Thomas More Wrote:
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> So, where are we after all this noise and fury?
>
> Because of Gibson’s illegal January 2003 promise
> to some parents of Aldrin and Armstrong, and the
> collusion of the South Lakes Boundary Study Group,
> one of the potentially legitimate outcomes of this
> process, a united Reston whose children all attend
> one high school, will not be achieved.
>
> And because of Strauss’ intransigence, elementary
> schools now going to SL that could have raised FRL
> percentages at Langley and Madison high schools to
> the County average and elementary schools from the
> Langley and Madison attendance areas that could
> have lowered FRL at South Lakes and Herndon to
> levels that would have a significant impact on the
> achievement of those kids, will not be
> redistricted and neither of those worthy goals can
> result from this process.
>
> Westfield (based on new housing) will still have
> almost 3000 kids. South Lakes (also based on new
> housing) will be over enrolled as will Madison and
> Chantilly.
>
> It appears that the only thing this exercise
> achieves, besides setting neighbor against
> neighbor, is to make the South Lakes football team
> potentially competitive in the Concorde District
> sometime after 2012 and to add a few IB HL courses
> for the less than 5% of SL kids who take those
> courses.
>
> If that’s all there is to this exercise, a pox on
> all their houses.
Gibson and Strauss did the ground rules. Almost 50% of the high schools in this county will have been in boundary processes over the last few years. West Springfield had a solid sending area and the some mucked with that [including Gibson] to get more people out of Lee. At the bottom of this county in each corner are some isolated areas. Last year Gibson advocated for the people SE of South County living on Mason Neck which is so isolated it has a federal burro farm to be bussed past the South County area to Hayfield in favor of those who could reasonably go elsewhere but were in more of a dense suburban core.
They might have even ended up bussing walkers to another school for gerrymandering. Areas have to be defined by legal busses v unmandated courtesy busses in boundary processes.
So you have school board members who will draw a circle around a school then bus outlying areas ridiculous distances.
It's like some areas are not part of FCPS. South Lakes boundary group took whatever was offered. If some live in the Forest Edge attendance area I really cannot understand the sell-out on Aldrin and a portion of Langley irrespective of who stays at Herndon high school.
If your 10 year old can ride a bike or trick or treat next door in a residential area then it's also something to go into a boundary process. If Grandma can walk the dog from the house over to the field to watch little Stu's t-ball game then granny's house should be considered for that field's elementary school.
Sully offered up fringe areas rather than any changes in core Chantilly areas that are almost if not equidistant to Westfield. Westfield was supposed to be a secondary school according to Rumberger in a Connection article. I'd like to see a scenario where that is a secondary school and a middle school is converted to a dual existence as an academy/vo-tech and adult ed center.
The airport should be removed from Floris' attendance area and it is grossly unfair to put it in for that school.
South Lakes DOES NOT even market it's IB higher level diploma program to ANY RESIDENCE in the Langley pyramid.
Marshall sells itself to Kilmer and Longfellow [big fat GT centers]. FCPS purposefully steers kids to Marshall bypassing South Lakes. This link is to the IB and AP official student transfer list. FCPS employees do not type the word South Lakes in relation to Langley despite the location of residences. So FCPS set up a situation where kids drive through or get bussed through the South Lakes attendance area to go to other schools:
http://www.fcps.edu/ss/student-transfer/infofiles/APandIB-list.pdf
"A parent or guardian can request a student transfer for his or her child to enroll in an Advanced Placement (AP) or
International Baccalaureate (IB) program at a school with space available that is closest to the student’s residence or base
school."