depleted Oakton--so, they had to take kids from Chantilly.

SL refused the Herndon kids that their PTA chose--so they were sent to Westfield.

The boundary study was created, designed, and run by the South Lakes PTA under the stewardship of Stu Gibson.
[/quote]

My kids go to Westfield. I don't see how it has a capacity of 3000. The gym is tiny. The cafeteria is tiny. There are trailers being used for classrooms. Regardless, 2000 should be the target HS size. 2600+ is absurd.[/quote]

If you think the Westfield gym is tiny, there are a lot of FCPS high schools you haven’t visited.  It may not be as big as Robinson or Fairfax, but it’s larger than most. [/quote]

The school was expanded shortly after it was built.  I just remember from the boundary study that is why they changed the optimum size of a school to 2000.  Because, they could not use capacity as a reason for the move.  And, I definitely remember that Westfield had a capacity of 3000.  I've been in the gym--and PP is correct.  It is comparable to many gyms in FCPS.[/quote]

I don't think the School Board's strongly held, yet oh-so-temporary, view that no high school should have more than 2000 or 2100 kids had anything to do with the size of Westfield's gym relative to the larger field houses at Robinson, South Lakes, and Fairfax, or the smaller gyms at schools like Langley, Edison, Marshall, and TJ (the FCPS schools built in the mid-1960s have the smallest gyms).

They just wanted to add kids to South Lakes to shore up the school's enrollment and reputation, and South Lakes was surrounded by schools with more kids.  So it was convenient to say South Lakes was below the acceptable "minimum" and other schools were above the acceptable "maximum."

Of course, now they are expanding some schools to 3000 again (West Potomac and Centreville), and many others to at least 2500 seats, so the 2000 or 2100-seat "maximum" HS size very much seems to have been forgotten.  It's sitting on a book shelf next to the study that said any school with over 40% FARMS will tank. [/quote]

Despite FCPS Staff/SB's claims, they had actually dusted off and relaxed a pre-existing 2000 student rule just prior to the SL redistricting - 
1) The rule had been in effect since the 80s, but, had been ignored when Westfield was built to an original capacity of 2500.
2) The actual rule only applies to *new* HSes, it doesn't, and never has, applied to changes to size of schools once built.
3) The updated language simply changed from new HSes shall never be built larger than 2000 to ... shall never be built larger than 2000 unless Staff/SB decide otherwise...

Shortly after Westfield was built to 2500, it was so overcrowded that they added R-wing, adding 600 seats, and expanding the cafeteria.  But, of course, adding seats doesn't expand existing hallways/gym/theatre/...  Result is, while we paid for 3100 seats, the actual capacity we got was more like 2800...[/quote]

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