Anonymous wrote:Only fair way is as close to a grid as you can. Stop at capacity limits.

Same for voting. Just draw straight lines.

That might work in a planned city where everything is laid out in blocks. Won't work in FCPS. You'd be splitting neighborhoods.

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Anonymous wrote:I’d open more schools and make them all smaller. Better education that way. But that’s a pipe dream because of taxes.

Not a pipe dream. All we have to do is get government out of the schools business, and let people take their kid's education dollars to whatever school they want. Then you get lots of specialized schools that people can choose from.

+ a million
School choice.

I'm a die hard Democrat who support school choice. I think that the McKay Scholarship in FL is great...if you read the fine print very closely and are ok w/losing an IEP and everything that goes along with it in return for your kid being able to go to private school. However, my concern is regarding how the new batch of private schools that pop up when school choice is implemented are regulated. Look at Florida, look at DC, look at Baltimore. Once school choice comes to town, so do a ton of shitty schools. And often the kids are the ones who suffer when their parents put them into a school that isn't in any way accredited or regulated or held to any standards.

Only fair way is as close to a grid as you can. Stop at capacity limits.

Same for voting. Just draw straight lines.

Anonymous wrote:“ AAP is unnecessary. ”

People will continue to fight for AAP so long as the alternative is largely so called “in class differentiation” which amounts to minimal teacher time for the higher groups. Allow schools to ability group by classes and people would not care so much

Not true.

“ AAP is unnecessary. ”

People will continue to fight for AAP so long as the alternative is largely so called “in class differentiation” which amounts to minimal teacher time for the higher groups. Allow schools to ability group by classes and people would not care so much

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You need AAP. In class differentiation doesn't work for the kids who are really struggling and the kids who are advanced. We have programs in place to try and help the kids who are really struggling, IEPs/504 and associated services. They are not always the best and god knows that they could use additional help in the form of teachers aides and resources but they are there. AAP serves the kids who are advanced. Teachers are not going to split their time evenly so kids who are ahead are given challenging work. The kids who are ahead will be sent to work in their groups solo and might see the Teacher every few weeks for group work. We already see this with LA. Kids in the higher reading groups do not get that much time working with the Teacher because the Teacher is spending time with the kids who are struggling. And that makes sense, the Teachers priority is helping the kids who are not able to or barely able to complete the assigned work.

AAP gives kids who are ahead or advanced a more challenging curriculum that helps those kids stay engaged.

I agree with getting rid of busing for AAP and the Centers but every school needs to have an AAP option for kids who are ahead. I don't care if the kids are gifted, tested well, are ahead or whatever the label is, they should have a chance to be challenged in school. But it can be done at the neighborhood school. There is no reason to be busing kids to different schools. Or if the parents are so desperate to leave their base school, their parents can handle transportation the way the parents in the language immersion programs do.

In class differentiation works just fine. I've been a teacher and we never had GT classes or AAP where I taught. (There were some pull outs for the highly gifted, but they weren't really needed.) Yes, struggling readers may have received more time and direct instruction, but they did not receive less attention. Advanced students are able to work independently for longer periods of time. For example, in reading instruction, a teacher might give advanced students a good chunk of silent reading while he/she works with another reading group. Then, bring the advanced kids together to discuss and evaluate what they have read. The lesson would likely also include some advanced skills. (That is just one example of what might happen. There are many ways to meet their educational needs.) And, frequently, there might be one kid who is an outlier--in both directions. Teachers can help there, too.

If you think all AAP kids are on the same level, you are seriously misinformed.

And, you must not be aware that there are quite a few kids in AAP who have IEPs.

If you must have a special program, go back to the GT program which only pulled the highly gifted. AAP is unnecessary.

Completely, unequivocally agree.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d open more schools and make them all smaller. Better education that way. But that’s a pipe dream because of taxes.

Not a pipe dream. All we have to do is get government out of the schools business, and let people take their kid's education dollars to whatever school they want. Then you get lots of specialized schools that people can choose from.

+ a million
School choice.

I live in Clifton, so I know that I am a geographical minority on this board. That said, my kids go to Union Mill Elementary School. I LOVE our school. That said, the way that the boundaries for our school are drawn are incredibly suspect and I know that this is the same all over the county based on what I have seen on this board.

The borders for our school attendance zone are very purposefully drawn so that the apartments near the school (and the "poorer" townhomes that are located in Little Rocky Run, the neighborhood in which UMES is located) are sent not to Union Mill, but to Centre Ridge Elementary. Centre Ridge is a Title 1 school. Union Mill is not.

I don't know if this happened when Elizabeth Schultz was on the School Board and her kids went to Union Mill, whether they used the Clifton ES redistricting as a reason for this to happen, or if it has always been the case. But it is ridiculous.

So to answer the question of how would I like to see the boundary maps changed? Stuff like this needs to stop. When they are campaigning, the SB throws out all sorts of BS about how all kids matter. How "there is no such thing as someone else's kid". But is there really?

If kids from the nearby apartment complex came to Union Mill (or even if all of the kids who live in Little Rocky Run's townhomes came to Union Mill), it isn't going to change the education my kids are going to get. The majority of the parents in our neighborhood have college/grad degrees and are very involved in the education of their children. My kids will be fine, and the kids who live on my street will be fine.

BUT, it could improve the educational experience for lets say 50-100 other kids. 100 kids x however many schools in FCPS where they made just a few tweaks to the boundaries here and there...it adds up.

Anonymous wrote:AAP centers need to stay. There should be an option for parents to send their kid to a center so that they are in class with kids on their level or close to their level academically.

They could still have that opportunity with AAP classes in each school. There is no need to have centers.

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Anonymous wrote:Given that these are the boundary maps for FCPS:

High School - https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY%202021-22%20High%20School%20Boundaries.pdf

Middle School - https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY%202021-22%20Middle%20School%20Boundaries_0.pdf

Elementary School - https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY%202021-22%20Elementary%20School%20Boundaries.pdf

AAP Middle School - https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY%202021-22%20Middle%20Schools%20by%20Middle%20School.pdf

AAP Elementary School - https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY%202021-22%20Elementary%20Schools.pdf

What would you change about them? I would eliminate attendance islands for any school. As an example, I would make the tendril in Woodson High School part of Fairfax High School so that the Fairfax High School region is connected. I would also get rid of split feeders as much as possible. Everyone from one elementary school should go to the same middle school and everybody from one middle school should go to the same high school. Of course AAP complicates things, but I still think one AAP elementary school should feed into one AAP middle school.

So which middle school(s) are you going to close or which high school are you going to overcrowd? There are 23 middle schools and 22 high schools (along with the 3 secondary schools), and one of those high schools draws from all over the county (TJ).

It would easy to eliminate attendance islands by in some cases redrawing boundaries to attach the island to the core attendance area, but then some people would scream bloody murder if they were redistricted.

If it were easy to create true pyramids it would have been done already.

I think there is a misunderstanding. Multiple elementary schools should be able to feed into one middle school. Multiple middle schools can feed into one high school, if required. But my point is that you should not have a situation where a non AAP ES is sending students to three different non AAP MS. Even an AAP ES should not be sending students to multiple AAP MS.

eliminating centers solves that one pretty easily

Yes, especially in middle school. There is no reason to have AAP centers in middle school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d open more schools and make them all smaller. Better education that way. But that’s a pipe dream because of taxes.

Not a pipe dream. All we have to do is get government out of the schools business, and let people take their kid's education dollars to whatever school they want. Then you get lots of specialized schools that people can choose from.

this is a great argument against charters unless you want a bunch of academies more interested in retaining students than teaching anything (just look at the jurisdictions that try it)

The way you attract students is by providing excellent programs that people want their kids in. Almost 20% of kids in Fairfax already attend private schools. I would be fine with requiring that the money go to non-profit schools only.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d open more schools and make them all smaller. Better education that way. But that’s a pipe dream because of taxes.

Not a pipe dream. All we have to do is get government out of the schools business, and let people take their kid's education dollars to whatever school they want. Then you get lots of specialized schools that people can choose from.

this is a great argument against charters unless you want a bunch of academies more interested in retaining students than teaching anything (just look at the jurisdictions that try it)

Anonymous wrote:I’d open more schools and make them all smaller. Better education that way. But that’s a pipe dream because of taxes.

Not a pipe dream. All we have to do is get government out of the schools business, and let people take their kid's education dollars to whatever school they want. Then you get lots of specialized schools that people can choose from.

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Anonymous wrote:I am pretty sure that the two big reasons Shrevewood is getting screwed is because the white Timber Lane parents are worried that they will be zoned out of McLean into Marshall and the Stenwood parents don't want little brown kids in their school.

Actually, the Timber Lane families on the other side of Rte 50 are worried that they'll be rezoned to Jackson/Falls Church because that's where a lot of the neighboring kids go. There's an entire neighborhood of families that would either move or send their kids to privates - I've seen all the shiny new houses in Greenway Downs. Those people aren't staying if they get rezoned out of McLean.

The Timber Lane area is entirely north of Route 50. It includes an area north of Route 29 zoned to McLean, and an area south of Route 29 zoned to Falls Church. The majority of Timber Lane students go to McLean and it's technically part of the McLean pyramid. Both the McLean and the Falls Church areas include low-income apartments. Greenway Downs, including the "shiny new houses" in that neighborhood, are south of Route 29 and already zoned to Jackson/Falls Church. Maybe you're referring to a different neighborhood than Greenway Downs.

The Timber Lane part of McLean has been zoned there since the mid-80s and adds diversity to the school. However, if FCPS expands Falls Church during its upcoming renovation, and does nothing to add permanent seats to McLean over the next decade, while other areas in Tysons, McLean, and West Falls Church that are zoned for McLean and closer to the school continue to add housing units, it's not impossible that the Timber Lane portion of McLean could be moved to Falls Church at some point, but no such plans are imminent.

Right, I meant 29 not 50. I misspoke.

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Anonymous wrote:The schools along Rte 50 inside the beltway's attendance boundaries are a clusterf_ck - I'm talking Graham Rd, Pine Spring, Beech Tree. And then there's Timberlane - a random school half zoned to McLean - in the middle of all that, and Shrevewood which is very overcrowded. Such a mess.

Yup, and the Stenwood parents continue to fight allowing kids who are closer to Stenwood than Shrevewood attend. It's absurd.

Stenwood is going to have its boundaries substantially changed when Frisch's Dunn Loring project is finished. Part of Shrevewood will finally move to Stenwood, and much of Stenwood (and part of Freedom Hill) will end up at Dunn Loring.

There’s a zone part of Freedom Hill that seems out of the way-near Pimmit.

Yes, and those kids really should be swapped with the ones behind Marshall High School, which is closer to Freedom Hill than Lemon Road, but god forbid a McLean school get any more brown kids.

The kids who live behind Marshall already go to Freedom Hill. There's an area on the same side of Route 7 slightly further east who go to Lemon Road.

Regardless of whether they go to Freedom Hill or Lemon Road, do you want to create a new attendance island that sends kids who live on the same side of Route 7, within walking distance of Marshall, to McLean instead?

I don't know what you're talking about. I meant the townhouses next to Marshall - Marshall Heights - that are zoned to Lemon Road should go to Freedom Hill. Lemon Road is a split feeder, Freedom Hill is zoned to Marshall. The kids behind Whole Foods that are zoned to Freedom Hill should either go to Lemon Road or Shrevewood, both of which are MUCH closer to them and they could still go to Marshall. Shrevewood is overcrowded, Lemon Road is not.