Is there any VA school distric that is NOT a dumpster fire?

[Anonymous]

Is there any place other than DCUrbanmoms that isn’t a dumpster fire? No!

[Anonymous]

I’m pretty happy with Loudoun. The crazy parents yelling at the school board are a loud but tiny minority. The staff at my children’s individual schools have been mostly wonderful. The class sizes are great and I like the start times. My oldest in 8th so I haven’t experienced high school yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The locations of their middle school/high school are not ideal. On top of the highway, in the middle of commercial development, on the far edge of falls church city, with terrible parking. If one of your goals is to be part of a walkable community, that's not doing it.

Which is it? On top of the highway, in the middle of commercial development, on the far edge of falls church city, or with terrible parking? I mean it's next to a highway and a metro station. Close to a McDonalds and a strip mall with a Giant. Many, many kids walk and enjoy walking there. It is on the far edge of the City, but man, doesn't mean much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Second FCCPS. It's a much smaller district too. Is the new high school finished yet?

Yes, the high school is finished and it's beautiful. There will be construction going on nearby for the commercial developments for a few years, though.

We are in Falls Church and love it. Teachers are almost universally great, leadership is great, and I feel like everyone is very responsive to parents and kids. That said, the downsides are:

- fewer offerings than some bigger districts in terms of electives, activities, and foreign languages
- small student body (this has upsides -- easy to make sports teams!! - and downsides -- hopefully you can find your crowd in a class of 175 kids or so.

This is what I hear from FCCPS parents. We seriously considered moving there and I talked to a lot of people.

Great for your kid if it's great for your kid. If it's not great for your kid, no options.

Everyone is in your business. Very cliquey. Some people love that. Some people don't.

The locations of their middle school/high school are not ideal. On top of the highway, in the middle of commercial development, on the far edge of falls church city, with terrible parking. If one of your goals is to be part of a walkable community, that's not doing it.

It's also very homogenous, which is on purpose. They separated themselves from Fairfax however long ago to get away from the students that are harder to serve. If you're the type that cares about these things.

I have to disagree with your final two points. The location of the MS/HS are fine - and will be even better when there is commercial development there. Yes, it would be better if it were smack dab in the middle of the school, but a solid 30-40 percent of kids at the schools (I would guess) live within a 20 minute walk of the schools.

It's not that homogeneous and is becoming even less so. 30-40 percent of the kids in my 5th grader's class are nonwhite and that's been consistent every year. Most people do have educated parents who care about education, but that's why they moved to FCC in the first place (and many are willing to live in smaller houses and/or condos/apartments to be there).

[Anonymous]

My kids got a great education at McLean HS. It was by far the best of the three schools (ES,MS,HS) I know it is not what you want to hear. Both found themselves very well prepared for college, especially in math.

[Anonymous]

FCCPS - the new high school is beautiful but the classrooms are very small. My kids report being crammed in rooms and class sizes are not all small. They are on top of each other. They can spread out in the open areas at times, but they still need to go to class with everyone. This is a different experience from the spring. I’m hopeful because of the high vaccination rate but classes have only been in session for 4 days. Let’s hope there are not a lot of breakthrough cases.

[Anonymous]

You all have ZERO perspective it’s incredible. Try an actually had school district like the one I grew up in in Georgia. You’d be crying for your highly funded nova district. You’re such losers. Seriously. Get a grip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS has some of the best ranked high schools in the state. If you want small with personalized attention and an easier academic experience go very rural and find a high school that hasn't been consolidated yet. Good luck, most of the very small schools have long since been merged into bigger ones

Those rankings are not based on anything that FCPS does. It happens to have a lot of rich, educated folks living in it. But those of us who live here rely on outside tutoring and helping our kids ourselves, because the schools themselves are nothing special, and some of them really suck.

Agree 100%. I have to spend lots of extra money supplementing my kid’s education.

Maybe your kid isn’t a good student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids got a great education at McLean HS. It was by far the best of the three schools (ES,MS,HS) I know it is not what you want to hear. Both found themselves very well prepared for college, especially in math.

I feel the same about our FCPS high school. It may not be private but it's been much better than elementary and middle.

[Anonymous]

Find a private you can afford. Move there.

[Anonymous]

Consider all what's 6% of your home value you'd lose selling your home. Plus moving costs. Could be half the cost of private high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids got a great education at McLean HS. It was by far the best of the three schools (ES,MS,HS) I know it is not what you want to hear. Both found themselves very well prepared for college, especially in math.

I feel the same about our FCPS high school. It may not be private but it's been much better than elementary and middle.

+1 for our FCPS middle. People complain about elementary schools in FCPS but I think they do HS and also MS really well, especially for students on the Honors/AAP/AP track. I would be hard pressed to justify paying for private unless there was some kind of serious extenuating academic, health, or social issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We left FCPS, which is definitely a flaming dumpster, for private ES/MS, but our private ends soon and we probably can't afford private high school. We're planning to move, and decided to be smarter this time and not live in Fairfax. But based on this forum, it seems like every NoVa school district is horrible. Is there one anywhere that isn't? Falls Church, Oakton, Loudoun? Is there a decent public school district anywhere in NoVa?

Some of things we hated about FCPS included absurd amounts of homework, even in ES, a huge bureaucracy with no accountability for administrators (and a lot of BAD admins), a focus on testing, overcrowded classrooms, no personal attention at any age, and a "we don't care" attitude in general. Does that characterize all public schools?

Since when wasn't Oakton in FCPS?

Agree with other posters that what you've said doesn't come close to characterizing everyone's experience in FCPS. I think Brabrand is mediocre and that the current School Board is a bunch of liars and hypocrites, but we liked the teachers and administrators at our schools.

[Anonymous]

Op I hear you. We had similar experience in MCPS. We bit the bullet and found a smaller town. Found exactly the community we were looking for - caring. When it gets big in America, it gets corrupt. At least FCPS doesn’t have the sexual predators like MCPS. To the Georgia PP - dude, we spend 10xs for WORSE NAEP scores. Georgia (218) beat Maryland (220) by 2 points on NAEP in 2019.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The locations of their middle school/high school are not ideal. On top of the highway, in the middle of commercial development, on the far edge of falls church city, with terrible parking. If one of your goals is to be part of a walkable community, that's not doing it.

Which is it? On top of the highway, in the middle of commercial development, on the far edge of falls church city, or with terrible parking? I mean it's next to a highway and a metro station. Close to a McDonalds and a strip mall with a Giant. Many, many kids walk and enjoy walking there. It is on the far edge of the City, but man, doesn't mean much.

As stated, it’s all of those things. Why so defensive.