Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many school board members don't care about real issues other than getting reelected. They aren't willing to go out on a limb or take a controversial stance, even if it's the right one. In private, they will agree with redistricting suggestions, but won't take any action.

+1

Sandy Evans should do something about the Annandale (and Poe MS) situation.

Staff appears to want FARMS and language issues to be concentrated, presumably under the guise of concentrating relevant resources.

What is the best way to get staff to deal with the Poe MS/Annandale problem?

The best way is to make it part of a solution, and not say schools are a "problem" because you don't think they have enough white faces.

I would also point out that much of their information that purports to summarize conditions in the Annandale pyramid is useless, since they continue to include two elementary schools in the pyramid (Mason Crest and Bren Mar Park) that do not send any kids to Annandale.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many school board members don't care about real issues other than getting reelected. They aren't willing to go out on a limb or take a controversial stance, even if it's the right one. In private, they will agree with redistricting suggestions, but won't take any action.

+1

Sandy Evans should do something about the Annandale (and Poe MS) situation.

Staff appears to want FARMS and language issues to be concentrated, presumably under the guise of concentrating relevant resources.

What is the best way to get staff to deal with the Poe MS/Annandale problem?

Anonymous wrote:Has the ACLU looked into FCPS' concentration of poverty? It seems obvious that there are "rich" schools and "poor" schools within close proximity. West Po. vs Mt. Vernon, Lee vs West Springfield, etc.

The ACLU is probably more concerned about jurisdictions where poor school districts are near rich school districts and have fewer educational resources per student. In FCPS, the money is spread around and more money is spent per student in the "poor" schools, which get extra funding and resources.

Has the ACLU looked into FCPS' concentration of poverty? It seems obvious that there are "rich" schools and "poor" schools within close proximity. West Po. vs Mt. Vernon, Lee vs West Springfield, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many school board members don't care about real issues other than getting reelected. They aren't willing to go out on a limb or take a controversial stance, even if it's the right one. In private, they will agree with redistricting suggestions, but won't take any action.

+1

Sandy Evans should do something about the Annandale (and Poe MS) situation.

Staff appears to want FARMS and language issues to be concentrated, presumably under the guise of concentrating relevant resources.

Anonymous wrote:Too many school board members don't care about real issues other than getting reelected. They aren't willing to go out on a limb or take a controversial stance, even if it's the right one. In private, they will agree with redistricting suggestions, but won't take any action.

+1

Sandy Evans should do something about the Annandale (and Poe MS) situation.

Anonymous wrote:Enrollment is higher, but is the FARMS percentage down?

About the same at Edison - up about 1% over the past five years.

Enrollment is higher, but is the FARMS percentage down?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet IB verses AP was part of this debate as well.

http://patch.com/virginia/annandale/wakefield-chapel-parents-unhappy-with-annandale-study41b4d59556

Why did Strauss and Gibson vote for it? They should have seen the problem with their actions from their own vantage point.

http://patch.com/virginia/fairfaxcity/wakefield-forest-students-will-go-to-woodson

IB vs. AP wasn't an issue during the 2011 Annandale redistricting, as kids were moving from an IB school to a higher ranked AP school (Woodson) and another IB school (Edison). It likely would have come up had the School Board been proposing instead to move kids from Woodson to Annandale.

I meant that they were in favor of the move because they were moving to an AP school.

Some may have been, but my recollection is that the main argument that those who wanted to move to Woodson made was that the SB should eliminate the split feeder at Wakefield Forest so the kids could all attend the same middle and high school.

And the SB fixed it...

..by creating a split feeder at Holmes.

Although in that case it did help increase Edison's enrollment to a level consistent with the school's capacity. Edison was around 1700 a few years ago and now is slightly over 2000.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet IB verses AP was part of this debate as well.

http://patch.com/virginia/annandale/wakefield-chapel-parents-unhappy-with-annandale-study41b4d59556

Why did Strauss and Gibson vote for it? They should have seen the problem with their actions from their own vantage point.

http://patch.com/virginia/fairfaxcity/wakefield-forest-students-will-go-to-woodson

IB vs. AP wasn't an issue during the 2011 Annandale redistricting, as kids were moving from an IB school to a higher ranked AP school (Woodson) and another IB school (Edison). It likely would have come up had the School Board been proposing instead to move kids from Woodson to Annandale.

I meant that they were in favor of the move because they were moving to an AP school.

Some may have been, but my recollection is that the main argument that those who wanted to move to Woodson made was that the SB should eliminate the split feeder at Wakefield Forest so the kids could all attend the same middle and high school.

And the SB fixed it...

..by creating a split feeder at Holmes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet IB verses AP was part of this debate as well.

http://patch.com/virginia/annandale/wakefield-chapel-parents-unhappy-with-annandale-study41b4d59556

Why did Strauss and Gibson vote for it? They should have seen the problem with their actions from their own vantage point.

http://patch.com/virginia/fairfaxcity/wakefield-forest-students-will-go-to-woodson

IB vs. AP wasn't an issue during the 2011 Annandale redistricting, as kids were moving from an IB school to a higher ranked AP school (Woodson) and another IB school (Edison). It likely would have come up had the School Board been proposing instead to move kids from Woodson to Annandale.

I meant that they were in favor of the move because they were moving to an AP school.

Some may have been, but my recollection is that the main argument that those who wanted to move to Woodson made was that the SB should eliminate the split feeder at Wakefield Forest so the kids could all attend the same middle and high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet IB verses AP was part of this debate as well.

http://patch.com/virginia/annandale/wakefield-chapel-parents-unhappy-with-annandale-study41b4d59556

Why did Strauss and Gibson vote for it? They should have seen the problem with their actions from their own vantage point.

http://patch.com/virginia/fairfaxcity/wakefield-forest-students-will-go-to-woodson

IB vs. AP wasn't an issue during the 2011 Annandale redistricting, as kids were moving from an IB school to a higher ranked AP school (Woodson) and another IB school (Edison). It likely would have come up had the School Board been proposing instead to move kids from Woodson to Annandale.

I meant that they were in favor of the move because they were moving to an AP school.

Too many school board members don't care about real issues other than getting reelected. They aren't willing to go out on a limb or take a controversial stance, even if it's the right one. In private, they will agree with redistricting suggestions, but won't take any action.

Anonymous wrote:I bet IB verses AP was part of this debate as well.

http://patch.com/virginia/annandale/wakefield-chapel-parents-unhappy-with-annandale-study41b4d59556

Why did Strauss and Gibson vote for it? They should have seen the problem with their actions from their own vantage point.

http://patch.com/virginia/fairfaxcity/wakefield-forest-students-will-go-to-woodson

IB vs. AP wasn't an issue during the 2011 Annandale redistricting, as kids were moving from an IB school to a higher ranked AP school (Woodson) and another IB school (Edison). It likely would have come up had the School Board been proposing instead to move kids from Woodson to Annandale.

Anonymous wrote:I bet IB verses AP was part of this debate as well.

http://patch.com/virginia/annandale/wakefield-chapel-parents-unhappy-with-annandale-study41b4d59556

Why did Strauss and Gibson vote for it? They should have seen the problem with their actions from their own vantage point.

http://patch.com/virginia/fairfaxcity/wakefield-forest-students-will-go-to-woodson

Strauss voted against moving neighborhoods from Annandale to Woodson but, after that motion failed, she voted in favor of the whole package, which included not only the Annandale boundary changes but also the boundaries for Mason Crest, a new elementary school.

Gibson voted against the motion to keep the kids moved to Woodson at Annandale and in favor of the whole package. He probably did so as a favor to Tessie Wilson, who spearheaded the Annandale changes and had previously supported Gibson's crowning achievement, which was to move kids from multiple schools (Oakton, Westfield and Madison) to South Lakes in 2008.

Annandale was definitely overcrowded in 2011. People just didn't think carefully enough, however, about the likely effects of moving more SFH neighborhoods out of Poe and Annandale. It almost certainly has accelerated the pace of demographic change within the AHS boundaries.