Reply to Will Mclean High School ever be able to upsize

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't understand why the redistricting isn't a top priority in that case, like Kent Gardens was.  You could easily move kids into Marshall or Langley from the outer boundaries of Mclean and that could bring down the number of students to closer to the capacity threshold at Mclean and bring up the numbers at Marshall and Langley, which both had expansive extensions.  Langley looks like a private school campus now.  So, what is taking the Board so damn long to do the redistricting for Mclean.  I'm sure tons of kids would opt into Langley, if given the choice.[/quote]

Marshall is full. The answer is to move some McLean kids to Langley. But great falls won’t allow it because they are worried about the other side of Langley getting rezoned to Herndon (and no board member has had the spine to stand up to great falls).

And, odd though it sounds, the very small number of McLean kids that Elaine tholen moved to Langley raised such a stink about it! They were not in favor. I wish the board would have gone bigger and done the right change then instead of a tiny one that didn’t even offset the increase in kids to McLean from their TJ admissions changes.[/quote]

People typically don't like being redistricted.  If you listened to the testimony at the time, there were quite a few families who asked to be moved.  Typically, they had younger kids who wanted to stay with their elementary school peers at Colvin Run or Spring Hill or thought it would be good for their real estate values.  In comparison, families with older kids, including kids already at Longfellow or McLean, tended to oppose getting redistricted.

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Totally agree with this.  That’s why the screw Great Falls argument is really misguided to me.  It is a push for this monumental change negatively impacting thousands of kids (Not even just the “rich” ones) in the name of this theoretical equity.  It’s the same argument for Boston busing in the 70s.

The advocate on this board who argues for broad redistricting to soak the western Great Falls “rich” is very fringe, even for Fairfax County, and I say that as a staunch democrat.  The Board understands that too.[/quote]

DP.  I 100% agree with you.  It's always the same fringe poster, parroting the same words and phrases.  Very transparent.[/quote]

No, it’s not one poster suggesting the most logical boundary change. And why are you calling this change a “screw Great Falls” approach? What’s the problem with shifting some kids to the newly renovated Herndon HS IF Langley were to get too crowded after adding McLean kids? And that’s a big IF because renovated Langley is way under capacity.[/quote]

I called it the “screw Great Falls” approach because that’s all it is - seething animosity toward your county neighbors because some of the residents on the east side of Great Falls are well off (they generally go to private schools, btw).  Most of the posts on this matter are not looking out for the Herndon High community, who probably don’t really want their school to become overcrowded with Forestville students. It is really just about soaking the western great falls families, who by the way live in houses that are basically on par with a good chunk of the other communities in Fairfax.

We all know that anyone advocating for the equity-based redistricting approach is likely just a Herndon property owner hoping that their property values go up further.  It’s certainly not out of concern for Fairfax kids, nor is it something that would magically fix whatever you are trying to solve at Herndon High.[/quote]

McLean families have no interest in being a pawn between people who vehemently want part of Langley moved to Herndon or vehemently want to take that off the table forever.

For over a decade, some of us have lobbied for an addition to McLean that would bring its permanent capacity to 2500, in line with other high schools with similar enrollments.  That wasn't a crazy request, since FCPS has built additions outside the queue at numerous other high schools, and had FCPS done this there would have been no need to reassign McLean kids to Langley.

But we've never had a School Board member willing to fight hard for us, so it's possible that more McLean kids might be reassigned to Langley in the future. If that happens, it's also possible that FCPS might simultaneously reassign part of Langley to Herndon.  It's also possible that FCPS might decide to move some McLean kids to Falls Church in a few years.  But that would be on FCPS, not McLean parents, and there's no organized effort on the part of McLean families now to lobby for either an addition or a boundary change, as there was back in 2018 and 2019.  Most people accept that the building isn't the nicest, but appreciate the other good things about the school.  Those who can't accept that the building isn't as nice as some other facilities, and deem it unacceptable for their kids, can explore other options.

But if you want to argue about county-wide boundary changes, or about reassigning part of Langley to Herndon just to "stick it" to Great Falls, this really isn't the thread for you.   [/quote]

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