Falls Church City School Board Candidates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a lot of the opposition to Shapiro is just based on a very knee jerk tribal leftist agenda- that says 'shapiro doesn't think exactly like me, thereby he must be banned from the city.' I'm pretty middle of the road, and don't know Shapiro personally, but I basically intend to vote for him. He and his wife were super involved at Dulin preschool- point being there that they have a history of involvement in their kids schooling, which doesn't make me think he's coming in with some huge secret conservative agenda. My biggest concern about the FCCPS school board right now is the level of group think. They just defer to Noonan. I like Noonan and think he deserves some deference, but the SB needs to be asking some questions. The SB also appears to have some interest in proving their 'wokeness' both with respect to school renamings and the inane calendar they adopted for this year. I don't really care about the school renamings and view the issue as an unnecessary distraction- but the stupid calendar is a disaster- for education, for kids who need continuity, for working parents, etc. This is why I am voting for Shapiro- its that kind of decision that we need a different way of thinking on.

I’m a teacher in FCCPS but not a resident so I will not be able to vote. I am not endorsing any candidate but agree with parts of this post. The current board at least appears to defer with Dr. Noonan on many items. I don’t speak for everyone but a lot of staff are not happy with the current focus in FCCPS. Many above us seem to have lost touch with those in the classroom. A few visits and photos on Twitter do not mean you understand what the current needs are of students or staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the true number of people in FCC who support Ilya won't be apparent until after the polls close. I know several people who plan to vote for him but would never put a sign in their yard and aren't public about their support.

Why would people refrain from putting up a yard sign or being public about support? Are they anticipating blowback from their "friends"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the true number of people in FCC who support Ilya won't be apparent until after the polls close. I know several people who plan to vote for him but would never put a sign in their yard and aren't public about their support.

Why would people refrain from putting up a yard sign or being public about support? Are they anticipating blowback from their "friends"?

PP - Yes, because people here are pretty intolerant when it comes to different views, sadly. In many crowds, admitting you like Ilya is a black mark. Speaking of which, agree with the other poster about the FCNP endorsements. I'm still planning to vote for Silverman and Anderson (not sure about the other two), but I'm pretty sure the newspaper made their picks based off of how many other people in FCC already threw their support behind those four candidates. Nick Benton isn't known for doing a lot of detailed "research."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the true number of people in FCC who support Ilya won't be apparent until after the polls close. I know several people who plan to vote for him but would never put a sign in their yard and aren't public about their support.

Why would people refrain from putting up a yard sign or being public about support? Are they anticipating blowback from their "friends"?

PP - Yes, because people here are pretty intolerant when it comes to different views, sadly. In many crowds, admitting you like Ilya is a black mark.

I hope that's not true. If it is, then (a) people need some backbone, and (b) anyone that would give you blowback is not your friend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the true number of people in FCC who support Ilya won't be apparent until after the polls close. I know several people who plan to vote for him but would never put a sign in their yard and aren't public about their support.

Why would people refrain from putting up a yard sign or being public about support? Are they anticipating blowback from their "friends"?

PP - Yes, because people here are pretty intolerant when it comes to different views, sadly. In many crowds, admitting you like Ilya is a black mark.

I hope that's not true. If it is, then (a) people need some backbone, and (b) anyone that would give you blowback is not your friend.

Agree with the pp and while I’d be fine personally dealing with the blow back I am more concerned about it impacting my kids.

[Anonymous]

I have to say, as a parent with a senior who graduated last year, that I was troubled by the photo that accompanied the WSJ article. I doubt the student was consulted about her photo being used, and question who/why the decision was made to use a photo of one of very few students who wear a head covering for religious reasons.

[Anonymous]

Great to read on an anonymous forum that many people in our community think that recognition and accommodation of holidays other than Christian ones is a “pain” and “overkill” for “working parents.” And I bet you have no issue with spring break changing every year specifically to accommodate Easter. My family celebrates some of these holidays (as do others), we are working parents too, and we really appreciate the SB’s more inclusive calendar. I’m also glad that it shows children that it’s not only Christian holidays that are worthy of recognition.

[Anonymous]

He is an attention seeker above all, and everything I’ve seen about him strongly suggests that he is motivated mostly by his libertarian politics, which are at odds with public education and public health.

[Anonymous]

The fcnp editorial was ridiculous. I hate trump. Therefore not Shapiro. (Who has no Trump affiliation). Here is my best guess at who the most liberal candidates are.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how the voting works? is it a rank system? How many sports are open on the SB and how many candidates will there be? So I vote for as many candidates as there are sports or can i just vote for two candidates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how the voting works? is it a rank system? How many sports are open on the SB and how many candidates will there be? So I vote for as many candidates as there are sports or can i just vote for two candidates?

There are four open seats and you can vote for up to 4 of the 7 candidates. You can vote for 0-4 candidates - people definitely vote for just one or two sometimes. The top 4 vote getters win seats. No ranking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the true number of people in FCC who support Ilya won't be apparent until after the polls close. I know several people who plan to vote for him but would never put a sign in their yard and aren't public about their support.

Why would people refrain from putting up a yard sign or being public about support? Are they anticipating blowback from their "friends"?

PP - Yes, because people here are pretty intolerant when it comes to different views, sadly. In many crowds, admitting you like Ilya is a black mark.

I hope that's not true. If it is, then (a) people need some backbone, and (b) anyone that would give you blowback is not your friend.

Agree with the pp and while I’d be fine personally dealing with the blow back I am more concerned about it impacting my kids.

My kids are in fear of anything out of the scope of groupthink being expressed by either me or spouse as they know they would loose their (pseudo) friends in an FCC minute...
All of this is one big social experiment...my kids cant drive but understand the above concept....i wasnt in my 40s until i witnessed it-or understood it...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the true number of people in FCC who support Ilya won't be apparent until after the polls close. I know several people who plan to vote for him but would never put a sign in their yard and aren't public about their support.

Why would people refrain from putting up a yard sign or being public about support? Are they anticipating blowback from their "friends"?

PP - Yes, because people here are pretty intolerant when it comes to different views, sadly. In many crowds, admitting you like Ilya is a black mark.

I hope that's not true. If it is, then (a) people need some backbone, and (b) anyone that would give you blowback is not your friend.

Agree with the pp and while I’d be fine personally dealing with the blow back I am more concerned about it impacting my kids.

My kids are in fear of anything out of the scope of groupthink being expressed by either me or spouse as they know they would loose their (pseudo) friends in an FCC minute...
All of this is one big social experiment...my kids cant drive but understand the above concept....i wasnt in my 40s until i witnessed it-or understood it...

This is sad, and frankly disturbing. You (and your kids) are the living embodiment of the lyrics to Rush’s Subdivisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a lot of the opposition to Shapiro is just based on a very knee jerk tribal leftist agenda- that says 'shapiro doesn't think exactly like me, thereby he must be banned from the city.' I'm pretty middle of the road, and don't know Shapiro personally, but I basically intend to vote for him. He and his wife were super involved at Dulin preschool- point being there that they have a history of involvement in their kids schooling, which doesn't make me think he's coming in with some huge secret conservative agenda. My biggest concern about the FCCPS school board right now is the level of group think. They just defer to Noonan. I like Noonan and think he deserves some deference, but the SB needs to be asking some questions. The SB also appears to have some interest in proving their 'wokeness' both with respect to school renamings and the inane calendar they adopted for this year. I don't really care about the school renamings and view the issue as an unnecessary distraction- but the stupid calendar is a disaster- for education, for kids who need continuity, for working parents, etc. This is why I am voting for Shapiro- its that kind of decision that we need a different way of thinking on.

Have to agree with the holiday part. It's a little overkill for working parents and I've heard from many fellow parents who agree with this. Felt a little like they just slipped that in on the sly.

From reading the prior comments on here I'm not sure anyone is saying Shapiro should be "banned from the city". To be fair to the people who are commenting on here he did ruffle some feathers by going national in a not particularly glowing review of the local schools. Then said the same things on Fox. Given as someone also said people move here for the good schools, I can see how that can irk some city residents. From someone who had zero kids in the school last year it's a little strange. So to say he's not coming in with an agenda is not 100% accurate. Have you seen his twitter feed spouting kids shouldn't be wearing masks?

Whilst no one disagree's that there needs to be some individual thought process on the board be careful what you wish for. Do we really want someone going on fox and writing in the WSJ every-time there is a decision outside of his sphere of beliefs? How is that going to help anyone or any of our kids as the district spends time and effort defending themselves?

Final point, I think many parents are pretty involved in their kids pre schools, certainly from my experience. Mom's help out, Dads help with reading and classes etc when they can etc

I'm not a Shapiro supporter, but as a fellow Dulin parent I have to say that a true cooperative requires a higher level of commitment than other preschools. So that would be a plus in my book. The rest I'm not crazy about but if he comes knocking I'll gladly chat.

[Anonymous]

To defend Shapiro, aside from a small amount of PTA volunteering, I too didn't give a sh$t about the school board until they pushed our start date before Labor Day, renamed our schools to the tune of a million dollars and kept the schools closed. Frankly he'd be one of 8 and it's good to have a more conservative opinion given the liberal activists that were on the board for the last 4 years.