FCPS appears to be considering adding changing start time to 2026 Rezoning per Board Docs
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Anonymous
Ha. I don't know if the security guards want their names out there if she's doing this! |
Anonymous
Lost on younger parents, but if all this happening anyway would at least be entertaining to have confetti and ballon drop while she yells out, “You get a new boundary change! And YOU get a new boundary change! You get a new start time! And YOU get a new start time!” |
Anonymous
| Many kids in middle and high school already struggle with BO, can you imagine below bad the classrooms would stink if they had sports before school? Omg no. |
Anonymous
.. well that wasn’t even in my list of why it was a bad idea.. but yeah, that’s in my top 3 reasons now. I love the logic that to get kids more sleep, just make school start later so they have to get up earlier to do the things that they would have done after school. It solves exactly zero problems.. |
Anonymous
The activities go really, really late. The day ends around 4:20pm and you will typically see some kids walking home from the bus stop around 4:45ish in my neighborhood, maybe a little later, but we live very near the local high school. The activities/sports/rehearsals/dance classes/etc. just start late and go late. Kids come home from their various things later, stay up later, then sleep later the following morning. I guess if your kid is a morning person, they might opt to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier to get work done before school, which is certainly possible since the school day doesn't start until 9:30am. In our neighborhood, the bus comes around 8:50am or so. Personally, I think if your kids do a lot of activities, the overall amount of sleep they get is the same with the Loudoun vs. Fairfax schedule. There are only so many hours to get everything done. |
Anonymous
Do your school's gyms not have showers? |
Anonymous
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I would like to see the county take some of these mega HSs and turn them into secondary schools like Lake Braddock model.
This would naturally solve some of the boundary issues, sorry no room, you can't be bussed 45 miles across town. You'd need less buses, and the ones you have would be driving shorter distances, so can easily get from Secondary school to ES pickups/drop offs. Everyone gets a reasonable start time. I have a middle schooler, they'd have to go to bed at 8pm to get all of the sleep they need. 3000+ capacity HSs are not good for anyone. Why not do 2 separate schools within a school, smaller classes, but numbers would still be high enough to offer reasonable diversity of classes, accessible sport teams. Fear of big kids/mixing with younger kids, modify bells schedules, and build modify shared spaces for separate cafeterias, gyms, libraries etc. |
Anonymous
I think it will be more like a Maury Povich or Jerry Springer paternity reveal. |
Anonymous
Lake braddock was built as a secondary school. The high schools were not We love the larger 2500-3000 high school. You get so much of a higher level/talented cohort for everything from sports to musicals, Orchestra and academics. The bigger talent pool means more competition, which produces a much higher quality outcome. |
Anonymous
| Thats funny most parents complain about how hard it is to make the team, get a spot in the play, or any leadership role. |
Anonymous
+1. I’d hate a mega high school. Make it even harder for kids to be involved. |
Anonymous
Ah yes, because every knows that they are so widely used! In my entire time in high school and middle school, never once saw anyone use the showers. I’m sure making them wake up earlier will totally be the thing to convince them to use the communal showers 😆 |
Anonymous
FCPS is losing federal funding over letting boys into girls bathrooms. Can you imagine the righteous outcry if they added naked coed showering each morning to the routine? |
Anonymous
This is a dumb reason for bigger schools. Participation rates are more important than achieving the highest possible “quality outcome”. What good does it do to have a high performing sports team or musical or whatever when more kids get left out? |
Anonymous
Kids are involved everywhere. But if your kid cannot sing, they probably won't get cast in the musical and might need to pick a different activity, join the non audition choir class to improve their skills, or pivot to helping with the costume crew. The bigger schools give amazing performances, as good as many regional theater groups. They are so good because they have a hundred plus kids auditioning, so they can pick the truly talented students and the best trained kids. Most of the ensemble are talented enough to perform leads or smaller rolls. When the ensemble is that strong, the shows are amazing. The big schools also offer many smaller performance opportunities throughout the year for less experienced kids or kids that want to get their feet wet with performing, so everyone has a chance to be onstage. But many people are "lead or bust" types, so they or their kids are unwilling to take advantage of these smaller, less prestigious opportunities. There are so many opportunities to get involved for every kid at the largest high schools. You might not be the lead in the musical, but you can join the improv club or take a choir class. We love how the competitiveness of the bigger schools produces a superior product, even if it means not every kid gets to be on the team or in the musical. My kid was one of the kids cut, from both the play and the musical freshman year, and from their team sport. But then, they tried running, which takes any kid that can make time and sticks them on the B meets. And they helped with props... not on stage like in middle school. They saw how insanely talented the kids were who got cast in leads, but also ensemble, and realized how hard they worked. They asked for voice lessons and took a basic dance class. The next year they made ensemble, and earned a small solo singing supporting part junior year. They learned so much about dealing with rejection, being flexible, setting a goal and game plan, contributing in the ways you are needed vs the way you want, and how to actually work hard to be as good as those who are better/more talented/faster. My kid never would have learned those lessons if they were at a less competitive high school where everyone makes the team or musical. Having that competitive, large school culture transformed my laid back kid into a go getter. Getting cut due to a hundred plus kids trying out, most of whom were much better and more prepared than my kid, was far more beneficial in the long run, if only to learn how to productively deal with rejection and disappointment. I would much rather have a giant 2500-3000 student school where there is opportunity everywhere even in places you didn't have on your list to begin with, groups of kids who are stronger, faster, smarter or more talented to drive excellence and set standards, and a bit of rejection to learn from along the way, than a school where everyone makes the musical or baseball team. You learn far more from rejection than you ever do from always getting what you want. |