Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are we supposed to be getting Scenario 5???

I think that the final vote on boundaries is the beginning of next year. It is not really a Scenario 5. The scenario 4 is mostly locked in, accept for some glaring mistakes (putting students in schools that are overcrowded and underutilizations, etc). So this is 4a scenario... Which the board will do minor tweaks. The Lewis issue and Parklawn/Glasgow are huge glaring issues that need to be addressed and were made worse with the scenario 4. Then there is 4b scenario after that which will be straight up politics. It is what Reid decides to tweak and I assume those are the promises that she has made in the meetings.

Well, that’s all clear as mud.

Especially, as she has made lots of statements that may be contradictory.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are we supposed to be getting Scenario 5???

I think that the final vote on boundaries is the beginning of next year. It is not really a Scenario 5. The scenario 4 is mostly locked in, accept for some glaring mistakes (putting students in schools that are overcrowded and underutilizations, etc). So this is 4a scenario... Which the board will do minor tweaks. The Lewis issue and Parklawn/Glasgow are huge glaring issues that need to be addressed and were made worse with the scenario 4. Then there is 4b scenario after that which will be straight up politics. It is what Reid decides to tweak and I assume those are the promises that she has made in the meetings.

Well, that’s all clear as mud.

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Anonymous wrote:I work at a MS and many 8th graders were hyped up after the "new western HS" presentation today, I expect will be asking their parents to opt in. Weird that the boundaries/bussing won't be known for awhile yet.

The point of the presentation is to hype kids up. Reid wants excitement for her opt-in school. The question is whether the enthusiasm wears off when families realize the lack of sports and the unclear boundaries.

If you attended the presentation on Friday you would know that the question about sports was asked a lot and answered a lot. The parents are very well aware of the sports situation. There was a 10 minute presentation and 50 minutes of questions. Lots and lots of questions. Which was good.

And I fully agree that is ridiculous that the borders have not been set. They should have been the first thing set and then adjust the boundaries for the rest of the county. A fair amount of the movement that was planned was in this area, the Western HS should have been to immediate focus of the redistricting process.

They are not hiding the sports issue. They are not hiding that the borders are not clear.

I think when people see the actual opt-in form, it will weed out a lot of kids/families with some level of interest because it appears it will need to specify that:

* If you opt in, you agree to attend Western HS, space permitting, even if you ultimately do not live within the established boundary, in which case you will be responsible for arranging your own transportation; and

* If Western is over-subscribed, those who live within the established boundary may/will be given priority and you may be required to attend your currently assigned school.

So if you are zoned for Coates, McNair, Floris, or Oak Hill, and are interested in Western, your evaluation is rather different than if you are zoned for Fox Mill or Crossfield (or the Navy island), which may or may not end up within the boundary, or much different than if you are zoned to any other elementary schools that feed into Westfield, Chantilly, South Lakes, Oakton, or Centreville. which have next to no chances of ending up assigned to Western.

For many people, it's just too much uncertainty.

I suspect they will only get kids opting in from those first four schools. I don't think anyone from Fox Mill or Crossfield will want to risk not having transportation, nor will they want to risk younger children not being able to go to the same high school as their older child. I know I wouldn't.

I know families opting in from Fox Mill and it is more than a handful. I know families planning on SLHS. No one who is opting in is worried about the boundaries, there are enough opting in that carpooling will be easy if needed but the Japanese immersion comments made on Friday sure make it seem like Fox Mill will be in boundary.

I wouldn't count on it. SLHS has made a dramatic turnaround in performance and reputation since adding those Fox Mill homes. It would be political suicide for Meren to allow the school to drop back to how it used to be. I think Western will get that bit of Floris that is currently SL, but doubt they'll move all of Fox Mill in the end.

And the families that don't want IB will happily pupil place to Western for the special programs and AP. The same way that a good number of families leave every year for AP at Herndon, Langly, and Oakton. Except now it will be closer, and they are offering Japanese. There is an active push by some Fox Mill families to move to the new school. And as the school moves past the lack of sports, there will be a stronger push.

Somewhere between 130-200 student's pupil place out each year for AP, depending on the year. Parents have been asking for AP at SLHS for the last 25 years. Some parents want AP enough that they send their kids to Herndon, a school that most people on this board think is awful. What do you think is going to happen once the Western School is up and running and has sports and AP?

There are Fox Mill families that are actively working to move to Western. Meren is trying to delay opening Western because she is stuck between people who want to keep Fox Mill at SLHS and a large group that want to move.

You keep attacking Meren, but maybe she just thinks they should really make sure they know what they are doing before they open a new high school.

Keep in mind you’re entrusting the opening of this opt-in, two-grade, no-sports, no-staff (yet), no-boundaries (yet), soon-to-be-construction-zone school to the same people who hired the lamentable, unqualified Thru Consulting and conducted a debacle of a boundary review. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

Meren is not listening to the people who have been talking to her. She would probably see a significant change in attitudes if she were to promote adding AP to SLHS but she has yet to do that. The parents at SLHS who want AP have been voting with their feet for years. The only reason has been "noticed" is that 200 HHS kids pupil place to SLHS, essentially replacing the kids who leave SLHS every year. To be fair, none of the reps have listened to the parents who are unhappy with programming at SLHS.

If Meren wants to show she is listening to her constituents, then she should be pushing for AP and IB at SLHS, just like Robinson has. This is less of my issue now because we are opting in to the new school and are fine with carpooling if we need to. There are more families like mine then I think people realize.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at a MS and many 8th graders were hyped up after the "new western HS" presentation today, I expect will be asking their parents to opt in. Weird that the boundaries/bussing won't be known for awhile yet.

The point of the presentation is to hype kids up. Reid wants excitement for her opt-in school. The question is whether the enthusiasm wears off when families realize the lack of sports and the unclear boundaries.

If you attended the presentation on Friday you would know that the question about sports was asked a lot and answered a lot. The parents are very well aware of the sports situation. There was a 10 minute presentation and 50 minutes of questions. Lots and lots of questions. Which was good.

And I fully agree that is ridiculous that the borders have not been set. They should have been the first thing set and then adjust the boundaries for the rest of the county. A fair amount of the movement that was planned was in this area, the Western HS should have been to immediate focus of the redistricting process.

They are not hiding the sports issue. They are not hiding that the borders are not clear.

I think when people see the actual opt-in form, it will weed out a lot of kids/families with some level of interest because it appears it will need to specify that:

* If you opt in, you agree to attend Western HS, space permitting, even if you ultimately do not live within the established boundary, in which case you will be responsible for arranging your own transportation; and

* If Western is over-subscribed, those who live within the established boundary may/will be given priority and you may be required to attend your currently assigned school.

So if you are zoned for Coates, McNair, Floris, or Oak Hill, and are interested in Western, your evaluation is rather different than if you are zoned for Fox Mill or Crossfield (or the Navy island), which may or may not end up within the boundary, or much different than if you are zoned to any other elementary schools that feed into Westfield, Chantilly, South Lakes, Oakton, or Centreville. which have next to no chances of ending up assigned to Western.

For many people, it's just too much uncertainty.

I suspect they will only get kids opting in from those first four schools. I don't think anyone from Fox Mill or Crossfield will want to risk not having transportation, nor will they want to risk younger children not being able to go to the same high school as their older child. I know I wouldn't.

I know families opting in from Fox Mill and it is more than a handful. I know families planning on SLHS. No one who is opting in is worried about the boundaries, there are enough opting in that carpooling will be easy if needed but the Japanese immersion comments made on Friday sure make it seem like Fox Mill will be in boundary.

I wouldn't count on it. SLHS has made a dramatic turnaround in performance and reputation since adding those Fox Mill homes. It would be political suicide for Meren to allow the school to drop back to how it used to be. I think Western will get that bit of Floris that is currently SL, but doubt they'll move all of Fox Mill in the end.

And the families that don't want IB will happily pupil place to Western for the special programs and AP. The same way that a good number of families leave every year for AP at Herndon, Langly, and Oakton. Except now it will be closer, and they are offering Japanese. There is an active push by some Fox Mill families to move to the new school. And as the school moves past the lack of sports, there will be a stronger push.

Somewhere between 130-200 student's pupil place out each year for AP, depending on the year. Parents have been asking for AP at SLHS for the last 25 years. Some parents want AP enough that they send their kids to Herndon, a school that most people on this board think is awful. What do you think is going to happen once the Western School is up and running and has sports and AP?

There are Fox Mill families that are actively working to move to Western. Meren is trying to delay opening Western because she is stuck between people who want to keep Fox Mill at SLHS and a large group that want to move.

You keep attacking Meren, but maybe she just thinks they should really make sure they know what they are doing before they open a new high school.

Keep in mind you’re entrusting the opening of this opt-in, two-grade, no-sports, no-staff (yet), no-boundaries (yet), soon-to-be-construction-zone school to the same people who hired the lamentable, unqualified Thru Consulting and conducted a debacle of a boundary review. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

Reid needs to go. The school was a great purchase and needed. But, her desire for something new and glamorous has been troubling. The school was needed for overcrowding and to eliminate long bus rides. If they had incorporated the boundaries into the present study (which has also been a mess), it would make a lot more sense.

It would seem that she is doing everything she can to sabotage having a traditional boundary high school.
They easily could have opened with ninth and tenth grade if they would have figured out the sports issue.

Anonymous wrote:When are we supposed to be getting Scenario 5???

I think that the final vote on boundaries is the beginning of next year. It is not really a Scenario 5. The scenario 4 is mostly locked in, accept for some glaring mistakes (putting students in schools that are overcrowded and underutilizations, etc). So this is 4a scenario... Which the board will do minor tweaks. The Lewis issue and Parklawn/Glasgow are huge glaring issues that need to be addressed and were made worse with the scenario 4. Then there is 4b scenario after that which will be straight up politics. It is what Reid decides to tweak and I assume those are the promises that she has made in the meetings.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at a MS and many 8th graders were hyped up after the "new western HS" presentation today, I expect will be asking their parents to opt in. Weird that the boundaries/bussing won't be known for awhile yet.

The point of the presentation is to hype kids up. Reid wants excitement for her opt-in school. The question is whether the enthusiasm wears off when families realize the lack of sports and the unclear boundaries.

If you attended the presentation on Friday you would know that the question about sports was asked a lot and answered a lot. The parents are very well aware of the sports situation. There was a 10 minute presentation and 50 minutes of questions. Lots and lots of questions. Which was good.

And I fully agree that is ridiculous that the borders have not been set. They should have been the first thing set and then adjust the boundaries for the rest of the county. A fair amount of the movement that was planned was in this area, the Western HS should have been to immediate focus of the redistricting process.

They are not hiding the sports issue. They are not hiding that the borders are not clear.

I think when people see the actual opt-in form, it will weed out a lot of kids/families with some level of interest because it appears it will need to specify that:

* If you opt in, you agree to attend Western HS, space permitting, even if you ultimately do not live within the established boundary, in which case you will be responsible for arranging your own transportation; and

* If Western is over-subscribed, those who live within the established boundary may/will be given priority and you may be required to attend your currently assigned school.

So if you are zoned for Coates, McNair, Floris, or Oak Hill, and are interested in Western, your evaluation is rather different than if you are zoned for Fox Mill or Crossfield (or the Navy island), which may or may not end up within the boundary, or much different than if you are zoned to any other elementary schools that feed into Westfield, Chantilly, South Lakes, Oakton, or Centreville. which have next to no chances of ending up assigned to Western.

For many people, it's just too much uncertainty.

I suspect they will only get kids opting in from those first four schools. I don't think anyone from Fox Mill or Crossfield will want to risk not having transportation, nor will they want to risk younger children not being able to go to the same high school as their older child. I know I wouldn't.

I know families opting in from Fox Mill and it is more than a handful. I know families planning on SLHS. No one who is opting in is worried about the boundaries, there are enough opting in that carpooling will be easy if needed but the Japanese immersion comments made on Friday sure make it seem like Fox Mill will be in boundary.

I wouldn't count on it. SLHS has made a dramatic turnaround in performance and reputation since adding those Fox Mill homes. It would be political suicide for Meren to allow the school to drop back to how it used to be. I think Western will get that bit of Floris that is currently SL, but doubt they'll move all of Fox Mill in the end.

And the families that don't want IB will happily pupil place to Western for the special programs and AP. The same way that a good number of families leave every year for AP at Herndon, Langly, and Oakton. Except now it will be closer, and they are offering Japanese. There is an active push by some Fox Mill families to move to the new school. And as the school moves past the lack of sports, there will be a stronger push.

Somewhere between 130-200 student's pupil place out each year for AP, depending on the year. Parents have been asking for AP at SLHS for the last 25 years. Some parents want AP enough that they send their kids to Herndon, a school that most people on this board think is awful. What do you think is going to happen once the Western School is up and running and has sports and AP?

There are Fox Mill families that are actively working to move to Western. Meren is trying to delay opening Western because she is stuck between people who want to keep Fox Mill at SLHS and a large group that want to move.

You keep attacking Meren, but maybe she just thinks they should really make sure they know what they are doing before they open a new high school.

Keep in mind you’re entrusting the opening of this opt-in, two-grade, no-sports, no-staff (yet), no-boundaries (yet), soon-to-be-construction-zone school to the same people who hired the lamentable, unqualified Thru Consulting and conducted a debacle of a boundary review. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

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Anonymous wrote:Why aren't they opening with JV/freshman sports? That's stupid. Are they going to be transporting kids back to other schools for sports? That would be a logistical nightmare.

They should open WITH JV and freshman levels set up and ready to go. They have three gyms and a soccer field!

They explained this on Friday in the Zoom meetings that they had. They cannot have any VHSL level programs or individual sports and allow kids to play on varsity teams at other schools. As soon as there is 1 VHSL sport at the HS, kids are not allowed to play at another HS for a different sport. If they have VHSL freshman and JV squads, the kids who could play varsity cannot play at a different HS.

The solution is to wait until they have the fields and number of students at the right experience levels to have varsity sports in all sports. They are hoping to have VHSL sports in the second year the school is open but understand that might not happen until the third year the school is open.

It is all or nothing. You can't have VHSL at any level in any sport and allow kids to play a different sport at a different school.

The right solution would be to wait until Western has enough space for three grades, open with fixed boundaries and VHSL sports, and dispense with this opt-in nonsense with extra bus routes for activities at other schools.

These people have absolutely lost their minds.

Because people won’t throw a hissy fit if you tell them their rising Juniors need to move? This will be fine, it will take a few years to have a full school and all that comes with it. That is life.

If they weren’t mucking things up with other unnecessary changes there’s no reason they couldn’t wait and open Western as a 9-11 school with established boundaries and the courses and activities families want and provide transportation to grandfathered students. Give rising juniors the option to attend Western or their current schools but otherwise no need for this stupid opt-in and bussing kids to other schools for sports crap.

It will be one to two years. I will be surprised if they get 500 sophomores, I can’t imagine that they would get enough juniors to offer the wide variety of classes that juniors would want.

You could research the history at schools like South County to know how this went when FCPS wasn’t being run by timid idiots.

They probably had more time to prepare for South County since they bought the land and built the building. Western was a building that became available and purchased. The process for opening it is going to be different. And people would be throwing a fit if they bought the building and didn’t open the school next year. They were screwed no matter what they did.

We are opting in, it isn’t perfect but we are excited to attend the new school. My kid has no interest in playing sports so the lack of sports is not an issue for them. We have friends opting out and others opting in.

I don't think many people would have thrown a fit if they'd been honest, acknowledged from the start this was not a "turnkey" acquisition, and then set a realistic timetable for opening Western as a school with fixed boundaries that 9th and 10th grade students were required to attend, absent a valid pupil placement, and which 11th grade students could voluntarily choose to attend.

Since they say this is a tremendous bargain that's going to save FCPS hundreds of millions, and this has been repeated regularly, I would have thought you'd have said they'd be praised, not screwed, no matter what they did.

You keep using that word. They have done zero renovations so far and will open to 9th and 10th graders. They didn't even have to buy furniture. That is turnkey. No one promised a 4 year high school opening on day one like you keep asserting.

The initial statements all suggested they were getting a four-year, ready-to-go high school for $150 million, and all the statements about the savings to FCPS were based on that assumption as well.

Obviously that isn’t turning out to be the case, and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.

So you keep saying, but that just isn't true. It was plainly obvious to everyone the existing school was K-12, didn't have some facilities required for sports, and had unfinished space in the two on campus buildings. You are pushing a narrative that just isn't true.
If you are going to latch onto that savings number, lets make sure to go back and add how much money is saved by not having to expand Centreville so much. Lets also add in not having to replace dozens and dozens of aging trailers at Chantilly and Westfield. Lets add in transportation savings over time from shorter bus routes to the new school.

You’re grasping at straws here. It’s very clear the false statements made by FCPS about “savings” were based on the latest CIP estimate of the purported cost of a new HS minus $150 million. Do the math, if you can.

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Anonymous wrote:I work at a MS and many 8th graders were hyped up after the "new western HS" presentation today, I expect will be asking their parents to opt in. Weird that the boundaries/bussing won't be known for awhile yet.

The point of the presentation is to hype kids up. Reid wants excitement for her opt-in school. The question is whether the enthusiasm wears off when families realize the lack of sports and the unclear boundaries.

If you attended the presentation on Friday you would know that the question about sports was asked a lot and answered a lot. The parents are very well aware of the sports situation. There was a 10 minute presentation and 50 minutes of questions. Lots and lots of questions. Which was good.

And I fully agree that is ridiculous that the borders have not been set. They should have been the first thing set and then adjust the boundaries for the rest of the county. A fair amount of the movement that was planned was in this area, the Western HS should have been to immediate focus of the redistricting process.

They are not hiding the sports issue. They are not hiding that the borders are not clear.

I think when people see the actual opt-in form, it will weed out a lot of kids/families with some level of interest because it appears it will need to specify that:

* If you opt in, you agree to attend Western HS, space permitting, even if you ultimately do not live within the established boundary, in which case you will be responsible for arranging your own transportation; and

* If Western is over-subscribed, those who live within the established boundary may/will be given priority and you may be required to attend your currently assigned school.

So if you are zoned for Coates, McNair, Floris, or Oak Hill, and are interested in Western, your evaluation is rather different than if you are zoned for Fox Mill or Crossfield (or the Navy island), which may or may not end up within the boundary, or much different than if you are zoned to any other elementary schools that feed into Westfield, Chantilly, South Lakes, Oakton, or Centreville. which have next to no chances of ending up assigned to Western.

For many people, it's just too much uncertainty.

I suspect they will only get kids opting in from those first four schools. I don't think anyone from Fox Mill or Crossfield will want to risk not having transportation, nor will they want to risk younger children not being able to go to the same high school as their older child. I know I wouldn't.

I know families opting in from Fox Mill and it is more than a handful. I know families planning on SLHS. No one who is opting in is worried about the boundaries, there are enough opting in that carpooling will be easy if needed but the Japanese immersion comments made on Friday sure make it seem like Fox Mill will be in boundary.

I wouldn't count on it. SLHS has made a dramatic turnaround in performance and reputation since adding those Fox Mill homes. It would be political suicide for Meren to allow the school to drop back to how it used to be. I think Western will get that bit of Floris that is currently SL, but doubt they'll move all of Fox Mill in the end.

And the families that don't want IB will happily pupil place to Western for the special programs and AP. The same way that a good number of families leave every year for AP at Herndon, Langly, and Oakton. Except now it will be closer, and they are offering Japanese. There is an active push by some Fox Mill families to move to the new school. And as the school moves past the lack of sports, there will be a stronger push.

Somewhere between 130-200 student's pupil place out each year for AP, depending on the year. Parents have been asking for AP at SLHS for the last 25 years. Some parents want AP enough that they send their kids to Herndon, a school that most people on this board think is awful. What do you think is going to happen once the Western School is up and running and has sports and AP?

There are Fox Mill families that are actively working to move to Western. Meren is trying to delay opening Western because she is stuck between people who want to keep Fox Mill at SLHS and a large group that want to move.

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Anonymous wrote:Been Mar got last minute screwed in the Annandale boundary change and now will get last minute screwed for Lewis. At least FCPS is consistent in its screwing of poor kids.

What do you want them to do in that area of the county, exactly? The demographics are what they are. It looks like they’re going to boost enrollment at Lewis and make a move out of Edison to prepare for the new development there. It is a move that makes sense.

If any move is made at this late stage to Bren Mar, it should be to send it back to Annandale.

That’s not a late change. It’s what Scenario 4 has proposed for months. Moving BMP to Lewis rather than back to Annandale would be the last-minute change.

Annandale has a 14 room modular installed in 2011. Don't know if it was new or relocated. 8 trailers with the same square footage as used for it's neighborhood center. 5 others HS's have modulars and 3 are from 2005 [Chantilly, Robinson, Centreville]. Mclean's was a relocated modular-not new so you can't estimate perhaps a 25 year useful life off the year installed.

Bren Mar to Lewis is logical instead of Annandale based on the modular and it's condition. Then there is the 109% projected utilization for Poe becoming an AAP center. Maybe they'll do K-6 at Bren Mar Park with tweaks to pre K sites and feed it to Lewis pyramid OR change it's boundary.

That 10.4m annual cost for years on transportation plus the 918k on one school, Kent Gardens, make us wonder why FCPS doesn't provide numbers on the cost for MS AAP buses. That Franklin to Carson shuffle plus stuff to Rocky Run have huge numbers and cover wide territory in FCPS. I think the SB had excessive grandfathering on Kent Gardens. That SB voted for the scheme and at large should have pushed the envelope and moved Spring Hill Island. Grandfathering with transportation should be: Elementary final year only, none on MS and move all AAP to base, grades 11 and 12 high school because of the hideous IB. South County opened with grade 11

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Anonymous wrote:I work at a MS and many 8th graders were hyped up after the "new western HS" presentation today, I expect will be asking their parents to opt in. Weird that the boundaries/bussing won't be known for awhile yet.

The point of the presentation is to hype kids up. Reid wants excitement for her opt-in school. The question is whether the enthusiasm wears off when families realize the lack of sports and the unclear boundaries.

If you attended the presentation on Friday you would know that the question about sports was asked a lot and answered a lot. The parents are very well aware of the sports situation. There was a 10 minute presentation and 50 minutes of questions. Lots and lots of questions. Which was good.

And I fully agree that is ridiculous that the borders have not been set. They should have been the first thing set and then adjust the boundaries for the rest of the county. A fair amount of the movement that was planned was in this area, the Western HS should have been to immediate focus of the redistricting process.

They are not hiding the sports issue. They are not hiding that the borders are not clear.

I think when people see the actual opt-in form, it will weed out a lot of kids/families with some level of interest because it appears it will need to specify that:

* If you opt in, you agree to attend Western HS, space permitting, even if you ultimately do not live within the established boundary, in which case you will be responsible for arranging your own transportation; and

* If Western is over-subscribed, those who live within the established boundary may/will be given priority and you may be required to attend your currently assigned school.

So if you are zoned for Coates, McNair, Floris, or Oak Hill, and are interested in Western, your evaluation is rather different than if you are zoned for Fox Mill or Crossfield (or the Navy island), which may or may not end up within the boundary, or much different than if you are zoned to any other elementary schools that feed into Westfield, Chantilly, South Lakes, Oakton, or Centreville. which have next to no chances of ending up assigned to Western.

For many people, it's just too much uncertainty.

I suspect they will only get kids opting in from those first four schools. I don't think anyone from Fox Mill or Crossfield will want to risk not having transportation, nor will they want to risk younger children not being able to go to the same high school as their older child. I know I wouldn't.

I know families opting in from Fox Mill and it is more than a handful. I know families planning on SLHS. No one who is opting in is worried about the boundaries, there are enough opting in that carpooling will be easy if needed but the Japanese immersion comments made on Friday sure make it seem like Fox Mill will be in boundary.

I wouldn't count on it. SLHS has made a dramatic turnaround in performance and reputation since adding those Fox Mill homes. It would be political suicide for Meren to allow the school to drop back to how it used to be. I think Western will get that bit of Floris that is currently SL, but doubt they'll move all of Fox Mill in the end.

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Anonymous wrote:Why aren't they opening with JV/freshman sports? That's stupid. Are they going to be transporting kids back to other schools for sports? That would be a logistical nightmare.

They should open WITH JV and freshman levels set up and ready to go. They have three gyms and a soccer field!

They explained this on Friday in the Zoom meetings that they had. They cannot have any VHSL level programs or individual sports and allow kids to play on varsity teams at other schools. As soon as there is 1 VHSL sport at the HS, kids are not allowed to play at another HS for a different sport. If they have VHSL freshman and JV squads, the kids who could play varsity cannot play at a different HS.

The solution is to wait until they have the fields and number of students at the right experience levels to have varsity sports in all sports. They are hoping to have VHSL sports in the second year the school is open but understand that might not happen until the third year the school is open.

It is all or nothing. You can't have VHSL at any level in any sport and allow kids to play a different sport at a different school.

The right solution would be to wait until Western has enough space for three grades, open with fixed boundaries and VHSL sports, and dispense with this opt-in nonsense with extra bus routes for activities at other schools.

These people have absolutely lost their minds.

Because people won’t throw a hissy fit if you tell them their rising Juniors need to move? This will be fine, it will take a few years to have a full school and all that comes with it. That is life.

If they weren’t mucking things up with other unnecessary changes there’s no reason they couldn’t wait and open Western as a 9-11 school with established boundaries and the courses and activities families want and provide transportation to grandfathered students. Give rising juniors the option to attend Western or their current schools but otherwise no need for this stupid opt-in and bussing kids to other schools for sports crap.

It will be one to two years. I will be surprised if they get 500 sophomores, I can’t imagine that they would get enough juniors to offer the wide variety of classes that juniors would want.

You could research the history at schools like South County to know how this went when FCPS wasn’t being run by timid idiots.

They probably had more time to prepare for South County since they bought the land and built the building. Western was a building that became available and purchased. The process for opening it is going to be different. And people would be throwing a fit if they bought the building and didn’t open the school next year. They were screwed no matter what they did.

We are opting in, it isn’t perfect but we are excited to attend the new school. My kid has no interest in playing sports so the lack of sports is not an issue for them. We have friends opting out and others opting in.

I don't think many people would have thrown a fit if they'd been honest, acknowledged from the start this was not a "turnkey" acquisition, and then set a realistic timetable for opening Western as a school with fixed boundaries that 9th and 10th grade students were required to attend, absent a valid pupil placement, and which 11th grade students could voluntarily choose to attend.

Since they say this is a tremendous bargain that's going to save FCPS hundreds of millions, and this has been repeated regularly, I would have thought you'd have said they'd be praised, not screwed, no matter what they did.

You keep using that word. They have done zero renovations so far and will open to 9th and 10th graders. They didn't even have to buy furniture. That is turnkey. No one promised a 4 year high school opening on day one like you keep asserting.

The initial statements all suggested they were getting a four-year, ready-to-go high school for $150 million, and all the statements about the savings to FCPS were based on that assumption as well.

Obviously that isn’t turning out to be the case, and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.

The initial posts I remember all mentioned that there was going to need to be renovations at the new school because it was built to be a private school with a very different lay out. Also, there were the very specific Muslim additions, like foot baths and split gender common spaces that would have to be addressed. There were comments about how to use the two buildings on the property that were detached from the school. The discussion was that the building plus renovations would be less expensive then buying property and building a new building.

And yes, the School Board has handled all of this awfully. I don't know anyone who thinks that it has been well managed or well handled. I will say that the message from the first open house was garbled and confusing and pretty bad. The message this last Friday was far clearer and you could see that the planning principal and his team have been working hard to pull together what the plan was and how it was going to evolve. The boundary deadline moved from the summer to the spring, which is still too long but better. They know 4 of the languages that they are offering. They know that they are going to AP/DE route.

While the Board up Superintendent have handled this badly, I have been impressed with the progress made by the planning team for the school. At the end of the day, that is the team running the school and addressing issues that arise.

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Anonymous wrote:Why aren't they opening with JV/freshman sports? That's stupid. Are they going to be transporting kids back to other schools for sports? That would be a logistical nightmare.

They should open WITH JV and freshman levels set up and ready to go. They have three gyms and a soccer field!

They explained this on Friday in the Zoom meetings that they had. They cannot have any VHSL level programs or individual sports and allow kids to play on varsity teams at other schools. As soon as there is 1 VHSL sport at the HS, kids are not allowed to play at another HS for a different sport. If they have VHSL freshman and JV squads, the kids who could play varsity cannot play at a different HS.

The solution is to wait until they have the fields and number of students at the right experience levels to have varsity sports in all sports. They are hoping to have VHSL sports in the second year the school is open but understand that might not happen until the third year the school is open.

It is all or nothing. You can't have VHSL at any level in any sport and allow kids to play a different sport at a different school.

The right solution would be to wait until Western has enough space for three grades, open with fixed boundaries and VHSL sports, and dispense with this opt-in nonsense with extra bus routes for activities at other schools.

These people have absolutely lost their minds.

Because people won’t throw a hissy fit if you tell them their rising Juniors need to move? This will be fine, it will take a few years to have a full school and all that comes with it. That is life.

If they weren’t mucking things up with other unnecessary changes there’s no reason they couldn’t wait and open Western as a 9-11 school with established boundaries and the courses and activities families want and provide transportation to grandfathered students. Give rising juniors the option to attend Western or their current schools but otherwise no need for this stupid opt-in and bussing kids to other schools for sports crap.

It will be one to two years. I will be surprised if they get 500 sophomores, I can’t imagine that they would get enough juniors to offer the wide variety of classes that juniors would want.

You could research the history at schools like South County to know how this went when FCPS wasn’t being run by timid idiots.

They probably had more time to prepare for South County since they bought the land and built the building. Western was a building that became available and purchased. The process for opening it is going to be different. And people would be throwing a fit if they bought the building and didn’t open the school next year. They were screwed no matter what they did.

We are opting in, it isn’t perfect but we are excited to attend the new school. My kid has no interest in playing sports so the lack of sports is not an issue for them. We have friends opting out and others opting in.

I don't think many people would have thrown a fit if they'd been honest, acknowledged from the start this was not a "turnkey" acquisition, and then set a realistic timetable for opening Western as a school with fixed boundaries that 9th and 10th grade students were required to attend, absent a valid pupil placement, and which 11th grade students could voluntarily choose to attend.

Since they say this is a tremendous bargain that's going to save FCPS hundreds of millions, and this has been repeated regularly, I would have thought you'd have said they'd be praised, not screwed, no matter what they did.

You keep using that word. They have done zero renovations so far and will open to 9th and 10th graders. They didn't even have to buy furniture. That is turnkey. No one promised a 4 year high school opening on day one like you keep asserting.

The initial statements all suggested they were getting a four-year, ready-to-go high school for $150 million, and all the statements about the savings to FCPS were based on that assumption as well.

Obviously that isn’t turning out to be the case, and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.

So you keep saying, but that just isn't true. It was plainly obvious to everyone the existing school was K-12, didn't have some facilities required for sports, and had unfinished space in the two on campus buildings. You are pushing a narrative that just isn't true.
If you are going to latch onto that savings number, lets make sure to go back and add how much money is saved by not having to expand Centreville so much. Lets also add in not having to replace dozens and dozens of aging trailers at Chantilly and Westfield. Lets add in transportation savings over time from shorter bus routes to the new school.

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Anonymous wrote:Why aren't they opening with JV/freshman sports? That's stupid. Are they going to be transporting kids back to other schools for sports? That would be a logistical nightmare.

They should open WITH JV and freshman levels set up and ready to go. They have three gyms and a soccer field!

They explained this on Friday in the Zoom meetings that they had. They cannot have any VHSL level programs or individual sports and allow kids to play on varsity teams at other schools. As soon as there is 1 VHSL sport at the HS, kids are not allowed to play at another HS for a different sport. If they have VHSL freshman and JV squads, the kids who could play varsity cannot play at a different HS.

The solution is to wait until they have the fields and number of students at the right experience levels to have varsity sports in all sports. They are hoping to have VHSL sports in the second year the school is open but understand that might not happen until the third year the school is open.

It is all or nothing. You can't have VHSL at any level in any sport and allow kids to play a different sport at a different school.

The right solution would be to wait until Western has enough space for three grades, open with fixed boundaries and VHSL sports, and dispense with this opt-in nonsense with extra bus routes for activities at other schools.

These people have absolutely lost their minds.

Because people won’t throw a hissy fit if you tell them their rising Juniors need to move? This will be fine, it will take a few years to have a full school and all that comes with it. That is life.

If they weren’t mucking things up with other unnecessary changes there’s no reason they couldn’t wait and open Western as a 9-11 school with established boundaries and the courses and activities families want and provide transportation to grandfathered students. Give rising juniors the option to attend Western or their current schools but otherwise no need for this stupid opt-in and bussing kids to other schools for sports crap.

It will be one to two years. I will be surprised if they get 500 sophomores, I can’t imagine that they would get enough juniors to offer the wide variety of classes that juniors would want.

You could research the history at schools like South County to know how this went when FCPS wasn’t being run by timid idiots.

They probably had more time to prepare for South County since they bought the land and built the building. Western was a building that became available and purchased. The process for opening it is going to be different. And people would be throwing a fit if they bought the building and didn’t open the school next year. They were screwed no matter what they did.

We are opting in, it isn’t perfect but we are excited to attend the new school. My kid has no interest in playing sports so the lack of sports is not an issue for them. We have friends opting out and others opting in.

I don't think many people would have thrown a fit if they'd been honest, acknowledged from the start this was not a "turnkey" acquisition, and then set a realistic timetable for opening Western as a school with fixed boundaries that 9th and 10th grade students were required to attend, absent a valid pupil placement, and which 11th grade students could voluntarily choose to attend.

Since they say this is a tremendous bargain that's going to save FCPS hundreds of millions, and this has been repeated regularly, I would have thought you'd have said they'd be praised, not screwed, no matter what they did.

You keep using that word. They have done zero renovations so far and will open to 9th and 10th graders. They didn't even have to buy furniture. That is turnkey. No one promised a 4 year high school opening on day one like you keep asserting.

The initial statements all suggested they were getting a four-year, ready-to-go high school for $150 million, and all the statements about the savings to FCPS were based on that assumption as well.

Obviously that isn’t turning out to be the case, and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.

If there is the final vote in a month time, I hope we see the next map asap.

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Anonymous wrote:I work at a MS and many 8th graders were hyped up after the "new western HS" presentation today, I expect will be asking their parents to opt in. Weird that the boundaries/bussing won't be known for awhile yet.

The point of the presentation is to hype kids up. Reid wants excitement for her opt-in school. The question is whether the enthusiasm wears off when families realize the lack of sports and the unclear boundaries.

If you attended the presentation on Friday you would know that the question about sports was asked a lot and answered a lot. The parents are very well aware of the sports situation. There was a 10 minute presentation and 50 minutes of questions. Lots and lots of questions. Which was good.

And I fully agree that is ridiculous that the borders have not been set. They should have been the first thing set and then adjust the boundaries for the rest of the county. A fair amount of the movement that was planned was in this area, the Western HS should have been to immediate focus of the redistricting process.

They are not hiding the sports issue. They are not hiding that the borders are not clear.

I think when people see the actual opt-in form, it will weed out a lot of kids/families with some level of interest because it appears it will need to specify that:

* If you opt in, you agree to attend Western HS, space permitting, even if you ultimately do not live within the established boundary, in which case you will be responsible for arranging your own transportation; and

* If Western is over-subscribed, those who live within the established boundary may/will be given priority and you may be required to attend your currently assigned school.

So if you are zoned for Coates, McNair, Floris, or Oak Hill, and are interested in Western, your evaluation is rather different than if you are zoned for Fox Mill or Crossfield (or the Navy island), which may or may not end up within the boundary, or much different than if you are zoned to any other elementary schools that feed into Westfield, Chantilly, South Lakes, Oakton, or Centreville. which have next to no chances of ending up assigned to Western.

For many people, it's just too much uncertainty.

I suspect they will only get kids opting in from those first four schools. I don't think anyone from Fox Mill or Crossfield will want to risk not having transportation, nor will they want to risk younger children not being able to go to the same high school as their older child. I know I wouldn't.

I know families opting in from Fox Mill and it is more than a handful. I know families planning on SLHS. No one who is opting in is worried about the boundaries, there are enough opting in that carpooling will be easy if needed but the Japanese immersion comments made on Friday sure make it seem like Fox Mill will be in boundary.