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I doubt the whole Oak Hill would go to KAA. But maybe Emerald Chase goes to South Lakes and the rest of Oak Hill go to KAA.

Remember currently Emerald Chase kids (and Bradley Farm kids south of West Ox) go to Westfield. Moving them to KAA won’t give relief to Chantilly.

I don't take it for granted that Thru and the school board will do what makes sense, but what makes sense is to send Emerald Chase to KAA with the rest of Oak Hill in order to keep pyramids aligned (and, assuming the Franklin Middle School kids get redistricted for Carson, to eliminate a split feeder).

I agree. The school board has an opportunity to build an actual school pyramid with no split feeders with just making a few changes. I hope they don’t find a way to screw that up.

Thru basically gave Emerald Chase two choices: merge with Fox Mill and go to SLHS with other Fox Mill kids (no split feeder scenario 3) or stay with Oak Hill and split at MS/HS level (scenario 4).

I get that Emerald Chase parents may want to avoid SLHS but KAA can take only 2000 kids and Chantilly needs relief.

Emerald Chase parents have been very vocal about what they want. But it’s not like the school board and Thru ignored their original complaints.

I don't live in Emerald Chase, but nearby. I think they sincerely hate the split feeder thing. It seems that any time people object to going to a different school that people assume it is because it is a less desirable school.

I will remind you that during the South Lakes boundary study that Chantilly neighborhoods fought against one another to stay at Chantilly over Oakton--which, at the time, was considered a much more "desirable" school.

Then they can go with Scenario 3. No split feeding under Scenario 3.

But they lobbied hard against Scenario 3 to stay with Oak Hill. Now their wish is granted under Scenario 4. Are they going to complain about split feeding this time?

To be clear FCPS is not creating a new split feeding pattern here. Emerald Chase kids are currenlty going to Westfield, while the most Oak Hill kids are going to Chantilly.

Doubt those Oak Hill kids stay at Chantilly with the opening of KAA. Will be interesting to see what happens with those maps, as Dr. Reid indicated last night there will be changes at the MS and HS level which will be "feathered" into the Scenario 4 map. So basically buckle in.

Non Emerald Chase Oak Hill kids will likely get moved from Chantilly as Chantilly needs some relief.

I thought about this, and Oak Hill doesn’t necessarily need to move.

While Chantilly certainly needs relief, if Floris, McNair, and Coates are moved from Westfield to KAA, Westfield’s enrollment will drop so significantly (by about 1,000 or more students) that the county will likely need to move students from Chantilly to Westfield. For example, Brookfield could go to Westfield.

Oak Hill is right next to KAA though and more than half of it goes to Chantilly.

I get that and some Oak Hill kids may well end up getting moved from Chantily to KAA.

But my question is this: what are you going to do if Westfield enrollment drops from 2700 to 1700?

So far, no one answered to this question.

How are you seeing 1000 kids move from Westfield to KAA? Kids will be coming from Westfield, Chantilly, Oakton, and maybe even South Lakes.

How many kids from Coates, Floris, and McNair? That’s mostly Westfield and they should be the first moved to KAA.

Under Scenario 4

Floris: 731 (let's say 25% goes to SLHS, then 548)
McNair Upper: 627
McNair Lower: 571
Coates: 688
Total: 2534

Assuming a uniform distribution across grades, each grade would have about 362 students.

362*4 = 1448

1,000 is a conservatie estimate.

Y’all don’t seem to realize how crowded this part of the county is.

Everyone has been assuming that Floris, McNair, and Coates students will move from Westfield to KAA, but nobody has addressed what will happen with the massive enrollment drop at Westfield.

You're off. I actually did the math a few pages back - some of the schools also have declining enrollment with far fewer younger kids than older kids. You can kind of see this in the McNair upper vs lower numbers.

Mine is off because it shows way more than 1,000 (LOL).

Show me your calculation showing the impact is lower than 1,000.

I'm basing mine on Scenario 4 (https://www.fcpsboundaryreview.org).

Under Scenario 4, all of Coates's students are going to Westfield. Also, I don't think the trend matters for the anticipated enrollment figures in the boundary tool.

There are 200 Coates kids (K-6) that are assigned to Herndon High School. That would translate to around 120 students --assuming even distribution of grades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not that it matters, but, KAA and Coates should be poster children for just why county-wide boundary studies should never be done. The level of detail, oxen gored, and local community input/support needed for redistrictings of the scale of adding a new HS, dealing with reallocating hundreds of kids from/to ESes or MSes, simply are impossible at the county-level.

I believe a minority of School Board members would just focus on Coates and KAA this round but they would be outvoted by Sandy Anderson and others.

Anonymous wrote:How can I look at Scenario 4? Don't flame me.

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I doubt the whole Oak Hill would go to KAA. But maybe Emerald Chase goes to South Lakes and the rest of Oak Hill go to KAA.

Remember currently Emerald Chase kids (and Bradley Farm kids south of West Ox) go to Westfield. Moving them to KAA won’t give relief to Chantilly.

I don't take it for granted that Thru and the school board will do what makes sense, but what makes sense is to send Emerald Chase to KAA with the rest of Oak Hill in order to keep pyramids aligned (and, assuming the Franklin Middle School kids get redistricted for Carson, to eliminate a split feeder).

I agree. The school board has an opportunity to build an actual school pyramid with no split feeders with just making a few changes. I hope they don’t find a way to screw that up.

Thru basically gave Emerald Chase two choices: merge with Fox Mill and go to SLHS with other Fox Mill kids (no split feeder scenario 3) or stay with Oak Hill and split at MS/HS level (scenario 4).

I get that Emerald Chase parents may want to avoid SLHS but KAA can take only 2000 kids and Chantilly needs relief.

Emerald Chase parents have been very vocal about what they want. But it’s not like the school board and Thru ignored their original complaints.

I don't live in Emerald Chase, but nearby. I think they sincerely hate the split feeder thing. It seems that any time people object to going to a different school that people assume it is because it is a less desirable school.

I will remind you that during the South Lakes boundary study that Chantilly neighborhoods fought against one another to stay at Chantilly over Oakton--which, at the time, was considered a much more "desirable" school.

Then they can go with Scenario 3. No split feeding under Scenario 3.

But they lobbied hard against Scenario 3 to stay with Oak Hill. Now their wish is granted under Scenario 4. Are they going to complain about split feeding this time?

To be clear FCPS is not creating a new split feeding pattern here. Emerald Chase kids are currenlty going to Westfield, while the most Oak Hill kids are going to Chantilly.

Doubt those Oak Hill kids stay at Chantilly with the opening of KAA. Will be interesting to see what happens with those maps, as Dr. Reid indicated last night there will be changes at the MS and HS level which will be "feathered" into the Scenario 4 map. So basically buckle in.

Non Emerald Chase Oak Hill kids will likely get moved from Chantilly as Chantilly needs some relief.

I thought about this, and Oak Hill doesn’t necessarily need to move.

While Chantilly certainly needs relief, if Floris, McNair, and Coates are moved from Westfield to KAA, Westfield’s enrollment will drop so significantly (by about 1,000 or more students) that the county will likely need to move students from Chantilly to Westfield. For example, Brookfield could go to Westfield.

Oak Hill is right next to KAA though and more than half of it goes to Chantilly.

I get that and some Oak Hill kids may well end up getting moved from Chantily to KAA.

But my question is this: what are you going to do if Westfield enrollment drops from 2700 to 1700?

So far, no one answered to this question.

How are you seeing 1000 kids move from Westfield to KAA? Kids will be coming from Westfield, Chantilly, Oakton, and maybe even South Lakes.

How many kids from Coates, Floris, and McNair? That’s mostly Westfield and they should be the first moved to KAA.

Under Scenario 4

Floris: 731 (let's say 25% goes to SLHS, then 548)
McNair Upper: 627
McNair Lower: 571
Coates: 688
Total: 2534

Assuming a uniform distribution across grades, each grade would have about 362 students.

362*4 = 1448

1,000 is a conservatie estimate.

Y’all don’t seem to realize how crowded this part of the county is.

Everyone has been assuming that Floris, McNair, and Coates students will move from Westfield to KAA, but nobody has addressed what will happen with the massive enrollment drop at Westfield.

You're off. I actually did the math a few pages back - some of the schools also have declining enrollment with far fewer younger kids than older kids. You can kind of see this in the McNair upper vs lower numbers.

Mine is off because it shows way more than 1,000 (LOL).

Show me your calculation showing the impact is lower than 1,000.

I'm basing mine on Scenario 4 (https://www.fcpsboundaryreview.org).

Under Scenario 4, all of Coates's students are going to Westfield. Also, I don't think the trend matters for the anticipated enrollment figures in the boundary tool.

There are 200 Coates kids (K-6) that are assigned to Herndon High School. That would translate to around 120 students --assuming even distribution of grades.

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I doubt the whole Oak Hill would go to KAA. But maybe Emerald Chase goes to South Lakes and the rest of Oak Hill go to KAA.

Remember currently Emerald Chase kids (and Bradley Farm kids south of West Ox) go to Westfield. Moving them to KAA won’t give relief to Chantilly.

I don't take it for granted that Thru and the school board will do what makes sense, but what makes sense is to send Emerald Chase to KAA with the rest of Oak Hill in order to keep pyramids aligned (and, assuming the Franklin Middle School kids get redistricted for Carson, to eliminate a split feeder).

I agree. The school board has an opportunity to build an actual school pyramid with no split feeders with just making a few changes. I hope they don’t find a way to screw that up.

Thru basically gave Emerald Chase two choices: merge with Fox Mill and go to SLHS with other Fox Mill kids (no split feeder scenario 3) or stay with Oak Hill and split at MS/HS level (scenario 4).

I get that Emerald Chase parents may want to avoid SLHS but KAA can take only 2000 kids and Chantilly needs relief.

Emerald Chase parents have been very vocal about what they want. But it’s not like the school board and Thru ignored their original complaints.

I don't live in Emerald Chase, but nearby. I think they sincerely hate the split feeder thing. It seems that any time people object to going to a different school that people assume it is because it is a less desirable school.

I will remind you that during the South Lakes boundary study that Chantilly neighborhoods fought against one another to stay at Chantilly over Oakton--which, at the time, was considered a much more "desirable" school.

Then they can go with Scenario 3. No split feeding under Scenario 3.

But they lobbied hard against Scenario 3 to stay with Oak Hill. Now their wish is granted under Scenario 4. Are they going to complain about split feeding this time?

To be clear FCPS is not creating a new split feeding pattern here. Emerald Chase kids are currenlty going to Westfield, while the most Oak Hill kids are going to Chantilly.

Doubt those Oak Hill kids stay at Chantilly with the opening of KAA. Will be interesting to see what happens with those maps, as Dr. Reid indicated last night there will be changes at the MS and HS level which will be "feathered" into the Scenario 4 map. So basically buckle in.

Non Emerald Chase Oak Hill kids will likely get moved from Chantilly as Chantilly needs some relief.

I thought about this, and Oak Hill doesn’t necessarily need to move.

While Chantilly certainly needs relief, if Floris, McNair, and Coates are moved from Westfield to KAA, Westfield’s enrollment will drop so significantly (by about 1,000 or more students) that the county will likely need to move students from Chantilly to Westfield. For example, Brookfield could go to Westfield.

Oak Hill is right next to KAA though and more than half of it goes to Chantilly.

I get that and some Oak Hill kids may well end up getting moved from Chantily to KAA.

But my question is this: what are you going to do if Westfield enrollment drops from 2700 to 1700?

So far, no one answered to this question.

How are you seeing 1000 kids move from Westfield to KAA? Kids will be coming from Westfield, Chantilly, Oakton, and maybe even South Lakes.

How many kids from Coates, Floris, and McNair? That’s mostly Westfield and they should be the first moved to KAA.

Under Scenario 4

Floris: 731 (let's say 25% goes to SLHS, then 548)
McNair Upper: 627
McNair Lower: 571
Coates: 688
Total: 2534

Assuming a uniform distribution across grades, each grade would have about 362 students.

362*4 = 1448

1,000 is a conservatie estimate.

Y’all don’t seem to realize how crowded this part of the county is.

Everyone has been assuming that Floris, McNair, and Coates students will move from Westfield to KAA, but nobody has addressed what will happen with the massive enrollment drop at Westfield.

You're off. I actually did the math a few pages back - some of the schools also have declining enrollment with far fewer younger kids than older kids. You can kind of see this in the McNair upper vs lower numbers.

Mine is off because it shows way more than 1,000 (LOL).

Show me your calculation showing the impact is lower than 1,000.

I'm basing mine on Scenario 4 (https://www.fcpsboundaryreview.org).

Under Scenario 4, all of Coates's students are going to Westfield. Also, I don't think the trend matters for the anticipated enrollment figures in the boundary tool.

Anonymous wrote:Not that it matters, but, KAA and Coates should be poster children for just why county-wide boundary studies should never be done. The level of detail, oxen gored, and local community input/support needed for redistrictings of the scale of adding a new HS, dealing with reallocating hundreds of kids from/to ESes or MSes, simply are impossible at the county-level.

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure Ricardy Anderson already has a finger on the pulse, but addressing Parklawn ES is a huge oversight. They have had ballooning enrollment similar to Coates, however they were able to get a modular, which masks their numbers. In 2019 (pre-COVID) enrollment was 669. Last year they were at 960! They have 19 temporary classrooms and 10 modulars. A boundary study was kicked off in 2024 and suspended this year due to the comprehensive review where it was supposed to be prioritized. Scenario 4 does absolutely nothing for them.

https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/maps/boundary-adjustments-information/parklawn-elementary-school-boundary-study

Anonymous wrote:I tried to start a new thread... because this one is a little intense and confusing.... but they won't let a new threat start... so.....


The new scenario 4 boundaries look like the county really took the feedback from the communities. At least in region 5.
Is the county now only considering scenario 4? Or is scenario 3 still up for consideration?

It sounds like the school start times are likely to remain unchanged. Is that correct or wishful thinking?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does scenario move any neighborhoods from CVHS or CHS to Westfield?

I'm not familiar with all the boundaries, but it moves at least part of Bull Run. Maybe all.

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Anonymous wrote:For everyone estimating impacts to Westfield, here’s a cookie. https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/Coates-Area-Boundary-Maps.pdf

Interesting that Floris is about half and half Westfield and South Lakes.

I'd love to see the Spa for high school--and also to know how old that information is.

I live in this area, and remember this PDF from the Coates study. It's extremely helpful to look at the SPAs, and where local knowledge is critical. For example, SPAs 1504/2403 currently show less than 80 kids however they've finish building most of the new housing development in these SPAs that will probably add another 100 kids in the next couple of years. I'm basing this off of a similar development (SP 2401) that just finished a couple of years ago. Again, this area continues to blow up which is why Coates ES enrollment got out of hand.

Yup. And that's why they had to build McNair Upper (can you believe they had to split the elementary school into two because enrollment is blowing up?!). Many people don’t realize how crowded this area is.

This is why the school board has pretty much ruled out the magnet school idea. They know this area desperately needs relief.

This also shows how completely clueless Reid is.

Agree, they're really clueless with what's going on in the Western area from the Toll Road down to 66. Ultimately, I'm willing the bet they'll make some big F-ups in the first draft of the KAA maps, and then it'll be a matter of who's voice is loudest and we'll see where the pieces fall. Then, 5 years from now, they'll go "Oh s***, we underestimated development" and they'll have to added trailers/Mods to KAA.

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Anonymous wrote:Man, I know they really want to keep the boundary review conversation to one thread, but I sure do wish everyone talking about the Springfield high schools could have their own thread. A lot of passionate conversation to be had there... And I want to hear what other people around the county are thinking about the new scenario!

The “passionate conversation” is a very small group of Lewis parents desperately wanting more middle and upper middle income neighborhoods to be rezoned to Lewis so they can feel better about themselves and their poor real estate selection decisions.

Poor real estate decisions? You mean buying a home that we could afford?

🖕you.

Agreed! That was such a gross, elitist comment! So the "poors" are not entitled to a decent education? FCPS is *supposed* to be ranked as one of the best in the US, but Lewis is terrible.

Sorry that we bought pre-COVID what we could afford and thought this would be our starter and not forever home. Now with the way the economy is, prices/interests rates up, plus a one-fed household so who knows if I'll be RIF-ed, it's looking like we'll be in our 'starter' home for a long time. The elementary school close to Lewis, Springfield Estates, is a good school. That is why we chose to live here and thought either Lewis would improve or we'd eventually move. Seems like both might not happen. I'm sure many others have similar situations at Lewis or other not so great schools.

So, why don't you mobilize the parents through volunteering to make Lewis stronger and the pyramid more cohesive?

Does Lewis have pyramid events that bring elementary and middle school families into the high school on a regular basis to make the kids feel like part of the community? A lot of high schools do this.

We are in the WSHS pyramid.

Each year, nearly every sport, every performing arts program, and many clubs host pyramid events for our feeder schools to build community with our younger kids.

So far this year, the football games have hosted the local SYC league to run onto the field with the varsity team and get a VIP sideline experience, the cheerleaders and dance team had the elementary and middle school kids with them cheering on the sidelines, the dance team invited our pyramid elementary schools to do a halftime dance, marching band marched in with Irving's band and played in the pep section, and choir brought in all the pyramid choirs to sing the national anthem. That is just football season.

We have pyramid concerts, where every level performs pieces (elementary through high school choirs) then the entire WSHS pyramid, 100s of students, performs several songs together.

Theater hosts VIP backstage tours of the performances with Irving, and a Saturday workshop with the elementary kids.

There are pyramid fun runs, art shows, performing arts days, elementary school nights at various games.

Some of the high school programs go into the middle and elementary schools to perform or volunteer to run their school carnivals and help with elementary school events like bingo and individual school fun runs.

Is Lewis doing all of these kinds of activities for and with their elementary schools and middle schools?

They really help to build community in the school and make everyone down to the families of little kids connected to the high school and invested in making their community school a success.

Someone already pointed out that this comment on Lewis was tone deaf. But let's explain further. Lewis and West Springfield are right next to each other, but might as well be on different continents.

Enrollment
Lewis enrollment is now 1539. West Springfield enrollment is 2841. That is a difference of 1302 students across just four grades. Simply with this enrollment difference WS (and the parents) will have more ability to support activities.

But the demographics of the students (and thus the parents) make an even bigger difference.

F/R Lunch
Lewis is 55% F/R Lunch. West Springfield is 14% F/R lunch.

So the ratio of Non-F/R Lunch to F/R Lunch students at Lewis is basically 1:1. That means for every poor student at Lewis there is only one non-poor student (this makes a huge difference in activities).

At West Springfield, there are 6 non-poor kids to every poor student (6 to 1).

ESL
Lewis is 37.5% ESL. West Springfield is 5% ESL. So over a third of the students at Lewis (an by association their parents) do not speak English as their first language. Only 1 out of 20 students at West Springfield is in this situation.

These poor and non-English speaking parents are going to have a much harder time providing support to Lewis activities. Therefore you are expecting a very small subset of Lewis parents to some how pull off Herculean feats to somehow make Lewis remotely comparable to West Springfield. I guess the lazy Lewis parents just aren't getting the job done.

The fact that this situation has been allowed to develop and fester in FCPS is appalling.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Man, I know they really want to keep the boundary review conversation to one thread, but I sure do wish everyone talking about the Springfield high schools could have their own thread. A lot of passionate conversation to be had there... And I want to hear what other people around the county are thinking about the new scenario!

The “passionate conversation” is a very small group of Lewis parents desperately wanting more middle and upper middle income neighborhoods to be rezoned to Lewis so they can feel better about themselves and their poor real estate selection decisions.

Poor real estate decisions? You mean buying a home that we could afford?

🖕you.

Agreed! That was such a gross, elitist comment! So the "poors" are not entitled to a decent education? FCPS is *supposed* to be ranked as one of the best in the US, but Lewis is terrible.

Sorry that we bought pre-COVID what we could afford and thought this would be our starter and not forever home. Now with the way the economy is, prices/interests rates up, plus a one-fed household so who knows if I'll be RIF-ed, it's looking like we'll be in our 'starter' home for a long time. The elementary school close to Lewis, Springfield Estates, is a good school. That is why we chose to live here and thought either Lewis would improve or we'd eventually move. Seems like both might not happen. I'm sure many others have similar situations at Lewis or other not so great schools.

So, why don't you mobilize the parents through volunteering to make Lewis stronger and the pyramid more cohesive?

Does Lewis have pyramid events that bring elementary and middle school families into the high school on a regular basis to make the kids feel like part of the community? A lot of high schools do this.

We are in the WSHS pyramid.

Each year, nearly every sport, every performing arts program, and many clubs host pyramid events for our feeder schools to build community with our younger kids.

So far this year, the football games have hosted the local SYC league to run onto the field with the varsity team and get a VIP sideline experience, the cheerleaders and dance team had the elementary and middle school kids with them cheering on the sidelines, the dance team invited our pyramid elementary schools to do a halftime dance, marching band marched in with Irving's band and played in the pep section, and choir brought in all the pyramid choirs to sing the national anthem. That is just football season.

We have pyramid concerts, where every level performs pieces (elementary through high school choirs) then the entire WSHS pyramid, 100s of students, performs several songs together.

Theater hosts VIP backstage tours of the performances with Irving, and a Saturday workshop with the elementary kids.

There are pyramid fun runs, art shows, performing arts days, elementary school nights at various games.

Some of the high school programs go into the middle and elementary schools to perform or volunteer to run their school carnivals and help with elementary school events like bingo and individual school fun runs.

Is Lewis doing all of these kinds of activities for and with their elementary schools and middle schools?

They really help to build community in the school and make everyone down to the families of little kids connected to the high school and invested in making their community school a success.