Anonymous wrote:Fcps provides by service if you live more than a mile from school or on a dangerous walk route. I think that's reasonable.

no. It is a mile and a half (for middle and high school) and even if there aren't sidewalks -- too bad. We almost bought a house that was over a mile to the MS, no sidewalks, dark for much of the school year at 7:00 a.m. (when 12 yr old would have to walk there) -- we cancelled the contract in large part b/c of the lack of busing.

I have friends in Va. Beach district and they live 1.5 BLOCKS from their middle school --they wanted to walk and were told they were not allowed to walk -- had to ride the bus b/c there weren't sidewalks for that 1.5 blocks!

In LCPS, elementary gets busing if it is more than 1/2 mi. In high school it is .8 mi.

Anonymous wrote:Loudoun does it right -- elementary starts at 7:50 b/c they know parents need to get the kids to school when they go to work and they can do aftercare if they need it. MS is 8:30 (across the board) and HS is 9:00. The MS and HS kids can get themselves to school.

Sure, there would be complainers about the HS being "so late" -- but somehow, those HS kids get to practices and jobs.

LCPS gets the basics right -- they make decisions and implement them, they provide bus transportion for reasonable distances (not true in FCPS). FCPS -- seems mired in hand-wringing and indecision. Give me fewer bells and whistles and more meat/potatoes.

I agree LCPS gets it better on the basics and has more meat/potatoes than bells and whistles. I think the bus transportation distance is about the same though.

Fcps provides by service if you live more than a mile from school or on a dangerous walk route. I think that's reasonable.

Loudoun does it right -- elementary starts at 7:50 b/c they know parents need to get the kids to school when they go to work and they can do aftercare if they need it. MS is 8:30 (across the board) and HS is 9:00. The MS and HS kids can get themselves to school.

Sure, there would be complainers about the HS being "so late" -- but somehow, those HS kids get to practices and jobs.

LCPS gets the basics right -- they make decisions and implement them, they provide bus transportion for reasonable distances (not true in FCPS). FCPS -- seems mired in hand-wringing and indecision. Give me fewer bells and whistles and more meat/potatoes.

Anonymous wrote:The late start times are horrible for elem schools. I cannot keep second graders focused for social studies starting at 3:15. They have been up since the crack of dawn because they are like that biologically, or they are at day care at 7, and come to class at 9, and they are expected to keep following directions and focusing until 4. Our school had first graders start reading class at 2:20 in the afternoon this year and wondered why test scores were down. They need to start earlier which is when they are alert and available!

I agree and my kids are night owls.

Plus, on days where we have CCD (religious ed) there is no time for dinner or an unwind break.

We don't do homework after school because school gets out so late.

It is a terrible schedule for elementary kids. Really, the old schedule was so much better for all age groups.

Anonymous wrote:The late start times are horrible for elem schools. I cannot keep second graders focused for social studies starting at 3:15. They have been up since the crack of dawn because they are like that biologically, or they are at day care at 7, and come to class at 9, and they are expected to keep following directions and focusing until 4. Our school had first graders start reading class at 2:20 in the afternoon this year and wondered why test scores were down. They need to start earlier which is when they are alert and available!

Second grade teacher and I agree! My kids were ready for a nap around 2:30.

The late start times are horrible for elem schools. I cannot keep second graders focused for social studies starting at 3:15. They have been up since the crack of dawn because they are like that biologically, or they are at day care at 7, and come to class at 9, and they are expected to keep following directions and focusing until 4. Our school had first graders start reading class at 2:20 in the afternoon this year and wondered why test scores were down. They need to start earlier which is when they are alert and available!

It says here they vary from two to four runs in and out of schools.

Question: I see buses all the time with only a few children on them. What are they doing?

http://www.fcps.edu/fts/tran/faq/

Answer: Fairfax County Public Schools' buses make two to four runs into and out of schools each day. We currently carry over 110,000 students to school and bring them home daily. On the majority of these runs, FCPS buses achieve a load factor of more than 60%. However, there are exceptions.


Several high schools have boundaries that stretch from the western to the eastern part of Fairfax County. For example, Langley and Oakton High Schools have boundaries stretching from Loudoun County to McLean and Fair Oaks. Robinson, Lake Braddock, South County, and Hayfield also have large boundaries that extend bus runs in miles and time resulting in less than capacity loads.


FCPS has many special programs that require that students be transported considerable distances, sometimes across the entire county. When transporting students to these special programs, the time length of the run usually makes it impossible to fully utilize the capacity of the bus. Sometimes, however, as the bus travels within the school's attendance boundary it will stop and pick up additional students. Examples of these special programs include special education, magnet schools, gifted and talented programs, alternative programs and schools, and academy programs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When they have to stagger the schedules to get four rounds of bus routes in, someone is going to get screwed on the early side and later side.

Which busses have four routes each day?

Almost all of them.

Sorry. I mean in the morning. Is there a document that lists the bus numbers and routes?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When they have to stagger the schedules to get four rounds of bus routes in, someone is going to get screwed on the early side and later side.

Which busses have four routes each day?

Almost all of them.

I like the late ES start times. They can never please everyone.

Anonymous wrote:When they have to stagger the schedules to get four rounds of bus routes in, someone is going to get screwed on the early side and later side.

Which busses have four routes each day?

When they have to stagger the schedules to get four rounds of bus routes in, someone is going to get screwed on the early side and later side.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez, some of these seem so late! Ours apparently starts at 8:15...

This is why a lot of people don't like the new high school times. They are good for high school but it messes up elementary and messes up middle school. And as it turns out because of traffic and kids driving to high school, the actual time saved in high school isn't that much for some of the students. Plus it messes up some afterschool activities.

Yup. ES and to a greater degree MS got screwed for the sake of a few in HS. Not really unintended consequences as much as "Me..Me..Me..."

They knew what they were doing. They just didn't care because their kids were older.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez, some of these seem so late! Ours apparently starts at 8:15...

This is why a lot of people don't like the new high school times. They are good for high school but it messes up elementary and messes up middle school. And as it turns out because of traffic and kids driving to high school, the actual time saved in high school isn't that much for some of the students. Plus it messes up some afterschool activities.

Yup. ES and to a greater degree MS got screwed for the sake of a few in HS. Not really unintended consequences as much as "Me..Me..Me..."