Jun 15 school board meeting & Return in Fall presentation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/C3YV2Q6BF307/$file/SBWS_June%2015_2021_FINAL.pdf

This is the presentation. There are some details on the number of kids who dis-enrolled during the 20-21 school year (and how many have re-enrolled -- about 30% so far). Also includes details on the number who applied for and were approved for full virtual '21-22 school year. There will probably be around 125 high school students doing virtual. Around 400 students in all of FCPS. That's not a lot... and I doubt that they can have full classes of just virtual kids... but who knows.

Also includes recommendations for grading policies for next school year.

They are looking to add more time for professional development by either having an early release day every month, another no school day added every quarter, or hiring subs to cover for teachers who are doing Prof Devel activities.

There will be virtual only classes. They might be mixed grade levels at elementary, but make no mistake: they will be all online. There will be no concurrent.

I don't see how they can support such low numbers in high school without doing something concurrent, even if it's just for electives.

[Anonymous]

Parents Kindergartens who dis-enrolled to homeschool, probably don't care about re-enrolling early. High school students, on the other hand, (like my kid) probably re-enrolled early to get the classes they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do vaccinated people have to wear masks in school buildings but Gatehouse is mask-optional?

#1) Because there's no students at Gatehouse and #2) If somebody gets COVID (an employee), then there's no helicopter parent hovering in to complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MORE professional development? Ughhhhh. As a teacher (and a parent), this is not what teachers (at least at my school) want. The professional development is always Gatehouse created to fit whatever their new priority for the year is (because we apparently can’t focus on the same thing for more than a year or two) and has never once been helpful to my curriculum area. The teacher workdays are helpful for grading and unit planning w my colleagues, but I would much rather have students on ALL of the professional development days than listen to hastily prepared Gatehouse presentations. This is a waste of time and just leads to more childcare needs for parents.

Another teacher here. Completely agree. Again, more people making decisions for educators who are so far removed from the classroom.

+1
DW and I plus another teacher friend were just talking about this tonight.

Parent here - if you all end up collective bargaining can you get them to stop hiring so many central office and administration types? The bureaucratic bloat is out of hand. People will never vote in the politicians who would make them.

That's pretty low on a teacher's wish list if and when we get collective bargaining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, sounds like they are waiting on CDC guidance for mask rules.

That's going to be interesting!

Oh for God’s sake. The CDC has already given their blessing to no masks for vaccinated people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:for HS I hope for Asch Mondays, I think that gives a day to catch up on work, study for tests, doc appointments etc

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, sounds like they are waiting on CDC guidance for mask rules.

That's going to be interesting!

Oh for God’s sake. The CDC has already given their blessing to no masks for vaccinated people.

The latest update from the CDC about schools recommended masks.

That's going to have to change over the summer. But it hasn't yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, sounds like they are waiting on CDC guidance for mask rules.

That's going to be interesting!

Oh for God’s sake. The CDC has already given their blessing to no masks for vaccinated people.

The latest update from the CDC about schools recommended masks.

That's going to have to change over the summer. But it hasn't yet.

Are they going to change quarantine requirements for exposures?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:for HS I hope for Asch Mondays, I think that gives a day to catch up on work, study for tests, doc appointments etc

High school needs to do away with Mondays off.

Losing 20% of instructional time while carryijg a rigorous high school course load is simply unacceptable and unfair to the students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MORE professional development? Ughhhhh. As a teacher (and a parent), this is not what teachers (at least at my school) want. The professional development is always Gatehouse created to fit whatever their new priority for the year is (because we apparently can’t focus on the same thing for more than a year or two) and has never once been helpful to my curriculum area. The teacher workdays are helpful for grading and unit planning w my colleagues, but I would much rather have students on ALL of the professional development days than listen to hastily prepared Gatehouse presentations. This is a waste of time and just leads to more childcare needs for parents.

Gafehouse needs time to train teachers on the antiracist indoctrination that in their million dollars Leadership contract.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They said that 5500 students transferred out of the district to homeschool/private school (half homeschool and 1/4 regular private and 1/4 parochial) and 1400 have re-enrolled.

It's less than I thought had transferred and less than I thought would return.

Those numbers do not sound accurate at all since the number was over 13,000 mid year and the board of supervisor number was closer to 30,000.

Sounds like Gatehouse is cooking the books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/C3YV2Q6BF307/$file/SBWS_June%2015_2021_FINAL.pdf

This is the presentation. There are some details on the number of kids who dis-enrolled during the 20-21 school year (and how many have re-enrolled -- about 30% so far). Also includes details on the number who applied for and were approved for full virtual '21-22 school year. There will probably be around 125 high school students doing virtual. Around 400 students in all of FCPS. That's not a lot... and I doubt that they can have full classes of just virtual kids... but who knows.

Also includes recommendations for grading policies for next school year.

They are looking to add more time for professional development by either having an early release day every month, another no school day added every quarter, or hiring subs to cover for teachers who are doing Prof Devel activities.

There will be virtual only classes. They might be mixed grade levels at elementary, but make no mistake: they will be all online. There will be no concurrent.

I don't see how they can support such low numbers in high school without doing something concurrent, even if it's just for electives.

Nope.

Switch to virtual virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, sounds like they are waiting on CDC guidance for mask rules.

That's going to be interesting!

Oh for God’s sake. The CDC has already given their blessing to no masks for vaccinated people.

Not in schools yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They said that 5500 students transferred out of the district to homeschool/private school (half homeschool and 1/4 regular private and 1/4 parochial) and 1400 have re-enrolled.

It's less than I thought had transferred and less than I thought would return.

Those numbers do not sound accurate at all since the number was over 13,000 mid year and the board of supervisor number was closer to 30,000.

Sounds like Gatehouse is cooking the books.

+1. The numbers of dis-enrolls are just wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They said that 5500 students transferred out of the district to homeschool/private school (half homeschool and 1/4 regular private and 1/4 parochial) and 1400 have re-enrolled.

It's less than I thought had transferred and less than I thought would return.

Those numbers do not sound accurate at all since the number was over 13,000 mid year and the board of supervisor number was closer to 30,000.

Sounds like Gatehouse is cooking the books.

There was no mention of how many students left for other public schools. Some people moved to areas where school was in person and some moved out of this area for cheaper areas due to increased teleworking options.

Also at least a few thousand of the 13000 were because there were fewer registered kindergarteners than expected. I'm not sure how or if they were counted for something like the table because some never registered and they may not be considered to have left if they were registered and then pulled before the start of the year.