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]I don't know how many times this needs to be said, but eliminating IB at Lewis won't solve the transfer-out problem. Why? Because students aren't transferring out because of a lack of AP courses.

Large numbers of Lewis students are transferring into Edison, which is an IB program. They are transferring because of the STEM program.

If you create an AP program at Lewis, students will still transfer into Edison because it is an IB school and parents will say they want an IB education.

Parents are transferring students out of Lewis because they don't believe their child will get a good education there. Lewis doesn't have the variety of programming a school like WSHS has because Lewis doesn't have the population numbers. It needs more kids to have the same level of programs.

It's also heavily Hispanic, heavily non-native English speakers. That's why soccer is huge at Lewis, but sports like baseball and football are not as supported, because soccer is the sport the student population plays the most.

Switching from IB to AP isn't the type of program that gets families to buy into the school. A school population, with numbers large enough to support more specialized academics like astrology and advanced physics and advanced music theory classes -- that helps bring in more students, which in turn helps the school continue to grow and thrive. [/quote]

So do nothing??? Close it? Can't win, don't try?

Not as concerned about the baseball team as about having adequate course offerings. What should be done:

1. Switch to AP. In fact, make all county high schools AP again. IB is not worth all of the issues it creates.
2. Even out language programs across county high schools. The differences across pyramids are almost criminal at this point.
3. Put AAP in Key at the middle school level - keeps kids in the Lewis pyramid.
4. Move Saratoga AAP kids to Springfield Estates - keeps kids in the Lewis pyramid (otherwise they go from Lorton Station to LB and never return)
5. After all of these things have been done and a few years go by, revisit the boundaries again if numbers are still less than 1700 or so. They may have taken too many neighborhoods out of Lee/Lewis in 2005 and 2015. It has been well under capacity (Design Capacity is over 2100) for some time.

[/quote]

The easiest solution is one that will never happen: put the Daventry community back into Lewis. They never should've been moved out to begin with. But that won't happen because Daventry will sue the school board to Kingdom come and we'll all end up paying higher taxes.

You can look to stop students from leaving the Lewis pyramid, but that won't stop kids from going into the Edison STEM program. That's an easy way to leave Lewis. Language offerings is how other students leave the school, and I've heard that there are future restrictions that will be put into place for that.

But the school still needs more students. The areas around Lewis are not areas that tend to draw families with children.

So where to get more communities to feed into the pyramid? That's why the school board is looking at Bren Mar Elementary. They know they need to act soon.

Lewis is already looking to drop below 1,500 students for the next school year. It already gets a waiver to play alongside other FCPS schools in sports because it's under capacity. And if teachers are teaching classes that are small and few, and it gets to the point where Lewis starts offering even fewer academics, then the school enters a death spiral that the school board may not be able to stop.[/quote]
If things are as dire as you suggest, it’s no surprise Bren Mar Park would rather stay put or move to Annandale instead of Lewis.  [/quote]

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