Anonymous wrote:Lewis' enrollment actually increased this year from the past few years.

2022-23 1509 students
2023-24 1505 students
2024-25 1474 students

September 2026 1539 students*

They lost several students in the fall, likely due to issues not related to Lewis, but appeared to have settled into the low 1500s, comparable to their 22/23 numbers. It is the first year Lewis has shown growth in years, which given the student composition and outside factors, it appears Lewis is on an upswing.

https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108%3A50%3A%3A%3A%3A%3AP0_CURRENT_SCHOOL_ID%3A160

Anonymous wrote:Lewis' enrollment actually increased this year from the past few years.

2022-23 1509 students
2023-24 1505 students
2024-25 1474 students

September 2026 1539 students*

They lost several students in the fall, likely due to issues not related to Lewis, but appeared to have settled into the low 1500s, comparable to their 22/23 numbers. It is the first year Lewis has shown growth in years, which given the student composition and outside factors, it appears Lewis is on an upswing.

https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108%3A50%3A%3A%3A%3A%3AP0_CURRENT_SCHOOL_ID%3A160

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how many times this needs to be said, but eliminating IB at Lewis won't solve the transfer-out problem. Why? Because students aren't transferring out because of a lack of AP courses.

Large numbers of Lewis students are transferring into Edison, which is an IB program. They are transferring because of the STEM program.

If you create an AP program at Lewis, students will still transfer into Edison because it is an IB school and parents will say they want an IB education.

Parents are transferring students out of Lewis because they don't believe their child will get a good education there. Lewis doesn't have the variety of programming a school like WSHS has because Lewis doesn't have the population numbers. It needs more kids to have the same level of programs.

It's also heavily Hispanic, heavily non-native English speakers. That's why soccer is huge at Lewis, but sports like baseball and football are not as supported, because soccer is the sport the student population plays the most.

Switching from IB to AP isn't the type of program that gets families to buy into the school. A school population, with numbers large enough to support more specialized academics like astrology and advanced physics and advanced music theory classes -- that helps bring in more students, which in turn helps the school continue to grow and thrive.

So do nothing??? Close it? Can't win, don't try?

Not as concerned about the baseball team as about having adequate course offerings. What should be done:

1. Switch to AP. In fact, make all county high schools AP again. IB is not worth all of the issues it creates.
2. Even out language programs across county high schools. The differences across pyramids are almost criminal at this point.
3. Put AAP in Key at the middle school level - keeps kids in the Lewis pyramid.
4. Move Saratoga AAP kids to Springfield Estates - keeps kids in the Lewis pyramid (otherwise they go from Lorton Station to LB and never return)
5. After all of these things have been done and a few years go by, revisit the boundaries again if numbers are still less than 1700 or so. They may have taken too many neighborhoods out of Lee/Lewis in 2005 and 2015. It has been well under capacity (Design Capacity is over 2100) for some time.

The easiest solution is one that will never happen: put the Daventry community back into Lewis. They never should've been moved out to begin with. But that won't happen because Daventry will sue the school board to Kingdom come and we'll all end up paying higher taxes.

You can look to stop students from leaving the Lewis pyramid, but that won't stop kids from going into the Edison STEM program. That's an easy way to leave Lewis. Language offerings is how other students leave the school, and I've heard that there are future restrictions that will be put into place for that.

But the school still needs more students. The areas around Lewis are not areas that tend to draw families with children.

So where to get more communities to feed into the pyramid? That's why the school board is looking at Bren Mar Elementary. They know they need to act soon.

Lewis is already looking to drop below 1,500 students for the next school year. It already gets a waiver to play alongside other FCPS schools in sports because it's under capacity. And if teachers are teaching classes that are small and few, and it gets to the point where Lewis starts offering even fewer academics, then the school enters a death spiral that the school board may not be able to stop.

If things are as dire as you suggest, it’s no surprise Bren Mar Park would rather stay put or move to Annandale instead of Lewis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how many times this needs to be said, but eliminating IB at Lewis won't solve the transfer-out problem. Why? Because students aren't transferring out because of a lack of AP courses.

Large numbers of Lewis students are transferring into Edison, which is an IB program. They are transferring because of the STEM program.

If you create an AP program at Lewis, students will still transfer into Edison because it is an IB school and parents will say they want an IB education.

Parents are transferring students out of Lewis because they don't believe their child will get a good education there. Lewis doesn't have the variety of programming a school like WSHS has because Lewis doesn't have the population numbers. It needs more kids to have the same level of programs.

It's also heavily Hispanic, heavily non-native English speakers. That's why soccer is huge at Lewis, but sports like baseball and football are not as supported, because soccer is the sport the student population plays the most.

Switching from IB to AP isn't the type of program that gets families to buy into the school. A school population, with numbers large enough to support more specialized academics like astrology and advanced physics and advanced music theory classes -- that helps bring in more students, which in turn helps the school continue to grow and thrive.

So do nothing??? Close it? Can't win, don't try?

Not as concerned about the baseball team as about having adequate course offerings. What should be done:

1. Switch to AP. In fact, make all county high schools AP again. IB is not worth all of the issues it creates.
2. Even out language programs across county high schools. The differences across pyramids are almost criminal at this point.
3. Put AAP in Key at the middle school level - keeps kids in the Lewis pyramid.
4. Move Saratoga AAP kids to Springfield Estates - keeps kids in the Lewis pyramid (otherwise they go from Lorton Station to LB and never return)
5. After all of these things have been done and a few years go by, revisit the boundaries again if numbers are still less than 1700 or so. They may have taken too many neighborhoods out of Lee/Lewis in 2005 and 2015. It has been well under capacity (Design Capacity is over 2100) for some time.

The easiest solution is one that will never happen: put the Daventry community back into Lewis. They never should've been moved out to begin with. But that won't happen because Daventry will sue the school board to Kingdom come and we'll all end up paying higher taxes.

You can look to stop students from leaving the Lewis pyramid, but that won't stop kids from going into the Edison STEM program. That's an easy way to leave Lewis. Language offerings is how other students leave the school, and I've heard that there are future restrictions that will be put into place for that.

But the school still needs more students. The areas around Lewis are not areas that tend to draw families with children.

So where to get more communities to feed into the pyramid? That's why the school board is looking at Bren Mar Elementary. They know they need to act soon.

Lewis is already looking to drop below 1,500 students for the next school year. It already gets a waiver to play alongside other FCPS schools in sports because it's under capacity. And if teachers are teaching classes that are small and few, and it gets to the point where Lewis starts offering even fewer academics, then the school enters a death spiral that the school board may not be able to stop.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how many times this needs to be said, but eliminating IB at Lewis won't solve the transfer-out problem. Why? Because students aren't transferring out because of a lack of AP courses.

Large numbers of Lewis students are transferring into Edison, which is an IB program. They are transferring because of the STEM program.

If you create an AP program at Lewis, students will still transfer into Edison because it is an IB school and parents will say they want an IB education.

Parents are transferring students out of Lewis because they don't believe their child will get a good education there. Lewis doesn't have the variety of programming a school like WSHS has because Lewis doesn't have the population numbers. It needs more kids to have the same level of programs.

It's also heavily Hispanic, heavily non-native English speakers. That's why soccer is huge at Lewis, but sports like baseball and football are not as supported, because soccer is the sport the student population plays the most.

Switching from IB to AP isn't the type of program that gets families to buy into the school. A school population, with numbers large enough to support more specialized academics like astrology and advanced physics and advanced music theory classes -- that helps bring in more students, which in turn helps the school continue to grow and thrive.

So do nothing??? Close it? Can't win, don't try?

Not as concerned about the baseball team as about having adequate course offerings. What should be done:

1. Switch to AP. In fact, make all county high schools AP again. IB is not worth all of the issues it creates.
2. Even out language programs across county high schools. The differences across pyramids are almost criminal at this point.
3. Put AAP in Key at the middle school level - keeps kids in the Lewis pyramid.
4. Move Saratoga AAP kids to Springfield Estates - keeps kids in the Lewis pyramid (otherwise they go from Lorton Station to LB and never return)
5. After all of these things have been done and a few years go by, revisit the boundaries again if numbers are still less than 1700 or so. They may have taken too many neighborhoods out of Lee/Lewis in 2005 and 2015. It has been well under capacity (Design Capacity is over 2100) for some time.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how many times this needs to be said, but eliminating IB at Lewis won't solve the transfer-out problem. Why? Because students aren't transferring out because of a lack of AP courses.

Large numbers of Lewis students are transferring into Edison, which is an IB program. They are transferring because of the STEM program.

If you create an AP program at Lewis, students will still transfer into Edison because it is an IB school and parents will say they want an IB education.

Parents are transferring students out of Lewis because they don't believe their child will get a good education there. Lewis doesn't have the variety of programming a school like WSHS has because Lewis doesn't have the population numbers. It needs more kids to have the same level of programs.

It's also heavily Hispanic, heavily non-native English speakers. That's why soccer is huge at Lewis, but sports like baseball and football are not as supported, because soccer is the sport the student population plays the most.

Switching from IB to AP isn't the type of program that gets families to buy into the school. A school population, with numbers large enough to support more specialized academics like astrology and advanced physics and advanced music theory classes -- that helps bring in more students, which in turn helps the school continue to grow and thrive.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how many times this needs to be said, but eliminating IB at Lewis won't solve the transfer-out problem. Why? Because students aren't transferring out because of a lack of AP courses.

Large numbers of Lewis students are transferring into Edison, which is an IB program. They are transferring because of the STEM program.

If you create an AP program at Lewis, students will still transfer into Edison because it is an IB school and parents will say they want an IB education.

Parents are transferring students out of Lewis because they don't believe their child will get a good education there. Lewis doesn't have the variety of programming a school like WSHS has because Lewis doesn't have the population numbers. It needs more kids to have the same level of programs.

It's also heavily Hispanic, heavily non-native English speakers. That's why soccer is huge at Lewis, but sports like baseball and football are not as supported, because soccer is the sport the student population plays the most.

Switching from IB to AP isn't the type of program that gets families to buy into the school. A school population, with numbers large enough to support more specialized academics like astrology and advanced physics and advanced music theory classes -- that helps bring in more students, which in turn helps the school continue to grow and thrive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't live anywhere near this area, but here is an idea:

Improve Lewis where it is:

1. Eliminate IB. It is clearly not the right fit for Lewis (really not the right fit for FCPS.) It will eliminate some of the outplacement to AP.
2. Look at the programs offered. Is the leadership program costing more than it is worth? I've no idea, but someone know whether it is working or not. Is it attracting the kids? Is it improving performance? If not, then scale it way back.
3. Offer strong direct instruction to all students. Provide tutoring to those who are struggling.
4. Look at your extracurriculars. Those are important to keep kids involved. Are they adaptable to the whole community? Do they bring students together? Do they have strong teacher sponsors?


To FCPS leadership: what can you do to attract strong professionals to the school? Is the school clean? Do the administrators provide strong support?
What can you do to keep talented students there? Do they feel ignored?

You have got to find something that unifies the school. In some schools it is football teams. In others, it may be something else, but you need something that keeps the students attending and working.

Do you have a strong onboarding of freshmen? That could be a start.
Could you get local businesses involved to give free coupons for activities?

Lewis needs more students. This does not address the problem.

To offer classes, or even extracurricular activities, Lewis needs a minimum number of students. You need at least 9 kids to field a baseball team. You need a certain number of kids to offer a class.

FCPS doesn't offer classes when not enough students enroll. And with declining enrollment at Lewis, it's harder to offer some of the more specialized programs that other schools offer. And without those specialized programs, parents don't want to send their kids to Lewis, so the enrollment drops even more. The cycle continues.

You have to get a certain number of students in the schools to get the programs. You can't offer programs first, then hope students will join. You need a large, healthy student population in a school.

When it reaches the point where WSHS teachers are teaching 12 classes with 30 students, while Lewis teachers are teaching 3 classes with 12 students, that's a problem. WSHS parents may say it's fine, but it's not fine for some teachers to be overloaded and teachers at neighboring schools are not, all while teachers are receiving the same pay. That's a poor use of resources, when the workload among teachers could be more easily balanced.

There's the option to close Lewis, but no FCPS school system nearby is able to absorb a couple hundred kids with one fell swoop. FCPS knows that's not an option.

And IB gets a bad rep with Lewis, but really, a lot of Lewis kids are moving to another IB school: Edison. Many of the AAP students who attend Mark Twain Middle School then go on to attend the STEM program at Edison so they can stay with their friends.

More students is not going to make the school better. It will only make the school look better.
First things, first. Get rid of IB. It is not working.

+1 get rid of IB. I grew up in a 1600 student high school. We had plenty of AP classes and lots of sports teams.

Lewis high school receives much more money per pupil than any other school. Particularly WSHS. How is the opening the Plum school during the day to accepting some overflow while you switch out the academies from Edison to Lewis. Some Lewis kids can go to Edison some to plum some to hayfield for a year or two?

Easiest thing is to get rid of IB

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't live anywhere near this area, but here is an idea:

Improve Lewis where it is:

1. Eliminate IB. It is clearly not the right fit for Lewis (really not the right fit for FCPS.) It will eliminate some of the outplacement to AP.
2. Look at the programs offered. Is the leadership program costing more than it is worth? I've no idea, but someone know whether it is working or not. Is it attracting the kids? Is it improving performance? If not, then scale it way back.
3. Offer strong direct instruction to all students. Provide tutoring to those who are struggling.
4. Look at your extracurriculars. Those are important to keep kids involved. Are they adaptable to the whole community? Do they bring students together? Do they have strong teacher sponsors?


To FCPS leadership: what can you do to attract strong professionals to the school? Is the school clean? Do the administrators provide strong support?
What can you do to keep talented students there? Do they feel ignored?

You have got to find something that unifies the school. In some schools it is football teams. In others, it may be something else, but you need something that keeps the students attending and working.

Do you have a strong onboarding of freshmen? That could be a start.
Could you get local businesses involved to give free coupons for activities?

Lewis needs more students. This does not address the problem.

To offer classes, or even extracurricular activities, Lewis needs a minimum number of students. You need at least 9 kids to field a baseball team. You need a certain number of kids to offer a class.

FCPS doesn't offer classes when not enough students enroll. And with declining enrollment at Lewis, it's harder to offer some of the more specialized programs that other schools offer. And without those specialized programs, parents don't want to send their kids to Lewis, so the enrollment drops even more. The cycle continues.

You have to get a certain number of students in the schools to get the programs. You can't offer programs first, then hope students will join. You need a large, healthy student population in a school.

When it reaches the point where WSHS teachers are teaching 12 classes with 30 students, while Lewis teachers are teaching 3 classes with 12 students, that's a problem. WSHS parents may say it's fine, but it's not fine for some teachers to be overloaded and teachers at neighboring schools are not, all while teachers are receiving the same pay. That's a poor use of resources, when the workload among teachers could be more easily balanced.

There's the option to close Lewis, but no FCPS school system nearby is able to absorb a couple hundred kids with one fell swoop. FCPS knows that's not an option.

And IB gets a bad rep with Lewis, but really, a lot of Lewis kids are moving to another IB school: Edison. Many of the AAP students who attend Mark Twain Middle School then go on to attend the STEM program at Edison so they can stay with their friends.

There are 1600 kids in the school. If you can’t field a baseball team with that, adding 300 more kids won’t help.

The school is only 45% FARMs. Has a leadership academy and high level academic classes through IB. Other schools also need facilities to be addressed so it’s not an outlier.

I don’t really see a problem with Lewis.

Seems like a standard FCPS high school and was only built for 1900ish, so it’s never going to be like Westfield.

Lewis has 1506 kids, and was 63% FARMS in 2022-23.

And is now 45%. Not much different than many schools. No biggie. 1500 is enough for a baseball team too.

Maybe the students are happy without baseball.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't live anywhere near this area, but here is an idea:

Improve Lewis where it is:

1. Eliminate IB. It is clearly not the right fit for Lewis (really not the right fit for FCPS.) It will eliminate some of the outplacement to AP.
2. Look at the programs offered. Is the leadership program costing more than it is worth? I've no idea, but someone know whether it is working or not. Is it attracting the kids? Is it improving performance? If not, then scale it way back.
3. Offer strong direct instruction to all students. Provide tutoring to those who are struggling.
4. Look at your extracurriculars. Those are important to keep kids involved. Are they adaptable to the whole community? Do they bring students together? Do they have strong teacher sponsors?


To FCPS leadership: what can you do to attract strong professionals to the school? Is the school clean? Do the administrators provide strong support?
What can you do to keep talented students there? Do they feel ignored?

You have got to find something that unifies the school. In some schools it is football teams. In others, it may be something else, but you need something that keeps the students attending and working.

Do you have a strong onboarding of freshmen? That could be a start.
Could you get local businesses involved to give free coupons for activities?

Lewis needs more students. This does not address the problem.

To offer classes, or even extracurricular activities, Lewis needs a minimum number of students. You need at least 9 kids to field a baseball team. You need a certain number of kids to offer a class.

FCPS doesn't offer classes when not enough students enroll. And with declining enrollment at Lewis, it's harder to offer some of the more specialized programs that other schools offer. And without those specialized programs, parents don't want to send their kids to Lewis, so the enrollment drops even more. The cycle continues.

You have to get a certain number of students in the schools to get the programs. You can't offer programs first, then hope students will join. You need a large, healthy student population in a school.

When it reaches the point where WSHS teachers are teaching 12 classes with 30 students, while Lewis teachers are teaching 3 classes with 12 students, that's a problem. WSHS parents may say it's fine, but it's not fine for some teachers to be overloaded and teachers at neighboring schools are not, all while teachers are receiving the same pay. That's a poor use of resources, when the workload among teachers could be more easily balanced.

There's the option to close Lewis, but no FCPS school system nearby is able to absorb a couple hundred kids with one fell swoop. FCPS knows that's not an option.

And IB gets a bad rep with Lewis, but really, a lot of Lewis kids are moving to another IB school: Edison. Many of the AAP students who attend Mark Twain Middle School then go on to attend the STEM program at Edison so they can stay with their friends.

More students is not going to make the school better. It will only make the school look better.
First things, first. Get rid of IB. It is not working.