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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

But wasn’t WSES the one that got gerrymandered OUT of Pat Herrity’s magisterial district? It was discussed in the old thread. There was something very fishy going on there. [/quote]

Yes, only the “walkers” to Irving MS stayed in the Springfield SB District. The rest of WSES was redistricted to Franconia SB District (where Lewis is). It’s not too hard to see what the plan is. The eastern neighborhoods of WSES are closer to Lewis than WSHS. Except for a few streets that are “walker” distance to Irving MS, moving WSES reduces overcrowding as WSHS and Irving MS, satisfies the “transportation” requirements in the new policy and helps the equity goals of the SB.

Wouldn’t be surprised if the southern HVES neighborhood south of the parkway was also broken off and added to their neighboring ES and fed into SoCo HS freeing up space in HVES to fix overcrowding as HVES and OHES (eliminating the trailers at both schools, another stated SB goal) while allowing both schools the capacity they need to bring AAP4 in-house at the schools (another stated SB goal).

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I live in this area and your predictions make total sense to me. But that doesn’t mean the School Board agrees. I don’t trust them to make any sort of predictable or sensible decisions. And I really feel for all the families that may be impacted. 
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We will have to wait and see what is proposed, but the SB is a political animal.

The least politically risky move is to do nothing in the WSHS pyramid. But if they truly feel that WSHS and Irving MS are overcrowded, they are going to do something. Plus, I think they seem to want to address Lewis HS's performance and attendance.

The least politically troublesome way to address the WSHS pyramid crowding is some combination of nibbling at the edges. Move the split feeds at Sangster ES and KMES that feed into WSHS to LBHS. No one is really going to complain about that (White Oaks ES has capacity). Move the the HVES neighborhood south of the parkway and the Sangster ES island south of Hunt valley to SoCo HS (Newington is at 92% capacity and is projected to drop to 82% capacity). This might upset folks, but they smaller populations, and the move from WSHS to SoCo (which is actually closer to these homes that WSHS) will be more politically accepted that a move to Lewis (which is much further from these homes). to The most controversial "nibble" would be to move the Daventry neighborhood of WSES from WHSH back to Lewis (this neighborhood was moved from Lewis to WSHS about 10 years ago). This would be very upsetting for those families, but it is not politically risky. These homes are in a political island where they are represented by the SB member and FFX Co Board member that represents Lewis HS, not WSHS. All of these changes would tick many of the boxes in the new SB boundary policy --- capacity, proximity, transportation, eliminating split-feeders.

A little riskier of a political move would be to move WSES entirely to Lewis (except for the homes within walking distance of Irving MS, which could be absorbed by RVES). Most of the WSES neighborhood is actually physically closer to Lewis than WSHS, and WSES has in-house AAP4, similar to the rest of the elementary schools that feed into Key/Lewis. WSES probably would even have capacity to absorb the kids at RVES that already feed into Lewis once WSES loses the walkers to Irving MS, so you could eliminate the split feeder at RVES. The effected families would be very upset. But again the affected WSES homes are in a political island. They are represented by the SB member and FFX Co Board member that represents Lewis HS. There their frustration is not a threat to the Springfield SB member or the Springfield FFX Co Board member, and their frustration would also likely be drowned out in their actual political districts (the Franconia SB district and the Lee FFX Co Board district) by their fellow voters that may be happy with the SB addressing Lewis. Again this ticks many of the boxes in the new SB boundary policy --- capacity, proximity (only for HS, not MS), transportation (only for HS, not MS), BUT it also addresses "access to programming" at Lewis HS.

Another low risk political move would by to moves KMES. But that school is within 300 yards of Irving MS, so that would be a bit crazy to move it. Politically speaking, those homes are also in a political island because they were redistricted to the Braddock SB district.

The most politically toxic decision would be to move RVES or HVES to Lewis. Both RVES and HVES are much closer to WSHS (and SoCo HS and LBHS for that matter) than Lewis, so moving it would violate the proximity and transportation criteria of the new SM boundary policy. Practically speaking, it is also important to notice that neither of these schools have in-house AAP4, which means that they would need to on-board their current AAP4 students (~100 kids) back into the schools. RVES may have capacity to do that, but HVES is already over capacity with 2-3 trailers; there is nowhere to put 100 more kids. But, as I noted, this decision would pose the biggest political problem. These families moved there specifically for the schools (like everyone else) and would be furious. But unlike WSES or KMES, both RVES and HVES are located entirely within the Springfield SB district and the Springfield FFX Co Board district. Those members would feel the full blowback in their next elections. Why take that risk?

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The entire golf course neighborhood through Springfield Village Drive (at Rolling/Parkway) is walkable to WSES and to WSHS.

All of the WSHS elementary schools have large portions of their neighborhoods that are walkabe yo WSHS, and the entire boundary is bikable to WSHS, with the exception of possibly Daventry.[/quote]

I wish I could post a pic. Follow this link.

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY2024-25MagisterialDistricts.pdf

You will see that the county already redistricted the west springfield elementary houses more than 1 mile from irving into the Franconia district to the east. Minimizes the political fallout if they move the school. Also minimizes the cost impact because those kids are already on a bus for a similar distance to west springfield hs vs lewis, but a longer drive for middle school of course.

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