Reply to FCPS is turning the new high school purchased to fix crowding into an Aviation magnet school instead of a high school??

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Reply to "FCPS is turning the new high school purchased to fix crowding into an Aviation magnet school instead of a high school??"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The classrooms are arranged in a dozen or so pods with an open space or lobby area connecting several rooms together in each pod.  Typically one in each pod is a science lab and the others are more standard classrooms. The school also has two detached buildings on the property, a short walk across the main parking lot and road. The road has no through traffic, it's just the school ingress/egress road; a large driveway basically. Those buildings are your standard office park shells. They could convert them to standard classrooms but also seem like easy candidates for building any non-standard-classroom-type spaces (like an aviation CTE type program, for example). The school site also has some unique features that I don't believe most (any?) other FCPS schools have, such as pool and a large dance room with wood floor, mirrors, ballet bars, etc.  The auditorium, like most of the facility, is also very up-to-date with modern theater tech, such that a performing arts program might be viable as well. However, I don't know much about the music spaces, just that the dedicated theater and dance facilities are top notch.[/quote]

Carson is set up this way - in pods with a science room in each pod. It will be an easy transition for Carson kids to the new Western high school.[/quote]

Science classes in HS are, obviously, different. You don't have them in pods because chemistry, biology, physics, and other classes need different set ups then you have for MS science. It should not be hard to convert one of the larger spaces into a science wing and outfit those classes for the needs for the HS classes, take the science class in each pod and make it a regular classroom. [/quote]

I've no idea of how it can be done--I haven't seen it inside. I do know that the designers said that the spaces were flexible.  
I also know that someone with some expertise and ingenuity could figure out how to make the main building educate more than 1200 students.  There are three gyms, for heaven sake.  Of course, it would require someone who wants to do it.
Sadly, I don't think the staff that was represented at the Work Session is equipped to do this.  And, it doesn't sound like they were given any direction to do so.  So, maybe, they could given the opportunity.
I think staff was directed by the Superintendent to come up with "creative" ideas for possible magnet, etc.

[b]I don't know who came up with the idea of a traditional high school with a magnet restricted to western high schools--but I suspect it was our illustrious superintendent.  I'm not even sure how that can be interpreted.[/b]

Does it mean that all extra-curriculars would be restricted to whatever the magnet is?  No sports?

Someone said that Lady criticized the fields.  I don't get that.  I drove over the other day--there are lots of fields--mostly soccer.  There is also a track. But, there is a baseball field at Carson, which is certainly accessible.

A PP described the area perfectly.  Those two additional buildings can certainly be used--to expand the traditional high school or, if not needed for that, to create an academy.

I still don't understand Robyn Lady's 180 on the purpose of the school.   She should know more than anyone how much it is needed.  However, the only constituents affected are Coates.
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This possibility; as well as magnet-only, nieghborhood-only; has been discussed in the context a hypothetical Western HS for years, pre-dating Reid.

There's no doubt it will provide relief to the western county regardless of what form the on-site programming takes. If it's fully a <whatever> magnet program, or collection of programs, the vast majority of students who will apply and attend will be from the western county area, either via program rules (just like Immersion Programs where a high % of the students must come from in-boundary) or just natural self-selection. A family in southern portion of county would think long and hard about whether they want to endure the 2-3 hours of commuting back-and-forth daily for four years and what impact that would have on their experience. I'm sure some non-zero number would pursue that if available, but it would be way lower than the number of kids who'd be coming from the nearby areas. Layer on the hybrid school concept they've pitched and it'd be like 85-95% of the kids being from the western county schools and providing that capacity relief, even if they don't assert a hard boundary for any magnet programs.[/quote]

Creating new programs at the high school level where access is restricted to students zoned to just a few high schools, or students from those schools have preferential access, is likely a non-starter.  Recall how the School Board members got so agitated about TJ admissions when so many of the kids were coming from Carson, Longfellow, Rocky Run, and Cooper.  There were no restrictions on kids from other schools applying, but they still started claiming that access was effectively limited to kids from certain feeders.  Lots of "equitable access to programming" issues. 
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