FCPS Boundary Review - New Maps

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:It's absolutely laughable that they still think they can implement boundary changes in 26-27 when they clearly don't have maps ready for feedback yet. It has to be finalized (with ALL the details) by early January, so families have time to consider their grandfathering options and kids can pick classes at the appropriate school.

That's about 4-5 months from now and they've done NOTHING since this all started in spring of 2024.

I bet they delay it. Seeds were planted yesterday.

I don’t think they delay it, I think they massively scale it back. They all seem exhausted from the process and now realize the hornets’ nest that is boundary changes. They want to do other things, but the boundary review continues to suck all the oxygen out of the room. They won’t delay it because they don’t want to deal with it another year and certainly not in an election year.

Yup, sorry West Springfield folks. Sandy Anderson is going to have her way. And maybe they'll fix Coates? But I think they will otherwise scale this back. They'll say they do more "phased" changes later and just back away.

I don’t like Reid much, but the lack of responsibility for attempting to institute WAAAAY too many changes rests with the board. I find it annoying that they are passing the buck to Reid, when they established the stupid parameters and are now trying to squeal that it is Reids fault.

No, school board, you INSISTED on redoing the policy AND on making broad changes. You APPROVED THRU. This is 90% on you all. It is asinine to throw this on Reid. The only one I give a pass to is Ricardy Anderson and Meren because they seem to think at least a little. The rest of them need to own up to the fact that they can’t get all of this done.

Didn't Cumming say something about going too fast?

I think Dunn has been somewhat against this process the entire time.

Man, we need Megan McLaughlin and Elizabeth Schultz back.

It’s Dunne, not Dunn, and he was a big supporter of a county-wide review at first. If he’s changed his mind it’s because of feedback he’s since gotten from people in his district, like those who don’t want to be redistricted as part of a “fix” to locate Whitman MS within its attendance area.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every parent in Fairfax County (and, really, every resident) should watch the video of yesterday's work session) before the next School Board election.

Can you send the link please?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u11acsrpEFo

Why are we paying an FCPS employee to knit during these board meetings? What a waste of our tax dollars.

She's crocheting

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did anyone notice that every time Dunne brought up money that he prefaced it with something like "since we are unsure how the withdrawal of federal funds is going to affect our budget" He said something like that several times yesterday.

I sure wish they could have televised the closed meeting about that issue.

People who looked at the last CIP and thought their school renovations were about to begin are in for a surprise. They basically signaled that a lot of the upcoming bond money will go to KAA and cost overruns on current projects associated with their environmental “Net Zero” commitment. Some members questioned whether they should toss that aside due to unexpected developments like losing federal funding but there was no agreement to do so.

Yes. Learned that electric school buses cost well more than $400K. Diesel buses are over $100K.

I am just waiting for the mess that will be caused by those busses the next snowmaggedon.

LOL. My kid's bus this year is one of those EV busses. It's really nice for a school bus, but I can't shake off wondering how nice it'll be when it doesnt show up in Jan/Feb because they can't get it started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every parent in Fairfax County (and, really, every resident) should watch the video of yesterday's work session) before the next School Board election.

Can you send the link please?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u11acsrpEFo

Why are we paying an FCPS employee to knit during these board meetings? What a waste of our tax dollars.

I just fast forwarded through the video - she is a member of the BRAC and not an employee. I also saw another BRAC member in the "audience."

[Anonymous]

Just looked at the pie charts from BRAC presentation about the priorities of each region.

It seems to me that they are meaningless. Just busywork.

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY2025-26SchoolRegions.pdf

[Anonymous]

Just looked at the pie charts from BRAC presentation about the priorities of each region.

It seems to me that they are meaningless. Just busywork.

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY2025-26SchoolRegions.pdf

One thing that is clear: Keeping neighborhoods together is a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just looked at the pie charts from BRAC presentation about the priorities of each region.

It seems to me that they are meaningless. Just busywork.

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY2025-26SchoolRegions.pdf

One thing that is clear: Keeping neighborhoods together is a priority.

Nah, keeping the demographics the same is the priority for families. Don't lie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just looked at the pie charts from BRAC presentation about the priorities of each region.

It seems to me that they are meaningless. Just busywork.

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY2025-26SchoolRegions.pdf

One thing that is clear: Keeping neighborhoods together is a priority.

Nah, keeping the demographics the same is the priority for families. Don't lie.

No. That is just the priority of some neighborhoods. Not mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just looked at the pie charts from BRAC presentation about the priorities of each region.

It seems to me that they are meaningless. Just busywork.

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/SY2025-26SchoolRegions.pdf

One thing that is clear: Keeping neighborhoods together is a priority.

Nah, keeping the demographics the same is the priority for families. Don't lie.

DP. Swing and a miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School Board meeting today on boundary review, school time change, and new academy proposal

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/DKSU827AC0D8/$file/Integration%20of%20Boundary%20Review%20%20Start%20Times%20August%2026.pdf

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/Public

https://www.youtube.com/live/u11acsrpEFo?si=4Gn-i0EO1kcRMnDA

worth watching from 1:08:00 to 1:22:00 on boundary

Melanie Meren did a good job pointing out how sloppy this process has been to date, but Frisch and his colleagues WANTED to dump responsibility for a county-wide review onto the superintendent, FCPS staff, and any "experts" they'd hire. No one, including Meren, should be shocked that it's turning out to be a debacle.

Robyn Lady is just WRONG when she claims transfers for a foreign language is not in the current transfer regulation. It's expressly identified in Regulation 2230.16 (Section III.B.4 refers to "world language course sequence not available at the student's base school").

One of their problems is that they're trying to screw families who'd be grandfathered by denying them transportation to their existing schools so they can change middle school start times and/or change more boundaries. They are doing this by claiming that grandfathered kids would be treated as if they are student "transfers" pursuant to Regulation 2230.16, but that's NOT how FCPS has treated the phasing-in of boundary changes in the past. Kids were absolutely provided transportation to their existing schools as boundary changes were phased in, unlike students pupil placing under Regulation 2230.16. So if they want to treat grandfathered kids as transfers under Regulation 2230, they are going to have to revise that policy, since it sets forth specific reasons for transfers that wouldn't cover all the kids being grandfathered.

They are in way over the heads here. As a PP noted, they bit off way more than they can chew.

+ 1

[Anonymous]

Is there some kind of document that shows how many people are working "above" the school level?

Also, how many "specialists" at schools who do not do direct instruction?

And, how many administrators in the schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there some kind of document that shows how many people are working "above" the school level?

Also, how many "specialists" at schools who do not do direct instruction?

And, how many administrators in the schools?

Ha, no. You think they'd release something like that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there some kind of document that shows how many people are working "above" the school level?

Also, how many "specialists" at schools who do not do direct instruction?

And, how many administrators in the schools?

Ha, no. You think they'd release something like that?

Detail Budgets per school are available. https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/leadership/budget-finance/budget-documents#fy2027-budget-docs
There's a link to this massive file. Immersion staff not a separate budget code so staffing is in core, AAP and magnet staffing listed:
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY24-School-Detail.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did anyone notice that every time Dunne brought up money that he prefaced it with something like "since we are unsure how the withdrawal of federal funds is going to affect our budget" He said something like that several times yesterday.

I sure wish they could have televised the closed meeting about that issue.

People who looked at the last CIP and thought their school renovations were about to begin are in for a surprise. They basically signaled that a lot of the upcoming bond money will go to KAA and cost overruns on current projects associated with their environmental “Net Zero” commitment. Some members questioned whether they should toss that aside due to unexpected developments like losing federal funding but there was no agreement to do so.

Yes. Learned that electric school buses cost well more than $400K. Diesel buses are over $100K.

I am just waiting for the mess that will be caused by those busses the next snowmaggedon.

LOL. My kid's bus this year is one of those EV busses. It's really nice for a school bus, but I can't shake off wondering how nice it'll be when it doesnt show up in Jan/Feb because they can't get it started.

Why wouldn't you be able to get it started?