Reply to FCPS Proposal to close down AAP Centers at Greenbriar West ES and Carson MS

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Reply to "FCPS Proposal to close down AAP Centers at Greenbriar West ES and Carson MS"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The solution doesn't have to be black or white.  I am a big supporter of center schools for all of the reasons mentioned before, but at some point there comes a point of diminishing returns when overcrowding becomes too much.  In my opinion, LLIV elementary schools that feed into significantly overcrowded centers should be designated as "one school centers" if the LLIV has a significant population of AAP eligible students (i.e. enough to fill 2 classrooms per grade)(e.g. schools like Wolftrap).  I know no one wants to subject their child to an unknown-quality center when they have a historically-proven high-quality center as an option, but I'm sure folks at the overcrowded centers can attest that the quality dimishes with each passing year as the classes swell.[/quote]

+1000  I like this idea and think this is also the one favored by much of the school board.   There is no justification for busing students to a center when they have a critical mass of peers at their base school, particularly when the center is already overcrowded with AAP students outnumbering base school kids 2 to 1.  Making qualified local schools "one school centers,"  would also spread the wealth around a bit, alleviating the other problem with centers  -- if you build them people will come and they will specifically move to the neighborhood of a center and then devote their lives to doing everything they can to make sure all their kids get into AAP.   This has also significantly contributed to overcrowding.

Yes,  LLIV schools have their own issues as PPs have noted, but they also have an advantage because everyone is a neighborhood student.  [b]Students come into the school and their families are already part of the local community.  They live near each other, send their kids to the same preschools, belong to the same local pools or health clubs, shop at the same stores. They all have an interest in seeing the school flourish even when their kids haven't started or are no longer there.  It's not like a center where you have a cohort of families with no connection to the school/area being bused in to get a superior, segregated education often to the detriment of local students.[/b]

When my son attended a well-regarded  center a few years back, his curriculum was great, but I was really taken aback at how out for themselves so many of the parents were.  To them the center was more of a stepping stone than school -- a place where their kid was going to get his.   I think it's more difficult to cop that kind of an attitude when you're in your local neighborhood and have to face these people.    
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But in our area, all of the feeder schools and the center school are within a five minute drive of each other.  All of the kids and families already know each other through sports, the pool, church, neighborhood activities.  The center school feels like just as much of a neighborhood school to us as does our actual neighborhood school.[/quote]

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