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What the hell is going on in the high school redistricting Thread
Posted by: yaa ()
Date: February 14, 2008 01:54PM

Could somebody give me the short version....Im to lazy to go through all that crap.....and I dont even know what made it explode like that...I still havent read a post from that thread yet...

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Re: What the hell is going on in the high school redistricting Thread
Posted by: Expensive Jeans ()
Date: February 14, 2008 02:06PM


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Re: What the hell is going on in the high school redistricting Thread
Posted by: yaa ()
Date: February 14, 2008 02:49PM

As I was saying...anybody can fill me in..?...

preferably comments from people that ARE NOT creepy internet stalker/hacker/losers who make up valentines day girls.

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Re: What the hell is going on in the high school redistricting Thread
Posted by: WashingToneLocian ()
Date: February 14, 2008 03:00PM

White rich parents from Oakton are mad that their kids now have to go to school with poor black children because of school redistricting. If I had paid $1 million to live in a 1950s-style two bedroom rancher all because it was in a good school district but now it's not, I would be pissed too. However, there is no real legal recourse so they have all come to Fairfax Underground to bitch to each other about it, which will result in absolutely nothing changing.

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Re: What the hell is going on in the high school redistricting Thread
Posted by: TheMeeper ()
Date: February 14, 2008 04:55PM

yaa Wrote:
> Could somebody give me the short version....Im to lazy to go through all that crap.....and I dont even know what made it explode like that...I still havent read a post from that thread yet...

THAT's the problem, it's ALL about what South Lakes students want, with nothing being offered to those who are being asked to make the sacrifices of leaving their schools for South Lakes. It can never work if it is ONLY about what students at Söuth Lakes want. What is South Lakes willing to offer other people for coming to their school? Where is the compromise from the South Lakes community to make this work for everyone?

It is up to South Lakes administration, parents, and PTSA to give out of boundary parents a reason to want to go to South Lakes. Your PTSA needs to have a plan to welcome new families, and something to offer them. That might mean some kind of magnet, it might mean starting the process all over, it might mean an AP program, or something else entirely. But you have to be willing to offer SOMETHING to these new people, or they simply will not come to South Lakes.

You need to be able to explain the REAL reasons for the redistricting, to be brutally honest with yourselves, and the new people, or they won't trust you. You must tell new families what South Lakes has to offer ACADEMICALLY. It's obvious now that out of boundary parents are not impressed with the 'diversity' at South Lakes. It simply is not enough of a reason for them to be happy about leaving their current schools for South Lakes. If diversity was their MOST important thing in a school, they would have moved to Reston, or Stuart, districts. It's obvious now that academics are the MOST important. Offering your diversity is not a good selling point. What else do you have to offer them? Try to find those things. What makes a school worth attending? What are you willing to compromise on so that you can welcome these families and make them feel a part of your school community? Concentrate on things, then go out to the new communities and sell, sell, sell, your school. Stop focusing on race and diversity and begin to focus on what parents care about, academics. It's clear now that parents want a great academic programs. (That's why nearly 3,000 students a year take the TJ test.) Without an excellent academic program, they won't willingly change schools. What will your parents and PTSA do to help reassure them that their children will get that at South Lakes What are you willing to compromise on? Will you support an AP program? A Magnet? A new redistricting plan? Or at least form a committee of new parents and current parents to let the principal know what AP courses are important to parents. Can you support new parents on an AP program? A magnet? What? Can you reassure parents that the principal will include them on the curriculum committee? That he will listen to parents? Can he meet with the parents at Floris and Fox Mill and assure them that THEY will have a voice in what is taught at South Lakes, rather than leaving it up to staff as he has done in the past, and as he did with Human Geography? (That was terrible judgment on his part and certainly doesn't reassure anyone that he understands how much parents care about real academics.)

At this point, it may well be too late to do anything. It may be that the process has been so poorly executed that there is no hope of salvaging a viable plan that will make the redistricting a success. BUT, if there is ANY hope, the SL PTSA must be less strident, they must be open and honest. They can't be planning the future in secret. Parents are not reassured when they hear that the South Lakes PTSA has a private, secret, website. It's the PTÂ! People wonder why the PTA would need to hide anything from the public. What would the PTSA have to hide from the public? It's supposed to be an open, public, group to support parents! Parents who don't have access to their private PTSA group can't help but wonder, What are they hiding? And why? You can't do things in secret and tell people to 'just trust us, we know what's right for you'. It hasn't worked and it won't work. You can't expect people to want to attend a school where the PTSA board works in secret, with a hotline to their school board representative, while all others are excluded from such representation on their school board. People outside of the SL PTSA board can call their school rep on his cell phone while people in other schools can't get an email response, much less a phone call. Again, it doesn't build trust and confidence. Floris and Fox Mill have no representative like that who they can call at any time and who will represent them and their concerns. They don't feel they have that, in public or in secret. South Lakes PTSA must abandon their adversarial and defensive postures. They must be totally honest and above board. The current actions of the PTSA, the secretiveness, the private websites, the paranoia, the silly conspiracy theories, have not served you well. It has been anything but helpful to the process and it is frightening to out of boundary parents.

South Lakes PTSA and parents must be willing to give something, some compromises, if they expect hundreds of parents to give up their children to a school they never chose, and an academic program that they never wanted. You have asked these parents to make HUGE sacrifices. What sacrifices is South Lakes willing to make? South Lakes can't expect this will work if all the sacrifices are only to be made by other people who are forced to attend South Lakes. It's setting up a lose-lose for everyone. If you are unwilling to even compromise, to even listen to the academic wants of those who you hope will forced to attend South Lakes, how can you ask those same people to make what they consider the ultimate family sacrifices, sending their children to your school? It can't only be about what your kids need. What are you willing to sacrifice?

It is up to South Lakes administration, parents, and PTSA to give out of boundary parents a reason to want to go to South Lakes. Your PTSA needs to have a plan to welcome new families, and something to offer them. That might mean some kind of magnet, it might mean starting the process all over, it might mean an AP program, or something else entirely. You need to be able to explain the REAL reasons for the redistricting, to be brutally honest with yourselves, and the new people, or they won't trust you. You must tell new families what South Lakes has to offer ACADEMICALLY. It's obvious now that out of boundary parents are not impressed with the 'diversity' at South Lakes. It simply is not enough of a reason for them to be happy about leaving their current schools for South Lakes. What else do you have to offer them? Try to find those things. What makes a school worth attending? What are you willing to compromise on so that you can welcome these families and make them feel a part of your school community? Concentrate on things, then go out to the new communities and sell, sell, sell, your school. Stop focusing on race and diversity and begin to focus on what parents care about, academics. It's clear now that parents want a great academic programs. (That's why nearly 3,000 students a year take the TJ test.) Without an excellent academic program, they won't willingly change schools. What will your parents and PTSA do to help reassure them that their children's What are you willing to compromise on? Will you support an AP program? A Magnet? A new redistricting plan? Or at least form a committee of new parents and current parents to let the principal know what AP courses are important to parents. Can you reassure parents that the principal will include them on the curriculum committee? That he will listen to parents? Can he meet with the parents at Floris and Fox Mill and assure them that THEY will have a voice in what is taught at South Lakes, rather than leaving it up to staff as he has done in the past, and as he did with Human Geography? (That was terrible judgment on his part and certainly doesn't reassure anyone that he understands how much parents care about real academics.) At this point, it may well be too late to do anything. It may be that the process has been so poor executed that there is no hope of salvaging a viable plan that will make the redistricting a success. BUT, if there is any hope, the SL PTSA must be less strident, they must be open and honest. They can't be planning the future in secret. Parents are not reassured when they hear that the South Lakes PTSA has a private, secret, website. It's the PTÂ! People wonder why the PTA would need to hide anything from the public. What would the PTSA have to hide from the public? It's supposed to be an open, public, group to support parents! Parents who don't have access to their private PTSA group can't help but wonder, What are they hiding? And why? You can't do things in secret and tell people to 'just trust us, we know what's right for you'. It hasn't worked and it won't work. You can't expect people to want to attend a school where the PTSA board works in secret, with a hotline to their school board representative, while all others are excluded from such representation on the school board. Floris and Fox Mill have no representative like that who they can call at any time and who will represent them and their concerns. They don't feel they have that, in public or in secret. South Lakes PTSA must abandon their adversarial and defensive postures. They must be totally honest and above board. The current actions of the PTSA, the secretiveness, the private websites, the paranoia, the silly conspiracy theories, have not served you well. It has been anything but helpful to the process and it is frightening to out of boundary parents. South Lakes PTSA and parents must be willing to give something, some compromises, if they expect hundreds of parents to give up their children to a school they never chose, and an academic program that they never wanted. You have asked these parents to make HUGE sacrifices. What sacrifices is South Lakes willing to make? South Lakes can't expect this will work if all the sacrifices are only to be made by other people who are forced to attend South Lakes. It's setting up a lose-lose for everyone. If you are unwilling to even compromise, how can you ask other people to make what they consider the ultimate family sacrifices?

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Re: What the hell is going on in the high school redistricting Thread
Posted by: SRE ()
Date: February 14, 2008 09:32PM

Thank you! Now it seems so clear!

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Re: What the hell is going on in the high school redistricting Thread
Posted by: bdimag ()
Date: February 15, 2008 12:02PM

wow thats a long summary...

can somebody summarize that for me?

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Re: What the hell is going on in the high school redistricting Thread
Posted by: South Lakes Tyrone ()
Date: February 15, 2008 01:27PM

bdimag Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wow thats a long summary...
>
> can somebody summarize that for me?


Oakton Parent: Fuck this noise! I'm not sending my kid there!!!

South Lakes Parent: Well fuck you! We don't want you here, and quit bashing our school!


Redistricting Passes


Oakton Parent/South Lakes Parent (in unison): FUCK!!!!!

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Re: What the hell is going on in the high school redistricting Thread
Posted by: 496 ()
Date: February 15, 2008 09:24PM

Meeper, you just bored countless thousands.

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