All the reasons you are frustrated by, or dislike ACPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So we can close the school for 1-2 weeks for a Christian holiday, but giving other religions one day to observe is not okay with you? Give me a break.

You are not reading carefully.

I have no problem closing the schools to students on the actual holidays. I think that's a good thing.

What I am saying is that teachers who do not celebrate those holidays should use them as work days rather than having separate ones.

So like next week, we are closed for Diwali Monday, then a teacher work day on Tuesday... What I am saying is we should have no students Monday, awhile anyone who doesn't celebrate Diwali uses Monday as a teacher work day. Anyone who DOES celebrate Diwali gets monday off, and we pay for them to have a sub/temp some other time that week or month or whatever to make up their work day.

So now students don't have to be out two days, working parents have care, and every teacher gets their holidays and work days - at the cost of temps/subs to cover the additional holidays, rather than just fully sacrificing those days for students, like we are doing right now.

Or, put more simply, students should get all of the religious holidays off - because anything other than that means kids celebrating those days have to miss a day of school their classmates are in.

Teachers and staff, on the other hand, should only get their own holidays, and should use the ones they don't celebrate as work days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My feelings are hurt because I’m left out of the secret moms clique.

Jk. I’m not an ACPS parent but dang if there aren’t a lot of people complaining instead of finding something productive to better the schools.

I have another one based on this comment - how because of the entrenched leadership (and the community’s fawning over it) it is impossible to do anything to improve ACPS meaningfully. Said as a former ACPS parent / current Alexandria resident

Run for a position on the school board. Everyone complains but no one is willing to run for office.

So unless you run for school board you can't complain. By this logic if you don't run for Governor or President you have no right to complain.

This is also an extremely privileged statement. If a economically disadvantaged parent complains, is this your response to them too? How about a parent who works an hourly job? Or two hourly jobs?

This is poor logic at best and disgustingly privileged at worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one and only high school makes no sense. Why can't there be two or three. Take the minnie Howard campus and make it it's own stand alone high school. That would make much more sense.

Because having even a second high school would be racist. Equity trumps all. If we go down, we all go down together (except if you’re white with rich parents and you’re in honors classes which you only sign up for, you’re not placed in them).

The argument that a second high school would be racist does not make sense. It's as if there is no control over districting or busing. And the current single high school and GW (I don't know about Hammond or Jeff Houston) are completely segregated because of honors classes...sure looks like racism to me.

[Anonymous]

Another argument I heard frequently from east end Alexandria parents the last time there was a real discussion about having a second high school (about 2018), was that the name T.C. Williams High School really "meant something" and "no one cares about who T.C. Williams was". So everyone needed to be kept in one high school.

They would go on to say that if Alexandria had a second high school that was NOT named after the racist bigot T.C. Williams, it would be a real disservice to the kids who went to the non-T.C. Williams High School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one and only high school makes no sense. Why can't there be two or three. Take the minnie Howard campus and make it it's own stand alone high school. That would make much more sense.

Because having even a second high school would be racist. Equity trumps all. If we go down, we all go down together (except if you’re white with rich parents and you’re in honors classes which you only sign up for, you’re not placed in them).

The argument that a second high school would be racist does not make sense. It's as if there is no control over districting or busing. And the current single high school and GW (I don't know about Hammond or Jeff Houston) are completely segregated because of honors classes...sure looks like racism to me.

PP, our kids go to Hammond. Hammond is almost 90% children of color and our kids' honors classes are jam packed with kids who look exactly like them, brown and black. There is no racism going on at Hammond except if you count the disparities in resources between what Hammond gets and what the East Side gets.

[Anonymous]

And the current single high school and GW (I don't know about Hammond or Jeff Houston) are completely segregated because of honors classes...sure looks like racism to me.

The classes at GW are not "completely segregated." My son goes there, there are Black and Hispanic children in all of his honors classes. They are less than 50 percent non-white, but that's still a fair number of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one and only high school makes no sense. Why can't there be two or three. Take the minnie Howard campus and make it it's own stand alone high school. That would make much more sense.

Because having even a second high school would be racist. Equity trumps all. If we go down, we all go down together (except if you’re white with rich parents and you’re in honors classes which you only sign up for, you’re not placed in them).

The argument that a second high school would be racist does not make sense. It's as if there is no control over districting or busing. And the current single high school and GW (I don't know about Hammond or Jeff Houston) are completely segregated because of honors classes...sure looks like racism to me.

I agree it doesn't make sense, but for the same reason ACPS does not buy into TJ to allow City resident kids the opportunity to attend our regional governor's school, the argument is that if there is a second or third high school, it would cause a brain drain where by neighborhood it is assumed some schools would have richer kids, with more involved parents, and better test scores and better schools, vs other high schools so that's racist. I mean, you can make that argument for the elementary schools as well, but having districts for different high schools could result in one school having an abnormally large number of FARM kids (oh no, I'm not saying that is bad or good one way or another), like a Jeff Houston vs Lyles Crouch.

You must be new hear if this argument doesn't make sense to you or if you haven't heard it before. I have been living in Alexandria since the 90s, have been a parent since the 2000s. I have seen the city build an entirely new high school (among other things), talk a lot about a second high school, and they've done nothing. Not a damn thing. Population has exploded. If they claim there is no room, that's bologna. They could have built one at Landmark. But hey, what's not to love about having one high school, the largest in the entire state, where someone died last year and the year before a senior was arrested for murdering two people, among other things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have TWO days off next week. How?!?! I get it, Diwali, but how about any teacher who doesn't celebrate Diwali uses Monday as their work day, and we just give the handful of Diwali-celebrating teachers subs on Tuesday? It's insane.

Having off for the Jewish High Holy days had been wonderful this year and long overdue. As a school employee AND a parent it is so nice to bed able to observe these religious holidays without needing to use a personal day. In the past school have had teacher work days on religious holidays but I still had to use a personal day and somehow had to make up the work I missed. This is equity in action.

It's nice that you have time during the school day to read and post on message boards.

As do you, apparently. Why can you post during a workday and the teacher can't? You've got a problem and it isn't the teacher. Parents like you are why people are leaving teaching.

[Anonymous]

This overcrowding issue at the K at Patrick Henry sounds awful per the public comments at yesterday’s board meeting. It also sounds like typical ACPS not responding to those concerns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have TWO days off next week. How?!?! I get it, Diwali, but how about any teacher who doesn't celebrate Diwali uses Monday as their work day, and we just give the handful of Diwali-celebrating teachers subs on Tuesday? It's insane.

Too much focus on "equity" and not enough focus on education and, yes, equity belongs in quotes because a lot of what is happening is lip service to equity while the policies ensure disparity remains.

I don't disagree with a need to focus on equity - but the thing that would actually advance equity is letting students' working parents actually work.

It's pretty obvious that ACPS is working on moving to a four day school week similar to what went on during the shut down. If you are going into contract negotiation season, it would be a good idea to negotiate for Mondays off or working from home. Get ahead of the inevitable.

Umm we don't negotiate our contracts - hahaha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This overcrowding issue at the K at Patrick Henry sounds awful per the public comments at yesterday’s board meeting. It also sounds like typical ACPS not responding to those concerns.

Agreed. I'll add that our East end elementary is also overcrowded this year with fewer classes per grade.

[Anonymous]

I am glad this situation was dealt with but does reflect continuing safety issues https://www.alxnow.com/2022/10/21/student-with-edged-weapon-arrested-at-alexandria-city-high-school/

[Anonymous]

If anyone actually looks at the budget book it becomes very clear that ACPS is about to have a very real money problem due to sky rocketing English language learner population without the tax base to support it. But being a sanctuary city and not enforcing building/occupancy codes in the city’s apartment leads to that natural end.

[Anonymous]

As reflected in the what you love about ACPS thread, I dislike ACPS parents who demonize parents whose struggle or face obstacles with ACPS. On that thread, you can see posters attacking a ACPS parent who has struggled with ACPS meeting the needs of their special needs child, as a someone with a victim
complex (rather than a parent deserving compassion).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As reflected in the what you love about ACPS thread, I dislike ACPS parents who demonize parents whose struggle or face obstacles with ACPS. On that thread, you can see posters attacking a ACPS parent who has struggled with ACPS meeting the needs of their special needs child, as a someone with a victim
complex (rather than a parent deserving compassion).

No. If you look at the other thread, you will see that you deliberately attacked a parent whose child with special needs had a different experience with ACPS than you and your child did. The other parent gently rebutted your assertion that your experience took precedence over theirs. You took umbrage and got upset when the other parent called you out.

Now you're here trying to rile people up again. That's okay because this whole thread is dedicated to unhappy people making themselves more unhappy; however, I am unwilling to let you spew your bile about someone else. (Yes, I know the poster and she is genuinely pleased with their experience.)

I'm no great fan of ACPS but I am unwilling to see people like you spread falsehoods about other parents. Stay in your lane and talk about your experience. We'll all be happier.