Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This video from 2012 says FCPS has over 50 parent centers including two parent liasons at Bucknell for the 200-300 students there. I'm really not understanding why these schools are failing. FCPS needs to figure this out.

Lots of people love their kids but just don't understand the value of education. I taught in such a school. It was very difficult to get parent conferences.

What do they value then? Is there a way to get through to them another way? Why have a parent center if no one comes? There was another post that said California schools had success with immigrant families by communicating by text because a cell phone was the one luxury all these families had. If they don't value education and there's no hope that they will, why are we investing 2 to 4 times the amount of resources into these families as non-immigrant families? Maybe they'd prefer a different type of education more vocationally suited? I would hope they value education, but just don't realize the work that it takes to do well in school and don't know how to help. Which is why it's important in the elementary years to make parents aware of what is required in the US to graduate verses in their country and help give them the tools to help their children with the language and with school. But to say, things aren't working, but we're just going to throw money at them doesn't seem to be a solution and with the influx of immigrants, money will just get tighter.

LOL...you people are funny. In one thread it's immigrants taking over TJ because they value education too much and in others it's hopeless.......

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This video from 2012 says FCPS has over 50 parent centers including two parent liasons at Bucknell for the 200-300 students there. I'm really not understanding why these schools are failing. FCPS needs to figure this out.

Lots of people love their kids but just don't understand the value of education. I taught in such a school. It was very difficult to get parent conferences.

What do they value then? Is there a way to get through to them another way? Why have a parent center if no one comes? There was another post that said California schools had success with immigrant families by communicating by text because a cell phone was the one luxury all these families had. If they don't value education and there's no hope that they will, why are we investing 2 to 4 times the amount of resources into these families as non-immigrant families? Maybe they'd prefer a different type of education more vocationally suited? I would hope they value education, but just don't realize the work that it takes to do well in school and don't know how to help. Which is why it's important in the elementary years to make parents aware of what is required in the US to graduate verses in their country and help give them the tools to help their children with the language and with school. But to say, things aren't working, but we're just going to throw money at them doesn't seem to be a solution and with the influx of immigrants, money will just get tighter.

LOL...you people are funny. In one thread it's immigrants taking over TJ because they value education too much and in others it's hopeless.......

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This video from 2012 says FCPS has over 50 parent centers including two parent liasons at Bucknell for the 200-300 students there. I'm really not understanding why these schools are failing. FCPS needs to figure this out.

Lots of people love their kids but just don't understand the value of education. I taught in such a school. It was very difficult to get parent conferences.

What do they value then? Is there a way to get through to them another way? Why have a parent center if no one comes? There was another post that said California schools had success with immigrant families by communicating by text because a cell phone was the one luxury all these families had. If they don't value education and there's no hope that they will, why are we investing 2 to 4 times the amount of resources into these families as non-immigrant families? Maybe they'd prefer a different type of education more vocationally suited? I would hope they value education, but just don't realize the work that it takes to do well in school and don't know how to help. Which is why it's important in the elementary years to make parents aware of what is required in the US to graduate verses in their country and help give them the tools to help their children with the language and with school. But to say, things aren't working, but we're just going to throw money at them doesn't seem to be a solution and with the influx of immigrants, money will just get tighter.

Anonymous wrote:

This video from 2012 says FCPS has over 50 parent centers including two parent liasons at Bucknell for the 200-300 students there. I'm really not understanding why these schools are failing. FCPS needs to figure this out.

Lots of people love their kids but just don't understand the value of education. I taught in such a school. It was very difficult to get parent conferences.

This video from 2012 says FCPS has over 50 parent centers including two parent liasons at Bucknell for the 200-300 students there. I'm really not understanding why these schools are failing. FCPS needs to figure this out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janie Strauss, the School Board member who both lives in McLean and represents the McLean schools, made an appearance at Karen Garza's "listening tour" last night and said she did NOT support the MCA resolution or taking any money away from higher-needs schools to reduce class sizes elsewhere. The MCA resolution was drafted by Louise Epstein, who also lives in McLean and narrowly lost to Strauss in the 2011 School Board election.

It seems the battle lines for the 2015 contest for the Dranesville seat are being drawn.

Louise Epstein was the first Republican I have voted for since I moved to Virginia in 1990. If the Democrats don't get their acts together, it looks like I will do so again.

My Lord, please don't encourage this blowhard to run for School Board and embarrass Dranesville again by publicly playing these kind of destructive, divisive, "me first" interest group politics. It's bad enough she has a mouthpiece through the MCA which, as another poster mentioned, is a totally unrepresentative, insignificant organization that has lost any influence it may once have had by moving well into Tea Party territory. No one listens to the MCA these days. These are simply right-wingers who are sitting in an echo chamber patting themselves on their backs for demanding that "their tax dollars" be spent on "their children." Thankfully, Dranesville was smart enough to reject Louise's pandering and smart enough to know that someone as divisive as she is in person should never wield influence anywhere outside the MCA.

Anybody who tells you, as this resolution basically does, that they can lower class sizes in McLean without spending a dime more in the Schools budget is obviously making an empty promise, and counting on you not to really think it through. Do you really think, as this resolution implies, that kids in small classes who have special needs, speak ESOL, or live below the poverty line are "making out like bandits?" Yeah, I'm quoting Catherine Lorenze, who was Louise Epstein's campaign manager last time around. Shame on you for voting for her in the first place. People with these kinds of beliefs have no place in truly public education.

If you don't want Louise Epstein to win, run someone other than Janie Straus. I know there was at least one candidate in the area the last go round.

Didn't Greg Brandon try unsuccessfully to get one of the Democratic endorsements for an at-large seat last time? He's in Dranesville.

My sense of Epstein is that she always has to be the smartest person in the room. She does know the FCPS budget very well. She also knows all there is to know about AAP and then some. But, as this thread shows, some of her crowd have no political savvy. No one would be attacking the MCA if they'd just adopted a resolution that called for caps on class size and emphasized how big some of the classes are in McLean. Instead, they went the extra mile and called for minimum class sizes as well. By focusing on the "disparity" of class sizes and the "unfairness" of the current staffing formula, they diverted attention from whether some classes are too big, and invited a larger, open-ended debate on the most privileged and neediest groups in the county.

God forbid that would happen and we'd have a min. and a max spending for each child. You mean she works for a fair solution for all and doesn't hide behind issues that might not get her re-elected? I don't live in McLean but would appreciate anyone like this being elected on the school board.

The thread is testament to the fact that some things don't go over so well when they come out of the mouth of someone who lives in McLean.

Perhaps Epstein should have run as an at-large candidate, or someone running from Sully or Braddock should carry her water, but when it's someone like Louise Epstein taking the lead on these issues you get a lot of people bashing McLean and others from McLean disassociating themselves from her as fast as they can. That was particularly the case in 2011, when she had a campaign manager who was a caricature of a McLean wanna-be political operative.

A more politically astute approach would be to focus on the problem at the overcrowded schools, so that people actually agrees there's a need for a solution. Then you talk about the possible ways to solve the problem. But it seems like people like Epstein always want to deliver the whole package at once, like it's some math problem her kids solved to get into TJ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janie Strauss, the School Board member who both lives in McLean and represents the McLean schools, made an appearance at Karen Garza's "listening tour" last night and said she did NOT support the MCA resolution or taking any money away from higher-needs schools to reduce class sizes elsewhere. The MCA resolution was drafted by Louise Epstein, who also lives in McLean and narrowly lost to Strauss in the 2011 School Board election.

It seems the battle lines for the 2015 contest for the Dranesville seat are being drawn.

Louise Epstein was the first Republican I have voted for since I moved to Virginia in 1990. If the Democrats don't get their acts together, it looks like I will do so again.

My Lord, please don't encourage this blowhard to run for School Board and embarrass Dranesville again by publicly playing these kind of destructive, divisive, "me first" interest group politics. It's bad enough she has a mouthpiece through the MCA which, as another poster mentioned, is a totally unrepresentative, insignificant organization that has lost any influence it may once have had by moving well into Tea Party territory. No one listens to the MCA these days. These are simply right-wingers who are sitting in an echo chamber patting themselves on their backs for demanding that "their tax dollars" be spent on "their children." Thankfully, Dranesville was smart enough to reject Louise's pandering and smart enough to know that someone as divisive as she is in person should never wield influence anywhere outside the MCA.

Anybody who tells you, as this resolution basically does, that they can lower class sizes in McLean without spending a dime more in the Schools budget is obviously making an empty promise, and counting on you not to really think it through. Do you really think, as this resolution implies, that kids in small classes who have special needs, speak ESOL, or live below the poverty line are "making out like bandits?" Yeah, I'm quoting Catherine Lorenze, who was Louise Epstein's campaign manager last time around. Shame on you for voting for her in the first place. People with these kinds of beliefs have no place in truly public education.

If you don't want Louise Epstein to win, run someone other than Janie Straus. I know there was at least one candidate in the area the last go round.

Didn't Greg Brandon try unsuccessfully to get one of the Democratic endorsements for an at-large seat last time? He's in Dranesville.

My sense of Epstein is that she always has to be the smartest person in the room. She does know the FCPS budget very well. She also knows all there is to know about AAP and then some. But, as this thread shows, some of her crowd have no political savvy. No one would be attacking the MCA if they'd just adopted a resolution that called for caps on class size and emphasized how big some of the classes are in McLean. Instead, they went the extra mile and called for minimum class sizes as well. By focusing on the "disparity" of class sizes and the "unfairness" of the current staffing formula, they diverted attention from whether some classes are too big, and invited a larger, open-ended debate on the most privileged and neediest groups in the county.

God forbid that would happen and we'd have a min. and a max spending for each child. You mean she works for a fair solution for all and doesn't hide behind issues that might not get her re-elected? I don't live in McLean but would appreciate anyone like this being elected on the school board.

The thread is testament to the fact that some things don't go over so well when they come out of the mouth of someone who lives in McLean.

Perhaps Epstein should have run as an at-large candidate, or someone running from Sully or Braddock should carry her water, but when it's someone like Louise Epstein taking the lead on these issues you get a lot of people bashing McLean and others from McLean disassociating themselves from her as fast as they can. That was particularly the case in 2011, when she had a campaign manager who was a caricature of a McLean wanna-be political operative.

A more politically astute approach would be to focus on the problem at the overcrowded schools, so that people actually agrees there's a need for a solution. Then you talk about the possible ways to solve the problem. But it seems like people like Epstein always want to deliver the whole package at once, like it's some math problem her kids solved to get into TJ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janie Strauss, the School Board member who both lives in McLean and represents the McLean schools, made an appearance at Karen Garza's "listening tour" last night and said she did NOT support the MCA resolution or taking any money away from higher-needs schools to reduce class sizes elsewhere. The MCA resolution was drafted by Louise Epstein, who also lives in McLean and narrowly lost to Strauss in the 2011 School Board election.

It seems the battle lines for the 2015 contest for the Dranesville seat are being drawn.

Louise Epstein was the first Republican I have voted for since I moved to Virginia in 1990. If the Democrats don't get their acts together, it looks like I will do so again.

My Lord, please don't encourage this blowhard to run for School Board and embarrass Dranesville again by publicly playing these kind of destructive, divisive, "me first" interest group politics. It's bad enough she has a mouthpiece through the MCA which, as another poster mentioned, is a totally unrepresentative, insignificant organization that has lost any influence it may once have had by moving well into Tea Party territory. No one listens to the MCA these days. These are simply right-wingers who are sitting in an echo chamber patting themselves on their backs for demanding that "their tax dollars" be spent on "their children." Thankfully, Dranesville was smart enough to reject Louise's pandering and smart enough to know that someone as divisive as she is in person should never wield influence anywhere outside the MCA.

Anybody who tells you, as this resolution basically does, that they can lower class sizes in McLean without spending a dime more in the Schools budget is obviously making an empty promise, and counting on you not to really think it through. Do you really think, as this resolution implies, that kids in small classes who have special needs, speak ESOL, or live below the poverty line are "making out like bandits?" Yeah, I'm quoting Catherine Lorenze, who was Louise Epstein's campaign manager last time around. Shame on you for voting for her in the first place. People with these kinds of beliefs have no place in truly public education.

If you don't want Louise Epstein to win, run someone other than Janie Straus. I know there was at least one candidate in the area the last go round.

Didn't Greg Brandon try unsuccessfully to get one of the Democratic endorsements for an at-large seat last time? He's in Dranesville.

My sense of Epstein is that she always has to be the smartest person in the room. She does know the FCPS budget very well. She also knows all there is to know about AAP and then some. But, as this thread shows, some of her crowd have no political savvy. No one would be attacking the MCA if they'd just adopted a resolution that called for caps on class size and emphasized how big some of the classes are in McLean. Instead, they went the extra mile and called for minimum class sizes as well. By focusing on the "disparity" of class sizes and the "unfairness" of the current staffing formula, they diverted attention from whether some classes are too big, and invited a larger, open-ended debate on the most privileged and neediest groups in the county.

God forbid that would happen and we'd have a min. and a max spending for each child. You mean she works for a fair solution for all and doesn't hide behind issues that might not get her re-elected? I don't live in McLean but would appreciate anyone like this being elected on the school board.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This video from 2012 says FCPS has over 50 parent centers including two parent liasons at Bucknell for the 200-300 students there. I'm really not understanding why these schools are failing. FCPS needs to figure this out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3vM-Jg28Ww

But studies and more administration involvement from Gatehouse just sinks more money into these low performing schools, further triggering the too much spending alarmists.

The spending levels now just keep these schools from completely teetering off a cliff.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janie Strauss, the School Board member who both lives in McLean and represents the McLean schools, made an appearance at Karen Garza's "listening tour" last night and said she did NOT support the MCA resolution or taking any money away from higher-needs schools to reduce class sizes elsewhere. The MCA resolution was drafted by Louise Epstein, who also lives in McLean and narrowly lost to Strauss in the 2011 School Board election.

It seems the battle lines for the 2015 contest for the Dranesville seat are being drawn.

Louise Epstein was the first Republican I have voted for since I moved to Virginia in 1990. If the Democrats don't get their acts together, it looks like I will do so again.

My Lord, please don't encourage this blowhard to run for School Board and embarrass Dranesville again by publicly playing these kind of destructive, divisive, "me first" interest group politics. It's bad enough she has a mouthpiece through the MCA which, as another poster mentioned, is a totally unrepresentative, insignificant organization that has lost any influence it may once have had by moving well into Tea Party territory. No one listens to the MCA these days. These are simply right-wingers who are sitting in an echo chamber patting themselves on their backs for demanding that "their tax dollars" be spent on "their children." Thankfully, Dranesville was smart enough to reject Louise's pandering and smart enough to know that someone as divisive as she is in person should never wield influence anywhere outside the MCA.

Anybody who tells you, as this resolution basically does, that they can lower class sizes in McLean without spending a dime more in the Schools budget is obviously making an empty promise, and counting on you not to really think it through. Do you really think, as this resolution implies, that kids in small classes who have special needs, speak ESOL, or live below the poverty line are "making out like bandits?" Yeah, I'm quoting Catherine Lorenze, who was Louise Epstein's campaign manager last time around. Shame on you for voting for her in the first place. People with these kinds of beliefs have no place in truly public education.

If you don't want Louise Epstein to win, run someone other than Janie Straus. I know there was at least one candidate in the area the last go round.

Didn't Greg Brandon try unsuccessfully to get one of the Democratic endorsements for an at-large seat last time? He's in Dranesville.

My sense of Epstein is that she always has to be the smartest person in the room. She does know the FCPS budget very well. She also knows all there is to know about AAP and then some. But, as this thread shows, some of her crowd have no political savvy. No one would be attacking the MCA if they'd just adopted a resolution that called for caps on class size and emphasized how big some of the classes are in McLean. Instead, they went the extra mile and called for minimum class sizes as well. By focusing on the "disparity" of class sizes and the "unfairness" of the current staffing formula, they diverted attention from whether some classes are too big, and invited a larger, open-ended debate on the most privileged and neediest groups in the county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janie Strauss, the School Board member who both lives in McLean and represents the McLean schools, made an appearance at Karen Garza's "listening tour" last night and said she did NOT support the MCA resolution or taking any money away from higher-needs schools to reduce class sizes elsewhere. The MCA resolution was drafted by Louise Epstein, who also lives in McLean and narrowly lost to Strauss in the 2011 School Board election.

It seems the battle lines for the 2015 contest for the Dranesville seat are being drawn.

Louise Epstein was the first Republican I have voted for since I moved to Virginia in 1990. If the Democrats don't get their acts together, it looks like I will do so again.

My Lord, please don't encourage this blowhard to run for School Board and embarrass Dranesville again by publicly playing these kind of destructive, divisive, "me first" interest group politics. It's bad enough she has a mouthpiece through the MCA which, as another poster mentioned, is a totally unrepresentative, insignificant organization that has lost any influence it may once have had by moving well into Tea Party territory. No one listens to the MCA these days. These are simply right-wingers who are sitting in an echo chamber patting themselves on their backs for demanding that "their tax dollars" be spent on "their children." Thankfully, Dranesville was smart enough to reject Louise's pandering and smart enough to know that someone as divisive as she is in person should never wield influence anywhere outside the MCA.

Anybody who tells you, as this resolution basically does, that they can lower class sizes in McLean without spending a dime more in the Schools budget is obviously making an empty promise, and counting on you not to really think it through. Do you really think, as this resolution implies, that kids in small classes who have special needs, speak ESOL, or live below the poverty line are "making out like bandits?" Yeah, I'm quoting Catherine Lorenze, who was Louise Epstein's campaign manager last time around. Shame on you for voting for her in the first place. People with these kinds of beliefs have no place in truly public education.

If you don't want Louise Epstein to win, run someone other than Janie Straus. I know there was at least one candidate in the area the last go round.

Anonymous wrote:This video from 2012 says FCPS has over 50 parent centers including two parent liasons at Bucknell for the 200-300 students there. I'm really not understanding why these schools are failing. FCPS needs to figure this out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3vM-Jg28Ww

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janie Strauss, the School Board member who both lives in McLean and represents the McLean schools, made an appearance at Karen Garza's "listening tour" last night and said she did NOT support the MCA resolution or taking any money away from higher-needs schools to reduce class sizes elsewhere. The MCA resolution was drafted by Louise Epstein, who also lives in McLean and narrowly lost to Strauss in the 2011 School Board election.

It seems the battle lines for the 2015 contest for the Dranesville seat are being drawn.

Louise Epstein was the first Republican I have voted for since I moved to Virginia in 1990. If the Democrats don't get their acts together, it looks like I will do so again.

My Lord, please don't encourage this blowhard to run for School Board and embarrass Dranesville again by publicly playing these kind of destructive, divisive, "me first" interest group politics. It's bad enough she has a mouthpiece through the MCA which, as another poster mentioned, is a totally unrepresentative, insignificant organization that has lost any influence it may once have had by moving well into Tea Party territory. No one listens to the MCA these days. These are simply right-wingers who are sitting in an echo chamber patting themselves on their backs for demanding that "their tax dollars" be spent on "their children." Thankfully, Dranesville was smart enough to reject Louise's pandering and smart enough to know that someone as divisive as she is in person should never wield influence anywhere outside the MCA.

Anybody who tells you, as this resolution basically does, that they can lower class sizes in McLean without spending a dime more in the Schools budget is obviously making an empty promise, and counting on you not to really think it through. Do you really think, as this resolution implies, that kids in small classes who have special needs, speak ESOL, or live below the poverty line are "making out like bandits?" Yeah, I'm quoting Catherine Lorenze, who was Louise Epstein's campaign manager last time around. Shame on you for voting for her in the first place. People with these kinds of beliefs have no place in truly public education.