Here is what I see as the three step process that will lead to massive HS boundary changes and an opportunity for FCPS break up high performing high schools.

1. Regional Reorganization – Post reported last spring that “Administrators hope the new school “regions” will create more equity across the system, allowing schools that typically have lower-achieving students and more poverty to work more closely — and share resources with — schools that tend to do better academically and have wealthier student populations.” The reorganization groups schools organizationally in “equitable” groups. All sounds very benign and good government like. This happened last spring.

2. Adopt SLEEP later start times. “Schools Superintendent Karen Garza plans to push for later start times at Fairfax County high schools next year, aiming to begin their day no earlier than 8 a.m. in an effort to give teenagers more time to sleep.” Again, who can argue against more sleep for the kids? This will have all sorts of experts weighing in and will get pushed through.

3. Now the groundwork is laid. HS transport routes are much longer than ES and most MS routes. The HS kids will be on the road at the peak of rush hour in the AM and in the early parts of rush hour in the afternoon. Watch in 2015 when the HS start time changes for massive late arrivals and other transportation woes. Watch the $5M cost quoted for SLEEP to spiral as more buses are needed to get the kids to HS on time.

Here’s where the final plan gets launched: A massively cheaper alternative is offered to address the SLEEP related bus costs that involves re-evaluating all HS attendance zones. Attendance with eastbound and northbound bus routes will be avoided so busses can be run in the opposite direction of morning traffic – mostly westbound and southbound. This will have the effect of chopping off the western and southern attendance zones of the high performing HS’s, allowing their students to be reallocated to lower performing schools. Western portions of Oakton, Langley, Madison will go, as will southern portions of LBSS. Look for all of the “pockets of excellence” to be eliminated – if you are in one of the top 10 HS’s in FCPS, expect all but the core attendance zone with a mile or two of the HS to be completely re-worked. Once the redistricting is in motion, FCPS will be able to select communities based on income and racial make up to ensure all of the new attendance zones are “equitable”. The region reorganization from last spring will mean the schools will have already been working together for a couple years under the same leadership. By making it travel time based versus geographically based, all sorts of options will be open to make sure no “wealthy” schools exist anymore.

Watch what happens over the next two-three years. We'll see if I'm right.

This is some keen insight and i would be willing to bet my left tit that you are absolutely right. It is too bad that the large majority of hard working student will be negaticely affected. Please share if you are one of these hard worki g students.

look at what moco did

SLEEP will shit the bed if this happens. The only thing more important than letting little Hunter and Madison sleep in is keeping them away from anything brown. No amount of extra sleep is going to help Mommy when Jose takes Madison to the prom.

SLEEP - If you like your High School, you can keep your High School.

I have rarely read anything on FXU with such insight. PLEASE send your thoughts to not only school board members, but to the media. We know from the past elections that rarely are boundaries changed prior to SB elections - property values and all that. However certain SB members are already opining on social media that we have to share resources.

I think this is an excellent analysis.

However, there is one fatal flaw - elected officials and FCPS administrators are no where near smart enough to come up with a plan like this.

Paul B Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think this is an excellent analysis.
>
> However, there is one fatal flaw - elected
> officials and FCPS administrators are no where
> near smart enough to come up with a plan like
> this.

SLEEP are the useful idiots for achieving Garza's redistributionist ends. There's a reason why SLEEP has failed to pass for so long - it's unworkable given current attendance zones and commuting times. FCPS knows it's unworkable, financially and logistically. By adopting it, Garza is creating the future crisis necessary to break up all of the "pockets of excellence" she finds so abhorrent.

Looking at the attendance zone map, many of the highest performing schools are located in the far eastern parts of their zone. Easy changes once the logistical nightmare of SLEEP kicks in:

- Chop off bottom of Robinson SS to Centreville - sends kids from 12% FRL school to a 25% FRL school, attributable to back road and 123 congestion at rush hour
- Chop off western part of Langley to Herndon - sends kinds from 2% FRL school to a 36% FRL school, attributable to Leesburg Pike commute times
- Chop off western part of Madison to South Lakes - sends kinds from 9.5% FRL school to 28% FRL school, attributable to 123 commute times

This is NOT the objective of SLEEP, but it IS the objective of FCPS in adopting SLEEP.

Regardless of why those sound like reasonable moves.

Why do we pay these buffoons to sit around conference tables coming up with complicated transportation routes, impractical re districting, and kidding themselves that kids will get more sleep?

Longer commute times will reduce sleep time.

Increased distance from base schools will cause more traffic connection wipben you consider additional transportation needs for extracurricular activities, meetings, sports and arts programs, and peer socializing.

They can sleep on the bus.

uh oh Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SLEEP will shit the bed if this happens. The only
> thing more important than letting little Hunter
> and Madison sleep in is keeping them away from
> anything brown. No amount of extra sleep is going
> to help Mommy when Jose takes Madison to the prom.


+1000

Most SLEEP moms will defend the defacto segregated schools for fear of the 'other'. Women who sit around hassling the schools for years over wake up time are not going to be in favor of seeing their high schools dismantled. They won't care if it costs 10x for transportation once it's in place.

they cannot voluntarily segregate and spend shitloads of FCPS money

then ask for more money to run "de-segratation" wihtout even showing segration exists

that was the ? 1950's? school desegregation. and that was a wonder because blacks had segregated into areas INTENTIONALLY - but there were those who had a vision of de-segratating being the end of all racial woes. however: they kept segregating (ie, look at detroit) VOLUNTARILY. in the 1950's there were likely money issues which today in many areas: are REVERSED counter indicating any "rights"

in recent days there have been cases OVERRULING counties from new de-segregation initiatives

with fx co gov advertising for illegals and people voluntarily segregating and illegals obtaining huge recourses their parents and country did not invest in: such as air conditioning

any talk of FCPS getting a bigger budget for a de-segregation initiative: just more bullshit excuses for FCPS to obtain mob money

other than jobs/pay issues in the 50's

segregation on busses i would think would be the pisser. since one can't expect to find a black owned bus (restraunt, maybe - thought that's money, and not convenient). daily humiliation i can't imagine being tolerated

in the 50's in restraunts they wanted to eat with whites (actaully they probably didn't! given the chance they'd have opened one and segregated)

but segregation on the whole: they do it intently - no bonus on that !

yet i did none of that neither did my family so f'off trying to billing me for it - your just stealing from me - and i'm the minority where i am :)

obama gov controlling many major cities and spending 9x what other presidents have and white birth below "non-white non-hispanic". yea. just come to me with your complaint!

as far as slavery - that's in a different age when blacks weren't the only ones slaved or starved - so stop right there - not part of the discussion

just the fact they took tax money to do a study

that's grand theft

SLEEP on this Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Paul B Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I think this is an excellent analysis.
> >
> > However, there is one fatal flaw - elected
> > officials and FCPS administrators are no where
> > near smart enough to come up with a plan like
> > this.
>
> SLEEP are the useful idiots for achieving Garza's
> redistributionist ends. There's a reason why SLEEP
> has failed to pass for so long - it's unworkable
> given current attendance zones and commuting
> times. FCPS knows it's unworkable, financially
> and logistically. By adopting it, Garza is
> creating the future crisis necessary to break up
> all of the "pockets of excellence" she finds so
> abhorrent.
>
> Looking at the attendance zone map, many of the
> highest performing schools are located in the far
> eastern parts of their zone. Easy changes once
> the logistical nightmare of SLEEP kicks in:
>
> - Chop off bottom of Robinson SS to Centreville -
> sends kids from 12% FRL school to a 25% FRL
> school, attributable to back road and 123
> congestion at rush hour
> - Chop off western part of Langley to Herndon -
> sends kinds from 2% FRL school to a 36% FRL
> school, attributable to Leesburg Pike commute
> times
> - Chop off western part of Madison to South Lakes
> - sends kinds from 9.5% FRL school to 28% FRL
> school, attributable to 123 commute times
>
> This is NOT the objective of SLEEP, but it IS the
> objective of FCPS in adopting SLEEP.

What are you babbling about? Langley is under-enrolled and, thanks to Stu Gibson, South Lakes is quite over-crowded. The stuff you are conjuring up in your head is not going to happen any time soon. You sound awfully paranoid.

>
>
> What are you babbling about? Langley is
> under-enrolled and, thanks to Stu Gibson, South
> Lakes is quite over-crowded. The stuff you are
> conjuring up in your head is not going to happen
> any time soon. You sound awfully paranoid.

The 'transportation crisis' that later HS start times will create seems entirely predictable. Long bus routes running right through morning rush, activity buses running in evening rush. The enrollment in any particular school is meaningless if you rip up the attendance map and start over to deal with a crisis. SLEEP passes now, 2015/16 will be filled with transport woes, and you'll see massive changes to attendance maps to deal with it.

here's the warning shot in the Facilities and Transportation services July 2014 report:

"...The rapid growth in student enrollments presents strategic opportunities to solve some imbalances...further streamlining of the boundary change process ...An expanded use of administrative and expedited boundary changes...these boundary change processes should also be encouraged when the change will further transportation efficiency...reliance on attendance area shifts that can be undertaken and implemented in shorter time frames..."

They are telling us what they are going to do - rapid changes with limited ability to stop them.

http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/9LSRPT6EF009/$file/FTS%20Executive%20Summary%202014.pdf

So glad the kids are old enough I don't have to be concerned about the severe deterioration of FCPS. Well, I will have to sell my house. It will be much harder given what is happening in FCPS.

It seems like OP could be correct. Otherwise, the SLEEP initiative is just plain idiotic. But the late start times could make some sense if FCPS is creating conditions for a redistributionist scheme.

SLEEP on this Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here is what I see as the three step process that
> will lead to massive HS boundary changes and an
> opportunity for FCPS break up high performing high
> schools.
>
> 1. Regional Reorganization – Post reported last
> spring that “Administrators hope the new school
> “regions” will create more equity across the
> system, allowing schools that typically have
> lower-achieving students and more poverty to work
> more closely — and share resources with —
> schools that tend to do better academically and
> have wealthier student populations.” The
> reorganization groups schools organizationally in
> “equitable” groups. All sounds very benign
> and good government like. This happened last
> spring.
>
> 2. Adopt SLEEP later start times. “Schools
> Superintendent Karen Garza plans to push for later
> start times at Fairfax County high schools next
> year, aiming to begin their day no earlier than 8
> a.m. in an effort to give teenagers more time to
> sleep.” Again, who can argue against more sleep
> for the kids? This will have all sorts of experts
> weighing in and will get pushed through.
>
> 3. Now the groundwork is laid. HS transport
> routes are much longer than ES and most MS routes.
> The HS kids will be on the road at the peak of
> rush hour in the AM and in the early parts of rush
> hour in the afternoon. Watch in 2015 when the HS
> start time changes for massive late arrivals and
> other transportation woes. Watch the $5M cost
> quoted for SLEEP to spiral as more buses are
> needed to get the kids to HS on time.
>
> Here’s where the final plan gets launched: A
> massively cheaper alternative is offered to
> address the SLEEP related bus costs that involves
> re-evaluating all HS attendance zones.
> Attendance with eastbound and northbound bus
> routes will be avoided so busses can be run in the
> opposite direction of morning traffic – mostly
> westbound and southbound. This will have the
> effect of chopping off the western and southern
> attendance zones of the high performing HS’s,
> allowing their students to be reallocated to lower
> performing schools. Western portions of Oakton,
> Langley, Madison will go, as will southern
> portions of LBSS. Look for all of the “pockets
> of excellence” to be eliminated – if you are
> in one of the top 10 HS’s in FCPS, expect all
> but the core attendance zone with a mile or two of
> the HS to be completely re-worked. Once the
> redistricting is in motion, FCPS will be able to
> select communities based on income and racial make
> up to ensure all of the new attendance zones are
> “equitable”. The region reorganization from
> last spring will mean the schools will have
> already been working together for a couple years
> under the same leadership. By making it travel
> time based versus geographically based, all sorts
> of options will be open to make sure no
> “wealthy” schools exist anymore.
>
> Watch what happens over the next two-three years.
> We'll see if I'm right.


Please return your tinfoil hat to the front desk.

Regardless if they use Sleep or not

We are going to do what Montgomery County did

aka make the schools more equitable by mixing people around

Nice try with the SLEEP conspiracy theory. Paranoid much?

The original founders of SLEEP don't even have kids in the schools anymore so they couldn't give a crap about boundaries. They are from wealthy schools anyways.

If you don't agree with SLEEP jus say so but know that doctors disagree with you.

Will there be a major overhaul of schools? Probably.

Why should someone who lives in Annandale great a lousy education?

You are an idiot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nice try with the SLEEP conspiracy theory.
> Paranoid much?

What part of the SLEEP Inc. conspiracy do you not believe? The $100,000+ "consulting" contract? The mysteriously added solution that even the contracted "expert" could not explain? The manipulation of the press, Wikipedia, so-called medical journals? The political payback for election support?

>
> The original founders of SLEEP don't even have
> kids in the schools anymore so they couldn't give
> a crap about boundaries. They are from wealthy
> schools anyways.

Exactly. SLEEP has never been concerned with the kids. They just latched on to a subject that sounded good at the time before understanding that later start times does not mean more sleep for teens. Then it became an ego matter - win change at any cost, regardless of the merits.

>
> If you don't agree with SLEEP just say so but know
> that doctors disagree with you.

Wrong. Doctors and most people agree that more sleep is good for teens. Real doctors have not studied whether there is a link between later start times and more sleep - the few researchers who did found no correlation.

>
> Will there be a major overhaul of schools?
> Probably.
>
> Why should someone who lives in Annandale great a
> lousy education?

Good point. They should go to their local Annandale high school... TJ. Problem is, every time the do-gooders find a way to get more brown and black people from Annandale into TJ, the Asians figure out the process and beat them.

I'd like to understand how 47 buses cost 5.4M and yet 27 buses cost 4.7M. Removing 20 buses saves only 700K? Yes, i know it's bigger buses versus smaller buses, but they still need drivers, maintenance, gas, etc., which will likely have similar costs per bus. Numbers seem awfully dodgy.

So Garza's plan is moving along nicely. She's jammed later school start times and the end of Monday afternoon off at ES through - who saw that coming 12 months ago? We've got some calm now before the SB election - don't want to do anything controversial while the sheople are paying attention. Once the SB election is over, I predict boundary studies en masse by Jan 1. Say goodbye to the islands of excellence - your kids are needed at the 30% FRL schools.

I get that if you feel you are in a "pocket of excellence" you are protective of it. But doesn't FCPS have some responsibility to address the pockets of poverty, educational underachievement and ethnic/cultural/linguistic segregation?

Just curious Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I get that if you feel you are in a "pocket of
> excellence" you are protective of it. But doesn't
> FCPS have some responsibility to address the
> pockets of poverty, educational underachievement
> and ethnic/cultural/linguistic segregation?


That's a false choice. Addressing poverty and underperforming schools does not require dismantling high performing schools. FCPS intends to "address" the problems by blending schools attendance in such a way to mask the issue, not address it.

SLEEP on this Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here is what I see as the three step process that
> will lead to massive HS boundary changes and an
> opportunity for FCPS break up high performing high
> schools.
>
> 1. Regional Reorganization – Post reported last
> spring that “Administrators hope the new school
> “regions” will create more equity across the
> system, allowing schools that typically have
> lower-achieving students and more poverty to work
> more closely — and share resources with —
> schools that tend to do better academically and
> have wealthier student populations.” The
> reorganization groups schools organizationally in
> “equitable” groups. All sounds very benign
> and good government like. This happened last
> spring.
>
> 2. Adopt SLEEP later start times. “Schools
> Superintendent Karen Garza plans to push for later
> start times at Fairfax County high schools next
> year, aiming to begin their day no earlier than 8
> a.m. in an effort to give teenagers more time to
> sleep.” Again, who can argue against more sleep
> for the kids? This will have all sorts of experts
> weighing in and will get pushed through.
>
> 3. Now the groundwork is laid. HS transport
> routes are much longer than ES and most MS routes.
> The HS kids will be on the road at the peak of
> rush hour in the AM and in the early parts of rush
> hour in the afternoon. Watch in 2015 when the HS
> start time changes for massive late arrivals and
> other transportation woes. Watch the $5M cost
> quoted for SLEEP to spiral as more buses are
> needed to get the kids to HS on time.
>
> Here’s where the final plan gets launched: A
> massively cheaper alternative is offered to
> address the SLEEP related bus costs that involves
> re-evaluating all HS attendance zones.
> Attendance with eastbound and northbound bus
> routes will be avoided so busses can be run in the
> opposite direction of morning traffic – mostly
> westbound and southbound. This will have the
> effect of chopping off the western and southern
> attendance zones of the high performing HS’s,
> allowing their students to be reallocated to lower
> performing schools. Western portions of Oakton,
> Langley, Madison will go, as will southern
> portions of LBSS. Look for all of the “pockets
> of excellence” to be eliminated – if you are
> in one of the top 10 HS’s in FCPS, expect all
> but the core attendance zone with a mile or two of
> the HS to be completely re-worked. Once the
> redistricting is in motion, FCPS will be able to
> select communities based on income and racial make
> up to ensure all of the new attendance zones are
> “equitable”. The region reorganization from
> last spring will mean the schools will have
> already been working together for a couple years
> under the same leadership. By making it travel
> time based versus geographically based, all sorts
> of options will be open to make sure no
> “wealthy” schools exist anymore.
>
> Watch what happens over the next two-three years.
> We'll see if I'm right.


The groundwork for the "transportation crisis" is now being established - http://www.fox5dc.com/news/33391615-story

Another article in the Post last week too.

Watch for post-SB election the volume on this sort of thing to go way up. FCPS will start dropping information on transportation stats on late arrivals, duration of bus routes, etc. Early 2016 rapid redistricting to follow.

Hate to tell the Dad in the Fox piece but your kid's probably going to South County next year.

None of this matters if they have transgender restrooms.