Reply to Boundary Review Meetings

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Boundary Review Meetings"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Man, I know they really want to keep the boundary review conversation to one thread, but I sure do wish everyone talking about the Springfield high schools could have their own thread. A lot of passionate conversation to be had there... And I want to hear what other people around the county are thinking about the new scenario![/quote]

The “passionate conversation” is a very small group of Lewis parents desperately wanting more middle and upper middle income neighborhoods to be rezoned to Lewis so they can feel better about themselves and their poor real estate selection decisions.[/quote]

Poor real estate decisions? You mean buying a home that we could afford?

🖕you. 
[/quote]

Agreed! That was such a gross, elitist comment! So the "poors" are not entitled to a decent education? FCPS is *supposed* to be ranked as one of the best in the US, but Lewis is terrible.

Sorry that we bought pre-COVID what we could afford and thought this would be our starter and not forever home. Now with the way the economy is, prices/interests rates up, plus a one-fed household so who knows if I'll be RIF-ed, it's looking like we'll be in our 'starter' home for a long time. The elementary school close to Lewis, Springfield Estates, is a good school. That is why we chose to live here and thought either Lewis would improve or we'd eventually move. Seems like both might not happen.  I'm sure many others have similar situations at Lewis or other not so great schools. [/quote]

So, why don't you mobilize the parents through volunteering to make Lewis stronger and the pyramid more cohesive?

Does Lewis have pyramid events that bring elementary and middle school families into the high school on a regular basis to make the kids feel like part of the community?  A lot of high schools do this.

We are in the WSHS pyramid.

Each year, nearly every sport, every performing arts program, and many clubs host pyramid events for our feeder schools to build community with our younger kids.

So far this year, the football games have hosted the local SYC league to run onto the field with the varsity team and get a VIP sideline experience, the cheerleaders and dance team had the elementary and middle school kids with them cheering on the sidelines, the dance team invited our pyramid elementary schools to do a halftime dance, marching band marched in with Irving's band and played in the pep section, and choir brought in all the pyramid choirs to sing the national anthem.  That is just football season.

We have pyramid concerts, where every level performs pieces (elementary through high school choirs) then the entire WSHS pyramid,  100s of students, performs several songs together.

Theater hosts VIP backstage tours of the performances with Irving, and a Saturday workshop with the elementary kids.

There are pyramid fun runs, art shows, performing arts days, elementary school nights at various games.

Some of the high school programs go into the middle and elementary schools to perform or volunteer to run their school carnivals and help with elementary school events like bingo and individual school fun runs.

Is Lewis doing all of these kinds of activities for and with their elementary schools and middle schools?

They really help to build community in the school and make everyone down to the families of little kids connected to the high school and invested in making their community school a success.[/quote]

Tone deaf. Yes, there are plenty of active parents at Lewis doing what they can, but the problems are bigger than just building community.

This isn’t a Lewis community problem, it’s an FCPS problem and we shouldn’t expect a group of a parents to try and fix it alone. [/quote]

I agree that there is a FCPS issue.

But repeatedly over the years there are posts like the one from Springfield estates about how their elementary school is good but it is not translating to the high school.

FCPS is going to do what they want to do, but other than complaining, that is pretty much out of our hands.

My question is not if you have involved parents, which it sounds like you do at Springfield Estates.   My point is whether the Lewis pyramid is translating your elementary involvement and community into pyramid level events that make everyone from kindergarten up feel like they are part of the Lewis high school community?  Do the kids feel like "Lancers"?  I gurantee if you ask that question to WSHS pyramid elementary families,  they would say that they are "Spartans" and Lake Braddock younger families will say they are "Bruins".  They feel connected to their high school specifically due to these community pyramid events, almost to the extreme where they don't even want to get transferred to fantastic schools like SoCo or LBSS or in the case of that Silverbrook neighborhood, from SoCo to LBSS.  If you ask other schools fighting rezoning,  they would probably say the same, that they are already intertwined with their high school pyramid.

Those types of pyramid events that bring the younger families into the high school on a regular basis don't cost anything but time, and help to make them identify the high school as "their" community where everyone has a stake in the high school being successful.

Does Lewis have those events regularly?  Do the high school students come down to the elementary schools to help with their events?

If Springfield Estates has that community, then how can you and other parents help to translate that sense of community into something that moves up the ladder from Springfield Estates into Lewis?

I have sympathy for your plight, truly.  I think your elected officials have royally screwed with you.

But this county is a one party system, so that part is mostly out of your hands.  No one is going to vote for anything different, and no politician is going to worry about votes they don't need to earn because they have a 70/30 cushion and single party dominance.

What is in your hands is organizing with other parents to work with the high school to improve things.  Or, you can do what others do and use the loopholes to leave.
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics