future at Haycock?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I am the poster that you quoted. I am most certainly not hysterical. Please see my comment above , where I specifically say that I am OK with a switch as long as it is DONE WELL. I have some doubts about that happening, since this all seems to be proceeding at breakneck speed.

The negative comments I have heard from LRES parents have been emails forwarded to me by moms in my social circle and posts on other boards. They are agitated about continuing changes being forced on them from FCPS without any input on their part. It doesn't sound like they object to an AAP center per se, just that with many new students and a new principal this year, they would like a year without major disruption.

And I don't know about other parents, but my worry is not that "Haycock is best," it's that I want my kids at a program with fully trained and experienced AAP teachers, a principal who fully supports them, and a larger school body that does not object to their presence. I think that's pretty reasonable.

If the eight-room addition at Lemon Road is ready by the fall of 2013, and there is over-crowding at nearby schools, I think FCPS ought to try and take advantage of the additional capacity sooner rather than later.

FCPS could use the LR capacity for Freedom Hill, Shrevewood and other schools like they said they would when they built it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In light of Haycock's extreme overcrowding, I think grandfathering should not happen. This is just one of the cases where kids can be reassigned. And, there is definitely precedent of kids being reassigned to different schools and being just fine.

Again, the problem is that our kids have ALREADY been reassigned once, from our base schools to Haycock. Current 3rd graders, if moved next year, will have been at 3 different schools in 3 years! Some kids who have a flexible, type B personality will be fine, certainly. Others will struggle and falter.

The part I find so hurtful as a Cluster 2 parent is that -- after years of being contributing members of the Haycock family -- we are now being told by some in the community that our kids are an unwanted problem. Parents from Westgate and Shrevewood are also being told on boards like this one that Lemon Road, the most likely place for a new Cluster 2 AAP center, does not want our kids either because they had to absorb kids from Freedom Hill last year and are tired of change. It all just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth!

My bottom line is that I want my kids at a school that will appreciate them and provide a good Level IV program taught by experienced, qualified teachers. I would prefer they be grandfathered at Haycock, but if that is not possible, FCPS needs to make darn sure that this move is done well.

Some people are surprisingly self-centered in their approach. I want you to know that I am zoned for Haycock but completely support you. You and your child ARE part of the Haycock community and your child should NOT have to endure three changes in three years. (And you don't sound the least bit hysterical to me.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
FCPS could use the LR capacity for Freedom Hill, Shrevewood and other schools like they said they would when they built it.

It might make sense to use the capacity for a Cluster 2 AAP program instead. No additional boundary study has been conducted and no decision has been made. The actual and projected growth at Haycock may have outpaced that at Freedom Hill, Shrevewood or Westgate since the initial suggestions were made about the possible use of the Lemon Road addition.

[Anonymous]

Here's what Sandy Evans has told her constituents in Mason about the AAP proposals (note that it makes the common-sense observation that concerns about some of the proposals need not interfere with addressing the serious overcrowding at schools like Haycock next year):

"Advanced Academic Program (GT) Center Proposed Changes: The Superintendent plans to bring the School Board a new plan to make significant changes in our AAP center program (formerly called GT centers). Behind the recommendations is a philosophy that students would be better served by staying as close to their base schools as possible.

Part of the proposal will be to create an AAP Center at each middle school. This would mean, for example, that some students now headed to Glasgow Middle School for the AAP Center program would instead attend Poe or Holmes Middle Schools, which would create their own AAP centers. At last count, Glasgow would be expected to lose around 23 rising sixth grade students, assuming that rising 7th and 8th graders were grandfathered in.

The elementary school plan is a bit more complicated. The idea is to create an elementary school AAP center for each high school pyramid. In our part of the world this would mean the creation of two new elementary AAP centers, one for the Annandale High School pyramid and one for the Falls Church High School pyramid. The initial thinking is that new centers could be placed at Braddock ES (for the Annandale pyramid) and at Camelot ES (for the Falls Church pyramid), though the recommendation isn't finalized yet.

If we decide to do this, FCPS staff are recommending that current students be "grandfathered" in, and the transitions would start with rising 3rd graders and rising 6th graders (7th graders in parts of the county with 7-8 middle schools).
Here is a link to a web page that outlines where FCPS is on this proposal:
http://www.fcps.edu/is/aap/centers/reorg/index.shtml

I have several concerns and questions about this proposal at this point. First of all, before taking any action we need significant public engagement, especially with AAP parents, on how this would impact children, families and schools. In Mason District, the situation is complicated by recent boundary changes that already significantly impacted Belvedere Elementary, which under the plan would lose four feeder schools from its AAP center, already one of the smaller ones in the county. We need to ask if families at Weyanoke, Columbia, Bren Mar Park and Mason Crest would welcome a switch to a new Annandale pyramid AAP center school, especially since neither Mason Crest nor Bren Mar Park students will actually attend Annandale High School.

At a School Board Forum last week, I put on the agenda a proposal to slow down the process to allow for full public engagement and to give our Advanced Academic Program Advisory Committee (AAPAC) time to give us its views on this issue. Secondly, because there are some AAP centers that have emergency overcrowding situations that must be dealt with in the next school year (none in Mason District), I wanted to see options from the Superintendent to deal with just those situations if we choose to take more time to consider the larger, systemwide recommendations.

The Board agreed to my proposal, and we will receive the superintendent's recommendations and options at the Board's Dec. 10 work session. At that time, we will consider how best to move forward. As a first step in public engagement, three regional meetings have been scheduled for the last week in November. For Clusters 1, 2, and 3 (which includes Mason District students), the meeting has been set for 7-9 pm at Kilmer Middle School, 8100 Wolftrap Rd., Vienna, VA, 22182, map here:
http://commweb.fcps.edu/directory/map_base.cfm?locid=1012

I've also asked staff to work with me to create an additional meeting for our area to discuss our unique needs someplace closer and more convenient to Mason District. I welcome your comments and views."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Some people are surprisingly self-centered in their approach. I want you to know that I am zoned for Haycock but completely support you. You and your child ARE part of the Haycock community and your child should NOT have to endure three changes in three years. (And you don't sound the least bit hysterical to me.)

Thanks! You have no idea how much your comment brightens my day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Some people are surprisingly self-centered in their approach. I want you to know that I am zoned for Haycock but completely support you. You and your child ARE part of the Haycock community and your child should NOT have to endure three changes in three years. (And you don't sound the least bit hysterical to me.)

Thanks! You have no idea how much your comment brightens my day.

+100

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry - who are the self-centered ones? The ones who want to send the Cluster 2 kids packing ASAP even if it means they attend three different schools in three years or the Cluster 2 parents who want their AAP-eligible kids to have options that the in-boundary kids at overcrowded Haycock do not enjoy?

All of the above? None of the above? I'll have a smile on my face if I can ever figure this out.

[Anonymous]

the former ones! you cannot figure it out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry - who are the self-centered ones? The ones who want to send the Cluster 2 kids packing ASAP even if it means they attend three different schools in three years or the Cluster 2 parents who want their AAP-eligible kids to have options that the in-boundary kids at overcrowded Haycock do not enjoy?

All of the above? None of the above? I'll have a smile on my face if I can ever figure this out.

If your child had another option, would you exercise it? For example, if they said Haycock base parents could send their kids to Lemon Road, would you? Actually, maybe you can. I think it's still open for transfer. I'll bet you wouldn't. the whole "options" argument is just a facade.

[Anonymous]

I love PP's solution -- those most vocal base parents who feel their kid is so deprived of education at Haycock should pupil place their children at Lemon Road! They do have a choice and I'll bet they wouldn't even think of exercising it. It might do our community good if one or two of those folks left Haycock!

[Anonymous]

They are equally self-centered. Why else do you think there are so many of these threads or that they go on for so long?

The only difference is that the AAP parents monitor the message boards like hawks and are slightly better at playing the victim.

[Anonymous]

Assuming that current Cluster 2 AAP students at Haycock get grandfathered, what does the enrollment at Haycock look like over the next five years? If I understand correctly, the number of students moving from Haycock to Lemon Road will be substantially lower than the number that Janie Strauss tossed out at the parents' meeting.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised that they are not eliminating the center at Haycock like they are at Hunters Woods. Haycock does not have room for the center anymore, and would likely benefit if they reduced the program to a LLIV program and sent Franklin Sherman, Chesterbrook, and Timberlane elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Assuming that current Cluster 2 AAP students at Haycock get grandfathered, what does the enrollment at Haycock look like over the next five years? If I understand correctly, the number of students moving from Haycock to Lemon Road will be substantially lower than the number that Janie Strauss tossed out at the parents' meeting.

I have a quick question. If the current AAP students get grandfathered, and the rising 3rd graders eligible to AAP are going to Lemon Road, I wonder how FCPS will manage the school bus. do we get 3 buses - base school, Haycock, and Lemon Road? I heard they are short of school bus, My DC was suffered from the overcrowed school bus for years, but they don't have enough school bus to add one. Do they have enough fund? Heard any plan about school bus?

I think they should not allow grandfathering students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming that current Cluster 2 AAP students at Haycock get grandfathered, what does the enrollment at Haycock look like over the next five years? If I understand correctly, the number of students moving from Haycock to Lemon Road will be substantially lower than the number that Janie Strauss tossed out at the parents' meeting.

I have a quick question. If the current AAP students get grandfathered, and the rising 3rd graders eligible to AAP are going to Lemon Road, I wonder how FCPS will manage the school bus. do we get 3 buses - base school, Haycock, and Lemon Road? I heard they are short of school bus, My DC was suffered from the overcrowed school bus for years, but they don't have enough school bus to add one. Do they have enough fund? Heard any plan about school bus?

I think they should not allow grandfathering students.

They don't necessarily need a second bus. They can do "depot" service where they bus everyone to LR then have the bus go from LR to Haycock. Also, for some of the students, LR is on the way to Haycock. They're not that far apart. It's a manageable issue.

I suspect you think they shouldn't allow grandfathering because it's not your child they are proposing to move.