ASFS principal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new principal sucks!! They’ve known since the beginning of the year that there would likely need to be a new fourth grade class (two of the three classes have the same number of kids as the beginning of the year), and they send an email yesterday saying that they got a new teacher and the new classes will be assigned today. One day notice! No asking for volunteers, just an email saying that if you don’t get an email then you are not impacted. What poor planning!!!
I know people will say “it’s fourth grade, who cares”, but that’s assuming you know everything that is happening at home for each of the kids. Late elementary school is when kids can really start to look for school for stability (think of kids who have parents going through a divorce or food instability or any number of other things). It’s also when socially being moved around can have a huge impact on a kids emotional well being— and the kids are old enough to start manifesting real anxiety. It’s unnecessary to just move them, with little to no notice (class rosters are announced today, and the new class starts on Tuesday). Ask for volunteers! Then do a lottery if you don’t get enough of them! Such unnecessary anxiety!
When my eldest was in fourth grade at asfs, they created a new class and didn’t have to do a lottery to move kids because people volunteered. This was precovid too when you actually had things like gifted services (now that’s glorified lip service).

Asking for volunteers is a terrible idea. Class size placement should be intentional. There are all sorts of considerations - Johnny bullied Tommy last year so they can't be together, gifted kids need to be clustered, kids with IEPs may be grouped together, etc, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new principal sucks!! They’ve known since the beginning of the year that there would likely need to be a new fourth grade class (two of the three classes have the same number of kids as the beginning of the year), and they send an email yesterday saying that they got a new teacher and the new classes will be assigned today. One day notice! No asking for volunteers, just an email saying that if you don’t get an email then you are not impacted. What poor planning!!!
I know people will say “it’s fourth grade, who cares”, but that’s assuming you know everything that is happening at home for each of the kids. Late elementary school is when kids can really start to look for school for stability (think of kids who have parents going through a divorce or food instability or any number of other things). It’s also when socially being moved around can have a huge impact on a kids emotional well being— and the kids are old enough to start manifesting real anxiety. It’s unnecessary to just move them, with little to no notice (class rosters are announced today, and the new class starts on Tuesday). Ask for volunteers! Then do a lottery if you don’t get enough of them! Such unnecessary anxiety!
When my eldest was in fourth grade at asfs, they created a new class and didn’t have to do a lottery to move kids because people volunteered. This was precovid too when you actually had things like gifted services (now that’s glorified lip service).

You must have zero idea how class dynamics and groupings work. It is a terrible idea to "ask for volunteers". There are a lot of considerations into making classes that learn well together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new principal sucks!! They’ve known since the beginning of the year that there would likely need to be a new fourth grade class (two of the three classes have the same number of kids as the beginning of the year), and they send an email yesterday saying that they got a new teacher and the new classes will be assigned today. One day notice! No asking for volunteers, just an email saying that if you don’t get an email then you are not impacted. What poor planning!!!
I know people will say “it’s fourth grade, who cares”, but that’s assuming you know everything that is happening at home for each of the kids. Late elementary school is when kids can really start to look for school for stability (think of kids who have parents going through a divorce or food instability or any number of other things). It’s also when socially being moved around can have a huge impact on a kids emotional well being— and the kids are old enough to start manifesting real anxiety. It’s unnecessary to just move them, with little to no notice (class rosters are announced today, and the new class starts on Tuesday). Ask for volunteers! Then do a lottery if you don’t get enough of them! Such unnecessary anxiety!
When my eldest was in fourth grade at asfs, they created a new class and didn’t have to do a lottery to move kids because people volunteered. This was precovid too when you actually had things like gifted services (now that’s glorified lip service).

You must have zero idea how class dynamics and groupings work. It is a terrible idea to "ask for volunteers". There are a lot of considerations into making classes that learn well together.

+1. ASFS parents look like whiners on here. Staff put tons of effort into class groupings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new principal sucks!! They’ve known since the beginning of the year that there would likely need to be a new fourth grade class (two of the three classes have the same number of kids as the beginning of the year), and they send an email yesterday saying that they got a new teacher and the new classes will be assigned today. One day notice! No asking for volunteers, just an email saying that if you don’t get an email then you are not impacted. What poor planning!!!
I know people will say “it’s fourth grade, who cares”, but that’s assuming you know everything that is happening at home for each of the kids. Late elementary school is when kids can really start to look for school for stability (think of kids who have parents going through a divorce or food instability or any number of other things). It’s also when socially being moved around can have a huge impact on a kids emotional well being— and the kids are old enough to start manifesting real anxiety. It’s unnecessary to just move them, with little to no notice (class rosters are announced today, and the new class starts on Tuesday). Ask for volunteers! Then do a lottery if you don’t get enough of them! Such unnecessary anxiety!
When my eldest was in fourth grade at asfs, they created a new class and didn’t have to do a lottery to move kids because people volunteered. This was precovid too when you actually had things like gifted services (now that’s glorified lip service).

You must have zero idea how class dynamics and groupings work. It is a terrible idea to "ask for volunteers". There are a lot of considerations into making classes that learn well together.

When I was a child, we formed a new class and it was a dumping ground where teachers placed their behavior problems. Feb is way too late to make this change. They should just co teach and split the classes dynamically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new principal sucks!! They’ve known since the beginning of the year that there would likely need to be a new fourth grade class (two of the three classes have the same number of kids as the beginning of the year), and they send an email yesterday saying that they got a new teacher and the new classes will be assigned today. One day notice! No asking for volunteers, just an email saying that if you don’t get an email then you are not impacted. What poor planning!!!
I know people will say “it’s fourth grade, who cares”, but that’s assuming you know everything that is happening at home for each of the kids. Late elementary school is when kids can really start to look for school for stability (think of kids who have parents going through a divorce or food instability or any number of other things). It’s also when socially being moved around can have a huge impact on a kids emotional well being— and the kids are old enough to start manifesting real anxiety. It’s unnecessary to just move them, with little to no notice (class rosters are announced today, and the new class starts on Tuesday). Ask for volunteers! Then do a lottery if you don’t get enough of them! Such unnecessary anxiety!
When my eldest was in fourth grade at asfs, they created a new class and didn’t have to do a lottery to move kids because people volunteered. This was precovid too when you actually had things like gifted services (now that’s glorified lip service).

Asking for volunteers is a terrible idea. Class size placement should be intentional. There are all sorts of considerations - Johnny bullied Tommy last year so they can't be together, gifted kids need to be clustered, kids with IEPs may be grouped together, etc, etc.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new principal sucks!! They’ve known since the beginning of the year that there would likely need to be a new fourth grade class (two of the three classes have the same number of kids as the beginning of the year), and they send an email yesterday saying that they got a new teacher and the new classes will be assigned today. One day notice! No asking for volunteers, just an email saying that if you don’t get an email then you are not impacted. What poor planning!!!
I know people will say “it’s fourth grade, who cares”, but that’s assuming you know everything that is happening at home for each of the kids. Late elementary school is when kids can really start to look for school for stability (think of kids who have parents going through a divorce or food instability or any number of other things). It’s also when socially being moved around can have a huge impact on a kids emotional well being— and the kids are old enough to start manifesting real anxiety. It’s unnecessary to just move them, with little to no notice (class rosters are announced today, and the new class starts on Tuesday). Ask for volunteers! Then do a lottery if you don’t get enough of them! Such unnecessary anxiety!
When my eldest was in fourth grade at asfs, they created a new class and didn’t have to do a lottery to move kids because people volunteered. This was precovid too when you actually had things like gifted services (now that’s glorified lip service).

You must have zero idea how class dynamics and groupings work. It is a terrible idea to "ask for volunteers". There are a lot of considerations into making classes that learn well together.

+1. ASFS parents look like whiners on here. Staff put tons of effort into class groupings.

It's just a very vocal, very whiny parent or two. Not representative of what most parents think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new principal sucks!! They’ve known since the beginning of the year that there would likely need to be a new fourth grade class (two of the three classes have the same number of kids as the beginning of the year), and they send an email yesterday saying that they got a new teacher and the new classes will be assigned today. One day notice! No asking for volunteers, just an email saying that if you don’t get an email then you are not impacted. What poor planning!!!
I know people will say “it’s fourth grade, who cares”, but that’s assuming you know everything that is happening at home for each of the kids. Late elementary school is when kids can really start to look for school for stability (think of kids who have parents going through a divorce or food instability or any number of other things). It’s also when socially being moved around can have a huge impact on a kids emotional well being— and the kids are old enough to start manifesting real anxiety. It’s unnecessary to just move them, with little to no notice (class rosters are announced today, and the new class starts on Tuesday). Ask for volunteers! Then do a lottery if you don’t get enough of them! Such unnecessary anxiety!
When my eldest was in fourth grade at asfs, they created a new class and didn’t have to do a lottery to move kids because people volunteered. This was precovid too when you actually had things like gifted services (now that’s glorified lip service).

You must have zero idea how class dynamics and groupings work. It is a terrible idea to "ask for volunteers". There are a lot of considerations into making classes that learn well together.

+1. ASFS parents look like whiners on here. Staff put tons of effort into class groupings.

It's just a very vocal, very whiny parent or two. Not representative of what most parents think.

+1. I’m an ASFS parent who thinks the new principal is just fine based on the couple interactions I’ve had with her. But then again I didn’t like the old super strict principal.

Class changes due to enrollment numbers are largely out of the principal’s control. ASFS in particular gets a lot of foreign service families so enrollment varies wildly throughout the year. You can blame APS administrators for how they dole out teachers and class sizes. But seriously there were at least two grade levels last year that added a class after the school year started.

As for the original gripe of this whole thread, 5 minutes is a ridiculous thing to get that mad about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new principal sucks!! They’ve known since the beginning of the year that there would likely need to be a new fourth grade class (two of the three classes have the same number of kids as the beginning of the year), and they send an email yesterday saying that they got a new teacher and the new classes will be assigned today. One day notice! No asking for volunteers, just an email saying that if you don’t get an email then you are not impacted. What poor planning!!!
I know people will say “it’s fourth grade, who cares”, but that’s assuming you know everything that is happening at home for each of the kids. Late elementary school is when kids can really start to look for school for stability (think of kids who have parents going through a divorce or food instability or any number of other things). It’s also when socially being moved around can have a huge impact on a kids emotional well being— and the kids are old enough to start manifesting real anxiety. It’s unnecessary to just move them, with little to no notice (class rosters are announced today, and the new class starts on Tuesday). Ask for volunteers! Then do a lottery if you don’t get enough of them! Such unnecessary anxiety!
When my eldest was in fourth grade at asfs, they created a new class and didn’t have to do a lottery to move kids because people volunteered. This was precovid too when you actually had things like gifted services (now that’s glorified lip service).

You must have zero idea how class dynamics and groupings work. It is a terrible idea to "ask for volunteers". There are a lot of considerations into making classes that learn well together.

+1. ASFS parents look like whiners on here. Staff put tons of effort into class groupings.

It's just a very vocal, very whiny parent or two. Not representative of what most parents think.

+1. I’m an ASFS parent who thinks the new principal is just fine based on the couple interactions I’ve had with her. But then again I didn’t like the old super strict principal.

Class changes due to enrollment numbers are largely out of the principal’s control. ASFS in particular gets a lot of foreign service families so enrollment varies wildly throughout the year. You can blame APS administrators for how they dole out teachers and class sizes. But seriously there were at least two grade levels last year that added a class after the school year started.

As for the original gripe of this whole thread, 5 minutes is a ridiculous thing to get that mad about.

This. Adding a class (or not) is 100% controlled by Syphax.

[Anonymous]

I thought we agreed that we wanted smaller class sizes. And adding a new teacher to a grade level does just that.

The kids in each grade mostly know each other so moving teachers will not be such a big deal to them unless they are neurodivergent or sit next to their bully. Which administration and teachers should know about this late in the year.

Arlington parents will whine over anything and everything. Get your kids to school on time!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new principal sucks!! They’ve known since the beginning of the year that there would likely need to be a new fourth grade class (two of the three classes have the same number of kids as the beginning of the year), and they send an email yesterday saying that they got a new teacher and the new classes will be assigned today. One day notice! No asking for volunteers, just an email saying that if you don’t get an email then you are not impacted. What poor planning!!!
I know people will say “it’s fourth grade, who cares”, but that’s assuming you know everything that is happening at home for each of the kids. Late elementary school is when kids can really start to look for school for stability (think of kids who have parents going through a divorce or food instability or any number of other things). It’s also when socially being moved around can have a huge impact on a kids emotional well being— and the kids are old enough to start manifesting real anxiety. It’s unnecessary to just move them, with little to no notice (class rosters are announced today, and the new class starts on Tuesday). Ask for volunteers! Then do a lottery if you don’t get enough of them! Such unnecessary anxiety!
When my eldest was in fourth grade at asfs, they created a new class and didn’t have to do a lottery to move kids because people volunteered. This was precovid too when you actually had things like gifted services (now that’s glorified lip service).

You must have zero idea how class dynamics and groupings work. It is a terrible idea to "ask for volunteers". There are a lot of considerations into making classes that learn well together.

+1. ASFS parents look like whiners on here. Staff put tons of effort into class groupings.

It's just a very vocal, very whiny parent or two. Not representative of what most parents think.

+1. I’m an ASFS parent who thinks the new principal is just fine based on the couple interactions I’ve had with her. But then again I didn’t like the old super strict principal.

Class changes due to enrollment numbers are largely out of the principal’s control. ASFS in particular gets a lot of foreign service families so enrollment varies wildly throughout the year. You can blame APS administrators for how they dole out teachers and class sizes. But seriously there were at least two grade levels last year that added a class after the school year started.

As for the original gripe of this whole thread, 5 minutes is a ridiculous thing to get that mad about.

This. Adding a class (or not) is 100% controlled by Syphax.

The issue isn’t adding a new class. The issue is how it was added and what/when communication was made to the families. As other people have pointed out, new classes are added all the time. In this instance, we got an email one afternoon at 1pm saying that they were adding a new class and that the new class rosters would be decided by 1pm the next day, and the new class would start meeting next week.
For my other kids, I experienced a similar situation 3 times while they were in elementary school (all at asfs). The difference here is that they informed parents early in the year when it became obvious that there would need to be a new class (ie when they started interviewing for a new teacher), asked for volunteers, and had at least a few weeks between when the class roster was determined and when the new class actually started. There was time!

My fourth grader has had 28 kids in her class all year. I know because they sent a class list at the beginning of the year, and another one for Valentine’s Day, and I remember thinking it was a lot of kids. They had to have known that they needed a new class at the beginning of the year, and they could have just given a heads up that this was likely to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here, but my child went there for 6 years before heading to middle school last year, and the previous principal was BELOVED. We didn't like everything about her, but disparaging her now makes it sound like you are the new principal writing here.

It's definitely her.

NP, I have interacted with the new principal and heard her directly remark on the former principal's style and perceived shortcomings. It was very uncomfortable. FWIW, I fall into the group that loved our last principal. She was beloved and had her critics too. Back to OP, the new principal has a 'law and order' style that is either how she is or because it is her first year. And interacting with parents is not something she wants to do. Hope it gets better and that the new principal is not on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought we agreed that we wanted smaller class sizes. And adding a new teacher to a grade level does just that.

The kids in each grade mostly know each other so moving teachers will not be such a big deal to them unless they are neurodivergent or sit next to their bully. Which administration and teachers should know about this late in the year.

Arlington parents will whine over anything and everything. Get your kids to school on time!

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here, but my child went there for 6 years before heading to middle school last year, and the previous principal was BELOVED. We didn't like everything about her, but disparaging her now makes it sound like you are the new principal writing here.

It's definitely her.

NP, I have interacted with the new principal and heard her directly remark on the former principal's style and perceived shortcomings. It was very uncomfortable. FWIW, I fall into the group that loved our last principal. She was beloved and had her critics too. Back to OP, the new principal has a 'law and order' style that is either how she is or because it is her first year. And interacting with parents is not something she wants to do. Hope it gets better and that the new principal is not on this thread.

OP here. I agree with you. At the same time, she has had a debilitating and chilling effect on the faculty and staff, with equally negative impact on those who are new as those who have been here under the prior principal. The new principal also seems not to want parent participation, having cancelled all monthly coffee hours, greatly reduced opportunities to participate/volunteer, and made it extremely difficult for even students not too feel it is "chaotic" (words used by multiple students across grades who do not even know each other). People are afraid to say anything for fear of retailation by her. FWIW, the original post wasn't about getting to school on time -- my child is usually the first or second to arrive in the classroom -- it's about not even knowing the rules of your own school, like not knowing how to turn off the alarm is at the school when it accidentally goes off, sending emails with incorrect grammar, or not knowing you own teachers' names, let alone knowing students' names. "Law and order" is selectively applied, and she does not abide by her own rules for prompt attendance, including at parent-teacher events. The tone of her email was so condescending. And when in she disparaged the prior principal multiple times in the first PTA meeting (which she did attend), it was extremely unprofessional, regardless of what you thought of the prior principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it's so cute when APS acts like it cares whether your kid is there or not...

+1. APS only cares about attendance because VDOE has told them to care.

Exactly. At least one other person gets it.

You must be new to the school. ASFS has always cared about tardiness and attendance. The issue now is that there are too many PARENTS who don’t care about tardiness and need a push.

Lazy parents are complaining about APS when they are the actual problem here.

Sounds like the new principall on here again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here, but my child went there for 6 years before heading to middle school last year, and the previous principal was BELOVED. We didn't like everything about her, but disparaging her now makes it sound like you are the new principal writing here.

It's definitely her.

NP, I have interacted with the new principal and heard her directly remark on the former principal's style and perceived shortcomings. It was very uncomfortable. FWIW, I fall into the group that loved our last principal. She was beloved and had her critics too. Back to OP, the new principal has a 'law and order' style that is either how she is or because it is her first year. And interacting with parents is not something she wants to do. Hope it gets better and that the new principal is not on this thread.

OP here. I agree with you. At the same time, she has had a debilitating and chilling effect on the faculty and staff, with equally negative impact on those who are new as those who have been here under the prior principal. The new principal also seems not to want parent participation, having cancelled all monthly coffee hours, greatly reduced opportunities to participate/volunteer, and made it extremely difficult for even students not too feel it is "chaotic" (words used by multiple students across grades who do not even know each other). People are afraid to say anything for fear of retailation by her. FWIW, the original post wasn't about getting to school on time -- my child is usually the first or second to arrive in the classroom -- it's about not even knowing the rules of your own school, like not knowing how to turn off the alarm is at the school when it accidentally goes off, sending emails with incorrect grammar, or not knowing you own teachers' names, let alone knowing students' names. "Law and order" is selectively applied, and she does not abide by her own rules for prompt attendance, including at parent-teacher events. The tone of her email was so condescending. And when in she disparaged the prior principal multiple times in the first PTA meeting (which she did attend), it was extremely unprofessional, regardless of what you thought of the prior principal.

How do you have this inside information? Never heard this. Frankly don't hear much about the new principal at all.