When did Falls Church (like around 400 Broad Street) grow up?

[nimchimpsky]

Wow, Falls Church grew up? Amazing.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by cdmurphy

Because it is different. The city is only 2.2 square miles. It has four schools: Mt. Daniel (K-1); Thomas Jefferson (2-4); Henderson Middle (5-7); and George Mason High (8-12). Only one of these is physically within the city limits. The schools are becoming overcrowded. Overcrowded schools lead to a decline in school quality, which is unacceptable for a small community with one of the nation's top school districts.

If they have the tax base, why not build more classrooms and hire a few more teachers?

I think it is pretty much impossible to stop people from coming in. It's a small city but it has two subway stations and many other features people consider desireable in the DC area, that people will only continue coming in.

The only way to realistically stop it is to A) encourage MORE subway stations throughout the DC area that Falls Church is nothing special, or B) Make DC desireable in some way that people will stop choosing DC suburbs over DC itself.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

If they have the tax base, why not build more classrooms and hire a few more teachers?

I think it is pretty much impossible to stop people from coming in. It's a small city but it has two subway stations and many other features people continue desireable in this area, that people will only continue coming in.

The only way to realistically stop it is to A) encourage MORE subway stations throughout the DC area that Falls Church is nothing special, or B) Make DC desireable in some way that people will stop choosing DC suburbs over DC itself.

Cdmurphy can probably correct, but I think a key factor is that the City of Falls Church is very small and all but one of its four schools are located outside the City's borders in Fairfax County. So the City can't just build more classrooms at most of its schools, or even add trailers, without getting the County's permission, and the relationship between the City and County's governments has its ups and downs. They can hire more teachers, but they still need somewhere to put them (and the students).

As to B), it seemed like some good efforts were being made, but you can check the threads on the DC forum to assess whether Fenty's getting the boot will slow down the progress on that front.