FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
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Anonymous
You might like Elaine Tholen to remain in her current position. She, on the other hand, has been campaigning hard for a School Board seat. It’s clear from the negative posts that Karloutsos probably is not a nice person, but what matters most is that she’s unfit to represent the Dranesville District. She is the latest in a string of Republican-endorsed candidates who only care about a single pyramid within Dranesville - Langley. If you’re in DD and zoned for Herndon, McLean, Marshall or Westfield, you are just an afterthought for her. |
Anonymous
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Listen, we can do worse than Tholen.
Mobasheri is clearly dishonest and out for self first, Great Falls second (maybe. It's obvious that he would cut a deal that GF wouldn't like as long as his section would be okay) and the rest of Dranesville not at all. People can go to the sites and watch debates and choose. I hope in the next week voters take the time to consider candidates. I choose Karloutsos. |
Anonymous
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On some of the issues, like the need to build an addition at McLean HS, they agree:
https://www.insidenova.com/news/election/candidates-serve-up-differing-visions-in-quest-to-lead-fcps/article_775ec152-f4f9-11e9-8241-43962a007ab5.html My issue with Mobasheri is that he purports to have some grand ideas ("Hey, let's build a secondary school in Tysons"), but those ideas will not come to fruition any time soon, and it is so, so obvious that he only got into the contest because he wanted to protect the boundaries in Great Falls. As Republicans go, I think Karloutsos is better than, say, Schultz, but the frequency with which she mentions the need to protect property values and the timing of her decision to run tells me that she's also in it to protect her own Langley neighborhood. And her initial proposals to address the overcrowding at McLean and the under-enrollment at Langley - adding new programs at Langley and then instituting an "open enrollment" policy there - was also incredibly Langley-centric, as it would invite the McLean families who had the means to arrange transportation to bail on McLean and leave the others behind at a neglected school. Tholen, on the other hand, has been involved in programs that benefit the entire district and school system for years. I gather she was encouraged to run after Alicia Plerhoples - who would have been fantastic - dropped out to run for BOS Chair. But I actually kind of like that she's doing it out of a sense of civic duty, rather than being motivated by a single issue that affects her personally. She's also spent more time in the Herndon areas than the other two candidates through her involvement with the Get2Green program. Those are the types of people that I want carefully considering policies that affect FCPS as a whole - not folks who tune out when the discussion isn't about the issue that drew them to the race or who stop paying attention once their issue gets resolved. |
Anonymous
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So which one of the 3 has actually told the general population in the Town of Herndon that future Western HS is on the 4 fields used by the community at Hutchison?
Back to school nights? Meet and greets? Local events and chat at sports? That's transparency. Anyone for reallocating program money based on need equitably? Anyone want objective % on capacity utilization to trigger boundary changes? Mclean problem wouldn't exist and capacity enhancements district wide would not be political. After Strauss didn't offer amendments 2 years in a row on boundary changes for Mclean I would not vote for her again. Not voting for any at large incumbent after reviewing that bond. |
Anonymous
And, the location being discussed is terrible logistically. The schools that need the most help are Chantilly, Centreville, and Oakton. The location being discussed is not within the boundaries of any of those schools. The traffic would all be coming from one direction. We would end up with another Oakton/Langley situation where all the kids would be coming from one side of the school. There is one major artery (Centreville Rd/Elden St.) Rush hour is already a problem and would be much worse as the school would back up to the Toll Road. Herndon does not need relief for any reason other than SES. And, if you did take kids from Herndon, you would leave Langley even more underenrolled. But, since it makes no sense, they will probably select it. Because their goal is to change SES, not to eliminate trailers. |
Anonymous
Strauss is not seeking re-election. I would be more interested in replacing Platenberg, who just throws seats at under-enrolled schools like Langley even though they are needed elsewhere like Chantilly and McLean. And pushed through moving Oakton kids from Jackson to Thoreau because he knew those families would jump at the chance to leave Jackson - never mind that it turned Thoreau into a 3-way split feeder, will quickly overcrowd Thoreau, and will concentrate poverty at Jackson. The problems they claim One Fairfax will address are largely of their own making. |
Anonymous
"My issue with Mobasheri is that he purports to have some grand ideas ("Hey, let's build a secondary school in Tysons"), but those ideas will not come to fruition any time soon, and it is so, so obvious that he only got into the contest because he wanted to protect the boundaries in Great Falls." Tough and challenging issues are never easy to solve and never have quick and fast and cheap answers. None of our long term challenges do. Imagine if our predecessors would long term enough in their visions and could have looked at scenarios back in the 1970s that would have said the DC metro area has the potential of becoming a mini NY metro area. Imagine if they looked at such a scenario that was not out of the ordinary by many experts. We would have planned for the transportation, residential, commercial and educational infrastructure far quicker and more efficiently than what we are doing today. Does anyone really think that with how the metro area is expanding, that how Tysons is becoming what it is, that as the migration to northern Fairfax county continues that we will not need another High School to serve 22101, 22102, and 22182? Do we really believe that in the coming 10 to 15 years that Langley, McLean, and Marshall can meet this growing demand with simple additions and adjustments to existing infrastructure? No, we cannot! Waiting until the last minute to think and vote about it will be nothing short of a dereliction of duty for our public officials. We need to plan for and finance it in the coming two to three years so that it can be of the ground in the next five years and completed by the end of 2029. |
Anonymous
Nah. I've seen and talked to her multiple times since this whole thing started. She doesn't want it. I'm not saying she doesn't think it's for the best or that she won't exert the effort to muster up the energy to do a good job, but she doesn't want it. |
Anonymous
That changes my view not one iota. Better to have a competent and committed School Board member who dislikes the ugly parts of a campaign than someone with fire in their belly, but who is running for the wrong reasons. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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I said she doesn't want the job, not that she dislikes campaigning. The campaign hasn't been ugly for her, certainly not compared to many others. Thankfully everyone is pretty much being nice to Elaine because why not? She flipped on One Fairfax after an early engagement with the public let her know people were unhappy. Then all the glowing support was scrubbed from her site. People are irritated at Mobasheri, ignoring or making sarcastic comments on his constant campaign posts on nextdoor, putting up screenshots on dcum of him downtalking McLean and Herndon, pointing out that he thinks he's the only one with kids in fcps. Everyone likes Elaine. She may get elected, certainly preferable to Mobasheri who everyone is tired of already. (well. Most people) Anyone firmly against the school board's current nonsense is voting Karloutsos. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
You are generalizing the irritation at Mobasheri. The only ones irritated are the Republicans who somehow think that elections should be limited to the two parties and that anyone else is acting like a spoiler. He is taking votes away from them and in significant numbers in Great Falls and McLean. Karloutsos is very disliked in Herndon and he's gained on her there as well. The Republicans who supported him in the early stages couldn't divorce themselves from their party loyalties once Karloutsos announced her candidacy and are now stuck in no man's land worried that they have a weak candidate, a strong independent and a solidly blue district. |
Anonymous
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My take-away from recent posts is that Tholen has plenty of supporters of her own, Karloutsos’s supporters would prefer Tholen to Mobasheri, and Mobasheri would prefer Tholen to Karloutsos.
The acknowledgment that Tholen is campaigning hard and will do a good job, if elected, belies the suggestion that Tholen doesn’t want the position. If she didn’t want the job, she could withdraw, avoid campaigning, or sabotage her own prospects at one of the many candidate forums she has attended. None of that has happened. I think she will continue to recognize that some of her constituents, especially in the Langley areas, are skeptical towards, and dislike, the most aggressive possible interpretation of the One Fairfax policy. Many current School Board members have already gotten that message. |
Anonymous
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I will say that I can't wait for this election to be over. 8 more days!
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