Byrd Park Still Divided by School Zoning Plans
From the looks of the new school zoning proposals released by RPS, John B. Cary elementry is still slated to be closed, Byrd Park is still likely to be divided, and most of the scenarios have our neighborhood routed to the elementary school that (let’s be honest) is least appealing option. Let’s find out more from education correspondent, Heidi Powell Thompson of Rosewood Ave.
Hello everyone,
Even if you don’t have children in the schools, this is an important issue because the proposed school zoning changes could potentially affect property values in our neighborhood. Please feel free to forward this email to anyone in the Byrd Park Neighborhood.
The latest revisions of the draft school rezoning maps have been released in advance of the next Community Meeting, scheduled for March 27, 6:30-7:30 at John Marshall High School. Here is the link to the maps: http://www.croppermap.com/documents/RPSVAPairingMaps11x17120319.pdf
These maps are even more fun to read than the last set, so below is a summary. I’m only focusing on elementary schools in this email, but you can check out the maps to see middle and high school zoning, too.
In Pairings A and B, our neighborhood remains divided at Shields, with the westernmost blocks closest to the Fountain Lake being zoned for Fox Elementary, and the easternmost blocks closest to Meadow being zoned for Clark Springs Elementary.
In Pairings C and D, our entire neighborhood gets zoned for Clark Springs Elementary.
I will continue to follow this issue and plan to attend the March 27 Community Meeting. If there is another online survey or organized opportunity for people to make their voices heard I will definitely share that information as well, and would encourage people to attend the Community Meeting, write letters, etc. Many neighbors that I have had conversations, emails and blog exchanges with about this topic have indicated a strong preference for Fox Elementary. In full disclosure that would be my strong preference for our neighborhood as well, but I would also like to have our neighborhood unified at Fox, adhering to the natural neighborhood boundary line of Meadow rather than being split on the small side street of Shields. However, that would mean that the children currently attending Clark Springs in our neighborhood would have to switch schools to Fox, and I know that keeping kids in their same schools when possible is a guiding principle of the rezoning committee as well.
Another issue to be aware of is that in all of the rezoning options, multiple elementary schools in the city are to be closed, which will mean more pressure on the lottery system that many people rely on to get their kids into particular schools in the city. If your children are already in an out of zone school via the lottery system, RPS has not yet announced how they plan to handle enrollment (ie, no guarantee at this time that your children will be grandfathered into the school they got into via the lottery system) so that is something to be aware of, too.
Thanks!
Heidi Powell Thompson
I agree that it would be best to unify the neighborhood. My concern is that a battle to unify will result in options C or D, as I have doubts about the board creating a whole new plan to accommodate the desire to unify the neighborhood with Fox. Thus, it is a difficult argument to fight for, because asking for unity might unify us with the school many don’t want. Being divided, too, is only a half win because then some of us get the benefit of Fox, while others still get the result of options C or D. (Full disclosure, A and B would get any future kids of mine into Fox.) Siiiigh.
Thanks so much Heidi for being on top of all this. And Hayley, I kind of agree with you in that if we push for neighborhood unification, we’d most likely get options C & D, rather than a new one all together that sends everyone to Fox.
Does the neighborhood association ever get involved in stuff like this? It would be nice to have a strong, unified voice for all of us (assuming that they’d be on the same page we all seem to be on).
We unfortunately live on the east side of Shields, and I have to say, if we’re still zoned for Clarke Springs by the time my son is school aged, we’ll likely be moving elsewhere.
Hayley, I completely share your concerns. In any communications I’ve made I’ve been clear that I want the neighborhood unified at Fox, but I could easily see it swinging the other way which would not be what anyone wanted. In a way when these new maps were released I was disappointed to see that our concerns had fallen on deaf ears, but at the same time I was a little relieved that in half the options at least half the neighborhood was still zoned for Fox. My kids are going to be zoned for Clark Springs in any of the current configurations, and Erin we are in the same boat as you. If the lottery system doesn’t work for us, we’ll likely try to find a way to swing private school or we’ll be another For Sale sign in the neighborhood. So, I have a vested interest in asking neighbors to speak up and at least ask that the neighborhood be unified but with the destination school being Fox, but at the same time I understand if people don’t want to make that request out of concern for getting the whole neighborhood zoned for Clark Springs instead. Good times, good times.
I hate this! We’re with you Hayley on the 2400 block. I so want the neighborhood to be combined but the idea of heading to Clark Springs sucks!
I will miss definitely Cary… ’89 alum – The Cooley Years. For reference purposes, here are the report cards for each school. Looks like Clark had the edge on Fox in ’09-’10 for academics and safety, but has been trending down ever since.
William Fox:
https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/reportcard/report.do?division=123&schoolName=241
Clark Springs:
https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/reportcard/report.do?division=All&schoolName=174
Apart from what’s evidenced in the data, are there any other reasons why people dislike Clark so much as to sell their homes? Do people feel Clark will just continue to get worse?
Hi Ken, thanks for posting these report cards, I just took a cursory look at them but want to look at them more closely. It’s good information. I hadn’t been able to look at the Fox one before but had compared Mary Munford and Clark Springs, and there was a lot more disparity in the safety issues between those two schools. I put a comment on another blog post on here (Fox and Hound) in response to another person’s comment that speaks a little more to my personal preference for Fox vs. Clark Springs.
I think that the report cards are deceiving. If I remember correctly, AYP is based largely on attendance and the scores of minority and disadvantaged students. That being said, Fox will have a harder time meeting AYP if one of their disadvantaged students doesn’t meet requirements than if there is a whole school of students that meet fall into the category. Also, Clark Springs had much smaller class sizes for quite a few years. I was teaching in another city school and had 27 students while a teacher at Clark Springs had less than 15. Hard to give as much individual attention when you have a large class. My last comment has to do with the comparison of SOL scores. You really can’t compare the scores as long as they are all passing (which I believe they are). I taught in one of the poorest city schools and had a 95% pass rate. The test is meant to be passed if the curriculum is taught and learned.