Love the feel of the Fall Church City schools. There is a nice feel of community.

Anonymous wrote:
You could make that comparison, although towns with their own school systems are not uniformly upper middle class, and most of them have larger schools than the FCC schools. But you can definitely find some tony suburbs where the public HS are roughly the same size as George Mason.

I'm from Chicago and each suburb has its own school district. The rich ones are on the north side and the upper middle class are in the northwest. Some of the burbs are quite large, others are relatively small. The mostly upper middle class school district is quite common in a lot of suburban areas of large cities, hell, even Peoria has an upper middle class school district in a suburb.

My wife who grew up in a rural town had to take a bus 20 miles to go to high school and the school still only had 500 students. Rural schools districts are very small and rarely will have 2,000 students in the system. FCC is small by square footage but a dispropriate of their population has school aged children, so it is by no means a small school district compared to other suburbs nationwide.

As for kids going to the school with the same kids for 13 years, it didn't worry me. First, families move in and out of this area all the time. Second, in Fairfax County, most pyramids have kids stay together the entire 13 years, so you will know some kids the whole time. Third, my kids interact with tons of Fairfax County kids (two blocks down the road is Fairfax County) at parks, parties, dance classes, at the pool, and other activities, so it isn't like they only have school friends. Fourth, I was thinking of private school at one time and many of them are even smaller and go through K-12 (i.e. Sidwell), so it isn't unusual. Finally, as a kid that moved around a lot due to a parent in the military, the thought of my child having lifelong friends is actually kind of appealing. The small sized nature of the school kid of prevents or at least retards a lot of the problems in bigger schools. If my child hit someone, I definitely go out of my way to correct that behavior than have an awkward 13 years around a particular parent. It's just more communal in nature.

Falls Church city really is like a small town. Everybody knows everybody, and everybody is all up in your business whether you like it or not.

The main issue that kept me on the FFx county side of the border is that FCC kids are stuck with the same group of kids for 13 years. Other then kids new to the area, there are no new kids merging in from other schools at the MS and HS level...it's the same kids. All.the.time.
That could be great, but if your kid gets picked on or bullied, or is known as being mean or dumb or the crybaby or the dork with glasses, that image follows them all the way up. There is no chance to start at a new school with a bunch more kids and a chance at new friends. This situation was relayed to me often by a co worker with kids in FCC, and I decided it wasn't the place for us.

Anonymous wrote:
The school system still has 2,000 students, which is larger than most small town school systems. It is more similar to the upper middle class suburbs of major cities, which have separate school systems for each city, town or village, as opposed to having the county administer the entire school system.

Fairfax County is one of the most populous counties in the country and certainly one of the wealthiest of the larger counties, many of which would include poorer urban areas.

You could make that comparison, although towns with their own school systems are not uniformly upper middle class, and most of them have larger schools than the FCC schools. But you can definitely find some tony suburbs where the public HS are roughly the same size as George Mason.

On the other hand, the smaller schools in places like Westchester tend to be close to one another, whereas the nearest schools of Mason's size in Virginia are in the City of Manassas and rural counties. That can make a place like Mason more attractive if you prefer a small school, or less attractive if you don't want your kid having to travel to Ruritania County for an away field hockey match or basketball game.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which is the most diverse?

Westbriar is the most racially diverse (with close to 30% Asian students) and Stenwood has the most low-income students (about 9% are FARMS). All of these schools serve affluent areas.

Falls Church City schools have less diversity, and the high school is very small. I've always looked at the FCC system as best suited for for those who want a traditional, small-town experience in the midst of a large metropolitan area.

The school system still has 2,000 students, which is larger than most small town school systems. It is more similar to the upper middle class suburbs of major cities, which have separate school systems for each city, town or village, as opposed to having the county administer the entire school system.

Fairfax County is one of the most populous counties in the country and certainly one of the wealthiest of the larger counties, many of which would include poorer urban areas.

At least they don't have to worry about boundary shifts every year in Falls Church.