Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I’m a Chantilly parent and we just got an email saying Chantilly enrollment is going down next year so we are losing an administrator.

Going down can be down 50 or down 5.

What I’m honestly not getting in this discussion is why people are reaching like it has to be either a neighborhood school or a magnet. Hunters Woods is both. Why couldn’t it be both a small, tight neighborhood boundary (ticking off fewer people) and a magnet program that has more of a STEM focus?

Any small tight boundary still has to pull a lot of kids out of Westfield given the school's location. The school is in the Floris district. Floris feeds primarily to Westfield. North of Floris are Coates and McNair. If they don't also move, FCPS would be creating a new Westfield attendance island. If they don't move Oak Hill, they aren't doing anything for Chantilly, which is supposedly the most crowded.

So regardless of whatever other moves they make they still need to backfill Westfield, and that's what creates the most debate (Bull Run vs. Lee's Corner, etc.).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the end there will be compromise and few will be happy. A neighborhood school with tight boundaries to allow for a small regular student population, with another small student population centered around aviation and technology that come from across the county. Total enrollment of 1500-1600 kids.

Natural reduction in K-12 population and renovations make the trailers/modulars go away over time.

The school can hold up to 2200 with the renovations they are doing. They will populate it with roughly 2000 students as planned.

Anonymous wrote:In the end there will be compromise and few will be happy. A neighborhood school with tight boundaries to allow for a small regular student population, with another small student population centered around aviation and technology that come from across the county. Total enrollment of 1500-1600 kids.

Natural reduction in K-12 population and renovations make the trailers/modulars go away over time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I’m a Chantilly parent and we just got an email saying Chantilly enrollment is going down next year so we are losing an administrator.

Going down can be down 50 or down 5.

What I’m honestly not getting in this discussion is why people are reaching like it has to be either a neighborhood school or a magnet. Hunters Woods is both. Why couldn’t it be both a small, tight neighborhood boundary (ticking off fewer people) and a magnet program that has more of a STEM focus?

Anonymous wrote:You can explain away the opt-in model if you like, but it doesn't change the fact that it's inconsistent with claims that the overcrowding at Chantily is acute and demands an immediate solution, because the opt-in model will have only a modest impact on Chantilly's enrollment compared to the impact on the enrollments at Westfield and South Lakes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I’m a Chantilly parent and we just got an email saying Chantilly enrollment is going down next year so we are losing an administrator.

Going down can be down 50 or down 5.

What I’m honestly not getting in this discussion is why people are reaching like it has to be either a neighborhood school or a magnet. Hunters Woods is both. Why couldn’t it be both a small, tight neighborhood boundary (ticking off fewer people) and a magnet program that has more of a STEM focus?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I’m a Chantilly parent and we just got an email saying Chantilly enrollment is going down next year so we are losing an administrator.

Going down can be down 50 or down 5.

What I’m honestly not getting in this discussion is why people are reaching like it has to be either a neighborhood school or a magnet. Hunters Woods is both. Why couldn’t it be both a small, tight neighborhood boundary (ticking off fewer people) and a magnet program that has more of a STEM focus?

Anonymous wrote:Enrollment is dropping across the county and the nation. We won’t have capacity issues in 5 years. Look at our numbers. The district will be shrinking. I’m not saying that area should not have a school. It doesn’t make sense for kids to drive that far to a HS. It just won’t be needed because of capacity. Location is a legitimate argument.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I’m a Chantilly parent and we just got an email saying Chantilly enrollment is going down next year so we are losing an administrator.

Going down can be down 50 or down 5.

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I’m a Chantilly parent and we just got an email saying Chantilly enrollment is going down next year so we are losing an administrator.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they drop that plan and just use Skyview as a smaller school where everyone opts in indefinitely to be an “Aviator,” ...

This is a non-starter as the only people who would opt in to an optional school are the ones coming from a "worse" school. This would provide no relief to the overcrowded schools in the region, which is the entire reason they spent the money on the new school in the first place. A small opt in only school would be a complete waste of taxpayer funds, and still leave FCPS with the problem of what to do with Chantilly having 3000 kids they don't have room for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they drop that plan and just use Skyview as a smaller school where everyone opts in indefinitely to be an “Aviator,” ...

This is a non-starter as the only people who would opt in to an optional school are the ones coming from a "worse" school. This would provide no relief to the overcrowded schools in the region, which is the entire reason they spent the money on the new school in the first place. A small opt in only school would be a complete waste of taxpayer funds, and still leave FCPS with the problem of what to do with Chantilly having 3000 kids they don't have room for.

But that’s what the opt-in model will produce this fall. If the overcrowding were that acute they either would have already taken advantage of the excess capacity at Herndon or gone ahead and set boundaries for Skyview this fall that included Chantilly areas.

Also, their latest projections have Chantilly losing over 300 kids over the next five years, irrespective of Skyview.

Basically they saw a shiny toy and decided they needed to have it.

Herndon is too far away to relieve Chantilly. And the main reason for the opt in this year is because the school won't have many of the sports and activities that require upperclassmen. They didn't want to force kids into a situation like that, and instead let families choose what was most important to them this year (commute vs extracurriculars). The following year they will have a firm boundary and enough kids for VHSL participation.

Given the unnecessary expansion of Herndon, it would have been fiscally responsible and efficient to move part of Chantilly to Westfield, and part of Westfield to Herndon.

You can explain away the opt-in model if you like, but it doesn't change the fact that it's inconsistent with claims that the overcrowding at Chantily is acute and demands an immediate solution, because the opt-in model will have only a modest impact on Chantilly's enrollment compared to the impact on the enrollments at Westfield and South Lakes.

They balked at moving kids to Herndon, because they know that people not want to be redistricted there. But now they are going to face a similar situation where families at Chantilly and/or Centreville don't want to be the ones to backfill Westfield. They could have put their feet down earlier, but they didn't, and now things could end up being even more contentious. They are playing a game of whack-a-mole.

Whack-a-mole is what they have been doing the past several years. Tacking trailers onto schools and doing unnecessary expansions when schools popped up for their turn in the renovation queue. This new school is the first time in a while they are planning for the future instead of playing whack-a-mole.