Reply to New Budget Recommendations -- eliminate AAP busing and centers

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Reply to "New Budget Recommendations -- eliminate AAP busing and centers"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would have thought the folks on this board would be very, very upset about these recommendations. I certainly am. Now is the time to write letters to Dr. Garza & the School Board mentioning how important the AAP is to our kids, so they know parents support this program. No, it's not perfect by a long shot, but look at the recommendations, and their consequences: (1) cut busing to AAP where there's LLIV -- this hurts working families who can't provide their own transportation, and keeps everybody at their local schools regardless of whether that's best for the child. Stop pretending LLIV is the same as a Center. It's not. Even in wealthier areas, no elementary school has the kind of "critical mass" that Centers have. It's not the same. Perhaps the middle schools in our wealthier areas have "critical mass," but at the elementary level it's just not the case. More to the point, who's hurt by this? The very population who have historically been underrepresented in AAP -- kids from less privileged backgrounds. Rich moms & dads will find a way to get their kid to the Center if their kid needs it. It's the rest of the families who will be screwed. (2) have LLIV everywhere, no centers. That would honestly not be an AAP. The whole philosophy behind FCPS' current AAP is to gather together similar kids so they can support one another. It's the right approach, and it's been used as a model elsewhere; FCPS just did a study on our AAP in 2013, so they know this. Eliminating LLIV is just leaving kids where they are and pretending that we're providing services for them.

As other posters have mentioned, the so-called savings from either of these proposals don't even make sense. You've got to bus kids SOMEWHERE in elementary school... does it make sense that there are massive savings when you shift that bus from one school to another? This screws up all the capital planning the Board has done for years and likely means more trailers.... is that in the "savings?" If you have LLIV everywhere, don't we need more teachers to immediately be trained to educate AAP kids? Isn't that expensive?

Get mad, guys.[/quote]

I think our school will be stronger if not so many AAP kids would leave for the center.  It has a strong AAP classroom, but it could have two classrooms.  My kids are enriched and I love that a lot of their friends are not in AAP, but in gen ed.  I don't think there is a need to segregate kids outside the classroom.  They already have the classroom for critical mass.  Now, if a school does not have enough level IV students they can supplement with level III.  There are 5 level III kids and my son's classroom and I know one of them is the "smartest" in the classroom.  If there is not enough to make a classroom with Level III and IV students, then that is something Fairfax Co. needs to deal with.  But for the MANY schools that could have a local lever IV, I don't see this as a big deal.[/quote]

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