If you were in charge of FCPS, what budget cuts would you make?

[Anonymous]

Right. So there is no immersion bussing to cut.

I say cut FLES, but keep the immersion program. Language immersion doesn't add any teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I went to school I never used the counselors, because that's what parents are supposed to do

Maybe if you'd sought their help you'd be able to write a sentence now.

they teach English?

Doing fine with 2 masters and a hhi of 350k

Why is this relevant?

[Anonymous]

I'd get rid of the FFPS PR department. They have something like 24 employees doing PR. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Why are high school sports untouchable? They are no different than any other afterschool club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right. So there is no immersion bussing to cut.

I say cut FLES, but keep the immersion program. Language immersion doesn't add any teachers.

Why would magnet programs get bussing but not immersion? Do baileys kids in immersion not get bussing while the magnet kids do?
Cut the busses, regardless.

Immersion programs do require extra teachers. The kids have a teacher that teaches the English portion of the day and a teacher that does math and science in the target language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right. So there is no immersion bussing to cut.

I say cut FLES, but keep the immersion program. Language immersion doesn't add any teachers.

Why would magnet programs get bussing but not immersion? Do baileys kids in immersion not get bussing while the magnet kids do?
Cut the busses, regardless.

Immersion programs do require extra teachers. The kids have a teacher that teaches the English portion of the day and a teacher that does math and science in the target language.

No. Those teachers typically have two classes, so the kids would still require the same number of teachers. It's not like the teacher is part time or has half the day free. If there are two classes of immersion students, let's say 28 in each, one will be in language immersion math/science while the other is in language arts/social studies. Then they flip. Those 56 students would still require two teachers if they weren't in immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this will be inflammatory -- but the core/essential purpose of schools is the academic part. So, keep PE b/c everybody needs a break and they do learn about health.... but get rid of sports teams. Those are just not part of the core mission... sorry.

If I have to choose between counselors and a football team, I'm choosing counselors who might keep my kid from being bullied or might help someone with anorexia or abuse.

Then I'd reduce the number of instructional assistants -- I was shocked to look on my kids' elementary school website and see about 25 instructional assistants listed. That seems like a whole lot. Maybe we still need a lot of them for the special needs, but if they are not being used for special needs or kindergarten, I think they probably have to go.

Band/strings -- I'd hate to see it go, and I could argue that it is an academic pursuit b/c you can get a degree in music/fine arts. But, it could become a fee-based program.

I'm willing to pay more taxes for all of the above and to avoid any other cuts.

Were those 25 IAs all for kindergarten? There are also IAs for special ed. SPED requires a lot more assistants.

FWIW, I counted 14 IAs for my DS' ES.

[Anonymous]

I will disagree about cutting out the FLES program. Having learned two foreign languages (German and Spanish) both in ES and later in HS, I have to say I retained the one from my ES years much, much better and was comfortable using it when I lived in Austria for a few years.

I would, however, cut the following:

1. Assistant Principals + Counselors. Never understood their purpose. In four years of HS I met with my counselor exactly twice. First, during Freshman Orientation, and second when she tried to give me advice about colleges. Turned out I knew more about the programs I was interested in than she was.

2. Sport teams. There are plenty of private clubs. You want your kid to do competitive gymnastics and swimming - go there.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, our assistant principals and counselor are probably the busiest people in the building. They're the first ones called in cases of severe behavior issues (we have an ED center, so this isn't unusual). I never see those people sitting in their office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eliminate AAP bussing, magnet and immersion bussing, and TJ bussing. Impose sport fees, band/strings fees, and have families pay their own AP and IB exam fees.

Do high school student parking passes still cost $100 like they did when I was in FCPS? If not, bring back the fee.

They're now actually $250.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cut the Foreign Language in Elem & Middle- I did not start it until HS and I went on to minor in Spanish in college.

Cut sports or pay to play

Cut AAP centers - back to your base school

Expand the walk/bus radius

Agree completely with the above cuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this will be inflammatory -- but the core/essential purpose of schools is the academic part. So, keep PE b/c everybody needs a break and they do learn about health.... but get rid of sports teams. Those are just not part of the core mission... sorry.

If I have to choose between counselors and a football team, I'm choosing counselors who might keep my kid from being bullied or might help someone with anorexia or abuse.

Then I'd reduce the number of instructional assistants -- I was shocked to look on my kids' elementary school website and see about 25 instructional assistants listed. That seems like a whole lot. Maybe we still need a lot of them for the special needs, but if they are not being used for special needs or kindergarten, I think they probably have to go.

Band/strings -- I'd hate to see it go, and I could argue that it is an academic pursuit b/c you can get a degree in music/fine arts. But, it could become a fee-based program.

I'm willing to pay more taxes for all of the above and to avoid any other cuts.

Were those 25 IAs all for kindergarten? There are also IAs for special ed. SPED requires a lot more assistants.

FWIW, I counted 14 IAs for my DS' ES.

4-5 are for kindergarten. My kids' school has sort of a "center" for Spec. Ed (kids transfer to this school b/c of the Spec. Ed. programs)-- there are 14 people listed as "Special Education Teachers" in the directory. There are 26 people listed as "Instructional Assistants" (5 of those are full time assistants in the kindergarten classes). That leaves 21 who are not kindergarten instructional assistants. That seems like a HUGE number for a school with 800 kids. I can't make a sweeping statement that they should be cut, but it sure makes me wonder what they are doing and why we have so many. I'm very grateful that my kids' class size is 22-26 in the past two years (previously was 29-30). 22-26 seems like a reasonable number for a teacher to manage.

Would love to hear from teachers regarding the value of IAs.

[Anonymous]

Keep high school sports. Charge athletic fee and have a sliding scale for those who cannot afford it.
People pay to attend the games. Coaches are paid next to nothing.

[Anonymous]

Cut AAP
Cut FLES
Cut magnet programs
Put kids back in base schools

Cut Gatehouse

[Anonymous]

Cut the recruiter for TJ--does TJ really need a recruiter?