King Abdullah Academy Closing: FCPS Buy for HS?

[Anonymous]

Wait, so some of you think FCPS already owns the land? How do we figure this out? I wrote my school board member asking them to look into buying this as a western HS but didn’t hear anything back yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like a perfect location for the 2e academy that SEPTA has been advocating for.

If they ever get their hands on that much acreage and those facilities again, it should be for a new comprehensive high school and nothing else.

Exactly my point. They love to throw sped and 2e parents crumbs but when push comes to shove they’ll screw us every time

They could create a 2e wing TJ.

TJ isn’t big enough to educate the kids who can go there. Why do you think a “wing” is sufficient when 10% of the kids in this county have IEPs?

[Anonymous]

What is the purpose of a 2e academy?

I really do not understand how it would operate. Not judging, just trying to understand.

How many kids would attend such an academy? And, if such an academy were to exist, the edge of the county would be a terrible location.

And, I can just imagine the pushback from the community to give a luxurious building to a select group.

[Anonymous]

A “2E” academy should not be the top priority of FCPS were somehow able to acquire this property.

Please don’t be ridiculous. Frisch wanted a separate school for LBGTQ kids. Didn’t happen. He and Cohen wanted a separate school for recovering addicts. Didn’t happen. We don’t have enough high schools as it is now for all kids so we certainly can’t have these other programs in stand-alone buildings.

[Anonymous]

Ideas that would be helpful and I can see as a good use of a smaller space.

1) SPED school with space for kids with behavioral issues and more serious academic interventions.
2) IB school. There are people who really like IB, a decent number, create an IB high school and let those kids attend that school. Revert every other HS to an AP school
3) ELL school. A school with specialized programs for kids who are learning English. The current put a 2nd grader who speaks no English into an all English speaking classroom model isn’t working for anyone.

Essentially, there are programs that would work far better if the services were concentrated at a location and the entirety of the staff was devoted to addressing those issues. There would be more support for the students and for the Teachers/Admin/Staff.

2E kids can take Honors, AP, and IB classes. Plenty do. I get that it isn’t easy, I was a 2E kid in honors classes and it was a fight to get me into the classes while retaining services. I get it but we need spaces for kids with more serious issues and specialized programs so the kids get the help they need and we can more easily remove disruptive kids from the classroom, especially in ES. There are kids at home waiting for private placements because FCPS doesn’t have a program for them and there are not enough private schools that are not warehouses to take the kids.

My guess is that the IB would be the easiest to do because cuts at the Department of Education are going to royally screw over SPED programs and ELL is a political minefield, never mind that there are a good chunk of ELL kids who are here legally and are not Hispanc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ideas that would be helpful and I can see as a good use of a smaller space.

1) SPED school with space for kids with behavioral issues and more serious academic interventions.
2) IB school. There are people who really like IB, a decent number, create an IB high school and let those kids attend that school. Revert every other HS to an AP school
3) ELL school. A school with specialized programs for kids who are learning English. The current put a 2nd grader who speaks no English into an all English speaking classroom model isn’t working for anyone.

Essentially, there are programs that would work far better if the services were concentrated at a location and the entirety of the staff was devoted to addressing those issues. There would be more support for the students and for the Teachers/Admin/Staff.

2E kids can take Honors, AP, and IB classes. Plenty do. I get that it isn’t easy, I was a 2E kid in honors classes and it was a fight to get me into the classes while retaining services. I get it but we need spaces for kids with more serious issues and specialized programs so the kids get the help they need and we can more easily remove disruptive kids from the classroom, especially in ES. There are kids at home waiting for private placements because FCPS doesn’t have a program for them and there are not enough private schools that are not warehouses to take the kids.

My guess is that the IB would be the easiest to do because cuts at the Department of Education are going to royally screw over SPED programs and ELL is a political minefield, never mind that there are a good chunk of ELL kids who are here legally and are not Hispanc.

The land was supposed to be for the mythical western high school to alleviate Chantilly et al. but powerful people at other schools have helped FCPS drag its feet so that the domino effect would not burst their bubble and their personal plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A “2E” academy should not be the top priority of FCPS were somehow able to acquire this property.

Please don’t be ridiculous. Frisch wanted a separate school for LBGTQ kids. Didn’t happen. He and Cohen wanted a separate school for recovering addicts. Didn’t happen. We don’t have enough high schools as it is now for all kids so we certainly can’t have these other programs in stand-alone buildings.

He wanted to segregate LBGTQ kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A “2E” academy should not be the top priority of FCPS were somehow able to acquire this property.

Please don’t be ridiculous. Frisch wanted a separate school for LBGTQ kids. Didn’t happen. He and Cohen wanted a separate school for recovering addicts. Didn’t happen. We don’t have enough high schools as it is now for all kids so we certainly can’t have these other programs in stand-alone buildings.

You sure like making stuff up, don’t you Joanne?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ideas that would be helpful and I can see as a good use of a smaller space.

1) SPED school with space for kids with behavioral issues and more serious academic interventions.
2) IB school. There are people who really like IB, a decent number, create an IB high school and let those kids attend that school. Revert every other HS to an AP school
3) ELL school. A school with specialized programs for kids who are learning English. The current put a 2nd grader who speaks no English into an all English speaking classroom model isn’t working for anyone.

Essentially, there are programs that would work far better if the services were concentrated at a location and the entirety of the staff was devoted to addressing those issues. There would be more support for the students and for the Teachers/Admin/Staff.

2E kids can take Honors, AP, and IB classes. Plenty do. I get that it isn’t easy, I was a 2E kid in honors classes and it was a fight to get me into the classes while retaining services. I get it but we need spaces for kids with more serious issues and specialized programs so the kids get the help they need and we can more easily remove disruptive kids from the classroom, especially in ES. There are kids at home waiting for private placements because FCPS doesn’t have a program for them and there are not enough private schools that are not warehouses to take the kids.

My guess is that the IB would be the easiest to do because cuts at the Department of Education are going to royally screw over SPED programs and ELL is a political minefield, never mind that there are a good chunk of ELL kids who are here legally and are not Hispanc.

I think ELL centers were at some point discontinued in favor of mainstreaming after some legal directive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ideas that would be helpful and I can see as a good use of a smaller space.

1) SPED school with space for kids with behavioral issues and more serious academic interventions.
2) IB school. There are people who really like IB, a decent number, create an IB high school and let those kids attend that school. Revert every other HS to an AP school
3) ELL school. A school with specialized programs for kids who are learning English. The current put a 2nd grader who speaks no English into an all English speaking classroom model isn’t working for anyone.

Essentially, there are programs that would work far better if the services were concentrated at a location and the entirety of the staff was devoted to addressing those issues. There would be more support for the students and for the Teachers/Admin/Staff.

2E kids can take Honors, AP, and IB classes. Plenty do. I get that it isn’t easy, I was a 2E kid in honors classes and it was a fight to get me into the classes while retaining services. I get it but we need spaces for kids with more serious issues and specialized programs so the kids get the help they need and we can more easily remove disruptive kids from the classroom, especially in ES. There are kids at home waiting for private placements because FCPS doesn’t have a program for them and there are not enough private schools that are not warehouses to take the kids.

My guess is that the IB would be the easiest to do because cuts at the Department of Education are going to royally screw over SPED programs and ELL is a political minefield, never mind that there are a good chunk of ELL kids who are here legally and are not Hispanc.

I think ELL centers were at some point discontinued in favor of mainstreaming after some legal directive.

PP.

Separate centers are legal federally and some school systems employ that model. There is some debate on which is best. I https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/inclusion-or-exclusion-the-esl-education-debate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ideas that would be helpful and I can see as a good use of a smaller space.

1) SPED school with space for kids with behavioral issues and more serious academic interventions.
2) IB school. There are people who really like IB, a decent number, create an IB high school and let those kids attend that school. Revert every other HS to an AP school
3) ELL school. A school with specialized programs for kids who are learning English. The current put a 2nd grader who speaks no English into an all English speaking classroom model isn’t working for anyone.

Essentially, there are programs that would work far better if the services were concentrated at a location and the entirety of the staff was devoted to addressing those issues. There would be more support for the students and for the Teachers/Admin/Staff.

2E kids can take Honors, AP, and IB classes. Plenty do. I get that it isn’t easy, I was a 2E kid in honors classes and it was a fight to get me into the classes while retaining services. I get it but we need spaces for kids with more serious issues and specialized programs so the kids get the help they need and we can more easily remove disruptive kids from the classroom, especially in ES. There are kids at home waiting for private placements because FCPS doesn’t have a program for them and there are not enough private schools that are not warehouses to take the kids.

My guess is that the IB would be the easiest to do because cuts at the Department of Education are going to royally screw over SPED programs and ELL is a political minefield, never mind that there are a good chunk of ELL kids who are here legally and are not Hispanc.

The land was supposed to be for the mythical western high school to alleviate Chantilly et al. but powerful people at other schools have helped FCPS drag its feet so that the domino effect would not burst their bubble and their personal plans.

I would guess that they need to do some serious construction in order to get it to a large enough HS. I also thought that they allowed the Saudi’s to use the land because it was too small for a HS. The existing buildings could be used quickly to handle some of the programs in need of expansion and a home that would be valuable to the County immediately. Some of the outbuildings could be converted for other programs that are needed.

If it was used for an IB school you would bring in kids interested in that program and relieve schools that are over crowded or close to being over crowded. It would free up space in some existing HS. It would also allow all HS to have AP programs, which would reduce the number of student transfers.

The current ELL system is not working. I have no idea why there are some people who think that mainstreaming kids who have no knowledge of English is a good idea. We sure are not seeing evidence of those kids learning English or doing well in school. Maybe we need to look at why. Maybe placing kids who are new to the culture and the language in a regular classroom is not working and we need to do something different.

[Anonymous]

Actually FCPS has shared data that shows pretty impressive progress for MLL.

Anyways, people are veering way off track. The first thing is to figure out if FCPS can get this land.

[Anonymous]

They should just get rid of IB totally.

They need a new Western HS. This is the perfect location and *its already built*. Have a 1000 kid HS. Have a 1200 kid HS. Put an addition on later if you need to.

[Anonymous]

Exactly, its a turn key HS in the location fcps has been looking for space for ten years.

[Anonymous]

Fcps had this land for a high school and sold it, right? So they can just buy it back.