APS budget is unacceptable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the 2.5¢ tax Duran is asking for?

APS is very well funded already. They just WASTE those funds on unnecessary programs and positions. Get rid of Syphax bloat. Cut Outdoor Lab. Cut the 80/20 immersion program back to 50/50 if it’s more expensive. Get rid of ALL the option schools if they’re more expensive to run than neighborhood schools. FFS, get rid of iPads in K-5, switch to io Chromebooks for 6-12.

Agree and disagree.
Rid the bloat - YES.

Cut relatively inexpensive programs that provide a unique and often lasting/life-changing learning experience like Outdoor Lab that are unique to APS? NO. (That goes for TJHSST, too)

80/20 immersion is only "more expensive" as they transition to the model and implement the new parts of the curriculum and provide teacher training. Once the model is established, it is no longer has the extra expense. And again, if this is an instructional model that has a notable positive impact on learning and achievement, especially for English learners and underprivileged students - and especially especially for underprivileged English learners - then NO.

Get rid of option schools that do not show a significant benefit for students v. a typical neighborhood school of similar demographics or less diverse? YES.
Get rid of option programs that are not clearly distinctive from non-option programs and any specific characteristics of which could be incorporated into every school? YES. (looking at you, MPSA, ATS, and HB)

Get rid of iPads entirely? YES YES and YES
Replace iPads 6-8 with laptops/Macbooks? YES. (But maybe not start 1:1 at all until 7th. 6th can continue with classroom sets)
Replace MacBooks with Chromebooks - POSSIBLY. I'd like to see the side-by-side comparisons in costs and security, maintenance, etc.

Sorry, but Outdoor Lab isn’t *LiFe ChAnGiNg* for anyone. (Well, other than the kid who was sexually assaulted recently… Yet another reason to shut it down.)

Keep TJ as an option, as sending kids there isn’t more expensive than keeping them at their home school. (And it actually IS a life-changing experience for those kids.)

And I love teachers, but if they want 12-month employee level salaries, let’s make them 12-month employees. So many kids need summer school at this point, and any excess staff could help solve the summer camp availability problem.

Outdoor Lab has indeed had life-changing impacts on numerous kids. Many kids became interested in science/environmental science/teaching specifically because of their experience there. And that experience was very special for one of my kids because of the way the adults there treated him, out of the ordinary school setting and usual mundane activities.

Agree about the 12-month employment and compensation. I don't think the comparisons AEA and its main spokesperson always make about paid/unpaid days off is fair. You can't make a straight comparison between a yearly employee with a yearly salary and specific benefits to a contracted employee paid for "x" # of days' work.

tell me why APS kids can't take a field trip to one of our many nature centers right here in the County and learn the same things?

The curriculum is coordinated with APS.
Our nature centers don't afford a camping overnight experience.
Our nature centers aren't out farther away from all the city light which hides the stars.
Our nature centers don't have boating/canoeing opportunities.
Our nature centers just don't have the space to accommodate the various activities.

None of this is more important than getting class sizes down. Let’s worry about getting kids to read and do basic math before worrying if they have a LiFe ChAnGiNg moment in a canoe.

Fine; but eliminating it doesn't get the class sizes down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of APS math graduates in here. Cutting Outdoor Lab and TJHSST don't even come close to balancing the budget.

The sacred cows of option schools need a hard look.

We balance the budget by funding it appropriately. We are significantly underfunded.

Yet we spend more per student (by a lot) than our neighboring districts. Tell me more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the 2.5¢ tax Duran is asking for?

APS is very well funded already. They just WASTE those funds on unnecessary programs and positions. Get rid of Syphax bloat. Cut Outdoor Lab. Cut the 80/20 immersion program back to 50/50 if it’s more expensive. Get rid of ALL the option schools if they’re more expensive to run than neighborhood schools. FFS, get rid of iPads in K-5, switch to io Chromebooks for 6-12.

Agree and disagree.
Rid the bloat - YES.

Cut relatively inexpensive programs that provide a unique and often lasting/life-changing learning experience like Outdoor Lab that are unique to APS? NO. (That goes for TJHSST, too)

80/20 immersion is only "more expensive" as they transition to the model and implement the new parts of the curriculum and provide teacher training. Once the model is established, it is no longer has the extra expense. And again, if this is an instructional model that has a notable positive impact on learning and achievement, especially for English learners and underprivileged students - and especially especially for underprivileged English learners - then NO.

Get rid of option schools that do not show a significant benefit for students v. a typical neighborhood school of similar demographics or less diverse? YES.
Get rid of option programs that are not clearly distinctive from non-option programs and any specific characteristics of which could be incorporated into every school? YES. (looking at you, MPSA, ATS, and HB)

Get rid of iPads entirely? YES YES and YES
Replace iPads 6-8 with laptops/Macbooks? YES. (But maybe not start 1:1 at all until 7th. 6th can continue with classroom sets)
Replace MacBooks with Chromebooks - POSSIBLY. I'd like to see the side-by-side comparisons in costs and security, maintenance, etc.

Sorry, but Outdoor Lab isn’t *LiFe ChAnGiNg* for anyone. (Well, other than the kid who was sexually assaulted recently… Yet another reason to shut it down.)

Keep TJ as an option, as sending kids there isn’t more expensive than keeping them at their home school. (And it actually IS a life-changing experience for those kids.)

And I love teachers, but if they want 12-month employee level salaries, let’s make them 12-month employees. So many kids need summer school at this point, and any excess staff could help solve the summer camp availability problem.

Outdoor Lab has indeed had life-changing impacts on numerous kids. Many kids became interested in science/environmental science/teaching specifically because of their experience there. And that experience was very special for one of my kids because of the way the adults there treated him, out of the ordinary school setting and usual mundane activities.

Agree about the 12-month employment and compensation. I don't think the comparisons AEA and its main spokesperson always make about paid/unpaid days off is fair. You can't make a straight comparison between a yearly employee with a yearly salary and specific benefits to a contracted employee paid for "x" # of days' work.

tell me why APS kids can't take a field trip to one of our many nature centers right here in the County and learn the same things?

The curriculum is coordinated with APS.
Our nature centers don't afford a camping overnight experience.
Our nature centers aren't out farther away from all the city light which hides the stars.
Our nature centers don't have boating/canoeing opportunities.
Our nature centers just don't have the space to accommodate the various activities.

None of this is more important than getting class sizes down. Let’s worry about getting kids to read and do basic math before worrying if they have a LiFe ChAnGiNg moment in a canoe.

Cutting outdoor lab is not going to make enough of a dent to reduce class sizes

Cutting Outdoor Lab, [/i] in addition to other unnecessary programs, will help.

+1, Gotta start somewhere. Kids can take field trips to the nature centers in Arlington which APS doesn't pay to staff and run. Done.

They already do take field trips to Arlington's nature centers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of APS math graduates in here. Cutting Outdoor Lab and TJHSST don't even come close to balancing the budget.

The sacred cows of option schools need a hard look.

Option schools have been discussed a million times and there aren't budget reasons to reconsider them. They have the same planning factors as the other schools with the exception of K-5 Montessori which gets some classroom aides. They schedule the option schools so that we can use existing buses to do another run in the morning and afternoon to hub stops so there are more hours for drivers, but not more buses. Changing the option programs back to neighborhood schools won't make any difference in staffing or building costs and might not save any transportation costs depending on how many busses are needed after all the boundaries are redrawn.

Get rid of Montessori then. There have always been private schools for families that want different styles of teaching. This doesn’t need to be funded by public dollars.

Immersion switching to 80/20 has a large upfront cost, so scrap it.

I’m in favor of eliminating all option schools, but focusing on those that actually do cost more is a good first step.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of APS math graduates in here. Cutting Outdoor Lab and TJHSST don't even come close to balancing the budget.

The sacred cows of option schools need a hard look.

We balance the budget by funding it appropriately. We are significantly underfunded.

Yet we spend more per student (by a lot) than our neighboring districts. Tell me more.

Because we cover capital projects with operating budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like there's general agreement that cutting TJHSST+Outdoor Lab+Planetarium is less than 1% of the budget. Realistically, how much is Syphax bloat -- 5-10 positions? 15? So, like $1M-2M max. Remember that there are already 19 Syphax positions cut and a lot of non-school positions are bus drivers, HVAC, etc. The gap is almost $30M and we're at less than $5M even if everything above were cut.

$5M of that $30M is a good start though. Then we keep looking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1997/10/02/arlington-schools-may-ease-stance-on-jefferson-high/6ac6403c-ef7f-406a-bc4a-a3eb654e1734/


Article from 1997 about aps paying tuition to tj

For the math challenged on this forum this 1997 article explains why sending kids to TJ does not save APS money no matter what TJ costs:

The $8,000 is less than the average $9,305 cost of educating a student in the Arlington system. But the system does not save any money by sending a student to Jefferson because it cannot, for example, reduce the salaries of teachers when a few students leave their classes, school officials explained.

Ok then let’s call it a way to reduce class sizes.

I can see why you are anti-TJ, you seem to be pretty anti-math. If x number fewer kids go to a school, they don't reduce class sizes. Class sizes are determined by planning factors. The planning factors are established by the school board and listed in a book/manual.

If the planning factor for a class is 25 and 21 kids show up, they get a teacher. If 29 kids sign up, they will divide them into two sections. Sending 25 kids to TJ (from three high schools) doesn't change the planning factors--it might have a tiny tiny effect on how many sections of a class are offered in a school.

This is why the finance department doesn't have precise estimates of every possible budget scenario (especially when it comes to option schools) and goes by averages. They can't tell you the exact effect changes would have on staffing because it has to do with what home schools those kids are assigned to, what grades they are in, how close to the planning factors those grades are already--or the specific classes those kids would enroll in, whether those kids would be bus riders or not at their home schools, etc. etc.

We're talking about a $825 million budget here. The total cost of sending a couple of dozen kids to TJ is less than 0.1% of the budget, so the marginal difference in cost (up or down) between sending a couple of dozen kids to TJ versus keeping them in Arlington is like a hundredth of a percent.

Yup. This whole thread is discussing negligible line items.

What we really need is full funding from Youngkin and the county.

And what exactly is full funding???

Senate proposal is a start - pg 32
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/D2WW4J839BAE/$file/FY%202025%20Superintendent's%20Presentation%20FINAL%20(331%20pm).pdf

The state and county should step up and appropriately fund our schools.
"“Virginia school divisions receive less K-12 funding per student than the 50-state average,
the regional average, and three of Virginia’s five bordering states. School divisions in other
states receive 14 percent more per student than school divisions in Virginia, on average,
after normalizing for differences in cost of labor among states. This equates to about
$1,900 more per student than Virginia.”
Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC)
estimates that annually APS is underfunded by approximately $51 million"

We are underfunded.

And Youngkin is *cutting* the budget. Even with rising costs.

The CB needs to step up and fix this budgeting issue. Pull out the CIP out of the operating budget to start. And then properly fund our schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the 2.5¢ tax Duran is asking for?

APS is very well funded already. They just WASTE those funds on unnecessary programs and positions. Get rid of Syphax bloat. Cut Outdoor Lab. Cut the 80/20 immersion program back to 50/50 if it’s more expensive. Get rid of ALL the option schools if they’re more expensive to run than neighborhood schools. FFS, get rid of iPads in K-5, switch to io Chromebooks for 6-12.

Agree and disagree.
Rid the bloat - YES.

Cut relatively inexpensive programs that provide a unique and often lasting/life-changing learning experience like Outdoor Lab that are unique to APS? NO. (That goes for TJHSST, too)

80/20 immersion is only "more expensive" as they transition to the model and implement the new parts of the curriculum and provide teacher training. Once the model is established, it is no longer has the extra expense. And again, if this is an instructional model that has a notable positive impact on learning and achievement, especially for English learners and underprivileged students - and especially especially for underprivileged English learners - then NO.

Get rid of option schools that do not show a significant benefit for students v. a typical neighborhood school of similar demographics or less diverse? YES.
Get rid of option programs that are not clearly distinctive from non-option programs and any specific characteristics of which could be incorporated into every school? YES. (looking at you, MPSA, ATS, and HB)

Get rid of iPads entirely? YES YES and YES
Replace iPads 6-8 with laptops/Macbooks? YES. (But maybe not start 1:1 at all until 7th. 6th can continue with classroom sets)
Replace MacBooks with Chromebooks - POSSIBLY. I'd like to see the side-by-side comparisons in costs and security, maintenance, etc.

Sorry, but Outdoor Lab isn’t *LiFe ChAnGiNg* for anyone. (Well, other than the kid who was sexually assaulted recently… Yet another reason to shut it down.)

Keep TJ as an option, as sending kids there isn’t more expensive than keeping them at their home school. (And it actually IS a life-changing experience for those kids.)

And I love teachers, but if they want 12-month employee level salaries, let’s make them 12-month employees. So many kids need summer school at this point, and any excess staff could help solve the summer camp availability problem.

Outdoor Lab has indeed had life-changing impacts on numerous kids. Many kids became interested in science/environmental science/teaching specifically because of their experience there. And that experience was very special for one of my kids because of the way the adults there treated him, out of the ordinary school setting and usual mundane activities.

Agree about the 12-month employment and compensation. I don't think the comparisons AEA and its main spokesperson always make about paid/unpaid days off is fair. You can't make a straight comparison between a yearly employee with a yearly salary and specific benefits to a contracted employee paid for "x" # of days' work.

tell me why APS kids can't take a field trip to one of our many nature centers right here in the County and learn the same things?

The curriculum is coordinated with APS.
Our nature centers don't afford a camping overnight experience.
Our nature centers aren't out farther away from all the city light which hides the stars.
Our nature centers don't have boating/canoeing opportunities.
Our nature centers just don't have the space to accommodate the various activities.

None of this is more important than getting class sizes down. Let’s worry about getting kids to read and do basic math before worrying if they have a LiFe ChAnGiNg moment in a canoe.

Fine; but eliminating it doesn't get the class sizes down.

Every dollar we cut from unnecessary programs is another dollar moving us in the right direction.

Balance the budget focusing on actual NEEDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the 2.5¢ tax Duran is asking for?

APS is very well funded already. They just WASTE those funds on unnecessary programs and positions. Get rid of Syphax bloat. Cut Outdoor Lab. Cut the 80/20 immersion program back to 50/50 if it’s more expensive. Get rid of ALL the option schools if they’re more expensive to run than neighborhood schools. FFS, get rid of iPads in K-5, switch to io Chromebooks for 6-12.

Agree and disagree.
Rid the bloat - YES.

Cut relatively inexpensive programs that provide a unique and often lasting/life-changing learning experience like Outdoor Lab that are unique to APS? NO. (That goes for TJHSST, too)

80/20 immersion is only "more expensive" as they transition to the model and implement the new parts of the curriculum and provide teacher training. Once the model is established, it is no longer has the extra expense. And again, if this is an instructional model that has a notable positive impact on learning and achievement, especially for English learners and underprivileged students - and especially especially for underprivileged English learners - then NO.

Get rid of option schools that do not show a significant benefit for students v. a typical neighborhood school of similar demographics or less diverse? YES.
Get rid of option programs that are not clearly distinctive from non-option programs and any specific characteristics of which could be incorporated into every school? YES. (looking at you, MPSA, ATS, and HB)

Get rid of iPads entirely? YES YES and YES
Replace iPads 6-8 with laptops/Macbooks? YES. (But maybe not start 1:1 at all until 7th. 6th can continue with classroom sets)
Replace MacBooks with Chromebooks - POSSIBLY. I'd like to see the side-by-side comparisons in costs and security, maintenance, etc.

Sorry, but Outdoor Lab isn’t *LiFe ChAnGiNg* for anyone. (Well, other than the kid who was sexually assaulted recently… Yet another reason to shut it down.)

Keep TJ as an option, as sending kids there isn’t more expensive than keeping them at their home school. (And it actually IS a life-changing experience for those kids.)

And I love teachers, but if they want 12-month employee level salaries, let’s make them 12-month employees. So many kids need summer school at this point, and any excess staff could help solve the summer camp availability problem.

Outdoor Lab has indeed had life-changing impacts on numerous kids. Many kids became interested in science/environmental science/teaching specifically because of their experience there. And that experience was very special for one of my kids because of the way the adults there treated him, out of the ordinary school setting and usual mundane activities.

Agree about the 12-month employment and compensation. I don't think the comparisons AEA and its main spokesperson always make about paid/unpaid days off is fair. You can't make a straight comparison between a yearly employee with a yearly salary and specific benefits to a contracted employee paid for "x" # of days' work.

tell me why APS kids can't take a field trip to one of our many nature centers right here in the County and learn the same things?

The curriculum is coordinated with APS.
Our nature centers don't afford a camping overnight experience.
Our nature centers aren't out farther away from all the city light which hides the stars.
Our nature centers don't have boating/canoeing opportunities.
Our nature centers just don't have the space to accommodate the various activities.

None of this is more important than getting class sizes down. Let’s worry about getting kids to read and do basic math before worrying if they have a LiFe ChAnGiNg moment in a canoe.

Cutting outdoor lab is not going to make enough of a dent to reduce class sizes

Cutting Outdoor Lab, [/i] in addition to other unnecessary programs, will help.

+1, Gotta start somewhere. Kids can take field trips to the nature centers in Arlington which APS doesn't pay to staff and run. Done.

They already do take field trips to Arlington's nature centers.

Again, this is a parenting problem. Arlington has a ton of parks — all free. It shouldn’t be the taxpayer’s problem that parents can’t be bothered to take their kids outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of APS math graduates in here. Cutting Outdoor Lab and TJHSST don't even come close to balancing the budget.

The sacred cows of option schools need a hard look.

And you must be a graduate of Lucy Calkins’ reading program.

Outdoor Lab PLUS option schools PLUS iPads in elementary PLUS many other items. No one — literally no one — is suggesting cutting Outdoor Lab alone will balance the budget.

I also don’t think we should cut TJ. Feel free to disagree.

So you cut all those things, then what do we do next year when teachers want another step and COLA? You're talking about one-time cuts, once we cut them they are out of the base. We will start with a smaller budget next year and we haven't done anything to address the state or county funding formulas, or class sizes or other major drivers of spending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1997/10/02/arlington-schools-may-ease-stance-on-jefferson-high/6ac6403c-ef7f-406a-bc4a-a3eb654e1734/


Article from 1997 about aps paying tuition to tj

For the math challenged on this forum this 1997 article explains why sending kids to TJ does not save APS money no matter what TJ costs:

The $8,000 is less than the average $9,305 cost of educating a student in the Arlington system. But the system does not save any money by sending a student to Jefferson because it cannot, for example, reduce the salaries of teachers when a few students leave their classes, school officials explained.

Ok then let’s call it a way to reduce class sizes.

I can see why you are anti-TJ, you seem to be pretty anti-math. If x number fewer kids go to a school, they don't reduce class sizes. Class sizes are determined by planning factors. The planning factors are established by the school board and listed in a book/manual.

If the planning factor for a class is 25 and 21 kids show up, they get a teacher. If 29 kids sign up, they will divide them into two sections. Sending 25 kids to TJ (from three high schools) doesn't change the planning factors--it might have a tiny tiny effect on how many sections of a class are offered in a school.

This is why the finance department doesn't have precise estimates of every possible budget scenario (especially when it comes to option schools) and goes by averages. They can't tell you the exact effect changes would have on staffing because it has to do with what home schools those kids are assigned to, what grades they are in, how close to the planning factors those grades are already--or the specific classes those kids would enroll in, whether those kids would be bus riders or not at their home schools, etc. etc.

We're talking about a $825 million budget here. The total cost of sending a couple of dozen kids to TJ is less than 0.1% of the budget, so the marginal difference in cost (up or down) between sending a couple of dozen kids to TJ versus keeping them in Arlington is like a hundredth of a percent.

Yup. This whole thread is discussing negligible line items.

What we really need is full funding from Youngkin and the county.

And what exactly is full funding???

Senate proposal is a start - pg 32
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/D2WW4J839BAE/$file/FY%202025%20Superintendent's%20Presentation%20FINAL%20(331%20pm).pdf

The state and county should step up and appropriately fund our schools.
"“Virginia school divisions receive less K-12 funding per student than the 50-state average,
the regional average, and three of Virginia’s five bordering states. School divisions in other
states receive 14 percent more per student than school divisions in Virginia, on average,
after normalizing for differences in cost of labor among states. This equates to about
$1,900 more per student than Virginia.”
Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC)
estimates that annually APS is underfunded by approximately $51 million"

I'll never understand why we're willing to give billionaires $2b+ to build stadiums, but don't even consider giving $2b to public education.

Exactly. They want us arguing over field trips (WTF) instead of properly funding our schools.

VA had a huge surplus last year. Why is Youngkin cutting the budget for K-12?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of APS math graduates in here. Cutting Outdoor Lab and TJHSST don't even come close to balancing the budget.

The sacred cows of option schools need a hard look.

And you must be a graduate of Lucy Calkins’ reading program.

Outdoor Lab PLUS option schools PLUS iPads in elementary PLUS many other items. No one — literally no one — is suggesting cutting Outdoor Lab alone will balance the budget.

I also don’t think we should cut TJ. Feel free to disagree.

So you cut all those things, then what do we do next year when teachers want another step and COLA? You're talking about one-time cuts, once we cut them they are out of the base. We will start with a smaller budget next year and we haven't done anything to address the state or county funding formulas, or class sizes or other major drivers of spending.

+1

Field trips are not causing this funding gap.

This is fixed by the CB and Youngkin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the 2.5¢ tax Duran is asking for?

APS is very well funded already. They just WASTE those funds on unnecessary programs and positions. Get rid of Syphax bloat. Cut Outdoor Lab. Cut the 80/20 immersion program back to 50/50 if it’s more expensive. Get rid of ALL the option schools if they’re more expensive to run than neighborhood schools. FFS, get rid of iPads in K-5, switch to io Chromebooks for 6-12.

Agree and disagree.
Rid the bloat - YES.

Cut relatively inexpensive programs that provide a unique and often lasting/life-changing learning experience like Outdoor Lab that are unique to APS? NO. (That goes for TJHSST, too)

80/20 immersion is only "more expensive" as they transition to the model and implement the new parts of the curriculum and provide teacher training. Once the model is established, it is no longer has the extra expense. And again, if this is an instructional model that has a notable positive impact on learning and achievement, especially for English learners and underprivileged students - and especially especially for underprivileged English learners - then NO.

Get rid of option schools that do not show a significant benefit for students v. a typical neighborhood school of similar demographics or less diverse? YES.
Get rid of option programs that are not clearly distinctive from non-option programs and any specific characteristics of which could be incorporated into every school? YES. (looking at you, MPSA, ATS, and HB)

Get rid of iPads entirely? YES YES and YES
Replace iPads 6-8 with laptops/Macbooks? YES. (But maybe not start 1:1 at all until 7th. 6th can continue with classroom sets)
Replace MacBooks with Chromebooks - POSSIBLY. I'd like to see the side-by-side comparisons in costs and security, maintenance, etc.

Sorry, but Outdoor Lab isn’t *LiFe ChAnGiNg* for anyone. (Well, other than the kid who was sexually assaulted recently… Yet another reason to shut it down.)

Keep TJ as an option, as sending kids there isn’t more expensive than keeping them at their home school. (And it actually IS a life-changing experience for those kids.)

And I love teachers, but if they want 12-month employee level salaries, let’s make them 12-month employees. So many kids need summer school at this point, and any excess staff could help solve the summer camp availability problem.

Outdoor Lab has indeed had life-changing impacts on numerous kids. Many kids became interested in science/environmental science/teaching specifically because of their experience there. And that experience was very special for one of my kids because of the way the adults there treated him, out of the ordinary school setting and usual mundane activities.

Agree about the 12-month employment and compensation. I don't think the comparisons AEA and its main spokesperson always make about paid/unpaid days off is fair. You can't make a straight comparison between a yearly employee with a yearly salary and specific benefits to a contracted employee paid for "x" # of days' work.

tell me why APS kids can't take a field trip to one of our many nature centers right here in the County and learn the same things?

The curriculum is coordinated with APS.
Our nature centers don't afford a camping overnight experience.
Our nature centers aren't out farther away from all the city light which hides the stars.
Our nature centers don't have boating/canoeing opportunities.
Our nature centers just don't have the space to accommodate the various activities.

None of this is more important than getting class sizes down. Let’s worry about getting kids to read and do basic math before worrying if they have a LiFe ChAnGiNg moment in a canoe.

Fine; but eliminating it doesn't get the class sizes down.

Every dollar we cut from unnecessary programs is another dollar moving us in the right direction.

Balance the budget focusing on actual NEEDS.

We NEED to have proper funding. Why is Youngkin CUTTING our budget? Why does the CB make APS cover CIP projects out of operating budget? Why doesn’t the CB properly fund our schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of APS math graduates in here. Cutting Outdoor Lab and TJHSST don't even come close to balancing the budget.

The sacred cows of option schools need a hard look.

And you must be a graduate of Lucy Calkins’ reading program.

Outdoor Lab PLUS option schools PLUS iPads in elementary PLUS many other items. No one — literally no one — is suggesting cutting Outdoor Lab alone will balance the budget.

I also don’t think we should cut TJ. Feel free to disagree.

So you cut all those things, then what do we do next year when teachers want another step and COLA? You're talking about one-time cuts, once we cut them they are out of the base. We will start with a smaller budget next year and we haven't done anything to address the state or county funding formulas, or class sizes or other major drivers of spending.

This is a good time to discuss teacher wants. OF COURSE teachers need to be paid well. We also need to have real discussions about level of pay related to amount of work. If teachers want salaries that are comparable to other skilled workers that work 12 months out of the year, then they should ALSO work 12 months out of the year.

There’s a profound need for summer school at this point. Also a profound need for other types of summer programming.

And almost all professional careers require some amount of work to be completely outside of regular business hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of APS math graduates in here. Cutting Outdoor Lab and TJHSST don't even come close to balancing the budget.

The sacred cows of option schools need a hard look.

And you must be a graduate of Lucy Calkins’ reading program.

Outdoor Lab PLUS option schools PLUS iPads in elementary PLUS many other items. No one — literally no one — is suggesting cutting Outdoor Lab alone will balance the budget.

I also don’t think we should cut TJ. Feel free to disagree.

So you cut all those things, then what do we do next year when teachers want another step and COLA? You're talking about one-time cuts, once we cut them they are out of the base. We will start with a smaller budget next year and we haven't done anything to address the state or county funding formulas, or class sizes or other major drivers of spending.

This is a good time to discuss teacher wants. OF COURSE teachers need to be paid well. We also need to have real discussions about level of pay related to amount of work. If teachers want salaries that are comparable to other skilled workers that work 12 months out of the year, then they should ALSO work 12 months out of the year.

There’s a profound need for summer school at this point. Also a profound need for other types of summer programming.

And almost all professional careers require some amount of work to be completely outside of regular business hours.

This isn’t relevant at all.

APS should be offering competitive compensation packages to attract and retain quality teachers. We should be comparing the packages to other school districts, not random other professions.

I agree that more summer school would benefit many students - but that is an additional cost.

You get what you pay for.