Reply to Langley/McLean/Marshall Boundaries

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I applaud Ine Fairfax and was encouraged by the most recent work session on it - that they’re going to take their time and do this right. There are many schools in the county that are overcrowded. There are even some elementary schools that have about the same number or even more “dingy” trailers that McLean HS. The McLean parents seem to think that if they can get news coverage they can get their needs taken care of first. That’s precisely the kind of elite favoritism that One Fairfax is trying to fix.

To be clear, I don’t think there should be any trailers at any schools in FCPS unless it’s due to an in-progress renovation. And I think boundary changes should happen when there is neighboring capacity available. But I also believe that band aid boundary changes aren’t the correct approach right now - I think the time is now for a whole county re-drawing of the boundaries. And I think the school board should take the time now to get it right.[/quote]

I disagree for these reasons, among others:

First, there's been little suggestion that the outcome of the ongoing discussions will actually be a county wide-redistricting at the ES/MS/HS level.  So I think the premise of your post is wrong.

Second, while McLean is currently only the fourth most overcrowded high school out of the county's 25 high/secondary schools, FCPS already has identified a solution to overcrowding at Oakton (addition as part of ongoing renovation), Centreville (addition as part of upcoming renovation), and West Potomac (addition outside the normal renovation cycle, even though there is space at Mount Vernon).  It has not identified a solution to overcrowding at McLean, which is projected to the most overcrowded high school in the county by 2023.  FCPS already gave McLean second-hand treatment when it decided to build additions outside the normal renovation cycle at Justice (even though there is space at Annandale), West Potomac (even though there is space at Mount Vernon), and Madison (for reasons that aren't clear), but not McLean.  Now they are adding insult to injury by delaying a boundary study with Langley.

Third, the argument that you can't go ahead and implement an easy solution that need involve only two schools (overcrowded McLean and under-enrolled Langley) because the solutions to problems elsewhere in the county aren't as easy or might require boundary changes involving multiple schools suggests that FCPS has become too big to manage properly.  They already paid to expand Langley during its recent renovation, even though they knew its enrollment was declining, so why not go ahead and take advantage of the money that's been spent and the additional space?

There are ES and MS that are deserving of attention. McLean can wait it’s turn.

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