Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm just going to be really upset if the Oakton moms have their way and my child ends up being literally the only kids from Carson that go to Oakton.

They'll switch Crossfield to Franklin, I'm sure. But, Crossfield would be at new school if they used objective standards.

Is there room for Crossfield at Franklin? Or would they need to move some kids out of Franklin? And would they really do that now after they just did a whole boundary review, plus upcoming changes presumably coming to AAP at middle schools? Whatever they do, they really need to make the feeder patterns make sense. If Crossfield stays at Carson and feeds to Oakton, and if Lees Corner and Oak Hill both go to Western, then that leaves Navy kids as the only ones at Franklin who go to Oakton.

I doubt someone is looking at the big picture of all this and is just listening to whoever is in their ear the most.

I think Waples Mill kids go to Oakton from Franklin too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm just going to be really upset if the Oakton moms have their way and my child ends up being literally the only kids from Carson that go to Oakton.

They'll switch Crossfield to Franklin, I'm sure. But, Crossfield would be at new school if they used objective standards.

Is there room for Crossfield at Franklin? Or would they need to move some kids out of Franklin? And would they really do that now after they just did a whole boundary review, plus upcoming changes presumably coming to AAP at middle schools? Whatever they do, they really need to make the feeder patterns make sense. If Crossfield stays at Carson and feeds to Oakton, and if Lees Corner and Oak Hill both go to Western, then that leaves Navy kids as the only ones at Franklin who go to Oakton.

I doubt someone is looking at the big picture of all this and is just listening to whoever is in their ear the most.

I would not assume Lees Corner will go to the new school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm just going to be really upset if the Oakton moms have their way and my child ends up being literally the only kids from Carson that go to Oakton.

They'll switch Crossfield to Franklin, I'm sure. But, Crossfield would be at new school if they used objective standards.

Is there room for Crossfield at Franklin? Or would they need to move some kids out of Franklin? And would they really do that now after they just did a whole boundary review, plus upcoming changes presumably coming to AAP at middle schools? Whatever they do, they really need to make the feeder patterns make sense. If Crossfield stays at Carson and feeds to Oakton, and if Lees Corner and Oak Hill both go to Western, then that leaves Navy kids as the only ones at Franklin who go to Oakton.

I doubt someone is looking at the big picture of all this and is just listening to whoever is in their ear the most.

Anonymous wrote:I'm just going to be really upset if the Oakton moms have their way and my child ends up being literally the only kids from Carson that go to Oakton.

They'll switch Crossfield to Franklin, I'm sure. But, Crossfield would be at new school if they used objective standards.

I'm just going to be really upset if the Oakton moms have their way and my child ends up being literally the only kids from Carson that go to Oakton.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know any rising sophomores opting in?
Our base school is not great, but I don’t know any sophomores opting in to Western. They just don’t seem interested about attending a school with limited clases and activities and having to go to the base school for sports.
And the fewer that opt in, the fewer others want to follow.
I wish they had just settled the boundaries and made everyone go.

Yes, I know a bunch are from SLHS. I have neighbors whose kids will be moving and they told me that many of their kids friends opted in. Honestly, I know rising Juniors who are annoyed that they don't have the choice.

I would be surprised if they get 500 sophomores but they will have a decent number.

There were only 40-45 kids out of approx. 607 students from SLHS that asked to be at Western for ninth grade as reported at last SLHS PTSA meeting when SB rep. shared data. That’s only about 15% of ninth graders and some have changed their minds and spoken with counselors to deselect after the deadline. The percentage will most likely decrease again.

The FCPS school profile shows 607 freshmen at SLHS.

So, roughly 40–45 out of the 607 9th graders at South Lakes High School opted in to attend the new Western High School next year. In other words, they chose to transfer out of SLHS.

That's a good number, around 7% of the freshman class deciding to make the switch.

I would think many more 8th graders from Fox Mill / SLHS part of Floris opted in.

DP and I agree, that is a good number, and probably what we would expect given the portion of kids matriculating into SLHS from Carson is small compared to Hughes. Hughes kids probably less interested. Carson/Fox Mill/Floris kids probably well represented in the kids who opted in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know any rising sophomores opting in?
Our base school is not great, but I don’t know any sophomores opting in to Western. They just don’t seem interested about attending a school with limited clases and activities and having to go to the base school for sports.
And the fewer that opt in, the fewer others want to follow.
I wish they had just settled the boundaries and made everyone go.

Yes, I know a bunch are from SLHS. I have neighbors whose kids will be moving and they told me that many of their kids friends opted in. Honestly, I know rising Juniors who are annoyed that they don't have the choice.

I would be surprised if they get 500 sophomores but they will have a decent number.

There were only 40-45 kids out of approx. 607 students from SLHS that asked to be at Western for ninth grade as reported at last SLHS PTSA meeting when SB rep. shared data. That’s only about 15% of ninth graders and some have changed their minds and spoken with counselors to deselect after the deadline. The percentage will most likely decrease again.

The FCPS school profile shows 607 freshmen at SLHS.

So, roughly 40–45 out of the 607 9th graders at South Lakes High School opted in to attend the new Western High School next year. In other words, they chose to transfer out of SLHS.

That's a good number, around 7% of the freshman class deciding to make the switch.

I would think many more 8th graders from Fox Mill / SLHS part of Floris opted in.

I would guess that at least half of those are from Fox Mill based on the conversations that I have had. There was a lot of interest for many reasons. I know rising 10th graders who opted in from the Fox Mill ES boundary.

Fox Mill parent here with a kid opting in. There are a mix of folks who opted in. Some are excited. Some the kids want to move with their friends and they liked the school at the open houses. Some are worried about transportation and opted in incase FMES is redistricted to Western so that they have transportation all 4 years of HS.

There are parents of kids who wanted to attend who are not excited, the unknown scare them. There are families planning on going to whatever school is in boundary because transportation is an issue for their family. Western optin was safe because SLHS has not been close to ending pupil placement for IB and the kids were going to be taking IB classes any way.

The County would have had clearer numbers and families more comfortable with things had it set the boundaries with the rest of the redistricting. The County did not do that. So now the County has families who are planning based on how they can use the system to make sure that their kid has transportation for 4 years in HS, which is ridiculous. But an example of how poorly run all of this has been.

FCPS should have used the maps that they developed, picked on, and been done with this in the regular boundary review.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know any rising sophomores opting in?
Our base school is not great, but I don’t know any sophomores opting in to Western. They just don’t seem interested about attending a school with limited clases and activities and having to go to the base school for sports.
And the fewer that opt in, the fewer others want to follow.
I wish they had just settled the boundaries and made everyone go.

Yes, I know a bunch are from SLHS. I have neighbors whose kids will be moving and they told me that many of their kids friends opted in. Honestly, I know rising Juniors who are annoyed that they don't have the choice.

I would be surprised if they get 500 sophomores but they will have a decent number.

There were only 40-45 kids out of approx. 607 students from SLHS that asked to be at Western for ninth grade as reported at last SLHS PTSA meeting when SB rep. shared data. That’s only about 15% of ninth graders and some have changed their minds and spoken with counselors to deselect after the deadline. The percentage will most likely decrease again.

The FCPS school profile shows 607 freshmen at SLHS.

So, roughly 40–45 out of the 607 9th graders at South Lakes High School opted in to attend the new Western High School next year. In other words, they chose to transfer out of SLHS.

That's a good number, around 7% of the freshman class deciding to make the switch.

I would think many more 8th graders from Fox Mill / SLHS part of Floris opted in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know any rising sophomores opting in?
Our base school is not great, but I don’t know any sophomores opting in to Western. They just don’t seem interested about attending a school with limited clases and activities and having to go to the base school for sports.
And the fewer that opt in, the fewer others want to follow.
I wish they had just settled the boundaries and made everyone go.

Yes, I know a bunch are from SLHS. I have neighbors whose kids will be moving and they told me that many of their kids friends opted in. Honestly, I know rising Juniors who are annoyed that they don't have the choice.

I would be surprised if they get 500 sophomores but they will have a decent number.

There were only 40-45 kids out of approx. 607 students from SLHS that asked to be at Western for ninth grade as reported at last SLHS PTSA meeting when SB rep. shared data. That’s only about 15% of ninth graders and some have changed their minds and spoken with counselors to deselect after the deadline. The percentage will most likely decrease again.

What is up with School Board members selectively sharing data.

FCPS should just be transparent about the applicants from each eligible school, broken down by school and grade. Would that really be so hard?

I think it was the principal that shared the data not the SB member. So it was specific to our high school. I think that’s fine in our hs pta to learn about that impact to our school. That was for rising tenth graders/current ninth graders.

People have asked for that information and been told it isn't available. They should release what they have.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know any rising sophomores opting in?
Our base school is not great, but I don’t know any sophomores opting in to Western. They just don’t seem interested about attending a school with limited clases and activities and having to go to the base school for sports.
And the fewer that opt in, the fewer others want to follow.
I wish they had just settled the boundaries and made everyone go.

Yes, I know a bunch are from SLHS. I have neighbors whose kids will be moving and they told me that many of their kids friends opted in. Honestly, I know rising Juniors who are annoyed that they don't have the choice.

I would be surprised if they get 500 sophomores but they will have a decent number.

There were only 40-45 kids out of approx. 607 students from SLHS that asked to be at Western for ninth grade as reported at last SLHS PTSA meeting when SB rep. shared data. That’s only about 15% of ninth graders and some have changed their minds and spoken with counselors to deselect after the deadline. The percentage will most likely decrease again.

What is up with School Board members selectively sharing data.

FCPS should just be transparent about the applicants from each eligible school, broken down by school and grade. Would that really be so hard?

I think it was the principal that shared the data not the SB member. So it was specific to our high school. I think that’s fine in our hs pta to learn about that impact to our school. That was for rising tenth graders/current ninth graders.

They should set boundaries based on objective factors - relieving overcrowding and minimizing commutes - and not require parents and kids to have a Ph.D in game theory to figure out how to make a sound decision.

Not to mention that one of the big complaints with AAP is that it gives some kids options denied to other children, but here they are doing the same thing with Western.

Reid is a terrible superintendent who makes one bad decision after another, and the school board members are a bunch of ninnies and party hacks too stupid to intervene.

Anonymous wrote:The email sent regarding Western says that they are planning a Spring event for the students attending to help choose a mascot, school colors, and to start to discuss what clubs the kids want to see. I am guessing the clubs discussion is to help make sure that they have teachers on board with running th initial clubs that the kids mention. They are not waiting until school starts to start the process for clubs, which is great.

That's awesome! Glad to hear they're doing something right. How fun for the kids to be able to choose these things - it's a shame that the kids truly zoned to this school that start in 2 years won't get to participate in this process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know any rising sophomores opting in?
Our base school is not great, but I don’t know any sophomores opting in to Western. They just don’t seem interested about attending a school with limited clases and activities and having to go to the base school for sports.
And the fewer that opt in, the fewer others want to follow.
I wish they had just settled the boundaries and made everyone go.

Yes, I know a bunch are from SLHS. I have neighbors whose kids will be moving and they told me that many of their kids friends opted in. Honestly, I know rising Juniors who are annoyed that they don't have the choice.

I would be surprised if they get 500 sophomores but they will have a decent number.

There were only 40-45 kids out of approx. 607 students from SLHS that asked to be at Western for ninth grade as reported at last SLHS PTSA meeting when SB rep. shared data. That’s only about 15% of ninth graders and some have changed their minds and spoken with counselors to deselect after the deadline. The percentage will most likely decrease again.

Most of South Lakes is not going to be in boundary. What percentage of those kids are Fox Mill? They need to break the numbers down by the ES not the HS. The Non-Fox Mill kids that pupil place for AP will go to whatever school is taking AP this year. I am not sure if you can pupil place for AP and a language or if Herndon is the only AP allowable now based on space and distance. The normal number of kids pupil placing out of SLHS for TJ and AP is already at something like 35 kids per grade, now toss on another 40. So SLHS loses 75 of its 9th graders next year.

Keep in mind a portion of Floris goes to South lakes as well. So those numbers would include them too. Not huge but I think it’s like 50 kids per grade.

Yup. I thought I had heard that many of those kids wanted to stay at SLHS for the theatre program and sports but that could be bad rumint.

I imagine those would be the main reasons why anyone who could potentially be in boundary wouldn’t opt in - sports or a particular club/activity. Thats why using opt-in data makes absolutely no sense.

Maybe, but that is why breaking it down by ES makes more sense than breaking it down by HS. Floris and Fox Mill are the two ES most likely to be moved to Western, I would expect more kids from those schools to potentially opt in. Both are reasonably small, Fox Mill has around 90 kids in a class but something like 25% is from out of boundary. So lets say it send 65-70 kids to SLHS. If that 45 kids are from the 120 potential freshman from Floris and Fox Mill, well that tells a different story doesn’t it? We move from 7% of all Freshman at Herndon, keeping in mind that a good number of the kids in the Freshman class come from Herndon so that class size is actually exaggerated, to 50% of the potentially in boundary kids selecting Western.

But saying it is only 7% when you know that the likelihood of kids from schools that are not likely to end up at Western is silly.

No, it doesn't make sense at all. The ES a child went to is not going to tell you if they are staying at their high school due to clubs/sports/other activities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Western notices went out today. My kid will be there. All of friends are in as well. It says that they almost hit their target but doesn’t say if that is for 9th and 10th grade or just one grade.

Glad you mentioned this...my notice went to my spam folder. We are Floris-Westfield and our commutes take us in the opposite direction. This will make pickups from afternoon activities so much easier.

I figure Floris will have a lot of kids attending. I wish they would release the opt in numbers by ES, mainly because I am curious.

The Crossfield parents I know did not opt in their children not because they're not interested in the school but because they are worried about transportation if we are not zoned to Western due to the inside lobbying of a parent who works at Gatehouse. I think it would unwise and unfair of Gatehouse to keep us at Western just based on the opt in numbers.

Correction "keep us at Oakton"