Cooper is currently 150 students under capacity. And, FCPS now projects that, in 2017, Cooper will only have 681 students in a building designed for 950 students.

Why shouldn't the AAP kids from the Langley pyramid now at Longfellow and Kilmer go there instead? Without the reassignment, FCPS projects that both Longfellow and Kilmer will be considerably above-capacity in 2017.

I agree. I think FCPS is being very irresponsible by intentially putting a school into an overcrowding situation which will probably lead to a boundary change?

The school is underenrolled by 200 children when many of the other schools around it are overcrowded? Seems like it was due for a boundary study regardless.

I've seen a lot of postings on this site referring to Cooper MS. I urge parents to look at some of the number of students that would be entering Cooper in 2013 and 2014. There are close to 200 potential 7th graders that would go to Cooper instead of Kilmer or Longfellow and the same will happen the following year. This will put Cooper in a very overcrowded situation meaning trailers, long lines at the kiss/ride, more busses, more lunch schedules and overcrowding in the gym and other shared resources. While the school may get more teachers, it is still the smallest MS in the county for capacity. The school is designed for approx. 990 students and enrollment is currently around 800. The school is benefiting by being under-populated, but all of that will change if this proposal goes through. We will immediately go from an under-capacity school to an overcrowded school. Is this a good idea for the students at Cooper? How does FCPS intend to address this issue in a budget-constrained year.

It is not that honors is not a good education, it is simply that it is different.

When we had to decide between the AAP center and the base middle school for our child, we went to a parent meeting where the teachers explained that AAP and honors were different curriculums. There were handouts available that showed the differences in what was taught in each.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[list]What is the point of AAP, period! But especially in MS. There is already honors. Is that not a good education?

No, it is not.

Your poor kids! And you too when you realise they aren't gettin”g this education for you.

No worries for my kids as one as in high school and the other at college. But for anyone to equate honors with AAP means they had too much turkey yesterday or they are smokin' something.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[list]What is the point of AAP, period! But especially in MS. There is already honors. Is that not a good education?

No, it is not.

Your poor kids! And you too when you realise they aren't gettin”g this education for you.

PP here. As I understand it, all schools have special ed, but not all schools have autism centers. I have a friend who specifically chose to not send her son to an autism center even though that was our neighborhood school. The county bussed him to another school for special ed outside of an autism center. Arguably, that was her choice, but he was bussed. I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just curious what the difference is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if someone wants to send their child outside of their base school they should either pay for bus service or have to drive their own child to the other school.

Does that apply for everything. What if they want to send them to an autism center?

Are you seriously equating AAP services with autism services or contending an AAP kid would face the same challenges in a regular classroom as a child with autism?

I know this is right out of the playbook, but it's still shameful.

I'm just asking what the lines are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if someone wants to send their child outside of their base school they should either pay for bus service or have to drive their own child to the other school.

Does that apply for everything. What if they want to send them to an autism center?

Are you seriously equating AAP services with autism services or contending an AAP kid would face the same challenges in a regular classroom as a child with autism?

I know this is right out of the playbook, but it's still shameful.

Anonymous wrote:I think if someone wants to send their child outside of their base school they should either pay for bus service or have to drive their own child to the other school.

Does that apply for everything. What if they want to send them to an autism center?

I think if someone wants to send their child outside of their base school they should either pay for bus service or have to drive their own child to the other school.

You don't think there are kids at Kilmer that do drugs? Just at Cooper? Give me a break! You don't have to be rich to get involved in drugs, you don't have to be poor, you don't have to be an underachiever or an overachiever. People in all walks of life get sucked in to poor circumstances and make poor decisions. Please don't generalize it and say because your kid goes to Kilmer they're not exposed to a "drug-happy, my dad makes more money than yours" environment".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making every MS an AAP center dilutes the program, since principals make decisions based on class size + number of teachers alloted per school. I predict MS AAP will, in most cases, not have enough enrollment to remain a separate curriculum, and will get lumped in with open-enrollment Honors classes to increase class size. That's what happens at Local Level IV ES-- children are added to the AAP classes to balance class size.

On a personal note, there is NO comparison between Kilmer and Cooper. I was so happy that my kids would go to Kilmer, now I'm told we're probably thrown back into drug-happy, "my dad makes more money than yours" Cooper environment. And having the same classmates from elementary to high school is a non-issue-- who cares? Can't you make new friends?

A lot of people would prefer to keep their kids within the same pyramid, to the extent possible.

You are kidding yourself if you do not think there are also rich kids and drugs at Kilmer. Assuming you are correct in your characterization of Cooper, however, the tone there might change with more AAP kids. If nothing else, people would pay more attention to the students' academic efforts, and less attention to when they get into trouble.

Many would prefer keeping their children in the same pyramid. There is NO valid reason that Cooper could not offer AAP, Honors, and regular in core subjects. No one considers it odd that these students are bussed to Kilmer which is past Tysons on the way to Merrifield? They ended up there because Longfellow was overcrowded ....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents in Cluster 1 have organized a meeting to discuss the issue of eliminating center-based AA programs at middle schools. The meeting is on Tuesday, November 27 at the Great Falls Public Library at 10:15. Anyone with interest in the issue is welcome to attend.

And the point of this is...?

A gripe session?

Are your kids in the center program? Do you just not want other kids to be in the center programs?

This meeting makes zero sense based on what you posted.

I read the post to mean that some Cluster 1 parents with AAP kids who might get assigned or reassigned from Longfellow or Kilmer to Cooper planned to get together and discuss the pros and cons with each other and others who might be interested.

I expect the OP would be happy to rescind the invitation if you want to be a total jerk about it.

This meeting is an excellent idea. Since it is in Great Falls I assume at least 1 reader/poster on DCUM is being resentful and bitchy. Students in this area attend 3 elementary schools and those in the Cooper/Langley Pyramid even have a split feeder for AAP [Kilmer but a small section of Colvin Run had an administrative boundary change so some could go to Longfellow].

Yet again I see resentment for working families who are people living in this community. Taxpayers with or without children are more than a cash cow for this county.