FCPS Boundary Review Updates

[Anonymous]

And, you think the AAP kids get small group time with the teacher?

Your AAP kids are all on the same level? Gee, that's really great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And, you think the AAP kids get small group time with the teacher?

Your AAP kids are all on the same level? Gee, that's really great.

The AAP kids are at least getting more work on their level, rather than being left on their own all day with “anchor activities” and busy work. The tier 1/whole group and follow up instruction from the teacher in AAP is somewhat better leveled for them than Tier 1 in a general education setting.

Again, please name the school where you meet with low, middle and high learners in small groups for the same amount of time each week. It doesn’t happen. Everything revolves around test scores and if kids are easily passing the tests, they aren’t getting more or even any small group instruction in gen ed.

[Anonymous]

This is in a separate thread but did everyone see for the Coates boundary review they forgot to include floris elementary in possibly affected schools last night at the school board meeting. It shares a boundary with Coates, was in all prior documentation about schools included in this boundary scope work. And they left it off. On purpose? A mistake? Seems like if they can’t get one schools boundaries adjustments right how are they doing the county

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And, you think the AAP kids get small group time with the teacher?

Your AAP kids are all on the same level? Gee, that's really great.

The AAP kids are at least getting more work on their level, rather than being left on their own all day with “anchor activities” and busy work. The tier 1/whole group and follow up instruction from the teacher in AAP is somewhat better leveled for them than Tier 1 in a general education setting.

Again, please name the school where you meet with low, middle and high learners in small groups for the same amount of time each week. It doesn’t happen. Everything revolves around test scores and if kids are easily passing the tests, they aren’t getting more or even any small group instruction in gen ed.

Honey, I think you need to change schools if you think bright kids in GenEd are being left on their own all day. Have you never taught GenEd?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is in a separate thread but did everyone see for the Coates boundary review they forgot to include floris elementary in possibly affected schools last night at the school board meeting. It shares a boundary with Coates, was in all prior documentation about schools included in this boundary scope work. And they left it off. On purpose? A mistake? Seems like if they can’t get one schools boundaries adjustments right how are they doing the county

This thread is for the comprehensive county-wide study. The Coates boundary review is a separate study that the SB authorized separately, so it merits its own thread.

People think Floris was left out by mistake. It does raise questions about their ability to handle potentially bigger adjustments.

Imagine how much more functional things would be if Fairfax and FCPS were split into 3 counties/school systems:

Dranesville County: Dranesville, Hunter Mill, and Providence Districts

Fairfax County: Braddock, Springfield, and Sully Districts

Mount Vernon County: Franconia, Mason, and Mount Vernon Districts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is in a separate thread but did everyone see for the Coates boundary review they forgot to include floris elementary in possibly affected schools last night at the school board meeting. It shares a boundary with Coates, was in all prior documentation about schools included in this boundary scope work. And they left it off. On purpose? A mistake? Seems like if they can’t get one schools boundaries adjustments right how are they doing the county

This thread is for the comprehensive county-wide study. The Coates boundary review is a separate study that the SB authorized separately, so it merits its own thread.

People think Floris was left out by mistake. It does raise questions about their ability to handle potentially bigger adjustments.

Imagine how much more functional things would be if Fairfax and FCPS were split into 3 counties/school systems:

Dranesville County: Dranesville, Hunter Mill, and Providence Districts

Fairfax County: Braddock, Springfield, and Sully Districts

Mount Vernon County: Franconia, Mason, and Mount Vernon Districts

They will nevee willingly split the county. Too much money flows from the rich the poor areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is in a separate thread but did everyone see for the Coates boundary review they forgot to include floris elementary in possibly affected schools last night at the school board meeting. It shares a boundary with Coates, was in all prior documentation about schools included in this boundary scope work. And they left it off. On purpose? A mistake? Seems like if they can’t get one schools boundaries adjustments right how are they doing the county

This thread is for the comprehensive county-wide study. The Coates boundary review is a separate study that the SB authorized separately, so it merits its own thread.

People think Floris was left out by mistake. It does raise questions about their ability to handle potentially bigger adjustments.

Imagine how much more functional things would be if Fairfax and FCPS were split into 3 counties/school systems:

Dranesville County: Dranesville, Hunter Mill, and Providence Districts

Fairfax County: Braddock, Springfield, and Sully Districts

Mount Vernon County: Franconia, Mason, and Mount Vernon Districts

They will nevee willingly split the county. Too much money flows from the rich the poor areas.

One can dream. It's better than just accepting this oversized county is going down the drain.

[Anonymous]

Some of the towns could break off and become cities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the towns could break off and become cities.

I think I saw somewhere that they cannot do that. Virginia law or something like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the towns could break off and become cities.

No, they can't. The state legislature extended a moratorium on the incorporation of new towns and cities until the early 2030s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the towns could break off and become cities.

No, they can't. The state legislature extended a moratorium on the incorporation of new towns and cities until the early 2030s.

2032, to be exact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are people finding out specifically what schools are up for grabs? Is if conjecture or is there info somewhere?

Conjecture. An educated guess based on the School Boards comments. I can fully see some of the border shifts that are being discussed, they fit with what the school board has laid out as their reasoning for redistricting.

But there is a lot of fear mongering with the hope that if the groups raise the alarm and FOIAing documents and pointing out how awful the school board is people will place pressure on the school board. This is coming from the same schools with the same posters. I would love to see an analysis of what percent of posters are responsible for the conversation in this topic. I suspect that a relativly small number of posters are responsible for the lions share of the posts.

Anyone who sees pros, to go along with the cons, is shouted down by the people who are violently opposed to any changes that moves their kids. There have been some good suggestions made in the topics, but they are hard to find.

I fully expect there to be large shifts in the Herndon, Centerville, Chantilly, South Lakes, Oakton, Westfield area because of the issues with over crowding and space available in some of the schools. The ES situation is problematic, and those shifts will affect MS and HS. That has been touched on a bit but for the most part the loudest voices have been the Great Falls and WSHS families.

FCPS is too big and really should be broken into smaller districts, but I doubt that is going to happen.

I think the opposition is fanning this flame - they keep bringing up Langley and Herndon all the time. It just creates a response. No where was that discussed in any meeting. But - there they are saying it will happen because of equity. The county, in their view, will pay extra, drive longer distances, just to bus people from GF Village all the way to HHS. Going after trans was the last election, CRT the one before, now it's equity driven boundary change.

From Forestville, 2 minutes longer to cooper than HMS. From Forestville, 9 minutes longer to Langley than HHS. Don’t take my word for it. Check on maps at relevant times of the day.

The narrative about transportation savings is a chimera.

That 9 minutes is significant if they are trying to save costs via bus. It’s not just traveling TO Langley, but also the time it takes to get to those neighborhoods potentially out of route.

DP. You know what's a lot more significant? The wasted almost empty buses that traverse the county to take AAP kids to centers - when they already have AAP in their base school. THAT'S not only grossly wasteful and redundant, but also the very definition of INequity. I certainly hope the SB gets rid of centers and their associated busing before moving a single child to a new school.

Agreed! AAP centers should be the first thing to cut when there is a budget shortfall. That includes the elementary school specialists who work with 3 kids a day and give a lesson once a month.

The AART at our ES was part time. She provided classes for all the kids, plus the LIII pull out, plus a LIV pull out because our school uses the cluster method. DS brought home projects in K-2 that were completed with the AART and enjoyed the LIII pull outs. She was busy, her time was not wasted.

DP. I’m sorry, but this Level 1-3 nonsense is BS. Pull out here, pull out there - it all adds up to a big waste of time. There simply needs to be an AAP grouping for all four core classes that ALL kids have an opportunity to do. Those who need to fall back a level could easily do so if there were flexible groupings. Whoever came up with the current convoluted system was an idiot.

NP.

Agree. Everyone knows the “pull out method” used by FCPS does not work (to no one’s surprise).

The answer is ability grouping, with flexibility to change groups at designated times.

+100
Which is what FCPS used to have and it worked beautifully. There was also a very tiny and extremely selective GT program, and the only kids who were in it were those who so far beyond everyone else there was no other option. Meaning, 0.01% of the student body.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are people finding out specifically what schools are up for grabs? Is if conjecture or is there info somewhere?

Conjecture. An educated guess based on the School Boards comments. I can fully see some of the border shifts that are being discussed, they fit with what the school board has laid out as their reasoning for redistricting.

But there is a lot of fear mongering with the hope that if the groups raise the alarm and FOIAing documents and pointing out how awful the school board is people will place pressure on the school board. This is coming from the same schools with the same posters. I would love to see an analysis of what percent of posters are responsible for the conversation in this topic. I suspect that a relativly small number of posters are responsible for the lions share of the posts.

Anyone who sees pros, to go along with the cons, is shouted down by the people who are violently opposed to any changes that moves their kids. There have been some good suggestions made in the topics, but they are hard to find.

I fully expect there to be large shifts in the Herndon, Centerville, Chantilly, South Lakes, Oakton, Westfield area because of the issues with over crowding and space available in some of the schools. The ES situation is problematic, and those shifts will affect MS and HS. That has been touched on a bit but for the most part the loudest voices have been the Great Falls and WSHS families.

FCPS is too big and really should be broken into smaller districts, but I doubt that is going to happen.

I think the opposition is fanning this flame - they keep bringing up Langley and Herndon all the time. It just creates a response. No where was that discussed in any meeting. But - there they are saying it will happen because of equity. The county, in their view, will pay extra, drive longer distances, just to bus people from GF Village all the way to HHS. Going after trans was the last election, CRT the one before, now it's equity driven boundary change.

From Forestville, 2 minutes longer to cooper than HMS. From Forestville, 9 minutes longer to Langley than HHS. Don’t take my word for it. Check on maps at relevant times of the day.

The narrative about transportation savings is a chimera.

That 9 minutes is significant if they are trying to save costs via bus. It’s not just traveling TO Langley, but also the time it takes to get to those neighborhoods potentially out of route.

DP. You know what's a lot more significant? The wasted almost empty buses that traverse the county to take AAP kids to centers - when they already have AAP in their base school. THAT'S not only grossly wasteful and redundant, but also the very definition of INequity. I certainly hope the SB gets rid of centers and their associated busing before moving a single child to a new school.

Agreed! AAP centers should be the first thing to cut when there is a budget shortfall. That includes the elementary school specialists who work with 3 kids a day and give a lesson once a month.

The AART at our ES was part time. She provided classes for all the kids, plus the LIII pull out, plus a LIV pull out because our school uses the cluster method. DS brought home projects in K-2 that were completed with the AART and enjoyed the LIII pull outs. She was busy, her time was not wasted.

DP. I’m sorry, but this Level 1-3 nonsense is BS. Pull out here, pull out there - it all adds up to a big waste of time. There simply needs to be an AAP grouping for all four core classes that ALL kids have an opportunity to do. Those who need to fall back a level could easily do so if there were flexible groupings. Whoever came up with the current convoluted system was an idiot.

That isn’t what happens with flexible groupings thought. The reality (as parent and a teacher) is that admin then tells you never to meet with the AAP kids because they don’t need it and to focus on the regular kids who need regular instruction and the “bubble’ kids who can pass assessments with lots of extra help.

The AAP kids get sidelined (which I suppose makes you happy) and never get to have small group time with the teacher.

In AAP, those kids aleast can move a little faster.

That's not at all what we're talking about. Flexible grouping refers to each teacher per grade taking a level for the core classes. So, AAP students in LA would all go to Teacher A, grade level students for LA would go to Teacher B, and remedial would see Teacher C. The kids would switch teachers like this for all four core classes. That way, ALL kids at ALL levels would get the time and attention they needed from the teacher.

No one is talking about all of these groupings within one class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are people finding out specifically what schools are up for grabs? Is if conjecture or is there info somewhere?

Conjecture. An educated guess based on the School Boards comments. I can fully see some of the border shifts that are being discussed, they fit with what the school board has laid out as their reasoning for redistricting.

But there is a lot of fear mongering with the hope that if the groups raise the alarm and FOIAing documents and pointing out how awful the school board is people will place pressure on the school board. This is coming from the same schools with the same posters. I would love to see an analysis of what percent of posters are responsible for the conversation in this topic. I suspect that a relativly small number of posters are responsible for the lions share of the posts.

Anyone who sees pros, to go along with the cons, is shouted down by the people who are violently opposed to any changes that moves their kids. There have been some good suggestions made in the topics, but they are hard to find.

I fully expect there to be large shifts in the Herndon, Centerville, Chantilly, South Lakes, Oakton, Westfield area because of the issues with over crowding and space available in some of the schools. The ES situation is problematic, and those shifts will affect MS and HS. That has been touched on a bit but for the most part the loudest voices have been the Great Falls and WSHS families.

FCPS is too big and really should be broken into smaller districts, but I doubt that is going to happen.

I think the opposition is fanning this flame - they keep bringing up Langley and Herndon all the time. It just creates a response. No where was that discussed in any meeting. But - there they are saying it will happen because of equity. The county, in their view, will pay extra, drive longer distances, just to bus people from GF Village all the way to HHS. Going after trans was the last election, CRT the one before, now it's equity driven boundary change.

From Forestville, 2 minutes longer to cooper than HMS. From Forestville, 9 minutes longer to Langley than HHS. Don’t take my word for it. Check on maps at relevant times of the day.

The narrative about transportation savings is a chimera.

That 9 minutes is significant if they are trying to save costs via bus. It’s not just traveling TO Langley, but also the time it takes to get to those neighborhoods potentially out of route.

DP. You know what's a lot more significant? The wasted almost empty buses that traverse the county to take AAP kids to centers - when they already have AAP in their base school. THAT'S not only grossly wasteful and redundant, but also the very definition of INequity. I certainly hope the SB gets rid of centers and their associated busing before moving a single child to a new school.

Agreed! AAP centers should be the first thing to cut when there is a budget shortfall. That includes the elementary school specialists who work with 3 kids a day and give a lesson once a month.

The AART at our ES was part time. She provided classes for all the kids, plus the LIII pull out, plus a LIV pull out because our school uses the cluster method. DS brought home projects in K-2 that were completed with the AART and enjoyed the LIII pull outs. She was busy, her time was not wasted.

DP. I’m sorry, but this Level 1-3 nonsense is BS. Pull out here, pull out there - it all adds up to a big waste of time. There simply needs to be an AAP grouping for all four core classes that ALL kids have an opportunity to do. Those who need to fall back a level could easily do so if there were flexible groupings. Whoever came up with the current convoluted system was an idiot.

That isn’t what happens with flexible groupings thought. The reality (as parent and a teacher) is that admin then tells you never to meet with the AAP kids because they don’t need it and to focus on the regular kids who need regular instruction and the “bubble’ kids who can pass assessments with lots of extra help.

The AAP kids get sidelined (which I suppose makes you happy) and never get to have small group time with the teacher.

In AAP, those kids aleast can move a little faster.

Baloney. As another teacher and a parent. They already have 2E kids in AAP. Do you think those kids move as fast as the other AAP?

+1
Not to mention, the SPED kids with all kinds of learning disabilities are grouped in the Gen Ed classes, making those kids unable to move as fast as they could otherwise. But somehow, I bet that's ok with the PP. As long as AAP kids get to be separate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are people finding out specifically what schools are up for grabs? Is if conjecture or is there info somewhere?

Conjecture. An educated guess based on the School Boards comments. I can fully see some of the border shifts that are being discussed, they fit with what the school board has laid out as their reasoning for redistricting.

But there is a lot of fear mongering with the hope that if the groups raise the alarm and FOIAing documents and pointing out how awful the school board is people will place pressure on the school board. This is coming from the same schools with the same posters. I would love to see an analysis of what percent of posters are responsible for the conversation in this topic. I suspect that a relativly small number of posters are responsible for the lions share of the posts.

Anyone who sees pros, to go along with the cons, is shouted down by the people who are violently opposed to any changes that moves their kids. There have been some good suggestions made in the topics, but they are hard to find.

I fully expect there to be large shifts in the Herndon, Centerville, Chantilly, South Lakes, Oakton, Westfield area because of the issues with over crowding and space available in some of the schools. The ES situation is problematic, and those shifts will affect MS and HS. That has been touched on a bit but for the most part the loudest voices have been the Great Falls and WSHS families.

FCPS is too big and really should be broken into smaller districts, but I doubt that is going to happen.

I think the opposition is fanning this flame - they keep bringing up Langley and Herndon all the time. It just creates a response. No where was that discussed in any meeting. But - there they are saying it will happen because of equity. The county, in their view, will pay extra, drive longer distances, just to bus people from GF Village all the way to HHS. Going after trans was the last election, CRT the one before, now it's equity driven boundary change.

From Forestville, 2 minutes longer to cooper than HMS. From Forestville, 9 minutes longer to Langley than HHS. Don’t take my word for it. Check on maps at relevant times of the day.

The narrative about transportation savings is a chimera.

That 9 minutes is significant if they are trying to save costs via bus. It’s not just traveling TO Langley, but also the time it takes to get to those neighborhoods potentially out of route.

DP. You know what's a lot more significant? The wasted almost empty buses that traverse the county to take AAP kids to centers - when they already have AAP in their base school. THAT'S not only grossly wasteful and redundant, but also the very definition of INequity. I certainly hope the SB gets rid of centers and their associated busing before moving a single child to a new school.

Agreed! AAP centers should be the first thing to cut when there is a budget shortfall. That includes the elementary school specialists who work with 3 kids a day and give a lesson once a month.

Do you think the AART only visits your kid's class once per month, and not the rest of the school? Think deeper, dingbat. Say there are four classes per grade on average -- that's 28 visits per month and multiple pull-outs per grade from 2-6. Plus dealing with disgruntled parents desperate to get their kids in AAP while simultaneously trashing it and calling for AARTs to be canned.

DP. Again, “pull outs” are a complete waste of time. My son would come home with some ridiculous worksheet that there was never time to finish. They need to stop wasting everyone’s time with that and simply go to flexible groupings, with AAP being one of the groups. Centers and pull outs are absurd.

It sounds like your kid can't keep up. No more pull outs for him, please. Let the kids who can excel stay focused.

Funny you should say this. We finally told the teacher we weren't interested in any more pullouts because not only were they a silly waste of time, but he then had to make up the regular classwork he missed while in the pullout. It was ludicrous. The enrichment he receives at home far exceeds whatever dumb, rushed "exercise" they were given in pullouts.
-PP