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]I listened to the presentation today. The commenters and people attending at Bren Mar Park were not happy. It was pretty transparent that they were being targeted, and also pretty transparent that the goal was not just relieving capacity at Edison, but also filling up Lewis. One commenter correctly pointed out that if the capacity issue is with Edison, the solution should involve all of Edison. Not just the one school being targeted for removal. They were wondering why Franconia elementary wasn’t involved in this or why any of the West Springfield feeders weren’t being involved, so poking that hornets nest again. Some of the meeting attendees also pointed out that the commute from the Bren Mar Park area would involve driving on 395/95 or on Van Dorn right past Edison to get to Lewis.

This is a mess and the facilities guy presenting was unprepared. The answer to all the questions seemed to be “submit your feedback through the feedback form.” Also worth noting, the guy presenting and answering the questions today was Eric Gordon from facilities. However the “champion” for this project is the head of HR, a guy named Andrew Solomon.

Additionally I want to point out that they said that Nardos King 🤮 will be the “champion” for the Lorton issue. [/quote]

Why is the Chief Equity Officer being named champion for the “Lorton issue”? Unless the issue has nothing to do with capacity and everything to do with “equity.”  It’s also interesting that Silverbrook Elementary is not being included in the Lorton Boundary review issue, which is where Sandy Anderson lives. Halley and Silverbrook are both physically located in Crosspointe, and moving Hagel Circle out of Halley will leave the school at roughly 60% capacity. Wouldn’t it make sense to also include the other elementary school in the same neighborhood in the review? Some students assigned for Silverbrook live physically close enough to Halley to be walkers. [/quote]

I’m in the area (but not at Halley, but am at South County) and this is my take. Halley and Silverbrook are literally in the same neighborhood and there could easily be capacity balancing between the two schools if and when Hagel Circle is out of Halley. Halley also has a big pre-K program of both the income-based and special needs, both the half day and PAC classes, and I could see it growing if needed to take up some empty classroom space. Silverbrook is quite large but always seems to be at capacity, but they did just get a renovation and expansion. There was a proposal to move some of the edge neighborhoods on the other side (so like behind South Run Park) to Sangster and Lake Braddock, but those few neighborhoods fought against it because that’s an annoying drive and Sangster doesn’t need any more students. Halley is also going to get a Korean immersion program to fill up some space … allegedly.

Lorton is one of those places that has lower income areas alongside middle class and nice neighborhoods. Right now those areas are pretty evenly distributed. Hagel Circle is in an attendance island for Halley and South County. The income restricted apartments and Woods of Fairfax are with Lorton Station and Hayfield. The low rise condos at the end of Silverbrook Road are with Laurel Hill and South County, and Newington Forest/South County has a small section of public housing off Southrun by their pool. Gunston has some lower income neighborhoods but I don’t know if those areas end up at South County or Hayfield for MS/HS since I’m less familiar with that area.

The issue right now is where Hagel Circle ends up and who, potentially, goes with it. As a South County parent the only thing I really don’t want, is Hagel Circle at Lorton Station and all of Lorton Station ES ending up at South County. Lorton Station is a very large school. Adding them to our attendance area would push both SCMS and HS over 105% capacity, I think they said the middle school would instantly jump to 119% which is insane. But this was a proposal on one of the maps when this was discussed privately with LSES’s PTA earlier this year. South County is literally at the southern border of the county so we have a very limited number of “moves out” that can be made.

Again as a South County parent I don’t care if Hagel Circle stays here. They’re already here! I’m not trying to dump this neighborhood. My issue is solely with the proposal to add all of Lorton Station to South County and adding several hundred students to our middle and HS. That would also create a cascading effect at Hayfield where they’d have to pick up a large number of students from Edison most likely in order to balance the enrollments. [/quote]

Fellow South County parent here, and I agree with this take. There can and should be rebalancing between Halley and Silverbrook to solve some of this, but it's likely that Sandy Anderson made sure her home elementary school was not impacted. South County does not have the capacity to take all of Lorton Station and doing so would create major issues that would impact multiple schools. There are several neighborhoods zoned for Gunston near Route 1 and Gunston Road that are zoned for Hayfield despite that fact that they are nearly entirely surrounded by South County - sort of an attendance peninsula if you will. Those neighborhoods could be moved to South County, and Hagel Circle could go to Lorton Station and Hayfield...or don't touch middle school and high school and also make Lorton Station a split feeder. [/quote]

If Hagel Circle was out of Halley, Halley would be single digit FARMS at the K-6 level. There aren’t even any townhomes or condos in bounds for Halley other than Hagel Circle. That area is NICE. Silverbrook doesn’t want to move now because of the demographics at Halley. There is also the AAP issue unfortunately. Silverbrook is large enough to have a pretty robust LLIV program, and Halley is not. [/quote]

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