FCPS Budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Knowing we have a Superintendent and Board that, in most cases, doesn't have the skills to manage and lead a school system the size of FCPS what do we to bring FCPS back to being one of the premier school systems in the United States? Where would you cut funding and where would you increase while looking to maintain a flat or reduced overall budget?

1-cut a bunch of high priced Gatehouse positions, and also the instructional services ones where people are paid to make boring slide shows and deliver bad PD that teachers absolutely loathe
2-cut all the school-based instructional coaches and anyone else in a non-administrative but also non-teaching position

That right there would make life much better for teachers and maybe allow us to actually do our jobs instead of checking boxes for the county's "accountability."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These are the things that should go.

AAP Centers
FLES and Magnet programs. These are wants not needs.
High Schools should charge for Ap and IB tests unless FARM.
Cut bloat at Gatehouse - especially equity department.

Let’s start with that.

+1
Good list to start with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knowing we have a Superintendent and Board that, in most cases, doesn't have the skills to manage and lead a school system the size of FCPS what do we to bring FCPS back to being one of the premier school systems in the United States? Where would you cut funding and where would you increase while looking to maintain a flat or reduced overall budget?

1-cut a bunch of high priced Gatehouse positions, and also the instructional services ones where people are paid to make boring slide shows and deliver bad PD that teachers absolutely loathe
2-cut all the school-based instructional coaches and anyone else in a non-administrative but also non-teaching position

That right there would make life much better for teachers and maybe allow us to actually do our jobs instead of checking boxes for the county's "accountability."

You sound like a teacher who doesn’t want to be held accountable for what you teach and how you teach it. Teaching methods and curriculum constantly shift, you’re employed to keep up and teach using specific methods as dictated by Gatehouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can confirm that the county is already de-staffing employees, particularly from the ESOL department since they say that department is overstaffed by 100. They are moving teachers mid-year regardless of seniority. The last in, first out rule has been thrown out.

ESOL teacher who hasn’t seen or heard this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can confirm that the county is already de-staffing employees, particularly from the ESOL department since they say that department is overstaffed by 100. They are moving teachers mid-year regardless of seniority. The last in, first out rule has been thrown out.

ESOL teacher who hasn’t seen or heard this.

It's happening. It started this past week. Unprecented mid-year destaffing of people who work directly with students. FCPS is falling fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knowing we have a Superintendent and Board that, in most cases, doesn't have the skills to manage and lead a school system the size of FCPS what do we to bring FCPS back to being one of the premier school systems in the United States? Where would you cut funding and where would you increase while looking to maintain a flat or reduced overall budget?

1-cut a bunch of high priced Gatehouse positions, and also the instructional services ones where people are paid to make boring slide shows and deliver bad PD that teachers absolutely loathe
2-cut all the school-based instructional coaches and anyone else in a non-administrative but also non-teaching position

That right there would make life much better for teachers and maybe allow us to actually do our jobs instead of checking boxes for the county's "accountability."

You sound like a teacher who doesn’t want to be held accountable for what you teach and how you teach it. Teaching methods and curriculum constantly shift, you’re employed to keep up and teach using specific methods as dictated by Gatehouse.

DP
Instructional coaches are not administrators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can confirm that the county is already de-staffing employees, particularly from the ESOL department since they say that department is overstaffed by 100. They are moving teachers mid-year regardless of seniority. The last in, first out rule has been thrown out.

ESOL teacher who hasn’t seen or heard this.

I am also an ESOL teacher.It has happened at Herndon HS and was also mentioned on a Facebook group for FCPS teachers and staff. Someone on our staff was voluntold he would need to move to teach a gen ed classroom at an elementary school, since we are apparently overstaffed and he has prior experience and is endorsed as an elementary teacher as well. He was told on Wednesday and the rest of the staff was told Thursday afternoon so we didn’t even have a chance to organize a send off because he needs to start in his new position Jan 5th.

This same situation happened to someone else as noted in the teacher Facebook group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can confirm that the county is already de-staffing employees, particularly from the ESOL department since they say that department is overstaffed by 100. They are moving teachers mid-year regardless of seniority. The last in, first out rule has been thrown out.

ESOL teacher who hasn’t seen or heard this.

I am also an ESOL teacher.It has happened at Herndon HS and was also mentioned on a Facebook group for FCPS teachers and staff. Someone on our staff was voluntold he would need to move to teach a gen ed classroom at an elementary school, since we are apparently overstaffed and he has prior experience and is endorsed as an elementary teacher as well. He was told on Wednesday and the rest of the staff was told Thursday afternoon so we didn’t even have a chance to organize a send off because he needs to start in his new position Jan 5th.

This same situation happened to someone else as noted in the teacher Facebook group.

Same.

I work at Chantilly High School and we are severely understaffed.

We could take him in

[Anonymous]

#1: cut about half the people at Gatehouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:#1: cut about half the people at Gatehouse.

I'd up that to 3/4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Salaries and benefits for in-school teachers and staff dominate the FCPS budget. Everything else is in the weeds. All the whining about security details, Gatehouse, etc. is really silly when you actually look at the numbers.

Waste is waste. And, with each of those highly paid staffers working for Reid there comes a staff.

How many people do you think work on her flashy photos and composing the website? What do the photos posted each week have in common? (a pic of our superintendent with children).
She spends her time going from school to school --yet pays no attention to what the communities need.

For example: the new high school has a community that needs and wants the school. They also want to know who is in and who is out. Yet, she is delaying that to summer. Why? I don't know, but my guess is that she still thinks she can make it into a magnet. It makes no sense the way she has handled this. Meanwhile, we get VERY long messages every week with glossy photos on the website.

Look at the staff and how much they make. How many actually spend time on academics? Not many.

Look at the mess of the boundary review. It appears that they have given all this time to transparency--yet, in the end, the decision will be whoever is last to scream the most.

Reid is just the obvious place to look at. There are whole offices full of people whose only job is making busy work for teachers or to present pointless slideshows full of meaningless jargon to anyone who will give them space. And even inside the schools there are many people in "instructional" positions who never see an actual student. FCPS needs to understand that teachers who work directly with students and programs that directly support students' needs are the only things that actually matter when it comes to student achievement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knowing we have a Superintendent and Board that, in most cases, doesn't have the skills to manage and lead a school system the size of FCPS what do we to bring FCPS back to being one of the premier school systems in the United States? Where would you cut funding and where would you increase while looking to maintain a flat or reduced overall budget?

1-cut a bunch of high priced Gatehouse positions, and also the instructional services ones where people are paid to make boring slide shows and deliver bad PD that teachers absolutely loathe
2-cut all the school-based instructional coaches and anyone else in a non-administrative but also non-teaching position

That right there would make life much better for teachers and maybe allow us to actually do our jobs instead of checking boxes for the county's "accountability."

You sound like a teacher who doesn’t want to be held accountable for what you teach and how you teach it. Teaching methods and curriculum constantly shift, you’re employed to keep up and teach using specific methods as dictated by Gatehouse.

Gatehouse has entered the chat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can confirm that the county is already de-staffing employees, particularly from the ESOL department since they say that department is overstaffed by 100. They are moving teachers mid-year regardless of seniority. The last in, first out rule has been thrown out.

ESOL teacher who hasn’t seen or heard this.

I am also an ESOL teacher.It has happened at Herndon HS and was also mentioned on a Facebook group for FCPS teachers and staff. Someone on our staff was voluntold he would need to move to teach a gen ed classroom at an elementary school, since we are apparently overstaffed and he has prior experience and is endorsed as an elementary teacher as well. He was told on Wednesday and the rest of the staff was told Thursday afternoon so we didn’t even have a chance to organize a send off because he needs to start in his new position Jan 5th.

This same situation happened to someone else as noted in the teacher Facebook group.

Where is this teacher fb group? I'm also a school with unexpectedly low enrollment, but the admin managed to stave off most of the destaffs. At least until next year. I can't imagine anything worse than being told I have to teach elementary with a week's notice, no time to even find another job. I'd probably just quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knowing we have a Superintendent and Board that, in most cases, doesn't have the skills to manage and lead a school system the size of FCPS what do we to bring FCPS back to being one of the premier school systems in the United States? Where would you cut funding and where would you increase while looking to maintain a flat or reduced overall budget?

1-cut a bunch of high priced Gatehouse positions, and also the instructional services ones where people are paid to make boring slide shows and deliver bad PD that teachers absolutely loathe
2-cut all the school-based instructional coaches and anyone else in a non-administrative but also non-teaching position

That right there would make life much better for teachers and maybe allow us to actually do our jobs instead of checking boxes for the county's "accountability."

You sound like a teacher who doesn’t want to be held accountable for what you teach and how you teach it. Teaching methods and curriculum constantly shift, you’re employed to keep up and teach using specific methods as dictated by Gatehouse.

Gatehouse has entered the chat.

In this instance gatehouse is right. Do you seriously think letting thousands of teachers teach what they want and how they want is the right way to run things? Name a single company that lets their employees go to work with no oversight, training, or accountability. That’s ridiculous.

Whether it’s brand new teachers who need guidance and support, or veteran teachers who need help keeping up with the latest teaching methods, professional development and oversight are both necessary.

This is not to say that teachers should have no say, but there’s a difference between having a say and expecting to do your job with no accountability and consistent expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These are the things that should go.

AAP Centers
FLES and Magnet programs. These are wants not needs.
High Schools should charge for Ap and IB tests unless FARM.
Cut bloat at Gatehouse - especially equity department.

Let’s start with that.

No one wants FLES.