Reply to Did Lewis Cancel Its Softball Season?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The problem with Lewis not being able to field a softball team is just one minor example of how students are victims of failed School Board policies. The ACLU should examine how policies like redistricting and [b]expansion of “better” schools (WSHS, West Po)[/b] have negatively impacted education for many students at schools like Lewis and Mount Vernon. Students at those schools don’t have the same access to courses or extracurricular activities. [/quote]

I agree with those expansions. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix (rezone) it; build upon, literally, what already works. [/quote]

A-holes like you (and Jeff Platenberg, the slimeball who used to head Facilities and made sure West Springfield got a huge expansion while seats at Lewis went unfilled and the school cratered) are responsible for the gaping disparities within FCPS.  [/quote]

You can’t force parents to send their kid to a particular school, particularly a failing one. I think rezoning schools should be extremely rare and an absolute last resort. It’s better to have high-performing “mega schools” (3k+ kids in one building) than to try to shuffle kids around.[/quote]

Jeff Platenburg specifically rezoned schools to favor where he lived in West Springfield and he refused to build an additional school out west, he decimated Annandale. [b]He was also part of the West Potomac expansion that also rezoned properties and pulled people away from the surrounding IB schools.[/b] I remember when he bragged about how he was able to create the least s.f. per student as if that was a benefit to students. All he cared about was budgets and his own district.[/quote]

West Potomac has had the same pyramid for a very long time. It's a combination of the old Ft Hunt High and the old Groveton High and the feeder pattern hasn't really changed since [/quote]

That is true.  Kind of like how Annandale at one point was a combination of the old Jefferson with Annandale, except in Annandale’s case they eventually rezoned AHS neighborhoods to other schools like Lake Braddock and Woodson and whereas at West Potomac they built a huge expansion so no one would have to move to Mount Vernon.

And they did change Lewis’s boundaries as well. [/quote]

This is what I meant. They had an opportunity to do something about Lewis before it started failing and decided to facilitate its demise faster. It was irresponsible just like the way they handled Annandale.[/quote]

Interesting that both Annandale and Lewis have IB instead of AP.

Eliminating IB would be an easy start.
1. It would be better for the current population because AP is much more flexible than IB.  There is a wider range of classes available.  
2. It would save money--and, if the SB had any common sense at all, they would eliminate IB at most schools that have it.
3. It would close one of those "escape valves" that another PP mentioned.[/quote]

The problem with number 3 is those parents are going to be the most vocal about problems. Neither the administration nor the school board wants to deal with that [/quote]

That may be true, but you haven't seen anything if you have never been through a redistricting.  This would be simple and cheap.[/quote]

Doing nothing is simpler and cheaper. [/quote]

It won't be simpler and cheaper if FCPS ends up with another expensive lawsuit challenging the lack of equal opportunities for Lewis students.  This School Board should be ashamed of itself.  They have done NOTHING to meet the needs of Lewis students.  Instead, we got silly hacks like Karen Keys Gamarra pushing a half-baked academy program that NO ONE wanted because it won't offer anything useful. [/quote]

I really think that a successful case could be made showing discrimination toward students at Lewis, and likely Mount Vernon and Annandale, too. Students in an adjacent “good” school boundary receives a vastly different education with many more opportunities than a student in the “bad” school just down the road.

What needs to happen is that the courts rule FCPS policies discriminatory. All existing boundaries need to be wiped clean and start from scratch countywide. [/quote]

Lewis and surrounding schools have very concise boundaries.

The only way to rezone in that area is to have ridiculous boundaries that make zero sense and lengthen commutes for everyone and breaks apart communities.  The bus fleet could not support rezoning like you suggest.  That area is very fluid, so families movijg in would no longer choose areas rezoned to Lewis unless they were sending their high sch.oolers to places like Bishop Ireton or O'Connell

The focus of rezoning should be to create the smallest geographic area possible while eliminating split feeders whenever possible.[/quote]

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