Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the issue is not so much location, demographics or IB as it is a complete disinterest from the Athletic dept for anything that isn’t one of 2-3 sports. There’s a reason the athletic office has bled staff this year…

I don't have a student at Lewis so I can't comment on the activities office or the coaches at Lewis. However, I have a student at Mount Vernon, which has very similar demographics to Lewis.

I have seen first hand what a coach can do to build a team. A coach that is out recruiting students and encouraging current team members to recruit their friends is able to field a team. I have on that plays golf at MV - he had never played a round of golf before his freshman year of high school. DS decided to play because one of his best friends was playing and encouraged my DS to join him. DS received free golf lessons and in four years became a pretty good golfer.

There is most likely only one high school sport where a student who has never done anything with that sport can not "walk" on: Swimming. You have to know how to do a basic front crawl in order to join the swim team. Otherwise, any student would be able to show up and "play" a sport.

Will the team with a bunch of first year players be any good? No. My DS also plays lacrosse. He's played for several years so he knows what he's doing but over half the team had never played the sport before they stepped foot at MVHS. They borrow sticks that were donated to the program. In two years, they've only won one game. But they were able to field a JV and Varsity team because the coach was out recruiting players. MV's lacrosse team looks like the demographics of the high school.

So again, I don't know what's going on at Lewis and softball. But if the coach and students were out recruiting, they should be able to field at least one softball team.

It's not just softball but also baseball this year and maybe field hockey as well this coming fall. It sounds like you've described - the athletic director is throwing in the towel and not getting the coaches to make the extra effort. But perhaps it makes the soccer teams stronger.

There is no reason for Lewis not to have a baseball team as the little leagues and middle school/teen Babe Ruth type leagues in that area are all very strong and robust with Lewis bound kids involved in all of them.

Maybe the baseball kids are all chosing travel.

Honestly, if Lewis played in the correct division for a school its size, they would probably get more sports participation. There is no reason to have them in the class they are placed in.

We had schools that size and much smaller where I grew up, and they all fielded full teams because they were competing against similarly sized schools where the competition was more even.

There are no smaller division 5 schools left in northern Va. And without local rivalries and the long distance travel needed to play smaller schools, ticket sales would go down, and students who can’t commit the time for all that travel would give up on sports.

What about the larger parochial high schools? Or TJ?

Honestly, if Lewis played in the correct division for a school its size, they would probably get more sports participation. There is no reason to have them in the class they are placed in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the issue is not so much location, demographics or IB as it is a complete disinterest from the Athletic dept for anything that isn’t one of 2-3 sports. There’s a reason the athletic office has bled staff this year…

I don't have a student at Lewis so I can't comment on the activities office or the coaches at Lewis. However, I have a student at Mount Vernon, which has very similar demographics to Lewis.

I have seen first hand what a coach can do to build a team. A coach that is out recruiting students and encouraging current team members to recruit their friends is able to field a team. I have on that plays golf at MV - he had never played a round of golf before his freshman year of high school. DS decided to play because one of his best friends was playing and encouraged my DS to join him. DS received free golf lessons and in four years became a pretty good golfer.

There is most likely only one high school sport where a student who has never done anything with that sport can not "walk" on: Swimming. You have to know how to do a basic front crawl in order to join the swim team. Otherwise, any student would be able to show up and "play" a sport.

Will the team with a bunch of first year players be any good? No. My DS also plays lacrosse. He's played for several years so he knows what he's doing but over half the team had never played the sport before they stepped foot at MVHS. They borrow sticks that were donated to the program. In two years, they've only won one game. But they were able to field a JV and Varsity team because the coach was out recruiting players. MV's lacrosse team looks like the demographics of the high school.

So again, I don't know what's going on at Lewis and softball. But if the coach and students were out recruiting, they should be able to field at least one softball team.

It's not just softball but also baseball this year and maybe field hockey as well this coming fall. It sounds like you've described - the athletic director is throwing in the towel and not getting the coaches to make the extra effort. But perhaps it makes the soccer teams stronger.

There is no reason for Lewis not to have a baseball team as the little leagues and middle school/teen Babe Ruth type leagues in that area are all very strong and robust with Lewis bound kids involved in all of them.

Maybe the baseball kids are all chosing travel.

Honestly, if Lewis played in the correct division for a school its size, they would probably get more sports participation. There is no reason to have them in the class they are placed in.

We had schools that size and much smaller where I grew up, and they all fielded full teams because they were competing against similarly sized schools where the competition was more even.

There are no smaller division 5 schools left in northern Va. And without local rivalries and the long distance travel needed to play smaller schools, ticket sales would go down, and students who can’t commit the time for all that travel would give up on sports.

What about the larger parochial high schools? Or TJ?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the issue is not so much location, demographics or IB as it is a complete disinterest from the Athletic dept for anything that isn’t one of 2-3 sports. There’s a reason the athletic office has bled staff this year…

I don't have a student at Lewis so I can't comment on the activities office or the coaches at Lewis. However, I have a student at Mount Vernon, which has very similar demographics to Lewis.

I have seen first hand what a coach can do to build a team. A coach that is out recruiting students and encouraging current team members to recruit their friends is able to field a team. I have on that plays golf at MV - he had never played a round of golf before his freshman year of high school. DS decided to play because one of his best friends was playing and encouraged my DS to join him. DS received free golf lessons and in four years became a pretty good golfer.

There is most likely only one high school sport where a student who has never done anything with that sport can not "walk" on: Swimming. You have to know how to do a basic front crawl in order to join the swim team. Otherwise, any student would be able to show up and "play" a sport.

Will the team with a bunch of first year players be any good? No. My DS also plays lacrosse. He's played for several years so he knows what he's doing but over half the team had never played the sport before they stepped foot at MVHS. They borrow sticks that were donated to the program. In two years, they've only won one game. But they were able to field a JV and Varsity team because the coach was out recruiting players. MV's lacrosse team looks like the demographics of the high school.

So again, I don't know what's going on at Lewis and softball. But if the coach and students were out recruiting, they should be able to field at least one softball team.

It's not just softball but also baseball this year and maybe field hockey as well this coming fall. It sounds like you've described - the athletic director is throwing in the towel and not getting the coaches to make the extra effort. But perhaps it makes the soccer teams stronger.

There is no reason for Lewis not to have a baseball team as the little leagues and middle school/teen Babe Ruth type leagues in that area are all very strong and robust with Lewis bound kids involved in all of them.

Maybe the baseball kids are all chosing travel.

Honestly, if Lewis played in the correct division for a school its size, they would probably get more sports participation. There is no reason to have them in the class they are placed in.

We had schools that size and much smaller where I grew up, and they all fielded full teams because they were competing against similarly sized schools where the competition was more even.

There are no smaller division 5 schools left in northern Va. And without local rivalries and the long distance travel needed to play smaller schools, ticket sales would go down, and students who can’t commit the time for all that travel would give up on sports.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 199 'white' students at Lewis this year. Cut that in half to get 100 'white' girls. If your pony-tailed European descent white girl is what you are looking for to fill out a softball team, then you have to reduce this number even further because 'white' includes people of Middle Eastern descent. There may not be 70 European white girls in all of Lewis. How many of them enjoy softball?

I don’t agree. The Division 1 NCAA softball ranks are rife with Hispanic players. I think the issue with Lewis is that many of the kids there are from families with significant needs, and can’t spend time or resources on sports. Travel teams do dominate, and I think that a problem as it compels kids to specialize at a young age. Playing multiple sports when young has its benefits. But the sport attracts Hispanic players and broad ethnic generalizations don’t cut it. Watch the super regionals this week and there is plenty of Hispanic players. And one of the things I like about softball is that it so often connects dads with their daughters. It is a shame Lewis doesn’t have a team.

My NCAA Division 1 sport was track. It was a veritable United Nations competing, and well, there was discrimination, but thankfully only the stopwatch was discriminating.

"Rife?" Really?

Did you intend to use a different word? Rife is typically used to convey undesirable or harmful quanities.

And, no, there aren't a lot of Hispanic players on WCWS teams. Fewer than 8% of softball players nationwide are Hispanic.

Here's Oklahoma's roster: https://soonersports.com/sports/softball/roster
Here's FSU: https://seminoles.com/sports/softball/roster/season/2022-23/
Here's Tennessee: https://utsports.com/sports/softball/roster
Here's Stanford: https://gostanford.com/sports/softball/roster
Here's Georgia: https://georgiadogs.com/sports/softball/roster

yes I get the idea- an effete non athlete lecturing me -look at Texas - the wealthiest athletic scholl in the nation
I'll leave out the remaining 11 in the super regionals, you get the idea.

This Oklahoma player - their MVP two years ago - must be Irish. Picking on the word rife? You must be an effete non-athlete. DI scholarship? All American? I can guess. It is DCUM.

https://www.si.com/college/oklahoma/softball/historic-offense-aside-giselle-juarez-was-the-key-to-ous-national-title

Take a look at UCLA's roster - lots of Hispanic players. Are you always this much of a contrarian jerk?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the issue is not so much location, demographics or IB as it is a complete disinterest from the Athletic dept for anything that isn’t one of 2-3 sports. There’s a reason the athletic office has bled staff this year…

I don't have a student at Lewis so I can't comment on the activities office or the coaches at Lewis. However, I have a student at Mount Vernon, which has very similar demographics to Lewis.

I have seen first hand what a coach can do to build a team. A coach that is out recruiting students and encouraging current team members to recruit their friends is able to field a team. I have on that plays golf at MV - he had never played a round of golf before his freshman year of high school. DS decided to play because one of his best friends was playing and encouraged my DS to join him. DS received free golf lessons and in four years became a pretty good golfer.

There is most likely only one high school sport where a student who has never done anything with that sport can not "walk" on: Swimming. You have to know how to do a basic front crawl in order to join the swim team. Otherwise, any student would be able to show up and "play" a sport.

Will the team with a bunch of first year players be any good? No. My DS also plays lacrosse. He's played for several years so he knows what he's doing but over half the team had never played the sport before they stepped foot at MVHS. They borrow sticks that were donated to the program. In two years, they've only won one game. But they were able to field a JV and Varsity team because the coach was out recruiting players. MV's lacrosse team looks like the demographics of the high school.

So again, I don't know what's going on at Lewis and softball. But if the coach and students were out recruiting, they should be able to field at least one softball team.

It's not just softball but also baseball this year and maybe field hockey as well this coming fall. It sounds like you've described - the athletic director is throwing in the towel and not getting the coaches to make the extra effort. But perhaps it makes the soccer teams stronger.

There is no reason for Lewis not to have a baseball team as the little leagues and middle school/teen Babe Ruth type leagues in that area are all very strong and robust with Lewis bound kids involved in all of them.

Maybe the baseball kids are all chosing travel.

Honestly, if Lewis played in the correct division for a school its size, they would probably get more sports participation. There is no reason to have them in the class they are placed in.

We had schools that size and much smaller where I grew up, and they all fielded full teams because they were competing against similarly sized schools where the competition was more even.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the issue is not so much location, demographics or IB as it is a complete disinterest from the Athletic dept for anything that isn’t one of 2-3 sports. There’s a reason the athletic office has bled staff this year…

I don't have a student at Lewis so I can't comment on the activities office or the coaches at Lewis. However, I have a student at Mount Vernon, which has very similar demographics to Lewis.

I have seen first hand what a coach can do to build a team. A coach that is out recruiting students and encouraging current team members to recruit their friends is able to field a team. I have on that plays golf at MV - he had never played a round of golf before his freshman year of high school. DS decided to play because one of his best friends was playing and encouraged my DS to join him. DS received free golf lessons and in four years became a pretty good golfer.

There is most likely only one high school sport where a student who has never done anything with that sport can not "walk" on: Swimming. You have to know how to do a basic front crawl in order to join the swim team. Otherwise, any student would be able to show up and "play" a sport.

Will the team with a bunch of first year players be any good? No. My DS also plays lacrosse. He's played for several years so he knows what he's doing but over half the team had never played the sport before they stepped foot at MVHS. They borrow sticks that were donated to the program. In two years, they've only won one game. But they were able to field a JV and Varsity team because the coach was out recruiting players. MV's lacrosse team looks like the demographics of the high school.

So again, I don't know what's going on at Lewis and softball. But if the coach and students were out recruiting, they should be able to field at least one softball team.

It's not just softball but also baseball this year and maybe field hockey as well this coming fall. It sounds like you've described - the athletic director is throwing in the towel and not getting the coaches to make the extra effort. But perhaps it makes the soccer teams stronger.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 199 'white' students at Lewis this year. Cut that in half to get 100 'white' girls. If your pony-tailed European descent white girl is what you are looking for to fill out a softball team, then you have to reduce this number even further because 'white' includes people of Middle Eastern descent. There may not be 70 European white girls in all of Lewis. How many of them enjoy softball?

I don’t agree. The Division 1 NCAA softball ranks are rife with Hispanic players. I think the issue with Lewis is that many of the kids there are from families with significant needs, and can’t spend time or resources on sports. Travel teams do dominate, and I think that a problem as it compels kids to specialize at a young age. Playing multiple sports when young has its benefits. But the sport attracts Hispanic players and broad ethnic generalizations don’t cut it. Watch the super regionals this week and there is plenty of Hispanic players. And one of the things I like about softball is that it so often connects dads with their daughters. It is a shame Lewis doesn’t have a team.

My NCAA Division 1 sport was track. It was a veritable United Nations competing, and well, there was discrimination, but thankfully only the stopwatch was discriminating.

"Rife?" Really?

Did you intend to use a different word? Rife is typically used to convey undesirable or harmful quanities.

And, no, there aren't a lot of Hispanic players on WCWS teams. Fewer than 8% of softball players nationwide are Hispanic.

Here's Oklahoma's roster: https://soonersports.com/sports/softball/roster
Here's FSU: https://seminoles.com/sports/softball/roster/season/2022-23/
Here's Tennessee: https://utsports.com/sports/softball/roster
Here's Stanford: https://gostanford.com/sports/softball/roster
Here's Georgia: https://georgiadogs.com/sports/softball/roster

yes I get the idea- an effete non athlete lecturing me -look at Texas - the wealthiest athletic scholl in the nation
I'll leave out the remaining 11 in the super regionals, you get the idea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with Lewis not being able to field a softball team is just one minor example of how students are victims of failed School Board policies. The ACLU should examine how policies like redistricting and expansion of “better” schools (WSHS, West Po) have negatively impacted education for many students at schools like Lewis and Mount Vernon. Students at those schools don’t have the same access to courses or extracurricular activities.

I agree with those expansions. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix (rezone) it; build upon, literally, what already works.

A-holes like you (and Jeff Platenberg, the slimeball who used to head Facilities and made sure West Springfield got a huge expansion while seats at Lewis went unfilled and the school cratered) are responsible for the gaping disparities within FCPS.

You can’t force parents to send their kid to a particular school, particularly a failing one. I think rezoning schools should be extremely rare and an absolute last resort. It’s better to have high-performing “mega schools” (3k+ kids in one building) than to try to shuffle kids around.

It’s a great way to magnify disparities among schools - perhaps the only thing at which this incompetent, preening, hypocritical SB excels. No one can say with a straight face that the kids who have no choice but to attend Annandale, Lewis, or Mount Vernon have equal opportunities as the kids at West Springfield and West Potomac.

Just like no one can say with a straight face that kids at West Potomac have the same opportunities as kids at Chantilly or McLean.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the issue is not so much location, demographics or IB as it is a complete disinterest from the Athletic dept for anything that isn’t one of 2-3 sports. There’s a reason the athletic office has bled staff this year…

I don't have a student at Lewis so I can't comment on the activities office or the coaches at Lewis. However, I have a student at Mount Vernon, which has very similar demographics to Lewis.

I have seen first hand what a coach can do to build a team. A coach that is out recruiting students and encouraging current team members to recruit their friends is able to field a team. I have on that plays golf at MV - he had never played a round of golf before his freshman year of high school. DS decided to play because one of his best friends was playing and encouraged my DS to join him. DS received free golf lessons and in four years became a pretty good golfer.

There is most likely only one high school sport where a student who has never done anything with that sport can not "walk" on: Swimming. You have to know how to do a basic front crawl in order to join the swim team. Otherwise, any student would be able to show up and "play" a sport.

Will the team with a bunch of first year players be any good? No. My DS also plays lacrosse. He's played for several years so he knows what he's doing but over half the team had never played the sport before they stepped foot at MVHS. They borrow sticks that were donated to the program. In two years, they've only won one game. But they were able to field a JV and Varsity team because the coach was out recruiting players. MV's lacrosse team looks like the demographics of the high school.

So again, I don't know what's going on at Lewis and softball. But if the coach and students were out recruiting, they should be able to field at least one softball team.

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the issue is not so much location, demographics or IB as it is a complete disinterest from the Athletic dept for anything that isn’t one of 2-3 sports. There’s a reason the athletic office has bled staff this year…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which neighborhoods in WSHS boundaries were zoned for other schools? I live near Hunt Valley ES- I can see it from my house. I can’t imagine that SoCo or Lewis would be closer than WS for me.

It is not.

But the part of HV along Gambrill was zoned for Lewis many decades ago before South County HS was built. When SoCo opened, there was a huge rezoning of many areas. The Gambrill neighborhood was rezoned for WSHS and the HV split feeder was eliminated. That was around 2 decades ago, but there is a person who regularly posts on this forum who is still very upset about it, constantly posting that Hunt Valley should return to split feeder status and be rezoned to Lewis, passing several elementary schools much closer to Lewis, and far out Saratoga, which abuts to South County, should be rezoned from Lewis to WSHS to replace Hunt Valley neighborhoods.

None of those suggestions make sense, but the person upset about WSHS and HV posts it repeatedly and has for years.

Anonymous wrote:Which neighborhoods in WSHS boundaries were zoned for other schools? I live near Hunt Valley ES- I can see it from my house. I can’t imagine that SoCo or Lewis would be closer than WS for me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with Lewis not being able to field a softball team is just one minor example of how students are victims of failed School Board policies. The ACLU should examine how policies like redistricting and expansion of “better” schools (WSHS, West Po) have negatively impacted education for many students at schools like Lewis and Mount Vernon. Students at those schools don’t have the same access to courses or extracurricular activities.

I agree with those expansions. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix (rezone) it; build upon, literally, what already works.

A-holes like you (and Jeff Platenberg, the slimeball who used to head Facilities and made sure West Springfield got a huge expansion while seats at Lewis went unfilled and the school cratered) are responsible for the gaping disparities within FCPS.

You can’t force parents to send their kid to a particular school, particularly a failing one. I think rezoning schools should be extremely rare and an absolute last resort. It’s better to have high-performing “mega schools” (3k+ kids in one building) than to try to shuffle kids around.

Jeff Platenburg specifically rezoned schools to favor where he lived in West Springfield and he refused to build an additional school out west, he decimated Annandale. He was also part of the West Potomac expansion that also rezoned properties and pulled people away from the surrounding IB schools. I remember when he bragged about how he was able to create the least s.f. per student as if that was a benefit to students. All he cared about was budgets and his own district.

West Potomac has had the same pyramid for a very long time. It's a combination of the old Ft Hunt High and the old Groveton High and the feeder pattern hasn't really changed since

That is true. Kind of like how Annandale at one point was a combination of the old Jefferson with Annandale, except in Annandale’s case they eventually rezoned AHS neighborhoods to other schools like Lake Braddock and Woodson and whereas at West Potomac they built a huge expansion so no one would have to move to Mount Vernon.

And they did change Lewis’s boundaries as well.

This is what I meant. They had an opportunity to do something about Lewis before it started failing and decided to facilitate its demise faster. It was irresponsible just like the way they handled Annandale.

Interesting that both Annandale and Lewis have IB instead of AP.

Eliminating IB would be an easy start.
1. It would be better for the current population because AP is much more flexible than IB. There is a wider range of classes available.
2. It would save money--and, if the SB had any common sense at all, they would eliminate IB at most schools that have it.
3. It would close one of those "escape valves" that another PP mentioned.

The problem with number 3 is those parents are going to be the most vocal about problems. Neither the administration nor the school board wants to deal with that

That may be true, but you haven't seen anything if you have never been through a redistricting. This would be simple and cheap.

Doing nothing is simpler and cheaper.

It won't be simpler and cheaper if FCPS ends up with another expensive lawsuit challenging the lack of equal opportunities for Lewis students. This School Board should be ashamed of itself. They have done NOTHING to meet the needs of Lewis students. Instead, we got silly hacks like Karen Keys Gamarra pushing a half-baked academy program that NO ONE wanted because it won't offer anything useful.

I really think that a successful case could be made showing discrimination toward students at Lewis, and likely Mount Vernon and Annandale, too. Students in an adjacent “good” school boundary receives a vastly different education with many more opportunities than a student in the “bad” school just down the road.

What needs to happen is that the courts rule FCPS policies discriminatory. All existing boundaries need to be wiped clean and start from scratch countywide.