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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It was Crestwood.

Listening on line and the Board seems to not know what is going on or even to have any power.  The consultants appear to be running the show.  [/quote]

That’s shocking. That wasn’t on any of the maps and they are pretty close to Lewis (well, all of Lewis’s boundaries are fairly close except perhaps the furthest ends of Saratoga).

Do we think this is some kind of move of Crestwood to WSHS and Hunt Valley to Lewis? [/quote]
makes sense. HV is 200 more students than crestwood. so that adds students to Lewis which is underenrolled and reduces WSHS by 200 which is overenrolled. crestwood is also 50% FARMs and ESL while HV is like 10%. this helps with equitable outcomes between the schools.[/quote]

Can someone explain how what they’re proposing to Halley and Gunston is equitable? They’re moving the Hagel Circle attendance island from Halley to Gunston (even though it’s still going to technically be an island). Hagel Circle is almost entirely FARMS. Halley will lose the majority of FARMS kids while Gunston will likely become a Title 1 school. In exchange for the increased students from Hagel Circle, they’re planning to move out a middle class neighborhood to Island Creek. [/quote]

Bussing a low income neighborhood to a higher income school doesn’t work. Every neighborhood should be attending its closest school and this is extra true for lower income areas. Transportation is a real concern in high FARMS areas because not every household has a car, or maybe they only have 1 car for the whole household with multiple adults working in different areas. So if your kid misses the bus, there’s no way for them to get to school if walking isn’t realistic (which it absolutely is not from Hagel Circle to Halley). Parents are less likely to come to school conferences or events. Kids feel disconnected from the larger school community and it creates absenteeism.

I’m a South County parent although my kids are still in ES. If they move in Sangster’s small attendance island and most of HV south of the Parkway and don’t make any moves out, SCMS and HS are going to be overcrowded. No, I don’t really care which areas stay or go or come in to our boundaries in terms of the SES and which could give our school more “prestige,” I knew how the demographics were here when I bought and knew that it was a much larger income range compared to WS or Burke which seem more uniformly middle and UMC. But we can’t have a move in of a few hundred kids from WS and LB without a move out. Also worth noting there is significant room for development in Lorton - so a big new neighborhood could pop up at any moment, making the schools even more crowded and leading to “oops we need to make another boundary adjustment in 5-10 years” and a lot of instability. [/quote]

The only elementary school within walking distance to Halley is Lorton Station. The Halley attendance island is carved from Lorton Station borders. Wouldn’t the solution be to send Halley to Lorton Station? [/quote]

Walking distance, oh you mean a 40 min walk for an elementary kid? Oh and overcrowding, makes sense.. smh[/quote]

It wouldn’t overcrowd Lorton Station ES, that school was built large with a capacity of close to 900 and right now has only 83% utilization. They could pick up another neighborhood. Gunston is smaller (capacity 650, also currently 83% utilization), older - built in the 1950s, someone upthread said it was also on well and septic which is typical of the Mason Neck area so you definitely don’t want to overcrowd it. And to pick up a large neighborhood like Hagel Circle they have to move some of their current neighborhoods out to Island Creek, which is much more associated with the Kingstowne area, would be a longer bus ride for the neighborhoods getting moved, and puts Island Creek at close to capacity as well. You end up with Island Creek and Gunston between 95-100% and leave the larger, newer Lorton Station still at only 83%. [/quote]

So that makes sense huh, scenario 4 removed certain neighborhoods to make room for Hagel Circle at Gunston Elementary yet you are saying without any backing that it won't work? Most Lorton Station homes are assigned to Hayfield which is a 15 minute drive no traffic versus South County which is about a 7 minute drive. That is mainly because of the overcrowding.

Hagel Circle has always been associated with the Gunston Area, not Lorton Station. Lorton Station already serves three apartment complexes and most of the students come from Woods of Fairfax and Fields at Lorton Station. Adding 146 students would overcrowd it!

You really don't know what you are talking about. They will need to add trailers to accommodate that many students. If you look on the FCPS map, Lorton Station elementary serves a small area compared to other schools because of the large amount of students in the area. In addition, it currently has the most students compared to the other Lorton schools.

Please do more research prior to holding a certain position. Good luck![/quote]

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