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]

There is not need to "get mad".  You clearly have a child in an AAP center that gets bussed and you don't want that to change.  That's a pretty normal thought process but the school system has to think of all kids, not just yours.

What you want is not want is best for the entire school system, period.  While AAP centers and bussing have been great perks, when there needs to be a budget realignment perks get put on the chopping block.

I assure you, your child will not wither into dumbness with the masses if they are in a LLIV program at their base school.  If you really *want* a center, you provide transportation.

As for saying the kids will get bussed somewhere, so why not to a center. This is not entirely true.  We are in a walker zone for our base school, there is not bus service.  There is a bus that picks up kids from the school to go the center, yet the kids that are in AAP centers that are in walker zone to the base school get picked up by a bus right by their house.  When they are clearly able to to walk to the base and take the bus from there to the center.

It's a waste of resources and extra fat needs to be trimmed.[/quote]

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