King Abdullah Academy Closing: FCPS Buy for HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a kaa parent but i understand the point that they are making.

to be honest, i think you are missing the point. and i hope one day you experience your kids finding a community that they truly felt they belonged to, and then have it stripped away. because it must not be pleasant at all. i read all the comments and dont think anyone was asking for any red carpet. they were just trying to get people like you to not sound so entitled or over excited about this sale that is clearly breaking apart a community and leaving countless of children and families sad over this loss. you may only understand if your child ever goes through something like this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of theKAA school population are Americans, many generations of Americans, Virginians, to be exact. You are very out of touch with your very own neighbors clearly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're comparing apples to oranges regarding buying a new house and helping people find a new home. KAA familie are tax payers too with kids who went to this school because fcps was not serving all the needs that their community wanted. on top of that many of the kaa families are legacy families. so you are talking about many decades of alumni sending their children here. this is about community, and benefit to fc as well by encouraging this community to stay intact. the mission of both kaa and fcps are very well aligned, and if you think this is so black and white like buying and selling you are wrong. the mission is the same, to educate the children in the best possible way that matches their needs and their family needs. if this were your kid you would say the same. i find your messages cold, hard and oblivious to community.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy Saudis used to special treatment and hand-holding, LOL. I am honestly shocked that you expect FCPS to reach out to EVERY private school in its boundary that closes to personally counsel students on their options. All the info is on their website.

FCPS isn’t paying $150M to acquire every such school, and then likely needing to engage in several months of due diligence thereafter before closing a deal. Perfect opportunity to be decent human beings, something that apparently doesn’t align with your value system.

Are you a parent with a child in that school? It should be KAA's responsibility to help place all of its students. The administration are the ones who decided to close the school in the middle of the school year, FCPS just bought something no one else wanted.

You're being a ridiculously argumentative tool about something minor that ought to be a simple courtesy given the ongoing discussions that FCPS will be having with KAA.

All it need entail is making sure KAA staff is aware of resources and contacts within FCPS for affected families to speak with if interested.

I think you're the one being unreasonable. All of this information is available to the families very easily.

If you're familiar with FCPS, which is why some basic courtesies shown to others who may be less familiar with FCPS might go a long way.

You're the sort of person who makes waiters want to spit in your food in the kitchen before it's served.

Only the trashiest of people ever even consider spitting in someone's food, no matter how rude they are. I've worked in restaurants. That just isn't a thing a normal person even thinks about.

Only a trashy person would fight so hard against the idea that one party to a significant RE transaction would extend some basic, and very low-cost, courtesies to a counter-party. That's not how normal people behave, but perhaps you have some weird bias against Muslims and want to lay claim to their former school and pretend they were never there.

You are seriously arguing that FCPS is responsible for doing something extra for the KAA families because FCPS bought the building? The KAA administration had a responsibility to help the families find a new school before the end of the year. That could have been helping them find a good fit with another private school or helping them understand their public school options. But that was the KAA administration's responsibility, not the organization that buys the building.

I am not responsible for helping the family whose house I buy find a new home. That is their individual responsibility. Same in this case. KAA families need to have worked with the adminstration to find a new school or the Saudi government who stopped sponsoring the school.

Do diplomats pay taxes? Just curious.

Why should neighbors care about a group of people who very clearly wanted to self segregate in their own school? The local public school wasn’t good enough for your kids, but now that your school is closing you want neighbors and FCPS employees to roll out the red carpet for you? Where does this mentality come from?

It’s called Google. Look at what school your home is zoned to attend. Then look up the school website.
There you will find links to contact personnel at that school with any questions you may have. That is all any resident of this county is entitled to. Nothing more. The rest of us pay taxes too and that’s all we get. Seriously no one else cares that your school closed.

Um, one of my kids is facing exactly that if the county moves forward with their proposed boundary changes. So I think I understand it pretty damn well. But nice attempt at lecturing. This happens to kids all over the world all the time for various reasons. And it sucks. But I am not so entitled as to expect others to dedicate time or resources beyond what everyone else in the county gets when transitioning to a new school.

My kids would not attend this new high school and I am not someone who expressed excitement over it being sold. But maybe you need to understand the history of this land to see why others might be excited. It sounds like the land was supposed to be used for a public high school in the first place. So in some people’s eyes this is righting a perceived wrong.

It would have been a great location for a high school 15 years ago before they so much time and money expanding other schools serving western Fairfax.

Obviously if they’d really had a clear plan to build there the land would never have been transferred to the Saudis.

FCPS ought to present a compelling business case for opening a new school there now given the fact that on average it’s going to leave schools serving western Fairfax almost 20% under capacity.

Western Fairfax county is where a lot of the growth will be in the next 10-20 years.

Perhaps but if you are adding capacity based on where you anticipate growth, which is not how FCPS has operated in the past, adding more capacity in western Fairfax should not be your top priority.

They project many of the schools in the area will lose students over the coming years, and those projections predate most of the administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government and clamp down on those in the country illegally.

Except, there is a lot of current construction and growth --especially in the Westfield boundary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is IB? My child just started school I’m
Not familiar with what that is? Can someone explain? And why don’t parents what IB but want Ap?

IB is international baccalaureate, a program HQ'ed in Geneva and some people like its international scope/reputation. AP is only applicable in US, while IB diploma is recognized around the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is IB? My child just started school I’m
Not familiar with what that is? Can someone explain? And why don’t parents what IB but want Ap?

IB is international baccalaureate, a program HQ'ed in Geneva and some people like its international scope/reputation. AP is only applicable in US, while IB diploma is recognized around the world.

Most parents in FCPS prefer AP. And, there are very few IB diploma graduates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is IB? My child just started school I’m
Not familiar with what that is? Can someone explain? And why don’t parents what IB but want Ap?

IB is international baccalaureate, a program HQ'ed in Geneva and some people like its international scope/reputation. AP is only applicable in US, while IB diploma is recognized around the world.

AP is understood at foreign universities. I doubt kids get credit for AP classes in European Universities but the schools understand that the classes are more difficult then regular classes. I don't think students from European schools get college credit for the IB test scores any way.

[Anonymous]

School choice should be a thing in VA so that people can do private or public a d take per student revenue to any school they prefer. So tired of all the boundary battles and politics!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School choice should be a thing in VA so that people can do private or public a d take per student revenue to any school they prefer. So tired of all the boundary battles and politics!

Applause.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School choice should be a thing in VA so that people can do private or public a d take per student revenue to any school they prefer. So tired of all the boundary battles and politics!

At some point soon, FCPS is going to have to decide whether they want UMC families in the school system or not.

If they do want to keep them, FCPS needs to stop being hostile to them with the boundary change nonsense. If they don’t, then they have to deal with the consequences of those families leaving. Extremists may advocate for the latter, but it’s going to broadly hurt the education quality of remaining FCPS students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School choice should be a thing in VA so that people can do private or public a d take per student revenue to any school they prefer. So tired of all the boundary battles and politics!

No public taxpayer money should go to religious schools. If you want something different than what is provided to you by the public then you are welcome to pay for it yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a kaa parent but i understand the point that they are making.

to be honest, i think you are missing the point. and i hope one day you experience your kids finding a community that they truly felt they belonged to, and then have it stripped away. because it must not be pleasant at all. i read all the comments and dont think anyone was asking for any red carpet. they were just trying to get people like you to not sound so entitled or over excited about this sale that is clearly breaking apart a community and leaving countless of children and families sad over this loss. you may only understand if your child ever goes through something like this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of theKAA school population are Americans, many generations of Americans, Virginians, to be exact. You are very out of touch with your very own neighbors clearly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're comparing apples to oranges regarding buying a new house and helping people find a new home. KAA familie are tax payers too with kids who went to this school because fcps was not serving all the needs that their community wanted. on top of that many of the kaa families are legacy families. so you are talking about many decades of alumni sending their children here. this is about community, and benefit to fc as well by encouraging this community to stay intact. the mission of both kaa and fcps are very well aligned, and if you think this is so black and white like buying and selling you are wrong. the mission is the same, to educate the children in the best possible way that matches their needs and their family needs. if this were your kid you would say the same. i find your messages cold, hard and oblivious to community.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wealthy Saudis used to special treatment and hand-holding, LOL. I am honestly shocked that you expect FCPS to reach out to EVERY private school in its boundary that closes to personally counsel students on their options. All the info is on their website.

FCPS isn’t paying $150M to acquire every such school, and then likely needing to engage in several months of due diligence thereafter before closing a deal. Perfect opportunity to be decent human beings, something that apparently doesn’t align with your value system.

Are you a parent with a child in that school? It should be KAA's responsibility to help place all of its students. The administration are the ones who decided to close the school in the middle of the school year, FCPS just bought something no one else wanted.

You're being a ridiculously argumentative tool about something minor that ought to be a simple courtesy given the ongoing discussions that FCPS will be having with KAA.

All it need entail is making sure KAA staff is aware of resources and contacts within FCPS for affected families to speak with if interested.

I think you're the one being unreasonable. All of this information is available to the families very easily.

If you're familiar with FCPS, which is why some basic courtesies shown to others who may be less familiar with FCPS might go a long way.

You're the sort of person who makes waiters want to spit in your food in the kitchen before it's served.

Only the trashiest of people ever even consider spitting in someone's food, no matter how rude they are. I've worked in restaurants. That just isn't a thing a normal person even thinks about.

Only a trashy person would fight so hard against the idea that one party to a significant RE transaction would extend some basic, and very low-cost, courtesies to a counter-party. That's not how normal people behave, but perhaps you have some weird bias against Muslims and want to lay claim to their former school and pretend they were never there.

You are seriously arguing that FCPS is responsible for doing something extra for the KAA families because FCPS bought the building? The KAA administration had a responsibility to help the families find a new school before the end of the year. That could have been helping them find a good fit with another private school or helping them understand their public school options. But that was the KAA administration's responsibility, not the organization that buys the building.

I am not responsible for helping the family whose house I buy find a new home. That is their individual responsibility. Same in this case. KAA families need to have worked with the adminstration to find a new school or the Saudi government who stopped sponsoring the school.

Do diplomats pay taxes? Just curious.

Why should neighbors care about a group of people who very clearly wanted to self segregate in their own school? The local public school wasn’t good enough for your kids, but now that your school is closing you want neighbors and FCPS employees to roll out the red carpet for you? Where does this mentality come from?

It’s called Google. Look at what school your home is zoned to attend. Then look up the school website.
There you will find links to contact personnel at that school with any questions you may have. That is all any resident of this county is entitled to. Nothing more. The rest of us pay taxes too and that’s all we get. Seriously no one else cares that your school closed.

Um, one of my kids is facing exactly that if the county moves forward with their proposed boundary changes. So I think I understand it pretty damn well. But nice attempt at lecturing. This happens to kids all over the world all the time for various reasons. And it sucks. But I am not so entitled as to expect others to dedicate time or resources beyond what everyone else in the county gets when transitioning to a new school.

My kids would not attend this new high school and I am not someone who expressed excitement over it being sold. But maybe you need to understand the history of this land to see why others might be excited. It sounds like the land was supposed to be used for a public high school in the first place. So in some people’s eyes this is righting a perceived wrong.

It would have been a great location for a high school 15 years ago before they so much time and money expanding other schools serving western Fairfax.

Obviously if they’d really had a clear plan to build there the land would never have been transferred to the Saudis.

FCPS ought to present a compelling business case for opening a new school there now given the fact that on average it’s going to leave schools serving western Fairfax almost 20% under capacity.

Western Fairfax county is where a lot of the growth will be in the next 10-20 years.

Perhaps but if you are adding capacity based on where you anticipate growth, which is not how FCPS has operated in the past, adding more capacity in western Fairfax should not be your top priority.

They project many of the schools in the area will lose students over the coming years, and those projections predate most of the administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government and clamp down on those in the country illegally.

Except, there is a lot of current construction and growth --especially in the Westfield boundary.

You need to get out more. There is current construction in other parts of the county as well.

Of course that doesn’t always translate into net enrollment growth at a school. It depends on other factors as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School choice should be a thing in VA so that people can do private or public a d take per student revenue to any school they prefer. So tired of all the boundary battles and politics!

No public taxpayer money should go to religious schools. If you want something different than what is provided to you by the public then you are welcome to pay for it yourself.

+100

Many people lose sight of the purpose of a PUBLIC school system. It is to provide an educational system that serves ALL students. If families would like to opt out of that system that is fine, but then they should pay for that choice.

You don't get money back from the government if you choose not to take the public bus system and buy a car instead, or if your house never burns down and you don't utilize the services of the local fire department. Because those services are there for everyone, whether you need them/use them or not.

[Anonymous]

Sure thing! Then the government should tax those who wish to utilize their money towards private schooling religious or otherwise. Then it’s fair for everyone and one one person is paying for an education system they do not wish to! Win win for all!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School choice should be a thing in VA so that people can do private or public a d take per student revenue to any school they prefer. So tired of all the boundary battles and politics!

No public taxpayer money should go to religious schools. If you want something different than what is provided to you by the public then you are welcome to pay for it yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Sure thing! Then the government should tax those who wish to utilize their money towards homeschooling/ private schooling religious or otherwise differently. Then it’s fair for everyone and no one person is paying for an education system they do not wish to! Win win for all! If someone cannot prove that they had sent their child to a private school for parts of the year then the following tax year should readjust that cost. This actually would assist home schooling parents a lot also!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School choice should be a thing in VA so that people can do private or public a d take per student revenue to any school they prefer. So tired of all the boundary battles and politics!

No public taxpayer money should go to religious schools. If you want something different than what is provided to you by the public then you are welcome to pay for it yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School choice should be a thing in VA so that people can do private or public a d take per student revenue to any school they prefer. So tired of all the boundary battles and politics!

No public taxpayer money should go to religious schools. If you want something different than what is provided to you by the public then you are welcome to pay for it yourself.

+100

Many people lose sight of the purpose of a PUBLIC school system. It is to provide an educational system that serves ALL students. If families would like to opt out of that system that is fine, but then they should pay for that choice.

You don't get money back from the government if you choose not to take the public bus system and buy a car instead, or if your house never burns down and you don't utilize the services of the local fire department. Because those services are there for everyone, whether you need them/use them or not.

Except when it comes to vouchers, where you do get that money back.

I used to be ardently in favor of public schools, but with all the boundary change nonsense, we’ve been talking about whether it’s even worth it. As I just said in my earlier post, they need to decide whether they want UMC in the school system or not. If they do, they sure as $hit better start acting like it.

[Anonymous]

House burning down and emergency services are different and fall under a different category. But why should people spend money on kids (some of which) do not take education seriously. Guns / drugs / bullying etc are major issues and not to mention pupils who genuinely HATE studying at times. Handing something to someone isn’t always appreciated. If people saw the true value of education, the students would respect their teachers as would the parents. In the US students are very disrespectful to teachers and that’s mostly in public schools. Across the globe teachers are cherished and loved, not abused and hassled by students and their family!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School choice should be a thing in VA so that people can do private or public a d take per student revenue to any school they prefer. So tired of all the boundary battles and politics!

No public taxpayer money should go to religious schools. If you want something different than what is provided to you by the public then you are welcome to pay for it yourself.

+100

Many people lose sight of the purpose of a PUBLIC school system. It is to provide an educational system that serves ALL students. If families would like to opt out of that system that is fine, but then they should pay for that choice.

You don't get money back from the government if you choose not to take the public bus system and buy a car instead, or if your house never burns down and you don't utilize the services of the local fire department. Because those services are there for everyone, whether you need them/use them or not.

[Anonymous]

Ya'all should be concerned over the lack of transparency over this sale. Guaranteed it was an inside job for a long time coming and you should be holding your fcps people responsible because there were many bids even higher than fcps that were denied and turned down with legitimate funds in place. this was absolutely not a sale that happened by luck in the past few weeks. and if that is the inside dealing i would be concerned about the transparency of fcps to begin with.