PSA: Fairfax County Proposed Budget CANCELS Middle School After School Programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need a DoGe equivalent for Gatehouse to clear that place out.

Nobody needs incompetent, unaccountable, uninformed people making decisions anywhere. Have you seen how many mistakes doge has made?

Maybe so. But if they cut middle school programs, I'm going to be asking for some accountability. You're telling me they can afford a $6M equity office, but they can't afford to offer programs to our middle school kids? They can afford a boundary review that nobody wants or cares about? They can afford to turn their noses up at federal funding?

Are you actually engaging your brain and asking good questions?

ARE YOU STUPID? FCPS AND COUNTY BUDGETS - TWO SEPARATE THINGS

The ducking m*orons on this board. No wonder the school system is failing, the parents are all complete idiots. There's no one to help the kids do their homework and god forbid a parent choose to advocate for their child. Timid little whiny millennials don't do anything except coddle their children like they're infants and expect the schools to do everything else. .

As an adult in FCPS, one of my kids came home from their middle school. Their teacher had a wonderful "point" system set up, and at the end of the year, the kids in the team with the most points would win a party of something. One kid got mad because he screwed up his team's point system, and the rest of his team was mad at him. He complained to his parents and his parents made the school shut down the entire thing. If you screw up, you need to accept it and not throw a tantrum. Not everything in life goes your way. GROW UP. Adults, stop letting your kids be p0ssy's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whelp.
For those of you wondering where all the county money goes, its services for low income people.

Get jobs. Grow UP. It's not going to the immigrant families. 2 things on that. My husband (immigrant, not fully legal yet) was talking about his job. He works in irrigation, and picks up men who wait at gas stations to help him on harder, more physical jobs. He asks them sometimes what their weekly paycheck doing odd-jobs looks like, and they all said between 1,000 and 2,000 dollars a week. The average was around 1,300 per week. Do the math. That's a lot of money. Almost three figures. Also, my kids sometimes tell me about what their friends were wearing that day. (they both are in AAP and like clothing, so they admire the cool things they see in the hallways, and they are very blunt with race- as am I, as a multiracial adult- and the hispanic kids all dress like this.) Air Jordans, Nike, Adidas, Juicy tracksuits, those chunky designer clogs, all those on Hispanic and base students. The money that is going to those families is all being spent on designer clothes, nice cars, and jewelry. How about these people, instead of worrying about designer clothes, BUY FOOD FOR YOUR CHILDREN. A lunch, school lunch, is what? $3? By the way, I want it to be known, I am not saying these things racially, no, I am very mixed. I have Salvadoran, Nigerian, Korean, White(mixed white), AND Native American (Cherokee). So, don't even start with me saying these things are racially motivated. Also, we have one family in our neighborhood that we used to be close with. They are on low income because the four ADULT CHILDREN of the lady REFUSE to work and live in her house and won't move out. Also, she is just too old to work. THATS WHY. NOT because the family CAN'T fine work, its a CHOICE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much does fcps spend on that SEL survey they nake the kids take several times a year with the completely meaningless results?

How much did rhey spend on consultants to conclude once again that start times are not fixable for free?

How many useless principals failed upward to makework jobs at Gatehouse?

Fcps wastes tons of money. It should be easy to find funds for this program.

OTOH the county seems to run a redundant afterschool program used by a fraction of the kids. Why not just cut that?

As a student, the SEL just feels so... invasive. I can't be honest, for fear of the very people who I don't want to know anything about me, being told EVERYTHING about me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much does fcps spend on that SEL survey they nake the kids take several times a year with the completely meaningless results?

How much did rhey spend on consultants to conclude once again that start times are not fixable for free?

How many useless principals failed upward to makework jobs at Gatehouse?

Fcps wastes tons of money. It should be easy to find funds for this program.

OTOH the county seems to run a redundant afterschool program used by a fraction of the kids. Why not just cut that?

As a student, the SEL just feels so... invasive. I can't be honest, for fear of the very people who I don't want to know anything about me, being told EVERYTHING about me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They didn't even consider cutting the county's random rec center after school program. I find that strange. How many kids use that program vs the after-school programs at the school? No one even knows it exists. Its is a jobs program for counth employees? Whats the deal?

NCS' youth programming is used by a large number of youth and teens throughout the county. They are open longer hours, to include the weekends. They also serve older teens, which the middle school program does not. For many middle schoolers, they feel the need to leave the school for various reasons, and community centers/teen centers provide a place they can go instead. I don't disagree that the middle schools' programs should continue to be funded, but it's disingenuous to state that "nobody" uses ncs' other youth programming. Many use both, in fact, there is NCS transportation from the middle school after school program to evening programming at an NCS site. It's a great partnership to maintain, a shame that the value of it seems to be lost on those handling the budget.

High schools have these activities, free as well. Is your child homeschooled? That's the only excuse I can think of why you would need to use this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle school is such an isolating time for kids, after school clubs is how they make friends. It was this way when I was in middle school 30 years ago. This is devastating for my rising 7th grader - all her friends have told her how much fun middle school is.

How's it isolating? Do they really lose touch with friends/stop hanging out with neighborhood friends the second middle school starts? MS is no picnic for sure, but i didn't realize it was that bad

My kid, and most of his friends, only have one other kid from their ES in any of their MS classes. The only time they see friends from ES is lunch time. Clubs give kids a chance to socialize with new people as well as be exposed to new activities. And then you have clubs like Mathcounts, Science Olympiad and other academic competitions.

I am not sure why the MS is being targeted when HSs have similar clubs and activities.

Truly- when I went through middle school, despite many children who went to my elementary school being in my classes, they all changed. We grew apart. And then in eighth grade, I had no classes with any of the people I knew. Not even my friends. I felt so isolated, but the afterschool programs provided really helped me feel included.

And opportunities to try out different activities before everyone goes even more nuts saying “get pointy to get in college!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They didn't even consider cutting the county's random rec center after school program. I find that strange. How many kids use that program vs the after-school programs at the school? No one even knows it exists. Its is a jobs program for counth employees? Whats the deal?

NCS' youth programming is used by a large number of youth and teens throughout the county. They are open longer hours, to include the weekends. They also serve older teens, which the middle school program does not. For many middle schoolers, they feel the need to leave the school for various reasons, and community centers/teen centers provide a place they can go instead. I don't disagree that the middle schools' programs should continue to be funded, but it's disingenuous to state that "nobody" uses ncs' other youth programming. Many use both, in fact, there is NCS transportation from the middle school after school program to evening programming at an NCS site. It's a great partnership to maintain, a shame that the value of it seems to be lost on those handling the budget.

High schools have these activities, free as well. Is your child homeschooled? That's the only excuse I can think of why you would need to use this.

High schools do not have the same after school sports and club programming. Not even close.

[Anonymous]

The program for middle schools costs the county about $3.8 million, and $1.9 million from FCPS.

Take a look at the budget presentation:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/budget/sites/budget/files/Assets/Documents/fy2026/advertised/FY2026Advertised_Presentation.pdf

Slide 14. $3.38 million to turn the Extended Stay hotel on Monument drive by the Fair Oaks Mall into a homeless shelter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The program for middle schools costs the county about $3.8 million, and $1.9 million from FCPS.

Take a look at the budget presentation:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/budget/sites/budget/files/Assets/Documents/fy2026/advertised/FY2026Advertised_Presentation.pdf

Slide 14. $3.38 million to turn the Extended Stay hotel on Monument drive by the Fair Oaks Mall into a homeless shelter.

The kids are our future. After school activities keep kids out of trouble.

So, the BOS has purchased the hotel by Harris Teeter in Fair Oaks area and now purchasing Extended Stay? How about getting the homeless people jobs?

[Anonymous]

Here’s $5.76 million you can cut from the FCPS budget to fund afterschool programs:

https://defendinged.org/incidents/fairfax-county-public-schools-spends-more-than-5-76-million-on-dei-budget/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whelp.
For those of you wondering where all the county money goes, its services for low income people.

Get jobs. Grow UP. It's not going to the immigrant families. 2 things on that. My husband (immigrant, not fully legal yet) was talking about his job. He works in irrigation, and picks up men who wait at gas stations to help him on harder, more physical jobs. He asks them sometimes what their weekly paycheck doing odd-jobs looks like, and they all said between 1,000 and 2,000 dollars a week. The average was around 1,300 per week. Do the math. That's a lot of money. Almost three figures. Also, my kids sometimes tell me about what their friends were wearing that day. (they both are in AAP and like clothing, so they admire the cool things they see in the hallways, and they are very blunt with race- as am I, as a multiracial adult- and the hispanic kids all dress like this.) Air Jordans, Nike, Adidas, Juicy tracksuits, those chunky designer clogs, all those on Hispanic and base students. The money that is going to those families is all being spent on designer clothes, nice cars, and jewelry. How about these people, instead of worrying about designer clothes, BUY FOOD FOR YOUR CHILDREN. A lunch, school lunch, is what? $3? By the way, I want it to be known, I am not saying these things racially, no, I am very mixed. I have Salvadoran, Nigerian, Korean, White(mixed white), AND Native American (Cherokee). So, don't even start with me saying these things are racially motivated. Also, we have one family in our neighborhood that we used to be close with. They are on low income because the four ADULT CHILDREN of the lady REFUSE to work and live in her house and won't move out. Also, she is just too old to work. THATS WHY. NOT because the family CAN'T fine work, it's a CHOICE.

I'm sorry, what does your children being in AAP have anything to do with anything you just said other than AAP makes children racist, maybe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like we pay a ton in county and state taxes and get nothing for it. No middle school activities, libraries are run down homeless shelters, no rec centers for kids to hang out at, our school facilities are awful compared to nearby counties, no books for instruction etc etc.

I agree. And I will add the playgrounds in Fairfax are absolutely pitiful. When we visit relatives in other parts of the country they have amazing public amenities. Beuatiful public pools, libraries, amazing playgrounds.

Even Manassas Park, which is about 2000 poor people total, has a beautiful rec center and a lovely public pool.

I don't understand where the money goes in Fairfax.

Precisely. I have siblings (my siblings were born quite a few years after me. Like, a lot of years). My brother, an 11 year old, has such great opportunities and lives in a poor county. Where DOES it go?

You’ve answered your own questions the money goes to poorer parts of the state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like we pay a ton in county and state taxes and get nothing for it. No middle school activities, libraries are run down homeless shelters, no rec centers for kids to hang out at, our school facilities are awful compared to nearby counties, no books for instruction etc etc.

I agree. And I will add the playgrounds in Fairfax are absolutely pitiful. When we visit relatives in other parts of the country they have amazing public amenities. Beuatiful public pools, libraries, amazing playgrounds.

Even Manassas Park, which is about 2000 poor people total, has a beautiful rec center and a lovely public pool.

I don't understand where the money goes in Fairfax.

Precisely. I have siblings (my siblings were born quite a few years after me. Like, a lot of years). My brother, an 11 year old, has such great opportunities and lives in a poor county. Where DOES it go?

You’ve answered your own questions the money goes to poorer parts of the state.

There's plenty of money 8n FCPS. The problem is how it is spent.

[Anonymous]

Look at slide 10:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/budget/sites/budget/files/Assets/Documents/fy2026/advertised/FY2026Advertised_Presentation.pdf

“Largest school operating increase request, in terms of dollars, in history.”

Think how much the increase will be when FCPS asks for all students to 6-8, then for universal pre-k.

Before people start blaming teachers, do your homework. IAs and teachers only account for about 40% of salary costs. (https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1262226.page timestamp 3:10 pm)
The 7% raise is for ALL FCPS employees, gatehouse, admins, bus drivers, IT, everyone.

It is not teachers that are breaking the bank.

[Anonymous]

Google salaries at Gatehouse. Reids top people making over 250K. Los of them. Many millions total. Doesn't include benefits.