We are also closer to Oakton elementary and others are closer to Marshall road. In fact, those are closer schools for all Mosby kids living in Vienna.

I'm saying people living in Vienna. Those living in Fairfax are closer to Luther, but those in Vienna and Oakton, south side of 66, are closer to Thoreau.

It's all FCPS. The complaints about "gerrymandering" Vienna/Oakton students only come up when someone doesn't like being assigned to a higher FARMS schools. There are parts of Vienna zoned for Cooper/Langley and Longfellow/McLean, and you don't hear people complaining about how it's a problem because most kids in Vienna play VYI sports instead of MYB, MYS, etc.

And the premise that the Oakton/Mosby Woods students were put in Jackson to "up the numbers" is wrong. They are there because Jackson is one of the closest MS to their neighborhoods (particularly where Mosby Woods is concerned). Their situation isn't so different from that of other families zoned for Falls Church HS whose kids go to Poe - which is primarily an Annandale HS feeder - rather than Jackson. But, given that the assignments are what they are, FCPS isn't going to change them without looking at how they impact the demographics at the different schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, but apparently our school board is living in Atlanta in the 1960s.

Why? Because they send some kids zoned for Oakton HS to one of the middle schools that is closest to their homes, when you'd like to send them to another middle school with lower FARMS?

School assignments in the Oakton pyramid have always been an issue, but the primary reason is that there are a bunch of high schools (Madison/Oakton/Fairfax/Woodson) very close to one another, which leads to some funky boundaries, particularly when you take into account the fact that all students who live in the City of Fairfax are required by law to go to Fairfax HS and the School Board's informal policy (not legally required) to allow all students who live within the Town of Vienna to attend Madison.

Actually, for those of us living in Vienna and Oakton, Thoreau IS closer.

There are also students zoned for Oakton and Madison who are closer to South Lakes than to Oakton or Madison. Perhaps they should volunteer to go there instead, so that other students in Vienna who are zoned for Marshall can attend Madison, which is closer to their homes than to Marshall.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]^^this I've read. It was the FARMS that I was actually questioning. [/quote]

It is my understanding that the new student population projection software incorporates decision analysis options, incorporating a number of demographic elements, including FARMS.[/quote]

How do you know this? Please provide a link. If this is fact, then in fact, we are reverse busing to put white higher SES kids into a school that is not in their pyramid. Wow! Just wow! [/quote]

There are two different issues here.

One is that AAP-eligible students at Thoreau currently have the option to attend an AAP center at Jackson, because Thoreau hasn't had its own center. When Thoreau's renovation is completed, the School Board might decide to open an AAP center at Thoreau, just like it will be doing at Cooper. When that happens, kids whose base school is Thoreau would no longer have an option to attend an AAP center at Jackson or Kilmer. Most of these students go to Madison; a few are zoned for Marshall.

The other issue is whether FCPS might redistrict kids from Oakton ES and Mosby Woods ES whose are now zoned for Jackson MS and Oakton HS to Thoreau (but keep them at Oakton). Neither Jackson nor Thoreau is in the Oakton "pyramid," but they are much closer to those neighborhoods than the only MS in the Oakton "pyramid," which is Carson MS out in Herndon. In the past, Jackson was overcrowded because it has a big AAP program and Thoreau was under-enrolled because it was sending a lot of AAP kids to Jackson and Kilmer. Once those AAP kids go back to Thoreau, there might or might not still be extra space there, and it might or might not make sense to consider moving the Oakton and Mosby Woods kids zoned for Jackson over to Thoreau. But it's far from a done deal at this point, and one thing FCPS would consider would be the impact on the FARMS percentage at Jackson. Jackson is already around 40% FARMS, and moving the Oakton and Mosby Woods kids out of the school would drive it up further. [/quote

Love how gerrymandering boundaries to inflate numbers exists in 2016! What % is Mosby and Oakton at Jackson? The school has about 1300 students and maybe 250 and that's a HIGH number come from the above two schools. So 8%! You think it's fair to have 8% of kids who come from Vienna and Oakton to attend a FCHS middle school? Most kids in Vienna and Oakton play VYI or VYS sports. Yet, it's ok to put them in FC to up numbers on paper? That is wrong on too many levels. [/quote]

It's all FCPS. The complaints about "gerrymandering" Vienna/Oakton students only come up when someone doesn't like being assigned to a higher FARMS schools. There are parts of Vienna zoned for Cooper/Langley and Longfellow/McLean, and you don't hear people complaining about how it's a problem because most kids in Vienna play VYI sports instead of MYB, MYS, etc.

And the premise that the Oakton/Mosby Woods students were put in Jackson to "up the numbers" is wrong. They are there because Jackson is one of the closest MS to their neighborhoods (particularly where Mosby Woods is concerned). Their situation isn't so different from that of other families zoned for Falls Church HS whose kids go to Poe - which is primarily an Annandale HS feeder - rather than Jackson. But, given that the assignments are what they are, FCPS isn't going to change them without looking at how they impact the demographics at the different schools.

The School Board is dealing with the FY 2017 budget until the end of May. They will likely refocus on student enrollment projections and facilities in early June.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, but apparently our school board is living in Atlanta in the 1960s.

Why? Because they send some kids zoned for Oakton HS to one of the middle schools that is closest to their homes, when you'd like to send them to another middle school with lower FARMS?

School assignments in the Oakton pyramid have always been an issue, but the primary reason is that there are a bunch of high schools (Madison/Oakton/Fairfax/Woodson) very close to one another, which leads to some funky boundaries, particularly when you take into account the fact that all students who live in the City of Fairfax are required by law to go to Fairfax HS and the School Board's informal policy (not legally required) to allow all students who live within the Town of Vienna to attend Madison.

Actually, for those of us living in Vienna and Oakton, Thoreau IS closer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^this I've read. It was the FARMS that I was actually questioning.

It is my understanding that the new student population projection software incorporates decision analysis options, incorporating a number of demographic elements, including FARMS.

How do you know this? Please provide a link. If this is fact, then in fact, we are reverse busing to put white higher SES kids into a school that is not in their pyramid. Wow! Just wow!

There are two different issues here.

One is that AAP-eligible students at Thoreau currently have the option to attend an AAP center at Jackson, because Thoreau hasn't had its own center. When Thoreau's renovation is completed, the School Board might decide to open an AAP center at Thoreau, just like it will be doing at Cooper. When that happens, kids whose base school is Thoreau would no longer have an option to attend an AAP center at Jackson or Kilmer. Most of these students go to Madison; a few are zoned for Marshall.

The other issue is whether FCPS might redistrict kids from Oakton ES and Mosby Woods ES whose are now zoned for Jackson MS and Oakton HS to Thoreau (but keep them at Oakton). Neither Jackson nor Thoreau is in the Oakton "pyramid," but they are much closer to those neighborhoods than the only MS in the Oakton "pyramid," which is Carson MS out in Herndon. In the past, Jackson was overcrowded because it has a big AAP program and Thoreau was under-enrolled because it was sending a lot of AAP kids to Jackson and Kilmer. Once those AAP kids go back to Thoreau, there might or might not still be extra space there, and it might or might not make sense to consider moving the Oakton and Mosby Woods kids zoned for Jackson over to Thoreau. But it's far from a done deal at this point, and one thing FCPS would consider would be the impact on the FARMS percentage at Jackson. Jackson is already around 40% FARMS, and moving the Oakton and Mosby Woods kids out of the school would drive it up further.

Love how gerrymandering boundaries to inflate numbers exists in 2016! What % is Mosby and Oakton at Jackson? The school has about 1300 students and maybe 250 and that's a HIGH number come from the above two schools. So 8%! You think it's fair to have 8% of kids who come from Vienna and Oakton to attend a FCHS middle school? Most kids in Vienna and Oakton play VYI or VYS sports. Yet, it's ok to put them in FC to up numbers on paper? That is wrong on too many levels.

Anonymous wrote:No, but apparently our school board is living in Atlanta in the 1960s.

Why? Because they send some kids zoned for Oakton HS to one of the middle schools that is closest to their homes, when you'd like to send them to another middle school with lower FARMS?

School assignments in the Oakton pyramid have always been an issue, but the primary reason is that there are a bunch of high schools (Madison/Oakton/Fairfax/Woodson) very close to one another, which leads to some funky boundaries, particularly when you take into account the fact that all students who live in the City of Fairfax are required by law to go to Fairfax HS and the School Board's informal policy (not legally required) to allow all students who live within the Town of Vienna to attend Madison.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]^^this I've read. It was the FARMS that I was actually questioning. [/quote]

It is my understanding that the new student population projection software incorporates decision analysis options, incorporating a number of demographic elements, including FARMS.[/quote]

How do you know this? Please provide a link. If this is fact, then in fact, we are reverse busing to put white higher SES kids into a school that is not in their pyramid. Wow! Just wow! [/quote]

There are two different issues here.

One is that AAP-eligible students at Thoreau currently have the option to attend an AAP center at Jackson, because Thoreau hasn't had its own center. When Thoreau's renovation is completed, the School Board might decide to open an AAP center at Thoreau, just like it will be doing at Cooper. When that happens, kids whose base school is Thoreau would no longer have an option to attend an AAP center at Jackson or Kilmer. Most of these students go to Madison; a few are zoned for Marshall.

The other issue is whether FCPS might redistrict kids from Oakton ES and Mosby Woods ES whose are now zoned for Jackson MS and Oakton HS to Thoreau (but keep them at Oakton). Neither Jackson nor Thoreau is in the Oakton "pyramid," but they are much closer to those neighborhoods than the only MS in the Oakton "pyramid," which is Carson MS out in Herndon. In the past, Jackson was overcrowded because it has a big AAP program and Thoreau was under-enrolled because it was sending a lot of AAP kids to Jackson and Kilmer. Once those AAP kids go back to Thoreau, there might or might not still be extra space there, and it might or might not make sense to consider moving the Oakton and Mosby Woods kids zoned for Jackson over to Thoreau. But it's far from a done deal at this point, and one thing FCPS would consider would be the impact on the FARMS percentage at Jackson. Jackson is already around 40% FARMS, and moving the Oakton and Mosby Woods kids out of the school would drive it up further. [/quote

Love how gerrymandering boundaries to inflate numbers exists in 2016! What % is Mosby and Oakton at Jackson? The school has about 1300 students and maybe 250 and that's a HIGH number come from the above two schools. So 8%! You think it's fair to have 8% of kids who come from Vienna and Oakton to attend a FCHS middle school? Most kids in Vienna and Oakton play VYI or VYS sports. Yet, it's ok to put them in FC to up numbers on paper? That is wrong on too many levels.

No, but apparently our school board is living in Atlanta in the 1960s.

Anonymous wrote:and that section was written in
196X?

It was first adopted in 1986 and last revised in 2013.

What year are you living in? 1953?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^this I've read. It was the FARMS that I was actually questioning.

It is my understanding that the new student population projection software incorporates decision analysis options, incorporating a number of demographic elements, including FARMS.

How do you know this? Please provide a link. If this is fact, then in fact, we are reverse busing to put white higher SES kids into a school that is not in their pyramid. Wow! Just wow!

There are two different issues here.

One is that AAP-eligible students at Thoreau currently have the option to attend an AAP center at Jackson, because Thoreau hasn't had its own center. When Thoreau's renovation is completed, the School Board might decide to open an AAP center at Thoreau, just like it will be doing at Cooper. When that happens, kids whose base school is Thoreau would no longer have an option to attend an AAP center at Jackson or Kilmer. Most of these students go to Madison; a few are zoned for Marshall.

The other issue is whether FCPS might redistrict kids from Oakton ES and Mosby Woods ES whose are now zoned for Jackson MS and Oakton HS to Thoreau (but keep them at Oakton). Neither Jackson nor Thoreau is in the Oakton "pyramid," but they are much closer to those neighborhoods than the only MS in the Oakton "pyramid," which is Carson MS out in Herndon. In the past, Jackson was overcrowded because it has a big AAP program and Thoreau was under-enrolled because it was sending a lot of AAP kids to Jackson and Kilmer. Once those AAP kids go back to Thoreau, there might or might not still be extra space there, and it might or might not make sense to consider moving the Oakton and Mosby Woods kids zoned for Jackson over to Thoreau. But it's far from a done deal at this point, and one thing FCPS would consider would be the impact on the FARMS percentage at Jackson. Jackson is already around 40% FARMS, and moving the Oakton and Mosby Woods kids out of the school would drive it up further.

and that section was written in
196X?

Anonymous wrote:^^this I've read. It was the FARMS that I was actually questioning.

Section IX of this School Board policy states that the Board may look at the socio-economic characteristics of schools when considering boundary changes.

http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/97KJK54D54F8/$file/P8130.pdf

Pulling the Oakton students at Oakton and Mosby Woods out of Jackson would increase the FARMS rates at Jackson. It doesn't mean the School Board won't do it, but it does mean they'll look at it carefully.