February 26 School Board Vote on Providing Transportation for Rezoned Students

[Anonymous]

And our move would be out of Fairfax. I will be the long super commuter before I would make my kids do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are providing transportation to every student - to their in bounds school. If kids want to stay at their grandfathered school they need to provide their own transportation. I think that's reasonable and though we weren't moved this time, we are on a boundary that was highly talked about for switching high schools, and I still think this.

They’ve provided transportation to grandfathered kids affected by boundary changes for decades, including as far back as the prior county-wide studies in the 80s.

They can change their policy now, but it will further erode trust in FCPS. It’s absurd that they’d spend over $200 million on a new high school and $85 million on a new elementary school for which the need is certainly debatable, and then refuse to spend a much smaller amount to make sure kids have the option to complete high school at their current schools.

Rich SAHM mommies from Vienna who fought off a boundary change to Marshall probably could provide transportation if their kids were redistricted, but families now actually getting moved to Falls Church and Mount Vernon may not be in the same position.

Give it a rest, we know that you are upset because your child was moved from a highly rated HS to a lower rated HS. Deal with it.

Wrong. I'm upset because it's inequitable and the School Board had their collective heads up their asses when they approved boundary changes without simultaneously addressing transportation needs.

Boundaries could be going away completely.

Yeah, that's not on the agenda, nor will it be any time soon.

You’re responding to the same person who got the abolish boundaries thread blocked earlier in the week because she was peppering the thread with posts. You can just ignore her abolish advocacy. She’s irrelevant, even by DCUM standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should watch the debate that just happened and share it everywhere. Ultimately only high school students will have transportation. Some like Karl Frisch said nothing. Many of these board members don't care about students - this discussion makes that clear.

Elementary students shouldn't have been grandfathered in, it's totally unnecessary. They make friends very easily. It's totally unnecessary. As for middle schoolers, I think they should have let current 7th graders do 8th at their MS, but I get that there is an overcrowding issue if they do that. But elementary schoolers will adapt. Yes, even 6th graders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:It’s such a weird thing to feel strongly about denying transportation to other people’s kids when you were fortunate enough to avoid getting redistricting. And it’s obviously an equity issue, since wealthier families can more easily arrange for their kids’ transportation if FCPS doesn’t provide it.

Nobody is denying transportation to your kid. Your kid WILL have transportation to a school, just not the school you want.

This.

Can’t wait to hold the likes of Karl Frisch and Robyn Lady accountable for their breaking with many decades of FCPS precedent on providing transportation to redistricted kids. Neither should EVER have been elected in the first place.

It is a waste of money to provide transportation to any of these kids, except perhaps rising 12th. The rest shouldn’t even be grandfathered. Sloppy all around. They bailed on a comprehensive boundary change despite wasting a ton of money and creating community angst. Then they watered down the changes they did make by offering extensive grandfathering. Now they’re spending money offering transportation to some they grandfathered. All while claiming poverty in budget discussions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should watch the debate that just happened and share it everywhere. Ultimately only high school students will have transportation. Some like Karl Frisch said nothing. Many of these board members don't care about students - this discussion makes that clear.

Elementary students shouldn't have been grandfathered in, it's totally unnecessary. They make friends very easily. It's totally unnecessary. As for middle schoolers, I think they should have let current 7th graders do 8th at their MS, but I get that there is an overcrowding issue if they do that. But elementary schoolers will adapt. Yes, even 6th graders.

They are letting 7th grade students do 8th grade at their current middle schools next year, just without transportation.

It probably would be better if they had not given these kids that option, since it’s an option that clearly favors the wealthier with the means of arranging transportation. It’s an inequitable result, courtesy of the likes of Karl Frisch and Robyn Lady. Next year they should be replaced with normal human beings who actually care about kids and families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should watch the debate that just happened and share it everywhere. Ultimately only high school students will have transportation. Some like Karl Frisch said nothing. Many of these board members don't care about students - this discussion makes that clear.

Elementary students shouldn't have been grandfathered in, it's totally unnecessary. They make friends very easily. It's totally unnecessary. As for middle schoolers, I think they should have let current 7th graders do 8th at their MS, but I get that there is an overcrowding issue if they do that. But elementary schoolers will adapt. Yes, even 6th graders.

They are letting 7th grade students do 8th grade at their current middle schools next year, just without transportation.

It probably would be better if they had not given these kids that option, since it’s an option that clearly favors the wealthier with the means of arranging transportation. It’s an inequitable result, courtesy of the likes of Karl Frisch and Robyn Lady. Next year they should be replaced with normal human beings who actually care about kids and families.

You get that not providing transportation keeps the schools from being overcrowded, right? And that a very small number of people (namely ones with a stay at home parent at any level) will be able to drive their kids. Anyway, we we've talked with neighbors, some of whom do have stay at home moms. Literally nobody is staying at our old school, the driving every day is too much work, best to put them in the new school now so they can get to know all the other kids they'll be in school with until they graduate.

[Anonymous]

Sandy Anderson, Seema Dixit, Karl Frisch, Robyn Lady, Kyle McDaniel, and Marcia St. John-Cunning vote as a block and control this School Board. They are the hard-core Reid supporters who provide cover for all her missteps and demand no accountability from her. They do not give a crap about kids or families, they will do whatever the FCPS unions want them to do, and they are destroying FCPS.

Replacing them next year with normal people should be a top priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sandy Anderson, Seema Dixit, Karl Frisch, Robyn Lady, Kyle McDaniel, and Marcia St. John-Cunning vote as a block and control this School Board. They are the hard-core Reid supporters who provide cover for all her missteps and demand no accountability from her. They do not give a crap about kids or families, they will do whatever the FCPS unions want them to do, and they are destroying FCPS.

Replacing them next year with normal people should be a top priority.

THIS. So disheartened watching this last night.

No one answered Dr. Anderson's question, "Why would we not use the public reserve fund to take care of an issue that is before us right now?.... Why are we not wanting to do that? I just like to hear a little bit more there."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sandy Anderson, Seema Dixit, Karl Frisch, Robyn Lady, Kyle McDaniel, and Marcia St. John-Cunning vote as a block and control this School Board. They are the hard-core Reid supporters who provide cover for all her missteps and demand no accountability from her. They do not give a crap about kids or families, they will do whatever the FCPS unions want them to do, and they are destroying FCPS.

Replacing them next year with normal people should be a top priority.

It’s more like two years since the term doesn’t start until 2028. Plus, don’t hold your breath, the numbers of families affected by this are a very small minority of actual voters. Plus, there will be many more issues between now and then for some of the affected families to have moved on to other more pressing issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should watch the debate that just happened and share it everywhere. Ultimately only high school students will have transportation. Some like Karl Frisch said nothing. Many of these board members don't care about students - this discussion makes that clear.

Elementary students shouldn't have been grandfathered in, it's totally unnecessary. They make friends very easily. It's totally unnecessary. As for middle schoolers, I think they should have let current 7th graders do 8th at their MS, but I get that there is an overcrowding issue if they do that. But elementary schoolers will adapt. Yes, even 6th graders.

They are letting 7th grade students do 8th grade at their current middle schools next year, just without transportation.

It probably would be better if they had not given these kids that option, since it’s an option that clearly favors the wealthier with the means of arranging transportation. It’s an inequitable result, courtesy of the likes of Karl Frisch and Robyn Lady. Next year they should be replaced with normal human beings who actually care about kids and families.

You get that not providing transportation keeps the schools from being overcrowded, right? And that a very small number of people (namely ones with a stay at home parent at any level) will be able to drive their kids. Anyway, we we've talked with neighbors, some of whom do have stay at home moms. Literally nobody is staying at our old school, the driving every day is too much work, best to put them in the new school now so they can get to know all the other kids they'll be in school with until they graduate.

That’s my point. If they aren’t going to provide transportation to ES and MS families they should not have bothered with the phasing (it’s not clear to me you understand there is a difference, but there is). Just have a larger number of kids required to move to new schools and take credit for more overcrowding relief (although it turns out that they didn’t even have their facts about capacity straight when they voted, so the need for “relief” at Kilmer MS was greatly overstated).

As usual, what they’ve done ended up being the worst of all worlds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sandy Anderson, Seema Dixit, Karl Frisch, Robyn Lady, Kyle McDaniel, and Marcia St. John-Cunning vote as a block and control this School Board. They are the hard-core Reid supporters who provide cover for all her missteps and demand no accountability from her. They do not give a crap about kids or families, they will do whatever the FCPS unions want them to do, and they are destroying FCPS.

Replacing them next year with normal people should be a top priority.

THIS. So disheartened watching this last night.

No one answered Dr. Anderson's question, "Why would we not use the public reserve fund to take care of an issue that is before us right now?.... Why are we not wanting to do that? I just like to hear a little bit more there."

The majority bloc is more interested in getting their way than getting it right. Their goal is to sideline the more experienced or thoughtful Democrats on the School Board (Ricardy Anderson, Dunne, Meren, Moon, and McElveen), so they can advance their own political futures at their expense.

That’s how you end up with people like Ricardy Anderson asking the right questions and making impassioned, thoughtful pleas, only to be ignored by a bunch of people who sit there with stone faces and have next to nothing to say before they rubber stamp a decision that hurts families. The majority block has the collective intelligence of a thimble, and the sooner they are kicked out of public office the better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should watch the debate that just happened and share it everywhere. Ultimately only high school students will have transportation. Some like Karl Frisch said nothing. Many of these board members don't care about students - this discussion makes that clear.

Elementary students shouldn't have been grandfathered in, it's totally unnecessary. They make friends very easily. It's totally unnecessary. As for middle schoolers, I think they should have let current 7th graders do 8th at their MS, but I get that there is an overcrowding issue if they do that. But elementary schoolers will adapt. Yes, even 6th graders.

They are letting 7th grade students do 8th grade at their current middle schools next year, just without transportation.

It probably would be better if they had not given these kids that option, since it’s an option that clearly favors the wealthier with the means of arranging transportation. It’s an inequitable result, courtesy of the likes of Karl Frisch and Robyn Lady. Next year they should be replaced with normal human beings who actually care about kids and families.

You get that not providing transportation keeps the schools from being overcrowded, right? And that a very small number of people (namely ones with a stay at home parent at any level) will be able to drive their kids. Anyway, we we've talked with neighbors, some of whom do have stay at home moms. Literally nobody is staying at our old school, the driving every day is too much work, best to put them in the new school now so they can get to know all the other kids they'll be in school with until they graduate.

That’s my point. If they aren’t going to provide transportation to ES and MS families they should not have bothered with the phasing (it’s not clear to me you understand there is a difference, but there is). Just have a larger number of kids required to move to new schools and take credit for more overcrowding relief (although it turns out that they didn’t even have their facts about capacity straight when they voted, so the need for “relief” at Kilmer MS was greatly overstated).

As usual, what they’ve done ended up being the worst of all worlds.

I’m looking forward to the future discussion on capacity relief at Thoreau in which they’ll have to skate around this topic without acknowledging they built their comprehensive review on bad data. Hopefully McElveen will be feeling spicy again that day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should watch the debate that just happened and share it everywhere. Ultimately only high school students will have transportation. Some like Karl Frisch said nothing. Many of these board members don't care about students - this discussion makes that clear.

Elementary students shouldn't have been grandfathered in, it's totally unnecessary. They make friends very easily. It's totally unnecessary. As for middle schoolers, I think they should have let current 7th graders do 8th at their MS, but I get that there is an overcrowding issue if they do that. But elementary schoolers will adapt. Yes, even 6th graders.

They are letting 7th grade students do 8th grade at their current middle schools next year, just without transportation.

It probably would be better if they had not given these kids that option, since it’s an option that clearly favors the wealthier with the means of arranging transportation. It’s an inequitable result, courtesy of the likes of Karl Frisch and Robyn Lady. Next year they should be replaced with normal human beings who actually care about kids and families.

You get that not providing transportation keeps the schools from being overcrowded, right? And that a very small number of people (namely ones with a stay at home parent at any level) will be able to drive their kids. Anyway, we we've talked with neighbors, some of whom do have stay at home moms. Literally nobody is staying at our old school, the driving every day is too much work, best to put them in the new school now so they can get to know all the other kids they'll be in school with until they graduate.

That’s my point. If they aren’t going to provide transportation to ES and MS families they should not have bothered with the phasing (it’s not clear to me you understand there is a difference, but there is). Just have a larger number of kids required to move to new schools and take credit for more overcrowding relief (although it turns out that they didn’t even have their facts about capacity straight when they voted, so the need for “relief” at Kilmer MS was greatly overstated).

As usual, what they’ve done ended up being the worst of all worlds.

I’m looking forward to the future discussion on capacity relief at Thoreau in which they’ll have to skate around this topic without acknowledging they built their comprehensive review on bad data. Hopefully McElveen will be feeling spicy again that day.

Adding all these kids to Thoreau a few years before they get rid of AAP centers and move all the AAP kids back to Thoreau will be the chef’s kiss of their utter stupidity. McElveen should absolutely rip them a new one if he’s still around by then.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if the school board members realize how they wasted two years and ended up making things worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the school board members realize how they wasted two years and ended up making things worse.

How so? I’m happy with where things landed.