Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Nah, this is nothing new. Given a choice, most families at Wolftrap long would have opted for Madison over Marshall given a choice, but for years Marshall's enrollment was so low that it never entered anyone's mind that they would move kids from Marshall to Madison. Also, Madison had not been expanded, so it didn't have the 2500 seats it now has (and which, to some degree, FCPS needs to justify, since it expanded Madison outside the renovation queue and ignored other schools like Annandale and McLean).

So it's not like those who moved into the Wolftrap/Kilmer/Marshall over the last 5-10 years behave any differently than their predecessors. They just see an opportunity that wasn't previously available.

People with kids there are generally satisfied with Marshall, but it's in Falls Church rather than Vienna, it has IB (less popular), traffic through the heart of Tysons is still worse than Maple Avenue (as congested as Maple can also get) and its sports teams aren't the same caliber. That's not irrelevant in Vienna, which is a very sports-oriented area.

In "real life," Madison and Marshall families generally are respectful of each other's schools, but more than one Madison family from the Wolftrap area asked us if our kids felt safe at Marshall. It's seemed passive-aggressive, since they'd sent their kids to Kilmer, and about 85% of Kilmer feeds to Marshall.

My kids go to Madison, and we do joke that it's a jock school. The upside to Marshall, though, is that you don't have to have been playing a sport with VYI since kindergarten to make even the JV teams. There are a lot more opportunities for kids who just want to play competitively without the overinvested sideline parents. Madison also has an outstanding music performance program. We looked at houses in the Marshall zone, and my only hesitation with Marshall would have been that it's IB instead of AP - a couple of my kids' friends who live just on the other side of Cedar Ln. but were zoned for Cunningham Park did an academic transfer from Marshall to Madison for AP. Most people we know who go to Marshall are very happy with it. I find the handwringing of the "demographics" to be a bit much, but I also let my kid go to Jackson without losing a minute's sleep over it (and, other than the inexcusably decrepit building, they had a great experience there).

Looking at the new maps, I do wonder who 1901 ticked off to stay zoned to Marshall when the entire rest of that run just got rezoned to Madison. I assume I'd see them picked up by whatever school is in the light green or teal right next to it, but, right now, it looks like they just created another attendance island (and a nightmare for the transportation department).

Anonymous wrote:So one of her big donors lives in Rolling Valley, then?

Bingo

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is politically connected and lives in the tiny area moved from FHS to overcrowd CHS even more? How bizarre.

+1,000 adding more kids to Chantilly?? Totally ridiculous.

It's obviously in anticipation of moving far more kids out of Chantilly to Western and Westfield.

its less than 50 kids. This is a favor for someone.

Both Chantilly BRAC people live on the Centreville end of Chantilly boundary, I think.

Our neighborhood likes where things landed - which for us is no change. Which neighborhoods are not ok with Reid’s proposal?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reid's presentation would be easier to follow if they included current and projected enrollments at the affected schools and didn't simply include the number of students affected and the impact on capacity.

They used to provide so much more information on proposed boundary changes and their impacts on schools. They are trying to get away with providing as little information as possible here.

The boundary tool has been updated with her recommendations https://www.fcpsboundaryreview.org/

Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is politically connected and lives in the tiny area moved from FHS to overcrowd CHS even more? How bizarre.

+1,000 adding more kids to Chantilly?? Totally ridiculous.

It's obviously in anticipation of moving far more kids out of Chantilly to Western and Westfield.

its less than 50 kids. This is a favor for someone.

Anonymous wrote:Reid's presentation would be easier to follow if they included current and projected enrollments at the affected schools and didn't simply include the number of students affected and the impact on capacity.

They used to provide so much more information on proposed boundary changes and their impacts on schools. They are trying to get away with providing as little information as possible here.

The boundary tool has been updated with her recommendations https://www.fcpsboundaryreview.org/

I dont see any of the mentioned school in Region 4 maps in the latest proposal sent out around 4:40pm today. It looks like none of the schools are affected?

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I predict that Anderson will change the Region 4 maps, rezoning Rolling Valley SPA 8922 from Key/Lewis to Irving/WSHS since now only around 15% of Rolling Valley remains a split feeder since 8921 and 8923 are getting moved to Saratoga and staying at Lewis.

Whether she will leave the Sangster split feeder at WSHS or move it to Lake Braddock to make room for the Lewis Rolling Valley students, or move some Hunt Valley neighborhoods to South County is the big question, in my opinion.

I will be very surprised, shocked actually, if Rolling Valley SPA 8922 does not end up at Irving/WSHS in the final map as that was one of Sandy Anderson's stated goals when she helped push through this process 2 years ago. She has been fairly consistently and openly stated over 2 years that moving Rolling Valley neighborhoods from Lewis to WSHS is her main priority, even if other neighborhoods need to get rezoned out of WSHS to make room.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is politically connected and lives in the tiny area moved from FHS to overcrowd CHS even more? How bizarre.

+1,000 adding more kids to Chantilly?? Totally ridiculous.

It's obviously in anticipation of moving far more kids out of Chantilly to Western and Westfield.

Reid's presentation would be easier to follow if they included current and projected enrollments at the affected schools and didn't simply include the number of students affected and the impact on capacity.

They used to provide so much more information on proposed boundary changes and their impacts on schools. They are trying to get away with providing as little information as possible here.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I predict that Anderson will change the Region 4 maps, rezoning Rolling Valley SPA 8922 from Key/Lewis to Irving/WSHS since now only around 15% of Rolling Valley remains a split feeder since 8921 and 8923 are getting moved to Saratoga and staying at Lewis.

Whether she will leave the Sangster split feeder at WSHS or move it to Lake Braddock to make room for the Lewis Rolling Valley students, or move some Hunt Valley neighborhoods to South County is the big question, in my opinion.

I will be very surprised, shocked actually, if Rolling Valley SPA 8922 does not end up at Irving/WSHS in the final map as that was one of Sandy Anderson's stated goals when she helped push through this process 2 years ago. She has been fairly consistently and openly stated over 2 years that moving Rolling Valley neighborhoods from Lewis to WSHS is her main priority, even if other neighborhoods need to get rezoned out of WSHS to make room.

It's really hard to live in an area where the school board member is actively working against her constituents. All the meetings in the world with the At-Large members won't help.

Anonymous wrote:Who is politically connected and lives in the tiny area moved from FHS to overcrowd CHS even more? How bizarre.

+1,000 adding more kids to Chantilly?? Totally ridiculous.

So one of her big donors lives in Rolling Valley, then?

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.

I predict that Anderson will change the Region 4 maps, rezoning Rolling Valley SPA 8922 from Key/Lewis to Irving/WSHS since now only around 15% of Rolling Valley remains a split feeder since 8921 and 8923 are getting moved to Saratoga and staying at Lewis.

Whether she will leave the Sangster split feeder at WSHS or move it to Lake Braddock to make room for the Lewis Rolling Valley students, or move some Hunt Valley neighborhoods to South County is the big question, in my opinion.

I will be very surprised, shocked actually, if Rolling Valley SPA 8922 does not end up at Irving/WSHS in the final map as that was one of Sandy Anderson's stated goals when she helped push through this process 2 years ago. She has been fairly consistently and openly stated over 2 years that moving Rolling Valley neighborhoods from Lewis to WSHS is her main priority, even if other neighborhoods need to get rezoned out of WSHS to make room.

Who is politically connected and lives in the tiny area moved from FHS to overcrowd CHS even more? How bizarre.