APS VPL is a dumpster fire

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That ship has sailed now - 0 questions by the school board publicly when it was decided to create the program so who knows what the cost-benefits of such a program were, what APS thought about it, what the school board thought about it. No one knows as the school board is run like the CCP, with everything decided behind the scenes and school board meetings as theater.

APS should be focusing on fixing the problems ASAP.

Has there been any discussion about how all of these problems occurred? I did not see any at the school board meeting. All comments from very concerned school board members, as if the staffing problems arose out of nowhere. But no explanation about how this train wreck was allowed by APS and the school board to occur.

I feel like the VLP families don't want to rock the boat right now by pushing to find out the reasoning why this occurred. They're focused on their kids getting an education, which many of them are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That ship has sailed now - 0 questions by the school board publicly when it was decided to create the program so who knows what the cost-benefits of such a program were, what APS thought about it, what the school board thought about it. No one knows as the school board is run like the CCP, with everything decided behind the scenes and school board meetings as theater.

APS should be focusing on fixing the problems ASAP.

Has there been any discussion about how all of these problems occurred? I did not see any at the school board meeting. All comments from very concerned school board members, as if the staffing problems arose out of nowhere. But no explanation about how this train wreck was allowed by APS and the school board to occur.

I feel like the VLP families don't want to rock the boat right now by pushing to find out the reasoning why this occurred. They're focused on their kids getting an education, which many of them are not.

Would you? APS said middle school won't have a math teacher until October at a minimum. Is APS going to make up for such lost instructional time?

We already know how bad math SOL scores were last year. Can't imagine how bad they'll be for this group next year.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone explain to me why a parent of a medically fragile child would choose a bootlegged VLP instead of signing up for a long-standing existing virtual school that has proven success?

Presumably if you are not going to school you aren’t allowed to do other on campus activities. So there goes the whole “ties to the school” argument. I get some kids have an IEP. So maybe just a small virtual environment should have been created for those kids who need extra services tied to APS.

It seems absurd that so much money was spent reinventing an inferior wheel. Shouldn’t APS have had an idea of how many teachers it could staff before it promised this learning platform to nearly 3% of the school population? I do feel bad for the families who signed up for this boondoggle. But it honestly never should have been allowed to have gotten to this point to begin with. We should have spent all that money paying tuition for other online programs + at home supplements.

[Anonymous]

It’s frustrating but I am hopeful things will improve soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain to me why a parent of a medically fragile child would choose a bootlegged VLP instead of signing up for a long-standing existing virtual school that has proven success?

Presumably if you are not going to school you aren’t allowed to do other on campus activities. So there goes the whole “ties to the school” argument. I get some kids have an IEP. So maybe just a small virtual environment should have been created for those kids who need extra services tied to APS.

It seems absurd that so much money was spent reinventing an inferior wheel. Shouldn’t APS have had an idea of how many teachers it could staff before it promised this learning platform to nearly 3% of the school population? I do feel bad for the families who signed up for this boondoggle. But it honestly never should have been allowed to have gotten to this point to begin with. We should have spent all that money paying tuition for other online programs + at home supplements.

Agree that Virtual Virginia should have been done. However, I don't think they spent anywhere close to all of the allocated funds as of the start of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That ship has sailed now - 0 questions by the school board publicly when it was decided to create the program so who knows what the cost-benefits of such a program were, what APS thought about it, what the school board thought about it. No one knows as the school board is run like the CCP, with everything decided behind the scenes and school board meetings as theater.

APS should be focusing on fixing the problems ASAP.

Has there been any discussion about how all of these problems occurred? I did not see any at the school board meeting. All comments from very concerned school board members, as if the staffing problems arose out of nowhere. But no explanation about how this train wreck was allowed by APS and the school board to occur.

I feel like the VLP families don't want to rock the boat right now by pushing to find out the reasoning why this occurred. They're focused on their kids getting an education, which many of them are not.

Would you? APS said middle school won't have a math teacher until October at a minimum. Is APS going to make up for such lost instructional time?

We already know how bad math SOL scores were last year. Can't imagine how bad they'll be for this group next year.

My kids aren’t in the VLP program, but why in the living hell is the mathematics supervisor or a specialist over at Syphax not stepping into this role until they have a teacher??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That ship has sailed now - 0 questions by the school board publicly when it was decided to create the program so who knows what the cost-benefits of such a program were, what APS thought about it, what the school board thought about it. No one knows as the school board is run like the CCP, with everything decided behind the scenes and school board meetings as theater.

APS should be focusing on fixing the problems ASAP.

Has there been any discussion about how all of these problems occurred? I did not see any at the school board meeting. All comments from very concerned school board members, as if the staffing problems arose out of nowhere. But no explanation about how this train wreck was allowed by APS and the school board to occur.

I feel like the VLP families don't want to rock the boat right now by pushing to find out the reasoning why this occurred. They're focused on their kids getting an education, which many of them are not.

Would you? APS said middle school won't have a math teacher until October at a minimum. Is APS going to make up for such lost instructional time?

We already know how bad math SOL scores were last year. Can't imagine how bad they'll be for this group next year.

My kids aren’t in the VLP program, but why in the living hell is the mathematics supervisor or a specialist over at Syphax not stepping into this role until they have a teacher??

You got that right.

[Anonymous]

A lot of these kids are going back to the classroom now, making the classes even larger in APS schools, since many schools lost some of their teachers to VPL. What a disaster.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering how this was going.

I am not surprised that some kids are returning to the classroom. I would think that parents and kids are frustrated with whatever issues still linger. It probably also helps that there is a a month or so worth of data in the region that points to schools being pretty safe. There have not been a large number of cases and I have not been reading about in school transmission. If you were a parent who choose virtual because you were nervous and you are seeing that schools have been doing well with COVID and the online program is still struggling, you return to in-person school.

I fully expect that the ES classes will grow after kids are vaccinated as home schooled kids return to the classroom because their parents are more comfortable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That ship has sailed now - 0 questions by the school board publicly when it was decided to create the program so who knows what the cost-benefits of such a program were, what APS thought about it, what the school board thought about it. No one knows as the school board is run like the CCP, with everything decided behind the scenes and school board meetings as theater.

APS should be focusing on fixing the problems ASAP.

Has there been any discussion about how all of these problems occurred? I did not see any at the school board meeting. All comments from very concerned school board members, as if the staffing problems arose out of nowhere. But no explanation about how this train wreck was allowed by APS and the school board to occur.

I feel like the VLP families don't want to rock the boat right now by pushing to find out the reasoning why this occurred. They're focused on their kids getting an education, which many of them are not.

Would you? APS said middle school won't have a math teacher until October at a minimum. Is APS going to make up for such lost instructional time?

We already know how bad math SOL scores were last year. Can't imagine how bad they'll be for this group next year.

My kids aren’t in the VLP program, but why in the living hell is the mathematics supervisor or a specialist over at Syphax not stepping into this role until they have a teacher??

You got that right.

Teachers are asking the same thing about central office staff helping fill sub jobs and gaps in the person coverage. We were told "they have work to do too." Which I suppose it true, but maybe the priority needs to be student facing roles right now.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Without subs how will they run schools? Seems like all those Syphax people could be the first stop to help in the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Can anyone explain to me why a parent of a medically fragile child would choose a bootlegged VLP instead of signing up for a long-standing existing virtual school that has proven success?

Presumably if you are not going to school you aren’t allowed to do other on campus activities. So there goes the whole “ties to the school” argument. I get some kids have an IEP. So maybe just a small virtual environment should have been created for those kids who need extra services tied to APS.

It seems absurd that so much money was spent reinventing an inferior wheel. Shouldn’t APS have had an idea of how many teachers it could staff before it promised this learning platform to nearly 3% of the school population? I do feel bad for the families who signed up for this boondoggle. But it honestly never should have been allowed to have gotten to this point to begin with. We should have spent all that money paying tuition for other online programs + at home supplements.



Agree that Virtual Virginia should have been done. However, I don't think they spent anywhere close to all of the allocated funds as of the start of school.

In that case, maybe they should stop spending and put the money in a fund for that new high school. Seems like they won't be able to get around building it now, given what a mess VL has been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Can anyone explain to me why a parent of a medically fragile child would choose a bootlegged VLP instead of signing up for a long-standing existing virtual school that has proven success?

Presumably if you are not going to school you aren’t allowed to do other on campus activities. So there goes the whole “ties to the school” argument. I get some kids have an IEP. So maybe just a small virtual environment should have been created for those kids who need extra services tied to APS.

It seems absurd that so much money was spent reinventing an inferior wheel. Shouldn’t APS have had an idea of how many teachers it could staff before it promised this learning platform to nearly 3% of the school population? I do feel bad for the families who signed up for this boondoggle. But it honestly never should have been allowed to have gotten to this point to begin with. We should have spent all that money paying tuition for other online programs + at home supplements.



Agree that Virtual Virginia should have been done. However, I don't think they spent anywhere close to all of the allocated funds as of the start of school.

In that case, maybe they should stop spending and put the money in a fund for that new high school. Seems like they won't be able to get around building it now, given what a mess VL has been.

I agree with stop spending the money but use it to give raises to teachers so we can keep good teachers and attract more soon. And hire reading and math specialists to help in all grades in APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Can anyone explain to me why a parent of a medically fragile child would choose a bootlegged VLP instead of signing up for a long-standing existing virtual school that has proven success?

Presumably if you are not going to school you aren’t allowed to do other on campus activities. So there goes the whole “ties to the school” argument. I get some kids have an IEP. So maybe just a small virtual environment should have been created for those kids who need extra services tied to APS.

It seems absurd that so much money was spent reinventing an inferior wheel. Shouldn’t APS have had an idea of how many teachers it could staff before it promised this learning platform to nearly 3% of the school population? I do feel bad for the families who signed up for this boondoggle. But it honestly never should have been allowed to have gotten to this point to begin with. We should have spent all that money paying tuition for other online programs + at home supplements.



Agree that Virtual Virginia should have been done. However, I don't think they spent anywhere close to all of the allocated funds as of the start of school.

In that case, maybe they should stop spending and put the money in a fund for that new high school. Seems like they won't be able to get around building it now, given what a mess VL has been.

I agree with stop spending the money but use it to give raises to teachers so we can keep good teachers and attract more soon. And hire reading and math specialists to help in all grades in APS.

The teachers already got raises this year, no?

[Anonymous]

To the surprise of no one: https://www.arlnow.com/2021/12/17/future-looks-uncertain-for-aps-virtual-learning-program/

The fact that this entire program was created without even a vote by the school board is shameful. When you don’t vote, you don’t vet. Our kids deserve better.