Music Cuts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Westfield parent here- the tragedy last year with the murdered student was handled very distastefully from start to finish by the school admin and fcps. The students internalized that if something terrible happened to them, their school would try and ignore that they ever existed. Very sad.

The chaos with the day spent in the stadium did not inspire confidence in the event of a true emergency.

My post about the student's death last year got deleted. There was no way to handle it tastefully.

As for the stadium, I'm not sure what you'd have them do differently. Kids had access to their phones. Parents were getting texts and there were tons of videos being posted. The students were somewhere they could be accounted for with seating, bathrooms, and water fountains. The school would never have heard the end of it if they'd let students leave campus or go back in the building before it was cleared.

I do agree the school is too big. No FCPS high school should be pushing 3,000 students. There were a lot of problems last time WHS reached that size. Keeping eyes on that many students is impossible and there are situations that get out of control before they can be addressed.

Finally, most schools especially the large ones would be screwed in the event of a true emergency. We've seen this over and over again. A fire or tornado, maybe. But there's no reliable way to secure a huge school and lock everyone down if there's an active threat inside the building.

FCPS needs to stop defending and start making things better. Size is not an excuse!!!

[Anonymous]

Westfield parent-my kid did not have her phone, backpack, purse, water bottle. The teachers told them to leave everything in the classroom for the "fire drill".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm shocked that something like choir was a class to begin with, and more shocked that an actual class was held outside of school hours. It's not just inequitable, it's absurd. Things like that are extra curricular at almost every school district in the country. It's bizarre that Westfield was giving academic credit for it. It's like if being on the football team was a class.

What are you talking about? Choir is a class during the day at every single school in the county

I said country. Not county. Choir is probably a high school elective in the county. During the day. In most places choir is competitive and not a class at all, but an extra curricular. If it's not during the day, it's extra curricular, period. No one should be getting credit and a GPA boost for being in an extra curricular.

Most high schools in the USA offer choir as a graded class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm shocked that something like choir was a class to begin with, and more shocked that an actual class was held outside of school hours. It's not just inequitable, it's absurd. Things like that are extra curricular at almost every school district in the country. It's bizarre that Westfield was giving academic credit for it. It's like if being on the football team was a class.

In the USA, choir is a graded class.

Heck, even my rural high school had multiple lavels of choir as graded classes during the school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm shocked that something like choir was a class to begin with, and more shocked that an actual class was held outside of school hours. It's not just inequitable, it's absurd. Things like that are extra curricular at almost every school district in the country. It's bizarre that Westfield was giving academic credit for it. It's like if being on the football team was a class.

What are you talking about? Choir is a class during the day at every single school in the county

I said country. Not county. Choir is probably a high school elective in the county. During the day. In most places choir is competitive and not a class at all, but an extra curricular. If it's not during the day, it's extra curricular, period. No one should be getting credit and a GPA boost for being in an extra curricular.

You don't know what you are talking about.

Did you go to high school in the USA?

Choir is a graded class in virtually every high school in the USA, and has been for a very long time.

Heck, my local small exburb high school in the midwest had choir as graded classes since it was built in the 1950s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Westfield parent here- the tragedy last year with the murdered student was handled very distastefully from start to finish by the school admin and fcps. The students internalized that if something terrible happened to them, their school would try and ignore that they ever existed. Very sad.

The chaos with the day spent in the stadium did not inspire confidence in the event of a true emergency.

My post about the student's death last year got deleted. There was no way to handle it tastefully.

As for the stadium, I'm not sure what you'd have them do differently. Kids had access to their phones. Parents were getting texts and there were tons of videos being posted. The students were somewhere they could be accounted for with seating, bathrooms, and water fountains. The school would never have heard the end of it if they'd let students leave campus or go back in the building before it was cleared.

I do agree the school is too big. No FCPS high school should be pushing 3,000 students. There were a lot of problems last time WHS reached that size. Keeping eyes on that many students is impossible and there are situations that get out of control before they can be addressed.

Finally, most schools especially the large ones would be screwed in the event of a true emergency. We've seen this over and over again. A fire or tornado, maybe. But there's no reliable way to secure a huge school and lock everyone down if there's an active threat inside the building.

And the schools and class sizes keep getting bigger....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend was complaining that her Westfield child's journalism class was cut for next year-literally no journalism classes will be offered at all, and no school paper. Seems like the school is poorly run. It is one of the largest HS and should offer at least basic programs like choir and a school paper.

Westfield used to be considered superior to Chantilly. Administration issues?

The admin at Westfield is the worst.

Administration makes a big difference. I know nothing about it at Westfield.

He mishandled multiple crises last year. He's not good.

What happened last year? This year has been uneventful

They had three lockdowns in two weeks this fall including a disturbed man outside with a rifle and a swatting and the parents were given no details

Last year:
The student who was murdered, terrible tragic situation handled absolutely terribly by the principal and fcps

The fire drill that was a real fire where the 2800 kids were trapped in the stadium all day long with no water and their cells and belongings were in their classrooms-parents were not notified, students were not allowed to leave, admin was not even there.

Is this one of the incidents you were talking about?

“Dear Families,
I wanted to make you aware of a situation that happened this morning, which was quickly resolved but impacted your student’s class. This morning, we were alerted to an incident occurring in the community that did not directly affect Westfield High School nor its students. However, out of an abundance of caution, as soon as we were notified, we decided to pull students into the building from their trailer classrooms and physical education classes occurring outside. At the time, your student was enrolled in one of these classes. The incident was resolved in under 5 minutes and we were able to return to our regular routines for the school day. ”

Oh look gatehouse is here to defend
It goes a lot deeper it’s the shrug and a lack of care from this admin. They are also not visible-when parents see the principal they look to see if Reid is there too. Westfield needs more care and attention.

Not Gatehouse. Just a parent who received the email. I was the one who asked what incidents happened last year that showed incompetence on the part of the administration.

To be perfectly honest, I haven't really been able to tell what difference if any the administration makes. DD was at Rocky Run when Dr. Goodloe was there, and then the following year when she wasn't, and other than some changes to the way things were run, everything seemed to be fine. She's been here at Westfield for a year, and it's been fine.

As far as I can tell, how good a school is, is almost entirely dependent on the socioeconomic status of its student body. Are there any examples of really top notch schools that were made so by an administrative change?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend was complaining that her Westfield child's journalism class was cut for next year-literally no journalism classes will be offered at all, and no school paper. Seems like the school is poorly run. It is one of the largest HS and should offer at least basic programs like choir and a school paper.

Westfield used to be considered superior to Chantilly. Administration issues?

The admin at Westfield is the worst.

Administration makes a big difference. I know nothing about it at Westfield.

He mishandled multiple crises last year. He's not good.

What happened last year? This year has been uneventful

They had three lockdowns in two weeks this fall including a disturbed man outside with a rifle and a swatting and the parents were given no details

Last year:
The student who was murdered, terrible tragic situation handled absolutely terribly by the principal and fcps

The fire drill that was a real fire where the 2800 kids were trapped in the stadium all day long with no water and their cells and belongings were in their classrooms-parents were not notified, students were not allowed to leave, admin was not even there.

Is this one of the incidents you were talking about?

“Dear Families,
I wanted to make you aware of a situation that happened this morning, which was quickly resolved but impacted your student’s class. This morning, we were alerted to an incident occurring in the community that did not directly affect Westfield High School nor its students. However, out of an abundance of caution, as soon as we were notified, we decided to pull students into the building from their trailer classrooms and physical education classes occurring outside. At the time, your student was enrolled in one of these classes. The incident was resolved in under 5 minutes and we were able to return to our regular routines for the school day. ”

Oh look gatehouse is here to defend
It goes a lot deeper it’s the shrug and a lack of care from this admin. They are also not visible-when parents see the principal they look to see if Reid is there too. Westfield needs more care and attention.

Not Gatehouse. Just a parent who received the email. I was the one who asked what incidents happened last year that showed incompetence on the part of the administration.

To be perfectly honest, I haven't really been able to tell what difference if any the administration makes. DD was at Rocky Run when Dr. Goodloe was there, and then the following year when she wasn't, and other than some changes to the way things were run, everything seemed to be fine. She's been here at Westfield for a year, and it's been fine.

As far as I can tell, how good a school is, is almost entirely dependent on the socioeconomic status of its student body. Are there any examples of really top notch schools that were made so by an administrative change?

Teacher here it has a lot to do with the admin....but maybe these oversized high schools are burning out the admin. Either way it's not fair to hard working students.

[Anonymous]

FCPS wins for being great for music- in the FCPS email that went out today:

“NAMM Names FCPS One of the Best Communities for Music Education for 2025
Fairfax County Public Schools has been honored by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation as one of the Best Communities for Music Education.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS wins for being great for music- in the FCPS email that went out today:

“NAMM Names FCPS One of the Best Communities for Music Education for 2025
Fairfax County Public Schools has been honored by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation as one of the Best Communities for Music Education.”

Link to the full write-up:
https://www.fcps.edu/news/namm-names-fcps-one-best-communities-music-education-2025?utm_campaign+=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend was complaining that her Westfield child's journalism class was cut for next year-literally no journalism classes will be offered at all, and no school paper. Seems like the school is poorly run. It is one of the largest HS and should offer at least basic programs like choir and a school paper.

Westfield used to be considered superior to Chantilly. Administration issues?

The admin at Westfield is the worst.

Administration makes a big difference. I know nothing about it at Westfield.

He mishandled multiple crises last year. He's not good.

What happened last year? This year has been uneventful

They had three lockdowns in two weeks this fall including a disturbed man outside with a rifle and a swatting and the parents were given no details

Last year:
The student who was murdered, terrible tragic situation handled absolutely terribly by the principal and fcps

The fire drill that was a real fire where the 2800 kids were trapped in the stadium all day long with no water and their cells and belongings were in their classrooms-parents were not notified, students were not allowed to leave, admin was not even there.

Is this one of the incidents you were talking about?

“Dear Families,
I wanted to make you aware of a situation that happened this morning, which was quickly resolved but impacted your student’s class. This morning, we were alerted to an incident occurring in the community that did not directly affect Westfield High School nor its students. However, out of an abundance of caution, as soon as we were notified, we decided to pull students into the building from their trailer classrooms and physical education classes occurring outside. At the time, your student was enrolled in one of these classes. The incident was resolved in under 5 minutes and we were able to return to our regular routines for the school day. ”

Oh look gatehouse is here to defend
It goes a lot deeper it’s the shrug and a lack of care from this admin. They are also not visible-when parents see the principal they look to see if Reid is there too. Westfield needs more care and attention.

Not Gatehouse. Just a parent who received the email. I was the one who asked what incidents happened last year that showed incompetence on the part of the administration.

To be perfectly honest, I haven't really been able to tell what difference if any the administration makes. DD was at Rocky Run when Dr. Goodloe was there, and then the following year when she wasn't, and other than some changes to the way things were run, everything seemed to be fine. She's been here at Westfield for a year, and it's been fine.

As far as I can tell, how good a school is, is almost entirely dependent on the socioeconomic status of its student body. Are there any examples of really top notch schools that were made so by an administrative change?

Teacher here it has a lot to do with the admin....but maybe these oversized high schools are burning out the admin. Either way it's not fair to hard working students.

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