Current ES start times for FCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We start at 8:50pm. Kiss and ride opens at 8:20.

Wow, this is really early. Do the kids go to their classrooms and just wait for 30
Min?

They probably serve breakfast and that requires opening the doors more than 10 minutes before start time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We start at 8:50pm. Kiss and ride opens at 8:20.

Wow, this is really early. Do the kids go to their classrooms and just wait for 30
Min?

They probably serve breakfast and that requires opening the doors more than 10 minutes before start time.

That might be it. That makes sense. Our school doesn't serve breakfast and students are let into the building 10 minutes before the first bell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We start at 8:50pm. Kiss and ride opens at 8:20.

Wow, this is really early. Do the kids go to their classrooms and just wait for 30
Min?

They probably serve breakfast and that requires opening the doors more than 10 minutes before start time.

That might be it. That makes sense. Our school doesn't serve breakfast and students are let into the building 10 minutes before the first bell.

Although, now that I think about it that's the first bell. The school doesn't serve breakfast and students are let in 10 minutes before the first bell. They go to the cafeteria and wait until it rings. The tardy bell rings 15 minutes after that. So really the doors open 25 minutes before school starts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fcps provides by service if you live more than a mile from school or on a dangerous walk route. I think that's reasonable.

no. It is a mile and a half (for middle and high school) and even if there aren't sidewalks -- too bad. We almost bought a house that was over a mile to the MS, no sidewalks, dark for much of the school year at 7:00 a.m. (when 12 yr old would have to walk there) -- we cancelled the contract in large part b/c of the lack of busing.

I have friends in Va. Beach district and they live 1.5 BLOCKS from their middle school --they wanted to walk and were told they were not allowed to walk -- had to ride the bus b/c there weren't sidewalks for that 1.5 blocks!

In LCPS, elementary gets busing if it is more than 1/2 mi. In high school it is .8 mi.

FCPS has many areas without sidewalks. If you want sidewalks in your neighborhoods, you will have to pay additional taxes to build them. The state just made it illegal for Fairfax to ask for proffers such as new sidewalk connections with new development, so you may want to fight the state on this issue as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loudoun does it right -- elementary starts at 7:50 b/c they know parents need to get the kids to school when they go to work and they can do aftercare if they need it. MS is 8:30 (across the board) and HS is 9:00. The MS and HS kids can get themselves to school.

Sure, there would be complainers about the HS being "so late" -- but somehow, those HS kids get to practices and jobs.

LCPS gets the basics right -- they make decisions and implement them, they provide bus transportion for reasonable distances (not true in FCPS). FCPS -- seems mired in hand-wringing and indecision. Give me fewer bells and whistles and more meat/potatoes.

Loudoun County parent here and you get a big AMEN! from me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loudoun does it right -- elementary starts at 7:50 b/c they know parents need to get the kids to school when they go to work and they can do aftercare if they need it. MS is 8:30 (across the board) and HS is 9:00. The MS and HS kids can get themselves to school.

Sure, there would be complainers about the HS being "so late" -- but somehow, those HS kids get to practices and jobs.

LCPS gets the basics right -- they make decisions and implement them, they provide bus transportion for reasonable distances (not true in FCPS). FCPS -- seems mired in hand-wringing and indecision. Give me fewer bells and whistles and more meat/potatoes.

Loudoun County parent here and you get a big AMEN! from me.

But in some parts of Loudoun, you can't even attend your neighborhood ES because of overcrowding. And you still have half-day kindergarten. And there are some elementary schools without playgrounds because LCPS just started funding playgrounds (instead of making PTAs do it) and schools that didn't already have them weren't grandfathered. I don't call attending a neighborhood school, playgrounds and full-day kindergarten "bells and whistles."

[Anonymous]

The bells and whistles I was referring to included all the elective courses in middle and high school, the solo IB or AP programs, the academy programs, the AAP program, the strings and band program starting in 3rd3rd/4th grade, the elementary STEM specials, Thomas Jefferson, elementary arts magnets, immersion programs. Many of these are nice, but because each school has a different focus, parents have to weed through all these choices and the focus on these things take away from the focus on the general education classes. At least Loudoun has some standard textbooks or workbooks for their kids to use and you can count on having a similar classroom experience no matter which school your child attends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bells and whistles I was referring to included all the elective courses in middle and high school, the solo IB or AP programs, the academy programs, the AAP program, the strings and band program starting in 3rd3rd/4th grade, the elementary STEM specials, Thomas Jefferson, elementary arts magnets, immersion programs. Many of these are nice, but because each school has a different focus, parents have to weed through all these choices and the focus on these things take away from the focus on the general education classes. At least Loudoun has some standard textbooks or workbooks for their kids to use and you can count on having a similar classroom experience no matter which school your child attends.

and they have straight shot feeders -- they keep the school zones close to the schools and they send one middle school to one high school. All the ES we saw in Ashburn had playgrounds, so maybe that info is out of date. Yes, they have rezoned a lot lately, but that will be settling down now that Ashburn is being built out. They aren't perfect, but they have the right idea with the start times for their kids -- elem. first, middle second, hs last.... and busing that makes sense.

[Anonymous]

That playground issue is nuts-how can they build elem schools without playgrounds!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fcps provides by service if you live more than a mile from school or on a dangerous walk route. I think that's reasonable.

no. It is a mile and a half (for middle and high school) and even if there aren't sidewalks -- too bad. We almost bought a house that was over a mile to the MS, no sidewalks, dark for much of the school year at 7:00 a.m. (when 12 yr old would have to walk there) -- we cancelled the contract in large part b/c of the lack of busing.

I have friends in Va. Beach district and they live 1.5 BLOCKS from their middle school --they wanted to walk and were told they were not allowed to walk -- had to ride the bus b/c there weren't sidewalks for that 1.5 blocks!

In LCPS, elementary gets busing if it is more than 1/2 mi. In high school it is .8 mi.

Why couldn't you drive your 12 yo that whole dark mile? I don't think this is a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fcps provides by service if you live more than a mile from school or on a dangerous walk route. I think that's reasonable.

no. It is a mile and a half (for middle and high school) and even if there aren't sidewalks -- too bad. We almost bought a house that was over a mile to the MS, no sidewalks, dark for much of the school year at 7:00 a.m. (when 12 yr old would have to walk there) -- we cancelled the contract in large part b/c of the lack of busing.

I have friends in Va. Beach district and they live 1.5 BLOCKS from their middle school --they wanted to walk and were told they were not allowed to walk -- had to ride the bus b/c there weren't sidewalks for that 1.5 blocks!

In LCPS, elementary gets busing if it is more than 1/2 mi. In high school it is .8 mi.

Why couldn't you drive your 12 yo that whole dark mile? I don't think this is a big deal.

not doing it for four years -- no way. I like my kids to be independent and I don't want the obligation to HAVE to drive my kid to school when there should be a bus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bells and whistles I was referring to included all the elective courses in middle and high school, the solo IB or AP programs, the academy programs, the AAP program, the strings and band program starting in 3rd3rd/4th grade, the elementary STEM specials, Thomas Jefferson, elementary arts magnets, immersion programs. Many of these are nice, but because each school has a different focus, parents have to weed through all these choices and the focus on these things take away from the focus on the general education classes. At least Loudoun has some standard textbooks or workbooks for their kids to use and you can count on having a similar classroom experience no matter which school your child attends.

and they have straight shot feeders -- they keep the school zones close to the schools and they send one middle school to one high school. All the ES we saw in Ashburn had playgrounds, so maybe that info is out of date. Yes, they have rezoned a lot lately, but that will be settling down now that Ashburn is being built out. They aren't perfect, but they have the right idea with the start times for their kids -- elem. first, middle second, hs last.... and busing that makes sense.

The FCPS feeder system is ridiculous. There are still schools that send less than 5% of their population to another school as the kids switch from middle to high. Really you can't work it out so those 5% of kids can't go to the same school as the rest of the middle school class?

[Anonymous]

Check the individual school website or call the office. At our school, we can drop off 15 minutes earlier than start time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fcps provides by service if you live more than a mile from school or on a dangerous walk route. I think that's reasonable.

no. It is a mile and a half (for middle and high school) and even if there aren't sidewalks -- too bad. We almost bought a house that was over a mile to the MS, no sidewalks, dark for much of the school year at 7:00 a.m. (when 12 yr old would have to walk there) -- we cancelled the contract in large part b/c of the lack of busing.

I have friends in Va. Beach district and they live 1.5 BLOCKS from their middle school --they wanted to walk and were told they were not allowed to walk -- had to ride the bus b/c there weren't sidewalks for that 1.5 blocks!

In LCPS, elementary gets busing if it is more than 1/2 mi. In high school it is .8 mi.

We live a 1/2 mile from our ES but my son is eligible for the bus because there is no crosswalk and the school is on a busy road.

[Anonymous]

The Ashburn/LCPS schools all do have playgrounds it's just that the PTA funded them. Not an issue when there's tens of thousands in the coffers. Now the newer schools have that line item built into the school budget. But no school just doesn't have one.

The staggered start times are great. I can get my elementary/preschool kids to school in the morning and still have time to get to work at the high school because there's over an hour gap between the two start times.