Reply to Changes to French Immersion at Kent Gardens?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you go to Kent gardens you should be in the neighborhood, stop being cheap [/quote]

What does being cheap have to do with parents that like the idea of language immersion and applying out of boundary to Kent Gardens for the French program?[/quote]

You seriously don’t get it?

KG is centered in McLean - where home prices are extremely high.  Out of boundary homes are far less expensive.[/quote]

PP is just trolling.  The issue at KG hasn’t been the finances of the families whose kids attend the school. It’s that KG is among FCPS’s most overcrowded schools and FCPS has no plans to either change the boundaries or expand it. That left reducing the number of out-of-boundary kids in the immersion program as the only other option to address the overcrowding. 
[/quote]

It is specifically because KG is in a wealthy area that the current radical-left school board will do nothing the alleviate the overcrowding and use of dangerously-outdated trailers.

The current school board hates successful parents.[/quote]

I would put it somewhat differently and say the current School Board is obsessed with the idea of not appearing to favor schools that serve wealthier neighborhoods, to the point where they end up discriminating against them.

So when South Lakes, Justice and Madison got overcrowded, for example, FCPS adjusted the CIP and budgeted for additions at those schools, even when they were not coming up for renovations or on the 2008 renovation queue.

When McLean and Kent Gardens get overcrowded, the current School Board turned a blind eye and pretended there's nothing that can be done to expand either school until every school currently on the queue is renovated.

Then Elaine Tholen goes to the community and says, as she did today to the McLean PTSA, that she's only one of 12 School Board members and there's only so much she can do.  But one thing that she NEVER does is use her platform as an opportunity to point out in public the disparities between how FCPS has treated schools in her district and other schools.  And so the bullies on the School Board keep making sure that we get nothing.

Under the circumstances, I'm sure Elaine thinks she's protecting KG families in her district, because it's going to be kids at other schools whose access to French immersion at KG is being curtailed.  Unfortunately for her, many of those families also reside in her district. [/quote]

I think the real solution is to redraw the school boundaries across all of FCPS and see how we can use that to redistribute students so that underutilized schools are better used and overcrowded schools see that population adjusted. Then look at what schools need to be expanded to handle any over crowding issues. The problem for McLean and schools in that area is that I think parents are afraid of what happens with boundary shifts and do anything they can to fight that process. [/quote]

I'm curious - can you tell us what high school you're zoned for and its current/planned capacity?  [/quote]

South Lakes which I believe is already at or near capacity after completing a remodel and a boundary shift 15 or so years ago. I have no clue how the new school would impact us but know that most of the high schools in this area are near capacity or over capacity. I suspect that boundary shifts would cause a good amount of change in this area and I don't think anyone from my neighborhood would be moved to McLean. But there would be a real impact on my area. [/quote]

South Lakes was the subject of a major boundary change in 2008, which was around the time the school was renovated and expanded, and then the school got another permanent addition outside the normal renovation cycle in 2016.  As a result, it currently has a design capacity of over 2700 students and is only slightly over capacity (at 102%).

In comparison, McLean receive a less extensive renovation in the early 2000s, was denied an addition when other schools received or are getting them outside the normal renovation cycle, has a design capacity of under 2000 students, and is currently at 122% capacity, excluding the detached modular relocated to the grounds last year.

So if you now suggest it's time to switch gears and just start changing boundaries across the county rather than making additional investments in other schools, it's OK timing for a South Lakes but not so great for a McLean.  You end up with a school has received a lot of attention and investment from FCPS, and we'll end up with a neglected runt of a school.

What eventually happens, of course, is probably beyond either of our control  :) but maybe this helps explain why we'd prefer equitable treatment to simply the prospect of more boundary changes (they just changed the boundary with Langley, which resulted in McLean families competing with each other to get reassigned to wealthier Langley, and even then they still project we're going to be above capacity).   Meanwhile, they are projecting that Madison, which is getting an addition now even though it's less crowded, will be at 82% capacity in 2026.    [/quote]

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