what do you think about haycock?
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Anonymous
+1 That's why people want to send their kids there. If you can't handle modulars or trailers, perhaps you should look at an area private. |
Anonymous
| None of my friends who live outside the DC area have local schools with trailers. Agree that this area is building too fast for the schools to keep up. |
Anonymous
Yes, some areas lose population or don't have enough school-age children to fill the classrooms. It's usually not a good sign. |
Anonymous
| How about the discipline in this school? I heard that no lunch assistants can work long there because they couldn't handle the 5th and 6th graders during lunch time. |
Anonymous
Not sure where you heard that. I've seen the same lunch assistants there for at least 3 years! |
Anonymous
| 15:28. All of my friends live in well to do areas of the country that are experiencing growth, however the growth is more manageable. Incorporated towns do not have to deal with the magnatude of growth that Fairfax County has to deal with. Pluses and minus to both large and small school districts exist, however I think the small districts do better on the overcrowding issues. |
Anonymous
Interesting that, over on Great Schools, amidst many positive reviews of Haycock, is the following diatribe posted last month: "Greatschools says Haycock has 677 enrolled. That's wrong. Actual enrollment now is 858. The school's capacity is 570. The entire 5th & 6th grade classes are spent in trailers. Current 1st grade classes have 28 kids with no teaching assistant. Next year they'll have 30+ kids in the 1st grade classes. Haycock will easily be 300+ over capacity next year. In a couple years it'll also be a live construction zone. Public schools all over Northern VA have been pushed beyond the capacity of their old, un-renovated facilities. As well the key to Haycock's perceived greatness has been that it is an AAP (gifted and talented) hub. Fairfax Public Schools has recently implemented a plan to have all schools in the McLean HS feeder triangle utilize the AAP curriculum. FCPS has to do this because of the overcrowding at Haycock. Haycock will no longer be unique for its AAP hub. Many parents will swear that Haycock is the best blindly ignoring the school being 50% over capacity and that their kids spend most of their days in modular trailers. You should Google Haycock overcrowding & do your own research." Want to bet the same poster isn't responsible for the criticisms of Haycock on this thread? She should just say what her real beef is with the school, and stop pretending it's about modulars or lunch assistants. |
Anonymous
Really? All of your friends live in well-to-do areas? You must travel in refined circles. Small, rich towns often have very good schools. Small, poor towns get the shaft. We have county-wide systems here that fall somewhere in the middle, in terms of their ability to respond to enrollment growrth. Locally, Arlington has many of the same challenges as Fairfax; in fact, Arlington will have to come to terms in the future with the fact that it has a growing number of students, but apparently rebuilt two of its three high schools (Yorktown and W-L) to accommodate fewer students than the older buildings that were replaced. Even with that, however, the challenges in Arlington and Fairfax would still be the envy of many communities. |
Anonymous
| The Haycock speakers (including the 5th grade AAP teacher) did a great job presenting at today's FY 2013 Budget public hearing. It will be interesting to watch the School Board's budget work session on Thursday night. |
Anonymous
I would be willing to bet that you're right. And in fact, I will "raise" your bet by positing that this is also the same poster who for some reason kept trying to tear down Haycock on another recent thread here (I believe it was the "best elementary schools" thread, or something to that effect). This despite the fact that everyone else on that thread (including all of the people who actually have children attending that school) was raving about the school. I wonder if this person is frustrated that he/she cannot afford a house in this district, or has a personal vendetta against the principal or a teacher or a student or a parent there, or is simply insane. |
Anonymous
| It is also interesting that the negative posts regarding Haycock all have to do with its over crowding nothing to do with the educatiuon the kids are getting. Most likely the neg responses are not coming from people who have kids there. The great teachers the wonderful sense of community and the top education my kids are getting thus far outweigh the over crowding. We love it and haven't had an issue with the size. There is a cozy feel and the staff does a great job at managing the number of students. Parents also do a great job at being involved and helping whenever possible. It is getting remodeled in the next few years JUST LIKE SEVERAL OTHER FC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. At some point every school(if it hasn't already) will have to deal with construction. It is the nature of living in the metro DC area. Most construction happens in the summer and they do everything possible to make sure there is no effect on the children. The staff should be applauded for what they are doing. They make it work and do it right. |
Anonymous
| Haycock is a great school! My child is in the AAP program and she's very happy there. We have not had a bad teacher there yet. The principal is the best I've ever seen. I have no idea what the general ed program is like but I suspect it is also outstanding. |
Anonymous
| I've heard about tension between the AAP and the center-based families. That each feels the others are draining resources and "responsible" for the overcrowding. I'd dismiss it entirely, but I've heard it from three different people. Any truth to that? Is there anyone here who goes to Haycock as a center school that can weigh in? |
Anonymous
| We are a center family and have heard nothing about this. If I had, I would dispute it as completely unfounded. The center is the reason Haycock is the school it is,. Without the center, it would lose it's extra funding and wouldn't have the resources it does (science resource teacher, etc.) |
Anonymous
| I think the reality is that Haycock parents are, as a group, basically polite and respectful. The parents of out-of-boundary kids enrolled at the AAP center have a natural bias towards concluding that Haycock's being above-capacity is not a problem, because the school is very good and Haycock students have excellent track records in both middle and high school. The parents of some in-boundary kids who not in the AAP center have to know that the school would be less crowded if the AAP center were not as large. However, it's FCPS, not the individual parents, who decide Haycock's boundaries and which AAP students at other schools will attend Haycock. Most people get this. |