Paul Bartkowski School Board Candidate Forum

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paul - thanks for posting. You’ll need to be judicious in deciding which posts to address. This forum is trolled by Democratic partisans, who’ll hold you to a far different and much higher standard than they’ve ever held the current School Board. It’s also frequented by some folks who resent McLean HS and want the School Board to continue to ignore the fact that McLean is a run-down school with the least permanent capacity of any FCPS high school, even though it has an average-size enrollment and is expected to accommodate continued residential growth in Tysons, West Falls Church, and downtown McLean.

In general, I found your answers at the candidates forum last week to resonate with the main concerns of parents in this area. That’s not to say that Robyn Lady would not also bring some valuable experience if she’s elected. But on the issue of addressing the facilities needs at McLean, she offered nothing new and said little to suggest she’d scrutinize FCPS capital spending more closely. That inattention is how we end up with situations where Dranesville ES is now getting expanded to 1000 seats, despite a current enrollment of 600; proffer money from developers is not spent on the schools that serve those new development; and a new elementary school for which there is simply no need is now planned in Dunn Loring (all while high schools like Chantilly and McLean remain overcrowded for over a decade). And her one other suggestion - waiving the normal pupil placement requirements to allow kids to attend Herndon and Langley rather than McLean - would further kick the can down the road and widen existing disparities within FCPS.

Good luck - whether you get elected or not, it is fantastic that someone is at least willing to take on the local political “machine.”

Lots of nutty trumper trolls on here who live nowhere near DC.

Oh, that reminds me, who did you vote for in the 2016 election?

It should be obvious from the details in my post that I live in Dranesville.

As for prior votes, are you asking me or Paul? Personally, I voted for Hillary in 2016 and for Biden in 2020. Also voted for Northam in 2017 and for Youngkin and Herring in 2021. In the upcoming local elections, I currently plan to vote for Jimmy Bierman for supervisor, Rip Sullivan for the HOD, and Paul for School Board. Haven’t decided yet in other races.

You see, some of us really are moderates who try to identify the candidates most aligned with our values and priorities and refuse to simply vote a party line every time. We know some will deny our existence or claim we’re lying, but that’s OK.

[paulforfcsb]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are very brave to jump into this lions den, especially as an R. That in itself speaks well of your convictions. This forum does not like Republicans or independents.

Every kid is unique in their educational needs, and 6th grade is a really tumultuous time for kids. Peronally, I would not fault any parent for making an individual education decision for their kid that may or may not include public schools, home schooling, online school, private school or Catholic school, especiallyduring the middle school years.

And honestly, looking at my neighborhood, post pandemic there are many, many fcps families that are now moving their kids in and out of FCPS depending on the grade or school level. I have multiple neighbors who now have some kids in Catholic, some kids in home school and other kids in FCPS, all in one family.

So on that note, this candidate seems to represent a lot of FCPS families who are going year by year to find the best educational method for thier kids at any given year.

And in the end, don't the public schools *want* these kids to eventually land back into their local public schools? A parent with the experience of utilizing educational flexibility for their kid's schooling, which includes our public schools, will provide unique insight and a helpful voice to the school board discussions.

Completely agree. I’m impressed by Paul’s courage to allow himself to being bombarded with questions from anonymous posters, some of whom are not even in Fairfax County, let alone the Dranesville District, which he is hoping to represent.

Questions regarding his family’s personal choices in regards to their kids are completely out of bounds, and he doesn’t need to explain nor justify them. His children are entitled to their privacy, particularly when it comes to their academic life. In fact, they are protected under FERPA laws. Most importantly, the Bartkowski kids are not the ones running for School Board.

On the last public debate, his opponent, Robin Lady, brought up as one of her priorities to hire more black and Hispanic teachers for representation purposes in our schools; whereas Paul’s approach is to focus on hiring the best teachers regardless of their skin color, which, BTW, would include hiring Chinese and Indian teachers as well. He also emphasized that he would help repurpose funds so that teachers can be better remunerated for what they do, and because of their effort and sacrifice, such as the time spent after school hours for sponsoring clubs at school, coaching, or volunteering. Doing so, according to Paul, would help with not only hiring highly qualified teachers, but also with retaining them.

I’m grateful to have a candidate who takes learning so seriously that, along with his wife, has made sacrifices to ensure their kids get the best education possible, because according to him, that is an important factor to succeed in life, and he wishes that same goal for every single kid in the county.

The thing about an anonymous forum is we have no idea if this is Paul or someone from Paul's campaign.

It's me! I have a few people that I ask for advice from time to time but no "campaign" from which I could draw someone to pretend to be me on a blog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are very brave to jump into this lions den, especially as an R. That in itself speaks well of your convictions. This forum does not like Republicans or independents.

Every kid is unique in their educational needs, and 6th grade is a really tumultuous time for kids. Peronally, I would not fault any parent for making an individual education decision for their kid that may or may not include public schools, home schooling, online school, private school or Catholic school, especiallyduring the middle school years.

And honestly, looking at my neighborhood, post pandemic there are many, many fcps families that are now moving their kids in and out of FCPS depending on the grade or school level. I have multiple neighbors who now have some kids in Catholic, some kids in home school and other kids in FCPS, all in one family.

So on that note, this candidate seems to represent a lot of FCPS families who are going year by year to find the best educational method for thier kids at any given year.

And in the end, don't the public schools *want* these kids to eventually land back into their local public schools? A parent with the experience of utilizing educational flexibility for their kid's schooling, which includes our public schools, will provide unique insight and a helpful voice to the school board discussions.

Completely agree. I’m impressed by Paul’s courage to allow himself to being bombarded with questions from anonymous posters, some of whom are not even in Fairfax County, let alone the Dranesville District, which he is hoping to represent.

Questions regarding his family’s personal choices in regards to their kids are completely out of bounds, and he doesn’t need to explain nor justify them. His children are entitled to their privacy, particularly when it comes to their academic life. In fact, they are protected under FERPA laws. Most importantly, the Bartkowski kids are not the ones running for School Board.

On the last public debate, his opponent, Robin Lady, brought up as one of her priorities to hire more black and Hispanic teachers for representation purposes in our schools; whereas Paul’s approach is to focus on hiring the best teachers regardless of their skin color, which, BTW, would include hiring Chinese and Indian teachers as well. He also emphasized that he would help repurpose funds so that teachers can be better remunerated for what they do, and because of their effort and sacrifice, such as the time spent after school hours for sponsoring clubs at school, coaching, or volunteering. Doing so, according to Paul, would help with not only hiring highly qualified teachers, but also with retaining them.

I’m grateful to have a candidate who takes learning so seriously that, along with his wife, has made sacrifices to ensure their kids get the best education possible, because according to him, that is an important factor to succeed in life, and he wishes that same goal for every single kid in the county.

He's running for a political office. Its really not "courageous" to state your positions on relevant issues. I mean, how low is your bar?

You mean to answer questions in an anonymous platform trolled by anonymous activists who are not even residents of Fairfax Co.? How many other candidates have you seen here doing the same as Paul?

Furthermore, if you visit his page, he barely has any presence on social media, and so far two endorsements. Compared to the resources of his opponent, this looks more like a one courageous man doing the work of many. During the last debate I met his family briefly. They have definitely earned my respect and gratitude.

Now, if Robin Lady did the same and opened herself to answer any questions here, I would also think of her as being brave - a quality required to occupy a seat at a political office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:15:41 and 16:35 are clearly the same poster. Hello, Paul's media person!

I am 16:35 and not 15:41. Feel free to ask Jeff to verify this.

As for the reference to being a “media person,” I’m just a local resident who waited until recently to decide whether to support Paul or Robyn. I don’t get the impression Paul really has the campaign resources to hire a “media person” but, if he does, it’s not me.

As a general matter, most School Board candidates don’t have their own “media people.” There are exceptions, but most SB candidates operate on shoestring budgets and don’t have the resources or connections to have their own “media advisers.” That’s why they sometimes do things like posting directly on sites like this to raise their profile (although they may decide later it wasn’t such a great idea).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are very brave to jump into this lions den, especially as an R. That in itself speaks well of your convictions. This forum does not like Republicans or independents.

Every kid is unique in their educational needs, and 6th grade is a really tumultuous time for kids. Peronally, I would not fault any parent for making an individual education decision for their kid that may or may not include public schools, home schooling, online school, private school or Catholic school, especiallyduring the middle school years.

And honestly, looking at my neighborhood, post pandemic there are many, many fcps families that are now moving their kids in and out of FCPS depending on the grade or school level. I have multiple neighbors who now have some kids in Catholic, some kids in home school and other kids in FCPS, all in one family.

So on that note, this candidate seems to represent a lot of FCPS families who are going year by year to find the best educational method for thier kids at any given year.

And in the end, don't the public schools *want* these kids to eventually land back into their local public schools? A parent with the experience of utilizing educational flexibility for their kid's schooling, which includes our public schools, will provide unique insight and a helpful voice to the school board discussions.

Completely agree. I’m impressed by Paul’s courage to allow himself to being bombarded with questions from anonymous posters, some of whom are not even in Fairfax County, let alone the Dranesville District, which he is hoping to represent.

Questions regarding his family’s personal choices in regards to their kids are completely out of bounds, and he doesn’t need to explain nor justify them. His children are entitled to their privacy, particularly when it comes to their academic life. In fact, they are protected under FERPA laws. Most importantly, the Bartkowski kids are not the ones running for School Board.

On the last public debate, his opponent, Robin Lady, brought up as one of her priorities to hire more black and Hispanic teachers for representation purposes in our schools; whereas Paul’s approach is to focus on hiring the best teachers regardless of their skin color, which, BTW, would include hiring Chinese and Indian teachers as well. He also emphasized that he would help repurpose funds so that teachers can be better remunerated for what they do, and because of their effort and sacrifice, such as the time spent after school hours for sponsoring clubs at school, coaching, or volunteering. Doing so, according to Paul, would help with not only hiring highly qualified teachers, but also with retaining them.

I’m grateful to have a candidate who takes learning so seriously that, along with his wife, has made sacrifices to ensure their kids get the best education possible, because according to him, that is an important factor to succeed in life, and he wishes that same goal for every single kid in the county.

I thought your post was balanced and thoughtful until I got to the “black, Hispanic, Chinese, Indian, bla bla bla” Enough with the racial divisions and trying to pit different races against each other. This is why the republicans will lose.

The one who brought up hiring more Hispanic and black teachers for representation was the candidate endorsed by the Democrats, Robin Lady. If she were inclusive of everyone for representation purposes, then she would be intentional to include Chinese and Indian teachers being that those two groups are large among the student population in Dranesville. Even better, she could consider what her opponent, Paul Bartkowski proposes, which is hiring the best qualified teachers independently of their ethnicity so that students of all backgrounds can get the best education possible.

[Anonymous]

paulforfcsb wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

paulforfcsb wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On your website regarding the SB you cite, “… a disturbing effort to introduce age-inappropriate sexual concepts and ideas to our youngest students”. Could you give some examples?

Sure - I've seen SEL questionnaires where ~8th grade students (I believe it was eighth but my answer would be the same for older students)were asked, for example, how many sexual partners they've had. Here's a senator reading books that FCPS (and many other school districts) insists must stay in our school libraries:

https://youtu.be/KBhy_vlgKS4

No place for that in any school library - and it does disturb me that adults are so eager to make those books available to our kids. Call me old-fashioned!

So would you act based on your opinions in books rather than defer to the school librarians who are professional educators?

Not the school board candidate here, just a random parent.

Just a side note on how FCPS selects books for the library. A FCPS English teacher/librarian type employee explained this to me once.

The librarians don't usually read all the books they select.

The publishers send "theme" type book packages, with a bunch of titles that fit the overall theme. For example (and this might be a little broad) there is a civil rights package or an early American history or a military battles package. The librarian/dept head/subject team picks the entire package, without necessarily reading the entire book collection, then the books from the list goes into the libraries/class libraries.

Reading through the entire book collection is, for at least the teachers, not paid time and something they are expected to do on their own time.

Often, the departments will just skim the summaries, spot check books, and approve the book list in its entirety.

Other times, the department or a group of teachers will try to split up the titles so they can get through the entire list collectively. But it is a lot of reading, and of course, everyone's standards are a little different on what one deems appropriate for a school library. So an experienced teacher might be horrified by a book such as Gender Queer in a middle school library, while a fresh out of college teacher might see it as important identity advocacy.

Occassionally, you might get one gem of the teacher who has the time and desire to read through the entire collection on their own time, with no pay, before putting down their name as approving the list. But that is a lot of reading, so I suspect that this rarely happens.

You are assuming that having book objections means that you are undermining the librarian. But the librarians might not have actually read the book in question. They might just have approved the "finding your identity" themed book list from the publisher, but not the dozens or more individual books in that collection. There are thousands of books in the library. I doubt any librarian has actually read through all of them. I am a voracious reader, and it still takes me a few days to get through one title, reading several hours per night. There are simply not enough hours for one librarian or a team of teachers to read through every book schools offer.

At least at the high school level, the districts need 2 parents to read and approve books offered in classes or for class readings. I believe this is something new from the Youngkin administration, and is a very positive thing. I volunteered for this committee and ended up approving all of the books I have read so far. You can make comments (such as for 16+, or too much profanity/misogyny/violence/insert controversy). If you reject a book, you can explain why. (Perhaps this is required, but a
I haven't rejected a book yet so I am not 100% certain.) If an official reviewer says no, the book gets pulled for further review, including reviewing the reasons why it was rejected. I know several parents from our high school who have reviewed books. The only book I know of that was rejected had very good reasons for the rejection.


For Paul:

Perhaps the new school board could set up a parent volunteer reading committee district wide to get through new library collections before approval, similar to what our FCPS high school does. Some of the parents might discover that most of the books are not as controversial as they seem. Others might find that even though they thought all the books are fine, there are actually books that have little redeeming qualities and are completely inappropriate for school. This could then be addressed before the questionable books get to the students and cause controversy.

We can't show more than PG rated movies on our high school bus trips. Why should books in middle schools be any different?

This is thoughtful but do recall that the parents objected to at least one of the books the senator was reading and the school board insisted that they remain. In other words, it's not negligence - they really want this material available to the kids for some reason. Langley HS had a special table with books that they knew parents found inappropriate for the kids. https://www.newsweek.com/school-apologizes-display-showing-books-adults-dont-want-you-read-1679670

I wish it were mere negligence, but it seems to be more than that.

FCPS has a whole regulation on how library collections are built and another multi-step process for challenges to books in libraries. Parents are informed of reading lists for classes and are given the option of asking for substitute books. I agree with these processes and am not interested in board members taking books out of the libraries on their own whims, without the process. Paul, will you follow these processes or will you substitute your opinions for these processes?

I also don’t love that you represented the plaintiffs in the mask challenge case. It makes me think you are into culture wars rather than academics. Please comment.

I would love your answers because I really don’t want to vote for Lady. I am tired of school board members fealty to a political agenda. I want someone who will focus on academics, provide efficient oversight of the budget, question initiatives that seem political, and actually pay some attention to facilities, 8ncluding getting McLean renovated and getting proffers given to schools in the Dranesville district actually used to address the crowding in the Dranesville district, not diverted to other areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paul - thanks for posting. You’ll need to be judicious in deciding which posts to address. This forum is trolled by Democratic partisans, who’ll hold you to a far different and much higher standard than they’ve ever held the current School Board. It’s also frequented by some folks who resent McLean HS and want the School Board to continue to ignore the fact that McLean is a run-down school with the least permanent capacity of any FCPS high school, even though it has an average-size enrollment and is expected to accommodate continued residential growth in Tysons, West Falls Church, and downtown McLean.

In general, I found your answers at the candidates forum last week to resonate with the main concerns of parents in this area. That’s not to say that Robyn Lady would not also bring some valuable experience if she’s elected. But on the issue of addressing the facilities needs at McLean, she offered nothing new and said little to suggest she’d scrutinize FCPS capital spending more closely. That inattention is how we end up with situations where Dranesville ES is now getting expanded to 1000 seats, despite a current enrollment of 600; proffer money from developers is not spent on the schools that serve those new development; and a new elementary school for which there is simply no need is now planned in Dunn Loring (all while high schools like Chantilly and McLean remain overcrowded for over a decade). And her one other suggestion - waiving the normal pupil placement requirements to allow kids to attend Herndon and Langley rather than McLean - would further kick the can down the road and widen existing disparities within FCPS.

Good luck - whether you get elected or not, it is fantastic that someone is at least willing to take on the local political “machine.”

Lots of nutty trumper trolls on here who live nowhere near DC.

Oh, that reminds me, who did you vote for in the 2016 election?

Why does the "nutter" poster have to ruin every thread?

It would be nice if they limited their trolling to the politics forum.

More Republican projection. RWNJs troll the FCPS/AAP forums relentlessly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paul - thanks for posting. You’ll need to be judicious in deciding which posts to address. This forum is trolled by Democratic partisans, who’ll hold you to a far different and much higher standard than they’ve ever held the current School Board. It’s also frequented by some folks who resent McLean HS and want the School Board to continue to ignore the fact that McLean is a run-down school with the least permanent capacity of any FCPS high school, even though it has an average-size enrollment and is expected to accommodate continued residential growth in Tysons, West Falls Church, and downtown McLean.

In general, I found your answers at the candidates forum last week to resonate with the main concerns of parents in this area. That’s not to say that Robyn Lady would not also bring some valuable experience if she’s elected. But on the issue of addressing the facilities needs at McLean, she offered nothing new and said little to suggest she’d scrutinize FCPS capital spending more closely. That inattention is how we end up with situations where Dranesville ES is now getting expanded to 1000 seats, despite a current enrollment of 600; proffer money from developers is not spent on the schools that serve those new development; and a new elementary school for which there is simply no need is now planned in Dunn Loring (all while high schools like Chantilly and McLean remain overcrowded for over a decade). And her one other suggestion - waiving the normal pupil placement requirements to allow kids to attend Herndon and Langley rather than McLean - would further kick the can down the road and widen existing disparities within FCPS.

Good luck - whether you get elected or not, it is fantastic that someone is at least willing to take on the local political “machine.”

Lots of nutty trumper trolls on here who live nowhere near DC.

Oh, that reminds me, who did you vote for in the 2016 election?

It should be obvious from the details in my post that I live in Dranesville.

As for prior votes, are you asking me or Paul? Personally, I voted for Hillary in 2016 and for Biden in 2020. Also voted for Northam in 2017 and for Youngkin and Herring in 2021. In the upcoming local elections, I currently plan to vote for Jimmy Bierman for supervisor, Rip Sullivan for the HOD, and Paul for School Board. Haven’t decided yet in other races.

You see, some of us really are moderates who try to identify the candidates most aligned with our values and priorities and refuse to simply vote a party line every time. We know some will deny our existence or claim we’re lying, but that’s OK.

Why Youngkin?

How about the Senate or House of Delegates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

paulforfcsb wrote:I need to figure out how to reply to specific messages.

Regarding the staff as an interest group, the staff is certainly integral to the fundamental goal of the Board (at least as I see it): providing the children an excellent education. We need to cut staff members that do not advance that goal and reward those that do. That includes paying teachers more, with appropriate incentives for excellence, to attract and retain quality teachers.

How would that be determined?

Do you have no answer regarding collective bargaining?

Collective bargaining harms tax payers and has no reason to be in govt jobs

States with strong teachers unions have strong schools. Giving teachers a voice helps kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

paulforfcsb wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On your website regarding the SB you cite, “… a disturbing effort to introduce age-inappropriate sexual concepts and ideas to our youngest students”. Could you give some examples?

Sure - I've seen SEL questionnaires where ~8th grade students (I believe it was eighth but my answer would be the same for older students)were asked, for example, how many sexual partners they've had. Here's a senator reading books that FCPS (and many other school districts) insists must stay in our school libraries:

https://youtu.be/KBhy_vlgKS4

No place for that in any school library - and it does disturb me that adults are so eager to make those books available to our kids. Call me old-fashioned!

So would you act based on your opinions in books rather than defer to the school librarians who are professional educators?

Not the school board candidate here, just a random parent.

Just a side note on how FCPS selects books for the library. A FCPS English teacher/librarian type employee explained this to me once.

The librarians don't usually read all the books they select.

The publishers send "theme" type book packages, with a bunch of titles that fit the overall theme. For example (and this might be a little broad) there is a civil rights package or an early American history or a military battles package. The librarian/dept head/subject team picks the entire package, without necessarily reading the entire book collection, then the books from the list goes into the libraries/class libraries.

Reading through the entire book collection is, for at least the teachers, not paid time and something they are expected to do on their own time.

Often, the departments will just skim the summaries, spot check books, and approve the book list in its entirety.

Other times, the department or a group of teachers will try to split up the titles so they can get through the entire list collectively. But it is a lot of reading, and of course, everyone's standards are a little different on what one deems appropriate for a school library. So an experienced teacher might be horrified by a book such as Gender Queer in a middle school library, while a fresh out of college teacher might see it as important identity advocacy.

Occassionally, you might get one gem of the teacher who has the time and desire to read through the entire collection on their own time, with no pay, before putting down their name as approving the list. But that is a lot of reading, so I suspect that this rarely happens.

You are assuming that having book objections means that you are undermining the librarian. But the librarians might not have actually read the book in question. They might just have approved the "finding your identity" themed book list from the publisher, but not the dozens or more individual books in that collection. There are thousands of books in the library. I doubt any librarian has actually read through all of them. I am a voracious reader, and it still takes me a few days to get through one title, reading several hours per night. There are simply not enough hours for one librarian or a team of teachers to read through every book schools offer.

At least at the high school level, the districts need 2 parents to read and approve books offered in classes or for class readings. I believe this is something new from the Youngkin administration, and is a very positive thing. I volunteered for this committee and ended up approving all of the books I have read so far. You can make comments (such as for 16+, or too much profanity/misogyny/violence/insert controversy). If you reject a book, you can explain why. (Perhaps this is required, but a
I haven't rejected a book yet so I am not 100% certain.) If an official reviewer says no, the book gets pulled for further review, including reviewing the reasons why it was rejected. I know several parents from our high school who have reviewed books. The only book I know of that was rejected had very good reasons for the rejection.


For Paul:

Perhaps the new school board could set up a parent volunteer reading committee district wide to get through new library collections before approval, similar to what our FCPS high school does. Some of the parents might discover that most of the books are not as controversial as they seem. Others might find that even though they thought all the books are fine, there are actually books that have little redeeming qualities and are completely inappropriate for school. This could then be addressed before the questionable books get to the students and cause controversy.

We can't show more than PG rated movies on our high school bus trips. Why should books in middle schools be any different?

So you’re recommending that these books aren’t available to the middle schoolers who attend the few secondary (MS/HS) schools that may have these books.

[Anonymous]

paulforfcsb wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On your website regarding the SB you cite, “… a disturbing effort to introduce age-inappropriate sexual concepts and ideas to our youngest students”. Could you give some examples?

Sure - I've seen SEL questionnaires where ~8th grade students (I believe it was eighth but my answer would be the same for older students)were asked, for example, how many sexual partners they've had. Here's a senator reading books that FCPS (and many other school districts) insists must stay in our school libraries:

https://youtu.be/KBhy_vlgKS4

No place for that in any school library - and it does disturb me that adults are so eager to make those books available to our kids. Call me old-fashioned!

Which specific books would you like removed from FCPS libraries? What is your criteria?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paul - thanks for posting. You’ll need to be judicious in deciding which posts to address. This forum is trolled by Democratic partisans, who’ll hold you to a far different and much higher standard than they’ve ever held the current School Board. It’s also frequented by some folks who resent McLean HS and want the School Board to continue to ignore the fact that McLean is a run-down school with the least permanent capacity of any FCPS high school, even though it has an average-size enrollment and is expected to accommodate continued residential growth in Tysons, West Falls Church, and downtown McLean.

In general, I found your answers at the candidates forum last week to resonate with the main concerns of parents in this area. That’s not to say that Robyn Lady would not also bring some valuable experience if she’s elected. But on the issue of addressing the facilities needs at McLean, she offered nothing new and said little to suggest she’d scrutinize FCPS capital spending more closely. That inattention is how we end up with situations where Dranesville ES is now getting expanded to 1000 seats, despite a current enrollment of 600; proffer money from developers is not spent on the schools that serve those new development; and a new elementary school for which there is simply no need is now planned in Dunn Loring (all while high schools like Chantilly and McLean remain overcrowded for over a decade). And her one other suggestion - waiving the normal pupil placement requirements to allow kids to attend Herndon and Langley rather than McLean - would further kick the can down the road and widen existing disparities within FCPS.

Good luck - whether you get elected or not, it is fantastic that someone is at least willing to take on the local political “machine.”

Lots of nutty trumper trolls on here who live nowhere near DC.

Oh, that reminds me, who did you vote for in the 2016 election?

It should be obvious from the details in my post that I live in Dranesville.

As for prior votes, are you asking me or Paul? Personally, I voted for Hillary in 2016 and for Biden in 2020. Also voted for Northam in 2017 and for Youngkin and Herring in 2021. In the upcoming local elections, I currently plan to vote for Jimmy Bierman for supervisor, Rip Sullivan for the HOD, and Paul for School Board. Haven’t decided yet in other races.

You see, some of us really are moderates who try to identify the candidates most aligned with our values and priorities and refuse to simply vote a party line every time. We know some will deny our existence or claim we’re lying, but that’s OK.

Why Youngkin?

How about the Senate or House of Delegates?

Let's keep this about Paul's candidacy for the SB, if possible, and not the voting record of a single Bartkowski supporter.

[However, since you asked: My vote for Youngkin in 2021 was at least as much a vote against McAuliffe as a vote for Youngkin. I'd always been bothered by McAuliffe's extreme partisanship, but I held my nose and voted for him when he was running against Ken Cuccinelli in 2013. But I really disliked how he pushed aside other Democratic candidates in 2021, vastly outspent everyone else, wrongly asserted that he was the only viable Democratic candidate, and then pandered to various interest groups to try and compensate for how condescending he'd been towards both Jennifer McClellan and Jennifer Carroll Foy. His dismissive comments about the role of parents in public education were the final nail in the coffin. In comparison, Youngkin was a newcomer to the political scene and, while he's to my right on many social issues, he remains - in my opinion - more principled than McAuliffe.

I haven't made up my mind about the state Senate race. I'm not particularly enthusiastic about either Jennifer Boysko or Matt Lang. I may abstain from voting in that race. I already mentioned that I'll support Rip Sullivan, a sensible Democrat, in the local House of Delegates race.]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

paulforfcsb wrote:I need to figure out how to reply to specific messages.

Regarding the staff as an interest group, the staff is certainly integral to the fundamental goal of the Board (at least as I see it): providing the children an excellent education. We need to cut staff members that do not advance that goal and reward those that do. That includes paying teachers more, with appropriate incentives for excellence, to attract and retain quality teachers.

How would that be determined?

Do you have no answer regarding collective bargaining?

Collective bargaining harms tax payers and has no reason to be in govt jobs

States with strong teachers unions have strong schools. Giving teachers a voice helps kids.

You have never been to California.

Strongest unions and worst schools in the country.

[Anonymous]

Hi Paul!

I was so impressed with your informed and knowledgeable responses during the debate the other night. My family usually votes only for our party, but your attention to local details and greater knowledge about FCPS in Dranesville won me over. Thanks -

You have my vote!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi Paul!

I was so impressed with your informed and knowledgeable responses during the debate the other night. My family usually votes only for our party, but your attention to local details and greater knowledge about FCPS in Dranesville won me over. Thanks -

You have my vote!

This is so fake.