Why is ACPS so sensitive to any constructive criticism?
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Anonymous
| Why is ACPS so sensitive to any contructive feedback from parents and the community? I saw on a community forum that teachers haven't received their contracts yet. I also saw that pandemic recovery funds haven't been spent by ACPS. Why? I understand it is hard to recruit and retain teachers and staff, but why is ACPS so poorly run? I was at my daughter's school and the PTA closet had rat droppings. The hand soap in the bathrooms is way to high for an elementary kid in lower grades to reach so I guess no one is using hand soap. I found out that from the principal that ACPS has the janitors as contractors and they don't get any benefits like sick leave or vacation leave. Do you think most parents know this? With the number of students at the HS, it seems like it would be hard for most kids to get involved in sports, clubs, or activities. Whenever anyone pushes back, the school board, the PTA committe for the city, the ACPS staff get really defensive. |
Anonymous
| Are you new here? Any criticism of ACPS is racist. |
Anonymous
This. Also, any criticism of the superintendent is racist. |
Anonymous
And the school board and the ptas and the board chair and the city council and the mayor and..... |
Anonymous
| And if you are critical and tried to get involved with the school PTA, the PTAC, without ever speaking to you (as is in never met you), will coordinate a campaign and send unhinged emails to the school's principal calling you racist. |
Anonymous
| Activists use the school board and school related issues for their political gain. There's no one looking to actually fix the school system in a practical way |
Anonymous
| I think we will get our contracts this week and if I remember correctly the timing is pretty normal. We did get an email about it so I guess some people are concerned. I am pretty happy about the step and the mra(or whatever it’s called). |
Anonymous
The Board clerk for the June 2 meeting sent warnings to parents to not speak on anything but ESSER funds at the meeting, and then the same SB passed a resolution on gun violence at the same meeting. One of the school board members in their bio touts their democrat party work. The only thing transparent about ACPS and the SB is they are a political machine. |
Anonymous
Yeah, I work for APS and we get ours Friday. It’s about the same every year. I think it’s better because most transfers have already happened and they don’t need to amend anything. Anyone who has been destaffed has known for awhile. |
Anonymous
Political machine? I think you are giving this weak school board members a little too much credit. |
Anonymous
Also - use of the term “democrat party” is a give away for political agenda of the poster. That being said, I don’t know if ACPS is fixable since there seems to be a lack of political will for viable change candidates to either run or win. |
Anonymous
Yes, sadly this is the PTAC board's MO. I've seen them do it before. Their behavior is disturbing. PTAC is very much arm of ACPS (up until a year or so ago, their website was managed by ACPS). They signed on to an op-ed that was clearly written by a junior ACPS staffer praising how ACPS managed the shut downs while parents - particularly those of special ed students - were begging for better. https://alextimes.com/2021/01/your-views-kudos-to-acps/ They don't represent the best interests of parents or teachers the way they are supposed and instead they work to cover for ACPS, the board and the super. I also wonder why there is such sensitivity to ANY constructive criticism. It's very strange just how far the PTAC board (and their friends) are willing to go to absolutely destroy people who ask questions and speak out. It's what PTAC should be doing but doesn't. It's like a group madness that develops in their single minded echo chamber and they are vicious to those who don't adhere to their world view. It's also strange that they have a board member who was apparently booted out of her kids' school for publicly celebrating violence against a child. But I think that goes to their obvious acceptance of vicious, vile behavior. I assume their defensiveness is the same as the usual reasons why white UMC people defend this cratering school system. Most/all of the people on the board are white UMC. They want to protect their property values. They want to protect the special treatment that they can get for their kids in schools. And they think everything that Hutchings does and the School Board allows is great and fine including the coverup of the rape at Minnie Howard. To my knowledge, PTAC didn't have anything to say about how that was handled and that's very disturbing. So they squash any dissent from their world view and fail kids in the process. It's sad because if only there was a little room for discussion and collaboration ACPS could improve quickly. But that's not how things go in Alexandria. |
Anonymous
Not the PP but why is it a problem to use that term? School Board members are supposed to run as non-partisian. But many of them posted pictures at Democratic party fundraisers with state wide candidates during the campaign. Some took donations and inkind donations (website and fundraising help) from Act Blue and other democratic entities. And if a school board is supposed to be nonpartians - it's perfectly appropriate to point out that touting democratic party work in their school board bio is inappropriate. If it's ok for the school board members to be obvious and highlight their political agendas...why is it giving away a political agenda to point that out? But I do think you are correct, ACPS is not fixable because viable change candidates are not acceptable to Alexandrians. |
Anonymous
The political party’s name is Democratic Party but GOP/FoxNews types like to say “democrat” to disparage. It’s a winking-nodding dog-whistle term, kind of like “woke.” It’s used intentionally but then they play dumb about it. |
Anonymous
Ooooohhhh democrat is a wink nod dog whistle term. OK. 
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