Places to Sign Recall Petitions - Tholen/Omeish/Cohen
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Anonymous
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If I may add some context and perspective.
If FCPS is talking about potentially rezoning your neighborhood, then it is already too late. They've made their decisions, and your kids are now just pawns in their rezoing game. Sure, there will be public meetings, time for comment, maps, websites for public input, easels that you can write your feelings on, but in the end, the decision is already made. If you think the board will listen to you, then you are dreaming. Sure go ahead and appeal to the board members. Let them know that they should not divide your community, tell them it is unfair to you and more importantly, your kids. Plead with them. Meet privately with them, put your kids in front of them...have at it. You are already done. If you want to, bring them data - real data - not the 'platenberg's pretend make-believe numbers' -- it makes no difference. They dont care. You can even see what their new boundary consultant says (i.e. the consultant who is paid by FCPS at the direction of the board).... Get ready to be lied to, manipulated, and have last minute changes without opportunity for comment. Get ready for special interests - the groups/neighborhoods with the most influence (money) - to direct the actions of your board member. This is called the ELAINE THOLEN MODEL. If you think anyone on the board will care about your kids, just remember, Elaine the Pain pushed through a boundary change, switching 30 kids out of 2300 to a new pyramid in the middle of a pandemic. How do you think they will treat your kids? |
Anonymous
| So question. There is no guarantee when you buy a property that boundaries will not change. I’m def against busing. That makes no sense. But boundary changes have always been on the realm of possibilities. With this school board and past ones. Sometimes it is necessary based on numbers. What is the argument against it besides property values? Bc honestly maintaining property values should not be the priority for the school system. |
Anonymous
Im not against boundary changes - it is about doing it the right way. What is the right way? The way which disadvantages kids the least. This board looks for quick fixes - change a boundary to address overcrowding. So they jam a new boundary on everyone starting immediately. They should take a long term approach. They should start new boundaries at the K level. Arguments against that are that FCPS is looking for immediate impact so they cant wait 6 years. That argument would make sense if their current method was impactful - it is not. The McLean boundary moved about 30 kids this year to Langley. 30 out of 2300 - made zero difference. 30 more may go next year, and it will end with about 20 after that. Makes zero difference in terms of overcrowding, and disadvantages the kids moved as they are now switching cohorts for the second time in 3 years (second split feeder). Oh yea, the kids removed from the McLean pyramid will all be replaced by just one of the many high rises going up in Tysons, never mind those going up in McLean. Zero difference. Meaningless. BUT if you really want to talk details, how about the school system connect to Fairfax County development/planning commissions? When the McLean boundary fiasco began, it was clear, and even Elaine the Pain admitted this - that FCPS was not talking to the county about projected development. FCPS had no idea how many new kid were incoming based on development. Enter the mysterious platenberg - the man with the made up numbers - he is in charge of assessing growth and predicting development. he and his minions could not back any of their boundary proposals with data - how will any proposal make a difference at McLean. He was not connected with the County. Total fail and he should be put on a rocket ship direct to the sun. What Fairfax should do is look at school infrastructure as a County issue - just like they look at building new police/fire stations. After all, FCPS and the board of supervisors are all part of the Fairfax government, and the FCPS money flows through the supervisors. Schools are County buildings. FCPS should have a transparent renovation plan for schools - with a renovation q that makes sense. Instead they run after political fires <please someone insert commentary on West Potomac reno> So it is not about having to do a boundary. Instead it is about doing things right, or at least doing them better. Plan in for infrastructure upgrades in a transparent way. Connect with the country on projected development. Share renovation burdens with the rest of the Country government. And as a last resort, if you have to do a boundary change, start at the K level and be patient - dont jerk the kids around like tholen did. |
Anonymous
| They know about projected enrollment changes/increases WHEN IT SUITS THEM. The original Top Golf location in Kingstowne closed down a few years ago in favor of the larger, newer location with plenty of parking at National Harbor. Top Golf was co-located with a Ruby Tuesday in the same parking lot that closed right around the time Covid hit. When those businesses closed the original plan was to redevelop the site into a bunch of condos and TH’s. Except one of the factors that killed the plan was the fact that Edison HS is at capacity and on a small site that can’t be meaningfully expanded. Now the area is getting more retail. It might still get some housing but it will be less than what they originally had planned for. I know that’s not quite the same situation as the crazy growth going on around Tysons but it goes to show the BoS and the schools can communicate with each other when they want to. |
Anonymous
I miss the days when the US Attorney General wasnt directing the FBI to investigate parents who are angry at school boards. |
Anonymous
I used to think Tholen was just meek, and unwilling to challenge Jeff Platenberg, but over time I’ve come to conclude she’s affirmatively malevolent. Nothing else can explain just how awful she has been. Either way, one suspects this term on the school board will be her one and only. |
Anonymous
Physical proximty to the school should be a tremendous priority, because A) Bus driver shortages. When they are running double routes, sitting high school kids 3 to a seat, rearranging routes so kids spend an hour going less than 10 miloes, and starting routes at 6:15 AM, then there should be no rezoning that drives kids away from their closest school or jumps neighborhoods over other neighborhoods innthe name of equity. B) Environmental concerns. More miles in the busses means more polilution and waste of resources. If the fcps school board is serious about green energy, they should not rezone a single student to take a longer bus ride than absolutely necessary C) Commute, commute, commute. Traffic in this area is atrocious. Time wasted in traffic is time that takes away from learning. Busses on the main roads slows down traffic for those getting to and from work. The number one priority of rez9ning should be minimizing traffic and commutes, NOT equity. |
Anonymous
The school board allowed books in libraries that have explicit drawings in them - you cant post these drawings to websites of newspapers as they delete them because they are too explicit but it is ok because it is an LGBT issue. The board is trying to increase the number of black students at TJ because there are not enough, and there are too many Asians (Im Asian American and take great offense to this). Kids are reading books about how white people all had it easy and should feel guilt - sure there is no class called CRT, but CRT is woven throughout all classes. The boundary favored Elaine's wealthy, elite friends in Great Falls. The board was renaming schools instead of pushing the teachers union to accept the fact that they had to return to the classroom. These are all LEFT agenda items. This is the left-ist agenda playing out in front of us. Where are the centrists in the Democratic party? Why arent they pushing against this? And by the way, Merritt Garland admitted that the FBI tags certain parents who are considered aggressive in the FBI system. So what are you doing about this? Stop complaining about those who are fighting against it and join the fight. Do something other than make excuses for the board. |
Anonymous
The bolded statement is certainly true. It only is part of the "left-ist agenda" to the extent that Elaine gets away with it because she trades favors with other members; they'll go along with egregiously favoring her own community (Great Falls) as long as she supports their pet projects like Keys Gamarra's Lewis Academy and Karl Frisch's dog park rescue mission. She needs to be replaced on the Board, as do almost all of the other corrupt, hypocritical members. Megan can stay, if she wants to, because she was better on getting schools opened though really just as bad on everything else. |
Anonymous
It was pretty obvious during the boundary change that Elaine asked board members to blindly support what she was doing. It makes sense that she had to pay them back. Where does that leave us? With boundary changes that had zero impact, and as you point out, dog parks and Lewis Academy. Enough of this clown show. |
Anonymous
| What embattled Tholen and Cohen fail to recognize is that the recall petitions, even if impeded by local Democratic prosecutors (or, more accurately, non-prosecutors), are a giant vote of “no confidence” in their continued service on the School Board. Both should take a cue from Beth Barts in Loudoun and resign. |
Anonymous
what % of the actual voting public in their district signed the petition? How many of them would never vote for Tholen or Cohen anyway? |
Anonymous
The petition bar is far lower than the number of people who regularly vote against them. It should be easy to for conservatives to get 10% of voters to sign a petition. The fact that they have trouble meeting that low bar shows you how little trouble the board is actually in. |
Anonymous
You don't know how to read the room. If you sign a petition, you have to publicly disclose your name and affirm under penalty of perjury you believe the grounds for recall are accurate and well-founded. That requires a heightened level of commitment. There are plenty who don't want their names on a public petition, but when voting privately in a future election will never vote for one of these clowns again. Seen in that context, the fact that sufficient signatures were collected to trigger recalls for Tholen and Cohen don't bode well or them, either while they remain on the board or if they try to run again. |
Anonymous
Most conservatives like myself have given up all hope that Fairfax County will move to the right. Most of the conservatives I know rarely vote when there are only local races (vice a presidential election). This includes the 2019 school board race. No conservative was going to win in that field. Then the pandemic happened, the board fumbled and failed our kids at every turn, while promoting progressive CRT, p0rn in the libraries, renaming schools instead of opening schools, dumbing down TJ, re-upping braband's contract, and delivering an ineffective boundary change at McLean through a manipulative process. This got many conservatives like myself off the couch and donating to efforts to recall these clowns, holding signs, signing petitions. These progressives motivated people like me. So conservatives will be ready in 2023. What Elaine and the others need to really worry about is that most of the things (admittedly not all) in my list above cross party lines. There is a noticeable number of Democratic families are not happy with how Elaine and the board handled things over the last 18 months. Even many Democrats dont want to co-parent with FCPS. Does this mean these Democratic families will vote republican? Maybe, maybe not. But it is very likely that these Democratic families will not vote for Elaine and the Clown Club. Add that to the motivated Republicans, and Elaine loses, Karl loses, gamara loses, and possibly rachna. Honestly, Id be happy with just that. |