It was only going to be a short time until the angry parents busted out their wallets to take on the school system.

The truth of the matter is they will probably get their way because as soon as FCPS gets slapped with a lawsuit they back down. See the turn it in controversy, various student suspensions, etc.

While I dont agree with the way the redistricting has been done, its outrageous that parents wont have their kids sent to South Lakes HS or any other school, for that matter, and that they have their heads so far up their asses that they will spend atrocious amounts of $$$ and time to get their kids to go to Oakton.

What i do find funny is that the parents group has 800 members and they have been recruiting for what, since November or so? The Dave Kori snow day call gained over 10,000 students in less than a week.

THe lawsuit says the school board's decision was "arbitrary and capricious and undertaken in excess of its authority" Thats the biggest pile of bullshit i have seen in a long time (and I have seen some large piles of bull shit). The redistricting was not fucking ARBITRARY, half the schools are overcrowded. The decision was not capricious (impulsive), they do one every few years. And lastly it was IN NO FUCKING WAY IN EXCESS OF THE SCHOOL BOARD'S AUTHORITY" THE FUCKING STATE LAW TELLS THEM TO DO A REDISTRICTING STUDY.

I am pleased to see that the budget for legal services for FCPS has doubled. Maybe this suit will get thrown out.

article: http://www.centrevilletimes.com/news/2008/mar/31/fairfax-county-sued-over-school-redistricting/

Please DDoS this site: http://www.fairfaxcaps.org/index.html

Let them have their fun now.

In 10-15 years, when this area and all the schools are gonna be overcrowding with immigrants (legal or illegal), eating free lunches - they will be thankfull that they have ANY free school to go to.

Wow !!! Such language!!!

I have been reading a lot of rude comments of about the redistricting for a long time. Coincidentally it is coming from people who are supporting the redistricting. Respect other peoples choices has they have yours and maybe the behavior you have been demonstrating will be an aberation and not the norm.


Happily living in the 'burbs

If you want some comical reading http://www.fairfaxcaps.org/images/lawsuit_full.pdf

Talk about grasping for straws.

REad "fact" 28 in their lawsuit:
28. The School Board refused to delay all boundary studies even though Respondent knew, inter alia, that the West County high school boundary study was flawed and a comprehensive countywide plan could consider time and travel distances, safety issues, traffic, the cost of busing, and programmatic issues. (See Exhibit A at p. 4.)

32. The School Board refused to place a moratorium on boundary changes for Westfield, Chantilly, Herndon, South Lakes, Oakton, Madison, Marshall, Langley, and McLean High Schools until February 2010, in order to conduct a study to improve the enrollment imbalance and to make transportation more efficient, even though Respondent knew, inter alia, that flaws in the existing Western Boundary Study could be corrected by expanding the scope of the study to improve rationalization of the boundaries, reduce traffic congestion, improve safety and transportation and the cost thereof, and improve the delivery of educational programs.

The flaws being that their kid will have to go to South Lakes. All the suing parents are suing b/c their kid got redistricted to SLHS.

40. The School Board refused to remove the Madison "island" attendance area, including the middle and elementary school levels, from the West County high school boundary change, even though Respondent knew, inter alia, that a boundary adjustment including the Madison "island" would result in the movement of too few students to significantly impact South Lakes High School programs.

Thats the truest fact of all of the lawsuit.

And then where they try to prove their side-both counts- is all complete BS.

Wow, a racism-backed lawsuit. Hopefully they throw good money after bad. I guess they don't get that the County can create whatever boundaries it wants, and that is the deal taken with public schooling. Now we have a bunch of snobs whose children will have to sit next to people who speak spanish and we have lawsuits.

KeepOnTruckin, you are obviously pro-redistricting, and that's fine, but it's sad that you can't try to make your point without every other word being "FUCKING". You want an example of how arbitrary the process was? try this...

The main reason stated by the SB for this redistricting is the under-enrollment of SL. However, it has been under-enrolled for quite some time. In fact, it had considerable excess capacity about 10 years ago when they decided that Langley was overcrowded.
Did they move Langley kids to SL? No, they spent around $6.5 million to expand Langley. Why? If you don't know the answer then this discussion is a waste of time.
Fast foward to today. SL is still under-enrolled, and Mr. Gibson had previously promised SL more students. Now, Langley is closer to SL than either Westfield or Oakton, but were they included in the study? No. Why, for the same reasons that they received the expansion 10 years ago.

So yes, I think that qualifies as arbitrary.

Also, currently, at least in high schools, an overcrowded one is by far the exception, and not the rule, and that condition will only improve in the coming years.

The regulations about redistricting clearly state that the only reason to perform a redistricting is to either improve operational efficiency, or to increase educational effectiveness. In their attempt to validate this latest process, the SB cited numerous other reasons, including "socioeconomic factors", for performing the redistricting. They are not empowered to do that, nor have they shown where this redistricting will accomplish either of the two valid criteria, (1)improve operational efficiency or (2)increase educational effectiveness.

Regarding (1), it will COST the county money, money they can't afford.
It won't help (2) either unless you consider raising average school test scores to be increasing educational effectiveness.

LOL, I browsed that FairfaxCAPS site just to refresh my memory of how ridiculous these folks are....

And I clicked on the link to see who their donors are, just sorta curious about who is funding this initiative...

and it looks like so far they have collected money from some Indian restaurant in Manassas (donate up to 20% of your bill!!!), and donations from some guy who makes (lol) hand-crafted Christmas ornaments...

Boy, that's one juggernaut of community action they got going over there!!

SBS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> KeepOnTruckin, you are obviously
> pro-redistricting, and that's fine, but it's sad
> that you can't try to make your point without
> every other word being "FUCKING". You want an
> example of how arbitrary the process was? try
> this...
>
> The main reason stated by the SB for this
> redistricting is the under-enrollment of SL.
> However, it has been under-enrolled for quite some
> time. In fact, it had considerable excess
> capacity about 10 years ago when they decided that
> Langley was overcrowded.
> Did they move Langley kids to SL? No, they spent
> around $6.5 million to expand Langley. Why? If
> you don't know the answer then this discussion is
> a waste of time.
> Fast foward to today. SL is still under-enrolled,
> and Mr. Gibson had previously promised SL more
> students. Now, Langley is closer to SL than
> either Westfield or Oakton, but were they included
> in the study? No. Why, for the same reasons that
> they received the expansion 10 years ago.
>
> So yes, I think that qualifies as arbitrary.
>
> Also, currently, at least in high schools, an
> overcrowded one is by far the exception, and not
> the rule, and that condition will only improve in
> the coming years.
>
> The regulations about redistricting clearly state
> that the only reason to perform a redistricting is
> to either improve operational efficiency, or to
> increase educational effectiveness. In their
> attempt to validate this latest process, the SB
> cited numerous other reasons, including
> "socioeconomic factors", for performing the
> redistricting. They are not empowered to do that,
> nor have they shown where this redistricting will
> accomplish either of the two valid criteria,
> (1)improve operational efficiency or (2)increase
> educational effectiveness.
>
> Regarding (1), it will COST the county money,
> money they can't afford.
> It won't help (2) either unless you consider
> raising average school test scores to be
> increasing educational effectiveness.

I'm pro-redistricting whenever and wherever FCPS has the space. The Langley thing is weird - worth a road trip for people who haven't done one. People live out towards the Sterling-loudoun border [think BowlAmerica] and get bussed to langley.

Sugar Creek Ct - not even the closest to herndon HS

15.01 miles to Langley one way.
2.48 to herndon

That's miles closer than parts of Fox mill are to South Lakes.

24 extra miles round trip with us all paying for the bus gas and an addition to perpetuate this. There are kids at South Lakes closer to Langley. Look at Dunn Meadow Vienna PO box. Down by Tysons off 7 there are kids bussed to mclean on one side of 7 and others to Langley. Kids in mclean who live near Langley are sent to mclean HS.

heh

SBS, there were other schools included in the whole deal. you and all the other redistricted and their parents with money to waste on frivolous lawsuits concentrate on getting your kids not sent to south lakes. They will go there regardless of your lawsuit and its not arbitrary because it needs to be done.

And for the record: I do not care in what way the county is redistricted. I still get paid. I am not for or against redistricting. I think we will be fine without it but better off with it.

if you will read the majority of my posts, i try to keep the swearing to a minimum, but it is a proven fact that Americans will pay more attention if you swear, and i feel very strongly about this and want people to pay attention to what i say, becuase I am right.

If it costs the county more money to send the students to South Lakes then so what? It would be the cheapest to just close south lakes, they did that with some other school and it worked great. But that would send the gangs to "good schools" like Madison, Oakton, and Westfield. Not that those schools dont have gangs.

Some people have barelly enough money to fill up cars and feed their families, while others sue the SCHOOL system.

amazing.

>> Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some people have barelly enough money to fill up
> cars and feed their families, while others sue the
> SCHOOL system.
>
> amazing.

I know. But this school system that has turned into a money pit. It has to stop at some point since the costs are rising and the county is in a tight money situation. Who wants an increased tax rate for funding politically based school boundaries and needless construction and instruction?

Keepontruckin,

What other schools were part of the deal? Herndon? They wanted no parts of it, but unlike the FM, Floris, and Navy neighborhoods, their SB representative supported them.

My kid is not going to SL, but I'm supporting CAPS and the lawsuit, although I honestly don't think it has much of a chance.


"It's not arbitrary because it needs to be done"?

Do you know what arbitrary means? Whether it needs to be done is still open to debate, and that doesn't make the way in which they did it any less arbitrary.


"If it costs the county more money to send the students to South Lakes then so what?"

Considering the highly publicized budget crunch in the county, that's a pretty ignorant comment. This redistricting will not improve the school system in any tangible fashion, yet it will cost the county money. That is so what. If they can spend money on more effective solutions to fix SL's problems, then that's great, but as it is, they're simply wasting money.

SBS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> KeepOnTruckin, you are obviously
> pro-redistricting, and that's fine, but it's sad
> that you can't try to make your point without
> every other word being "FUCKING".

I don't see where KeepOnTrumkin used the word fucking every other word?

It's the fucking redistricting people; Those fuckers are so fucked up all ten of them are trying sue the fucking County with some fucking lawsuit.

God damn, let the fucking shit go.

Wow! How long did it take you to compose that masterpiece? We at FU are so impressed!!!

About two seconds.

Congratulations

Thank you

>> Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some people have barelly enough money to fill up
> cars and feed their families, while others sue the
> SCHOOL system.
>
> amazing.


If you know the Fox Mill and Floris communities you know these are not wealthy neighborhoods. In many ways this is a David and Goliath kind of lawsuit. Those families who have contributed to the legal expenses for the lawsuit are feeling the pinch--and the SB just takes money from FFX taxpayers to pay for their legal expenses (no pinch at all to them and their personal pocketbooks). But right and right and fair is fair.

arbitrary: based on or determined by individual preference or convenience rather than by necessity or the intrinsic nature of something

While some members of the school board act arbitrarily (Stu Gibson, the other lady) the decision to redistrict the western side of the county was not arbitrary. If schools are overcrowded then you send students from the overcrowded schools to the undercrowded schools. Very much logical, in fact. THis may cost money if the under crowded school is some distance away but that is a cost of doing business. Another solution is to build additions on schools that are overcrowded but that is certainly more expensive than busing students farther.

If you knew the history of this process at all, you would see how well it meets the definition you just gave. The level of "individual preference or convenience" is hard to ignore. Logic does not apply in this case at all - the county's own head of facilties management stated for the record that there was no cause from a facilities standpoint (the overcrowding you mention, which in fact does not exist) to do the redistricting at this time.

You've all heard that "perception is more real that reality." The "perception" is that SLHS is a poor school, probably the poorest high school in the county. Because of that perception, homeowners are concerned that their property values are going to fall if prospective buyers learn that their children will be in the attendance zone for a "poor" high school. My family moved to Fox Mill just as the neighborhood high school was changed from Herndon to Oakton. Interestingly enough, there's also a "perception" out there about Oakton being a "great" school. The only real difference between Oakton and SLSH are the perceptions. Well, folks, property values in Fox Mill have already fallen and it has nothing to do with redistricting; we can thank the politicians for that. There a good teachers at SLHS and good students, too. Good students will do well no matter where they are and they'll score well on any test, no matter where they are.

Best Regards!

KeepOnTruckin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> arbitrary: based on or determined by individual
> preference or convenience rather than by necessity
> or the intrinsic nature of something
>
> While some members of the school board act
> arbitrarily (Stu Gibson, the other lady) the
> decision to redistrict the western side of the
> county was not arbitrary. If schools are
> overcrowded then you send students from the
> overcrowded schools to the undercrowded schools.
> Very much logical, in fact. THis may cost money if
> the under crowded school is some distance away but
> that is a cost of doing business. Another
> solution is to build additions on schools that are
> overcrowded but that is certainly more expensive
> than busing students farther.

Langley is overcrowded. They were not included in the study. Sounds arbitrary to me. - "determined by individual preference or convenience " (Stu Gibson and Jane Strauss).