Three options presented for changing school boundaries in Justice HS pyramid
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| Belvedere Elementary School is one of several schools that would be affected by a new boundary map. |
Fairfax County Public Schools hopes
to implement new boundaries affecting elementary schools in the Justice
High School pyramid by fall 2021.
The driving force behind these
changes is the need to reduce severe overcrowding at Glen Forest Elementary
School in Bailey’s Crossroads.
For the current school year, Glen Forest
is at 101 percent of capacity and 147 percent if the modular unit isn’t
counted. Its projected capacity utilization for 2023-24 would be 102 percent
with the modular and 148 percent without it.
FCPS presented three boundary
adjustment scenarios at community meetings on April 19 and 21.
Option A
- In general terms, the area between
Arlington Boulevard, Sleepy Hollow Road, and Kerns Road would be switched from
Sleepy Hollow to Beech Tree. - A small area between Arlington
Boulevard, Leesburg Pike, and Patrick Henry Drive would move from Glen Forest
to Sleepy Hollow. - A section of Lake Barcroft would move
from Sleepy Hollow to Belvedere. - The area between Columbia Pike,
Leesburg Pike, Moncure Avenue, and Center Lane would transfer from Parklawn to
Bailey’s and Bailey’s Upper.
Forest to Parklawn.
Under Option A, Glen Forest’s enrollment would be reduced by 317 students.
Some students who
live very close to Sleepy Hollow would be transferred to Beech Tree and
Belvedere. Sleepy Hollow would lose a section of higher-income households while gaining lower-income apartment dwellers.
Looking at
current enrollment, Bailey’s and Bailey’s Upper would each gain 10 students,
Beech Tree would gain 81, Parklawn would gain 147, Sleepy Hollow would gain
48, and Belvedere would gain 31.
Under this scenario, Parklawn would go from 85 percent
to 104 percent of capacity.
Option B
- Several neighborhoods south of
Columbia Pike and Leesburg Pike would move from Parklawn to Belvedere,
including the eastern section of the Parklawn neighborhood and the area east of Lacy Boulevard. - The Dowden Terrace and Skyline areas
would move from Glen Forest to Parklawn. - The area between Magnolia Lane, Lacy
Boulevard, Seminary Road, and Paul Street would remain at Parklawn. - The Barcroft Manor Apartments would
switch from Belvedere to Bailey’s and Bailey’s Upper.
Under this option, Parklawn would
gain 132 students, Bailey’s would gain 13, Bailey’s Upper would gain
22, and Belvedere would gain 13.
Glen Forest would lose 180 students.
Option C
- Part of the Willston area would move
from Beech Tree to Sleepy Hollow. - The area between Arlington Boulevard,
Sleepy Hollow Road, and Kerns Road would move from Sleepy Hollow to Beech Tree. - The area generally between Leesburg
Pike, Juniper Lane, Beachway Drive, and Peace Valley Lane would move from
Bailey’s and Bailey’s Upper to Sleepy Hollow. - An area generally between Columbia
Pike, Justine Drive, Terrace Drive, Ivydale Drive (including sections of
Columbia Pines and Sleepy Hollow Woods), would switch from Mason Crest to Beech
Tree. - Barcroft Mannor would switch from
Belvedere to Bailey’s and Bailey’s Upper. - The Skyline and Dowden Terrace areas
would move from Glen Forest to Parklawn. - The areas between Columbia Pike, Paul
Street, Lacy Boulevard, Holmes Run Park, and Summers Lane would transfer from
Parklawn to Belvedere.
Under Option C, Glen Forest would
lose 180 students, Mason Crest would lose 69, Bailey’s would lose 10, and Belvedere
would lose two.
Parklawn would gain 147 students, Beech Tree
would gain 86, Sleepy Hollow would gain 19, and Bailey’s Upper would gain
10 students.
Next steps
FCPS staff will submit a boundary
adjustment recommendation at a regularly scheduled school board meeting at a
date not yet announced.
The school board will then hold a
public hearing and approve new boundaries.
The school board may choose to phase
in boundary adjustments on a grade-by-grade basis and retain rising sixth (or
fifth) graders at their current school.
20 responses to “Three options presented for changing school boundaries in Justice HS pyramid”
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Option A is the preferred choice for those of us who live adjacent to Glen Forest elementary School because it would remove the most pupils with the greatest reduction in schools and parent vehicle traffic which clogs the Carlyn Square and Glen Forest neighborhoods twice a day.
Option A chops up Sleepy Hollow like minced meat while adding a lot of high need kids to it, and instantly puts parklawn over capacity (as do BOTH of the other options). It’s not a viable option.
Option C seems like a grab bag with a lot of unnecessary movement of kids. It doesn’t have the same devastating impact on a single school like A does, but the sheer amount of movement of kids without clear rationale and the fact that it still leaves Parklawn overcrowded makes it also a not great option.
Option B seems like the closest to viability, but it still has a parklawn overcrowding issue. If B is modified so that some of Parklawn’s kids are moved to Belvedere, it may end up being the “least bad” option.
But these are all bad options – created in large part the school board’s absolute lack of movement on creating a new elementary school in our pyramid – which we’ve known we’ve needed since before bailey’s upper came to be and we advocated for Willston to return to the schools to be a community school.
I am never disappointed an the inane way that Fairfax County allocates school districts. Instead of trying to map the students to the closest school, they jury-rig the craziest solutions. For example, moving the area between Columbia Pike, Justine Drive, Terrace Drive, Ivydale Drive from Mason Crest to Beech Tree doubles the distance from 1.5 to 3 miles. This area fought to have Mason Crest opened and now will lose access to it. There are other Mason Crest students closer to Beechtree who will not be moved. Once again, it is politics and social engineering rather than closest school to students. I am glad that my kids are out of these schools now.
By the way, both Mason Crest and Belvedere are closer to this area than Beechtree is.
So much for neighborhood schools. I remember when I could walk to my elementary school for it was my neighborhood school. The student and parents had a sense of community and belonging. And we got a very good education. FFX County must like having a stake in creating more air pollution for this idiotic plan forces parents to shuttle their kids to schools outside of their neighborhood.
FFPS needs to get out of the business of social engineering and back to the basics of educating our kids and reinforcing community based schools.
Thank you FFPS for adding to Climate Change, your carbon footprint keeps getting bigger.
147 kids added to Parklawn, are you kidding me. So is FFPS going to plop down more of its inane trailer park buildings along Lincolnia Rd?
It is really sad that Parklawn, already a struggling school, gets dumped on repeatedly.
I understand that people will attack different options for different reasons, but it's not right to leave a high-needs elementary school like Glen Forest with almost 1100 kids. Of the options presented, Option A seems best as it brings down the enrollment at Glen Forest significantly, creates sensible boundaries for the first time in a long time at Beech Tree, and does not change the Mason Crest boundaries (hard to see why one would want to make a change that would leave one of the county's newer elementary school significantly under-enrolled). FCPS can expect a lot of push-back from some parents who would remain at Sleepy Hollow, because it looks like Option A would push up the FARMS levels there to Glen Forest/Parklawn levels. However, the school would be small enough that students could expect to receive a lot of personal attention.
As for the posters who complain about Willston not being reopened, it's simply not feasible – FCPS has already been spending a disproportionate amount of its capital budget on schools in the Mason District. If you want to reopen Willston, you should return the $20M that Justice is getting for a permanent addition (when other high schools in FCPS that are more crowded only get trailers or a temporary modular).
All of the options provide significant capacity relief to Glen Forest. Sure, Option A moves the most kids from Glen Forest, but it will absolutely tear through the Sleepy Hollow community in addition to putting parklawn well over capacity (as do BOTH other options).
I've talked to, and seen the feedback provided by a number of other parents at various other schools and it seems like a modified "B" solution that reduces the impact to parklawn is the least bad option.
As to your Willston comment… I encourage yourself to get educated on the CIPs that are provided here: https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/facilities-planning-future/capital-improvement-program. Mason District is in no way, shape, or form having a disproportionate amount of capital money spent on it. That's some alternative facts if I ever heard it.
I agree with David McAlary that Option A is preferable. Option B leaves ridiculous, non-contiguous boundaries in place at Beech Tree and only adds 15 fewer students to Parklawn than Option A. We both agree Option C seems to move kids for no clear reason.
As for capital expenditures in Mason, Glasgow MS was rebuilt from the ground up, an entirely new building. Other middle schools only get renovated. There are two relatively new elementary schools that feed into Justice – Bailey's Upper and Mason Crest. And now Justice is getting $20M for a permanent addition, and Falls Church is slated for a $160M renovation, whereas high schools in other parts of the county like get much less expensive renovations and still others like Chantilly – more overcrowded than Justice – only get trailers and cheap modulars. Add to that the extra spending per student that FCPS devotes to students in Mason and it's clear that Mason residents have zero grounds to complain when it comes to how much of the operating and capital budgets are being spent on Mason District schools. You should be upset that it's taken FCPS so long to deal with the overcrowding at Glen Forest, but that's a different issue.
No kidding about Chantilly HS. The school is so jam packed it's not even funny. The school building is so small and compact that classrooms have to have group desks of 4 into islands (very similar to elementary classrooms) and use small workrooms and storage space for classrooms. Justice does the same thing with it's workrooms, but thankfully for the most part it has large sized classrooms where many students can fit and still have wiggle room. Let's be thankful for what we have and what we are getting in the Justice pyramid.
The Glen Forest issue needs to be resolved. Maybe build an upper elementary on the existing campus?
Mason District is underspent and with the Board approving more high density housing without thinking of infrastructure and schools, this problem will only get worse. The Willston site is an option and the new schools need to be built or built up. Willston and the Moncure site should both be turned to schools (Moncure was thought to be a school but I think apartments are going to be built instead).
No worries….they'll have to change the boundaries again after the "unaccompanied minors" that have flooded across the border get dumped into Fairfax County and overwhelm the already overcrowded schools. Thanks Uncle Joe!
If you want to increase capital expenditures on FCPS schools in Mason, you should advocate for tax increases across the county that would also provide for the renovation and expansion of other schools besides those in Mason. Conversely, if you want to reduce the number of unaccompanied minors and other students in Mason schools, you should be electing different people to local, state, and national office. However, what Mason residents won't be able to do is simply lay claim to an ever larger share of the capital budget than you're getting now. The rest of the county won't allow that, nor should it.
Ugh, the split feeder system. How awful to be one of a few 5th graders that can't go to middle school with the rest of grade. It would be great if these proposals could reduce overcrowding while also addressing that terrible system.
I think a split feeder is a bad idea overall, but we love Mason Crest, so we'll take that trade 100 times out of 100.
Also, with option C, Mason Crest would drop from 95% enrollment to 85% enrollment, which seems really stupid to me.
Mason Crest isn't the only split feeder into Glasgow/Justice; Parklawn is also a split feeder – to Glasgow/Justice but also to Holmes/Annandale.
All the staff's options add more Glasgow/Justice neighborhoods to Parklawn, which means the Holmes/Annandale kids will be even more in the minority there (Mason Crest is a more balanced split feeder to Poe/Falls Church and Glasgow/Justice). They really should consider moving the Holmes/Annandale kids at Parklawn to another school in the Annandale pyramid such as Columbia or Weyanoke. If they did that, Parklawn wouldn't be overcrowded and the kids going to Holmes/Annandale would meet more of their middle and high school peers earlier.
Alternatively, they could move the Holmes/Annandale kids at Parklawn to Glasgow/Justice with the rest of Parklawn (they are closer to Glasgow than Holmes already), and then move the Glasgow/Justice portion of Mason Crest to Poe/Annandale. By doing this, they eliminate the split feeder at Parklawn entirely, and all the kids at Mason Crest would at least go to the same middle school.
Since the Board is ok with multiple families living in single family homes, severe overcrowding in schools is just one of the results of their policies. Thanks Penny!
Would it be possible to build an upper elementary school on or near the Glasgow campus? Maybe even have the county give a part of Holmes Run Stream Valley Park to FCPS?