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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://patch.com/virginia/across-va/public-school-enrollment-continues-fall-including-virginia

Pretty soon, FCPS is going to have to decide whether it wants UMC families in the school system.

The school board can have its every five-year boundary change instability or they can retain these families. The trade-off is clear.[/quote]

There are not enough private schools in this area and most people cannot afford the $50,000 price tags, or more, of the majority of schools in this area. The article does not breakdown how many of those kids that are leaving are SPED kids whose parents are dissatisfied with the services offered in the public schools. It also points to kids leaving mainly in MS, where parents are placing kids in private school to avoid the hell that is MS by placing them in smaller MS. Many of those families return their kids to public HS.

They are not going to adjust all the boundaries every 5 years but they will shift to use available space as schools become more crowded and other schools decrease in numbers. Loudoun does this right now and there are not that many complaints. They need to open new schools because of growth, maybe that explains the lack of complaint, but I have friends whose kids have changed schools in ES and HS.

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I think you missed that we’re talking about upper middle class families. Most can afford it.

And maybe you missed that policy 8130 requires them to do a comprehensive review every five years. Fwiw, it’s the uncertainty that’ll drive the flight, even if the changes are not as disruptive as this go round.

The school board is doing real damage to the public schools unnecessarily.
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My family is UMC and I would not say that we could afford $50,000. Well, we could, but we would have to not save for college and not take vacations and not make some upgrades on our house. It would be tight. And we wouldn't want to commute that comes with attending most of those schools or the ridiculous small size of some of those schools.

I didn't miss the 5 year comprehensive review but review does not mean redraw all the boundaries. It might mean that there are schools that are over crowded and need to have their boundaries addresses, and that is fine. They should be doing that.

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Without knowing your specific situation, it doesn’t really sound like you are upper middle class. Maybe middle class?

Either way, it’s not like every single UMC family will leave, but I’ve been around long enough to know that a ton will, and the uncertainty is going to be a big contributing factor.

We’re really at an inflection point with public schools, and the only way they can be saved is to stop alienating engaged families.[/quote]

By every indicator we are UMC. We believe in saving and put out retirement and college fund ahead of other expenditures. The only Private schools that we would consider are the really expensive ones because of the programs they offer, and they are not so much better then FCPS that they are worth the money that they cost.

The reality is, even if the people on this board don't believe it, FCPS is a strong school district that produces excellent results. There are better schools in places but not that many. The only people I know who moved to FCPS and thought the schools were not better than their old schools came from the UMC burbs of NY and MA, where you have the smaller districts funded by local taxes. The number of people I know who moved into the school and find that their kid needs tutoring to get on grade level is quite high.

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Just looked up the internet definition of UMC, and it’s lower than what I consider UMC. That might be the disconnect. I guess maybe I’m thinking top 5-10% of household income.

To counter your anecdote, at this point I know half a dozen families in my area that have moved at the mere prospect of boundary changes. [b]There is this negative feedback loop where the more high performing kids move, the worse it is for those who remain.[/b] We’re going through the analysis now of whether it makes sense to cut our losses for our kid, which is really too bad because just a couple of years ago I was an ardent defender of public schools.
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Just curious, but how so? Students who are exceptional in some way (be it academic high-achievers / underperformers, or have various physical, mental, emotional, or other special needs) usually need and receive disproportional resources relative to the significant majority of students who aren't on the tail of some curve. Trimming tail-of-a-curve kids from the pool is a generally a net positive for those who remain, at least in terms of resource availability to be targeted towards those 'typical' kids.[/quote]

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