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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
FCPS Boundary Review Updates
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Anonymous
Do you think the Board of Supervisors is sending the SB a message with its budget proposal cancelling its support for after school middle school programs? Is it the BOS way of saying “I see where you are going. You haven’t even looked at the cost of the transition to 6-8 middle school, but any fool can see that it would be enormous. Get a clue. We can’t swallow that big of an ask. Allow us to demonstrate how such a proposal will be received as we cut after school programs for middle school, a mere sliver of the cost of switching to 6-8 across the whole county.” |
Anonymous
Got it. So you are indeed one of the 60+ full-time DEIA officers employed by FCPS. Thanks for the confirmation. |
Anonymous
I wish they were that strategic. More likely proposing a cut for a popular program is a way to try and get support for more or higher taxes. But, yes, converting to a 6-8 model in FCPS would be crazy expensive and require a ton of boundary changes. Reid needs to be fired for her total lack of common sense. She likes to think of herself as a transformative leader but she’s just a clueless idiot. |
Anonymous
Well, she just got rid of the FLECAC Committee. Does this mean she is getting smarter, or is she just renaming this committee and taking it away from the SB to the superintendent? |
Anonymous
Crazy expensive and requires a ton of boundary changes. Well put. Whose idea is this? Is it just Reid’s pet project? How much money has been spent and how many hours of staff time have been consumed tilting FCPS’s lance at these windmills? The SB needs to exercise some oversight and shut down this wasteful pet project masquerading as a legitimate boundary review to address capacity concerns. |
Anonymous
Yes, it is very much Reid’s pet project. There is some research that shows the 6-8 model is preferable, and there is also some research to the contrary. In general, parents in FCPS prefer the 7-8 model, and the parents at the three 6-8 schools seem to be more annoyed with being outliers than keen to impose that model on the rest of the county. Thru Consulting was supposed to show the BRAC what 6-8 schools would look like last week, but of course if they just modeled 6-8 schools without changing boundaries they’d be showing a ton of middle schools around 150% capacity and a large number of seriously under-capacity K-5 elementary schools. So that presentation got delayed. Now they’ll have to figure out if they want to bother modeling that scenario, or if they want to refine it by converting some elementary schools into 6-8 middle schools, but of course that would cost a lot of money that hasn’t been budgeted in the CIP and in any event try telling their parents that their kids are going to attend middle school at a converted elementary school with less space and inferior facilities. Reid and Gatehouse staff should have considered this in advance and concluded on their own it was not feasible. Instead, we’ve have Reid and School Board members running around the county telling people the 6-8 model is still a “goal” and under consideration, even though it would completely upend the capital budget, require even more boundary changes, and create more split feeders at a time when FCPS purports to be aiming to reduce the number of split feeders. Ultimately, all this does is prove that Reid is not up to the job of managing a school system this large. She needs to be terminated. |
Anonymous
It’s Reid’s pet project IMO. I know one of the members (Anderson I think?) has been beating the drum about 6th to middle for awhile because she has the 6-8 MS in her district and they have a ton of problems, so why not spread the misery around. But she was a lone voice on that subject for years before Reid came around. 6th to middle ties in with Reid’s goal of UPK at the elementary schools. They need space at the elementary schools for 4 and eventually 3 year old classrooms for everyone. Right now, only some ES have preschool classrooms, and the different programs are Head Start/Early Head Start for kids below the poverty line, FARMS kids (not necessarily below poverty - it’s 2 separate programs and the free meals criteria is less strict), and kids with special needs. If they want PK3/4 at all schools, they need the classroom space for it, and the easiest “pickings” seems to be to pick off 6th grade and send them to middle. Unfortunately, they seem to be thinking about it wrong because there’s no space at the middle schools to essentially increase their enrollment by 50%. If they really want UPK, they need to be thinking in terms of a total enrollment increase of however many thousands of students and the capital investment that would require. Not just “we need 3 empty classrooms at every elementary to accommodate pre-K, why not send out the 6th graders.” |
Anonymous
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One irony is that parents at one of the existing 6-8 middle schools in Mason (Glasgow) have been begging the School Board to reduce the number of kids there for years. So instead we’re going to overcrowd a bunch of other middle schools as well to make them feel better?
This school system is so poorly managed. It really is becoming a national joke. |
Anonymous
There seems to be some real animosity between Dr. Anderson and other board members. They are constantly steamrolling and second guessing her. |
Anonymous
I've noticed this as well, and think the following factors account for it. 1. Dr. Anderson used to be a school teacher and principal, so she knows more about how schools operate than most of the Board members and has an independent streak. That intimidates some of the Board members whose "experience" consists primarily of either being an officer on a PTA or having political ambitions. 2. She voted against hiring Dr. Reid, based primarily on a concern that Reid's relevant experience was with a much smaller school district. That obviously isn't lost on Reid, and it's likely that some of the other Board members trying to curry favor with Gatehouse try to distance themselves from Ricardy as a result. The fact that Ricardy's concerns - that Reid may not be up to the task of managing a district as large as FCPS - have largely been validated since Reid's hiring only adds to the friction. 3. She has a habit of always claiming that her district - Mason - is getting short-changed and deserves more attention and resources, when in fact Mason gets a disproportionate amount of both operating and capital funds from FCPS. That may be what you want from your representative if you live in Mason, but it alienates other Board members who feel like Anderson is never satisfied with the amount of resources that Mason gets and does not respect the needs of schools in other districts. Increasingly, we've seen Anderson, Dunne, and McElveen on the losing side of 9-3 votes at the School Board level. Could absolutely see it continuing to happen on some of the votes relating to school boundaries, as Anderson has very strong views about the need to grandfather all high school students at their current schools. |
Anonymous
All of the point for this post. |
Anonymous
| Read there was a “closed door” meeting at Great Falls library today on Sat morning (8am) with about 10 parents. Who called this meeting and how was it advertised- if it was to parents. There are SO many posts on this thread and a lot seemingly from Great Falls parents so seems surprising if a parent meeting held for a face to face with Reid that only 10 parents showed up? Were only 10 parents invited? If thread to all parents and only 10 showed up, Reid’s takeaway should be that FcPS can do what wants as parents will only complain on anonymous board but not beyond that. Anyone know more what the meeting was and how parents invited? |
Anonymous
You mean the private meeting between Reid and a handful of parents that no one else was invited to? Oh yeah, your conclusions are about as on brand as what I would expect from you. You continue to grasp at your tiny little straws. 🤡 |
Anonymous
Was the library meeting the boundary review committee meeting that only a handful of parents were selected for (and so no one else could join) and who selected is what’s being called in question? If so, then not a public meeting that anyone else could attend- so no Reid takeaway. Instead public takeaway is weird cloak and dagger. |
Anonymous
Vague story in Fairfax times. This whole process is questionable. They were afraid to do this the "normal way" so they hand selected a "committee" with a questionable lottery. Didn't the SB get in trouble a few years ago about plotting out of the public eye? |