FCPS School board mtg at 10:00 Thurs...live stream

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grovel, BB guy, grovel more.

Yes.

It's a Fairfax based company so it's unlikely that they're going to lose FCPS as a client but they might get a pretty unfavorable contract when it's renewed.

Contract isn't being renewed. It costs a fortune, very few schools use it, and there are better programs. As of earlier this year, FCPS was moving to Schoolology in 2022 (?) but that has to be approved by the board who were hesitant. They won't be now.

They have 75% of the school market.

In the business world, it's GoToMeeting, Zoom, and lately Teams. No one who could actually get fired would use BB. It's a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 50% of the teachers could have used the last 3-4 weeks to set up Google classroom sites. They had time. But, I guess they thought BB would work, so they didn't move down the path of using Google classrooms.

My kids schools (elementary and secondary) used Google Classroom the last 3-4 weeks. Just like they did during school time.

Not every teacher, not every school did though.

Is this an FCPS school? I'd never heard of google Classroom until this week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grovel, BB guy, grovel more.

Yes.

It's a Fairfax based company so it's unlikely that they're going to lose FCPS as a client but they might get a pretty unfavorable contract when it's renewed.

Contract isn't being renewed. It costs a fortune, very few schools use it, and there are better programs. As of earlier this year, FCPS was moving to Schoolology in 2022 (?) but that has to be approved by the board who were hesitant. They won't be now.

They have 75% of the school market.

In the business world, it's GoToMeeting, Zoom, and lately Teams. No one who could actually get fired would use BB. It's a disaster.

I was talking about FCPS schools. I’ve been at multiple, and none of them have used it except as a platform to communicate with parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why isn't LCPS having the same issues as FCPS????

I don’t believe LCPS is doing any live lessons. Just Google Classroom.

I’m unsure where they came up with the number of teachers using Google Classroom at 50%.
We were given the option on which to use, but my principal wasn’t even sure who used which (most of my colleagues use Google Classroom and hate BB)
I think they are “estimating” using that number.
And Google Classroom is much easier to navigate and learn then BB imo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a county that has so many well-educated people, overall a good tax base, and the expertise of a large school system..... FCPS has not done very well.

I understand that this was very abrupt to switch education from in-person to on-line. I give them a break for the rest of this year (to some degree).

But, this whole school board meeting and the big FAIL gives me no confidence at all that FCPS is going to handle next school year well.

I watch Cuomo's press conf. everyday. He gives the impression of being seriously on the task and giving us the facts. I would feel comfortable following him into battle. Watching the FCPS administrators, I do not have confidence and would not want to follow them into battle. It would be like the Keystone Cops.... bumbling into each other and getting captured by the enemy. a mess.

If you have followed our schoolboard for the past couple of years, you would see that as they have gotten more and more dominated by one side, their focus has been very far from the basics of educating the students.

Their emphasis has been on Ryan McEleven inspired pet projects that have zero to do with education.

Add that to a bloated Gatehouse full of overpaid "leaders" and now we have what we have.

I would bet most Fairfax residents have never set foot into fcps main office building. If they did, they would be stunned by how top heavy this district is.

The school board has been very poor stewards of our resources and students for many years, and have gotten a pass due to so many quality teachers.

I have heard the same thing from many school board members. They find Gatehouse frustrating and wasteful, but said that large portions of the board deferred to the Supervisor so completely that they really had abdicated any kind of real oversight. This does not seem to be either a democratic or republican tendency - there have been members of both parties and total independents who were guilty of the same. I would suggest that one thing that might help is to elect people with actual educational credentials to the school board, so they would know a little more about how the system runs than the business people, stay at home moms, lawyers and whatnot who have traditionally run it. How about we put some teachers and former principals up there??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grovel, BB guy, grovel more.

Yes.

It's a Fairfax based company so it's unlikely that they're going to lose FCPS as a client but they might get a pretty unfavorable contract when it's renewed.

Contract isn't being renewed. It costs a fortune, very few schools use it, and there are better programs. As of earlier this year, FCPS was moving to Schoolology in 2022 (?) but that has to be approved by the board who were hesitant. They won't be now.

They have 75% of the school market.

In the business world, it's GoToMeeting, Zoom, and lately Teams. No one who could actually get fired would use BB. It's a disaster.

So so true. Whatshername, Luftgass or something like that, should retire today or hand in her resignation. She took no responsibility for this at all and it's largely her fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 50% of the teachers could have used the last 3-4 weeks to set up Google classroom sites. They had time. But, I guess they thought BB would work, so they didn't move down the path of using Google classrooms.

My kids schools (elementary and secondary) used Google Classroom the last 3-4 weeks. Just like they did during school time.

Not every teacher, not every school did though.

Is this an FCPS school? I'd never heard of google Classroom until this week.

Yes.

Fcps

Upper elementary, middle school, and high school.

All of them use google classroom.

One of my kids was at a center elementary a few years back. They used google classroom there too, at least in 5th and 6th grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why isn't LCPS having the same issues as FCPS????

I don’t believe LCPS is doing any live lessons. Just Google Classroom.

I’m unsure where they came up with the number of teachers using Google Classroom at 50%.
We were given the option on which to use, but my principal wasn’t even sure who used which (most of my colleagues use Google Classroom and hate BB)
I think they are “estimating” using that number.
And Google Classroom is much easier to navigate and learn then BB imo

I agree.

I said earlier that is a made up number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a county that has so many well-educated people, overall a good tax base, and the expertise of a large school system..... FCPS has not done very well.

I understand that this was very abrupt to switch education from in-person to on-line. I give them a break for the rest of this year (to some degree).

But, this whole school board meeting and the big FAIL gives me no confidence at all that FCPS is going to handle next school year well.

I watch Cuomo's press conf. everyday. He gives the impression of being seriously on the task and giving us the facts. I would feel comfortable following him into battle. Watching the FCPS administrators, I do not have confidence and would not want to follow them into battle. It would be like the Keystone Cops.... bumbling into each other and getting captured by the enemy. a mess.

If you have followed our schoolboard for the past couple of years, you would see that as they have gotten more and more dominated by one side, their focus has been very far from the basics of educating the students.

Their emphasis has been on Ryan McEleven inspired pet projects that have zero to do with education.

Add that to a bloated Gatehouse full of overpaid "leaders" and now we have what we have.

I would bet most Fairfax residents have never set foot into fcps main office building. If they did, they would be stunned by how top heavy this district is.

The school board has been very poor stewards of our resources and students for many years, and have gotten a pass due to so many quality teachers.

I have heard the same thing from many school board members. They find Gatehouse frustrating and wasteful, but said that large portions of the board deferred to the Supervisor so completely that they really had abdicated any kind of real oversight. This does not seem to be either a democratic or republican tendency - there have been members of both parties and total independents who were guilty of the same. I would suggest that one thing that might help is to elect people with actual educational credentials to the school board, so they would know a little more about how the system runs than the business people, stay at home moms, lawyers and whatnot who have traditionally run it. How about we put some teachers and former principals up there??

The current school board is lying.

In the past few years they have micromanged the schools at the site level to the point that they banned all homecoming queens, powderpuff games, and anything else that the possibly could that was based off gender. For example, the school board micromanaged to a level that the 2020 class could not have a boy/girl superlative. They had to have 3 genderless spots per superlative.

They have abdicated the important stuff that is the main part of their job duties, such as fiscal management and ensuring kids are functionally educated, and devoted all their energies into who gets to wear a crown or not at the prom.

This school board and the recent school board especially, have put politics, social engineering and pandering above all else, and have put education and responsible financial planning on the back burner. They have wasted millions, perhaps billions of dollars on under the table contracts like Cenergistic, hired cronies and consultants, and micromanged the schools, teachers and principals over frivolous stuff to the point of tying their hands with educating our kids.

The school board's feigned outrage over the whole thing is about as convincing as the main law enforcement guy from Casablanca. They are rounding up "the usual suspects" by blaming all of those below them, but the responsibility and accountability is on them and the gatehouse leadership.


Hopefully this is a big enough cluster that fcps are finally paying attention, and will quit voting in single party activists from the extreme fringe (democratic in this case, but really it could be either fringe), and vote these people out for moderates with sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 50% of the teachers could have used the last 3-4 weeks to set up Google classroom sites. They had time. But, I guess they thought BB would work, so they didn't move down the path of using Google classrooms.

My kids schools (elementary and secondary) used Google Classroom the last 3-4 weeks. Just like they did during school time.

Not every teacher, not every school did though.

Is this an FCPS school? I'd never heard of google Classroom until this week.

My FCPS school has been heavily using Google Classroom for five years. At least 75% of the staff EXCLUSIVELY use Google Classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 50% of the teachers could have used the last 3-4 weeks to set up Google classroom sites. They had time. But, I guess they thought BB would work, so they didn't move down the path of using Google classrooms.

My kids schools (elementary and secondary) used Google Classroom the last 3-4 weeks. Just like they did during school time.

Not every teacher, not every school did though.

Is this an FCPS school? I'd never heard of google Classroom until this week.

My FCPS school has been heavily using Google Classroom for five years. At least 75% of the staff EXCLUSIVELY use Google Classroom.

The Title I school I work at doesn't use Google Classroom. My son's school (6th grade) has been using it for a couple of years. My oldest (9th grade) didn't use it
'til he got in Middle school. Teachers in Specials don't really use it. So I would sadly agree with an average 50% in the County estimate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 50% of the teachers could have used the last 3-4 weeks to set up Google classroom sites. They had time. But, I guess they thought BB would work, so they didn't move down the path of using Google classrooms.

My kids schools (elementary and secondary) used Google Classroom the last 3-4 weeks. Just like they did during school time.

Not every teacher, not every school did though.

Is this an FCPS school? I'd never heard of google Classroom until this week.

Yes.

Fcps

Upper elementary, middle school, and high school.

All of them use google classroom.

One of my kids was at a center elementary a few years back. They used google classroom there too, at least in 5th and 6th grades.

+1 FCPS school, a 4th and 6th grader both use it. Spouse (who teaches HS) also uses it. But is is non- synchronous learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 50% of the teachers could have used the last 3-4 weeks to set up Google classroom sites. They had time. But, I guess they thought BB would work, so they didn't move down the path of using Google classrooms.

My kids schools (elementary and secondary) used Google Classroom the last 3-4 weeks. Just like they did during school time.

Not every teacher, not every school did though.

Is this an FCPS school? I'd never heard of google Classroom until this week.

My kids (7th and 11th) have been using Google Classroom for at least 3 years at their FCPS schools. Right now I’m a little disappointed by the hot mess that synchronous learning has turned out to be, but my kids are still very busy with asynchronous assignments in not only their core classes but their electives as well. Their teachers have, overall, really done a really good job IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For a county that has so many well-educated people, overall a good tax base, and the expertise of a large school system..... FCPS has not done very well.

I understand that this was very abrupt to switch education from in-person to on-line. I give them a break for the rest of this year (to some degree).

But, this whole school board meeting and the big FAIL gives me no confidence at all that FCPS is going to handle next school year well.

I watch Cuomo's press conf. everyday. He gives the impression of being seriously on the task and giving us the facts. I would feel comfortable following him into battle. Watching the FCPS administrators, I do not have confidence and would not want to follow them into battle. It would be like the Keystone Cops.... bumbling into each other and getting captured by the enemy. a mess.

If you have followed our schoolboard for the past couple of years, you would see that as they have gotten more and more dominated by one side, their focus has been very far from the basics of educating the students.

Their emphasis has been on Ryan McEleven inspired pet projects that have zero to do with education.

Add that to a bloated Gatehouse full of overpaid "leaders" and now we have what we have.

I would bet most Fairfax residents have never set foot into fcps main office building. If they did, they would be stunned by how top heavy this district is.

The school board has been very poor stewards of our resources and students for many years, and have gotten a pass due to so many quality teachers.

I have heard the same thing from many school board members. They find Gatehouse frustrating and wasteful, but said that large portions of the board deferred to the Supervisor so completely that they really had abdicated any kind of real oversight. This does not seem to be either a democratic or republican tendency - there have been members of both parties and total independents who were guilty of the same. I would suggest that one thing that might help is to elect people with actual educational credentials to the school board, so they would know a little more about how the system runs than the business people, stay at home moms, lawyers and whatnot who have traditionally run it. How about we put some teachers and former principals up there??

The current school board is lying.

In the past few years they have micromanged the schools at the site level to the point that they banned all homecoming queens, powderpuff games, and anything else that the possibly could that was based off gender. For example, the school board micromanaged to a level that the 2020 class could not have a boy/girl superlative. They had to have 3 genderless spots per superlative.

They have abdicated the important stuff that is the main part of their job duties, such as fiscal management and ensuring kids are functionally educated, and devoted all their energies into who gets to wear a crown or not at the prom.

This school board and the recent school board especially, have put politics, social engineering and pandering above all else, and have put education and responsible financial planning on the back burner. They have wasted millions, perhaps billions of dollars on under the table contracts like Cenergistic, hired cronies and consultants, and micromanged the schools, teachers and principals over frivolous stuff to the point of tying their hands with educating our kids.

The school board's feigned outrage over the whole thing is about as convincing as the main law enforcement guy from Casablanca. They are rounding up "the usual suspects" by blaming all of those below them, but the responsibility and accountability is on them and the gatehouse leadership.


Hopefully this is a big enough cluster that fcps are finally paying attention, and will quit voting in single party activists from the extreme fringe (democratic in this case, but really it could be either fringe), and vote these people out for moderates with sense.

School board has been full of shit this whole time. Almost nothing get approved without their input. They are responsible for the great SRR we have. And by great, I mean great for the kids. To give any consequences we have to prove that we tried to reason with them first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 50% of the teachers could have used the last 3-4 weeks to set up Google classroom sites. They had time. But, I guess they thought BB would work, so they didn't move down the path of using Google classrooms.

My kids schools (elementary and secondary) used Google Classroom the last 3-4 weeks. Just like they did during school time.

Not every teacher, not every school did though.

Is this an FCPS school? I'd never heard of google Classroom until this week.

Yes, this is a FCPS thread!

If your school uses Google Classroom it's probably from 4th grade up. Middle Schools and High School uses it.

What no one really uses is what's been mandated to be used right now... Blackboard!