Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 11:51     Subject: Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think the School Board will go with option 2.


Any reason why you think so?


Because the School Board members usually defer to the [/b]magisterial district representative to the School Board[b], who will usually select the option with the longest runway.


Any idea who this is?


Cooper Middle School is primarily located in the Dranesville magisterial district, with a small bit of overlap into Hunter Mill.

Link to map of Dranesville Magisterial District:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/maps/images/maps/bosdist/bos_maps/dranesville_district_map.pdf

Link to map of Cooper Middle School boundary:
http://www.fcps.edu/images/boundarymaps/cooperms.pdf

Link to map of location of Cooper Middle School:
http://commweb.fcps.edu/directory/map_base.cfm?locid=1002

Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 11:36     Subject: Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think the School Board will go with option 2.


Any reason why you think so?


Because the School Board members usually defer to the [/b]magisterial district representative to the School Board[b], who will usually select the option with the longest runway.


Any idea who this is?
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 11:13     Subject: Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think the School Board will go with option 2.


Any reason why you think so?


Because the School Board members usually defer to the magisterial district representative to the School Board, who will usually select the option with the longest runway.
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 11:11     Subject: Re:Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? Do you know anything about the budget issues this year? Preserving "options" for Langley parents at a cost isn't really on the school board's top priority. You sound ridiculously entitled. Kilmer is way overcrowded and already has two feeders to high school. The kids moving back to Cooper from what I understand will all go onto Langley. They will be surrounded by children of affluent parents in a school that won't be overcrowded and the change will bring relief to Kilmer and Longfellow which are overcrowded. Do the Kilmer kids get other options too?


Two high school feeders sound like options to me. Basically a lot of parents will be choosing Cooper anyway for a myriad of reasons. In fact, from the data they presented last night, most parents from Colvin Run and Spring Hill are already choosing Cooper over Kilmer. It's the Churchill Road parents (Level IV center) that haven't drunk the Kool-Aid and they feed to Longfellow. So why not preserve the choice? There are a lot of reasons why a parent might decide Cooper is a better option than the center or vice versa depending on social factors or lots of other reasons beyond academia.

If they truly decide to get rid of the MS options they should get rid of ES centers too. Why should kids from Kent Gardens and Spring Hill come to Churchill and then get split up again in MS? Kent Gardens kids have to go to Longfellow and they lose all of their friends from Churchill in the process. If my Kent Gardens kid bonds better with your Churchill kid, too bad. Ridiculous!

Preserve the choice.


I don't care what the Cooper/Longfellow kids do. I just care that they get out of Kilmer. From what I understand, the push is to have all of Mclean not have the choice to attend a center program in elementary as well or at least not providing bussing to Churchhill Road.
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 11:08     Subject: Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Anonymous wrote:Most of the attendees were pro-Cooper becoming a center ASAP. Overall, not a lot of parents in attendance given the size of the AAP programs and students affected by the change.

The principal spoke as well as some teachers, students, and parents. Principal is very no nonsense and believes she can more than handle the entire situation with no glitches.

The bottom line was that the decision will not be made definitively by the school board until February. Long wait until then.


Thanks for the summary, PP!!
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 10:33     Subject: Re:Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? Do you know anything about the budget issues this year? [/b]Preserving "options" for Langley parents at a cost isn't really on the school board's top priority. You sound ridiculously entitled. Kilmer is way overcrowded and already has two feeders to high school. The kids moving back to Cooper from what I understand will all go onto Langley. They will be surrounded by children of affluent parents in a school that won't be overcrowded and the change will bring relief to Kilmer and Longfellow which are overcrowded. [b]Do the Kilmer kids get other options too?


Two high school feeders sound like options to me. Basically a lot of parents will be choosing Cooper anyway for a myriad of reasons. In fact, from the data they presented last night, most parents from Colvin Run and Spring Hill are already choosing Cooper over Kilmer. It's the Churchill Road parents (Level IV center) that haven't drunk the Kool-Aid and they feed to Longfellow. So why not preserve the choice? There are a lot of reasons why a parent might decide Cooper is a better option than the center or vice versa depending on social factors or lots of other reasons beyond academia.

If they truly decide to get rid of the MS options they should get rid of ES centers too. Why should kids from Kent Gardens and Spring Hill come to Churchill and then get split up again in MS? Kent Gardens kids have to go to Longfellow and they lose all of their friends from Churchill in the process. If my Kent Gardens kid bonds better with your Churchill kid, too bad. Ridiculous!

Preserve the choice.


The only "Cost" is busing-get rid of it if you must for the budget. No problem.
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 10:32     Subject: Re:Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? Do you know anything about the budget issues this year? Preserving "options" for Langley parents at a cost isn't really on the school board's top priority. You sound ridiculously entitled. Kilmer is way overcrowded and already has two feeders to high school. The kids moving back to Cooper from what I understand will all go onto Langley. They will be surrounded by children of affluent parents in a school that won't be overcrowded and the change will bring relief to Kilmer and Longfellow which are overcrowded. Do the Kilmer kids get other options too?


Two high school feeders sound like options to me. Basically a lot of parents will be choosing Cooper anyway for a myriad of reasons. In fact, from the data they presented last night, most parents from Colvin Run and Spring Hill are already choosing Cooper over Kilmer. It's the Churchill Road parents (Level IV center) that haven't drunk the Kool-Aid and they feed to Longfellow. So why not preserve the choice? There are a lot of reasons why a parent might decide Cooper is a better option than the center or vice versa depending on social factors or lots of other reasons beyond academia.

If they truly decide to get rid of the MS options they should get rid of ES centers too. Why should kids from Kent Gardens and Spring Hill come to Churchill and then get split up again in MS? Kent Gardens kids have to go to Longfellow and they lose all of their friends from Churchill in the process. If my Kent Gardens kid bonds better with your Churchill kid, too bad. Ridiculous!

Preserve the choice.
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 10:20     Subject: Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Anonymous wrote:I think the School Board will go with option 2.


Any reason why you think so?
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 10:17     Subject: Cooper Middle School New AAP center
I think the School Board will go with option 2.
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 10:17     Subject: Re:Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Are you kidding? Do you know anything about the budget issues this year? Preserving "options" for Langley parents at a cost isn't really on the school board's top priority. You sound ridiculously entitled. Kilmer is way overcrowded and already has two feeders to high school. The kids moving back to Cooper from what I understand will all go onto Langley. They will be surrounded by children of affluent parents in a school that won't be overcrowded and the change will bring relief to Kilmer and Longfellow which are overcrowded. Do the Kilmer kids get other options too?
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 09:59     Subject: Cooper Middle School New AAP center
This thread has totally got off topic. The issue at stake here is whether or not to force the issue at Cooper next year or to preserve the opportunity to choose between Cooper's local level IV or the centers of Longfellow and Kilmer. I'd personally rather see the choice be preserved-don't know when in life it has ever been good to limit options.
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 09:45     Subject: Re:Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Anonymous wrote:It's true. Some core course teachers in Kilmer are terrible.

Anonymous wrote:Kilmer has gotten worse? We were there years ago and thought it was mediocre.. Nice kids and families, but poorly run and some of the teachers were just awful.


If you can hold on until Marshall, it's better.
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 09:44     Subject: Re:Cooper Middle School New AAP center
It's true. Some core course teachers in Kilmer are terrible.

Anonymous wrote:Kilmer has gotten worse? We were there years ago and thought it was mediocre.. Nice kids and families, but poorly run and some of the teachers were just awful.
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 09:39     Subject: Re:Cooper Middle School New AAP center
Kilmer has gotten worse? We were there years ago and thought it was mediocre.. Nice kids and families, but poorly run and some of the teachers were just awful.
Anonymous
Post 12/03/2015 07:58     Subject: Re:Cooper Middle School New AAP center
You can only claim Kilmer used to be a good school. While, it's definitely NOT good for now.

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Kilmer is not a strong school at all. Their teacher quality is really a big concern. It may be caused by the loose hiring standard.

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I support this option. It took my kid about 50mins in the bus to Kilmer one way. With the new center, it'll save lots of commute time. In addition, the teachers' quality at Kilmer is not as good as we expected.


That's what I've heard re:teacher quality at Kilmer. I wonder why that it is? It use to be a very strong school...



Utter BS. Kilmer is a fine school and all three of my kids had many great teachers. Any school in the FCPS system has teachers that aren't as good. This goes for Longfellow, Cooper, and TJ. Given that Kilmer population has increased so much it has probably had to staff up more than many other middle schools, so perhaps it has more less-experienced teachers. So no comparison really.