Anyone know who Superintendent Finalist Canidates are?

[Anonymous]

Shortages are happening at every level in education https://hechingerreport.org/who-wants-to-lead-americas-school-districts-anyone-anyone-superintendent-search-is-just-beginning/

[Anonymous]

Ugh, this is so depressing. PP with SB agenda items: accurate summary. Add Equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they aren't finding any really good candidates. Like someone else said, the pay is just not good enough to attract a highly qualified employee to oversee such a large school division. I wonder what happened to that survey asking people for nominees?

Then that tells you they need to increase the pay or recommend splitting the Titanic called FCPS into districts that can be managed by candidates with lesz operating skills.

Example - Brabrand may have been equipped to manage a school system as small as Lynchburg City. He was quickly in well over his head in Fairfax.

We’ve had strong superintendents before like Spillane and Domenech but their equivalents won’t come to FCPS if they are going to be hen-pecked by a bunch of third-rate politicians on the School Board.

You think it's the school board they're worried about? No, having a family member who is the Superintendent of a much smaller school district, the thing people are most worried about are the political parents -- on BOTH ends of the spectrum. Everyone is well aware of groups like Fairfax Parents/Open FCPS and equivalents and they don't want to deal with it. School administrators talk, PP. Nobody wants this job.

A superintendent in FCPS can be fairly insulated from political parents most of the time but the School Board gets to make his life miserable constantly (and twice a month in public).

So I get that you want to get brownie points with your peer group by bashing Open FCPS but I’d worry a lot more about the dynamic with the 12 hen-peckers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they aren't finding any really good candidates. Like someone else said, the pay is just not good enough to attract a highly qualified employee to oversee such a large school division. I wonder what happened to that survey asking people for nominees?

Then that tells you they need to increase the pay or recommend splitting the Titanic called FCPS into districts that can be managed by candidates with lesz operating skills.

Example - Brabrand may have been equipped to manage a school system as small as Lynchburg City. He was quickly in well over his head in Fairfax.

We’ve had strong superintendents before like Spillane and Domenech but their equivalents won’t come to FCPS if they are going to be hen-pecked by a bunch of third-rate politicians on the School Board.

You think it's the school board they're worried about? No, having a family member who is the Superintendent of a much smaller school district, the thing people are most worried about are the political parents -- on BOTH ends of the spectrum. Everyone is well aware of groups like Fairfax Parents/Open FCPS and equivalents and they don't want to deal with it. School administrators talk, PP. Nobody wants this job.

Then, they are most likely to promote from within.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The priorities of the current School Board over the past 2+ years have been such an odd mix:

1. Dragging their heels when it came to getting kids back into buildings, leading to over 10,000 FCPS students exiting the system within two years

2. Prioritizing admissions changes at TJHSST in order to reduce the percentage of Asian kids

3. Keeping uber-wealthy Langley free of economic diversity

4. Ignoring struggling IB programs (only 3% of Mount Vernon seniors getting IB diplomas) but spending money on a new "Leadership" academy at IB Lewis

5. Spending money on building additions while nearby poorer schools remain under-enrolled or more overcrowded schools get ignored

6 Converting Dunn Loring administrative building back into an elementary school when it isn't needed, in order to save a dog park in Oakton

7. Litigating with the Youngkin administrative over "local control" at every opportunity

No talented school administrator would want to step into this morass and immediately be asked to fix the damage these folks have been doing. The School Board's entire philosophy seems to be to want to soil the nest so much that no one else will want to get involved.

+1. And the real funny thing is that the issues with numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6, and even 2 to some extent, could have been addressed all at once if they finally went through with that big county-wide boundary study and adjustment that has been talked about in the past, but keeps getting pushed off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The priorities of the current School Board over the past 2+ years have been such an odd mix:

1. Dragging their heels when it came to getting kids back into buildings, leading to over 10,000 FCPS students exiting the system within two years

2. Prioritizing admissions changes at TJHSST in order to reduce the percentage of Asian kids

3. Keeping uber-wealthy Langley free of economic diversity

4. Ignoring struggling IB programs (only 3% of Mount Vernon seniors getting IB diplomas) but spending money on a new "Leadership" academy at IB Lewis

5. Spending money on building additions while nearby poorer schools remain under-enrolled or more overcrowded schools get ignored

6 Converting Dunn Loring administrative building back into an elementary school when it isn't needed, in order to save a dog park in Oakton

7. Litigating with the Youngkin administrative over "local control" at every opportunity

No talented school administrator would want to step into this morass and immediately be asked to fix the damage these folks have been doing. The School Board's entire philosophy seems to be to want to soil the nest so much that no one else will want to get involved.

+1. And the real funny thing is that the issues with numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6, and even 2 to some extent, could have been addressed all at once if they finally went through with that big county-wide boundary study and adjustment that has been talked about in the past, but keeps getting pushed off.

The lack of vision combined with the overt politicization nevertheless tinged with major hypocrisy make FCPS appear less appealing than any time in many decades.

They now spend most of their time trying to defeat Youngkin's agenda and urging parents to oppose charters, vouchers, and any other form of so-called "school choice," yet fail to take any responsibility for the mismanagement and breach of trust that has people running for the exits and desperately looking for other options.

There's very little chance they'll pick a good candidate for Superintendent; between the dearth of top-flight qualified applicants and their own deep-seated biases, they'll pick someone who they think will be even more amenable to their pet projects than Brabrand and/or a candidate they can tout primarily as a demonstration of their commitment to "equity."

Probably the last chance for FCPS is to replace most of the School Board members in 2023 and terminate the contract with the new Superintendent picked this year and start over. Barring that, the decline of FCPS will accelerate and the demand to empower parents to select other options will grow exponentially. Such a shame.

[Anonymous]

Brabrand was 6th or 7th choice so not sure what will happen this time around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best to my knowledge, the entire public has been shut out from the process in the last couple of months. Anyone have any inside tips? Really hoping we get better than the Braindead Brabrand.

Why would you think that? Look at who is doing the hiring - the most corrupt, incompetent School Board in FCPS history.

I think they’re doing a pretty great job given the circumstances. There is legitimate room for disagreement with their approach to COVID. What on earth is your basis for claiming corruption?



If you want to talk corruption, let’s get talking about past school boards overlooking the corrupt Cenergistic contract and kickbacks to the previous superintendent and Jeff Platenburg. That has never been addressed oubkicalky and was shoved under the rug before Brabrand and this current Board.

[Anonymous]

No one decent is going to run for SB or want to be Superintendent given the current climate. Just look at this week’s SB meeting. A frothing lunatic got up and opened her remarks by calling the school board members “Groomers” and went on to rant about communism and NAMBLA. It’s nothing but abuse and harassment. And these anti-Vaxx qQnon nuts are getting scarier and scarier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one decent is going to run for SB or want to be Superintendent given the current climate. Just look at this week’s SB meeting. A frothing lunatic got up and opened her remarks by calling the school board members “Groomers” and went on to rant about communism and NAMBLA. It’s nothing but abuse and harassment. And these anti-Vaxx qQnon nuts are getting scarier and scarier.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one decent is going to run for SB or want to be Superintendent given the current climate. Just look at this week’s SB meeting. A frothing lunatic got up and opened her remarks by calling the school board members “Groomers” and went on to rant about communism and NAMBLA. It’s nothing but abuse and harassment. And these anti-Vaxx qQnon nuts are getting scarier and scarier.

+1

-1.

You can ridicule a parent but at most it’s a distraction. She’s not the one who prompted the parents of over 10,000 kids to pull them out of FCPS. That’s on Brabrand and the current School Board.

[Anonymous]

You can ridicule a parent but at most it’s a distraction. She’s not the one who prompted the parents of over 10,000 kids to pull them out of FCPS. That’s on Brabrand and the current School Board.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one decent is going to run for SB or want to be Superintendent given the current climate. Just look at this week’s SB meeting. A frothing lunatic got up and opened her remarks by calling the school board members “Groomers” and went on to rant about communism and NAMBLA. It’s nothing but abuse and harassment. And these anti-Vaxx qQnon nuts are getting scarier and scarier.

+1

-1.

You can ridicule a parent but at most it’s a distraction. She’s not the one who prompted the parents of over 10,000 kids to pull them out of FCPS. That’s on Brabrand and the current School Board.

Do you think better candidates for SB and the superintendent position will come forward?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one decent is going to run for SB or want to be Superintendent given the current climate. Just look at this week’s SB meeting. A frothing lunatic got up and opened her remarks by calling the school board members “Groomers” and went on to rant about communism and NAMBLA. It’s nothing but abuse and harassment. And these anti-Vaxx qQnon nuts are getting scarier and scarier.

Yes, these crazy parents are hurting our system. Did you see that woman had someone come up to film her and she directed her comments to America? All they want is publicity and politics wins. They have no interest in improving or working for our schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one decent is going to run for SB or want to be Superintendent given the current climate. Just look at this week’s SB meeting. A frothing lunatic got up and opened her remarks by calling the school board members “Groomers” and went on to rant about communism and NAMBLA. It’s nothing but abuse and harassment. And these anti-Vaxx qQnon nuts are getting scarier and scarier.

+1

-1.

You can ridicule a parent but at most it’s a distraction. She’s not the one who prompted the parents of over 10,000 kids to pull them out of FCPS. That’s on Brabrand and the current School Board.

Do you think better candidates for SB and the superintendent position will come forward?

Not as long as the School Board micro-manages and inflicts it’s random, warped priorities on FCPS.