Reply to FCPS is turning the new high school purchased to fix crowding into an Aviation magnet school instead of a high school??

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Reply to "FCPS is turning the new high school purchased to fix crowding into an Aviation magnet school instead of a high school??"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My guess is that they will start it as a regular high school, but add an Aviation or Aerospace-focused Academy as part of the school. They will spend 2-3 years renovating one of the extra buildings to bring in specialized equipment/labs for the academy. That will also give them time to hire the right people.[/quote]

Here's the academic sequence for students at Raisbeck Aviation HS near Seattle.  The school has slightly over 400 students, so it is feasible to have such a program in a building that's built for fewer students than a typical FCPS high school.

https://rahs.highlineschools.org/academics/course-offerings

[img]https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e5d2de082e3c20bed5c2a9d/1612828993694-ZJ5Q29TF6QGNTDL4WEQ1/09819_00_N42_large.jpg[/img][/quote]

No.

Not possible.

They didn't follow the proper processes to do this.

The money they spent was money allocated for a new general high school to ease overcrowding through the normal bond process.

It was NOT allocated for a magnet school available to only a few students.

FCPS is cutting money right and left from other students.  Most teachers are teaching classes of 30-35 students per year.  Many high school teachers have a student load well in excess of 150-180 students per teacher.

If they want a magnet school, then go through the normal bond process.

Do not steal money from the rest of the county meant to relieve overcrowding to fund a vanity project with possible kickbacks or benefits to school board members working in that industry.[/quote]

I don’t feel strongly about this school, but you mislead when you say they bought it with money allocated to overcrowding. They haven’t disclosed anything about where the money came from.

You can argue why you think the school should be a traditional one, but you hurt your credibility with the argument above.[/quote]
Money to buy land and build a western HS to address overcrowding has been in the CIP for over a decade.  You keep arguing that only the land portion was "funded," but regardless all of it was planned to happen.  There was never any such plan to spend money on a magnet.  That never made it into any bond proposals.  It was never voted on.[/quote]

I don’t “keep arguing” about anything, since I haven’t previously weighted in on this. The disclosure in the last bond was that they would spend money (13.5 million I believe) for acquisition of a school site. So, if you want to argue semantics, they were 136 million above what the bond discussed. However, they have wiggle room in how their bond funds are used.

What I hear you arguing is that the CIP has contemplated a future western high school, but so what? That’s not a document that binds the school system in any way whatsoever.

I also think you keep glossing over an inconvenient fact, which is that a magnet school would alleviate overcrowding in the area, just not the particular way that you want it alleviated.

Again, I don’t feel strongly about how this school is used, and I think both the traditionalists and the magnets have compelling arguments, but your argument about disclosures in bond documents is not one.[/quote]

The school system exists to educate the students.  I would assume this includes providing spaces for education to occur.
Chantilly has 3000 students and new construction in its boundaries.
Westfield has 2700 and lots of new construction in its boundaries.
Centreville has around 2400 with modulars and trailers, I think?

There are plans to expand Centreville to 3000.  They do not even yet have the permits to build.

The need is now.  This new school can alleviate the overcrowding--and, hopefully, solve it.  It may not be a large school, but it can be made to work.

If not, you are going to have to bus a lot more kids cross county--and we need a lot more buses and bus drivers.  We are already short on both.  And, buses and bus drivers also cost money.
And, you will be busing kids who likely will not be able to participate in extra-curricular activities because of the distance.  More students spending an hour and a half or so on a school bus-rather than doing homework or participating in activities at their school.

I just do not understand why people cannot understand the difference between want and need.

[/quote]

I just do not understand what makes your “wants” into the collective’s “needs”.  Sure one way to alleviate overcrowding is with a traditional high school. Another way to alleviate overcrowding is with a magnet or a split magnet/traditional. You can’t just pretend that the traditional alleviates overcrowding in the area and that the other options would do nothing to alleviate crowding, though of course that depends on the actual details.

The bus cost thing is a red herring. I’m just not seeing how adding a bus or two results in significant additional costs. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to some other costs for the school system. You seem to be fine with a rushed $150 million purchase then complain about how we can’t add a couple hundred thousand dollars in bus routes (if that even) to the budget. It’s like rushing to buy a Lamborghini and then complain about the cost of a gas change for it.[/quote]

[b]If they want a magnet, FCPS needs to put it up to a taxpayer vote, just like any other bond[/b]

There is no money available for or allocated to a fancy new magnet school that will cost millions more taxpayer dollars to launch.

You know, our schools are all understaffed due to overcrowding. This magnet school vanity project does not address this issue.  It makes it worse because we can almost guarantee that the magnet classes will have a much lower teacher to student ratio than the 35:1 all the regular classes have this year (or roughly 170:1 that the high school teachers have this year)

kids in FCPS who do not qualify for free lunch have to pay around $50.00-$100.00 fee to take art or music classes in the FCPS middle in high schools.  Our district has a 4 BILLION dollar budget, yet non rich and non farms kids cannot afford to take music or art classes because FCPS won't pay for their art supplies or music licensing.  Yet they want to create an expensive magnet school out of thin air for a handful of students (400 magnet students is roughly 100 out of 14,000 students per each grade, serving less than 1% of high school students, 0.7% of high school students to be exact), when the rest of the students cannot get the basics like a freshman choir or band class without their parents putting up an $100.00 extra dollars??

A magnet school that will cost tens of millions of dollars to create, serving only 400 of the roughly 60,000 high school students, less than 1% of FCPS high school students, is an obscene waste of taxpayer funds, especially when in spite of a 4 BILLION dollar budget we are cutting everywhere, asking teachers to teach the max number of students allowed by the state formula, cutting special ed programs for older students, cutting crossing guards, not paying teachers what was agreed upon, cutting middle school programs, and more.  Yet FCPS wants to blow millions of dollars on 400 high school students, without a taxpayer vote and with no transparency?

No.  This is not right.

This is not what the money was allocated for.[/quote]

Earlier bond documents and CIPs referred to a new elementary school in Fairfax or Oakton, and then the two-term School Board Chair, Karl Frisch, got that money reallocated to a school in Dunn Loring instead.

If you think their CIP plans are set in stone (which, of course, is not the case since the plans in place prior to the KAA purchase didn't even call for construction to begin until 2034), then you haven't been paying attention. [/quote]

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