School board rejects Glasgow boundary study
The Fairfax County School Board on March 21 failed to approve a motion calling for a boundary study to relieve overcrowding at Glasgow Middle School.
The board voted 7-3 to reject the motion until an FCPS-wide boundary adjustment can be implemented.
“It is with deep disappointment that I share that the School Board did not approve the Glasgow Middle School Boundary Scoping Study,” Mason school board member Ricardy Anderson wrote in an email to the community. Only two at-large board members, Ryan McElveen and Ilryong Moon, joined Anderson in voting for the measure.
“My position remains that the work to right-size Glasgow Middle School could have been accomplished in conjunction with the pending holistic boundary work to address the long-standing needs of the school,” Anderson said.
“While this outcome is regrettable given the unpredictability of the division-wide, holistic boundary work, I will continue to advocate for our community,” she said.
Glasgow Middle School has a capacity utilization of 95 percent for the 2023-24 school year and is expected to reach 100 percent in 2028-29. Glasgow has 1,722 students, while school board policy recommends a maximum of 1,350 student program capacity for middle schools.
Related story: FCPS seeks parent feedback on Glasgow boundary study
The School Board’s Governance Committee is working on revising the boundary policy, with the goal of completing its work in July. The policy hasn’t been updated since 2013.
Governance Committee meetings are open to the public. Its next meetings are April 15, 12-2 p.m., and April 16, 9-10 a.m.
Work on revising the Glasgow boundary has been going on since July 13 when the School Board adopted a motion to complete the Middle School Boundary Scoping Study concurrently with the development of the proposed FY25-29 Capital Improvement Program. FCPS staff held community meetings on the scoping study at Glasgow in August and September.
When an initial scope for the boundary study was presented to the School Board on Feb. 22, the board requested that the scope be narrowed and presented again at a later meeting.
The revised proposal called for the boundary study to include Glasgow, Holmes, and Poe middle schools but dropped consideration of Advanced Academic Program Local Level IV Center boundaries.
Feel sorry for Ricardy Anderson after the work she’d put into this. And I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to pull off this “division-wide, holistic boundary work.” They’ve struggled to get relatively small-scale boundary changes right in recent years, and the stakes would only get higher with a county-wide study, given the differences in programs and demographics at various schools.
For example, they’d have to decide whether they want to leave Glasgow, Holmes, and Poe as 6-8 middle schools, change them back to 7-8 middle schools, or change other middle schools in FCPS to 6-8 grades. They’d have to decide whether they want to keep the current AAP centers at the elementary and middle school levels. They’d have to decide whether or not they are going to expand schools like Annandale, McLean, and Lewis HS that received cheap renovations in the early 2000s and have not since been renovated or expanded (like Falls Church and Justice HS soon will be), or just move kids around through boundary changes. They’d have to take into account how parents might react from being redistricted from high schools that offer AP courses to schools that only offer IB courses, and vice versa. And so on.
They have a hard time playing checkers, but they want people to think everything will be solved for good once they’ve learned to master chess.
Don’t feel bad for her. Fire her since she’s proved she’s not up to the job.
I look forward to your candidacy and voting for her instead.
This was not her doing. It was Glasgow administration who pushed for it and they should have. That place is extremely overcrowded. As a former teacher there, you can’t walk from class to class without being stuck in massive traffic. The administration and student services did everything they could to try to relieve overcrowding in terms of where students classes would be so that no One hallway would be more crowded than the other but with the amount of students that they have it was bound to happen one way or another. Why Glasgow to have 250 more students and Poe can just sit there on vacation with a sub 1000 student population is beyond me.
I’m not criticizing Poe or Holmes The school board who obviously never listens to anybody but likes to push their political agendas needs to be voted out. You should see some of the stuff they push it’s ridiculous.
There are some great families in this area.
To me it truly feels like the county ignores this area.
Justice high school had a great principal in Maria Eck. Glasgow currently has a great one. But there have been some doozies.
These people know what’s going on inside the school but the school board doesn’t. Either they don’t or they just don’t give a crap. But it’s awfully funny when it comes for reelection they run around trying to say all The right things and then they get elected and do nothing
Poe can handle 250 More students. I’ve been inside that school. I never Taught there but I’ve seen the size of the school. When Glasgow was built it was designed for 1500 max capacity. Last year when I was there they were nearly 2000. I believe they were 20 less. 2014 I believe to last year it was way overcrowded. 1500+. They had to build trailers and they’re still busting at the seams
The school board members Who voted against this are moronic. I may not agree with McElveen’s Politics but he did the right thing by voting for Glasgow.
The county needs to stop ignoring this side of the county. You need to be serving the families, not letting your own personal Views get in the way.