City of Alexandria - Mt. Vernon Elem School - likely to return to traditional calendar

[Anonymous]

The School Board seems completely tone-deaf on this, and many other issues. They blame the prior board and prior superintendent for too many "initiatives," but they seem to be making far more significant and unpopular changes themselves.

[Anonymous]

Is the move to a regular school year specific to Mount Vernon? Will Samuel Tucker still be year round?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the move to a regular school year specific to Mount Vernon? Will Samuel Tucker still be year round?

The recent ACPS School Board vote was specific to Mount Vernon Elementary.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to MVCS, the next Jefferson-Houston failing elementary school in the city! We are Del Ray residents with two rising Kindergarteners, and there is NO WAY we will be sending our kids to MVCS based on last week's school board meeting.

The school board and principal made it obviously clear that the sole focus of the school is on ESL kids and funding their programs, at the expense of declining programs and attention to native English speakers. For what we pay in property taxes, we are disgusted.

Make MVCS a charter school and let us transfer our kids elsewhere until the school can formalize it's identity and stop reverse discrimination against English speakers!

[Anonymous]

Is MVCS worse than Tucker? I always thought J-H was the worst, then Tucker, than MVCS in the rankings of suckage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is MVCS worse than Tucker? I always thought J-H was the worst, then Tucker, than MVCS in the rankings of suckage.

Nope MVCS is worse.

Tucker is ranked 547 / 1050 in the state based on SOLs. That's a two-star rank.

MVCS is ranked 1012 / 1050 in the state based on SOLs. That's a zero-star rank.

Jefferson-Houston is ranked 1034 / 1050 in the state based on SOLs. Also a zero-star rank.

Tucker is at least in the middle somewhere. MVCS and JH are bottom 1%.

How pathetic is that?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the school board approved the proposal to shift MVCS back to a traditional calendar year last night.

This without polling parents.

This without a committment to fully fund the alternative summer learning program.

The meeting was a fiasco, IMO, and demonstrated exactly why we will not be sending our rising Kindergartener to MVCS. Every discussion was about helping ESL students and pumping more and more finding into programs for ESL students at the expense of the non-ESL kids. We would have been excited for the intercession program for our child, and the opportunity to learn and expand his horizons in different areas during school vacation breaks.

Now, that taxpayer money which would have benefitted our non-ESL son is going to be pumped into more and more ESL programs during the summer, which will not benefit him at all.

School Board: You are alienating and offending the higher taxpayers in the city!

We are Del Ray family with a child districted to enter K at MVCS in 2015 and I feel the EXACT same way as this poster. It makes me sick to think how much we pay in property tax for our little modest Alexandria home and in return have elementary school and board leadership who appear to have no commitment to channeling resources to benefit our child. This is a disgrace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to MVCS, the next Jefferson-Houston failing elementary school in the city! We are Del Ray residents with two rising Kindergarteners, and there is NO WAY we will be sending our kids to MVCS based on last week's school board meeting.

The school board and principal made it obviously clear that the sole focus of the school is on ESL kids and funding their programs, at the expense of declining programs and attention to native English speakers. For what we pay in property taxes, we are disgusted.

Make MVCS a charter school and let us transfer our kids elsewhere until the school can formalize it's identity and stop reverse discrimination against English speakers!

Agree. Agree. Agree. If we cannot transfer our child into another Alexandria elementary for K, we will have to move. Can't afford the mortgage and property tax on our overpriced Del Ray shack AND private school tuition. Too bad!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the school board approved the proposal to shift MVCS back to a traditional calendar year last night.

This without polling parents.

This without a committment to fully fund the alternative summer learning program.

The meeting was a fiasco, IMO, and demonstrated exactly why we will not be sending our rising Kindergartener to MVCS. Every discussion was about helping ESL students and pumping more and more finding into programs for ESL students at the expense of the non-ESL kids. We would have been excited for the intercession program for our child, and the opportunity to learn and expand his horizons in different areas during school vacation breaks.

Now, that taxpayer money which would have benefitted our non-ESL son is going to be pumped into more and more ESL programs during the summer, which will not benefit him at all.

School Board: You are alienating and offending the higher taxpayers in the city!

Next time you meet a non-ESL 4th or 5th grader from MVCS in the dual language program, try to get them to say a few words in Spanish. Not sentences, just words. If your experience is like mine, you will find they have picked up very little Spanish.

The PP may be having a bit of an extreme reaction, but I also am the rising parent of a non-ESL kindergartener zoned for MVCS and am very concerned about the meeting last night. I agree that the new proposal takes away certain benefits and funding from the non-ESL kids. The school board made it very clear last night that the goal of MVCS is to bring up ESL, promote ESL, and cater to ESL students. I understand that due to the fact that the school population is something like 70% ESL. But.....in doing so, they are going to even increase those numbers and the school will soon be 80%, 90% ESL.

What would be interesting, is to do a local survey to see exactly how many elementary-aged children live in the MVCS zone, and then see how many of those children are actually enrolled at MVCS vs local privates and parochials. Almost everyone we know who is non-ESL who is zoned for MVCS either transfers out or goes to private/parochial. now I understand why. English speaking children appear to be the last concern at the school.

If the School Board is so intent on turning MVCS into a dual-language-only school that solely caters to the district's Latino / ESL populations, then why not turn it into a charter school or magnet school to serve that particular population?

The meeting last night made it obviously clear that the intent of the dual-language program is not to teach english speaking children Spanish. It is solely there to teach Spanish-speaking kids SOMETHING.

And it's NOT working!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the school board approved the proposal to shift MVCS back to a traditional calendar year last night.

This without polling parents.

This without a committment to fully fund the alternative summer learning program.

The meeting was a fiasco, IMO, and demonstrated exactly why we will not be sending our rising Kindergartener to MVCS. Every discussion was about helping ESL students and pumping more and more finding into programs for ESL students at the expense of the non-ESL kids. We would have been excited for the intercession program for our child, and the opportunity to learn and expand his horizons in different areas during school vacation breaks.

Now, that taxpayer money which would have benefitted our non-ESL son is going to be pumped into more and more ESL programs during the summer, which will not benefit him at all.

School Board: You are alienating and offending the higher taxpayers in the city!

We are Del Ray family with a child districted to enter K at MVCS in 2015 and I feel the EXACT same way as this poster. It makes me sick to think how much we pay in property tax for our little modest Alexandria home and in return have elementary school and board leadership who appear to have no commitment to channeling resources to benefit our child. This is a disgrace.

The School Board has invited the criticism it's getting. I wish we had the old one back.

[Anonymous]

All this criticism is fine and good, but what's the solution? These kids all have to be educated somewhere and if they are zoned to attend Mt. Vernon, the school can't turn them away. I'm sure those kids would prefer to go to a school where they are not despised, but they don't have a choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All this criticism is fine and good, but what's the solution? These kids all have to be educated somewhere and if they are zoned to attend Mt. Vernon, the school can't turn them away. I'm sure those kids would prefer to go to a school where they are not despised, but they don't have a choice.

In all honesty, the answer is very simple and well known.

The concentrated low income housing has to be demolished. Some low income residents would be able to stay in the City but there can't be a commitment to keep every displaced person here. Mixed income family housing needs to replace it.

The result will be the FARMS rate at MCVS goes down to an appropriate and manageable level and to where it doesn't completely suck every available resource away from the non-FARMS kids. A more balanced school community benefits everyone - the FARMS students in particular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All this criticism is fine and good, but what's the solution? These kids all have to be educated somewhere and if they are zoned to attend Mt. Vernon, the school can't turn them away. I'm sure those kids would prefer to go to a school where they are not despised, but they don't have a choice.

So make MVCS a magnet but don't force everyone else who doesn't have ESL students into the dual language platform.

We have neighbors in Del Ray who are not ESL and their children are struggling with learning basic word problems in 2-3rd grade because they are not learning Spanish at all, but are learning math in Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All this criticism is fine and good, but what's the solution? These kids all have to be educated somewhere and if they are zoned to attend Mt. Vernon, the school can't turn them away. I'm sure those kids would prefer to go to a school where they are not despised, but they don't have a choice.

So make MVCS a magnet but don't force everyone else who doesn't have ESL students into the dual language platform.

We have neighbors in Del Ray who are not ESL and their children are struggling with learning basic word problems in 2-3rd grade because they are not learning Spanish at all, but are learning math in Spanish.

Tragic. This is really terrible. ACPS BOARD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to MVCS, the next Jefferson-Houston failing elementary school in the city! We are Del Ray residents with two rising Kindergarteners, and there is NO WAY we will be sending our kids to MVCS based on last week's school board meeting.

The school board and principal made it obviously clear that the sole focus of the school is on ESL kids and funding their programs, at the expense of declining programs and attention to native English speakers. For what we pay in property taxes, we are disgusted.

Make MVCS a charter school and let us transfer our kids elsewhere until the school can formalize it's identity and stop reverse discrimination against English speakers!

Agree. Agree. Agree. If we cannot transfer our child into another Alexandria elementary for K, we will have to move. Can't afford the mortgage and property tax on our overpriced Del Ray shack AND private school tuition. Too bad!

+1. Amd I know we are not alone. All those of us who bought $700K first homes will be moving when our kids turn 4 because of this ridiculousness. Its really too bad for the community writ large, which is sad, because I love Del Ray.