What is with these Vienna parents who keep wanting AAP at Thoreau? They didn't want Thoreau when their AAP option was Kilmer. It is just anti-Jackson fear and bias by people who have no experience with the school.

I don't think AAP parents ignore overcrowding at all. I think it's just important that AAP is controlled by the school board and not each school individually. How can they plan for overcrowding if they let each school have whatever programs they want? If controlled by the school board, they can evenly distribute students to alleviate overcrowding. The entire county needs to go through a boundary change soon. There are too many odd boundaries and at some point soon all the high schools in the western part of Fairfax will be overcrowded because another high school has been needed there for a long time.

Anonymous wrote:And yet there are many middle schools that are projected to be under crowdded. Cooper, Franklin, Stone, Holmes, Lake Braddock, Irving, and Key. Some of Jackson can go to Franklin and Holmes and some of Kilmer can go to Cooper.

I think it will be sorted out in the next few years. AAP parents tend to focus on "critical mass" and, if their AAP school is not their base school, ignore over-crowding. Parents of non-AAP kids attending crowded schools with AAP centers may have a different perspective. AAP is already over 50% of the enrollment at Rocky Run in Chantilly, and I know first-hand of parents who've moved to Loudoun from western Fairfax so their kids won't feel stigmatized in that environment.

Cooper is predicted to be at 63% utilization and Franklin at 79% utilization by the time Thoreau gets their building upgrade. It makes no sense not to consider all of those schools together.

And yet there are many middle schools that are projected to be under crowdded. Cooper, Franklin, Stone, Holmes, Lake Braddock, Irving, and Key. Some of Jackson can go to Franklin and Holmes and some of Kilmer can go to Cooper.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jackson currently has a little over 100 students in each grade in AAP. Carson and Longfellow by comparison have between 250 and 300 students in each grade in AAP. How will Jackson's center be viewed if the number of students dips significantly below 100? There are two other middle school centers that size, Glasgow and Twain, however the discrepancy in size between centers is one of the things that people complained was unfair in getting admitted to TJ.

I can only assume that kids now in seventh at Jackson in the AAP center would not be forced back to Thoreau next year since Thoreau would not (IF this all comes to pass) be a center. My child is having an excellent and happy year in the center at Jackson and I'd fight tooth and nail to keep my child there next year. I figure it won't come to that since it would mean uprooting kids who should be grandfathered into staying where they are now (and they will have only one more year at Jackson anyway).

I agree with previous posters who questioned the impact of AAP local level at Thoreau and what it would mean for Jackson. The AAP center was moved to Jackson only a few years back, and now it's working very well and I know a lot of very pleased kids and parents; why would FCPS screw with it now by letting Thoreau have a program that will suck away kids from the recently established and successful center that is only five minutes from Thoreau anyway? (And yes, it IS only five minutes; I drive between the two every week picking up kids at both schools!)

Jackson and Kilmer are projected to be vastly overcrowded in a few years. That's why.

Anonymous wrote:Jackson currently has a little over 100 students in each grade in AAP. Carson and Longfellow by comparison have between 250 and 300 students in each grade in AAP. How will Jackson's center be viewed if the number of students dips significantly below 100? There are two other middle school centers that size, Glasgow and Twain, however the discrepancy in size between centers is one of the things that people complained was unfair in getting admitted to TJ.

I can only assume that kids now in seventh at Jackson in the AAP center would not be forced back to Thoreau next year since Thoreau would not (IF this all comes to pass) be a center. My child is having an excellent and happy year in the center at Jackson and I'd fight tooth and nail to keep my child there next year. I figure it won't come to that since it would mean uprooting kids who should be grandfathered into staying where they are now (and they will have only one more year at Jackson anyway).

I agree with previous posters who questioned the impact of AAP local level at Thoreau and what it would mean for Jackson. The AAP center was moved to Jackson only a few years back, and now it's working very well and I know a lot of very pleased kids and parents; why would FCPS screw with it now by letting Thoreau have a program that will suck away kids from the recently established and successful center that is only five minutes from Thoreau anyway? (And yes, it IS only five minutes; I drive between the two every week picking up kids at both schools!)

Anonymous wrote:What is lluv

LLIV = Local Level IV

What is lluv

Jackson currently has a little over 100 students in each grade in AAP. Carson and Longfellow by comparison have between 250 and 300 students in each grade in AAP. How will Jackson's center be viewed if the number of students dips significantly below 100? There are two other middle school centers that size, Glasgow and Twain, however the discrepancy in size between centers is one of the things that people complained was unfair in getting admitted to TJ.

To have a Center school, you need other schools to feed into it. If all the schools feeding into the center have LLIV it negates the need for a center and the center really doesn't exist. This may be fine for some schools that have a healthy number of students at their school who are in AAP, but it tends to leave some neighboring schools with very few children at an AAP level. The schools should be balanced to provide a center atmosphere with a critical mass and if there is an overabundance of AAP students, those schools with the most LLIV students should have the option of LLIV, however not to the point where the Center basically doesn't exist. Right now at Lemon Road I believe there are 30 level 4 students in 3rd grade. If Shrevewood had not gotten LLIV, that number at Lemon Road in 3rd grade this year would probably be closer to 40 or 50. 30 students is barely enough to be called a center. If they make Thoreau a LLIV school they need to factor in how this decision will affect Luther Jackson. If both schools can have a critical mass that's fine, but the Vienna AAP students were shifted from Kilmer to Luther Jackson about 5 years ago because Luther Jackson did not have a large enough critical mass. If they are shifted back to Thoreau or even Kilmer, how will that affect Luther Jackson? If they move the Kilmer AAP kids in McLean to Cooper, how will that change affect Kilmer? Those decisions should be discussed and made simultaneously so that there is a long range plan for these schools.

Anonymous wrote:They started a center at Lemon Road this year and then the cluster superintendent allowed Shrevewood to have a LLIV program. That ended up bringing the numbers down of kids attending the Lemon Road center. I think they almost let Westgate have a LLIV program too. Lemon Road center only has Lemon Road (small), Shrevewood, and Westgate attending the center. With all other schools having a LLIV program, you basically get just a LLIV program at Lemon Road as well if half the kids end up staying at their base schools.

'

please explain what LLIV is I have lost you.

The whole idea around here that kids may not go to neighborhood schools is ridiculous. I know families with several kids and each one goes to a different elementary. That's crazy talk.

They started a center at Lemon Road this year and then the cluster superintendent allowed Shrevewood to have a LLIV program. That ended up bringing the numbers down of kids attending the Lemon Road center. I think they almost let Westgate have a LLIV program too. Lemon Road center only has Lemon Road (small), Shrevewood, and Westgate attending the center. With all other schools having a LLIV program, you basically get just a LLIV program at Lemon Road as well if half the kids end up staying at their base schools.

Anonymous wrote:They should either have a center or nothing. I'm sorry but local level IV for a middle school is a ridiculous idea. They either want the kids from Jackson to move over there or not. All it would do is have confusion again among boundaries and if parents are already not sending their kids to Jackson instead of Thoreau why would they continue to do so if there was this LLIV there which isn't present at any other middle school. School Board, please figure out the boundaries you would like for these schools and how many kids should be together for AAP and re-designate as appropriate. Please do not allow schools to do whatever they want like you did with the whole Shrevewood / Lemon Road debacle.

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