Re: High Schools
Posted by:
Lester Burnham
()
Date: November 13, 2006 05:07PM
Are you a student or parent? There are 15-20 high schools in Fairfax County. While each school has its own personality, there are probably a handful of styles that all of the schools fall into. Athletics is pretty big at most high schools and there should be a diversity of activities no matter where you are. Generally excellent programs for drama, art, and music.
There are very large schools like Robinson and Lake Braddock (2800+ students), medium schools like Woodson and Fairfax (2200-2800) and small schools like Madison and Mount Vernon. FCPS tries to get a representative balance of socioeconomic groups in each school, but this is hard with the type of growth that the area has experienced. Some schools have larger minority, ESOL and free/reduced lunch populations than others. Overall, the system is primarily white and middle/upper middle class.
Some people will go on about gang issues and other violence, but it is really not something that dominates the conversation. Fairfax schools do not exist in a vacuum, so drugs and other less than desirable behaviors exist. This is still a county with more than 1 million residents and it has many of the same issues of similar small urban area. Overall, however, it is still a very good system.