Reply to Langley/McLean/Marshall Boundaries

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Any information from the meeting?[/quote]

Went to the meeting. A couple of things to note:

- Interim plan is to install a modular (it's coming from Cooper Middle) "in the area behind the existing modular and the girls softball field." They were cagey about this - they said "there is room," yet there were talks of it going ON the girls softball field.

- "Immediate" solution is that Janie Strauss brings this up again in a couple of months at her final school board meeting. If she is lucky and they don't shoot her down again, the boundaries would change slightly (there was talk of the kids in the Rotunda building in Tysons moving to a Spring Hill (where they already go) Cooper Longfellow pyramid vs. Longfellow McLean).

Should this "immediate" plan be voted in, it will be implemented IN THE FALL OF 2021. Then any child affected who has started McLean high school has the option to transfer to Langley at that point or be grandfathered and remain at McLean.

My read on the whole boundary vote-down is that Janie and Mr. Snead thought this was a slam dunk. They were asking to move 300 kids - not a large number - and those kids, coming from Spring Hill would stay with their "cohorts" and continue on to Langley. I think they were honestly shocked when they got voted down.

There was a lot of "this is up to the community" jargon during the whole meeting. Parents asked a lot of good questions, and it kind of always came back to "this is up to the community." They mentioned actual high school students (vs. parents) getting involved and that likely seeing more results than parents doing it.

- There were also shocking things put out there like 11.5% of FCPS students do not attend their districted school(s); schools are on a 37 year renovation timeline; developers who are building new real estate (e.g. high rises) don't have to contribute $$ to improving schools because of some arcane proffering law in VA; and students anywhere at anytime, if there is a school that is UNDERenrolled, can apply for a transfer. So, if kids wanted to move to Langley, they could. Right now. Theoretically, could solve itself!

[/quote]

Thanks for the update.

Janie isn't seeking re-election and Kevin (Sneed) is retiring.  Sounds like they haven't treated this as a major priority; waited too late; and then proposed something that other Board members hadn't had enough time to consider.  Technically, they never got "voted down"; they just got the message that it wasn't yet ready for prime time.  It's unfortunate because it's the kids at the two schools that will suffer if McLean remains overcrowded and Langley has to start destaffing before 2021.

I'm glad to hear that there will at least be a modular relocation, rather than just more trailers. The suggestion of getting students involved sounds odd to me, unless they just meant that perhaps other School Board members would act more quickly if there were a group of Spring Hill students saying they'd be happy to stay with their classmates going to Cooper/Langley rather than Longfellow/McLean.  Otherwise, the idea that kids should weigh in on which of their classmates should be redistricted sounds awful.  Aren't we paying FCPS employees and School Board members to make these decisions?

Also, if they suggested McLean kids could just switch to Langley simply because it's under-enrolled, [b]they ought to get that message out more broadly, [/b]because it's certainly not what the student transfer regulations suggest on their face.  Most would assume you could only transfer to take a foreign language offered at Langley, but not McLean (like Russian), or met another of the specified criteria for pupil placing.  The fact that the receiving school has space is a pre-requisite for a pupil placement under the regulations, but not a sufficient basis by itself. [/quote] and provide transportation if the students live in the McLean boundary. [/quote]

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