I just have a few questions in general?
1. How did several high schools end up being placed so close to other high schools ? ( Madison and Oakton, Langley and McLean for example)
2. How did Langley and Oakton end up with such long stretchin attendence areas to begin with?
3. Where did Floris and Foxmill go to before they went to Oakton ? ( there was a comment in response to a Washington Post article stating that Fowmill was upset when they were first sent to Oakton)
4. What was the big redistrictin in the mid to late 80's besides the West Patomic situation and the merger of TJ and Annandale? What was the parent reaction of that situation?
5. What is the real reason(not the political thing) two Reston schools are not sent to Reston for middle and high school?
6. Did students from Great Falls always attend Langley ? How are they still at Langley given what the school board has said?
Would like some help before I buy a house so my family doesnt have to go through the same thing. I also think that history might be repeating itself and would like to have a better understanding of the whole picture as I am from the Boston suburbs originally where the schools are town run, and only a few have more than one high school, any help is appreciated thanks

Buy it wherever the hell you want. All the schools are the same. Except Mount Vernon, dot go there.

Go ask your questions in this thread, people there will have answers:

http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/41672.html

The placement of the schools was based on projected enrollment in those areas at the time. Enrollment changes as the population changes, and the entire area has changed more dramatically than was ever imagined back in the seventies. Most of Fairfax county was farmland and horse country. Planners didn't really think we'd ever fill out Fairfax the way it has been, but then, the Federal Government used to be the only real employer in the area.

But I'll state it again, all of Fairfax County schools are good. They were ALL on the latest US New and World Report list of top high schools. The difference is whether you want your kid going to a school with a lot of single parents, one with a lot of minorities mixed in, or one that's primarily white upper-middle class (since no one wants to admit to being wealthy around here).

KeepOnTruckin Wrote:
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> Buy it wherever the hell you want. All the schools
> are the same. Except Mount Vernon, dot go there.


Hahahaha sorry, but if you posted this in the high school districting thread, you'd get alot of replies regarding your post. You mentioned all the schools are the same, what is wrong with Mount Vernon? It is definitely underenrolled for sure and then the HSD thread people will have plenty to say something about it.

> 6. Did students from Great Falls always attend
> Langley ? How are they still at Langley given what
> the school board has said?
>
Since the early 90's the Rt. 7 corridor,west of the Toll Road to Colvin Run Road, has been attending either Langley or McLean. The area, which includes parts of Vienna, Mclean, and Great Falls, was previously within the Marshall pyramid. Through petition drives from neighborhoods in the area, the homeowners convinced the school board to change from Marshall. I believe a certain school board member eventually used this as leverage to elevate their political career. In terms of distance, Marshall is 5-6 miles from this area. Langley is about 11 miles and
Mclean High is 8 miles. As result of this questionable boundary change, Marshall is under enrolled by several hundred students and now the lowest enrolled high school in Fairfax. Langley is above capacity. Taxpayer money is currently being used to fund a new wing at Langley.

To be safe, buy in the Langley or McLean districts. The School Board doesn't dare mess with us.

Re-districting is for the little people.

@ Baffled: Soo many peopel use the HSRD thread if i post something then I wont be able to find the reply to it because there will be so many more posts. Actually i was just making fun of Mount Vernon HS because their football team is awful and you never hear of good students that come from there and they dont win awards in anything. Now you hear a lot about, say, Westfield HS becuase they have so many peopel and they win assloads of awards. Dont go to Westfield becuase they make you take steroids.

haha KeepOnTruckin, you just got pwned,

Gerry Mandering Wrote:
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> > 6. Did students from Great Falls always attend
> > Langley ? How are they still at Langley given
> what
> > the school board has said?

Some parts yes- east of Springvale road. It's part of the whole western /northern Mclean-Great Falls original Langley cachement area.

Others no. In the 1990's Stu Mendelsohn [lives off route 7] and Lou Zone moved everything west of Springvale Road into Langley from Herndon. That included stuff by Loudoun County and areas in herndon and reston. Some of the moved area had also gone to South Lakes at a prior point in time.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?archive=true&article=11265&paper=65&cat=104

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?archive=true&article=12035&paper=65&cat=104






> >
> Since the early 90's the Rt. 7 corridor,west of
> the Toll Road to Colvin Run Road, has been
> attending either Langley or McLean. The area,
> which includes parts of Vienna, Mclean, and Great
> Falls, was previously within the Marshall
> pyramid. Through petition drives from
> neighborhoods in the area, the homeowners
> convinced the school board to change from
> Marshall. I believe a certain school board member
> eventually used this as leverage to elevate their
> political career. In terms of distance, Marshall
> is 5-6 miles from this area. Langley is about 11
> miles and
> Mclean High is 8 miles. As result of this
> questionable boundary change, Marshall is under
> enrolled by several hundred students and now the
> lowest enrolled high school in Fairfax. Langley
> is above capacity. Taxpayer money is currently
> being used to fund a new wing at Langley.

just to add - when that Langley addition originally went on the CIP it showed up on the County CIP as being at Herndon high schools's location not Langley's.

That year 2 school board members went on the record to a nespaper questionning the additions at Westfield and Langley when South Lakes was undercapcity and in the middle.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?archive=true&article=14732&paper=72&cat=106

I believe Fox Mill originally went to Herndon before it was redistricted to Oakton.

max, I grew up in fox mill estates, and my oldest sister and brother went to herndon high, and they were classes of 86 and 87 respectively. My next oldest sister was oakton class of 89, and the most of the rest of us (except one brother who did votech at chantilly) followed as oakton grads (six of us total). That would seem to indicate the redistrict happened around 84 or 85 I think...

thanks for the help and info. I just have never seen so many elementary and middle schools with split feeders into high schools. I also have never seen such weirdly drawn boundaries sending so many students to schools located so far from their homes, with more than one located closer. I have lived in areas where students may not have gone to the closest high school, but I have never been in an area where students are sent so far or have been redistricted so much. The difference between here and Loudoun is there are no split feeders in Loudoun and students who do not attend the cloest high school still don't have like a 30 min commute. So i am still undecided where to buy, as I have moved alot and don't want my kids to get redistricted, even if i was to buy near Oakton for example, you go less than 2 miles and you come to another school. It looks like it might be Mclean or Langley but I wanted for diversity for my family, (financially as well as racial). I also want AP

So another question ? why do parents here put up with so many split feeders at the elementary and middle school level, particularly in Western Fairfax, I mean being RD'd is one thing , but splitting so many students up like this, just seems crazy, I guess so much for the school board claiming they wanted to get rid of split feeders, ie that small part of crossfeilds zoned to Chantilly.

Move into the town of Vienna. All students in the town go to Thoreau middle school and Madison high school. That is very unlikely to change as those are views as the town high schools. Town politicians would be up in arms if there was any attempt to redistrict.

Neen Wrote:
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> Move into the town of Vienna. All students in the
> town go to Thoreau middle school and Madison high
> school. That is very unlikely to change as those
> are views as the town high schools. Town
> politicians would be up in arms if there was any
> attempt to redistrict.


Can't the same be said for Fairfax City with Frost/Lanier MS and Fairfax HS?

Frost MS does not take from Fairfax City. Lanier MS and Fairfax HS are both owned by City of Fairfax school board but operated by the FCPS.

Neen Wrote:
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> Move into the town of Vienna. All students in the
> town go to Thoreau middle school and Madison high
> school. That is very unlikely to change as those
> are views as the town high schools. Town
> politicians would be up in arms if there was any
> attempt to redistrict.


Remember the Kilmer GT center squabble? Thoreau base school students sent to Jackson while Madison Island was the only remaining Thoreau piece to be sent to Kilmer GT center? And why? So Langley pyramid students from Forestville-Great Falls-Colvin Run would be bussed to Kilmer.

That was over 200 kids including ones driven by FCPS through the Hughes attendance area. Those static Langley boundaries drive a lot of decisions. My guess is also votes because I can't figure out why else any sane school board member would have voted for the new CIP money for South County Middle School.

To the OP,

As a fellow Bostonian, you must realize that each town and city suburb is incorporated separately unlike FFXCO. What this means is that there are separate tax bases, governments and school systems for each suburb. That's partially the reason why Newton, Weston, Milton, Wellesley, Brookline, Belmont have great schools while Waltham, Watertown, Quincy, Cambridge and Arlington are dreadful.

Except for the City of Falls Church (good schools) and the City of Alexandria(bad schools) everybody else is in a county school system. Even though there are Cities of FFX and of Vienna, they still go to FCPS.

If Fairfax Station wants to self-incorporate and support their own gov't, pd, fd, schools, that is fine but guess what? South County Secondary is STILL in Lorton and it wouldn't be under Bradsher's jurisdiction.