Fairfax County: McLean Citizens Association demands smaller class sizes

[Anonymous]

I think the issue is that Fairfax county is too just big. When school closure decision is made, there is always some parents saying that their neighborhoods have hardly any snow, while other said that they cannot leave their house because road is not passable. Likewise, now there are schools that are completely overcrowded with 30+ class size, while others are 20 or below. When it comes to property taxes, there is again a large disparity between the burden. This is not sustainable. They should split the county and decentralize all the school decisions, including funding to the local level, while transfering some taxes through Richmond, much like the federal government. The rest of the state should share the responsibility to help up the title I schools.

[Anonymous]

The rest of the state should share the responsibility to help up the title I schools.

Sorry. Are you under the impression that Title I schools are limited to FCPS? You are sadly mistaken. There are many in the states who have less than those here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue is that Fairfax county is too just big. When school closure decision is made, there is always some parents saying that their neighborhoods have hardly any snow, while other said that they cannot leave their house because road is not passable. Likewise, now there are schools that are completely overcrowded with 30+ class size, while others are 20 or below. When it comes to property taxes, there is again a large disparity between the burden. This is not sustainable. They should split the county and decentralize all the school decisions, including funding to the local level, while transfering some taxes through Richmond, much like the federal government. The rest of the state should share the responsibility to help up the title I schools.

I'm tired of hearing this. Fairfax County does not even crack the top 20 largest counties by square mileage in the state of Virginia.

It is the largest by population, however, by a large margin.

And I live in a Title 1 zoned neighborhood, and pay just as much in property taxes as many McLean households do. It isn't all tenement apartments.

[Anonymous]

Go McLean!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you know anyone in Sully, be sure and tell them to vote against Kathy Smith for Supervisor. She's been one of the worst. Can't imagine her handling Bos.

She HAS been the worst I have ever seen! Watch the Board meetings. She votes to suppress the information. Staff was asked to present a break-down of each elementary school and give the reason for the class size, ie. Title !, ESOL, etc. She was opposed to sharing this information. What is she trying to hide?

Tell the Board to share the information with all of us. Why are some classes so overcrowded? Show us each school and reasons the class sizes are what they are.

When the South County Boundary study was done along with redistricting, she REALLY screwed alot of the schools in the Sully District.

However, they are now making her school and AAP Center! That was not by chance!

[Anonymous]

However, they are now making her school and AAP Center! That was not by chance!

Exactly--and she made sure that she sent the trailer park that used to go to her school out to Virginia Run. Of course, this is after she used the trailer park to obtain all day K for her school. Once all the schools had it, she dumped those kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

However, they are now making her school and AAP Center! That was not by chance!

Exactly--and she made sure that she sent the trailer park that used to go to her school out to Virginia Run. Of course, this is after she used the trailer park to obtain all day K for her school. Once all the schools had it, she dumped those

I'm sorry, is this still Kathy Smith? I'm trying to make sure I know which School Board member we're ridiculing. I'd always thought Stu Gibson and Liz Bradsher took the top honors for the most irritating members, but that may be so 2010.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry, is this still Kathy Smith? I'm trying to make sure I know which School Board member we're ridiculing. I'd always thought Stu Gibson and Liz Bradsher took the top honors for the most irritating members, but that may be so 2010.

Yes, it's Kathy Smith. Until Liz came on the board, she was Tweedledum to Stu's Tweedledee. They did everything in tandem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

However, they are now making her school and AAP Center! That was not by chance!

Exactly--and she made sure that she sent the trailer park that used to go to her school out to Virginia Run. Of course, this is after she used the trailer park to obtain all day K for her school. Once all the schools had it, she dumped those kids.

She is an ass. I think she lives in the Poplar Tree neighborhood and is trying to up property values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

However, they are now making her school and AAP Center! That was not by chance!

Exactly--and she made sure that she sent the trailer park that used to go to her school out to Virginia Run. Of course, this is after she used the trailer park to obtain all day K for her school. Once all the schools had it, she dumped those kids.

We are a Virginia Run family and all the families we know who live in the Meadows of Chantilly are lovely, kind people. I think it is shitty that FCPS let Kathy Smith treat that neighborhood like a hot potato although our school is happy to have them. There have been complaints about getting back to the school for PTA events etc at night-it is pretty far away for a "neighborhood" school (six or seven miles?).

[Anonymous]

We are a Virginia Run family and all the families we know who live in the Meadows of Chantilly are lovely, kind people. I think it is shitty that FCPS let Kathy Smith treat that neighborhood like a hot potato although our school is happy to have them. There have been complaints about getting back to the school for PTA events etc at night-it is pretty far away for a "neighborhood" school (six or seven miles?).

Kathy did that in an election year. Unfortunately, there is not a school that is close to the Meadows. I think Brookfield is the closest--but it was quite crowded when the park was shifted. I think that also, the board did not want to put any more lower income kids into Brookfield. They game the system in this way.

[Anonymous]

19:51 here-and I think it was fine to bring those families to Virginia Run. I think our school was about zero percent free lunch/ESOL before and maybe around 15%? now. And we have a large, nice property that is not packed to the gills like others. So there was plenty of space and plenty of emotional energy for kids who might need a little more help.

The way it was done by Kathy, like these families were trash to take out, is just so distasteful to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

However, they are now making her school and AAP Center! That was not by chance!

Exactly--and she made sure that she sent the trailer park that used to go to her school out to Virginia Run. Of course, this is after she used the trailer park to obtain all day K for her school. Once all the schools had it, she dumped those kids.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find another recent example of a School Board member engineering a redistricting that brought the FARMS rate at her own schools down by a full 10 percentage points, which is what Kathy Smith did at Poplar Tree. It just doesn't happen. On the other hand, the FARMS rate from Virginia Run went from 5% to over 30% in less than five years. And she wants people to elect her to the Board of Supervisors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:19:51 here-and I think it was fine to bring those families to Virginia Run. I think our school was about zero percent free lunch/ESOL before and maybe around 15%? now. And we have a large, nice property that is not packed to the gills like others. So there was plenty of space and plenty of emotional energy for kids who might need a little more help.

The way it was done by Kathy, like these families were trash to take out, is just so distasteful to me.

The FARMS rate at Virginia Run is 30.8% this year. It was under 5% in 2011.

[Anonymous]

And she wants people to elect her to the Board of Supervisors?

And, from what I can tell so far, she is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination. I don't care how you feel about the GOP, she should not be elected.