BOE reconsidering the Virtual Academy, Leader in Me, and Innovative School Year Calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we should keep VA open but also use it for the kids who are too disruptive/violent to be around other kids. Instead of shuffling them to other physical schools put them in VA where they cannot physically touch anyone. If they are disruptive on screen, the teacher can mute them or turn their camera off.
Short of reopening the school for violent students, this seems to me to be a very good option for offering education to students who cannot be trusted to be around others safely.

100%. They don't have to suspend kids but kids should have to be able to be a productive member of the community in order to attend a brick and mortar school. I would LOVE this. I don't care if it impacts their parents either.

It wouldn't work because you need involved parents and many of those kids act up either due to mental health or they are allowed at home as there are no consequences at home or at school. Those kids need to go to a special school for behavior problems.

And then ruin the VA experience for everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its amazing what they can waste money on and then choose to get rid of the VA that benefits some students.

There are very few students left in virtual. It would be far more efficient to have a state-wide virtual option.

+1. But the VA proponents always come up with 100 reasons why that isn't a good idea.

We do not have an educational services at the state level so, if they get rid of it, there will be no virtual program. Plenty of other things to cut, starting with the kid museum. Why is mcps funding nonprofits.

Maybe if more parents were advocating for it, they would.

The state is not in the education business. the county is. No one is going to advocate it for the state level but you. So, please go ahead.

Plenty of states offer virtual programs at the state level. If you want to keep putting all your eggs in the MCPS basket, go ahead, maybe your kids are close to graduating and it doesn't matter for you. But for the sake of younger kids, if you were truly invested in a long-term virtual program I would not depend on MCPS to provide it.

That's fine what other states do but their school setup is much different than ours so it's a moot point. I don't expect anything from MCPS. The problem is there isn't a private equivalent except for a few programs that are super competitive like Stanford, and those aren't MCPS-approved for graduation. The programs they have for virtual are homeschooling programs, which is fine for younger kids but not for kids in HS with higher-level courses. I could easily homeschool for elementary but not for MS or HS. And, Stanford is really expensive, so not an option for us.

If you don't like virtual, fine, don't send your kids but why block other families from using it if it works for their families?

This is not meant to be a snarky comment, but is there a reason you have to stay in MCPS if your kids are staying online? Virginia has a much more robust virtual program. Just something to consider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we should keep VA open but also use it for the kids who are too disruptive/violent to be around other kids. Instead of shuffling them to other physical schools put them in VA where they cannot physically touch anyone. If they are disruptive on screen, the teacher can mute them or turn their camera off.
Short of reopening the school for violent students, this seems to me to be a very good option for offering education to students who cannot be trusted to be around others safely.

100%. They don't have to suspend kids but kids should have to be able to be a productive member of the community in order to attend a brick and mortar school. I would LOVE this. I don't care if it impacts their parents either.

It wouldn't work because you need involved parents and many of those kids act up either due to mental health or they are allowed at home as there are no consequences at home or at school. Those kids need to go to a special school for behavior problems.

Given limited resources and funding, it is no longer the public or MCPS' problem that parents don't provide consequences at home. They have to provide a public education- that's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m like to see Kid museum go away and funding be provided to schools for field trips/assemblies.

The students at my school who get to go to Kid Museum would never get a comparable experience otherwise.

Yea for your school. You can still take your students without MCPS funding it as they charge a field trip fee per student except a few schools. So, many of our kids have never been nor will go. It's not worth the millions MCPS has given when many schools are physically falling apart and don't have what they need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we should keep VA open but also use it for the kids who are too disruptive/violent to be around other kids. Instead of shuffling them to other physical schools put them in VA where they cannot physically touch anyone. If they are disruptive on screen, the teacher can mute them or turn their camera off.
Short of reopening the school for violent students, this seems to me to be a very good option for offering education to students who cannot be trusted to be around others safely.

100%. They don't have to suspend kids but kids should have to be able to be a productive member of the community in order to attend a brick and mortar school. I would LOVE this. I don't care if it impacts their parents either.

It wouldn't work because you need involved parents and many of those kids act up either due to mental health or they are allowed at home as there are no consequences at home or at school. Those kids need to go to a special school for behavior problems.

Given limited resources and funding, it is no longer the public or MCPS' problem that parents don't provide consequences at home. They have to provide a public education- that's it.

They have to provide an education the kids can access. They are best off in a special school for behavioral problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m like to see Kid museum go away and funding be provided to schools for field trips/assemblies.

The students at my school who get to go to Kid Museum would never get a comparable experience otherwise.

Have you been there? It’s fine, but frankly I don’t think MCPS is justified spending on a luxury item when it can’t afford cannot afford to provide the basics (e.g., supplies).

They give out a few field trips to select schools but not all schools, so when MCPS is pushing for equity it makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The resident virtual school lover must be losing her mind over the prospect of letting her kids leave her sight.

There's always homeschool!

Oh my... you simply don't get it. Must be nice to be self-absorbed and only care about your needs vs. the needs of others.

So that is a yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also wonder if there would be much cost savings closing the virtual academy. After all, there is no physical building, or anything associated with that. The technology is already baked in, in that all MCPS students have access to cheomebooks and zoom. It may actually be cheaper, in some ways.

It is cheaper when you look at the numbers so this makes no sense.

It's not cheaper. Schools are roughly fixed costs in this case. You can absorb VA students back into homeschool classrooms without needing to build more schools. And, unless there's a concentrated group of VA students in a particular place and grade, you wouldn't even need to bring in another teacher to accommodate them. VA simply adds additional costs beyond what we already need to spend on classrooms.

Of course it’s cheaper to educate virtually. And, it helps with overcrowding. The issue is they are not giving the student money to the va, they are giving it to the homeschool and paying for the va out of different funds. They need to use that students allocated money and give it to the va. Most Va kids never set foot in their home schools so them getting funding for these kids is wrong.

The question isn't whether it is cheaper to teach kids virtually than in-person. It is whether the cost of VA is less than the marginal cost of moving VA kids back into schools. And it's not. It would be cheaper to teach those 900 kids in their homeschools than to continue to operate a special program for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait they are thinking of bringing Leader in Me back?!

One can only hope! It was so good!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I recall the virtual academy services about 1,800 students. That is pretty large, given there are schools with just three hundred or less in the district. The problem is that federal funds have essentially run out. I would prefer that it continue, as there are students who clearly thrive there.

Beyond that I don't think that the system would actually benefit from the virtual academy staff coming back, in-person. Some, because of health reasons, can't. They would probably quit or retire. Others may be problematic, as there are one or two who were transferred there after being troublesome in their own schools. (Harassment of staff comes to mind.)

And then there is the issue of redistributing students, which might push class capacity in some schools. So there are a lot of factors to consider.

No, virtual academy is less than 900 students, with enrollment dropping rapidly. Spread across all grades and schools, that's miniscule. VA students would simply get absorbed back into their home schools. The marginal cost of bringing these students back into schools is almost nothing. Getting rid of VA would save a ton of money.

Or, get rid of other programs and use the real student funding to pay for the va vs giving it to the home schools that are not providing anything to the students.

So, what programs do you want to get rid of that collectively cost the same amount as VA?

We can cut central office staff, stop finding nonprofits that don’t benefit students, like the kid museum. The kid museum gets mil,ions and dies very little for mcps kids. They charge for field trips. https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OMB/Resources/Files/omb/pdfs/fy23/ciprec/P721903.pdf

I'd like to see the kid museum funding reduced and give the teachers money for supplies. Why are we being asked to donate paper? Why can't MCPS provide this?!

Dumb question and I don’t have time to search- how much exactly is MCPS giving to the kids museum annually?

They gave a $2.37 million contract to Kid Museum in September 2022. That appears to be a multi-year award. The last extension of the original 2017 contract was in 2021 for $1.6 million.

That's significantly cheaper than VA. VA's proposed budget for FY25 is $4.3 million. But they're playing some sort of funny accounting game where they exclude the cost of employee benefits from the cost of the VA program, so it's actually quite a bit more than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also wonder if there would be much cost savings closing the virtual academy. After all, there is no physical building, or anything associated with that. The technology is already baked in, in that all MCPS students have access to cheomebooks and zoom. It may actually be cheaper, in some ways.

It is cheaper when you look at the numbers so this makes no sense.

It's not cheaper. Schools are roughly fixed costs in this case. You can absorb VA students back into homeschool classrooms without needing to build more schools. And, unless there's a concentrated group of VA students in a particular place and grade, you wouldn't even need to bring in another teacher to accommodate them. VA simply adds additional costs beyond what we already need to spend on classrooms.

Of course it’s cheaper to educate virtually. And, it helps with overcrowding. The issue is they are not giving the student money to the va, they are giving it to the homeschool and paying for the va out of different funds. They need to use that students allocated money and give it to the va. Most Va kids never set foot in their home schools so them getting funding for these kids is wrong.

The question isn't whether it is cheaper to teach kids virtually than in-person. It is whether the cost of VA is less than the marginal cost of moving VA kids back into schools. And it's not. It would be cheaper to teach those 900 kids in their homeschools than to continue to operate a special program for them.

No, the issue is how they are funding it. They need to change the funding. They were funding it out of covid money. The idea was that the home schools would provide sports, after school clubs, music, theater, and field trips as well as provide dances, graduations and all the stuff in person kids get. However, only a select group of schools allow virtual students to participate and many of the VA students have never set foot in their home schools (especially those who refuse testing). So, those homeschools are getting funding for students they are not serving. So, take that funding that you are giving to the home schools and fund the VA with that money, problem solved. Give virtual kids the same opportunities for clubs, sports and other things through the virtual academy and fund things like graduation. The cost savings given how much MCPS spends on other things is very minimal. And, it serves an important function for some kind who are not well served in person or cannot be in person or just learn better virtually.

Look, we get you don't like virtual. We get that you cannot stand having your kids home and prefer someone else deal with them the bulk of the day. But, what does't work for you and your family works for other families.

And, part of the mass exit is because of the social and other things promised that MCPS didn't deliver on so many families felt forced to send their children back in person to get those things met.

Or, MCPS should give families stipends to do the activities outside MCPS if they are not going to have equity and give the VA kids the same as in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I recall the virtual academy services about 1,800 students. That is pretty large, given there are schools with just three hundred or less in the district. The problem is that federal funds have essentially run out. I would prefer that it continue, as there are students who clearly thrive there.

Beyond that I don't think that the system would actually benefit from the virtual academy staff coming back, in-person. Some, because of health reasons, can't. They would probably quit or retire. Others may be problematic, as there are one or two who were transferred there after being troublesome in their own schools. (Harassment of staff comes to mind.)

And then there is the issue of redistributing students, which might push class capacity in some schools. So there are a lot of factors to consider.

No, virtual academy is less than 900 students, with enrollment dropping rapidly. Spread across all grades and schools, that's miniscule. VA students would simply get absorbed back into their home schools. The marginal cost of bringing these students back into schools is almost nothing. Getting rid of VA would save a ton of money.

Or, get rid of other programs and use the real student funding to pay for the va vs giving it to the home schools that are not providing anything to the students.

So, what programs do you want to get rid of that collectively cost the same amount as VA?

We can cut central office staff, stop finding nonprofits that don’t benefit students, like the kid museum. The kid museum gets mil,ions and dies very little for mcps kids. They charge for field trips. https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OMB/Resources/Files/omb/pdfs/fy23/ciprec/P721903.pdf

I'd like to see the kid museum funding reduced and give the teachers money for supplies. Why are we being asked to donate paper? Why can't MCPS provide this?!

Dumb question and I don’t have time to search- how much exactly is MCPS giving to the kids museum annually?

They gave a $2.37 million contract to Kid Museum in September 2022. That appears to be a multi-year award. The last extension of the original 2017 contract was in 2021 for $1.6 million.

That's significantly cheaper than VA. VA's proposed budget for FY25 is $4.3 million. But they're playing some sort of funny accounting game where they exclude the cost of employee benefits from the cost of the VA program, so it's actually quite a bit more than that.

You are forgetting, 2023, 2024, 2025 funding as well. And, it serves no function for MCPS other than an BOE member's wife's pet project. The majority of the schools have to pay a field trip fee and most schools are not doing field trips there and if they are its once per school year.

Again, the simple solution is to stop funding those students at their home schools, who provide nothing to the students, and use the allocated money per student to go to the MVA instead. Right now they are double funding each student by paying for them to be at the home school and at the VA. And, $4.3 million is nothing for MCPS or what it costs to run one in person school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also wonder if there would be much cost savings closing the virtual academy. After all, there is no physical building, or anything associated with that. The technology is already baked in, in that all MCPS students have access to cheomebooks and zoom. It may actually be cheaper, in some ways.

It is cheaper when you look at the numbers so this makes no sense.

It's not cheaper. Schools are roughly fixed costs in this case. You can absorb VA students back into homeschool classrooms without needing to build more schools. And, unless there's a concentrated group of VA students in a particular place and grade, you wouldn't even need to bring in another teacher to accommodate them. VA simply adds additional costs beyond what we already need to spend on classrooms.

Of course it’s cheaper to educate virtually. And, it helps with overcrowding. The issue is they are not giving the student money to the va, they are giving it to the homeschool and paying for the va out of different funds. They need to use that students allocated money and give it to the va. Most Va kids never set foot in their home schools so them getting funding for these kids is wrong.

The question isn't whether it is cheaper to teach kids virtually than in-person. It is whether the cost of VA is less than the marginal cost of moving VA kids back into schools. And it's not. It would be cheaper to teach those 900 kids in their homeschools than to continue to operate a special program for them.

No, the issue is how they are funding it. They need to change the funding. They were funding it out of covid money. The idea was that the home schools would provide sports, after school clubs, music, theater, and field trips as well as provide dances, graduations and all the stuff in person kids get. However, only a select group of schools allow virtual students to participate and many of the VA students have never set foot in their home schools (especially those who refuse testing). So, those homeschools are getting funding for students they are not serving. So, take that funding that you are giving to the home schools and fund the VA with that money, problem solved. Give virtual kids the same opportunities for clubs, sports and other things through the virtual academy and fund things like graduation. The cost savings given how much MCPS spends on other things is very minimal. And, it serves an important function for some kind who are not well served in person or cannot be in person or just learn better virtually.

Look, we get you don't like virtual. We get that you cannot stand having your kids home and prefer someone else deal with them the bulk of the day. But, what does't work for you and your family works for other families.

And, part of the mass exit is because of the social and other things promised that MCPS didn't deliver on so many families felt forced to send their children back in person to get those things met.

Or, MCPS should give families stipends to do the activities outside MCPS if they are not going to have equity and give the VA kids the same as in person.

Didn’t it come about because of the pandemic? What did your kids do before then? The only families I knew in it participated because of health concerns related to Covid. Even they are back in person now.

Using the federal money to provide virtual learning during a public health crisis made complete sense. Whether it makes sense long term, and where to pull money from once federal funds are out, is more debatable. I’m glad MCPS is evaluating whether it makes sense to continue. I get that you’re annoyed that others have different opinions than you, but as taxpayers, we are all entitled to our opinions on how the money is spent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its amazing what they can waste money on and then choose to get rid of the VA that benefits some students.

There are very few students left in virtual. It would be far more efficient to have a state-wide virtual option.

+1. But the VA proponents always come up with 100 reasons why that isn't a good idea.

We do not have an educational services at the state level so, if they get rid of it, there will be no virtual program. Plenty of other things to cut, starting with the kid museum. Why is mcps funding nonprofits.

Maybe if more parents were advocating for it, they would.

The state is not in the education business. the county is. No one is going to advocate it for the state level but you. So, please go ahead.

Plenty of states offer virtual programs at the state level. If you want to keep putting all your eggs in the MCPS basket, go ahead, maybe your kids are close to graduating and it doesn't matter for you. But for the sake of younger kids, if you were truly invested in a long-term virtual program I would not depend on MCPS to provide it.

That's fine what other states do but their school setup is much different than ours so it's a moot point. I don't expect anything from MCPS. The problem is there isn't a private equivalent except for a few programs that are super competitive like Stanford, and those aren't MCPS-approved for graduation. The programs they have for virtual are homeschooling programs, which is fine for younger kids but not for kids in HS with higher-level courses. I could easily homeschool for elementary but not for MS or HS. And, Stanford is really expensive, so not an option for us.

If you don't like virtual, fine, don't send your kids but why block other families from using it if it works for their families?

Not PP but I wonder if MCPS would expand what it would approve for graduation if they did away with the county VA? My cousin’s DC in Florida was literally taking AP classes online when undergoing cancel treatments, there must be more options out there than what MCPS accepts right now.

+1 to getting rid of kid museum funding! What a waste.

FL uses a different model- it’s a statewide program. So they can offer more classes. There has been more of a push for VA students to enroll in MC classes instead of AP (not necessarily a bad thing).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also wonder if there would be much cost savings closing the virtual academy. After all, there is no physical building, or anything associated with that. The technology is already baked in, in that all MCPS students have access to cheomebooks and zoom. It may actually be cheaper, in some ways.

It is cheaper when you look at the numbers so this makes no sense.

It's not cheaper. Schools are roughly fixed costs in this case. You can absorb VA students back into homeschool classrooms without needing to build more schools. And, unless there's a concentrated group of VA students in a particular place and grade, you wouldn't even need to bring in another teacher to accommodate them. VA simply adds additional costs beyond what we already need to spend on classrooms.

Of course it’s cheaper to educate virtually. And, it helps with overcrowding. The issue is they are not giving the student money to the va, they are giving it to the homeschool and paying for the va out of different funds. They need to use that students allocated money and give it to the va. Most Va kids never set foot in their home schools so them getting funding for these kids is wrong.

The question isn't whether it is cheaper to teach kids virtually than in-person. It is whether the cost of VA is less than the marginal cost of moving VA kids back into schools. And it's not. It would be cheaper to teach those 900 kids in their homeschools than to continue to operate a special program for them.

No, the issue is how they are funding it. They need to change the funding. They were funding it out of covid money. The idea was that the home schools would provide sports, after school clubs, music, theater, and field trips as well as provide dances, graduations and all the stuff in person kids get. However, only a select group of schools allow virtual students to participate and many of the VA students have never set foot in their home schools (especially those who refuse testing). So, those homeschools are getting funding for students they are not serving. So, take that funding that you are giving to the home schools and fund the VA with that money, problem solved. Give virtual kids the same opportunities for clubs, sports and other things through the virtual academy and fund things like graduation. The cost savings given how much MCPS spends on other things is very minimal. And, it serves an important function for some kind who are not well served in person or cannot be in person or just learn better virtually.

Look, we get you don't like virtual. We get that you cannot stand having your kids home and prefer someone else deal with them the bulk of the day. But, what does't work for you and your family works for other families.

And, part of the mass exit is because of the social and other things promised that MCPS didn't deliver on so many families felt forced to send their children back in person to get those things met.

Or, MCPS should give families stipends to do the activities outside MCPS if they are not going to have equity and give the VA kids the same as in person.

Didn’t it come about because of the pandemic? What did your kids do before then? The only families I knew in it participated because of health concerns related to Covid. Even they are back in person now.

Using the federal money to provide virtual learning during a public health crisis made complete sense. Whether it makes sense long term, and where to pull money from once federal funds are out, is more debatable. I’m glad MCPS is evaluating whether it makes sense to continue. I get that you’re annoyed that others have different opinions than you, but as taxpayers, we are all entitled to our opinions on how the money is spent.

How is money spent? MCPS spends 100's of millions without BOE approval or notice. Why isn't the BOE looking into that spending? What about the State money they just squandered? Where is the hearing on those millions?