Anonymous
02/07/2012 14:05
Subject: Re:Lemon Road Elementary
Asking for a study to be performed does not rubber stamp Dean Tistadt. That is fanciful thinking. Approving his preferences as a result of the study might?!?! Might not?!?! Who knows unless a study is done. You are also making some tremendous assumptions on demographics in the area...that would not be born out by the data...if a study was allowed to be performed.
The suggestion to move Thoreau/Madison kids has a problem in that the Town of Vienna students at Freedom Hill number about 12 in all grades (right, a handful) which doesn't even approach solving a 144 student over capacity problem for next year...and opens up a much larger can of worms for a full Tysons area boundary study which would take years. Exactly the kind of delaying action that will continue to impact Freedom Hill students until a solution is found.
Hey, here's an idea how about Lemon Road gives up a potential expansion $$ and see if FCPS facilities will add 8 more classrooms to Freedom Hill as it wanted 3 years ago. Oh no... that violates all of FCPS facilities ranking criteria for the capital program doesn't solve the next year issue and will really piss off some other schools at the top of the renovation list like Westgate among others.
The suggestion to move Thoreau/Madison kids has a problem in that the Town of Vienna students at Freedom Hill number about 12 in all grades (right, a handful) which doesn't even approach solving a 144 student over capacity problem for next year...and opens up a much larger can of worms for a full Tysons area boundary study which would take years. Exactly the kind of delaying action that will continue to impact Freedom Hill students until a solution is found.
Hey, here's an idea how about Lemon Road gives up a potential expansion $$ and see if FCPS facilities will add 8 more classrooms to Freedom Hill as it wanted 3 years ago. Oh no... that violates all of FCPS facilities ranking criteria for the capital program doesn't solve the next year issue and will really piss off some other schools at the top of the renovation list like Westgate among others.
Anonymous
02/07/2012 13:48
Subject: Lemon Road Elementary
Anonymous wrote:Well it looks like the Lemon Road ploy is to convince the FCPS School Board to vote down the study request tomorrow night...so the affected communities would not even have a chance to express their concerns in public forums.
As game strategy -- smart...as a method to find real solutions for the school system -- really dumb.
Well, I wouldn't be unhappy if the School Board tells Staff to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new proposal that achieves the objective of reducing over-enrollment at Freedom Hill and increasing enrollment at Lemon Road, but doesn't start off by overwhelming Lemon Road with a disproportionate percentage of West Falls Church's low-income and ESOL students. There are other proposals that would make at least as much sense, such as sending the handful of Freedom Hill students that go to Thoreau MS and Madison HS to Vienna ES, and moving some students from over-crowded Shrevewood or Haycock ES to Lemon Road.
"Real solutions for the school system" don't always consist of doing whatever Dean Tistadt or Denise James recommends. The new School Board was elected to do more than just be a rubber stamp for Facilities.
Anonymous
02/07/2012 13:31
Subject: Lemon Road Elementary
Well it looks like the Lemon Road ploy is to convince the FCPS School Board to vote down the study request tomorrow night...so the affected communities would not even have a chance to express their concerns in public forums.
As game strategy -- smart...as a method to find real solutions for the school system -- really dumb.
As game strategy -- smart...as a method to find real solutions for the school system -- really dumb.
Anonymous
02/06/2012 23:30
Subject: Lemon Road Elementary
Welcome to the bell curve...not every family has the same luxuries of time and situations. Not everyone is a high performer... not with these two schools or whatever the "top" schools are. Get off your horse.
Anonymous
02/06/2012 21:11
Subject: Lemon Road Elementary
The goal of fcps seems to be diversity over academics. Fcps also seem to want good students to pull up the low performers rather than put high performers with other high performers. The truth is low performers drag down everyone and it takes way too much time and resources trying to propel them when at home their parents are either too busy or just don't seem to care about academics.
Anonymous
02/06/2012 21:05
Subject: Re:Lemon Road Elementary
Anonymous wrote:Are you guys really so afraid that a couple apartment complexes and some very nice townhomes are going to ruin your kids education because the kids coming in will not be all white upper/middle class?
Have you no faith in the teachers? the administration? your own child's ability to learn??
Are you afraid that your kids might have friends that don't look like them, or are (god forbid) bilingual?
Lemon Road has been significantly under capacity for at least 10 years and has been surrounded by overcrowded elementary schools for at least 5. Yes, some people bought homes zoned for it because of the small school size, but really, it was just a matter of time before there was a redistricting.
If you're really so afraid of your shiny white school being tarnished, Northern VA really isn't the right place for you anyway.
Lemon road is not a white school, it is already diverse, the concern is the explosion of under performing students from freedom hill. This will harm the standing of an excellent school.
Anonymous
02/06/2012 20:59
Subject: Re:Lemon Road Elementary
Yes, LR is smaller, it can't accommodate that many more kids. Part of the proposal involves building a addition to accommodate the increase. Other schools are overcrowded, frankly more than freedom hill. Class size at freedom hill isn't bad, haycock and Kent gardens are closer to lemon road and class sizes are crazy at those schools.
Just to be clear, Lemon road is already a very diverse school, ethnically and socio-economically, we opted to attend partly because of this rather than attend our much more affluent neighborhood school, but the proposed changes seem potentially to push the population too far in the direction of having a majority of students who need a lot of extra help.
Just to be clear, Lemon road is already a very diverse school, ethnically and socio-economically, we opted to attend partly because of this rather than attend our much more affluent neighborhood school, but the proposed changes seem potentially to push the population too far in the direction of having a majority of students who need a lot of extra help.
Anonymous
02/04/2012 20:36
Subject: Re:Lemon Road Elementary
Many older school areas have smaller schools. 800 students is not ideal for anyone and only expected or perhaps desired at a school like a GT center or something. The majority of non center based schools is around 500. I think Lemon Road was only built to hold about 350 students.
Anonymous
02/04/2012 19:25
Subject: Lemon Road Elementary
I am shocked that LR only has 250 students!!! I didn't think any school in FCPS was that small.
I have no patience or interest in hearing LR parents complain.... get over yourselves.... the rest of us have 800+ students in an elementary school. Welcome to the big city (county).
I have no patience or interest in hearing LR parents complain.... get over yourselves.... the rest of us have 800+ students in an elementary school. Welcome to the big city (county).
Anonymous
02/04/2012 16:50
Subject: Re:Lemon Road Elementary
As a Freedom Hill parent I strongly value the ethnic and demographic diversity of the school. It is one the most important elements of the character of the school. There are something like 70 unique countries represented by the students. Another thing that seems to be misconstrued is that diverse at Freedom Hill means Hispanic. For from it... it is asian, south asia, middle eastern, european, central and south american. My children's friends are as likely to be Turkish, British, Korean, Taiwanese, Phillipino, Indian, Pakistani, Iranian, Nicaruagan, Chilean, etc. This is our world today.
Most Freedom Hill parents are upset that FCPS blew the demographic forecast for the building expansion that was completed in 2009. that was built for a program space of ~525, they kept 4 trailers, and reprogrammed space and added a quad trailer to get to 609 and the students enrollment keeps increasing. We would rather they built the school for 750 in first place, but they didn't. Since we just had a renovation, so we go to the bottom of their ranking system (that process can agrued in another thread).
In a perfect world things would be different...
Most Freedom Hill parents are upset that FCPS blew the demographic forecast for the building expansion that was completed in 2009. that was built for a program space of ~525, they kept 4 trailers, and reprogrammed space and added a quad trailer to get to 609 and the students enrollment keeps increasing. We would rather they built the school for 750 in first place, but they didn't. Since we just had a renovation, so we go to the bottom of their ranking system (that process can agrued in another thread).
In a perfect world things would be different...
Anonymous
02/04/2012 16:25
Subject: Re:Lemon Road Elementary
Anonymous wrote:Are you guys really so afraid that a couple apartment complexes and some very nice townhomes are going to ruin your kids education because the kids coming in will not be all white upper/middle class?
Have you no faith in the teachers? the administration? your own child's ability to learn??
Are you afraid that your kids might have friends that don't look like them, or are (god forbid) bilingual?
Lemon Road has been significantly under capacity for at least 10 years and has been surrounded by overcrowded elementary schools for at least 5. Yes, some people bought homes zoned for it because of the small school size, but really, it was just a matter of time before there was a redistricting.
If you're really so afraid of your shiny white school being tarnished, Northern VA really isn't the right place for you anyway.
BS. Lemon Road isn't remotely close to being a shiny white school and it hasn't been one for a long time. But it's had a very good balance that FCPS can either upend or largely maintain if they do this properly.
Personally, I have no faith in FCPS facilities always to do the right thing. They closed a school that should have been kept open and perhaps they now plan to follow up by putting as many of the low-income kids in the Tysons area as they can find in Lemon Road. Brilliant. Just ask the folks over in Alexandria how well that works at Jefferson-Houston.
Anonymous
02/04/2012 15:56
Subject: Re:Lemon Road Elementary
Are you guys really so afraid that a couple apartment complexes and some very nice townhomes are going to ruin your kids education because the kids coming in will not be all white upper/middle class?
Have you no faith in the teachers? the administration? your own child's ability to learn??
Are you afraid that your kids might have friends that don't look like them, or are (god forbid) bilingual?
Lemon Road has been significantly under capacity for at least 10 years and has been surrounded by overcrowded elementary schools for at least 5. Yes, some people bought homes zoned for it because of the small school size, but really, it was just a matter of time before there was a redistricting.
If you're really so afraid of your shiny white school being tarnished, Northern VA really isn't the right place for you anyway.
Have you no faith in the teachers? the administration? your own child's ability to learn??
Are you afraid that your kids might have friends that don't look like them, or are (god forbid) bilingual?
Lemon Road has been significantly under capacity for at least 10 years and has been surrounded by overcrowded elementary schools for at least 5. Yes, some people bought homes zoned for it because of the small school size, but really, it was just a matter of time before there was a redistricting.
If you're really so afraid of your shiny white school being tarnished, Northern VA really isn't the right place for you anyway.
Anonymous
02/04/2012 15:54
Subject: Lemon Road Elementary
Anonymous wrote:after this change I guess we will be sending ours to private elementary school. I was really excited about lemon road before this news.
Wait and see how it plays out. The area that stands to be reassigned isn't all cut from the same cloth. It's a mix of low and middle-income garden apartments, high-rises and expensive townhouses.
What's clear is that FCPs intends to convert this to a much larger school. What's less clear is the sequence by which additional students will be added. Speak out and let FCPS know that the manner in which they go about this matters.
Anonymous
02/04/2012 15:35
Subject: Lemon Road Elementary
Anonymous wrote:after this change I guess we will be sending ours to private elementary school. I was really excited about lemon road before this news.
I would try it out before you jump to that conclusion. We're in an elementary that has a lot of non-native English speakers and FARM participants. You'd be surprised that the schools can still be good and the diversity is a real plus.
Anonymous
02/04/2012 15:03
Subject: Lemon Road Elementary
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's venal to ask FCPS to think this through and not automatically do what Dean Tistadt proposes.
Tistadt is the most powerful, unaccountable force in FCPS and typicallys gets most of, if not all of what he wants.
If one school has a capacity problem and a neighboring (which can mean whatever Tistadt wants it to mean) school is underenrolled, AND the area has been identified for a boundary study, it's already over.
Tab A, meet slot B.