Positives of FCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are really no positives about the FCPS bureaucracy, it's pretty bad.

That said, schools are pretty autonomous and a school with a good principal can be wonderful.

Teachers are generally very good. It really depends on the school. FCPS itself does not add value.

I appreciate my school board member. All of them really seem to listen to teachers, principals, parents, and the community. It's nice to have an intermediary

[Anonymous]

I've been impressed by the facilities personnel within FCPS. Even with fewer resources per student than in APS, they've done a good job of balancing the enrollments at high schools to match the capacities. It's tougher at the ES and MS level because of the imbalances created by AAP, over which the facilities people have no control. Compare that to APS, where there are more resources per student, but many of the schools are turning into giant clusterf**** because no one has the courage to move anyone to a lower rate school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been impressed by the facilities personnel within FCPS. Even with fewer resources per student than in APS, they've done a good job of balancing the enrollments at high schools to match the capacities. It's tougher at the ES and MS level because of the imbalances created by AAP, over which the facilities people have no control. Compare that to APS, where there are more resources per student, but many of the schools are turning into giant clusterf**** because no one has the courage to move anyone to a lower rate school.

Facilities does some of that work on projections but the school board has the final say on redistricting to balance out schools.

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that they really should be allowed to limit the size of aap centers. First come, first served or something? Although there really is no reason that all the middle schools can't have a center.

[Anonymous]

How come they couldn't get 4 more desks? 34 to a class isn't terrible for high school.

Tell that to the teacher. You are talking about 10% more students when the teacher's pay raise was .67% for the year. Twenty more students over the course of a day is very significant. Horrible.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be not a lot of positives from posters in here, but I'll give you some hope, OP.

I went to private school overseas and got my college and graduate degrees in the US. DH went to public school in the west coast, went to the military then non-traditional college.
We saved for and planned to put our kids in private school but after doing a lot of research and talking to other parents about the private vs. public debate, DH and I decided that public school was going to be fine, plus, spending $30k/year x 2 was going to put us in a totally different lifestyle. Our older kid started off in Montessori but it wasn't a good fit for her.

We have 2 kids in FCPS, one in elementary AAP, one in Gen Ed middle school.
Overall, we have been very happy with our 9 years of experience with FCPS. I don't pay much attention to school SOL scores or great school ratings but I did look it up recently. One school is a 10 and the other one is a 7. Both kids have done fine with SOLs and it's not worth it for me to look at how everyone else is doing.

As far as teachers, I'd say that 70% have been good, 10% have not been great, 20% have been just fantastic. We had one school counselor for 7 years that was just a God send.
As far as the school curriculum, it has been just at the right depth and pace for my Gen Ed kid. It was too slow for my other kid until he got into AAP and it's now a great fit.
As far as resources, I've been pretty impressed. Ipads for each kid in the classroom! It is odd not to have textbooks but life has been fine without them. Both kids have been bus riders and it's great to have those resources, especially because one kid gets bused to a center school.
As are as class sizes, yeah sure it can be smaller but I don't think it's so much about the size of the class - the effective management of a class depends more on the teacher.
As far as extra curriculars, there are so many free activities at our middle school.

I started to look at the high school catalog and I'm just so lost with all the options out there to tailor your child's education. Just so much opportunity.

I am not sure if DH and I are just easy to impress but we talk about how we love the schools here- I'd say it's what makes me like living here. I hate the traffic, I don't love the weather, we make decent money but the rat race atmosphere isn't my preference. As much as we love the school system here, we also consider them only about 60-70% of our children's education. We'll supply the rest through other ways. We supplement with whatever other exposure we can get for our kids (that's also why we are so glad we didn't do the private school route). It's a long haul. School is what you make of it and that's why I don't pay much attention to generalized statements about FCPS being this way or that way. Our kids are doing well and that's all we care about.

[Anonymous]

There are really no positives about the FCPS bureaucracy, it's pretty bad.

That said, schools are pretty autonomous and a school with a good principal can be wonderful.

Teachers are generally very good. It really depends on the school. FCPS itself does not add value.

Pretty good overall summary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

How come they couldn't get 4 more desks? 34 to a class isn't terrible for high school.

Tell that to the teacher. You are talking about 10% more students when the teacher's pay raise was .67% for the year. Twenty more students over the course of a day is very significant. Horrible.

BTW, a chunk of that .67% will disappear with health care cost increases in January.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

How come they couldn't get 4 more desks? 34 to a class isn't terrible for high school.

Tell that to the teacher. You are talking about 10% more students when the teacher's pay raise was .67% for the year. Twenty more students over the course of a day is very significant. Horrible.

Well sure. But I know kids in grades 2-4 who have had over 30 kids to a teacher which I think is worse than in high school. I don't think either scenarios are good, but at least in elementary you are given a desk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How come they couldn't get 4 more desks? 34 to a class isn't terrible for high school. They get more desks for elementary all the time.

There was no more space in the room. It was packed to the gills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How come they couldn't get 4 more desks? 34 to a class isn't terrible for high school.

Tell that to the teacher. You are talking about 10% more students when the teacher's pay raise was .67% for the year. Twenty more students over the course of a day is very significant. Horrible.

BTW, a chunk of that .67% will disappear with health care cost increases in January.

Not a bad health care increase. Ours will be going up by 15%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although there really is no reason that all the middle schools can't have a center.

Sure there is -- not all middle schools have enough kids for a center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How come they couldn't get 4 more desks? 34 to a class isn't terrible for high school.

Tell that to the teacher. You are talking about 10% more students when the teacher's pay raise was .67% for the year. Twenty more students over the course of a day is very significant. Horrible.

BTW, a chunk of that .67% will disappear with health care cost increases in January.

Not a bad health care increase. Ours will be going up by 15%.

What percentage is that of your salary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
How come they couldn't get 4 more desks? 34 to a class isn't terrible for high school.


Tell that to the teacher. You are talking about 10% more students when the teacher's pay raise was .67% for the year. Twenty more students over the course of a day is very significant. Horrible.


Well sure. But I know kids in grades 2-4 who have had over 30 kids to a teacher which I think is worse than in high school. I don't think either scenarios are good, but at least in elementary you are given a desk.

Education has been reduced to whether or not you have a desk. Ooooookay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is only one positive - it's cheaper than private.

Depends on what private you're comparing it to, but I mostly agree. For example, friends who've moved from various catholic schools have been much more impressed with FCPS academics. On the other hand, we moved from a top tier private (financial reasons) and the only positive is it's cheaper.