FCPS spent $500,000 on THAT??

Anonymous wrote:I took the staff survey this morning, but I don’t remember a comment section:

I also took the staff survey, and there was no comment section.

There was an email address to which to send further comment. The address doesn't work, though, and the messages bounced back.

I took the staff survey this morning, but I don’t remember a comment section:

Anonymous wrote:It actually makes perfect sense.
1) they only want to know how it affects middle schoolers who are actually in middle school. Not a kindergarten or senior parent.
2) if they move middle school they have to move everything else. Options include 10am elementary school among others. So they have to ask how time changes will affect other grade levels.
3)They have received enough opinions, they want facts. Is your child actually not getting enough sleep or do you just not like it? What are the ramifications on families of changing times?
4)There was a comment area so you were free to put in a comment. (Although I took both a staff and parent survey so I might be mixing those up).

You are definitely mixing them up and no, it doesn’t make sense. The questions only asked if we are OK with our elementary school’s current start time and where our kids go to school. That was it. And who cares what parents of current middle schoolers think? Those kids will be out of middle school by the time they implement this change. I have a fifth grader who it would actually affect, yet there was no avenue to express my opinion about whether or not I think middle school start times should be moved. Nor were there any questions associated with ramifications. I guess your education degree didn’t go over survey design. They really could not have written a worse survey if they tried.

Anonymous wrote:It actually makes perfect sense.
1) they only want to know how it affects middle schoolers who are actually in middle school. Not a kindergarten or senior parent.
2) if they move middle school they have to move everything else. Options include 10am elementary school among others. So they have to ask how time changes will affect other grade levels.
3)They have received enough opinions, they want facts. Is your child actually not getting enough sleep or do you just not like it? What are the ramifications on families of changing times?
4)There was a comment area so you were free to put in a comment. (Although I took both a staff and parent survey so I might be mixing those up).

There was no comment section for parents.

I've had a child experience early middle school start times (currently a high schooler) and a student who will be in middle school next year. Why am I not able to give an opinion on middle school start times?

Yes, they're talking about pushing my kid's start time to almost 10 AM. 9:20 is already tough on working parents and I only am able to make it work because I can flex. But 9:50 is even harder. I've been on a waitlist for before SACC long before my kid even started kindergarten and we are nowhere close to getting in.

Pay more in real estate taxes to get more buses for middle school late start. Or else just shut up already.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was very disappointed they didn't ask about the MIDDLE SCHOOL AFTER SCHOOL program.

? The survey was designed to ask about middle school start times, which it didn’t even do that! After school programs have nothing to do with that.

Of course it is relevant. If Middle School doesn't start until 9:45 am, then the after school programs will not be operated. Many parents would prefer an early start + after school programming vs. a late start and no programming.

+1 D

Don't fool yourself that the County sees this as a very easy way out. If they don't start school until 9:45 (hmmm, nearly 2 hours after the current start time) and then let them out at 4:30, we don't have to operate the afternoon/after school programs!

Also, I think this will just push the activities (especially with the late dismissal) for that age group/set of grades much later. Think a practice running at 8-9:30pm, or something along those lines.

It actually makes perfect sense.
1) they only want to know how it affects middle schoolers who are actually in middle school. Not a kindergarten or senior parent.
2) if they move middle school they have to move everything else. Options include 10am elementary school among others. So they have to ask how time changes will affect other grade levels.
3)They have received enough opinions, they want facts. Is your child actually not getting enough sleep or do you just not like it? What are the ramifications on families of changing times?
4)There was a comment area so you were free to put in a comment. (Although I took both a staff and parent survey so I might be mixing those up).

I have a MS kid and a ES kid, so I kind of chose to have all start time remain the same.

The survey is serving its intended purpose: to obtain data that will be used to justify boundary changes based on “proximity” to “meet parents’ concerns over start times.”

It is a weird survey because it is intended to obtain data that will be used to support a “decision” that is unrelated purported purpose of the survey.

You only think they “never use the surveys”. Oh they use them. That’s why they employ all those data folks. They just don’t use them to obtain actual public input in good faith. Just wait until the boundary review surveys hit your inbox in late summer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same, I answered that I have kids in elementary school. One is in 6th grade, and based on the email indicating that 5th-6th grade students would be asked to take the survey in school, I assumed I would be able to as well. But I was routed to the same thank you message without being asked about actual start times.

Poorly designed survey. It should have said something like 'if you indicate that current elementary start times are OK, you will not receive any further questions'.

I said elementary school start times were too late and didn't get any further questions, so I don't think that's what limited the questions you saw.

Same. Our elementary doesn't start until 9:15, which makes it so working parents have to try to get SACC or other childcare both before and after school. My kids both got up way earlier when they were younger and want to sleep in now that they are hitting puberty. It would make so much more sense for the ES to have the earlier start time.

WOW, my kids love the 9:15 start time. They wake up at 8:00 and it's perfect. I would like middle school to start no later than 9:00am. I will be really pissed if they move times to accommodate moms who want their elementary aged kids out of the house at 7:30am.

Anonymous wrote:I just did and I have questions.

First of all, I never got an actual question about middle school start times. I have students in high school and elementary school and got a question about how I feel about their current start times and whether my high schooler had a job or needed to be home after school to babysit younger siblings and that's it.

So I don't get to weigh in on middle school start times because I have a kid who won't be there til next year??
Was this a glitch?

Yeah, I was really annoyed about this, too. It was a stupid survey.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:can someone post a link to this survey in this forum.

No. It is emailed only to FCPS parents. We aren’t going to post it to a forum which is filled with many non FCPS folk.

+1000

Who knows what sort of feedback the school board will actually listen to, but there's no greater way for all parent input to be tossed out than by having the survey swamped with fake submissions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:can someone post a link to this survey in this forum.

No. It is emailed only to FCPS parents. We aren’t going to post it to a forum which is filled with many non FCPS folk.

Bruh.