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[quote=Anonymous]Here's what Sandy Evans has told her constituents in Mason about the AAP proposals (note that it makes the common-sense observation that concerns about some of the proposals need not interfere with addressing the serious overcrowding at schools like Haycock next year):

"Advanced Academic Program (GT) Center Proposed Changes: The Superintendent plans to bring the School Board a new plan to make significant changes in our AAP center program (formerly called GT centers). Behind the recommendations is a philosophy that students would be better served by staying as close to their base schools as possible.

Part of the proposal will be to create an AAP Center at each middle school. This would mean, for example, that some students now headed to Glasgow Middle School for the AAP Center program would instead attend Poe or Holmes Middle Schools, which would create their own AAP centers. At last count, Glasgow would be expected to lose around 23 rising sixth grade students, assuming that rising 7th and 8th graders were grandfathered in.

The elementary school plan is a bit more complicated. The idea is to create an elementary school AAP center for each high school pyramid. In our part of the world this would mean the creation of two new elementary AAP centers, one for the Annandale High School pyramid and one for the Falls Church High School pyramid. The initial thinking is that new centers could be placed at Braddock ES (for the Annandale pyramid) and at Camelot ES (for the Falls Church pyramid), though the recommendation isn't finalized yet.

If we decide to do this, FCPS staff are recommending that current students be "grandfathered" in, and the transitions would start with rising 3rd graders and rising 6th graders (7th graders in parts of the county with 7-8 middle schools).
Here is a link to a web page that outlines where FCPS is on this proposal:
http://www.fcps.edu/is/aap/centers/reorg/index.shtml

I have several concerns and questions about this proposal at this point. First of all, before taking any action we need significant public engagement, especially with AAP parents, on how this would impact children, families and schools. In Mason District, the situation is complicated by recent boundary changes that already significantly impacted Belvedere Elementary, which under the plan would lose four feeder schools from its AAP center, already one of the smaller ones in the county. We need to ask if families at Weyanoke, Columbia, Bren Mar Park and Mason Crest would welcome a switch to a new Annandale pyramid AAP center school, especially since neither Mason Crest nor Bren Mar Park students will actually attend Annandale High School.

At a School Board Forum last week, I put on the agenda a proposal to slow down the process to allow for full public engagement and to give our Advanced Academic Program Advisory Committee (AAPAC) time to give us its views on this issue. Secondly, because there are some AAP centers that have emergency overcrowding situations that must be dealt with in the next school year (none in Mason District), I wanted to see options from the Superintendent to deal with just those situations if we choose to take more time to consider the larger, systemwide recommendations.

The Board agreed to my proposal, and we will receive the superintendent's recommendations and options at the Board's Dec. 10 work session. At that time, we will consider how best to move forward. As a first step in public engagement, three regional meetings have been scheduled for the last week in November. For Clusters 1, 2, and 3 (which includes Mason District students), the meeting has been set for 7-9 pm at Kilmer Middle School, 8100 Wolftrap Rd., Vienna, VA, 22182, map here:
http://commweb.fcps.edu/directory/map_base.cfm?locid=1012

I've also asked staff to work with me to create an additional meeting for our area to discuss our unique needs someplace closer and more convenient to Mason District. I welcome your comments and views."

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