Reply to FCPS's "Obvious Elephant in the Room" - Does the West Potomac Expansion Foster Intolerance?

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Reply to "FCPS's "Obvious Elephant in the Room" - Does the West Potomac Expansion Foster Intolerance?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here's our chance - FCPS Superintendent Dr. Brabrand and NAACP are hosting a virtual town hall tomorrow night to discuss systemic racism within the FCPS system. FCPS's recent decisions concerning Mount Vernon HS, and the busing/segregation that surrounds Whitman MS are important examples of systemic, institutional racism. You don't have to believe me... the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, who is from that area and went to Whitman Middle School, called this the "obvious elephant in the room" when he was asked at a public meeting to approve the bond funding for adding 700 seats to the adjacent school. Dealing with this long-standing deep-rooted problem should be a no-brainer.

Read the OP post for more background, but in a nutshell:

Mount Vernon HS is mostly brown and black students, and is in desperate need of students. Specifically, all 194 FCPS schools are accredited, but 3 are at risk of losing accreditation. See here: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/accreditation_federal_reports/accreditation/index.shtml.  According to the Virginia Board of Education website, Mount Vernon is one of the three. The issue is Mount Vernon's inability to keep students at the school. In fact, they are the most under-capacity school in the entire 194-school FCPS system. Why? FCPS goes to great lengths to allow families to avoid the school. These are the decisions that we can and should fight to stop:

a. [b][i]De-fund the West Potomac Expansion[/i][/b]. FCPS is spending $36 million dollars to add 700 seats to the adjacent school, so that those neighborhoods can avoid going to Mount Vernon. This is the most expensive addition in FCPS school history by more than 100%. See 2021 CIP at p. 38 (https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Adopted-CIP-FY2021-25.pdf). Moreover, Mount Vernon could absorb all of the extra West Potomac students, and both schools would still be significantly under capacity. The FCPS Ed Spec says all FCPS high schools should be built to a design capacity of 2,500 students. In direct violation of their Ed Spec, however, FCPS is building the adjacent school (West Potomac HS) to 3,000 students, even though their projected enrollment is nowhere near that, and Mount Vernon can (and needs to) absorb all of the extra students.

b. [b][i]Stop busing students from Whitman Middle School to Sandburg MS[/i][/b]. The middle school that feeds into Mount Vernon HS has *literally no walkers*! The middle school that feeds into Mount Vernon HS is Whitman Middle School. However, the would-be walkers to Whitman don't want to go to Mount Vernon high school. So, FCPS puts these students on a bus, and sends them 15 minutes away to Sandburg Middle School, so that they can feed into West Potomac instead. What?!?!As a result, Whitman MS is the only school in the system that has no walkers, and is not even in the geographic boundaries of the high school that it feeds into.  See 2021 CIP at p. 170, here:https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Adopted-CIP-FY2021-25.pdf.  This is state-sponsored, FCPS-sponsored, and taxpyer-funded segregation. It is also an environmental waste, and a fiscal waste.

c. [b][i]Stop the Programmatic Gymnastics[/i].[/b] FCPS has created a system where the more privileged families who are within the geographic boundary of Mount Vernon can choose other elementary and middles schools based on programmatic choices, like language immersion, so they can avoid being sent to Mount Vernon (provided these families can provide their own transportation).

This issue has been dubbed "the obvious elephant" because it has been lingering for decades - probably since the very days the Gum Springs area was born. If FCPS really means what it says, and it wants to [b][u]take action[/u][/b] to take steps to combat intolerance and racism, they should de-fund the West Potomac expansion, stop busing students that live within walking distance to Whitman Middle School to Sandburg MS, and stop giving parents a way to pick programming in a way that allows them to avoid Mount Vernon HS.

Here is the registration for the town hall:  thttps://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkcuGorTgpHNwzRrVuINvifHwE0A_OIMeF

And here is an article with the relevant meeting info:  https://www.restonnow.com/2020/07/16/fairfax-naacp-brabrand-to-host-town-hall-on-systemic-racism-in-public-schools/

I hope you consider joining this call and shining a light on these issues!
[/
I agree that the addition at West Potomac should not happen.  However, point B is not entirely incorrect.  Whitman students are not bused To Sandburg.  30 years ago, FCPS merged Groveton HS and Ft Hunt high school & created West Potomac High.  They merged the two feeder middle schools and created Sandburg - and made the old Ft Hunt HS into Sandburg.  Whitman, which at the time was in the original MVHS building on Rt 1, was in need of serious renovation.  So they decided to move Whitman to what was Stephen Foster.  The building (old Whitman) was sold to Fairfax County Government (FCPS no longer owns the original MVHS/old Whitman building.). So all of the kids who go to Whitman are MV pyramid kids.  Yes, it’s awful that MV’s middle school is out of bounds and 100% of its population is bused.  The only way to give MV kids a walkable middle school would be to somehow get the original MV high school building back from the FairfaxCounty Government or build a new one.

C.  Thankfully, the new administration at West Potomac has cracked down on transfers into WestPo.  A small number still get in but nothing like a few years ago when almost every MV AAP kid went there. The ones who absolutely refuse to go to MV either move or send their kids to Hayfield.[/quote]

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