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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some at Lemon Road complain the AAP program there is too small and doesn't have "critical mass."  Others at Westbriar complain the AAP program there will get too big and overwhelm the school.  It's no surprise that the School Board doesn't do what the "community" wants when the "community" doesn't speak with one voice.  [/quote]

Oh enough of you already....you clearly need some instruction on how things work in this area.  Basically, the loudest voices at Westbriar and other schools that would be affected were the voices of parents who didn't want their kids going to school in the Lemon Road neighborhood.  Period.   Just like the Vienna folks that didn't want their kids to go to Luther Jackson for middle school.  It is appalling that the School Board let them get away with it.[/quote]

How polite you are (not).  Why exactly shouldn't some Westbriar AAP parents prefer not to send their kids to an elementary school on the other side of Tysons?  There is nothing wrong about the immediate Lemon Road neighborhood (it's in a nice area off Idylwood Road).   But it is a bit of a hike if you happen to live in Vienna off Old Courthouse or Beulah Road.  [/quote]

I'm just being honest, which many of the parents were not.  I've visited Lemon Road and have no problem with where it is or what the student make up is, but a number of the parents of affected schools in this case drive their kids over hells half acre around here to get them to various enrichment programs (languages, Bethesda or BRYC soccer three times a week, anyone?) so to claim that Lemon Road was too far is disingenuous at best.

BTW, Westbriar kids feed into Kilmer and GCM high school, both of which are on the other side of Tysons, so again, given that there is a bus service, I'm not really buying this argument.[/quote]

There are far fewer middle and high schools than elementary schools, so you have to accept the longer distance later.  That doesn't mean it's outrageous for someone at Westbriar to ask for an AAP option closer than Lemon Road.  And if more AAP kids were at Lemon Road, someone else would be complaining about how the school was now overrun with AAP kids from Vienna and how GenEd kids at Lemon Road were getting the short end.  The kvetching just never stops.  [/quote]

Still think it's a phony argument -- there are parents who would drive their kids to Alexandria from Vienna every day if FCPS suddenly put a highly gifted magnet there and called it TJ Prep elementary school.   The nature of this whole center-based system is that no one but the base school families care when their local school is turned into an AAP center. They're the ones who suffer and see their community turned into something most never wanted it to be and they're the ones whose voices are not heard. As other PP's have noted,  the AAP parents and their wannabees always drown everyone else out.   The sooner FCPS is forced to move to a model where level IV kids stay at their base schools their needs can usually easily be met, the better.  And I say this as a parent who had a kid in GT.  I get it.  But the numbers have just gotten too big and many of the kids who are forcing the shift to more center just aren't that special.

[/quote]

I think the fallacy of your argument jumps off the screen.  On the one hand, no one but the base school parents "care" in the current system, in your opinion, yet on the other hand it's only AAP parents who speak in and are heard.

I guess that type of fantasy is convenient if you just want to rail against AAP and demonize other AAP parents, but it's also sorely lacking in logic.  There is a cacophony of voices that is heard at different volumes in different situations, and [b]sometimes it leads to decisions that appear to favor AAP students and other times it leads to decisions that appear to disadvantage them.[/b]  One could have a discussion as to the proper scale and structure of an AAP program, and the circumstances in which the needs of students could be met equally well in base schools rather than dedicated centers, but the fact is that the growth of AAP programs is a response to factors that are more complex than simply one group of parents imposing their wishes on others against their will.[/quote]

At no point have I [b]ever [/b]seen a situation in which AAP students have been "disadvantaged".  The mere fact that they are offered two choices regarding where to be educated - at their base school or at a center, with [b]free busing [/b]provided - speaks volumes.  What kinds of choices are General Ed. kids being offered?  [/quote]

I know this is an unpopular opinion on this site but I think the AAP kids who were kicked out of Haycock were disadvantaged.  I'm sure Lemon Road will be a fine AAP center but the kids should have been permitted to finish at Haycock.  The unnecessary stress of another school change was very unfair.  What's done is done but please don't say the AAP kids always win.[/quote]

The AAP kids as a group are the only ones even being given a choice - do they [b]want[/b] to be in AAP at all, do they [b]want[/b] to stay at their base school, do they [b]want[/b] to be bused to a center.  It is advantageous to be offered choices, no?  General Ed. students aren't given any such options.  In my opinion, and that of many others, AAP kids are given far too many choices when compared with all the other kids in FCPS.  What makes this group of kids special and deserving of more options than any others?  The whole system is designed to favor them and no one seems to be brave enough to put the brakes on and rein things in.[/quote]

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