Do you feel that FCPS has your child’s best interests at heart?

[Anonymous]

Public schools serve children of widely differing economic status who come from families different parenting styles and sets of expectations. Some of these parents help educate their children; others don’t. Then factor in the growing population of kids with IEPs and 504s for learning disabilities, as well as the kids who don’t speak much English, and an “inclusion-based” philosophy which throws them all in classrooms together… how well can you expect everyone’s needs and interests to be met?

Does FCPS have children’s best interest at heart? The people at Gatehouse don’t work with children. The teachers do, but most of them are overwhelmed, and Gatehouse policies are only ever a burden not a support system. As a teacher, myself, I find that parents who are involved and community-minded (i.e., not trying to give their own kids unfair advantages, delivering consequences for their child’s disruptive behavior) have helped me the most. I thank God for the parents who are trying to ensure their kids are not only well educated, but also growing into productive and helpful members of society.

[Anonymous]

Based on recent HS interactions, I will no longer consider reporting a potential threat to school administration.

If I know someone who is a threat to themselves or to others, I will consider reporting to police but the school is on their own. I have been told that is not school business. Unbelievable. So be it.

If I see people entering the building going around Security, mum’s the word.

There are too many kids to worry about, why worry if one or several makes threats? School is about academics, not kids.

Message received loud and clear FCPS. You’ve lost my trust. Best of luck to those working there. My kids can’t graduate fast enough from there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public schools serve children of widely differing economic status who come from families different parenting styles and sets of expectations. Some of these parents help educate their children; others don’t. Then factor in the growing population of kids with IEPs and 504s for learning disabilities, as well as the kids who don’t speak much English, and an “inclusion-based” philosophy which throws them all in classrooms together… how well can you expect everyone’s needs and interests to be met?

Does FCPS have children’s best interest at heart? The people at Gatehouse don’t work with children. The teachers do, but most of them are overwhelmed, and Gatehouse policies are only ever a burden not a support system. As a teacher, myself, I find that parents who are involved and community-minded (i.e., not trying to give their own kids unfair advantages, delivering consequences for their child’s disruptive behavior) have helped me the most. I thank God for the parents who are trying to ensure their kids are not only well educated, but also growing into productive and helpful members of society.

Thank you for caring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:See subject. I’m not talking about individual teachers. I’m talking about whether the system is set up to care about students as humans as opposed to widgets.

Should FCPS only care about providing a teacher who teaches focuses solely on academics ignoring also other aspects (eg, behavior, personal issues) or should it care only about getting kids out the door in 12th grade regardless of grades?

Should it care about students welfare out side of school or their mental health?

If a parent sees a problem outside of school that may impact what happens inside of school, should they bother keeping school/FCPS informed?

If there are issues happening in school (eg, bullying) that may impact what happens at home, should FCPS/school inform the parents?

—Insisting on edtech for young children despite the evidence (which has been around for awhile at this point) that it is neurologically and socially stunting

—crap cafeteria food knowing how important nutrition is

—instructional fads so inadequate that many families had to teach reading themselves, leading even the local NAACP to call them out for this disparate impact

Etc

No the system doesn’t give a good gotdamn about what is best for children.
Never mind whether Larlo needs to sit
away from the window or Larla is borderline for AAP and the principal won’t let her in.

FCPS isn’t special in this regard, they are absolutely ordinary.

Perhaps smaller town/county systems in which the people running it mostly have deeper roots and connections to the children they serve have a higher incidence of caring what is best for students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See subject. I’m not talking about individual teachers. I’m talking about whether the system is set up to care about students as humans as opposed to widgets.

Should FCPS only care about providing a teacher who teaches focuses solely on academics ignoring also other aspects (eg, behavior, personal issues) or should it care only about getting kids out the door in 12th grade regardless of grades?

Should it care about students welfare out side of school or their mental health?

If a parent sees a problem outside of school that may impact what happens inside of school, should they bother keeping school/FCPS informed?

If there are issues happening in school (eg, bullying) that may impact what happens at home, should FCPS/school inform the parents?

—Insisting on edtech for young children despite the evidence (which has been around for awhile at this point) that it is neurologically and socially stunting

—crap cafeteria food knowing how important nutrition is

—instructional fads so inadequate that many families had to teach reading themselves, leading even the local NAACP to call them out for this disparate impact

Etc

No the system doesn’t give a good gotdamn about what is best for children.
Never mind whether Larlo needs to sit
away from the window or Larla is borderline for AAP and the principal won’t let her in.

FCPS isn’t special in this regard, they are absolutely ordinary.

Perhaps smaller town/county systems in which the people running it mostly have deeper roots and connections to the children they serve have a higher incidence of caring what is best for students.

In which case, is the dept of education consequential?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher. I think most of the teachers and admin do have the kids' best interests at heart. I think the county itself is far removed from that and mostly make decisions based on money and politics. And a lot of the problems in Fairfax actually come from the state, which absolutely does not have the kids' best interests at heart. It's all individual politics.

This. I am also a teacher-I feel for teachers and students in this county. No one seems to have their best interests at heart. Now the comfy Gatehouse positions-those are well protected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS cares about meeting state and federal standards for what public education is supposed to provide. Kids are supposed to graduate having mastered the material that is captured in the SOL, and that is not necessarily hard to do. It is the level of education that kids need to be productive members of society if they don’t go to college.

That is very different than what many parents expect, although I would bet that there are more parents happy with what FCPS provides then who are unhappy with what is being provided.

FCPS will provide the services needed to meet the state and federal mandates for kids with special needs, so keeping kids on grade level where they can. Parents are going to need to look to outside services if they want kids to be more then on grade level because the schools don’t have the mandate or money to provide services to ush beyond that.

FCPS will provide advanced options in the form of AAP, DE, and AP/IB classes but they are not going to be able to meet the needs of super advanced kids in ES. Parents will have to supplement in areas that they think there are weaknesses or where kids are not challenged enough.

I have an 8th grader, he has had some great opportunities. We are happy with the education he is getting.

Exactly. This is such a loaded question and I have noticed that many parents who complain have unrealistic expectations of what they expect a teacher/administrator/school/system in public education to do for their child in a specific, isolated incident that only affects them. There are a number of these instances already mentioned on this thread.

But if you're talking about a systemic service issue, then you have to acknowledge that FCPS is made up of 180,000+ students who all have different backgrounds, abilities and needs. Their job is to serve them ALL. The system has to function broadly because it is a large system - the 9th largest school system in the country. So we have systemic policies in place that go beyond the classroom to provide services such as special needs assessment and services, school psychologists in every school, police resource officers in every school for safety, free and reduced lunch programs, ESOL programs, bilingual community liaisons at each school, health insurance options, summer school recovery and enrichment programs, adult education programs, professional development training for teachers, and the list goes on.

I would say that each of the above programs is not purely a "classroom/education" program, but directly supports the students, teachers and families and are all examples of the system "caring" about students and their success.

It's such an entitlement to complain that your child had an issue with a specific student, teacher or administrator and that you tried to be a squeaky wheel to get the issue resolved to your complete satisfaction and if it is resolved with anything less than your complete satisfaction that the entire system doesn't care about your kid. This forum is FILLED with these types of complainers who then paint the entire system with a brush of being inadequate and uncaring instead of acknowledging that the entire public school system can't be about pleasing one family, but instead attempting to service all equally and equitably.

So you don’t value education any more than those who see school as daycare care.

Some of us understand that public school is not private school and that means that there are times we are going to have to supplement or support because we cannot expect the schools to meet each child's individual needs. This has always been the case. The loudest voices on this board are people who seem to think that the public schools should bend over backwards to meet the needs of their specific kid and that the school is awful if they don't address their specific grievance.

That said, I do wish that there was more of an attempt to build classes based on ability so that more kids could have their needs meet then is happening today. I think the "inclusion for all" sounds nice in theory but has led to teachers trying to meet too many needs in one classroom and having to focus on the kids who are failing or have already failed and need to be caught up while the other kids get little to know attention.

Thanks for your input Gatehouse. How about we stop cutting instructional positions and funding from schools where the truly important work needs to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See subject. I’m not talking about individual teachers. I’m talking about whether the system is set up to care about students as humans as opposed to widgets.

Should FCPS only care about providing a teacher who teaches focuses solely on academics ignoring also other aspects (eg, behavior, personal issues) or should it care only about getting kids out the door in 12th grade regardless of grades?

Should it care about students welfare out side of school or their mental health?

If a parent sees a problem outside of school that may impact what happens inside of school, should they bother keeping school/FCPS informed?

If there are issues happening in school (eg, bullying) that may impact what happens at home, should FCPS/school inform the parents?

—Insisting on edtech for young children despite the evidence (which has been around for awhile at this point) that it is neurologically and socially stunting

—crap cafeteria food knowing how important nutrition is

—instructional fads so inadequate that many families had to teach reading themselves, leading even the local NAACP to call them out for this disparate impact

Etc

No the system doesn’t give a good gotdamn about what is best for children.
Never mind whether Larlo needs to sit
away from the window or Larla is borderline for AAP and the principal won’t let her in.

FCPS isn’t special in this regard, they are absolutely ordinary.

Perhaps smaller town/county systems in which the people running it mostly have deeper roots and connections to the children they serve have a higher incidence of caring what is best for students.

I grew up in this kind of school system and my parents were teachers and administrators in that system and in theory it sounds nice like it should work and that everyone does better because they all care more deeply and are giving back to their community and it's more personal, but in reality, the lack of broad resources (human, economic, academic support) and the lack of diversity of viewpoints ends up killing the system and providing a vastly inferior education than what we see in a large system like in Fairfax.

Trust me the grass isn't greener.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, bullying has existed forever. Teachers do what they can, but lots goes on behind their backs.

The difference today is that we are very aware. One thing is different. We used to try to help the victim learn how to handle it, while also working on getting the bully to stop.
Now, it is just about getting the bully to stop.



But, agree that social media is a whole other problem. Teachers can tell them that, but it is up to monitor and be aware.

FCPS does neither. If anything they protect the bully. FCPS even had documents that showed they made decisions on which kids and parents they thought were more popular. If you read others responses, FCPS goes after no one including bullies. They spend their days trying to remove the idea that there arw any problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, bullying has existed forever. Teachers do what they can, but lots goes on behind their backs.

The difference today is that we are very aware. One thing is different. We used to try to help the victim learn how to handle it, while also working on getting the bully to stop.
Now, it is just about getting the bully to stop.



But, agree that social media is a whole other problem. Teachers can tell them that, but it is up to monitor and be aware.

FCPS does neither. If anything they protect the bully. FCPS even had documents that showed they made decisions on which kids and parents they thought were more popular. If you read others responses, FCPS goes after no one including bullies. They spend their days trying to remove the idea that there arw any problems.

This. And this is why I will not give a heads up if I’ve been made aware of a kid who has made threats about school. They don’t want to hear it, let alone acknowledge problems. They rely on things happening outside of school so they can claim innocence. They are anything but innocent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See subject. I’m not talking about individual teachers. I’m talking about whether the system is set up to care about students as humans as opposed to widgets.

Should FCPS only care about providing a teacher who teaches focuses solely on academics ignoring also other aspects (eg, behavior, personal issues) or should it care only about getting kids out the door in 12th grade regardless of grades?

Should it care about students welfare out side of school or their mental health?

If a parent sees a problem outside of school that may impact what happens inside of school, should they bother keeping school/FCPS informed?

If there are issues happening in school (eg, bullying) that may impact what happens at home, should FCPS/school inform the parents?

—Insisting on edtech for young children despite the evidence (which has been around for awhile at this point) that it is neurologically and socially stunting

—crap cafeteria food knowing how important nutrition is

—instructional fads so inadequate that many families had to teach reading themselves, leading even the local NAACP to call them out for this disparate impact

Etc

No the system doesn’t give a good gotdamn about what is best for children.
Never mind whether Larlo needs to sit
away from the window or Larla is borderline for AAP and the principal won’t let her in.

FCPS isn’t special in this regard, they are absolutely ordinary.

Perhaps smaller town/county systems in which the people running it mostly have deeper roots and connections to the children they serve have a higher incidence of caring what is best for students.

I would add to this list the disruptive calendar and the incredibly short amount of time the younger grades spend outdoors and evidence that no, FCPS is not motivated by the best interests of children.

[Anonymous]

FCPS is just too big. Their policies have to serve their entire population and the population is just too varied to make it work. We have schools where 95% of the students pass the SOLs and we have schools where 95% of students come from low income homes and often lack resources needed to be successful. Those schools need significantly different administrative supports but they are under the same policies and administrative staff.

I was shocked when my 1st graders teacher mentioned the entire district is on the same pacing for benchmark down to the week, so students, classes, or entire schools that are high achieving are being slowed down while other schools are being pushed forward to keep with pace. No one wins because the system is just too big and trying to pretend every school is the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher. I think most of the teachers and admin do have the kids' best interests at heart. I think the county itself is far removed from that and mostly make decisions based on money and politics. And a lot of the problems in Fairfax actually come from the state, which absolutely does not have the kids' best interests at heart. It's all individual politics.

This. I am also a teacher-I feel for teachers and students in this county. No one seems to have their best interests at heart. Now the comfy Gatehouse positions-those are well protected.

Do you really believe that?

Our local School Board member only gets excited when talking about pay increases for FCPS teachers and staff. If you ask her about our run-down school building, she stonewalls you and tells you there's no money or says we should make personal trips to Richmond to convince state legislators to send more money back to Fairfax.

I support paying teachers adequately as well, but the contrast between her commitment to increasing pay and benefits for FCPS teachers and staff and her indifference to our school couldn't be more stark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher. I think most of the teachers and admin do have the kids' best interests at heart. I think the county itself is far removed from that and mostly make decisions based on money and politics. And a lot of the problems in Fairfax actually come from the state, which absolutely does not have the kids' best interests at heart. It's all individual politics.

This. I am also a teacher-I feel for teachers and students in this county. No one seems to have their best interests at heart. Now the comfy Gatehouse positions-those are well protected.

Do you really believe that?

Our local School Board member only gets excited when talking about pay increases for FCPS teachers and staff. If you ask her about our run-down school building, she stonewalls you and tells you there's no money or says we should make personal trips to Richmond to convince state legislators to send more money back to Fairfax.

I support paying teachers adequately as well, but the contrast between her commitment to increasing pay and benefits for FCPS teachers and staff and her indifference to our school couldn't be more stark.

What are you going on about

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:See subject. I’m not talking about individual teachers. I’m talking about whether the system is set up to care about students as humans as opposed to widgets.

Should FCPS only care about providing a teacher who teaches focuses solely on academics ignoring also other aspects (eg, behavior, personal issues) or should it care only about getting kids out the door in 12th grade regardless of grades?

Should it care about students welfare out side of school or their mental health?

If a parent sees a problem outside of school that may impact what happens inside of school, should they bother keeping school/FCPS informed?

If there are issues happening in school (eg, bullying) that may impact what happens at home, should FCPS/school inform the parents?

They are too big and in no way do they have students and teachers best interest in mind or at heart.