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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Moving students is not the answer.

Make the school better.  There is nothing wrong with a 1500 population high

I went to a suburban high school.  There were 276 people in my graduating class.

Sure, a very large school is able to offer more variety of classes, but just because some different classes are offered does not mean that every kid who is interested will be able to take it

But, once more, what is IB doing for Lewis?  Is it an advantage or a disadvantage.  In my view, it is a huge disadvantage.  It is far less flexible than AP and it is more difficult to get college credit for them.  It also enables a mass exodus of transfers to AP high schools.[/quote]

Going down a division isn't bad -- until you realize that all the schools in the vicinity are a higher division. Which means if Lewis wants to play schools of a similar size and the same division, the students will have to travel beyond FCPS boundaries, traveling more than an hour or so. That's more money spent for transportation, and also the massive amounts of time Lewis students will spent on a bus being carted around. In the meantime, there are schools minutes away, like Edison and Hayfield and WSHS, but Lewis would be in a different division.

Also pointing out that the nearby schools are overcrowded. WSHS is overcrowded to the point where kids can't make sports teams unless they've been playing since they were five years old.

IB is not the magic fairy godmother that people think it is. You don't wave it away and think that suddenly students will unfurl into existence like a sparkling ball gown. It doesn't work that way. Not with an IB school right next door to Lewis. [/quote]

Move Daventry to Lewis and Bren Mar Park to Lewis. Edison and WSHS both get some relief and Lewis gets 500+ new students. Done.[/quote]

I would probably move those Keene Mill neighborhoods above to Lewis before Daventry, since they are the closest to Lewis with the easiest commute. [/quote]

Right….. make a triple split feeder out of Keene mill or split feeder of Irving? Makes no sense. How about fix
Lewis?[/quote]

Just rebutting the person who keeps saying that Daventry should be moved.  There are several Keene Mill neighborhoods closer to Lewis than Daventry or any other WSHS neighborhood.

Besides, Keene Mill is not a split feeder at this point.  AAP kids zoned for a different pyramid attending Keene Mill for AAP do not make Keene Mill a split feeder.  Those kids are choosing to attend a special program in a different pyramid.  Having those AAP kids return to Lake Braddock for middle school does not mean that Keene Mill would become a "triple" split feeder if those neighborhoods closest to Lewis were rezoned to Lewis.  Keene Mill with its special program accepting out of bounds AAP kids is no more of a split feeder than Orange Hunt accepting out of bound students for language immersion.
[/quote]

The problem with split feeders is that kids break up friendships and community. You are advocating that in an AAP class at Keene mill, kids would be matriculating to 3 schools: Lewis, Braddock and WSHS. To any kid in those classes, it would be a three way split feeder.

A bad example for your point is using Orange Hunt. Everyone currently in the immersion program at OHES was told that the kids matriculate from OHES to WIMS then to WSHS. That said, yes, this may be changing this year, it is hard to know. Also, transportation to this program is not provided which keeps many of the kids in the area as parents don’t usually trek from that far to get their kid to school everyday.Transportation is given for Keene Mill AAP students.

Of course, no one addressed all the points about diversity of Keene Mill etc.  I am NOT the person saying Daventry should be moved and in all the Region 4 meetings I attended, I heard Sangster parents and Hunt Vally parents talking about Daventry, but not Keene mill ones.

The neighborhoods someone keeps bringing up are smaller than Daventry and again, many KMES kids walk to WSHS. And almost all walk to Irving.

Every single neighborhood brought up: Daventry, and the KMES ones are attending the closest high school to their house.

Lewis shouldn’t have more kids anyway. They are making progress there in no small part because they have smaller class sizes which ESL and low income kids do better with.

[/quote]

Keene Mill is [i]not[/i] a split feeder.

Every elementary school in the WSHS pyramid sends students to Lake Braddock for AAP.  Keene Mill is not unique or special in that regard.

Being an AAP center that pulls in out of bound kids who return to their zoned neighborhood middle school does not mean that Keene Mill is a split feeder.

There are zero houses zoned for Keene Mill that split off to a different pyramid for middle school.

The [b]only[/b] split feeder in the WSHS pyramid is Rolling Valley, which actually has neighborhoods zoned to Lewis.

Keene Mill is not a split feeder no matter how much some want to use the AAP center as a reason why some other neighborhood like Daventry should get rezoned [/quote]

It is a split feeder to all the AAP kids who have to say goodbye to friends.  Why is that so different to you? Because you are an adult with a silly argument to make? If the argument to get ride of split feeders is because they are bad FOR THE KIDS and the Keene Mill kids already have to deal with being a center school split among 2 high schools, making it become a SPLIT FEEDER (in your definition) would be more detrimental to it than just taking a regular elementary school and having it be a split feeder.

Adding in more movement to that school where  students there already contend with being a center school and having a glut of kids from 1 other feeder already in grades 3-6 is EVEN WORSE than having a regular elementary school become one.  Because, you have to think about what the KIDS experience there friendships, not how adults want lines to be drawn. THis is the entire argument as to why split feeders should be eliminated. But you think compounding already complex issues is fine because…..

Meanwhile, you would take away a good chunk of the diversity at WSHS by taking kids from KMES(most diverse school in WSHS pyramid) out of WSHS AND kill a walk zone or create a split feeder at Irving…. Neither of which are positives.

AGAIN I AM NOT saying DAVENTRY should move.  I never have, I never will, but the argument to move KMES is not compelling and ill thought out. [/quote]

No matter how you slice it, Keene Mill is not a split feeder.[/quote]

My points still stand whether you call KMES a split feeder or not. [/quote]

AAP kids who choose to attend a school not their zoned school should be a zero factor when it comes to rezoning.

The AAP kids choosing to attend Lake Braddock instead of Irving for AAP are completely irrelevant to rezoning discussions.[/quote]

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