According to the WABE guide, the average middle and high school class size in MCPS is larger than in both Arlington and Fairfax. It's only the elementary classes that are smaller.

Anonymous wrote:My MoCo kid will have 15 in their class this school year.
Paying enough taxes to actually support your community is super awesome.

Where in MoCo?

My MoCo kid will have 15 in their class this school year.
Paying enough taxes to actually support your community is super awesome.

Virginia sounds messed up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The meals tax would have a hell of a lot more than the name change will ever cost FCPS after the private donations.

Come back when you have evidence of the "private donations." Please remember that one of the "donors" said it was dependent on his approval of the name.

People didn't work two years to replace one Confederate name so they could make donations to erect a new Confederate name (JEB Stuart -> Stuart). Seems reasonable and why the new name should honor someone/something else.

Stay on topic.

The topic is class size. Funds relate to this. PP suggested that private donations will pay for it. Donor said he has to approve name. The implication was that it needed to be a Civil Rights leader. Considering the vitriol that went on during this process and the outside interference, don't you think a geographic name is more appropriate? After all, most new high schools are getting geographic names. Why should Stuart be different?

No, the implication was that producer Bruce Cohen would not give a dime if the name was just changed to Stuart, nor would a lot of other potential donors. That leaves quite a few other names to consider, including geographic ones.

My kids went to Wolftrap and the class sizes were often large, but there were definitely situations involving an unexpected influx of kids where they got a new teacher shortly after the year started.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The meals tax would have a hell of a lot more than the name change will ever cost FCPS after the private donations.

Come back when you have evidence of the "private donations." Please remember that one of the "donors" said it was dependent on his approval of the name.

People didn't work two years to replace one Confederate name so they could make donations to erect a new Confederate name (JEB Stuart -> Stuart). Seems reasonable and why the new name should honor someone/something else.

Stay on topic.

The topic is class size. Funds relate to this. PP suggested that private donations will pay for it. Donor said he has to approve name. The implication was that it needed to be a Civil Rights leader. Considering the vitriol that went on during this process and the outside interference, don't you think a geographic name is more appropriate? After all, most new high schools are getting geographic names. Why should Stuart be different?

Anonymous wrote:

The meals tax would have a hell of a lot more than the name change will ever cost FCPS after the private donations.

Come back when you have evidence of the "private donations." Please remember that one of the "donors" said it was dependent on his approval of the name.

People didn't work two years to replace one Confederate name so they could make donations to erect a new Confederate name (JEB Stuart -> Stuart). Seems reasonable and why the new name should honor someone/something else.

Stay on topic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone really believe the meals tax was going to reduce class size? How much of your tax money is squandered on wasteful pet projects within fiefdoms or on legal issues? A highly dysfunctional SB is running this show. Vote on Tuesday.

Not a bit. We are one of the Wolftrap families and I don't believe it would have helped at all. They would have reduced funding from somewhere else. I believe they had enrollment increases over the summer and that teachers do not want to come to FCPS because of low pay. But do not ask me to vote for a meal tax when they waste so much in the county. See the PP's list. There is so much other waste but there is no point in listing everything.

We would have voted yes if the money would have definitely gone to lowering class sizes and raising teacher salaries. In reality, if it passed it would not have done either.

1/2 of Wolftrap goes to Marshall. Tell them to get rid of IB and Academy classes there if you don't like spending on special programs. Maybe the dedicated IB coordinator slot and others could go to elementary teachers.

The meals tax would have a hell of a lot more than the name change will ever cost FCPS after the private donations.

Come back when you have evidence of the "private donations." Please remember that one of the "donors" said it was dependent on his approval of the name.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone really believe the meals tax was going to reduce class size? How much of your tax money is squandered on wasteful pet projects within fiefdoms or on legal issues? A highly dysfunctional SB is running this show. Vote on Tuesday.

The meals tax would have a hell of a lot more than the name change will ever cost FCPS after the private donations.

Large classes at Wolftrap have been the norm for a long time. It has one of the lowest FARMS/ESOL percentages in the entire county, so no formula staffing adjustments.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone really believe the meals tax was going to reduce class size? How much of your tax money is squandered on wasteful pet projects within fiefdoms or on legal issues? A highly dysfunctional SB is running this show. Vote on Tuesday.

Not a bit. We are one of the Wolftrap families and I don't believe it would have helped at all. They would have reduced funding from somewhere else. I believe they had enrollment increases over the summer and that teachers do not want to come to FCPS because of low pay. But do not ask me to vote for a meal tax when they waste so much in the county. See the PP's list. There is so much other waste but there is no point in listing everything.

We would have voted yes if the money would have definitely gone to lowering class sizes and raising teacher salaries. In reality, if it passed it would not have done either.

Anonymous wrote:I don't get how a principal lets this happen. She should have had a good feel for the numbers just based on the K class last year. If there are 5 first grade classes of 30, then she should have been planning on 6 classes of 25.

Our school had 40 kids register the last two weeks so they're scrambling to find new teachers for several grades. We have a lot of infill happening - one house gets torn down and two (or even 3) built on the lot. You may trade one empty nester house for two nice new houses perfect for a family so 2-3 kids each. Suddenly you get 4-6 extra kids. I can think of 6-8 situations like that within about 3 blocks of my house. Hard to plan for that if they close over the summer and you're a principal.

Fortunately our school got the additional 1st grade teacher slot about 3 weeks ago so DSs class has 24 kids (vs 27 in K).

Does anyone really believe the meals tax was going to reduce class size? How much of your tax money is squandered on wasteful pet projects within fiefdoms or on legal issues? A highly dysfunctional SB is running this show. Vote on Tuesday.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't complain if you didn't vote for the meals tax.

+100.

+1000

Please don't complain if you support spending @$1million to change the name of Jeb Stuart High School. This will result in changing the name of more schools--so it will go far beyond a million. Also, don't complain if keeping FLES in the elementary is more important to you than class size. ETC. ETC.
Don't complain if you support transporting AAP students to different schools.
Don't complain if you support IB in middle and high schools.
Don't complain if you support all the teacher training that requires subs in the classroom and/or expensive consultants to conduct the training.
Don't complain if you support.......feel free to add waste you see

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't complain if you didn't vote for the meals tax.

+100.

+1000