GBW crowding - heard a rumor

[Anonymous]

So, we've just gone through this whole process to try to alleviate overcrowding at GBW. But there are now rumors that somehow, more kids will be arriving for the 5th and 6th grades.

What the what? WHY? Stop the insanity!

[Anonymous]

It'd be just a handful of kids who appealed and got accepted into AAP or new kids who moved into the neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

Stop being unreasonable, you do not own AAP and there is nothing insane about it. Kids can join AAP all the way upto 8th grade. Elementary schools can not increase the class size over county limit, so you child should not get effected with that, it is just going to increase administrators work, as now they will have to add more classes.

[Anonymous]

You think it's fine to create more work and stress for a school staff that thought they were going to at least get a little breathing room and now the net change in population will be maybe -50, leaving the school 200 kids over capacity?

How come the administration has no say in the size of their student body and must accommodate anyone who wants to come?

No, this should be treated just like any other special program - there is either room or there isn't. And there isn't room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You think it's fine to create more work and stress for a school staff that thought they were going to at least get a little breathing room and now the net change in population will be maybe -50, leaving the school 200 kids over capacity?

How come the administration has no say in the size of their student body and must accommodate anyone who wants to come?

No, this should be treated just like any other special program - there is either room or there isn't. And there isn't room.

Well you have choice to move your child out of AAP if it bothers you that much, with the AAP system being so bloated Gen-ed classrooms are always under capacity.

[Anonymous]

Everyone except rising 6th graders should be asked to go to Poplar Tree if they live in that neighborhood. Still don't see why Powell students are allowed to go to GBW as well!

[Anonymous]

The gen ed classes at GBW are just as crowded, so there goes that theory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone except rising 6th graders should be asked to go to Poplar Tree if they live in that neighborhood. Still don't see why Powell students are allowed to go to GBW as well!

Trust me, we tried to make that argument. The school board refused to budge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You think it's fine to create more work and stress for a school staff that thought they were going to at least get a little breathing room and now the net change in population will be maybe -50, leaving the school 200 kids over capacity?

How come the administration has no say in the size of their student body and must accommodate anyone who wants to come?

No, this should be treated just like any other special program - there is either room or there isn't. And there isn't room.

So you think special ed kids should get turned away too because you think the school is too crowded? You aren't entitled to an at capacity school if there is a need to add kids. Get over yourself!

[Anonymous]

FCPS parents have gotten what they've asked for. And appeals process that allows multiple attempts to get into AAP. Everyone thinks there kids are special and NEED to have AAP these days. I have no sympathy for overcrowded AAP centers. NONE. Let's go back to neighborhood schools an offer AAP at all of them. As another PP has said, stop the insanity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think it's fine to create more work and stress for a school staff that thought they were going to at least get a little breathing room and now the net change in population will be maybe -50, leaving the school 200 kids over capacity?

How come the administration has no say in the size of their student body and must accommodate anyone who wants to come?

No, this should be treated just like any other special program - there is either room or there isn't. And there isn't room.

So you think special ed kids should get turned away too because you think the school is too crowded? You aren't entitled to an at capacity school if there is a need to add kids. Get over yourself!

Aap and special ed are 2 entirely different programs. I think of aap more along the lines of the magnet schools and the language immersion programs.

Two of the schools sending kids to GBW have level 4 programs. Those kids have the resources at their school and should not be given the center option at this point.

And let's be honest - that is where the new students are coming from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think it's fine to create more work and stress for a school staff that thought they were going to at least get a little breathing room and now the net change in population will be maybe -50, leaving the school 200 kids over capacity?

How come the administration has no say in the size of their student body and must accommodate anyone who wants to come?

No, this should be treated just like any other special program - there is either room or there isn't. And there isn't room.

Well you have choice to move your child out of AAP if it bothers you that much, with the AAP system being so bloated Gen-ed classrooms are always under capacity.

This is absolutely true. Now it's the Gen Ed population who has the limited "peer group" (and how I hate that term) as so many kids have been pulled (or pushed) into AAP. Why doesn't FCPS just label all kids AAP and get it over with? That's essentially what they've been moving to over the years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS parents have gotten what they've asked for. And appeals process that allows multiple attempts to get into AAP. Everyone thinks there kids are special and NEED to have AAP these days. I have no sympathy for overcrowded AAP centers. NONE. Let's go back to neighborhood schools an offer AAP at all of them. As another PP has said, stop the insanity.

+1000
I wonder what the FCPS powers that be think of the current state of AAP and how it compares to actual GT of about a decade ago. Are they proud of themselves for creating the ever-growing divide between parents and kids? FCPS is now the land of the Sneetches, with this constant squabbling over who "needs" what.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think it's fine to create more work and stress for a school staff that thought they were going to at least get a little breathing room and now the net change in population will be maybe -50, leaving the school 200 kids over capacity?

How come the administration has no say in the size of their student body and must accommodate anyone who wants to come?

No, this should be treated just like any other special program - there is either room or there isn't. And there isn't room.

So you think special ed kids should get turned away too because you think the school is too crowded? You aren't entitled to an at capacity school if there is a need to add kids. Get over yourself!

Aap and special ed are 2 entirely different programs. I think of aap more along the lines of the magnet schools and the language immersion programs.

Two of the schools sending kids to GBW have level 4 programs. Those kids have the resources at their school and should not be given the center option at this point.

And let's be honest - that is where the new students are coming from.

This is the issue in Vienna/Great Falls/McLean as well. All the feeder schools have LLIV, and yet those students are actually given the option of attending center schools. Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think it's fine to create more work and stress for a school staff that thought they were going to at least get a little breathing room and now the net change in population will be maybe -50, leaving the school 200 kids over capacity?

How come the administration has no say in the size of their student body and must accommodate anyone who wants to come?

No, this should be treated just like any other special program - there is either room or there isn't. And there isn't room.

So you think special ed kids should get turned away too because you think the school is too crowded? You aren't entitled to an at capacity school if there is a need to add kids. Get over yourself!

Aap and special ed are 2 entirely different programs. I think of aap more along the lines of the magnet schools and the language immersion programs.

Two of the schools sending kids to GBW have level 4 programs. Those kids have the resources at their school and should not be given the center option at this point.

And let's be honest - that is where the new students are coming from.

This is the issue in Vienna/Great Falls/McLean as well. All the feeder schools have LLIV, and yet those students are actually given the option of attending center schools. Why?

More and more of those families are keeping their kids at the neighborhood schools with LLIV. The dynamics are a bit different in Chantilly and Centreville, where there seem to be more people who have a "center or bust" attitude.