FCPS HS Boundary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Then why do you care about Forestville kids going to Herndon (or not)? Your kids don’t go to either Langley or Herndon, so why are you opining about other people’s children?

McLean mom wants Forestville moved out of Langley so her kids can get moved to Langley and avoid the drop in quality at McLean once all the new low-income housing is built in Tysons.

Nope, I want McLean to be less crowded for all go there by making the obvious choice to shift some of MHS to LHS and some of LHS to HHS. LHS has capacity and some parts of its zone are so much closer to HHS (the bus ride from those neighborhoods to LHS to s ridiculous).

With its new renovation, Falls Church HS can pick up some of the McLean crowding on the other side of the McLean district. Frankly, with the growth of Tyson’s, I think both will have to happen as well as expanding McLean.

Falls Church HS is much farther away from MHS zone than HHS is from LHS. Not to mention, LHS has excess capacity.

Nice try. There are parts of McLean that are super close to falls church high. Be careful advocating too hard for a county-wide redistricting, McLean families, or you could end up with some very unintended consequences.

DP. McLean still has two attendance islands. One is in Tysons, and feeds to Spring Hill, which is a split feeder to Langley and McLean. The other is in Falls Church, and feeds to Timber Lane, which is a split feeder to McLean and Falls Church.

It would be easier, if they want to reduce the overcrowding at McLean and remain unwilling to invest in the school, to move the Timber Lane island to Falls Church. However, that would pull diversity out of McLean, so the SB may be more inclined to move the Spring Hill island to Langley. If they do that, it stands to push Langley (and even more so Cooper) over capacity, so they may team it with moving part of Langley to Herndon. Or maybe they won’t, in which case Cooper and Langley can enjoy some of the overcrowding that McLean has put up with for the past decade.

Some McLean families may relish any scenario that moves them to wealthier, renovated Langley. Many of us would prefer FCPS to leave the boundaries alone and expand McLean like they’ve expanded West Potomac, Madison and Justice (outside the queue), but the powers that be refuse to spend money at our school. So, now, with our School Board member and others touting upcoming boundary changes, we’re just trying to figure out what it may mean for our pyramid. If our speculation bothers you so much, maybe you should have supported a MHS addition previously (rather than accused us of trying to jump the queue) or voted for different School Board candidates.

A couple things:

I fully support a McLean renovation - PP seeks to throw GF neighbors under the bus to save her own kids, which is what I find repugnant.

Re: McLean islands, I’ve run the numbers, and I think the board will consider moving more than just the Spring Hill island. That move only still has McLean projected at over 110%, so they may have to move the other island to Falls church high school if they truly want to relieve overcrowding, or, less likely, move some of McLean near-ish Langley to Langley.

Maybe PP is smack dab in the heart of McLean and has kids that will not be directly affected by this, but moving 20% of a school’s population to other schools is never going to be a seamless process, so expect massive disruption when this actually gets enacted. I’m just saying to the PP that she should be careful what she wishes for.

Btw, the current board doesn’t care about McLean or Langley (Robyn Lady only cares about one school in her district). So, I’m just saying you might want to rethink the let’s sacrifice Forestville to relieve McLean overcrowding strategy, as it could completely backfire on you.

Personally, I’ve only pointed out before that moving even more of McLean to Langley may result in moving part of Langley to Herndon. I’m not advocating for it, and if it’s proposed I’m sure those families will make the case it shouldn’t happen. However, I have listened to Elaine Tholen tell McLean parents in the past that they couldn’t move more of Longfellow/McLean to Cooper/Langley because it would overcrowd Cooper (even post-renovation), and the only thing that’s really happened since then is that Herndon’s big expansion has been completed. That - plus the latest projections - seem to suggest FCPS may already have a future McLean/Langley/Herndon boundary change in mind. But if Langley can fight it and prefers its own overcrowding in the future, cool.

A few other things. First, they don’t need to pull 20% of McLean out unless they plan to get rid of the existing modular and never plan to expand McLean (we can have a separate discussion about leaving as the smallest HS in the county one expected to serve growing areas), and it’s a bit odd to call potentially moving kids to a renovated, expanded high school closer to their homes (Herndon) “throwing them under the bus.” You seem to think McLean kids can roll easily with being moved to Langley and/or Falls Church, but moving any kids out of Langley would be “repugnant.”

Where in the world do I say that “McLean kids can roll easily”? My post quite literally says the exact opposite.

And just to refute one of your central points- they probably will consider moving more than just the spring hill kids, because if they don’t then they won’t really need to mess with Langley at all as it won’t be overcrowded (or marginally so). They need the inflated Langley numbers to justify the Forestville move to Herndon. Although based on their Herndon projections, they may just politically change the Langley projections next CIP.

Let me be clear, because you are trying to put words in my mouth. I absolutely think a county-wide redistricting is going to be a significant disaster for the county. Major disruption to thousands or tens of thousands of kids, thousands of impacted families, a decline in school quality, and a significant loss of tax revenue. And it’ll be a catastrophic hit to the FC Democratic brand. Nonetheless, they seem heck-bent on going through with it. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear I’m not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Then why do you care about Forestville kids going to Herndon (or not)? Your kids don’t go to either Langley or Herndon, so why are you opining about other people’s children?

McLean mom wants Forestville moved out of Langley so her kids can get moved to Langley and avoid the drop in quality at McLean once all the new low-income housing is built in Tysons.

Nope, I want McLean to be less crowded for all go there by making the obvious choice to shift some of MHS to LHS and some of LHS to HHS. LHS has capacity and some parts of its zone are so much closer to HHS (the bus ride from those neighborhoods to LHS to s ridiculous).

With its new renovation, Falls Church HS can pick up some of the McLean crowding on the other side of the McLean district. Frankly, with the growth of Tyson’s, I think both will have to happen as well as expanding McLean.

Falls Church HS is much farther away from MHS zone than HHS is from LHS. Not to mention, LHS has excess capacity.

Nice try. There are parts of McLean that are super close to falls church high. Be careful advocating too hard for a county-wide redistricting, McLean families, or you could end up with some very unintended consequences.

PS, just to add to this, if they are looking to level out numbers, Chantilly and Centreville probably can only be absorbed via Herndon, not Falls Church, so I could see a scenario where they move 20% off the McLean kids to the recently renovated falls church high. Admittedly, reducing overcrowding seems more like the pretext for redistricting, but it’s certainly more than a remote possibility.

Nice try, Great Falls mom. Look at a map.

Funny, I’ve looked at the school map more than I’ve ever wanted to. I’ve got spreadsheets projecting out various scenarios, and I’ve spent significant hours scrutinizing the last few CIPs.

I get why you want to dismiss the possibility of a significant negative impact to McLean, but discount my argument at your own peril.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Then why do you care about Forestville kids going to Herndon (or not)? Your kids don’t go to either Langley or Herndon, so why are you opining about other people’s children?

McLean mom wants Forestville moved out of Langley so her kids can get moved to Langley and avoid the drop in quality at McLean once all the new low-income housing is built in Tysons.

Nope, I want McLean to be less crowded for all go there by making the obvious choice to shift some of MHS to LHS and some of LHS to HHS. LHS has capacity and some parts of its zone are so much closer to HHS (the bus ride from those neighborhoods to LHS to s ridiculous).

With its new renovation, Falls Church HS can pick up some of the McLean crowding on the other side of the McLean district. Frankly, with the growth of Tyson’s, I think both will have to happen as well as expanding McLean.

Falls Church HS is much farther away from MHS zone than HHS is from LHS. Not to mention, LHS has excess capacity.

Nice try. There are parts of McLean that are super close to falls church high. Be careful advocating too hard for a county-wide redistricting, McLean families, or you could end up with some very unintended consequences.

DP. McLean still has two attendance islands. One is in Tysons, and feeds to Spring Hill, which is a split feeder to Langley and McLean. The other is in Falls Church, and feeds to Timber Lane, which is a split feeder to McLean and Falls Church.

It would be easier, if they want to reduce the overcrowding at McLean and remain unwilling to invest in the school, to move the Timber Lane island to Falls Church. However, that would pull diversity out of McLean, so the SB may be more inclined to move the Spring Hill island to Langley. If they do that, it stands to push Langley (and even more so Cooper) over capacity, so they may team it with moving part of Langley to Herndon. Or maybe they won’t, in which case Cooper and Langley can enjoy some of the overcrowding that McLean has put up with for the past decade.

Some McLean families may relish any scenario that moves them to wealthier, renovated Langley. Many of us would prefer FCPS to leave the boundaries alone and expand McLean like they’ve expanded West Potomac, Madison and Justice (outside the queue), but the powers that be refuse to spend money at our school. So, now, with our School Board member and others touting upcoming boundary changes, we’re just trying to figure out what it may mean for our pyramid. If our speculation bothers you so much, maybe you should have supported a MHS addition previously (rather than accused us of trying to jump the queue) or voted for different School Board candidates.

A couple things:

I fully support a McLean renovation - PP seeks to throw GF neighbors under the bus to save her own kids, which is what I find repugnant.

Re: McLean islands, I’ve run the numbers, and I think the board will consider moving more than just the Spring Hill island. That move only still has McLean projected at over 110%, so they may have to move the other island to Falls church high school if they truly want to relieve overcrowding, or, less likely, move some of McLean near-ish Langley to Langley.

Maybe PP is smack dab in the heart of McLean and has kids that will not be directly affected by this, but moving 20% of a school’s population to other schools is never going to be a seamless process, so expect massive disruption when this actually gets enacted. I’m just saying to the PP that she should be careful what she wishes for.

Btw, the current board doesn’t care about McLean or Langley (Robyn Lady only cares about one school in her district). So, I’m just saying you might want to rethink the let’s sacrifice Forestville to relieve McLean overcrowding strategy, as it could completely backfire on you.

Personally, I’ve only pointed out before that moving even more of McLean to Langley may result in moving part of Langley to Herndon. I’m not advocating for it, and if it’s proposed I’m sure those families will make the case it shouldn’t happen. However, I have listened to Elaine Tholen tell McLean parents in the past that they couldn’t move more of Longfellow/McLean to Cooper/Langley because it would overcrowd Cooper (even post-renovation), and the only thing that’s really happened since then is that Herndon’s big expansion has been completed. That - plus the latest projections - seem to suggest FCPS may already have a future McLean/Langley/Herndon boundary change in mind. But if Langley can fight it and prefers its own overcrowding in the future, cool.

A few other things. First, they don’t need to pull 20% of McLean out unless they plan to get rid of the existing modular and never plan to expand McLean (we can have a separate discussion about leaving as the smallest HS in the county one expected to serve growing areas), and it’s a bit odd to call potentially moving kids to a renovated, expanded high school closer to their homes (Herndon) “throwing them under the bus.” You seem to think McLean kids can roll easily with being moved to Langley and/or Falls Church, but moving any kids out of Langley would be “repugnant.”

Where in the world do I say that “McLean kids can roll easily”? My post quite literally says the exact opposite.

And just to refute one of your central points- they probably will consider moving more than just the spring hill kids, because if they don’t then they won’t really need to mess with Langley at all as it won’t be overcrowded (or marginally so). They need the inflated Langley numbers to justify the Forestville move to Herndon. Although based on their Herndon projections, they may just politically change the Langley projections next CIP.

Let me be clear, because you are trying to put words in my mouth. I absolutely think a county-wide redistricting is going to be a significant disaster for the county. Major disruption to thousands or tens of thousands of kids, thousands of impacted families, a decline in school quality, and a significant loss of tax revenue. And it’ll be a catastrophic hit to the FC Democratic brand. Nonetheless, they seem heck-bent on going through with it. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear I’m not.

I didn’t put words in your mouth. I drew inferences based on how readily you seemed to entertain multiple scenarios at once to move 20% of McLean students out of the school, while expressing revulsion at any suggestion Forestville kids now zoned to Langley might move to Herndon. I didn’t see you so quickly jumping to “run those numbers.”

If you are in favor of putting this entire boundary change exercise on hold until they actually have a far better sense of what they are proposing to do and its longer-term implications for FCPS and the county we are actually in agreement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Then why do you care about Forestville kids going to Herndon (or not)? Your kids don’t go to either Langley or Herndon, so why are you opining about other people’s children?

McLean mom wants Forestville moved out of Langley so her kids can get moved to Langley and avoid the drop in quality at McLean once all the new low-income housing is built in Tysons.

Nope, I want McLean to be less crowded for all go there by making the obvious choice to shift some of MHS to LHS and some of LHS to HHS. LHS has capacity and some parts of its zone are so much closer to HHS (the bus ride from those neighborhoods to LHS to s ridiculous).

With its new renovation, Falls Church HS can pick up some of the McLean crowding on the other side of the McLean district. Frankly, with the growth of Tyson’s, I think both will have to happen as well as expanding McLean.

Falls Church HS is much farther away from MHS zone than HHS is from LHS. Not to mention, LHS has excess capacity.

Nice try. There are parts of McLean that are super close to falls church high. Be careful advocating too hard for a county-wide redistricting, McLean families, or you could end up with some very unintended consequences.

PS, just to add to this, if they are looking to level out numbers, Chantilly and Centreville probably can only be absorbed via Herndon, not Falls Church, so I could see a scenario where they move 20% off the McLean kids to the recently renovated falls church high. Admittedly, reducing overcrowding seems more like the pretext for redistricting, but it’s certainly more than a remote possibility.

Nice try, Great Falls mom. Look at a map.

Funny, I’ve looked at the school map more than I’ve ever wanted to. I’ve got spreadsheets projecting out various scenarios, and I’ve spent significant hours scrutinizing the last few CIPs.

I get why you want to dismiss the possibility of a significant negative impact to McLean, but discount my argument at your own peril.

Ah, now I see, you don’t even have school age kids, do you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Then why do you care about Forestville kids going to Herndon (or not)? Your kids don’t go to either Langley or Herndon, so why are you opining about other people’s children?

McLean mom wants Forestville moved out of Langley so her kids can get moved to Langley and avoid the drop in quality at McLean once all the new low-income housing is built in Tysons.

Nope, I want McLean to be less crowded for all go there by making the obvious choice to shift some of MHS to LHS and some of LHS to HHS. LHS has capacity and some parts of its zone are so much closer to HHS (the bus ride from those neighborhoods to LHS to s ridiculous).

With its new renovation, Falls Church HS can pick up some of the McLean crowding on the other side of the McLean district. Frankly, with the growth of Tyson’s, I think both will have to happen as well as expanding McLean.

Falls Church HS is much farther away from MHS zone than HHS is from LHS. Not to mention, LHS has excess capacity.

Nice try. There are parts of McLean that are super close to falls church high. Be careful advocating too hard for a county-wide redistricting, McLean families, or you could end up with some very unintended consequences.

DP. McLean still has two attendance islands. One is in Tysons, and feeds to Spring Hill, which is a split feeder to Langley and McLean. The other is in Falls Church, and feeds to Timber Lane, which is a split feeder to McLean and Falls Church.

It would be easier, if they want to reduce the overcrowding at McLean and remain unwilling to invest in the school, to move the Timber Lane island to Falls Church. However, that would pull diversity out of McLean, so the SB may be more inclined to move the Spring Hill island to Langley. If they do that, it stands to push Langley (and even more so Cooper) over capacity, so they may team it with moving part of Langley to Herndon. Or maybe they won’t, in which case Cooper and Langley can enjoy some of the overcrowding that McLean has put up with for the past decade.

Some McLean families may relish any scenario that moves them to wealthier, renovated Langley. Many of us would prefer FCPS to leave the boundaries alone and expand McLean like they’ve expanded West Potomac, Madison and Justice (outside the queue), but the powers that be refuse to spend money at our school. So, now, with our School Board member and others touting upcoming boundary changes, we’re just trying to figure out what it may mean for our pyramid. If our speculation bothers you so much, maybe you should have supported a MHS addition previously (rather than accused us of trying to jump the queue) or voted for different School Board candidates.

A couple things:

I fully support a McLean renovation - PP seeks to throw GF neighbors under the bus to save her own kids, which is what I find repugnant.

Re: McLean islands, I’ve run the numbers, and I think the board will consider moving more than just the Spring Hill island. That move only still has McLean projected at over 110%, so they may have to move the other island to Falls church high school if they truly want to relieve overcrowding, or, less likely, move some of McLean near-ish Langley to Langley.

Maybe PP is smack dab in the heart of McLean and has kids that will not be directly affected by this, but moving 20% of a school’s population to other schools is never going to be a seamless process, so expect massive disruption when this actually gets enacted. I’m just saying to the PP that she should be careful what she wishes for.

Btw, the current board doesn’t care about McLean or Langley (Robyn Lady only cares about one school in her district). So, I’m just saying you might want to rethink the let’s sacrifice Forestville to relieve McLean overcrowding strategy, as it could completely backfire on you.

Personally, I’ve only pointed out before that moving even more of McLean to Langley may result in moving part of Langley to Herndon. I’m not advocating for it, and if it’s proposed I’m sure those families will make the case it shouldn’t happen. However, I have listened to Elaine Tholen tell McLean parents in the past that they couldn’t move more of Longfellow/McLean to Cooper/Langley because it would overcrowd Cooper (even post-renovation), and the only thing that’s really happened since then is that Herndon’s big expansion has been completed. That - plus the latest projections - seem to suggest FCPS may already have a future McLean/Langley/Herndon boundary change in mind. But if Langley can fight it and prefers its own overcrowding in the future, cool.

A few other things. First, they don’t need to pull 20% of McLean out unless they plan to get rid of the existing modular and never plan to expand McLean (we can have a separate discussion about leaving as the smallest HS in the county one expected to serve growing areas), and it’s a bit odd to call potentially moving kids to a renovated, expanded high school closer to their homes (Herndon) “throwing them under the bus.” You seem to think McLean kids can roll easily with being moved to Langley and/or Falls Church, but moving any kids out of Langley would be “repugnant.”

Where in the world do I say that “McLean kids can roll easily”? My post quite literally says the exact opposite.

And just to refute one of your central points- they probably will consider moving more than just the spring hill kids, because if they don’t then they won’t really need to mess with Langley at all as it won’t be overcrowded (or marginally so). They need the inflated Langley numbers to justify the Forestville move to Herndon. Although based on their Herndon projections, they may just politically change the Langley projections next CIP.

Let me be clear, because you are trying to put words in my mouth. I absolutely think a county-wide redistricting is going to be a significant disaster for the county. Major disruption to thousands or tens of thousands of kids, thousands of impacted families, a decline in school quality, and a significant loss of tax revenue. And it’ll be a catastrophic hit to the FC Democratic brand. Nonetheless, they seem heck-bent on going through with it. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear I’m not.

I didn’t put words in your mouth. I drew inferences based on how readily you seemed to entertain multiple scenarios at once to move 20% of McLean students out of the school, while expressing revulsion at any suggestion Forestville kids now zoned to Langley might move to Herndon. I didn’t see you so quickly jumping to “run those numbers.”

If you are in favor of putting this entire boundary change exercise on hold until they actually have a far better sense of what they are proposing to do and its longer-term implications for FCPS and the county we are actually in agreement.

We are in agreement. Nothing would make me happier than killing the redistricting effort. Unfortunately, Robyn Lady’s newsletter this week confirmed that they are likely to go ahead with it. Most residents will be impacted in one way or another, some much more than others - they plan to pick winners and losers with this process.

I have spent entirely too much time running the Forestville Herndon numbers in anticipation of the SB moving ahead with this, even over the objection of a clear majority of the county residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Then why do you care about Forestville kids going to Herndon (or not)? Your kids don’t go to either Langley or Herndon, so why are you opining about other people’s children?

McLean mom wants Forestville moved out of Langley so her kids can get moved to Langley and avoid the drop in quality at McLean once all the new low-income housing is built in Tysons.

Nope, I want McLean to be less crowded for all go there by making the obvious choice to shift some of MHS to LHS and some of LHS to HHS. LHS has capacity and some parts of its zone are so much closer to HHS (the bus ride from those neighborhoods to LHS to s ridiculous).

With its new renovation, Falls Church HS can pick up some of the McLean crowding on the other side of the McLean district. Frankly, with the growth of Tyson’s, I think both will have to happen as well as expanding McLean.

Falls Church HS is much farther away from MHS zone than HHS is from LHS. Not to mention, LHS has excess capacity.

Nice try. There are parts of McLean that are super close to falls church high. Be careful advocating too hard for a county-wide redistricting, McLean families, or you could end up with some very unintended consequences.

PS, just to add to this, if they are looking to level out numbers, Chantilly and Centreville probably can only be absorbed via Herndon, not Falls Church, so I could see a scenario where they move 20% off the McLean kids to the recently renovated falls church high. Admittedly, reducing overcrowding seems more like the pretext for redistricting, but it’s certainly more than a remote possibility.

Nice try, Great Falls mom. Look at a map.

Funny, I’ve looked at the school map more than I’ve ever wanted to. I’ve got spreadsheets projecting out various scenarios, and I’ve spent significant hours scrutinizing the last few CIPs.

I get why you want to dismiss the possibility of a significant negative impact to McLean, but discount my argument at your own peril.

Ah, now I see, you don’t even have school age kids, do you?

I have multiple school age children in FCPS. Why would what I said lead you to believe otherwise? And how is that at all germane to the points I was making in my post? Like I said, discount my analysis at your own peril.

[Anonymous]

Before any rezoning ovvurs, two critical things should occur:

#1. All students attending a school affected by rezoning should be required to supply a proff of residency in the form of a recent utility bill in one of their parent's name.

If they cannot produce a current utility bill proving they are attending the correct school for their address, then they need to be moved out of the school the following year, back to their zoned school, and removed from the capacity counts. I suspect that there are dozens or more families that fall into this category, falsely inflating the capacity numbers.

#2 All loopholes allowing students to transfer out of receiving schools, such as Lewis where over 12% of the students transfer away to other high schools.

Once the transfer out loopholes are closed, FCPS needs to wait 2 full academic years to see if this increases enrollment and test scores at the school, or if those roughly 200 students find a different way to avoid attending Lewis.

If Lewis attendance shows no notable increase in Lewis students attending their zoned high school, then FCPS needs to halt rezoning and look at other solutions for Lewis, that do no involve rezoning kids from WSHS to fill spots that Lewis zoned students refuse to fill.

Rezoning into any school that is pupil placing OUT hundreds of students is short sighted and a terrible waste of taxpayer money, not to mention a huge disruption to students lives, and an attack on families that purchased their home based on a specific high school zone.

Kids are not political pawns.

Enforce existing district residency rules.

Look at the student actually zoned for the schools who are not attending, and fix those deficiencies.

The solution is simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before any rezoning ovvurs, two critical things should occur:

#1. All students attending a school affected by rezoning should be required to supply a proff of residency in the form of a recent utility bill in one of their parent's name.

If they cannot produce a current utility bill proving they are attending the correct school for their address, then they need to be moved out of the school the following year, back to their zoned school, and removed from the capacity counts. I suspect that there are dozens or more families that fall into this category, falsely inflating the capacity numbers.

#2 All loopholes allowing students to transfer out of receiving schools, such as Lewis where over 12% of the students transfer away to other high schools.

Once the transfer out loopholes are closed, FCPS needs to wait 2 full academic years to see if this increases enrollment and test scores at the school, or if those roughly 200 students find a different way to avoid attending Lewis.

If Lewis attendance shows no notable increase in Lewis students attending their zoned high school, then FCPS needs to halt rezoning and look at other solutions for Lewis, that do no involve rezoning kids from WSHS to fill spots that Lewis zoned students refuse to fill.

Rezoning into any school that is pupil placing OUT hundreds of students is short sighted and a terrible waste of taxpayer money, not to mention a huge disruption to students lives, and an attack on families that purchased their home based on a specific high school zone.

Kids are not political pawns.

Enforce existing district residency rules.

Look at the student actually zoned for the schools who are not attending, and fix those deficiencies.

The solution is simple.

Great recommendations. I urge you to share your thoughts with your SB representative before it is too late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before any rezoning ovvurs, two critical things should occur:

#1. All students attending a school affected by rezoning should be required to supply a proff of residency in the form of a recent utility bill in one of their parent's name.

If they cannot produce a current utility bill proving they are attending the correct school for their address, then they need to be moved out of the school the following year, back to their zoned school, and removed from the capacity counts. I suspect that there are dozens or more families that fall into this category, falsely inflating the capacity numbers.

#2 All loopholes allowing students to transfer out of receiving schools, such as Lewis where over 12% of the students transfer away to other high schools.

Once the transfer out loopholes are closed, FCPS needs to wait 2 full academic years to see if this increases enrollment and test scores at the school, or if those roughly 200 students find a different way to avoid attending Lewis.

If Lewis attendance shows no notable increase in Lewis students attending their zoned high school, then FCPS needs to halt rezoning and look at other solutions for Lewis, that do no involve rezoning kids from WSHS to fill spots that Lewis zoned students refuse to fill.

Rezoning into any school that is pupil placing OUT hundreds of students is short sighted and a terrible waste of taxpayer money, not to mention a huge disruption to students lives, and an attack on families that purchased their home based on a specific high school zone.

Kids are not political pawns.

Enforce existing district residency rules.

Look at the student actually zoned for the schools who are not attending, and fix those deficiencies.

The solution is simple.

I'm not sure the residency problem is quite what you think - I don't think it will turn up dozens or hundreds of students that need to be returned to some other school. Maybe across the county you might find some, but nothing likely that will have a big impact on any one school.

As far as Lewis and transfers, cracking down on voluntary pupil placement could return some students, but it won't be all 200. I think at the high end it might be 75. I suppose that is a start. I think many of the rest are special education students, transfers for teachers' children (which you are not going to stop), behavioral (Bryant), and TJ. The biggest wildcard are the Edison transfers. That is the biggest number out of Lewis but it also has IB, so that is not the reason for the transfers. The guess is the STEM academy. Short of creating a similar program at Lewis I don't know that they can forbid students transferring to that program. Of course, this all argues for the first thing that should really be addressed - looking at standardizing the programs across the county high schools. First move should be to go back to all AP. That is the no brainer in all of this and the root of many of the problems (and started years ago). Standardizing language offerings would also help, but I don't see the county doing that.

So cracking down on pupil placements could help a little bit, but for Lewis and West Springfield, the projected gap (county projections) in enrollments in several years would still be in the 1400-1500 student range with West Springfield being over capacity. The county could still consider rezoning some West Springfield students to Lewis for capacity reasons. Not saying they will, just saying they could.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before any rezoning ovvurs, two critical things should occur:

#1. All students attending a school affected by rezoning should be required to supply a proff of residency in the form of a recent utility bill in one of their parent's name.

If they cannot produce a current utility bill proving they are attending the correct school for their address, then they need to be moved out of the school the following year, back to their zoned school, and removed from the capacity counts. I suspect that there are dozens or more families that fall into this category, falsely inflating the capacity numbers.

#2 All loopholes allowing students to transfer out of receiving schools, such as Lewis where over 12% of the students transfer away to other high schools.

Once the transfer out loopholes are closed, FCPS needs to wait 2 full academic years to see if this increases enrollment and test scores at the school, or if those roughly 200 students find a different way to avoid attending Lewis.

If Lewis attendance shows no notable increase in Lewis students attending their zoned high school, then FCPS needs to halt rezoning and look at other solutions for Lewis, that do no involve rezoning kids from WSHS to fill spots that Lewis zoned students refuse to fill.

Rezoning into any school that is pupil placing OUT hundreds of students is short sighted and a terrible waste of taxpayer money, not to mention a huge disruption to students lives, and an attack on families that purchased their home based on a specific high school zone.

Kids are not political pawns.

Enforce existing district residency rules.

Look at the student actually zoned for the schools who are not attending, and fix those deficiencies.

The solution is simple.

I'm not sure the residency problem is quite what you think - I don't think it will turn up dozens or hundreds of students that need to be returned to some other school. Maybe across the county you might find some, but nothing likely that will have a big impact on any one school.

As far as Lewis and transfers, cracking down on voluntary pupil placement could return some students, but it won't be all 200. I think at the high end it might be 75. I suppose that is a start. I think many of the rest are special education students, transfers for teachers' children (which you are not going to stop), behavioral (Bryant), and TJ. The biggest wildcard are the Edison transfers. That is the biggest number out of Lewis but it also has IB, so that is not the reason for the transfers. The guess is the STEM academy. Short of creating a similar program at Lewis I don't know that they can forbid students transferring to that program. Of course, this all argues for the first thing that should really be addressed - looking at standardizing the programs across the county high schools. First move should be to go back to all AP. That is the no brainer in all of this and the root of many of the problems (and started years ago). Standardizing language offerings would also help, but I don't see the county doing that.

So cracking down on pupil placements could help a little bit, but for Lewis and West Springfield, the projected gap (county projections) in enrollments in several years would still be in the 1400-1500 student range with West Springfield being over capacity. The county could still consider rezoning some West Springfield students to Lewis for capacity reasons. Not saying they will, just saying they could.

DP. I’ve looked at this at Herndon High, and, with a net outflow of nearly 300 students, it’s abundantly clear that curtailing the massive outflow would negate the need for any wholesale redistricting. That’s like 13% off the student body. Sure a couple dozen are TJ, but most are just parents trying to get their kids into the best educational situation for each. I’m not an advocate for moving these kids back, but I absolutely will advocate for it if they start messing with the boundaries, because they claim that process is about efficiency and using all the seats, and it’s hypocritical to move other districts in before dealing with the gigantic net outflows at these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before any rezoning ovvurs, two critical things should occur:

#1. All students attending a school affected by rezoning should be required to supply a proff of residency in the form of a recent utility bill in one of their parent's name.

If they cannot produce a current utility bill proving they are attending the correct school for their address, then they need to be moved out of the school the following year, back to their zoned school, and removed from the capacity counts. I suspect that there are dozens or more families that fall into this category, falsely inflating the capacity numbers.

#2 All loopholes allowing students to transfer out of receiving schools, such as Lewis where over 12% of the students transfer away to other high schools.

Once the transfer out loopholes are closed, FCPS needs to wait 2 full academic years to see if this increases enrollment and test scores at the school, or if those roughly 200 students find a different way to avoid attending Lewis.

If Lewis attendance shows no notable increase in Lewis students attending their zoned high school, then FCPS needs to halt rezoning and look at other solutions for Lewis, that do no involve rezoning kids from WSHS to fill spots that Lewis zoned students refuse to fill.

Rezoning into any school that is pupil placing OUT hundreds of students is short sighted and a terrible waste of taxpayer money, not to mention a huge disruption to students lives, and an attack on families that purchased their home based on a specific high school zone.

Kids are not political pawns.

Enforce existing district residency rules.

Look at the student actually zoned for the schools who are not attending, and fix those deficiencies.

The solution is simple.

I'm not sure the residency problem is quite what you think - I don't think it will turn up dozens or hundreds of students that need to be returned to some other school. Maybe across the county you might find some, but nothing likely that will have a big impact on any one school.

As far as Lewis and transfers, cracking down on voluntary pupil placement could return some students, but it won't be all 200. I think at the high end it might be 75. I suppose that is a start. I think many of the rest are special education students, transfers for teachers' children (which you are not going to stop), behavioral (Bryant), and TJ. The biggest wildcard are the Edison transfers. That is the biggest number out of Lewis but it also has IB, so that is not the reason for the transfers. The guess is the STEM academy. Short of creating a similar program at Lewis I don't know that they can forbid students transferring to that program. Of course, this all argues for the first thing that should really be addressed - looking at standardizing the programs across the county high schools. First move should be to go back to all AP. That is the no brainer in all of this and the root of many of the problems (and started years ago). Standardizing language offerings would also help, but I don't see the county doing that.

So cracking down on pupil placements could help a little bit, but for Lewis and West Springfield, the projected gap (county projections) in enrollments in several years would still be in the 1400-1500 student range with West Springfield being over capacity. The county could still consider rezoning some West Springfield students to Lewis for capacity reasons. Not saying they will, just saying they could.

DP. I’ve looked at this at Herndon High, and, with a net outflow of nearly 300 students, it’s abundantly clear that curtailing the massive outflow would negate the need for any wholesale redistricting. That’s like 13% off the student body. Sure a couple dozen are TJ, but most are just parents trying to get their kids into the best educational situation for each. I’m not an advocate for moving these kids back, but I absolutely will advocate for it if they start messing with the boundaries, because they claim that process is about efficiency and using all the seats, and it’s hypocritical to move other districts in before dealing with the gigantic net outflows at these schools.

It looks like 150 Herndon zoned students are attending South Lakes. Another 20 Herndon zoned students are attending Langley. Curtailing the voluntary pupil placements might help at Herndon more so than Lewis. The county would be wise to consider standardizing on AP and standardizing languages in order to stop these transfers. Otherwise, they might have legal trouble on their hands. Not a lawyer, but I can see parents filing lawsuits over equal access to programs. Academies are also problematic in this way.

[Anonymous]

Just move out all of the kids from Hunt Valley and Orange Hunt and rezone them for Key and Lewis. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just move out all of the kids from Hunt Valley and Orange Hunt and rezone them for Key and Lewis. Problem solved.

This must be the most absurd post on this entire thread.

What a very week attempt at trolling, showing zero ability to read a map.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just move out all of the kids from Hunt Valley and Orange Hunt and rezone them for Key and Lewis. Problem solved.

This must be the most absurd post on this entire thread.

What a very week attempt at trolling, showing zero ability to read a map.

Uh, okay. Take all of the kids from Hunt Valley and West Springfield ES and rezone them for Key and Lewis. That sound better to you?

All of this is absurd. Why not throw out some more stupid ideas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before any rezoning ovvurs, two critical things should occur:

#1. All students attending a school affected by rezoning should be required to supply a proff of residency in the form of a recent utility bill in one of their parent's name.

If they cannot produce a current utility bill proving they are attending the correct school for their address, then they need to be moved out of the school the following year, back to their zoned school, and removed from the capacity counts. I suspect that there are dozens or more families that fall into this category, falsely inflating the capacity numbers.

#2 All loopholes allowing students to transfer out of receiving schools, such as Lewis where over 12% of the students transfer away to other high schools.

Once the transfer out loopholes are closed, FCPS needs to wait 2 full academic years to see if this increases enrollment and test scores at the school, or if those roughly 200 students find a different way to avoid attending Lewis.

If Lewis attendance shows no notable increase in Lewis students attending their zoned high school, then FCPS needs to halt rezoning and look at other solutions for Lewis, that do no involve rezoning kids from WSHS to fill spots that Lewis zoned students refuse to fill.

Rezoning into any school that is pupil placing OUT hundreds of students is short sighted and a terrible waste of taxpayer money, not to mention a huge disruption to students lives, and an attack on families that purchased their home based on a specific high school zone.

Kids are not political pawns.

Enforce existing district residency rules.

Look at the student actually zoned for the schools who are not attending, and fix those deficiencies.

The solution is simple.

I'm not sure the residency problem is quite what you think - I don't think it will turn up dozens or hundreds of students that need to be returned to some other school. Maybe across the county you might find some, but nothing likely that will have a big impact on any one school.

As far as Lewis and transfers, cracking down on voluntary pupil placement could return some students, but it won't be all 200. I think at the high end it might be 75. I suppose that is a start. I think many of the rest are special education students, transfers for teachers' children (which you are not going to stop), behavioral (Bryant), and TJ. The biggest wildcard are the Edison transfers. That is the biggest number out of Lewis but it also has IB, so that is not the reason for the transfers. The guess is the STEM academy. Short of creating a similar program at Lewis I don't know that they can forbid students transferring to that program. Of course, this all argues for the first thing that should really be addressed - looking at standardizing the programs across the county high schools. First move should be to go back to all AP. That is the no brainer in all of this and the root of many of the problems (and started years ago). Standardizing language offerings would also help, but I don't see the county doing that.

So cracking down on pupil placements could help a little bit, but for Lewis and West Springfield, the projected gap (county projections) in enrollments in several years would still be in the 1400-1500 student range with West Springfield being over capacity. The county could still consider rezoning some West Springfield students to Lewis for capacity reasons. Not saying they will, just saying they could.

DP. I’ve looked at this at Herndon High, and, with a net outflow of nearly 300 students, it’s abundantly clear that curtailing the massive outflow would negate the need for any wholesale redistricting. That’s like 13% off the student body. Sure a couple dozen are TJ, but most are just parents trying to get their kids into the best educational situation for each. I’m not an advocate for moving these kids back, but I absolutely will advocate for it if they start messing with the boundaries, because they claim that process is about efficiency and using all the seats, and it’s hypocritical to move other districts in before dealing with the gigantic net outflows at these schools.

It looks like 150 Herndon zoned students are attending South Lakes. Another 20 Herndon zoned students are attending Langley. Curtailing the voluntary pupil placements might help at Herndon more so than Lewis. The county would be wise to consider standardizing on AP and standardizing languages in order to stop these transfers. Otherwise, they might have legal trouble on their hands. Not a lawyer, but I can see parents filing lawsuits over equal access to programs. Academies are also problematic in this way.

I’ll absolutely sue if my kids get denied access after redistricting. The good news is that the county will have lots of surplus money to defend the lawsuits based on the savings of one or two bus drivers.

Lawyers make $25/hour too, right?