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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
Fairfax County Public Schools FY 2010 Budget includes transportation for all GT students
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Anonymous
I know FLES is on the way out, but it makes me very sad.  My older DD's school is in their second year of Mandarin FLES and it has been an amazing program. Very interesting and rewarding for her and the school has done a fabulous job of integrating Mandarin and Chinese culture throughout the school and curriculum. It was part of my decision to keep her in our base school's Level IV classroom vs going to the GT Center so it's even more sad. (Fortunately our school has enough GT kids qualify that the classroom is pretty much entirely GT kids, so I don't have the concern of only having 2-3 GT kids.)
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Anonymous
Local Level IV may be going away as well. |
Anonymous
| Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. People on FCAG seem to think GT Centers will go away before LL4. If all GT programming goes away, then we will move. |
Anonymous
| How sad. What a waste. FC is one of the best school districts in the entire country. |
Anonymous
Dan Storck wants GT Centers to go away. Tina Hone and Tessie Wilson want Local Level IV to go away. Jim Rainey wants them all to go away. |
Anonymous
You sound so sure of this. Can you speak to why? (Not trying to pick a fight, btw just genuinely asking for your thoughts.) I find this terribly saddening. There are so many gifted students in this area, I can't understand wanting to take away their opportunities. Nobody would be in agreement with denying special ed services at the low end, why is this P.O.V. acceptable at the high end? |
Anonymous
Because each of them stated so at last Thursday's School Board meeting when they voted on the FY 2010 budget. |
Anonymous
| For what reason? (Obviously I wasn't there.) |
Anonymous
Because when times are tough, and teachers are not getting step increases (as in FY 2010), then programs have to be cut so that teachers can get step increases (in FY 2011). |
Anonymous
| I guess I just don't understand the budgetary rationale. Consolidating is one thing, but mothballing the facilities isn't going to eliminate all maintenance costs, that's for sure. So then what happens from a property management perspective? Sell the real estate? What happens a few years from now? How do you rebuild these programs? |
Anonymous
The budgetary rationale comes down to "special" (GT credentialed or working on credentials) teachers. Plus the associated costs within Instructional Services (most notably the GT Coordinator and staff), training courses, etc. Plus transportation, of course. As to how to rebuild the programs -- who knows. The School Board plans to have a work session in the next couple of months to begin to examine what programs/services to cut in FY 2011. FLES, Full Day Kindergarten, and Advanced Academic Services are all likely targets (among other programs and services). |
Anonymous
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One of the FCAG posters used Twitter to capture comments from the School Board meeting on last week. The twitter account is:
http://twitter.com/kamcva |
Anonymous
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No, this has very little to do with budget problems. Many FCPS staff people and some School Board members just don't like ability grouping. Dan Storck is just more honest about this than most of his colleagues.
GT Centers are free, except for the cost of the bus service for kids who don't live in the neighborhood. Many principals choose to have bigger GTC and smaller general education classes. Aides, GT resource and other resource teachers rarely work with GT Center students. Thus, much of the extra busing costs for GT Centers may be offset by the cheaper cost of instruction per GTC pupil, especially in schools with large GTC classes. In contrast, instructional costs for gifted students in general education classes include not only their share of the full-time classroom teacher, but also a portion of the GT resource teacher's time. Level 4 classes, though, could be free, if the principal fills up the class so there are always about 30 students and makes sure that those Level 4 students do not get any time with GT resource or other resource teachers and aides. Unless something is done soon there won't really be any GT Centers. Most gifted kids will stay in their neighborhood schools after being told that Level 4 classes are identical to GT Centers. When that happens, GT Centers will really be no better than the Level 4 classes, because none of them will have enough gifted kids to do what FCPS used to do in the GT Centers. |
Anonymous
But it is WAY more than just GT centers/Local Level IV. Some could/would argue that the budget is a handy excuse to do whatever to gifted education. But the Board is talking about canceling FLES altogether. Jack Dale looked shocked on Thursday night when Brad Center said that FLES is not as important as other programs, including GT/advanced academics. |
Anonymous
And you are not including the cost of training provided by Instructional Services. That's not "free". |