How would you cut the budget?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like the high achieving Gen Ed kids in classrooms that include SPED?

Exactly. SPED and ESL shouldn't be in the Gen Ed classroom if they slow the other kids down. Don't hate AAP. Your issue is elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, sorry - FCPS is laser focused on "equity" and offering AAP to one huge group but not the other is the very definition of inequity. If they were serious, they would make sure every child had the opportunity to cycle into and out of AAP groups as needed.

They do. You can test into AAP any year. The school evaluates everyone automatically the first time in 2nd grade, but after that it's mostly up to you. If your kid isn't in it yet it's either your fault or they aren't ready for the advanced material. I truly believe most kids could keep up with AAP (it's only a year or so ahead in math), but it requires extra effort for some kids and they'd just prefer not to do it when they don't have to. There are plenty of AAP kids who are there solely because their parents push them hard enough to stay ahead - either at home or at RSM, Beast Academy, Sunshine Academy, etc.

[Anonymous]

^^ Which is exactly why an AAP group should be available for any child who is interested and able. They shouldn’t have to wait an entire year just to test into it. If they can do the work at ANY point, then that’s all that matters.

[Anonymous]

I would increase the budget, not cut it, mainly to pay teachers more. I'd also be willing to increase local taxes further to reduce class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would increase the budget, not cut it, mainly to pay teachers more. I'd also be willing to increase local taxes further to reduce class sizes.

Same, but only if they don’t make unnecessary boundary moves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like the high achieving Gen Ed kids in classrooms that include SPED?

Exactly. SPED and ESL shouldn't be in the Gen Ed classroom if they slow the other kids down. Don't hate AAP. Your issue is elsewhere.

+1
Bring back tracked classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like the high achieving Gen Ed kids in classrooms that include SPED?

Exactly. SPED and ESL shouldn't be in the Gen Ed classroom if they slow the other kids down. Don't hate AAP. Your issue is elsewhere.

+1
Bring back tracked classrooms.

Yeah, sorry, there’s a big county push right now to have 80% of students with IEPs in the general education setting 80% of the time (right now it’s below 60% of the kids). It’s state benchmark. And FCPS is worse at it than almost every district in the state. You will find no traction on your idea to retrack or keep kids out of the gen ed setting - FCPS has been doing that - and it’s going the opposite way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut gatehouse staffing by 50%, reduce superintendent pay by 20%, eliminate IB or at most offer at 1 school.

This!

Also, cut all the second tier superintendents by half, then cut their pay by 20%

There is no reason why we pay a DEI superintendent almost $300,000.

My oldest graduated from FCPS before DEI was a big thing. All so kids mixed between ethnic groups and the friend groups were full of kids of all races.

My youngest is finishing high school this year, having gone through the formative teen years during FCPS heavy DEI push and emphasis everywhere. The kids all mostly self segregate between racial, ethnic and identity groups, instead of just hanging with kids of shared interest. It is sad to see how different the teens were pre DEI focus and now.

If this represents the fruit of the labor of FCPS dei focus, then cur all of it. It has been a waste of money and actually harmed kids by focusing on perceived differences based on ethnicity and skin color.

+100
Totally agree. Before the constant focus on DEI, everyone just hung out together at my kids' school when my oldest two went there. In the last four years, that has completely changed. It is so unhealthy - for *everyone* - to have this preoccupation with skin color/affinity groups. DEI has been so damaging.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut gatehouse staffing by 50%, reduce superintendent pay by 20%, eliminate IB or at most offer at 1 school.

Congrats, you've cut 1% of the budget. What's next?

The reality is that the only way to substantially cut costs is to reduce the biggest part of the pie, which is in-school staff. Since nobody really wants to do that, we should just raise taxes.

Is it even 1%?

We don’t know because they are not transparent about the budget and manipulate the numbers to hide how much admin is really costing. Admin costs a lot more than FCPS is making it out to be, all kinds of costs are getting lumped in with costs that are actually for students in the classroom. Before anyone can make suggestions about cuts, the public needs real transparency about what the taxpayer money is currently being spent on, not a bunch of manipulated numbers and data on costs lumped into categories where those costs don’t belong.

I'd like to see the FCPS budget line by line, transparent. Otherwise, we really don't know what we're spending our money on. And everyone is just nominating the things we like least for cuts. For me, it would be much of the admin outside the schools, DEI, contracts for things like the phone-in tutors which are hardly used. But there is so much waste in the schools, and we have a right to know where the money is being spent. I actually think universal preschool INSTEAD of all the social engineering and manipulation of admission standards might have been a better alternative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cut gatehouse staffing by 50%, reduce superintendent pay by 20%, eliminate IB or at most offer at 1 school.

Congrats, you've cut 1% of the budget. What's next?

The reality is that the only way to substantially cut costs is to reduce the biggest part of the pie, which is in-school staff. Since nobody really wants to do that, we should just raise taxes.

Is it even 1%?

We don’t know because they are not transparent about the budget and manipulate the numbers to hide how much admin is really costing. Admin costs a lot more than FCPS is making it out to be, all kinds of costs are getting lumped in with costs that are actually for students in the classroom. Before anyone can make suggestions about cuts, the public needs real transparency about what the taxpayer money is currently being spent on, not a bunch of manipulated numbers and data on costs lumped into categories where those costs don’t belong.

I'd like to see the FCPS budget line by line, transparent. Otherwise, we really don't know what we're spending our money on. And everyone is just nominating the things we like least for cuts. For me, it would be much of the admin outside the schools, DEI, contracts for things like the phone-in tutors which are hardly used. But there is so much waste in the schools, and we have a right to know where the money is being spent. I actually think universal preschool INSTEAD of all the social engineering and manipulation of admission standards might have been a better alternative.

All of that information is available in their budget book. It’s not a secret. https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cut gatehouse staffing by 50%, reduce superintendent pay by 20%, eliminate IB or at most offer at 1 school.

FCPS’s Chief DEIA Officer, Nardos King, has a salary close to $200k per year, and a full-time staff of more than 60 employees.

That department should be completely disbanded to save FCPS a huge amount of money which is currently wasted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like the high achieving Gen Ed kids in classrooms that include SPED?

Exactly. SPED and ESL shouldn't be in the Gen Ed classroom if they slow the other kids down. Don't hate AAP. Your issue is elsewhere.

+1
Bring back tracked classrooms.

+1

[Anonymous]

Cut AAP Bussing
Replace IB with AP at all IB schools.
Every middle schooler does not need Lexia.
Axe the bloat at Gatehouse.
No bussing under 2 miles.
Pay to play sports.
Reduce middle school after school activities to 1/day week or not at all.

[Anonymous]

Stop paying consultants for worthless studies and stop hiring incompetent people to restructure programs they know nothing about…among the most recent examples: Hayfield recruiting, start times, getting rid of self-contained sped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like the high achieving Gen Ed kids in classrooms that include SPED?

Exactly. SPED and ESL shouldn't be in the Gen Ed classroom if they slow the other kids down. Don't hate AAP. Your issue is elsewhere.

You posted this many times in many threads, along with how your kid and her friends hate special ed kids and make fun of them when they think no one but you are listening.

Those kids are protected by federal law. Mainstreaming in the regular classes fufill Least Restrictive Environment (an actual legal term and requirement)

There is nothing you or fcps can do about it, so quit complaining and treating those kids like they are a hinderance meant to be hidden away. Or relocate to Germany, where they are hidden away, unfortunately.