Anonymous wrote:Some of the highest votes for budget cuts is elimination of aap centers. Hopefully this happens the tax payer public has voted.

https://fcps.uservoice.com/forums/302115-what-are-...ng-the-potential-1/filters/top

Precisely. If FCPS can't see the writing on the wall, then they're simply ignoring the vast majority of tax payers.

All of the user voice "votes" and change.org petitions mean nothing.

The Superintendent and School Board will make the decisions. Since it is an Election year, the School Board incumbents will promise most anything.

The Budget proposal will be released after the Election (and the School Bond referendum).

Just lots of jaw flapping until November.

Some of the highest votes for budget cuts is elimination of aap centers. Hopefully this happens the tax payer public has voted.

https://fcps.uservoice.com/forums/302115-what-are-...ng-the-potential-1/filters/top

Get rid of the centers, go to your own schools level 4. Or did you but in a shit school district and wanted to save money and get in to a good school. F off

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We parents of FCPS students have serious concerns about the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Budget Task Force’s budget cut options. Many of these cuts, if implemented, would negatively impact our children’s emotional and academic health.

https://www.change.org/p/dr-karen-garza-superintendent-of-fairfax-county-public-schools-mr-matt-haley-chair-of-fcps-budget-task-force-btf-support-fairfax-talent

Thank you for posting this.

+1

I have kids in AAP, Gen Ed and Special Ed so I think I have a pretty balanced perspective on this issue.

While I appreciate the fact that one of my children has access to a more intensive curriculum, I don't think that class size matters for him. The class could have 50 kids in it, and he would still learn just as much because he's that academically curious and driven. Not so for my other ones.

The idea that you need large centers to have critical mass for co-curricular activities is largely false. The minimum numbers for most of these activities is quite low, and in fact, a lot of children get shut out of them at the largest centers because there are usually upper limits on the size of the teams.

The idea that you don't have critical mass to be able to offer an AAP class is untrue at all but a few schools. Many local level IV programs are in fact gutted by the fact that kids are given the choice to attend a center instead of their base school. A few truly have very few kids who qualify, and those could be given the choice to attend another school. Meanwhile, our base school/center's AAP classes are overcrowded, while the same local LLIV class a mile away has fewer than 20 kids.

And lastly, if we have to prioritize cuts, I'll take cuts to AAP over cuts to a lot of electives that all my children enjoy.

Anonymous wrote:Then, taxes will have to go up. Call/mail your Board of Supervisor member telling them that.

No, they don't. Remember, the budget is going UP (again. like every year).

It's just not going up enough to fund all the pet projects and growth of the bureaucracy. So they threaten to cut the stuff people want and use that as an excuse to raise taxes.

Anonymous wrote:Well said, 21:48 and 21:53!

+1.

I happen to agree there is a problem with the cuts. But it affects all kids, not just AAP kids. My DD is in AAP, but what she really likes is her band class. Her dream is to be in the HS marching band.

I would be willing to sign a petition to raise taxes to fully fund the schools, but not to cut only non-AAP programs.

Well said, 21:48 and 21:53!

Anonymous wrote:We parents of FCPS students have serious concerns about the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Budget Task Force’s budget cut options. Many of these cuts, if implemented, would negatively impact our children’s emotional and academic health.

https://www.change.org/p/dr-karen-garza-superintendent-of-fairfax-county-public-schools-mr-matt-haley-chair-of-fcps-budget-task-force-btf-support-fairfax-talent

Thank you for posting this.

From the petition: "Many of these cuts, if implemented, would negatively impact our children’s emotional and academic health."

My child - a non-AAP student - has had his emotional and academic health negatively impacted since the third grade, by having to attend a center school in which he is in one of only two GE classes, as opposed to the four AAP classes in his grade. He and his classmates are in the distinct minority and they are acutely aware of this fact. This is incredibly damaging for his self-esteem (and that of the other kids in the only two GE classes for this grade). They are considered the "slow" classes, when in reality, these are very bright kids who just didn't happen to make the extremely arbitrary cutoff needed for AAP.

"AAP students already have larger class sizes, on average, than other general education students."

At our center, the AAP classes are all smaller than the General Education classes. Why is this allowed?

"These gifted children are a source of talent for Fairfax County and the nation. Our children’s well-being depends on the availability of programs that meet their needs."

News flash: AAP kids are not the only "talented" children in Fairfax County. There are plenty of talented students who are not in AAP, but who are perfectly capable of doing AAP work. A better solution would be implementing the AAP curriculum for all students. It's a fallacy that only kids admitted to AAP are capable of doing this work.

If FCPS wants to continue attracting companies and employees to our area, it needs to step up its curriculum for all - not just a select group of basically mainstream kids. Truly gifted children are far more rare than FCPS would have one believe. The very small GT program of over a decade ago was actually for the gifted. AAP is not that program and should not be funded as such.

I absolutely won't be signing that petition. It's clear the authors care only about one group of kids - AAP - and will do and say anything to continue the favoritism shown to them. So many families, including my own, have had it with the constant inequity between what is offered to AAP students and what is "offered" Gen Ed students (hint: not nearly enough). General Education students aren't given the option of either staying at their base school or transferring to another school. In fact, they're given no options whatsoever.

Enough with AAP parents complaining that their kids have to "share" a classroom with Gen Ed students, and that the AAP kids "need" a special learning environment. I'm waiting for someone to look around at the non-AAP kids and realize that they, too, might just need a better curriculum and some attention directed their way, and that these students are, for all intensive purposes, no different than the vast majority of "AAP kids". Stop treating General Education students like second-class citizens and start realizing that AAP kids aren't somehow more worthy of extra funds and smaller classes.

As a taxpayer, I would be very happy to see AAP services cut. Enough is enough.

Then, taxes will have to go up. Call/mail your Board of Supervisor member telling them that.

We parents of FCPS students have serious concerns about the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Budget Task Force’s budget cut options. Many of these cuts, if implemented, would negatively impact our children’s emotional and academic health.

https://www.change.org/p/dr-karen-garza-superintendent-of-fairfax-county-public-schools-mr-matt-haley-chair-of-fcps-budget-task-force-btf-support-fairfax-talent