APS budget is unacceptable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cutting the aquatics field trip will save almost no money. APS barely funds field trips. Mostly to planetarium, outdoor lab and pools. PTAs fundraise for Jamestown and the like.

Kids like pool week. No sense in cutting it. And APS is not going to fund something better.

Careful. I'm sure people would like to eliminate the Planetarium trips, too. Don't remind them!

How much does APS spend on the planetarium?

The planetarium nonprofit “The Friends” took over a lot of the spending during a previous round of budget cuts. There are many things APS used to fund that are now funded through donations and by volunteers. I guess it’s a trend all over the country. The expectations for government services are just much lower than in the olden days.

Yet school and university administration and other personnel positions continue to grow in number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we shut cut the APS aquatics program.

Doesn't this make money for APS?

I think they mean the 3rd and 8th grade units where they bus kids to the pool.

I doubt that program will ever end since a large number of Arlington students don’t know how to swim. Even junior high age kids.

This swimming competency initiative goes back some 50 plus years and has a ton of support, kind of like the planetarium which almost got the axe.

I'd love if they dropped the field trips to the pool and instead just offered APS kids in certain grades free access to public swim times at APS pools. It would cost APS very little, but would improve access and encourage kids to go routinely to actually learn to swim.

The problem is how to do that equitably for students from various backgrounds. Not all families have the time, resources, ore desire to go swimming on their own. Their kids will miss out.

DP Yep. That’s what it means. And I am ok with that and you should be too if you really actually care about kids in that situation. The money could be diverted to classroom resources so the kids can get a better education which will benefit them in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoughts on teacher guy posting on AEM about 4 day school weeks? Methinks he's a little off his rocker.

He’s been off his rocker for years

Don’t be a jerk on an anonymous forum. Get thee over to AEM and comment there with your name if you’re going to criticize (let alone personally attack) individual teachers who are working hard to advocate for teachers and students.

No sane person with a dissenting opinion posts on AEM. It's an echo chamber. They all have a few screws loose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cutting the aquatics field trip will save almost no money. APS barely funds field trips. Mostly to planetarium, outdoor lab and pools. PTAs fundraise for Jamestown and the like.

Kids like pool week. No sense in cutting it. And APS is not going to fund something better.

Careful. I'm sure people would like to eliminate the Planetarium trips, too. Don't remind them!

How much does APS spend on the planetarium?

The planetarium nonprofit “The Friends” took over a lot of the spending during a previous round of budget cuts. There are many things APS used to fund that are now funded through donations and by volunteers. I guess it’s a trend all over the country. The expectations for government services are just much lower than in the olden days.

You avoided the question. How much of the planetarium does APS fund?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cutting the aquatics field trip will save almost no money. APS barely funds field trips. Mostly to planetarium, outdoor lab and pools. PTAs fundraise for Jamestown and the like.

Kids like pool week. No sense in cutting it. And APS is not going to fund something better.

Careful. I'm sure people would like to eliminate the Planetarium trips, too. Don't remind them!

How much does APS spend on the planetarium?

The planetarium nonprofit “The Friends” took over a lot of the spending during a previous round of budget cuts. There are many things APS used to fund that are now funded through donations and by volunteers. I guess it’s a trend all over the country. The expectations for government services are just much lower than in the olden days.

are you kidding? in the olden days, my school system sure as h*ll did not have its own auditorium or private forest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cutting the aquatics field trip will save almost no money. APS barely funds field trips. Mostly to planetarium, outdoor lab and pools. PTAs fundraise for Jamestown and the like.

Kids like pool week. No sense in cutting it. And APS is not going to fund something better.

Careful. I'm sure people would like to eliminate the Planetarium trips, too. Don't remind them!

How much does APS spend on the planetarium?

The planetarium nonprofit “The Friends” took over a lot of the spending during a previous round of budget cuts. There are many things APS used to fund that are now funded through donations and by volunteers. I guess it’s a trend all over the country. The expectations for government services are just much lower than in the olden days.

You avoided the question. How much of the planetarium does APS fund?

I don’t know if anyone knows that outside of staff or Planetarium insiders. Probably not enough to make a dent in the budget though. APS did finally paint the planetarium dome last week (after many years of neglect) and now it shines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we shut cut the APS aquatics program.

Doesn't this make money for APS?

I think they mean the 3rd and 8th grade units where they bus kids to the pool.

I doubt that program will ever end since a large number of Arlington students don’t know how to swim. Even junior high age kids.

This swimming competency initiative goes back some 50 plus years and has a ton of support, kind of like the planetarium which almost got the axe.

I get the reasoning but no kid is learning to swim in the short time they’re in this program if they have no water experience. If I remember it was just a week when my kids did it.

The main purpose is to make sure kids have enough ability to not drown - tread water, jump off a diving board, stay afloat. We're not trying to train olympic medalists.

That’s not happening in a week.

Yes it does. And the aquatics program has the data to prove it. Go away.

[Anonymous]

I think we really need to take a hard look at the APS bureaucracy. I would bet you that, over time, the FTE costs have ballooned over the last 30 years—as opposed to say aquatics and the planetarium which I suspect are the pretty much the same (and in the planetariums case, reduced).

One byproduct I hate of that massive bureaucracy is the crazy way in which APS is constantly buying new curriculums and testing rubrics. In ES alone, the teachers are constantly changing what method/textbooks they are using from year to year. This gives me zero confidence that (1) the method is effective and proven and (2) teachers know how to teach it. Plus, every five minutes they are adding new/differenr/better testing.

I am not blaming the teacher for this. In every system, there will be room for improvement and curriculum should be examined, say, every 5-10 years but our ES teachers have new methods every year. I know this having multiple children go through the same ES year after year. It’s a humongous waste and impacts the students and teachers.

Turns out that what’s new and fancy in curriculum world is not what we should be doing. Best example is the horrible reading/phonics that has led to massive reading loss among our students. Perhaps we shouldn’t be chasing the newest technique and if we didn’t have the money we wouldn’t.

[Anonymous]

How about we kid rid of iPads for kids under second or third grade? Actually, we don’t really need one-to-one devices until middle school. How much money has APS paid to Apple over the years?
Learning to swim is a lot more valuable than extra screen time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoughts on teacher guy posting on AEM about 4 day school weeks? Methinks he's a little off his rocker.

He’s been off his rocker for years

Don’t be a jerk on an anonymous forum. Get thee over to AEM and comment there with your name if you’re going to criticize (let alone personally attack) individual teachers who are working hard to advocate for teachers and students.

No sane person with a dissenting opinion posts on AEM. It's an echo chamber. They all have a few screws loose.

At least they aren’t raging a-holes attacking teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cutting the aquatics field trip will save almost no money. APS barely funds field trips. Mostly to planetarium, outdoor lab and pools. PTAs fundraise for Jamestown and the like.

Kids like pool week. No sense in cutting it. And APS is not going to fund something better.

Careful. I'm sure people would like to eliminate the Planetarium trips, too. Don't remind them!

How much does APS spend on the planetarium?

The planetarium nonprofit “The Friends” took over a lot of the spending during a previous round of budget cuts. There are many things APS used to fund that are now funded through donations and by volunteers. I guess it’s a trend all over the country. The expectations for government services are just much lower than in the olden days.

You avoided the question. How much of the planetarium does APS fund?

Go read the budget if you want to know. DP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we really need to take a hard look at the APS bureaucracy. I would bet you that, over time, the FTE costs have ballooned over the last 30 years—as opposed to say aquatics and the planetarium which I suspect are the pretty much the same (and in the planetariums case, reduced).

One byproduct I hate of that massive bureaucracy is the crazy way in which APS is constantly buying new curriculums and testing rubrics. In ES alone, the teachers are constantly changing what method/textbooks they are using from year to year. This gives me zero confidence that (1) the method is effective and proven and (2) teachers know how to teach it. Plus, every five minutes they are adding new/differenr/better testing.

I am not blaming the teacher for this. In every system, there will be room for improvement and curriculum should be examined, say, every 5-10 years but our ES teachers have new methods every year. I know this having multiple children go through the same ES year after year. It’s a humongous waste and impacts the students and teachers.

Turns out that what’s new and fancy in curriculum world is not what we should be doing. Best example is the horrible reading/phonics that has led to massive reading loss among our students. Perhaps we shouldn’t be chasing the newest technique and if we didn’t have the money we wouldn’t.

Also, in many cases I feel like teachers may be better equipped to make curriculum decisions than someone in a central office! I feel bad for teachers who have no autonomy and just have to go from forced curriculum to forced curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we really need to take a hard look at the APS bureaucracy. I would bet you that, over time, the FTE costs have ballooned over the last 30 years—as opposed to say aquatics and the planetarium which I suspect are the pretty much the same (and in the planetariums case, reduced).

One byproduct I hate of that massive bureaucracy is the crazy way in which APS is constantly buying new curriculums and testing rubrics. In ES alone, the teachers are constantly changing what method/textbooks they are using from year to year. This gives me zero confidence that (1) the method is effective and proven and (2) teachers know how to teach it. Plus, every five minutes they are adding new/differenr/better testing.

I am not blaming the teacher for this. In every system, there will be room for improvement and curriculum should be examined, say, every 5-10 years but our ES teachers have new methods every year. I know this having multiple children go through the same ES year after year. It’s a humongous waste and impacts the students and teachers.

Turns out that what’s new and fancy in curriculum world is not what we should be doing. Best example is the horrible reading/phonics that has led to massive reading loss among our students. Perhaps we shouldn’t be chasing the newest technique and if we didn’t have the money we wouldn’t.

+1 It's better for syphax if everyone fights over the pennies spent on aquatic and planetarium. Less scrutiny of their bloat, waste and bad decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we really need to take a hard look at the APS bureaucracy. I would bet you that, over time, the FTE costs have ballooned over the last 30 years—as opposed to say aquatics and the planetarium which I suspect are the pretty much the same (and in the planetariums case, reduced).

One byproduct I hate of that massive bureaucracy is the crazy way in which APS is constantly buying new curriculums and testing rubrics. In ES alone, the teachers are constantly changing what method/textbooks they are using from year to year. This gives me zero confidence that (1) the method is effective and proven and (2) teachers know how to teach it. Plus, every five minutes they are adding new/differenr/better testing.

I am not blaming the teacher for this. In every system, there will be room for improvement and curriculum should be examined, say, every 5-10 years but our ES teachers have new methods every year. I know this having multiple children go through the same ES year after year. It’s a humongous waste and impacts the students and teachers.

Turns out that what’s new and fancy in curriculum world is not what we should be doing. Best example is the horrible reading/phonics that has led to massive reading loss among our students. Perhaps we shouldn’t be chasing the newest technique and if we didn’t have the money we wouldn’t.

+1,000
I feel this in my soul. Parents, if you want more time spent on actual learning and less time testing, get APS to use one testing metric per subject. In elementary, the only exception is Dibels. I don’t love it but I can see why it’s required. The VA Growth Assmt, which is required by the state, tells us everything we need to know about student progress.
Otherwise, check parent vue for all the tests your poor kid has to take. They stress kids out, lead them to not like school anymore and take time away from actual teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoughts on teacher guy posting on AEM about 4 day school weeks? Methinks he's a little off his rocker.

He’s been off his rocker for years

Don’t be a jerk on an anonymous forum. Get thee over to AEM and comment there with your name if you’re going to criticize (let alone personally attack) individual teachers who are working hard to advocate for teachers and students.

No sane person with a dissenting opinion posts on AEM. It's an echo chamber. They all have a few screws loose.

At least they aren’t raging a-holes attacking teachers.

You can’t attack teachers when your lips are so far up their a$$holes 😁