FCPS Closings/Who to contact about this issue/What can we do as parents to solve this problem

[Anonymous]

Between the nonstop snow days whether we get snow or not & the student holidays, there are few full weeks of school between Dec & the end of the year. I think we will have 169 full days of school this year. VA & FC have a duty to provide an education - a consistent one.

Aprox 400 of our buses are 15 years or older despite the school board's policy to replace buses every 15 years, yet only 60 new buses will be bought next year.

Why don't we have school in the winter? One reason is these buses don't start. This will not change for next year.

But, something must change to bring about change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Between the nonstop snow days whether we get snow or not & the student holidays, there are few full weeks of school between Dec & the end of the year. I think we will have 169 full days of school this year. VA & FC have a duty to provide an education - a consistent one.

Aprox 400 of our buses are 15 years or older despite the school board's policy to replace buses every 15 years, yet only 60 new buses will be bought next year.

Why don't we have school in the winter? One reason is these buses don't start. This will not change for next year.

But, something must change to bring about change.

Most of them will be for the added buses we need for the HS time change, not to retire old buses.

[Anonymous]

Even worse. Hoping for a change and a new school board

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of buses and put the onus on parents to take personal responsibility for getting their kids to and from school. Problem solved, millions of $ saved.

Our elementary school has over 900 kids. Not sure how they would manage the logistics of getting that many kids dropped off individually vs by bus.

That's a problem FCPS caused themselves. No elementary should have 900 kids. There are many schools that are under 700 kids though that would work fine to just allow parents to drop off. I even think certain schools would be willing to drive their kids on snow days and forgo busses those days just to keep the schools open.

Where would the kids go if you decreased the size of the elementary schools?

In my part of the county, you could retrofit and reopen Lewinsville ES and Dunn Loring ES. In the western part there is still land. i am sure there are others on the board that know of other schools that have been closed and are being used by the count for other things.

[Anonymous]

Reopen Clifton ES. My kids commute went from 10 minutes to 35 minutes. FCPS is moving toward larger classrooms and bigger school campuses to save money.

We need to demand better.

[Anonymous]

Too many people make excuses for fcps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of buses and put the onus on parents to take personal responsibility for getting their kids to and from school. Problem solved, millions of $ saved.

Our elementary school has over 900 kids. Not sure how they would manage the logistics of getting that many kids dropped off individually vs by bus.

That's a problem FCPS caused themselves. No elementary should have 900 kids. There are many schools that are under 700 kids though that would work fine to just allow parents to drop off. I even think certain schools would be willing to drive their kids on snow days and forgo busses those days just to keep the schools open.

Where would the kids go if you decreased the size of the elementary schools?

In my part of the county, you could retrofit and reopen Lewinsville ES and Dunn Loring ES. In the western part there is still land. i am sure there are others on the board that know of other schools that have been closed and are being used by the count for other things.

Where is Lewinsville ES?? I'm intrigued because I live near Lewinsville Rd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Since this is true, maybe they should consider dividing the county into zones for making weather decisions? That way if western fairfax county has several inches of snow and bad conditions but closer in doesn't, then only certain schools need to close?

Unfortunately, transportation is too interconnected county-wide for this to be a realistic option.

How so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of buses and put the onus on parents to take personal responsibility for getting their kids to and from school. Problem solved, millions of $ saved.

Our elementary school has over 900 kids. Not sure how they would manage the logistics of getting that many kids dropped off individually vs by bus.

That's a problem FCPS caused themselves. No elementary should have 900 kids. There are many schools that are under 700 kids though that would work fine to just allow parents to drop off. I even think certain schools would be willing to drive their kids on snow days and forgo busses those days just to keep the schools open.

Where would the kids go if you decreased the size of the elementary schools?

In my part of the county, you could retrofit and reopen Lewinsville ES and Dunn Loring ES. In the western part there is still land. i am sure there are others on the board that know of other schools that have been closed and are being used by the count for other things.

Where is Lewinsville ES?? I'm intrigued because I live near Lewinsville Rd.

It is on Great Falls between Old Chain Bridge and Magarity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am good with how they have handled this year other than the day they failed to close but should have.

Agree. Saw two buses in accidents that day. Safety first! Maybe some of you that are adamant they should be open should try drive a bus route in snow and ice one day.

On a day like today or tomorrow, driving a bus in snow and ice would be problematic and school should be closed. However, snow/ice was not an issue Friday or Wednesday of last week. It was just cold. They could have had a delayed opening to provide them extra time to get their buses up and running.

Nobody's perfect and nobody has a crystal ball. I think FCPS has handled the closings well this year. Were they perfect? No, but they did their best and it was close enough for me.

Disagree wholeheartedly. I think their closings were awful. I will be voting in the next SB elections to register my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reopen Clifton ES. My kids commute went from 10 minutes to 35 minutes. FCPS is moving toward larger classrooms and bigger school campuses to save money.

We need to demand better.

OMG, give it up already. The lawsuit by those parents who felt entitled to a tiny school has cost all of us and our kids much-needed money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of buses and put the onus on parents to take personal responsibility for getting their kids to and from school. Problem solved, millions of $ saved.

plus a gazillion! I would rather pay for public transportation buses to take the kids than what is currently happening. It's absolutely ridiculous! I am inches away from signing my kids up to be homeschooled and I am NOT of the ilk that would have ever considered that as a viable option -- but I have had it.

Our ES school has 800 students. Can you imagine the insanity of 500 cars (because, yes, some are siblings) trying to drop off their kids at kiss and ride? Talk about a mess.

You know this isn't viable. Try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of buses and put the onus on parents to take personal responsibility for getting their kids to and from school. Problem solved, millions of $ saved.

plus a gazillion! I would rather pay for public transportation buses to take the kids than what is currently happening. It's absolutely ridiculous! I am inches away from signing my kids up to be homeschooled and I am NOT of the ilk that would have ever considered that as a viable option -- but I have had it.

Our ES school has 800 students. Can you imagine the insanity of 500 cars (because, yes, some are siblings) trying to drop off their kids at kiss and ride? Talk about a mess.

You know this isn't viable. Try again.

NP here. That's actually how it worked where I grew up and went to school, and in the (separate) district where my mom now teaches. The only buses were for students who lived over 5 miles from their assigned school, or special ed students. Everyone else walked/drove/carpooled/rode their bikes. In high school, many people took public buses. There were discounted rates (like $1/ride) for high school kids.

Granted, my elementary school only had 500 kids, not 800, but the high school had 2500 and the junior high had 1200 and it somehow worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of buses and put the onus on parents to take personal responsibility for getting their kids to and from school. Problem solved, millions of $ saved.

plus a gazillion! I would rather pay for public transportation buses to take the kids than what is currently happening. It's absolutely ridiculous! I am inches away from signing my kids up to be homeschooled and I am NOT of the ilk that would have ever considered that as a viable option -- but I have had it.

Our ES school has 800 students. Can you imagine the insanity of 500 cars (because, yes, some are siblings) trying to drop off their kids at kiss and ride? Talk about a mess.

You know this isn't viable. Try again.

NP here. That's actually how it worked where I grew up and went to school, and in the (separate) district where my mom now teaches. The only buses were for students who lived over 5 miles from their assigned school, or special ed students. Everyone else walked/drove/carpooled/rode their bikes. In high school, many people took public buses. There were discounted rates (like $1/ride) for high school kids.

Granted, my elementary school only had 500 kids, not 800, but the high school had 2500 and the junior high had 1200 and it somehow worked.

This would never work in N.VA now. People can state what they did 30-40 years ago and it has all changed. There are a ton of schools in FCPS that rely mainly on buses because there are no safe walking routes for children. How do you tell parents from one school they are responsible for getting their kids to school but parents in a school 5 miles away don't have to worry about it? And the traffic in general makes it a nightmare. Take 500 parents trying to drop their kids off in a 15 minute time period. That would bottle neck everything for an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS has over 180,000 students.

The school system has more buses than Greyhound.

A couple days every year is not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

This is true when you have a major snowstorm or event that really would bring even the most durable folks to their knees like the year of Snowmageddon. This hasn't been that. This has been a year of interruptions -- this past one for a week when you didn't know from one minute to the next what was going to happen when the snow event fizzled and kids used high temperatures to snowboard outside in hoodies. There is no excuse for this kind of arbitrariness.

And I realize I am in the minority in high achieving FCPS, but these kind of weeks are murder for my kid, an honors high schooler who really gets off track when there is no school and his teachers check out as well. Getting him back in the groove after all the time off, let alone to stay in the groove during the downtime is murder. I realize I'm alone in this, as most kids are getting homework from their teachers and staying in close touch with them via email, not to mention doing their sports teams workouts on their own, coming up with extra service work and cooking for their families, but it is what it is. [/quote]

Why aren't your honors high schooler's teachers assigning work on Blackboard or Google Classroom over these snow days? Why do they"check out" when you know other kids' teachers DO give homework and stay in touch on these days? Don't put up with it -- you and other parents of kids in these classes need to push for these teachers to act like the other teachers you mention here and give your kids assignments.

Also, a high schooler in honors classes should have enough long-term assignments or just homework that's due the next week that he can have at least a little something do on snow days. But I still think you and other parents of these checked-out teachers need to say something.

Even my middle schooler had one teacher who promised them before the last storm, "If we're out of school Thursday and Friday, check Blackboard because I WILL assign something new with deadlines." And he did--one assignment due that Sunday, even. Between that and the homework that my kid had that was due the next week, she had plenty to occupy her and keep her on track, and still had time to do some fun stuff at home. A high school honors teacher should be aware of the weather forecasts and able and willing to make assignments on snow days. You know that it's not good for your son to have no assignments, so make that very clear to the teachers.