The Carmel HS Video Vs. FCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are angry about high schools with 2 or 3 thousand students in FCPS and now you want to double it to get a second ceramics room?

Hah. A school like Carmel has multiple ceramics rooms and FCPS has “art on a cart.”

We lost our art teacher, so Art on a Cart is not even happening.

Same at my kids' ES.

[Anonymous]

Alright. I went to Carmel. When I was in high school, the township owned a large plot of land it had purchased to build a new high school. The high school was becoming over crowded and they had to decide whether to expand the current high school or build a new one. At the time, my graduating class was 660. You’d think they’d build anew school in the corn field they owned. But you would be wrong.

THEY SOLD THE LAND!!!!

Expanded and expanded and expanded the high school.

Why? All in the name of being the best. Athletics. Music. It was all about competition. They dominate sports other than football and basketball. Don’t get me wrong they win state championships in those too. Just not 37 in a row like the girls swim team.

It is unbelievable looking back on it. They sacrificed education in the name of state championships. Try getting a spot on their varsity soccer team.

Going back to my high school days, there were zero private high schools in Carmel. Zero. Over the past 20 years a number have come in. Imagine being in a graduating class of 1200 students. It is insane.

Oh, and Carmel is wealthy. There’s no S Arlington in Carmel. You have 1200 kids also of well off parents. Competition is fierce in every aspect of the school. I could go on and on. But trust me, you don’t want your kid going to Carmel High School.

[Anonymous]

People are free to move to Indiana. It would free up some classroom seats here!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alright. I went to Carmel. When I was in high school, the township owned a large plot of land it had purchased to build a new high school. The high school was becoming over crowded and they had to decide whether to expand the current high school or build a new one. At the time, my graduating class was 660. You’d think they’d build anew school in the corn field they owned. But you would be wrong.

THEY SOLD THE LAND!!!!

Expanded and expanded and expanded the high school.

Why? All in the name of being the best. Athletics. Music. It was all about competition. They dominate sports other than football and basketball. Don’t get me wrong they win state championships in those too. Just not 37 in a row like the girls swim team.

It is unbelievable looking back on it. They sacrificed education in the name of state championships. Try getting a spot on their varsity soccer team.

Going back to my high school days, there were zero private high schools in Carmel. Zero. Over the past 20 years a number have come in. Imagine being in a graduating class of 1200 students. It is insane.

Oh, and Carmel is wealthy. There’s no S Arlington in Carmel. You have 1200 kids also of well off parents. Competition is fierce in every aspect of the school. I could go on and on. But trust me, you don’t want your kid going to Carmel High School.

Sounds a lot like Fairfax selling the land near Carson to the Saudis. And now we have Chantilly at about 3000, West Potomac expanded to 3000, and plans to expand Centreville to 3000. I guess at least Centreville will look nice after it's renovated, but you can't say that for plenty of other FCPS schools that are falling apart.

The 1200 graduating class at Carmel is smaller than the number of 9th and 10th graders at Alexandria City HS now. The senior class would also be over 1200 if there were fewer dropouts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are free to move to Indiana. It would free up some classroom seats here!

The whole "if you don't like it leave" attitude is part of the reason the FARMS rate only keeps going up.

[Anonymous]

And now we have Chantilly at about 3000,

Chantilly has been huge for decades. This is not new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen the video of the facilities at Carmel HS that is making the rounds?

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/hamilton-county/carmel/2023/02/13/carmel-high-school-students-tiktok-videos-natatorium-stadium-auditorium-studios-auto-shop/69899563007/

I know that what happens inside a building is more important than the building itself but the disparities between the facilities at that school and some of the run-down facilities in FCPS really make me feel guilty for living in a school district like FCPS that spends so much time on abstract discussions about “equity” yet pays so little attention to the condition of its facilities that trailers and cheap modulars are now just taken for granted.

Shame on Fairfax County and shame on FCPS! For a supposedly wealthy county, we don’t even come close to a random suburb of a mid-sized city in the Midwest when it comes to providing for our kids.

I have worked in FCPS and been a parent in FCPS. It's disgusting. The cleaning people don't do anything that actually involves making things clean, and the schools are renovated and upgraded so infrequently that some of them closely resemble - and smell like - a prison. When I moved my son to private, the first thing that completely shocked me was how clean the school was. It didn't smell, the floors were gleaming and new, the walls were freshly painted, the whole school was just beautiful. It made me so sad to think that basic cleanliness, and an environment that isn't out and out depressing is something you have to pay for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS does not have the luxury that this school district has. We have over 37,000 ESOL students and this number are roughly DOUBLED since 2010.

31% of FCPS students are FARMs. That means they are living in poverty.

FARMS eligibility is based on poverty levels but is not equivalent to “living in poverty.” In part the idea is to keep the families from becoming impoverished by paying for their kids’ meals.

Be that as it may, this is still a wealthy county, and the condition of many of our schools is lamentable compared to those in many other areas of the country with better managed schools. Personally, I’ve stopped pretending this is still a desirable place to live, even though we’re not free to move at present, and it’s somewhat liberating to admit the emperor has no clothes.

Not sure where you are getting your information, but other than TJ, which sucks up all the best things FCPS has to offer to benefit a handful of privileged kids, the schools in the county are all treated equally in terms of the facilities budget. Schools with high FARMS actually have more money, because they are eligible for federal funds, but things like renovation come only from the county budget and therefore everyone is studying equally in squalor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS does not have the luxury that this school district has. We have over 37,000 ESOL students and this number are roughly DOUBLED since 2010.

31% of FCPS students are FARMs. That means they are living in poverty.

FARMS eligibility is based on poverty levels but is not equivalent to “living in poverty.” In part the idea is to keep the families from becoming impoverished by paying for their kids’ meals.

Be that as it may, this is still a wealthy county, and the condition of many of our schools is lamentable compared to those in many other areas of the country with better managed schools. Personally, I’ve stopped pretending this is still a desirable place to live, even though we’re not free to move at present, and it’s somewhat liberating to admit the emperor has no clothes.

What school systems with similar farms rates have spectacular facilities?

I can't find any, but... Smaller school districts (in middle class to wealthy areas in general) tend to spend more on facilities. Each of the Arlington high schools have swimming pools and WL has a renovated planetarium as part of its new addition. These facilities are also used by the community and not just the schools. A big school district like FCPS will never go all out on its facilities since the district would be competing against itself.

Some other examples of excellent facilities in small school districts after a web search:

Here's the new Billerica HS in just outside of Boston:

W Bridgewater Jr Senior High


Villa Park High School New Stem wing:

Nauset Regional High School:

[Anonymous]

I have worked in FCPS and been a parent in FCPS. It's disgusting. The cleaning people don't do anything that actually involves making things clean, and the schools are renovated and upgraded so infrequently that some of them closely resemble - and smell like - a prison. When I moved my son to private, the first thing that completely shocked me was how clean the school was. It didn't smell, the floors were gleaming and new, the walls were freshly painted, the whole school was just beautiful. It made me so sad to think that basic cleanliness, and an environment that isn't out and out depressing is something you have to pay for.

"Clean" can go a very long way to keeping a school fresh.

When we went to DH's high school reunion, we got a tour of the school. It is a very, very old building--built in the 1930's by WPA. The school was immaculate. DH's classmates thought it was better than when they were there. Of course, floors had been redone, etc.,paint, etc. But, it was well maintained. (It didn't hurt that it was a lovely building to start with-.

A brand new school doesn't look good for long if it is not kept clean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen the video of the facilities at Carmel HS that is making the rounds?

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/hamilton-county/carmel/2023/02/13/carmel-high-school-students-tiktok-videos-natatorium-stadium-auditorium-studios-auto-shop/69899563007/

I know that what happens inside a building is more important than the building itself but the disparities between the facilities at that school and some of the run-down facilities in FCPS really make me feel guilty for living in a school district like FCPS that spends so much time on abstract discussions about “equity” yet pays so little attention to the condition of its facilities that trailers and cheap modulars are now just taken for granted.

Shame on Fairfax County and shame on FCPS! For a supposedly wealthy county, we don’t even come close to a random suburb of a mid-sized city in the Midwest when it comes to providing for our kids.

I have worked in FCPS and been a parent in FCPS. It's disgusting. The cleaning people don't do anything that actually involves making things clean, and the schools are renovated and upgraded so infrequently that some of them closely resemble - and smell like - a prison. When I moved my son to private, the first thing that completely shocked me was how clean the school was. It didn't smell, the floors were gleaming and new, the walls were freshly painted, the whole school was just beautiful. It made me so sad to think that basic cleanliness, and an environment that isn't out and out depressing is something you have to pay for.

Yeah, maybe at your former school. The cleaning people at our school do everything to keep the school nice and clean, and the administration goes out of their way to make the school welcoming, but the facilities are outdated and falling apart (literally - the roof keeps caving in, the bathrooms are largely non-functional, the heating is loud and noisy, etc.). There's only so much you can do when you have a school system led by people who favor spending the bulk of a limited capital budget on just a few projects, based primarily on a schedule developed over 15 years ago, and letting everything else fall apart. It's pathetic and unbefitting what used to be considered a good school system, in an area that is still wealthier than most of the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS does not have the luxury that this school district has. We have over 37,000 ESOL students and this number are roughly DOUBLED since 2010.

31% of FCPS students are FARMs. That means they are living in poverty.

FARMS eligibility is based on poverty levels but is not equivalent to “living in poverty.” In part the idea is to keep the families from becoming impoverished by paying for their kids’ meals.

Be that as it may, this is still a wealthy county, and the condition of many of our schools is lamentable compared to those in many other areas of the country with better managed schools. Personally, I’ve stopped pretending this is still a desirable place to live, even though we’re not free to move at present, and it’s somewhat liberating to admit the emperor has no clothes.

Not sure where you are getting your information, but other than TJ, which sucks up all the best things FCPS has to offer to benefit a handful of privileged kids, the schools in the county are all treated equally in terms of the facilities budget. Schools with high FARMS actually have more money, because they are eligible for federal funds, but things like renovation come only from the county budget and therefore everyone is studying equally in squalor.

Well, that's just incorrect. Not even worth elaborating on - you're just wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are free to move to Indiana. It would free up some classroom seats here!

The whole "if you don't like it leave" attitude is part of the reason the FARMS rate only keeps going up.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been to a lot of different middle and high schools for travel basketball this season, and the condition of most of the schools is kind of depressing.

Exact situation with here and I have been shocked at how grimy/dirty/depressing the school buildings are...Annandale HS did not have working heat in its upstairs gym, Edison HS, LIberty MS, Jackson MS...all just grimy and depressing. The schools in Gainesville are lovely.

[Anonymous]

This is why we need vouchers, public schools have no accountability for how they spent their money, we are fed up and are thinking of moving to private even thought we are in the best mclean high pyramid