Anonymous wrote:We need to a better job of focusing on economic development and housing policy to combat SES-based segregation. You can do some modest level of redistricting and bussing to improve balance at schools wherever reasonable/feasible, but unless you address the underlying root issue you're just going to have to contort these strategies farther and farther over time to achieve some semblance of balance or equity, and we're already basically at the point where the costs begin to outweigh the benefits in many cases.

This is a long-term issue, and instead we're debating over which band-aids are the right ones to apply. That's not to say you can't have both long-term AND short-term strategies, but overall the policy focus for addressing these challenges seems terribly myopic and neglecting the changes we'd need to make for sustainable solutions.

Anonymous wrote:We need to a better job of focusing on economic development and housing policy to combat SES-based segregation. You can do some modest level of redistricting and bussing to improve balance at schools wherever reasonable/feasible, but unless you address the underlying root issue you're just going to have to contort these strategies farther and farther over time to achieve some semblance of balance or equity, and we're already basically at the point where the costs begin to outweigh the benefits in many cases.

This is a long-term issue, and instead we're debating over which band-aids are the right ones to apply. That's not to say you can't have both long-term AND short-term strategies, but overall the policy focus for addressing these challenges seems terribly myopic and neglecting the changes we'd need to make for sustainable solutions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only argument I hear for moving Langley’s students out of an under-enrolled school is fairness. Yet the same people expect our tax dollars to go up.

Actually, that's not true. The reason why the county should move some great falls feeders from Langley has more to do with the fact that the schools that are geographically near langley like McLean, Marshall and Justice are all massively overenrolled and need capacity relief. Langley can do that and it is much cheaper, efficient to do a boundary change than to conduct even more capacity expansions.

That said, I find it interesting that the same people who complain about FCPS wasting money expanding school capacity are the same people who also stamp there feet and get angry when the idea of a boundary change to fix capacity issues is considered. I mean, look at West Potomac. What do you think would happen if the county chose to send fort hunt and Waynewood to Mount Vernon? People's heads would explode. The same thing with the idea of using Langley to fix capacity issue -- people are going nuts even considering the idea that their children might have to attend Herndon or South Lakes.

You really can't win with this crowd. Anything the county does is going to piss people off and it seems like the county is choosing to waste money expanding schools to avoid the craziness that this thread has encompassed.

Bullsh*t. Their mandate is socioeconomic fairness. It's right on their darn website so stop lying and saying it's not true. You don't have to move ONE person out of under-enrolled Langley into over-enrolled Herndon. You can move students from McLean or Tyson into the empty spaces at Langley.

The problem with a boundary change is it will negatively affect (by as much as 30%) Great Falls home values in some areas. That's because Herndon High has such a bad reputation and has gang violence. What makes anyone think that a county who destroyed their own schools has a right to use Great Falls kids and Great Falls money to fix it. It's YOUR liberal policies that created this mess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://elainetholen.com/priorities

Hey, Dranesville. Looks like addressing "school overcrowding" is a priority for your candidate.

There will be more than one candidate. And yes, it's a priority.

She revamped her web site after people made her aware of the issues that McLean was facing with overcrowding and that Langley was confronting with under-enrollment. But the local Democrats recruited her after Plerhoples switched to the BOS race because they thought she wouldn’t rock the boat and would go along with the “One Fairfax” agenda.

Despite the suggestion that the election will be contested, as of 5/22 no one had filed to oppose her.

You sound so sure. Good luck with the unopposed thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://elainetholen.com/priorities

Hey, Dranesville. Looks like addressing "school overcrowding" is a priority for your candidate.

There will be more than one candidate. And yes, it's a priority.

She revamped her web site after people made her aware of the issues that McLean was facing with overcrowding and that Langley was confronting with under-enrollment. But the local Democrats recruited her after Plerhoples switched to the BOS race because they thought she wouldn’t rock the boat and would go along with the “One Fairfax” agenda.

Despite the suggestion that the election will be contested, as of 5/22 no one had filed to oppose her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://elainetholen.com/priorities

Hey, Dranesville. Looks like addressing "school overcrowding" is a priority for your candidate.

There will be more than one candidate. And yes, it's a priority.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely should be better utilizing current capacity before adding on or building new schools. Yes, the decisions aren’t going to make certain people happy. Too bad.

But in evaluating moves, transportation AND a more equitable SES mix need to be considered. The disparity between the high SES schools and the low SES schools is stark. And because we write it off as “well, that’s just where the rich people live..” we have re-segregated schools and are using the separate but equal argument without realizing it. Yes, schools are segregated now by SES (and race by default in some areas - many inner cities, not necessarily FCPS). We have got to find a way to fix this if we ever expect to close gaps.

"We" did not re-segregate schools in FCPS. FCPS got a massive influx due to irregular migration from Central America. FCPS has targeted resources and our resources and tax dollars are NOT considered finite by FCPS.

FCPS has reduced ratio classrooms, programs, dual immersion at some sites [target is Spanish], young scholars, going to full time advanced academic resource teacher in title 1 schools. There are reports on title 1 and pre school.

FCPS is also moving to universal preschool. That could be headstart age 6 weeks to age 5 or less - age 4? age 3? Plus they want to gear up family engagement at title 1 schools, field trips, tutoring and homework help [includes Grandparents/retirees not specific to that school and middle schoolers].

Definition of universal pre school and classrooms and staffing are major issues. Add system wide grade 6 weeks to 1, 2, 3, 4. Full day. Elementary school standrad is grades k-6. That's 7 and some sites have FCPS pre k and headstart. 46 title 1 schools with 4 more grade levels? 2 more grade levels?

I'm the last PP. Some elementary schools in the Herndon Pyramid are over 70% Hispanic and over 50% Hispanic ESOL for lower grades. Data is on the VDOE per grade level, school, demographics [ethnicity, FRPM per ethnicity, etc]. VDOE Herndon middle school:

Herndon MS: 2003-04 2018-19
esol 194 = 16% > 603 = 54%
hispanic esol 124 = 10% > 483 = 43%
hispanic 215 = 18% > 557 = 49%
total 1222 = 100%> 1126 = 100%

So here's a school with high % Hispanic in the Herndon Pyramid pre-K and kindergarten for 2018-2019 from VDOE:
Kindergarten fall membership on VDOE site example for an FCPS school Hutchison:
Hispanic ESOL 107 = 66%
Hispanic K total 123 = 76%
Kindergarten total 161
Pre K=Hispanic 41 = 73%
Total Pre K 56

Run school year round on the site until 6 pm with summer including a larger PE/arts/dance component? How many classrooms needed for FX local funded unerversal Pre-K? 400 more pre-K at that site alone? Year round extended day? School board candidates use universal pre-K as an issue but fail to define the scope that would be funded locally. 38% of students in the Herndon pyramid enter kindergarten with no pre-school.

Who is going to pay for it? Obviously costs will be born by local real estate taxes. How much does it cost? DC has universal for 3 and 4 - note AA population in DC. In FX target market are not AA [multi-generational USA citizens].


FCPS through the public sector would provide equity in experiences, family involvement, after-schooling etc . FCPS self-flagellates itself on MSA . I'm not being snarky - FCPS has enough data to generate estimates yet I can't find anything other than budgets and applying local costs to more students.

Congratulations Fairfax Dems you have taken a once healthy middle class area Herndon and created a third world country hell hole through illegal immigration

This is 100% true. And to 'fix that', they get to screw over Great Falls. WIN for Dems.

Anonymous wrote:I posted the data from VDOE. If the federal govt has numbers/locations on persons in the asylum backlog process as it does on UAM perhaps the federal govt should reimburse Fairfax County Public Schools.


Especially considering our facilities costs, bonds, universal Pre-K. Debits and credits. Money isn't going to come from the state.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely should be better utilizing current capacity before adding on or building new schools. Yes, the decisions aren’t going to make certain people happy. Too bad.

But in evaluating moves, transportation AND a more equitable SES mix need to be considered. The disparity between the high SES schools and the low SES schools is stark. And because we write it off as “well, that’s just where the rich people live..” we have re-segregated schools and are using the separate but equal argument without realizing it. Yes, schools are segregated now by SES (and race by default in some areas - many inner cities, not necessarily FCPS). We have got to find a way to fix this if we ever expect to close gaps.

"We" did not re-segregate schools in FCPS. FCPS got a massive influx due to irregular migration from Central America. FCPS has targeted resources and our resources and tax dollars are NOT considered finite by FCPS.

FCPS has reduced ratio classrooms, programs, dual immersion at some sites [target is Spanish], young scholars, going to full time advanced academic resource teacher in title 1 schools. There are reports on title 1 and pre school.

FCPS is also moving to universal preschool. That could be headstart age 6 weeks to age 5 or less - age 4? age 3? Plus they want to gear up family engagement at title 1 schools, field trips, tutoring and homework help [includes Grandparents/retirees not specific to that school and middle schoolers].

Definition of universal pre school and classrooms and staffing are major issues. Add system wide grade 6 weeks to 1, 2, 3, 4. Full day. Elementary school standrad is grades k-6. That's 7 and some sites have FCPS pre k and headstart. 46 title 1 schools with 4 more grade levels? 2 more grade levels?

I'm the last PP. Some elementary schools in the Herndon Pyramid are over 70% Hispanic and over 50% Hispanic ESOL for lower grades. Data is on the VDOE per grade level, school, demographics [ethnicity, FRPM per ethnicity, etc]. VDOE Herndon middle school:

Herndon MS: 2003-04 2018-19
esol 194 = 16% > 603 = 54%
hispanic esol 124 = 10% > 483 = 43%
hispanic 215 = 18% > 557 = 49%
total 1222 = 100%> 1126 = 100%

So here's a school with high % Hispanic in the Herndon Pyramid pre-K and kindergarten for 2018-2019 from VDOE:
Kindergarten fall membership on VDOE site example for an FCPS school Hutchison:
Hispanic ESOL 107 = 66%
Hispanic K total 123 = 76%
Kindergarten total 161
Pre K=Hispanic 41 = 73%
Total Pre K 56

Run school year round on the site until 6 pm with summer including a larger PE/arts/dance component? How many classrooms needed for FX local funded unerversal Pre-K? 400 more pre-K at that site alone? Year round extended day? School board candidates use universal pre-K as an issue but fail to define the scope that would be funded locally. 38% of students in the Herndon pyramid enter kindergarten with no pre-school.

Who is going to pay for it? Obviously costs will be born by local real estate taxes. How much does it cost? DC has universal for 3 and 4 - note AA population in DC. In FX target market are not AA [multi-generational USA citizens].


FCPS through the public sector would provide equity in experiences, family involvement, after-schooling etc . FCPS self-flagellates itself on MSA . I'm not being snarky - FCPS has enough data to generate estimates yet I can't find anything other than budgets and applying local costs to more students.

Congratulations Fairfax Dems you have taken a once healthy middle class area Herndon and created a third world country hell hole through illegal immigration

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only argument I hear for moving Langley’s students out of an under-enrolled school is fairness. Yet the same people expect our tax dollars to go up.

Actually, that's not true. The reason why the county should move some great falls feeders from Langley has more to do with the fact that the schools that are geographically near langley like McLean, Marshall and Justice are all massively overenrolled and need capacity relief. Langley can do that and it is much cheaper, efficient to do a boundary change than to conduct even more capacity expansions.

That said, I find it interesting that the same people who complain about FCPS wasting money expanding school capacity are the same people who also stamp there feet and get angry when the idea of a boundary change to fix capacity issues is considered. I mean, look at West Potomac. What do you think would happen if the county chose to send fort hunt and Waynewood to Mount Vernon? People's heads would explode. The same thing with the idea of using Langley to fix capacity issue -- people are going nuts even considering the idea that their children might have to attend Herndon or South Lakes.

You really can't win with this crowd. Anything the county does is going to piss people off and it seems like the county is choosing to waste money expanding schools to avoid the craziness that this thread has encompassed.

You can’t win with this crowd when your facts or assumptions are off.

Moving Langley kids to Herndon or South Lakes right now does not solve any capacity problems. It just creates them at Herndon or South Lakes.

McLean is the only school near Langley that is “massively overcrowded.” It’s been held hostage - with no current plans either to expand the school or to move kids to Langley - while the SB talks about boundary policies.

Marshall was recently expanded and also got a modular. And there are also plans to expand Justice (which isn’t especially close to Langley in any event) even though it is projected to be less overcrowded than McLean. FCPS apparently would rather expand Justice than move kids who live the closest to other schools with capacity like Annandale, as this would drive up the poverty at Justice, which is mostly concentrated near Seven Corners and Bailey’s Crossroads near the border of other jurisdictions.

So, while the case for moving some kids into Langley now is strong, the argument for moving anyone out until there is more capacity in western Fairfax is weak.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only argument I hear for moving Langley’s students out of an under-enrolled school is fairness. Yet the same people expect our tax dollars to go up.

Actually, that's not true. The reason why the county should move some great falls feeders from Langley has more to do with the fact that the schools that are geographically near langley like McLean, Marshall and Justice are all massively overenrolled and need capacity relief. Langley can do that and it is much cheaper, efficient to do a boundary change than to conduct even more capacity expansions.

That said, I find it interesting that the same people who complain about FCPS wasting money expanding school capacity are the same people who also stamp there feet and get angry when the idea of a boundary change to fix capacity issues is considered. I mean, look at West Potomac. What do you think would happen if the county chose to send fort hunt and Waynewood to Mount Vernon? People's heads would explode. The same thing with the idea of using Langley to fix capacity issue -- people are going nuts even considering the idea that their children might have to attend Herndon or South Lakes.

You really can't win with this crowd. Anything the county does is going to piss people off and it seems like the county is choosing to waste money expanding schools to avoid the craziness that this thread has encompassed.

Anonymous wrote:More data from VDOE:
FCPS-division
change 2003-2018
esol 8796 37%
hispanic esol 9019 38%
hispanic 23916 101%
total students 23595 100%

Those numbers are the increases from 2003 to 2018. Total school division students:
2003=164235
2018=187830

Increase in Hispanic is greater than the total increase over a 15 year period. FCPS has programs for immigrant family reunification.