Anonymous wrote:Can we address the fact that Oakton does not have its own middle school aligned with its high school and the fact that you have not had time to think about that because of the fact you guys are all established where you are and don’t see the big issue with your kids’ split feeding.

You FCPS parents lack real thought and only seek things that come to benefit you all in such a selfish and narcissistic demeanor that prevents real work from taking place.

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Anonymous wrote:For the Kilmer / Thoreau issue they need to modify so that Wolftrap splits at the middle school level - those assigned to Madison go to Thoreau and those assigned to Marshall go to Kilmer. They would then move the <5 percent group you reference at Kilmer to Thoreau and those students would feed into Madison.

Why? They did what you said and also eliminated the split at middle school. All of Wolftrap now goes to Thoreau then Madison, which addresses your point about Thoreau to Madison consistency. Why do you say they need to split Wolftrap? That community is clearly very against the middle school split, as opposed to the Town of Vienna people at Westbriar who like their split.

I live in the community and have students attending Marshall and there has been no outreach to gather input from the community - push by current Wolftrap families is not the same as community input that involves those with students at other levels, not in school yet, or previously had students there.

People with kids already at Marshall won’t bad-mouth it but families with younger kids jumped at the chance to attend Madison. They live in Vienna, the Madison-bound parents constantly talk up Madison, and it’s a slog to get to Marshall from the Wolftrap area (unless you go well out of the way you have to go through the heart of Tysons).

Both Madison and Marshall can be challenging to get to during rush hour from the Buehlah / Clarks Crossing / Meadowlark area - with a few minutes time difference on average with outliers here and there. What is occurring is vocal families that have moved into the area over the last five to 10 years want a school that is less socio-economic diverse (Marshall: 15.89% English Learner versus Madison 6.11%; Marshall: 20.78% Free/Reduce Fee Lunch versus Madison 10.26%; Marshall: 39.95% White (Not Of Hispanic Origin) versus Madison: 58.11%). There is strong pride for Marshall by those that are attending and have attended Marshall from impacted neighborhoods and those families are, for the most part, happy they ended up there instead of Madison. Marshall is a great school and unfortunately families with children at Wolftrap ES currently have become confused with the constant chatter about Madison being so great. There will always be a few families that want to go to Madison as it is more a sports oriented school and their AP program but those are outliers.

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Anonymous wrote:Does anyone think the Board will make any changes to her proposal or just approve as is? Also, her recommendation is missing an implementation date. I guess we assume next school year but she doesn't come out and say that. I can't believe they didn't pause this after they acquired the new high school.

It depends. The public hearing will probably be flooded with families urging that no further changes be made than what was proposed, so it’ll probably be a wash. Things like Westbriar/Kilmer/Madison and Rolling Valley/Key/Lewis may ping the radar. I’m sure the school board will make a tizzy about the lack of attention paid to policy 8130 (lots of split feeders, attendance islands, and transportation not addressed) but will then pass it anyway saying they’ll do better next time.

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Anonymous wrote:For the Kilmer / Thoreau issue they need to modify so that Wolftrap splits at the middle school level - those assigned to Madison go to Thoreau and those assigned to Marshall go to Kilmer. They would then move the <5 percent group you reference at Kilmer to Thoreau and those students would feed into Madison.

Why? They did what you said and also eliminated the split at middle school. All of Wolftrap now goes to Thoreau then Madison, which addresses your point about Thoreau to Madison consistency. Why do you say they need to split Wolftrap? That community is clearly very against the middle school split, as opposed to the Town of Vienna people at Westbriar who like their split.

DP. Most of the Marshall people in Falls Church at Shrevewood and Lemon Road did not want to move to McLean, apart from that group of Pimmit Hills parents at Lemon Road, but most of the Marshall families at Wolftrap want to move to Madison. They live in Vienna and identify with Madison being the “Vienna high school.”

It’s not positive for Marshall in terms of the demographic impact, but they wanted to bring down the Kilmer enrollment and they did listen to the feedback.

A lot of changes could have been avoided if they’d prioritized additions to Kilmer MS and McLean HS over expansions of random elementary schools (and Herndon HS) but that’s never happened.

What’s really odd is that Kilmer does have building capacity. In 2023-24 it had 1227 seats, but then last year it was abruptly cut to 1023. It would be at 98% capacity (with modular) if that change hadn’t been made. Even before the modular was installed, capacity was 1143 which would put it at 106% without the modular. I’m not sure why they’re so keen to fill Thoreau with over 1400 kids. Seems like a nightmare for middle school.

I saw that as well but I’m also sure it was raised with FCPS by BRAC and other community members. I don’t know but one possibility could be that Kilmer Center space had been included with Kilmer MS space and then that square footage got backed out?

Thoreau is going to end up around the size of Carson and Longfellow at their peak but it did get a sizable expansion and at some point it seems inevitable that Oakton kids will be sent back to Jackson.

I’m not sure Oakton to Jackson is a foregone conclusion. With Mason Crest feeding fully to Falls Church HS, the next logical step may be to turn it into a K-6 elementary school like the rest of the pyramid and send them to Jackson MS.

If they move forward with plans to do the same to Bren Mar Park (K-6) to align it with Key/Lewis, then Holmes MS could potentially close and they could feed Annandale entirely through Poe.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone think the Board will make any changes to her proposal or just approve as is? Also, her recommendation is missing an implementation date. I guess we assume next school year but she doesn't come out and say that. I can't believe they didn't pause this after they acquired the new high school.

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Anonymous wrote:Can we address the fact that Oakton does not have its own middle school aligned with its high school and the fact that you have not had time to think about that because of the fact you guys are all established where you are and don’t see the big issue with your kids’ split feeding.

You FCPS parents lack real thought and only seek things that come to benefit you all in such a selfish and narcissistic demeanor that prevents real work from taking place.

Why didn't we see the obvious solution -- conjure up a middle school out of thin air.

Anonymous wrote:Can we address the fact that Oakton does not have its own middle school aligned with its high school and the fact that you have not had time to think about that because of the fact you guys are all established where you are and don’t see the big issue with your kids’ split feeding.

You FCPS parents lack real thought and only seek things that come to benefit you all in such a selfish and narcissistic demeanor that prevents real work from taking place.

Anonymous wrote:Can we address the fact that Oakton does not have its own middle school aligned with its high school and the fact that you have not had time to think about that because of the fact you guys are all established where you are and don’t see the big issue with your kids’ split feeding.

You FCPS parents lack real thought and only seek things that come to benefit you all in such a selfish and narcissistic demeanor that prevents real work from taking place.[/quote

Where were they going to put it? There is no land available within 5 miles of Oakton, for you people that drive 45 minutes to Oakton ES, HS, while passing a more than a few schools that are actually much closer to your house pipe down. I have no interest in my kiddo doing a 45 minute commute to a MS on the other side, outer edges of the county, where their might actually be some land, just because it sucks for people who would have screamed bloody murder if they's been rezoned to elementary, middle and highschools that were you know close to where they actually lived and thus community schools.