Reply to Supporting ACPS in the voting booth

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Supporting ACPS in the voting booth"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP's question is fair, but so is PP's criticism.  ACPS has a lot to offer, and some of the criticism is not fair, but the school board overall has done a simply terrible job.

The new Beauregard elementary school/office building was not planned adequately, is being implemented badly, and the school board's choices basically tell those kids and families that they just don't matter.  The principal selection process was a series of idiotic errors.  The school board's maintenance of facilities has been a disaster, and the school board's funding excuses simply don't cut it.  And with among the highest per-student expenditures in the region, there simply should be a better educational result for everybody.  Complaining about capacity crises and planning the expensive re-segregation of the city's high school kicks up a lot of dust and diverts attention away from the school board's complete ineffectiveness.

In some respects it doesn't matter who is on Alexandria council.  It just doesn't.  [b]Council completely defers to the school board, which then makes an incredible mess every single time.  Every member of council wants to avoid becoming a political target of the school board and parent groups, so council defers to every single thing that school board wants, without any deviation.  [/b]

A few members of council try to at least make the school board respond on basic financial and efficiency issues (Smedberg, for example), and a few candidates (Bennett-Parker, Aguirre) can be counted on to support ACPS but not treat the school board with the same kid gloves that has been habit for years.  Other candidates (Pepper) are likely to continue to rubber-stamp anything that comes from the school board, and then point the finger someplace else when everything, predictably, keeps going wrong.  A few seem to get that the school board, not ACPS, is Alexandria's school problem (maybe Bailey and Chapman), but they are unwilling to move to the next level and actually start demanding that the school board simplify processes, avoid distraction, and improve results.  The mayor isn't engaged, and the vice mayor is captive to the school board and has always rubber-stamped every single thing that school board wants, period.  So there really is no adult supervision.

[/quote]

Do any of the candidates have the courage to stand up to the school board and recommend needed changes?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics