SB Member Anderson on County-wide Boundary Study
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Anonymous
And leave smart kids who just miss the cutoff to rot in schools that now have a much larger percentage of distractions? I think we need the opposite - create some schools for the known problem kids - bullies, kids caught with drugs, behavioral problems, etc. - and concentrate them there so they don't distract from the learning of others. Then we can maximize the potential of all the kids that actually have potential. |
Anonymous
And, most likely, none of those things - either more magnets or new "reform schools" - will come to pass. More magnets would create the problem you identify, and they would tie themselves into knots immediately about the demographics of students sent to the reform schools. The only thing I could possibly see working is the School Board giving the staff to come back with recommendations with respect to schools county-wide that are truly in a crisis situation with respect to either overcrowding or under-enrollment, and then voting on those recommendations as a package. But the hurdle ought to be set very, very high - schools so overcrowded that they present an imminent safety threat or so under-enrolled that they can no longer offer core academic courses comparable to those available at other schools. And then the instruction should be to do whatever causes the least disruption to address those situations, which should be quite rare. There should be no wriggle room to just move kids around because someone doesn't like a school's demographics or because someone is going to be embarassed if they don't fill seats at a school that may have received an unnecessary expansion. |
Anonymous
| This is all for show. Plus they have to find ways to spend the increased school budget on more consultants. |
Anonymous
They’ve already spent all the money they can on a boundary policy consultant. If they plan to spend more money on consultants it will have to be for someone to tell them which boundaries to change. Still think it would be a better use of time and money to just come up with an updated renovation queue. |
Anonymous
Saying that you want to take Russian is the method for families transfer into Langley. FCPS will face substantial blowback if they try to remove it. |
Anonymous
Renovations are getting more and more expensive. Renovation costs have more than doubled over the past 10 years. And the current queue doesn’t account for declining commercial real estate values and property taxes due to telework, so there’s no way the county will be able to pursue many of the proposed projects in the proposed timeframes. The school board has got to figure how to combine the minimum number of school renovations with the minimum number of redistrictings to achieve its goals, and this will require long-term planning with a holistic view of all the tools the county has at its disposal. The county does not and will not have the funds to continue to renovate schools in a manner that leaves underutilized capacity. |
Anonymous
So what. Make it an online course. |
Anonymous
Yes, they should not be doing massive expansions of schools where there is no expectation of significant growth, but rather making sure there are an adequate number of permanent seats at schools that are already overcrowded or expected to see substantial growth. That’s not what they’ve been doing for quite some time. |
Anonymous
DP. The PP is correct. And not only that, the Russian program at Langley is very highly respected and has the longest-running Russian exchange program in FCPS. There is not a chance in hell this would ever be made an online program. Try again. |
Anonymous
I think this is an excellent idea! Much more efficient than the current patchwork. |
Anonymous
German is getting phased out now at Langley. Russian absolutely could be an online course, which would expand its availability to students interested in the language all over the county. |
Anonymous
| Russian won't be made an "online" course, as much as one or two of you think it should be. If your child is interested in learning Russian, they can transfer in. Fantastic program. |
Anonymous
Highly regarded language programs at TJ, including Japanese, are being phased out based on enrollment. No reason Langley is unique. Maybe it can move to Herndon HS, if it’s so special? |
Anonymous
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I’m sure some at Langley would like to keep in-person Russian, just as some at Justice would like to keep in-person Arabic, some at Falls Church would like to keep in-person Vietnamese, some at McLean would like to keep in-person ASL, and some at Centreville would like to keep in-person Korean.
The point, however, is that this county-wide redistricting that Anderson and other Board members keep mentioning as on the horizon is DOA if there is not going to be more standardized academic offerings, as there used to be in FCPS. If they aren’t prepared to do this, they shouldn’t be wasting anyone’s time with their county-wide redistricting talk. Instead, as has been noted earlier, just focusing on an updated renovation queue with more focus on which schools really need additional capacity would be a much better use of their time. |
Anonymous
Well, sure - if a language is showing declining enrollment (like German) then no reason it shouldn't be phased out. Russian is not in that category. Quite the opposite, in fact. DP |