Anonymous wrote:For the love of god! Can we not turn every single discussion about boundaries into a complaining session about Jackson? The same poster(s) who do not appear to have kids at Jackson or Thoreau rage on and on about the inhumanity. MOVE ON.

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Anonymous wrote:Since none of the liberals on this board seem to think there is a burden on the poor FCPS schools, then none of them should be against a massive realignment of the FCPS boundaries.

Simple fact is that the schools in FCPS are very far apart now. Spending a few extra tax dollars on a very poor school with a large number of non-English speakers who had very little if any formal schooling in their native countries does not make these schools comparable. The poor schools are sending out "attendance matters" e-mails/phone calls and trying to teach the unaccompanied minors English. The wealthy schools are wondering how many kids will take AP Calculus and if the robotics team will be competitive.

Liberal policies will continue to import more poverty and they will continue to be concentrated in particular schools. The people at the effected schools would like this to stop. At the very least this burden should be shared in a more equitable fashion.

And I don't blame the immigrants at all - I can see why they want to be here.

It doesn't seem like it would be difficult to rearrange boundaries here in Herndon where Carson and all its glory is only about 4 miles from Herndon Middle where only 59% of students are passing math. If you look at 7th grade only 28% are passing. There are 2 elementaries within 2-3 miles of another one with 85% poverty and the other with 15%. Blows my mind as to why this is okay.

Because reality. Carson has its reputation because it is a mega AAP center. Most of the kids there are AAP. And high level AAP, TJ finalist caliber at that. It is also way overcrowded. Not sure how throwing ESL into an overcrowded AAP,Center helps anything. It’s not like ESL or underperforming kids are going into the Center or into classes with the AAP majority, which is the exceptional piece of Carson, and come out as TJ students 2 years later.

Second. Carson feeds over 80 kids each to 5 HSs (SLHS, Oakton, Chantilly, Westfield and TJ). It’s feeder pattern is a disaster— probably the worst feeder pattern in the county. You cannot throw another HS or 2 into the mix until you clean up the existing feeders. And there doesn’t seem to be capacity at another MS to take a significant piece of the Carson AAP program. Or the political will on the school board to do so. I personally see nothing wrong with moving Franklin zoned Carson AAP kids back to Franklin. And my kids are Franklin based Carson AAP. But my understanding is that Franklin lacks capacity to take them. So to make that happen, they would have to push some non-AAP Franklin kids elsewhere And that would not go over well either.

The fact is, they need a new Western County SS- MS and HS, with AAP capacity. And then they need to start from scratch and completely re-zone. We have a great feeder pattern (Oak Hill/ Franklin w. Carson AAP/ Chantilly), and I still think this needs to happen. But in the meantime, pushing kids every which way to balance without re-zoning and adding on to Western County schools is no longer a solution. The feeders are too screwed up. Adding Herndon to the mix would be a nightmare. In DD’s group of 8 MS friends, they went to 5 high schools, and no one went with more than one other kid. That isn’t good for anyone.

Western County needs a new HS and rezoning badly. But the school board wants nothing to do with that, and are expanding the schools, rather than building a new HS and rezoning. Until this happens, they need to stop making a bad feeder situation worse.

Honestly, the school board needs to quit zoning kids out of pyramid and go to straight feeder patterns whenever possible.

There is zero reason to have an elementary feed into 2 or 3 middle schools, and a middle school feed into 4 or 5 high schools.

Not happening. Just look at what FCPS recently did with Thoreau MS.

Thoreau had split to Madison and Marshall. Kilmer splits to the same two schools. It would have been very easy to align Madison's boundaries with Thoreau's, and Marshall's with Kilmer's, and have straight feeder patterns, just as at some other schools. Instead, FCPS moved part of Jackson to Thoreau, turning Thoreau into a three-way split feeder to Oakton, Marshall, and Madison. It did so even though it could moved part of Jackson to Poe, which would have kept both Jackson and Poe split feeders to only two high schools.

That's not even an option in some parts of the county. Carson will be a split feeder at least until FCPS builds a new western high school. Holmes will be a split feeder as long as TJHSST (a few blocks away) is a county-wide magnet. But even when FCPS has the opportunity to align pyramids, it punts. And it won't clean up elementary school boundaries that often result in lopsided splits, where 85% of the kids go to one middle school and 15% to another. Why? Because they now only make changes that benefit the richest, noisiest parents. It's been that way ever since the South Lakes redistricting in 2008, when parents complained bitterly about being moved from Oakton, Westfield, and Madison to South Lakes. Since then, they've only made smaller adjustments that they know won't generate much controversy.

I am happy with the MW/MR/OES-TMS-OHS boundary change. I foresee a lot of OES, MWES, MRES being reassigned to Blake Lane ES when it opens, as well.

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Anonymous wrote:Since none of the liberals on this board seem to think there is a burden on the poor FCPS schools, then none of them should be against a massive realignment of the FCPS boundaries.

Simple fact is that the schools in FCPS are very far apart now. Spending a few extra tax dollars on a very poor school with a large number of non-English speakers who had very little if any formal schooling in their native countries does not make these schools comparable. The poor schools are sending out "attendance matters" e-mails/phone calls and trying to teach the unaccompanied minors English. The wealthy schools are wondering how many kids will take AP Calculus and if the robotics team will be competitive.

Liberal policies will continue to import more poverty and they will continue to be concentrated in particular schools. The people at the effected schools would like this to stop. At the very least this burden should be shared in a more equitable fashion.

And I don't blame the immigrants at all - I can see why they want to be here.

It doesn't seem like it would be difficult to rearrange boundaries here in Herndon where Carson and all its glory is only about 4 miles from Herndon Middle where only 59% of students are passing math. If you look at 7th grade only 28% are passing. There are 2 elementaries within 2-3 miles of another one with 85% poverty and the other with 15%. Blows my mind as to why this is okay.

Because reality. Carson has its reputation because it is a mega AAP center. Most of the kids there are AAP. And high level AAP, TJ finalist caliber at that. It is also way overcrowded. Not sure how throwing ESL into an overcrowded AAP,Center helps anything. It’s not like ESL or underperforming kids are going into the Center or into classes with the AAP majority, which is the exceptional piece of Carson, and come out as TJ students 2 years later.

Second. Carson feeds over 80 kids each to 5 HSs (SLHS, Oakton, Chantilly, Westfield and TJ). It’s feeder pattern is a disaster— probably the worst feeder pattern in the county. You cannot throw another HS or 2 into the mix until you clean up the existing feeders. And there doesn’t seem to be capacity at another MS to take a significant piece of the Carson AAP program. Or the political will on the school board to do so. I personally see nothing wrong with moving Franklin zoned Carson AAP kids back to Franklin. And my kids are Franklin based Carson AAP. But my understanding is that Franklin lacks capacity to take them. So to make that happen, they would have to push some non-AAP Franklin kids elsewhere And that would not go over well either.

The fact is, they need a new Western County SS- MS and HS, with AAP capacity. And then they need to start from scratch and completely re-zone. We have a great feeder pattern (Oak Hill/ Franklin w. Carson AAP/ Chantilly), and I still think this needs to happen. But in the meantime, pushing kids every which way to balance without re-zoning and adding on to Western County schools is no longer a solution. The feeders are too screwed up. Adding Herndon to the mix would be a nightmare. In DD’s group of 8 MS friends, they went to 5 high schools, and no one went with more than one other kid. That isn’t good for anyone.

Western County needs a new HS and rezoning badly. But the school board wants nothing to do with that, and are expanding the schools, rather than building a new HS and rezoning. Until this happens, they need to stop making a bad feeder situation worse.

Honestly, the school board needs to quit zoning kids out of pyramid and go to straight feeder patterns whenever possible.

There is zero reason to have an elementary feed into 2 or 3 middle schools, and a middle school feed into 4 or 5 high schools.

Not happening. Just look at what FCPS recently did with Thoreau MS.

Thoreau had split to Madison and Marshall. Kilmer splits to the same two schools. It would have been very easy to align Madison's boundaries with Thoreau's, and Marshall's with Kilmer's, and have straight feeder patterns, just as at some other schools. Instead, FCPS moved part of Jackson to Thoreau, turning Thoreau into a three-way split feeder to Oakton, Marshall, and Madison. It did so even though it could moved part of Jackson to Poe, which would have kept both Jackson and Poe split feeders to only two high schools.

That's not even an option in some parts of the county. Carson will be a split feeder at least until FCPS builds a new western high school. Holmes will be a split feeder as long as TJHSST (a few blocks away) is a county-wide magnet. But even when FCPS has the opportunity to align pyramids, it punts. And it won't clean up elementary school boundaries that often result in lopsided splits, where 85% of the kids go to one middle school and 15% to another. Why? Because they now only make changes that benefit the richest, noisiest parents. It's been that way ever since the South Lakes redistricting in 2008, when parents complained bitterly about being moved from Oakton, Westfield, and Madison to South Lakes. Since then, they've only made smaller adjustments that they know won't generate much controversy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since none of the liberals on this board seem to think there is a burden on the poor FCPS schools, then none of them should be against a massive realignment of the FCPS boundaries.

Simple fact is that the schools in FCPS are very far apart now. Spending a few extra tax dollars on a very poor school with a large number of non-English speakers who had very little if any formal schooling in their native countries does not make these schools comparable. The poor schools are sending out "attendance matters" e-mails/phone calls and trying to teach the unaccompanied minors English. The wealthy schools are wondering how many kids will take AP Calculus and if the robotics team will be competitive.

Liberal policies will continue to import more poverty and they will continue to be concentrated in particular schools. The people at the effected schools would like this to stop. At the very least this burden should be shared in a more equitable fashion.

And I don't blame the immigrants at all - I can see why they want to be here.

It doesn't seem like it would be difficult to rearrange boundaries here in Herndon where Carson and all its glory is only about 4 miles from Herndon Middle where only 59% of students are passing math. If you look at 7th grade only 28% are passing. There are 2 elementaries within 2-3 miles of another one with 85% poverty and the other with 15%. Blows my mind as to why this is okay.

Because reality. Carson has its reputation because it is a mega AAP center. Most of the kids there are AAP. And high level AAP, TJ finalist caliber at that. It is also way overcrowded. Not sure how throwing ESL into an overcrowded AAP,Center helps anything. It’s not like ESL or underperforming kids are going into the Center or into classes with the AAP majority, which is the exceptional piece of Carson, and come out as TJ students 2 years later.

Second. Carson feeds over 80 kids each to 5 HSs (SLHS, Oakton, Chantilly, Westfield and TJ). It’s feeder pattern is a disaster— probably the worst feeder pattern in the county. You cannot throw another HS or 2 into the mix until you clean up the existing feeders. And there doesn’t seem to be capacity at another MS to take a significant piece of the Carson AAP program. Or the political will on the school board to do so. I personally see nothing wrong with moving Franklin zoned Carson AAP kids back to Franklin. And my kids are Franklin based Carson AAP. But my understanding is that Franklin lacks capacity to take them. So to make that happen, they would have to push some non-AAP Franklin kids elsewhere And that would not go over well either.

The fact is, they need a new Western County SS- MS and HS, with AAP capacity. And then they need to start from scratch and completely re-zone. We have a great feeder pattern (Oak Hill/ Franklin w. Carson AAP/ Chantilly), and I still think this needs to happen. But in the meantime, pushing kids every which way to balance without re-zoning and adding on to Western County schools is no longer a solution. The feeders are too screwed up. Adding Herndon to the mix would be a nightmare. In DD’s group of 8 MS friends, they went to 5 high schools, and no one went with more than one other kid. That isn’t good for anyone.

Western County needs a new HS and rezoning badly. But the school board wants nothing to do with that, and are expanding the schools, rather than building a new HS and rezoning. Until this happens, they need to stop making a bad feeder situation worse.

Rezone half of those AAP kids to Herndon and make it a center too.

Rezone a large portion (30% ?) Of the FARMS kids from Herndon to Carson. Balance the 2 schools.

Put your money where your mouth is, liberal school board.

Start with those two schools. Since Carson is a magnet, it should be easy to rezone the AAP kids.

And sent Carson kids to 6-8 different HSs? That’s crazy. The feeder pattern is already a disaster. They need to move Oakton kids to Jackson and SLHS to their feeder MS, which is also AAP. Chantilly kids to Franklin. Keep Westfield, then look at moving Herndon. But you can’t just shove more HS in. It’s already a mess.

Or just rezone Western County and clean up all the feeders.

There is no reason why every high school pyramid should not have a middle school AAP level IV program.

There is no reason why any middle school student should go out of their high school feeder pattern for AAP.

That should be the first step, putting AAP level IV in every last middle school in the county. Yes, AAP teachers will need to transfer schools to achieve this, but it makes the most sense in terms of zoning and school overcrowding.

Then, and only then, they should look at rezoning to balance overcrowding, with an emphasis on spreading out the wealthiest and poorest kids, especially in the western portion of the county.

And in the Eastern County? That’s where there is the most imbalance. Time for Oakton, McKean, Langley, Marshall, LBSS and Ribinson to step up too.

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Right. But the zoning that resulted in the concentration of affordable market-rate housing in your school district (which you apparently find so upsetting) is a legacy of decisions made by the BOS when it was controlled by conservative Republicans. Don’t blame liberals because you can’t afford to be with your people in Clifton or Great Falls.

And, it is not the BOS who decides where to build schools or makes boundary decisions. And, it has been a looooong time since our BOS was controlled by conservative Republicans. And, our SB has never been controlled by the GOP since it went to elected positions.

Look no further than the hypocrisy of former SB member Kathy Smith on this issue. She sent the trailer park to her neighborhood school in order to get full day K for the neighborhood school. As soon as all schools got full day K, she moved the trailer park out. Fact.

As opposed to Tessie Wilson, a Republican SB member who orchestrated a number of the boundary changes that concentrated poverty at Poe MS and Annandale HS?

That was a mistake on her party, but was it a republican controlled board then? Doubtful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since none of the liberals on this board seem to think there is a burden on the poor FCPS schools, then none of them should be against a massive realignment of the FCPS boundaries.

Simple fact is that the schools in FCPS are very far apart now. Spending a few extra tax dollars on a very poor school with a large number of non-English speakers who had very little if any formal schooling in their native countries does not make these schools comparable. The poor schools are sending out "attendance matters" e-mails/phone calls and trying to teach the unaccompanied minors English. The wealthy schools are wondering how many kids will take AP Calculus and if the robotics team will be competitive.

Liberal policies will continue to import more poverty and they will continue to be concentrated in particular schools. The people at the effected schools would like this to stop. At the very least this burden should be shared in a more equitable fashion.

And I don't blame the immigrants at all - I can see why they want to be here.

It doesn't seem like it would be difficult to rearrange boundaries here in Herndon where Carson and all its glory is only about 4 miles from Herndon Middle where only 59% of students are passing math. If you look at 7th grade only 28% are passing. There are 2 elementaries within 2-3 miles of another one with 85% poverty and the other with 15%. Blows my mind as to why this is okay.

Because reality. Carson has its reputation because it is a mega AAP center. Most of the kids there are AAP. And high level AAP, TJ finalist caliber at that. It is also way overcrowded. Not sure how throwing ESL into an overcrowded AAP,Center helps anything. It’s not like ESL or underperforming kids are going into the Center or into classes with the AAP majority, which is the exceptional piece of Carson, and come out as TJ students 2 years later.

Second. Carson feeds over 80 kids each to 5 HSs (SLHS, Oakton, Chantilly, Westfield and TJ). It’s feeder pattern is a disaster— probably the worst feeder pattern in the county. You cannot throw another HS or 2 into the mix until you clean up the existing feeders. And there doesn’t seem to be capacity at another MS to take a significant piece of the Carson AAP program. Or the political will on the school board to do so. I personally see nothing wrong with moving Franklin zoned Carson AAP kids back to Franklin. And my kids are Franklin based Carson AAP. But my understanding is that Franklin lacks capacity to take them. So to make that happen, they would have to push some non-AAP Franklin kids elsewhere And that would not go over well either.

The fact is, they need a new Western County SS- MS and HS, with AAP capacity. And then they need to start from scratch and completely re-zone. We have a great feeder pattern (Oak Hill/ Franklin w. Carson AAP/ Chantilly), and I still think this needs to happen. But in the meantime, pushing kids every which way to balance without re-zoning and adding on to Western County schools is no longer a solution. The feeders are too screwed up. Adding Herndon to the mix would be a nightmare. In DD’s group of 8 MS friends, they went to 5 high schools, and no one went with more than one other kid. That isn’t good for anyone.

Western County needs a new HS and rezoning badly. But the school board wants nothing to do with that, and are expanding the schools, rather than building a new HS and rezoning. Until this happens, they need to stop making a bad feeder situation worse.

Rezone half of those AAP kids to Herndon and make it a center too.

Rezone a large portion (30% ?) Of the FARMS kids from Herndon to Carson. Balance the 2 schools.

Put your money where your mouth is, liberal school board.

Start with those two schools. Since Carson is a magnet, it should be easy to rezone the AAP kids.

And sent Carson kids to 6-8 different HSs? That’s crazy. The feeder pattern is already a disaster. They need to move Oakton kids to Jackson and SLHS to their feeder MS, which is also AAP. Chantilly kids to Franklin. Keep Westfield, then look at moving Herndon. But you can’t just shove more HS in. It’s already a mess.

Or just rezone Western County and clean up all the feeders.

There is no reason why every high school pyramid should not have a middle school AAP level IV program.

There is no reason why any middle school student should go out of their high school feeder pattern for AAP.

That should be the first step, putting AAP level IV in every last middle school in the county. Yes, AAP teachers will need to transfer schools to achieve this, but it makes the most sense in terms of zoning and school overcrowding.

Then, and only then, they should look at rezoning to balance overcrowding, with an emphasis on spreading out the wealthiest and poorest kids, especially in the western portion of the county.

Anonymous wrote:Franklin can become an AAP center. It's already a local level IV.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Right. But the zoning that resulted in the concentration of affordable market-rate housing in your school district (which you apparently find so upsetting) is a legacy of decisions made by the BOS when it was controlled by conservative Republicans. Don’t blame liberals because you can’t afford to be with your people in Clifton or Great Falls.

And, it is not the BOS who decides where to build schools or makes boundary decisions. And, it has been a looooong time since our BOS was controlled by conservative Republicans. And, our SB has never been controlled by the GOP since it went to elected positions.

Look no further than the hypocrisy of former SB member Kathy Smith on this issue. She sent the trailer park to her neighborhood school in order to get full day K for the neighborhood school. As soon as all schools got full day K, she moved the trailer park out. Fact.

As opposed to Tessie Wilson, a Republican SB member who orchestrated a number of the boundary changes that concentrated poverty at Poe MS and Annandale HS?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since none of the liberals on this board seem to think there is a burden on the poor FCPS schools, then none of them should be against a massive realignment of the FCPS boundaries.

Simple fact is that the schools in FCPS are very far apart now. Spending a few extra tax dollars on a very poor school with a large number of non-English speakers who had very little if any formal schooling in their native countries does not make these schools comparable. The poor schools are sending out "attendance matters" e-mails/phone calls and trying to teach the unaccompanied minors English. The wealthy schools are wondering how many kids will take AP Calculus and if the robotics team will be competitive.

Liberal policies will continue to import more poverty and they will continue to be concentrated in particular schools. The people at the effected schools would like this to stop. At the very least this burden should be shared in a more equitable fashion.

And I don't blame the immigrants at all - I can see why they want to be here.

It doesn't seem like it would be difficult to rearrange boundaries here in Herndon where Carson and all its glory is only about 4 miles from Herndon Middle where only 59% of students are passing math. If you look at 7th grade only 28% are passing. There are 2 elementaries within 2-3 miles of another one with 85% poverty and the other with 15%. Blows my mind as to why this is okay.

Because reality. Carson has its reputation because it is a mega AAP center. Most of the kids there are AAP. And high level AAP, TJ finalist caliber at that. It is also way overcrowded. Not sure how throwing ESL into an overcrowded AAP,Center helps anything. It’s not like ESL or underperforming kids are going into the Center or into classes with the AAP majority, which is the exceptional piece of Carson, and come out as TJ students 2 years later.

Second. Carson feeds over 80 kids each to 5 HSs (SLHS, Oakton, Chantilly, Westfield and TJ). It’s feeder pattern is a disaster— probably the worst feeder pattern in the county. You cannot throw another HS or 2 into the mix until you clean up the existing feeders. And there doesn’t seem to be capacity at another MS to take a significant piece of the Carson AAP program. Or the political will on the school board to do so. I personally see nothing wrong with moving Franklin zoned Carson AAP kids back to Franklin. And my kids are Franklin based Carson AAP. But my understanding is that Franklin lacks capacity to take them. So to make that happen, they would have to push some non-AAP Franklin kids elsewhere And that would not go over well either.

The fact is, they need a new Western County SS- MS and HS, with AAP capacity. And then they need to start from scratch and completely re-zone. We have a great feeder pattern (Oak Hill/ Franklin w. Carson AAP/ Chantilly), and I still think this needs to happen. But in the meantime, pushing kids every which way to balance without re-zoning and adding on to Western County schools is no longer a solution. The feeders are too screwed up. Adding Herndon to the mix would be a nightmare. In DD’s group of 8 MS friends, they went to 5 high schools, and no one went with more than one other kid. That isn’t good for anyone.

Western County needs a new HS and rezoning badly. But the school board wants nothing to do with that, and are expanding the schools, rather than building a new HS and rezoning. Until this happens, they need to stop making a bad feeder situation worse.

Honestly, the school board needs to quit zoning kids out of pyramid and go to straight feeder patterns whenever possible.

There is zero reason to have an elementary feed into 2 or 3 middle schools, and a middle school feed into 4 or 5 high schools.