Anonymous
02/23/2016 18:21
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:One reason why I think it would work is that if you took the whole county's IB participation, it would likely only fill a single school.
Really? Looking at School Profiles, IB participation is pretty high. I don't think there is a school large enough to hold all those 11th and 12th graders.
Total IB Participation in 2014-15 is 4,388 students.
The PP probably meant to limit the IB school only to students pursuing full IB diplomas, which would get you to a smaller number.
But why limit it? Is AP limited only to those students who pursue nine AP courses (roughly equivalent to three 2-yr HL courses + three 1-yr SL courses)?
Anonymous
02/23/2016 18:18
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:One reason why I think it would work is that if you took the whole county's IB participation, it would likely only fill a single school.
Really? Looking at School Profiles, IB participation is pretty high. I don't think there is a school large enough to hold all those 11th and 12th graders.
Total IB Participation in 2014-15 is 4,388 students.
% participation by school and Building Utilization Ranking
Annandale 48.8% #23
Edison 48.1% #19
Lee 46.2% #24
Marshall 65.5% #11
Mount Vernon 36.9% #25
Robinson 72.9% #16
South Lakes 58.3% #3
Stuart 56.5% #13
Anonymous
02/23/2016 18:17
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:One reason why I think it would work is that if you took the whole county's IB participation, it would likely only fill a single school.
Really? Looking at School Profiles, IB participation is pretty high. I don't think there is a school large enough to hold all those 11th and 12th graders.
Total IB Participation in 2014-15 is 4,388 students.
The PP probably meant to limit the IB school only to students pursuing full IB diplomas, which would get you to a smaller number.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 18:14
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:One reason why I think it would work is that if you took the whole county's IB participation, it would likely only fill a single school.
Really? Looking at School Profiles, IB participation is pretty high. I don't think there is a school large enough to hold all those 11th and 12th graders.
Total IB Participation in 2014-15 is 4,388 students.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 18:13
Subject: Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The County has been throwing money at the Rt. 1 corridor for years to attract development, but the school situation has gotten worse, not better.
Improvements in schools can be a lagging indicator. Someone mentioned Marshall earlier. The School Board did not lift a finger when Marshall was in the bottom half of FCPS and had a perilously low enrollment to redistrict anyone there. In fact, they even let parents talk them into rejecting a staff recommendation years ago to move part of Langley to Marshall and let the neighborhoods in question move to McLean instead. But the school improved anyway, because it was near Tysons and several Metro stations, and a considerable amount of expensive new housing was built within the school's boundaries.
Should parents be content to wait a decade or more after real estate development begins for school quality to improve? As parents, our kids only get one chance at an education. We don't have the time to wait. We're tired of waiting for things to get better and being told that we "might"
get redistricted to a better school at some distant point in the future - or that a new Town Center project will improve the schools.
You can also move. Lots of people do in FCPS for schools.
True, or we could vote to remove representatives who maintain the status quo.
+1- only one because I only had one vote in the last election. So disappointed many of the same board members were reelected.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 18:06
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:One reason why I think it would work is that if you took the whole county's IB participation, it would likely only fill a single school.
Really? Looking at School Profiles, IB participation is pretty high. I don't think there is a school large enough to hold all those 11th and 12th graders.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 17:48
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Here is a crazy, crazy idea. Make Lee the sole IB school in the county. Include bussing from anywhere. Redistribute the students from Lee to neighboring schools.
One reason why I think it would work is that if you took the whole county's IB participation, it would likely only fill a single school. So why bother spreading it around. That way demand matches the usage. And the building is used.
This is actually a very sound idea.
No, it's not. The Western part of the County already has to bus kids for an hour each way for TJ. Putting the County's second HS magnet in the Eastern part of the County too really is inequitable. If there is a second magnet school, it should either in the Western part of the County (like South Lakes) or it should be centrally located. Besides, Lee has done a sh$tty job of implementing IB. Almost no one at Lee manages to get the full diploma. Nobody is going to bus for Lee's program.
Now, what might make sense is to take the 5 IB schools clustered together and reduce them to one-- probably Edison, because they have the strongest program of the 5. And keep Robinson, South Lakes and Marshall, all of which have strong programs.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 13:53
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Here is a crazy, crazy idea. Make Lee the sole IB school in the county. Include bussing from anywhere. Redistribute the students from Lee to neighboring schools.
One reason why I think it would work is that if you took the whole county's IB participation, it would likely only fill a single school. So why bother spreading it around. That way demand matches the usage. And the building is used.
This is actually a very sound idea.
I could be wrong, but my sense is that both Marshall and South Lakes are very invested in their IB programs. They get pupil placements from surrounding AP schools that boost their enrollments and test scores, and people in both communities would fight very hard to keep IB. Robinson has a big IB program, too, but I'd bet most (not all) parents there would favor having a full menu of AP courses over IB and a handful of AP courses, which is what they have currently. Fairfax Station and Clifton are fairly conservative areas, and areas like that tend to prefer AP over IB given a choice.
As for the other five schools, shrinking IB from five to one or two schools would make sense. I'd keep IB at Lee, since Edison has the Edison Academy, and maybe Stuart, but get rid of it at Annandale, Edison and Mount Vernon. It would attract more IB students to Lee and stem pupil placements from the other IB schools to AP schools like Woodson, Lake Braddock and West Potomac.
But this is FCPS, so none of this will ever be up for reconsideration. It would be tantamount to conceding that FCPS made a bad decision installing IB at so many schools, and FCPS never acknowledges mistakes.
I think it works better if IB is in a school that's also an academy school.
Not really. IB is very prescriptive so the diploma candidates don't have as much discretion in picking electives. Probably the only argument for doing so would be that IB is considered weaker in math/science, so adding some STEM courses to an academy helps address that concern.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 13:50
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Here is a crazy, crazy idea. Make Lee the sole IB school in the county. Include bussing from anywhere. Redistribute the students from Lee to neighboring schools.
One reason why I think it would work is that if you took the whole county's IB participation, it would likely only fill a single school. So why bother spreading it around. That way demand matches the usage. And the building is used.
This is actually a very sound idea.
I could be wrong, but my sense is that both Marshall and South Lakes are very invested in their IB programs. They get pupil placements from surrounding AP schools that boost their enrollments and test scores, and people in both communities would fight very hard to keep IB. Robinson has a big IB program, too, but I'd bet most (not all) parents there would favor having a full menu of AP courses over IB and a handful of AP courses, which is what they have currently. Fairfax Station and Clifton are fairly conservative areas, and areas like that tend to prefer AP over IB given a choice.
As for the other five schools, shrinking IB from five to one or two schools would make sense. I'd keep IB at Lee, since Edison has the Edison Academy, and maybe Stuart, but get rid of it at Annandale, Edison and Mount Vernon. It would attract more IB students to Lee and stem pupil placements from the other IB schools to AP schools like Woodson, Lake Braddock and West Potomac.
But this is FCPS, so none of this will ever be up for reconsideration. It would be tantamount to conceding that FCPS made a bad decision installing IB at so many schools, and FCPS never acknowledges mistakes.
I think it works better if IB is in a school that's also an academy school.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 13:50
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
A lot of this discussion about messing around with West Springfield's compact boundaries to accommodate Lee seems like a useless, hypothetical exercise to determine how many people can be squeezed onto the Titanic.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 13:48
Subject: Mount Vernon?
Given that fcps just rezoned the closest single family/townhome neighborhood to WSHS, it is completely unlikely they will move them back or rezone a neighborhood that is even farther away over to Lee.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 13:46
Subject: Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why should single family homes zoned for West Springfield be moved to Lee so that single family homes zoned for Lee can be moved to South County or West Springfield.
The Saratoga folks voted to stay at Lee so they don't necessarily have a leg to stand on with their argument that some other neighborhood needs to switch place with them.
They need to devote this energy to improving Lee. How are the STEM activities, music program and theater program at Lee? STEM and fine arts appeal greatly to families who value education. Those would be good areas to focus on. Lobbying fcps to switch Lee from IB to AP is another sensible approach.
But this proposal? Sheer nonsense.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Concerning boundaries in the eastern part of the county, FCPS needs to shake up the puzzle pieces and look at the situation with a fresh perspective. They need to look at the changes that have occurred - both physical and social.
For example, the current widening of Route 1 from Lorton to Ft. Belvoir will make areas like Gunston more accessible to the Mount Vernon area. Maybe it would be sensible to put those students at Mt. Vernon HS?
The Saratoga folks are closer to West Springfield, South County, AND Hayfield than to Lee. Maybe something can be done to help them get to a more convenient school.
Lorton Station Elementary kids should definitely go to South Co.
They need to ignore the entitled attitude of certain "good"
schools and look at what's best for all.
Pretty much.
They have to find a way to get more sfh's into Lee. Some homes sure currenty zoned wshs need to be shifted.
No they don't need to be rezoned. The WS neighborhoods closest to Lee are all in the immediate neighborhood of WSHS and there are townhouses, apartments and retail areas and churches between the sfhs and Lee. If they pull in the closest West Springfield neighborhoods, they are all apartments and town homes. They would have to do some creative gerrymandering to bring in the affluent and middle class sfhs from WSHS to Lee, and there would be absolute mutiny in the community.
To the pp- no. It's not so Saratoga can be shifted away. The point is that other sfh neighborhoods currently zoned wshs need to be rezoned to the under enrolled Lee. That would help the demographics at that school and relieve the over crowding at wshs.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 13:00
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Here is a crazy, crazy idea. Make Lee the sole IB school in the county. Include bussing from anywhere. Redistribute the students from Lee to neighboring schools.
One reason why I think it would work is that if you took the whole county's IB participation, it would likely only fill a single school. So why bother spreading it around. That way demand matches the usage. And the building is used.
This is actually a very sound idea.
I could be wrong, but my sense is that both Marshall and South Lakes are very invested in their IB programs. They get pupil placements from surrounding AP schools that boost their enrollments and test scores, and people in both communities would fight very hard to keep IB. Robinson has a big IB program, too, but I'd bet most (not all) parents there would favor having a full menu of AP courses over IB and a handful of AP courses, which is what they have currently. Fairfax Station and Clifton are fairly conservative areas, and areas like that tend to prefer AP over IB given a choice.
As for the other five schools, shrinking IB from five to one or two schools would make sense. I'd keep IB at Lee, since Edison has the Edison Academy, and maybe Stuart, but get rid of it at Annandale, Edison and Mount Vernon. It would attract more IB students to Lee and stem pupil placements from the other IB schools to AP schools like Woodson, Lake Braddock and West Potomac.
But this is FCPS, so none of this will ever be up for reconsideration. It would be tantamount to conceding that FCPS made a bad decision installing IB at so many schools, and FCPS never acknowledges mistakes.
That's a good point. I do think if it was built as a cost cutting measure, they might try this. I don't know what IB participation rates at Marshall and South Lakes looks like, but I do think you could probably get away with a single IB school (i.e. Lee) to serve South County, Lake Braddock, West Springfield, Mount Vernon, West Potomac, Edison, Annadale, Woodson. I imagine if you were to limit the school to solely IB, you could probably even absorb capacity from Robinson (many parents would likely have their kids switch to AP to avoid bussing).
Anonymous
02/23/2016 12:41
Subject: Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Why should single family homes zoned for West Springfield be moved to Lee so that single family homes zoned for Lee can be moved to South County or West Springfield.
The Saratoga folks voted to stay at Lee so they don't necessarily have a leg to stand on with their argument that some other neighborhood needs to switch place with them.
They need to devote this energy to improving Lee. How are the STEM activities, music program and theater program at Lee? STEM and fine arts appeal greatly to families who value education. Those would be good areas to focus on. Lobbying fcps to switch Lee from IB to AP is another sensible approach.
But this proposal? Sheer nonsense.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Concerning boundaries in the eastern part of the county, FCPS needs to shake up the puzzle pieces and look at the situation with a fresh perspective. They need to look at the changes that have occurred - both physical and social.
For example, the current widening of Route 1 from Lorton to Ft. Belvoir will make areas like Gunston more accessible to the Mount Vernon area. Maybe it would be sensible to put those students at Mt. Vernon HS?
The Saratoga folks are closer to West Springfield, South County, AND Hayfield than to Lee. Maybe something can be done to help them get to a more convenient school.
Lorton Station Elementary kids should definitely go to South Co.
They need to ignore the entitled attitude of certain "good"
schools and look at what's best for all.
Pretty much.
They have to find a way to get more sfh's into Lee. Some homes sure currenty zoned wshs need to be shifted.
To the pp- no. It's not so Saratoga can be shifted away. The point is that other sfh neighborhoods currently zoned wshs need to be rezoned to the under enrolled Lee. That would help the demographics at that school and relieve the over crowding at wshs.
Anonymous
02/23/2016 11:22
Subject: Re:Mount Vernon?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Here is a crazy, crazy idea. Make Lee the sole IB school in the county. Include bussing from anywhere. Redistribute the students from Lee to neighboring schools.
One reason why I think it would work is that if you took the whole county's IB participation, it would likely only fill a single school. So why bother spreading it around. That way demand matches the usage. And the building is used.
This is actually a very sound idea.
I could be wrong, but my sense is that both Marshall and South Lakes are very invested in their IB programs. They get pupil placements from surrounding AP schools that boost their enrollments and test scores, and people in both communities would fight very hard to keep IB. Robinson has a big IB program, too, but I'd bet most (not all) parents there would favor having a full menu of AP courses over IB and a handful of AP courses, which is what they have currently. Fairfax Station and Clifton are fairly conservative areas, and areas like that tend to prefer AP over IB given a choice.
As for the other five schools, shrinking IB from five to one or two schools would make sense. I'd keep IB at Lee, since Edison has the Edison Academy, and maybe Stuart, but get rid of it at Annandale, Edison and Mount Vernon. It would attract more IB students to Lee and stem pupil placements from the other IB schools to AP schools like Woodson, Lake Braddock and West Potomac.
But this is FCPS, so none of this will ever be up for reconsideration. It would be tantamount to conceding that FCPS made a bad decision installing IB at so many schools, and FCPS never acknowledges mistakes.