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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
Full-day Kindergarten in Fairfax County
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Anonymous
| Help me understand what "within existing school resources in FY 2012" means. It sounds to me like they are saying that the school system needs to "find" the money somewhere. TIA. |
Anonymous
That's exactly what they are saying. The BOS has helped by providing some $ toward the $8.1 M needed to implement FDK at the remaining 37 elementary schools, but FCPS has to find the remainder. The BOS also urged FCPS to NOT provide pay raises to teachers at the percentage recommended by Jack Dale. |
Anonymous
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Just found this - it appears that the superintendent is still holding firm on the 3 year rollout garbage. It would be nice if we had some information on which schools by now - we personally need to either rent or buy for next year and need to do it soon. This whole process has been torture in our household.
April 15, 2011 County and State Decisions Impact School Budget Two critical pieces of the school budget are now known as the County Board of Supervisors (BOS) released its markup of its FY 2012 budget on April 12, and the state legislature finalized its budget on April 6. In his presentation to the Board of Supervisors (BOS) on March 29, School Board Vice Chairman Brad Center asked that the BOS “continue its investment and provide Fairfax County Public Schools with a $42 million increase from last year, which will allow the schools to maintain high student achievement, meet the expectations of our community, and continue the journey of excellence for which the county is widely known. “Let me assure you that we continue to be strategic in targeting our resources to the students who need them the most and that our quest for greater efficiencies is ongoing. And, we must continue to balance our community needs and expectations with the realities of our economic circumstances,” Center said. In its markup, the county indicated that it would only approve a flat transfer of funds to the schools, despite the School Board’s request for an increase to support continued student growth and salary increases. The School Board had decreased its request from $48.8 million in its advertised budget adopted in February to $42 million based on the impact of the state budget. However, the county has offered to provide additional funds for full-day kindergarten from its savings in the School Aged Child Care (SACC) program that will be captured as a result of decreased expenditures in those schools that have SACC and will be shifting from half-day to full-day kindergarten. For example, if FCPS implements full-day kindergarten in all of the remaining 36 schools, the county will pass on the $500,000 in savings to the school system. The Superintendent has estimated that it will take $7.3 million to complete the rollout of full-day kindergarten. On May 2, Superintendent Jack Dale will present to the School Board a plan to implement full-day kindergarten over the next three years. Additionally, the county indicated that it would allow the schools to be more flexible in how the cable television funding is used. The state also completed their budget, providing FCPS with increased revenue while requiring increased expenditures for retirement. As a result of higher than anticipated sales tax revenues and increases in state basic aid, state funding to the schools increased from $8.8 million to $36.8 million as noted in the School Board’s advertised budget. While this is good news, it still does not cover the additional funding needed to cover increased enrollment and rising costs. On May 2 at its budget work session, the School Board will continue working on balancing the budget based on their priorities. For complete information on the budget, visit http://www.fcps.edu/news/fy2012.htm. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
Anonymous
| I agree. I feel like they are only hurting themselves real estate wise by prolonging this decision especially when it seems they already have the money from the State of VA and Fairfax County to implement this. I hope on May 2nd they declare that they have enough money to fund all 37 remaining schools without FDK or they are going to be listening to a lot of parents complaining to them again. |
Anonymous
| I don't think this decision hurts the real estate at all. IMHO, For all of the moaning about it, FDK is not really that great. I had a kid in each program and the FDK was much harder on the little kids than the HDK. It is scary to go to school and being there all day is tough on the little ones. |
Anonymous
I also had a kid in each program and the FDK was much better for my son, who had already been in a pre-school program. The K teachers at our school all preferred the FDK program when our school switched over. |
Anonymous
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Yes, our school was one of the last ones to switch over to full-day (a few years ago), and all the K teachers there agree that it is so much better than the half-day. They said they are not trying to cram as much material into a short amount of time. They have more time for journal writing and more time for sharing and discussing the writing. They can take their time with everything to make sure each child "gets" what they are learning before moving on. With the very short Mondays already, half-day is a joke.
Most 5-year olds don't nap anymore so even if they are not in school all day, you have to entertain them with activities, classes, playdates, etc. So it's not like those in half-day come home and nap in the afternoon. At our school, the K teachers had rest time in the beginning of the school year to ease into a full-day of school. They were done by October because the kids didn't need it anymore.
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Anonymous
| I heard we would know by the end of May. What does everyone think the chances of full day this coming school year? |
Anonymous
Seriously? Home schooling seems to be your best option... |
Anonymous
| I really hope ALL of the remaining 36 schools get FDK-it is ridiculous that in a county, things are not uniform. The idea of a ranking system for who gets it and who doesn't is really distasteful, and hopefully untrue. ALL OR NOTHING!!!!!!!! |
Anonymous
If Dr. Jack Dale gets his way, FDK will not be coming to all remaining schools in the coming school year. Let your School Board members know how you feel about FDK! |
Anonymous
|
http://commweb.fcps.edu/newsreleases/newsrelease.cfm?newsid=1699
New info - the 2 options left are a 2 year roll-out or all schools to get it next year. This is a change from the press release of 2 weeks ago where a 3 year roll-out was still the favorite option. This is looking much more likely for next year - HOORAY! |
Anonymous
| If they implement in 2 years, is there a schedule for which schools get it which year? I've looked online and can't find it. |
Anonymous
nothing released - I think the press release just said 16 schools next year and 20 the second. I wanted a list, too - but I think it will be internal until the meeting on the 17th. |
Anonymous
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http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/8GGKCC5131BA/$file/Full%20Day%20Kindergarten%20Implementation%20Options.pdf
lists which schools will get FDK in 2012 and 2013. |