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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
Paul Bartkowski School Board Candidate Forum
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Anonymous
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On your website regarding the SB you cite, “… a disturbing effort to introduce age-inappropriate sexual concepts and ideas to our youngest students”. Could you give some examples?
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Anonymous
| Is someone really running for School Board who won't send his own kid to FCPS? For real? |
Anonymous
It isn’t just the whining. McLean absolutely needs a major reno. However, the entitlement shown in the candidates’ post making reference to taxpayer dollars tells me everything. |
Anonymous
Collective bargaining harms tax payers and has no reason to be in govt jobs |
Anonymous
I was asking Paul. |
Anonymous
| Paul, thank you for doing this. How do you plan on balancing the need to catch up lower income families and underrepresented minorities with the need to keep advanced students challenged? In other words, how do you feel about programs like AAP? |
Anonymous
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You are very brave to jump into this lions den, especially as an R. That in itself speaks well of your convictions. This forum does not like Republicans or independents.
Every kid is unique in their educational needs, and 6th grade is a really tumultuous time for kids. Peronally, I would not fault any parent for making an individual education decision for their kid that may or may not include public schools, home schooling, online school, private school or Catholic school, especiallyduring the middle school years. And honestly, looking at my neighborhood, post pandemic there are many, many fcps families that are now moving their kids in and out of FCPS depending on the grade or school level. I have multiple neighbors who now have some kids in Catholic, some kids in home school and other kids in FCPS, all in one family. So on that note, this candidate seems to represent a lot of FCPS families who are going year by year to find the best educational method for thier kids at any given year. And in the end, don't the public schools *want* these kids to eventually land back into their local public schools? A parent with the experience of utilizing educational flexibility for their kid's schooling, which includes our public schools, will provide unique insight and a helpful voice to the school board discussions. |
paulforfcsb
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Sure - I've seen SEL questionnaires where ~8th grade students (I believe it was eighth but my answer would be the same for older students)were asked, for example, how many sexual partners they've had. Here's a senator reading books that FCPS (and many other school districts) insists must stay in our school libraries: https://youtu.be/KBhy_vlgKS4 No place for that in any school library - and it does disturb me that adults are so eager to make those books available to our kids. Call me old-fashioned! |
paulforfcsb
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I don't see a tension between those two needs that requires balancing. Advanced students need to be challenged to achieve their potential and we need to do everything we can to help those that fell behind catch up, i.e., they, too, should be challenged to achieve their full potential. The covid shutdowns were very harmful to many students that are not at the top of the academic scale - and they need the help to reverse those losses. I hope that is responsive - I favor advanced tracks for advanced students. |
Anonymous
This is an absolutely insufficient answer. The board has been working on science of reading but have been waiting on the state. The Virginia Literacy Act is going to be groundbreaking on redeveloping early childhood literacy standards. How will you go about implementing them? Robyn Lady knocked on my door and we talked about this and she has given clear and precise answers. Starting next school year (2024-25) there will be new standards based on the science of reading. They are currently working on defining when students who fall below benchmark need intervention and what that intervention will look like. She has also said she will work on providing additional training to K-3 teachers beyond the VDOE required training. Another key thing is funding. The state is (rightfully) imposing all these new standards and requiring reading specialists. Most of that funding will come from FCPS. We need to make sure our SB/BOS don’t stop there and call it one and done. |
Anonymous
So would you act based on your opinions in books rather than defer to the school librarians who are professional educators? |
Anonymous
Thank you for opening this conversation. In the passed three years, some teachers left left the school my children go. Some are due to retirement or family relocation. But at least three of them are very good teachers. They joined private school in DMV region. They still have passion in teacher. What's your plan for teacher retention? |
Anonymous
Your website says “our youngest students”, which to me isn’t 8th grade. |
Anonymous
To PP, I am not Paul. I am a MS parent. If your are one of the school librarians in Mclean area who made students read about LGBTQ pronoun (https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/996319297/gender-identity-pronouns-expression-guide-lgbtq) at the library session on National Coming Out day, I want to remind you that school is not a place for your to promote your ideology. |
Anonymous
Completely agree. I’m impressed by Paul’s courage to allow himself to being bombarded with questions from anonymous posters, some of whom are not even in Fairfax County, let alone the Dranesville District, which he is hoping to represent. Questions regarding his family’s personal choices in regards to their kids are completely out of bounds, and he doesn’t need to explain nor justify them. His children are entitled to their privacy, particularly when it comes to their academic life. In fact, they are protected under FERPA laws. Most importantly, the Bartkowski kids are not the ones running for School Board. On the last public debate, his opponent, Robin Lady, brought up as one of her priorities to hire more black and Hispanic teachers for representation purposes in our schools; whereas Paul’s approach is to focus on hiring the best teachers regardless of their skin color, which, BTW, would include hiring Chinese and Indian teachers as well. He also emphasized that he would help repurpose funds so that teachers can be better remunerated for what they do, and because of their effort and sacrifice, such as the time spent after school hours for sponsoring clubs at school, coaching, or volunteering. Doing so, according to Paul, would help with not only hiring highly qualified teachers, but also with retaining them. I’m grateful to have a candidate who takes learning so seriously that, along with his wife, has made sacrifices to ensure their kids get the best education possible, because according to him, that is an important factor to succeed in life, and he wishes that same goal for every single kid in the county. |