Anonymous
Post 06/27/2019 14:22     Subject: FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:Thank you. Yes, I am running. Below is the link to my web site. I am establishing links with the McLean community and would welcome expanding that link with everyone on this thread. Please reach out to me at ardavan@ardavan2019.com and I would be more than happy to arrange a 1:1 meeting and discuss your concerns and my platform. I am also looking to arrange meet and greets with McLean families. If anyone is interested in discussing those with me as well, please reach out to me.

www.ardavan2019.com


Ardavan - This statement appears on your web site as a priority: "Empowering the Langley pyramid community to object to and prevent the consideration of any boundary changes without their support."

Does this mean Langley parents should have veto rights over whether any students are moved in or out of Langley High School? If so, why don't you suggest that the "Herndon and McLean pyramid communities" in Dranesville should be similarly empowered?

I welcome your decision to run, but my concern with your platform is that your materials seem very Langley-centric. Dranesville also includes neighborhoods zoned for other high schools (Herndon, McLean, Marshall, and Westfield).

Perhaps we will have a chance to meet in person before the election to discuss.
Anonymous
Post 06/26/2019 20:36     Subject: FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Thank you. Yes, I am running. Below is the link to my web site. I am establishing links with the McLean community and would welcome expanding that link with everyone on this thread. Please reach out to me at ardavan@ardavan2019.com and I would be more than happy to arrange a 1:1 meeting and discuss your concerns and my platform. I am also looking to arrange meet and greets with McLean families. If anyone is interested in discussing those with me as well, please reach out to me.

www.ardavan2019.com
Anonymous
Post 06/26/2019 19:44     Subject: FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:Hi Everyone:

I would like to schedule a Meet & Greet with parents and residents of McLean in the coming weeks. Which location do you believe to be the most convenient? My first thought is the library, but I am open to your suggestions. I am really looking forward to meeting you and discussing my independent platform.


Hi, are you already running?

You might ask someone to reserve space in a meeting room at the McLean Community Center off Ingleside.
Anonymous
Post 06/26/2019 16:36     Subject: FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Hello Everyone:

I would be happy to discuss my platform with you at your convenience over the coming weeks and months. Please reach out to be at ardavan@ardavan2019.com and I would be happy to schedule a meet & greet shortly.

I am running an independent campaign that will not be beholden to any party and ideologies. I did not seek nor would I have accepted the endorsements of any party, nor am I accepting funding from any of them

I am not doing the bidding for any town and am not prioritizing any town over the other. My platform seeks to resolve:

1) The overcrowding in McLean by finding a long term solution to what will be causing the overcrowding to get worse in the coming decades which is the expansion in Tysons. Do I know that there are others who will not necessarily agree with me on the board? Of course, I do. But that is not a reason not to fight for it.

2) Provide the necessary resources to allow Herndon HS to improve its statewide ratings and standing by trying to level the playing field for its many lower-income students.

3) Keeping all of Great Falls as one town, one community, and one school pyramid.

WHAT is your opinion about current FCPS seclusion tactics for non-verbal kindergarteners with autism?
Anonymous
Post 06/26/2019 16:36     Subject: FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:Hello Everyone:

I would be happy to discuss my platform with you at your convenience over the coming weeks and months. Please reach out to be at ardavan@ardavan2019.com and I would be happy to schedule a meet & greet shortly.

I am running an independent campaign that will not be beholden to any party and ideologies. I did not seek nor would I have accepted the endorsements of any party, nor am I accepting funding from any of them

I am not doing the bidding for any town and am not prioritizing any town over the other. My platform seeks to resolve:

1) The overcrowding in McLean by finding a long term solution to what will be causing the overcrowding to get worse in the coming decades which is the expansion in Tysons. Do I know that there are others who will not necessarily agree with me on the board? Of course, I do. But that is not a reason not to fight for it.

2) Provide the necessary resources to allow Herndon HS to improve its statewide ratings and standing by trying to level the playing field for its many lower-income students.

3) Keeping all of Great Falls as one town, one community, and one school pyramid.

. Why is your opinion about current FCPS seclusion tactics for non-verbal kindergarteners with autism?
Anonymous
Post 06/26/2019 12:52     Subject: FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Hi Everyone:

I would like to schedule a Meet & Greet with parents and residents of McLean in the coming weeks. Which location do you believe to be the most convenient? My first thought is the library, but I am open to your suggestions. I am really looking forward to meeting you and discussing my independent platform.
Anonymous
Post 06/23/2019 14:04     Subject: Re:FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
This inaction has real consequences. McLean will be well over 300 kids over capacity this fall, with over 18 trailers.


FWIW, schools in West Fairfax have had this and worse, for years. Doesn't excuse it, but it is a fact. And, they also have a lot more enrollment, too.
Check out the numbers at Oakton, Chantilly, and Westfield.


Oakton is getting a major expansion to over 2600 and Westfield is under capacity.

Chantilly’s situation is more like McLean’s: significant overcrowding and no solution in sight (short of a new HS in western Fairfax at some point, in Chantilly’s case).

I wouldn’t object if Chantilly was three miles away from another high school at 80% capacity, and the School Board decided to go ahead and even out the enrollments at the two schools. The alternative is a county-wide redistricting and, while that might’ve sound appealing, there hasn’t been one for over 30 years and the School Board doesn’t really seem to have the appetite to take that on.


Chantilly has been overcrowded for years and years and years. The only people that care is likely the staff. The boundary is relatively tight.
Anonymous
Post 06/23/2019 14:02     Subject: Re:FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Logical and obvious solution:
Send McLean overflow to Langley
Done.

Why all the push back on this?
Probably the same as everywhere else, Mclean kids want to stay at McLean. That may shock some that think Langley is so wonderful, but, generally, everyone wants to stay put in almost any boundary discussion. It's not just about the "better" school. Although, McLean's stats are good, too.
Anonymous
Post 06/23/2019 13:54     Subject: Re:FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
This inaction has real consequences. McLean will be well over 300 kids over capacity this fall, with over 18 trailers.


FWIW, schools in West Fairfax have had this and worse, for years. Doesn't excuse it, but it is a fact. And, they also have a lot more enrollment, too.
Check out the numbers at Oakton, Chantilly, and Westfield.


Yeah but mclean is the most affluent and highest rated.


Not helpful...
Anonymous
Post 06/23/2019 13:53     Subject: Re:FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:
This inaction has real consequences. McLean will be well over 300 kids over capacity this fall, with over 18 trailers.


FWIW, schools in West Fairfax have had this and worse, for years. Doesn't excuse it, but it is a fact. And, they also have a lot more enrollment, too.
Check out the numbers at Oakton, Chantilly, and Westfield.


Oakton is getting a major expansion to over 2600 and Westfield is under capacity.

Chantilly’s situation is more like McLean’s: significant overcrowding and no solution in sight (short of a new HS in western Fairfax at some point, in Chantilly’s case).

I wouldn’t object if Chantilly was three miles away from another high school at 80% capacity, and the School Board decided to go ahead and even out the enrollments at the two schools. The alternative is a county-wide redistricting and, while that might’ve sound appealing, there hasn’t been one for over 30 years and the School Board doesn’t really seem to have the appetite to take that on.
Anonymous
Post 06/23/2019 13:42     Subject: Re:FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:
This inaction has real consequences. McLean will be well over 300 kids over capacity this fall, with over 18 trailers.


FWIW, schools in West Fairfax have had this and worse, for years. Doesn't excuse it, but it is a fact. And, they also have a lot more enrollment, too.
Check out the numbers at Oakton, Chantilly, and Westfield.


Yeah but mclean is the most affluent and highest rated.
Anonymous
Post 06/23/2019 13:32     Subject: Re:FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
This inaction has real consequences. McLean will be well over 300 kids over capacity this fall, with over 18 trailers.


FWIW, schools in West Fairfax have had this and worse, for years. Doesn't excuse it, but it is a fact. And, they also have a lot more enrollment, too.
Check out the numbers at Oakton, Chantilly, and Westfield.
Anonymous
Post 06/23/2019 12:20     Subject: FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Hello Everyone:

I would be happy to discuss my platform with you at your convenience over the coming weeks and months. Please reach out to be at ardavan@ardavan2019.com and I would be happy to schedule a meet & greet shortly.

I am running an independent campaign that will not be beholden to any party and ideologies. I did not seek nor would I have accepted the endorsements of any party, nor am I accepting funding from any of them

I am not doing the bidding for any town and am not prioritizing any town over the other. My platform seeks to resolve:

1) The overcrowding in McLean by finding a long term solution to what will be causing the overcrowding to get worse in the coming decades which is the expansion in Tysons. Do I know that there are others who will not necessarily agree with me on the board? Of course, I do. But that is not a reason not to fight for it.

2) Provide the necessary resources to allow Herndon HS to improve its statewide ratings and standing by trying to level the playing field for its many lower-income students.

3) Keeping all of Great Falls as one town, one community, and one school pyramid.

The overcrowding at McLean is NOW, and needs to be addressed NOW- not after some BS study to determine the "long term solution. It is a NO BRAINER- one school is vastly under enrolled, one school is vastly over enrolled. Move part of Tysons (where the growth is expected) from the over enrolled school to the under enrolled school. It. is. not. rocket. science.


GF resident here
The school board would have done this already. Strauss claims she was shocked by the jump in enrollment in one year in McLean. I find this hard to believe.


If you go back and look at prior CIPs, they have been projecting a big increase in the enrollment at McLean for years. Sometimes the CIPs overstated the growth that would occur, and sometimes they understated it, but they consistently projected enrollment growth.

Conversely, they consistently projected that Langley's enrollment would be flat or decline.

Given the projections, it's hard to see how they had anything in mind other than moving McLean kids to Langley when they decided to expand Langley during its renovation, but did not authorize an addition at McLean (like at Justice, Madison, and West Potomac).

The only reasons they haven't gone ahead with the boundary change are (1) Strauss apparently had been planning to leave the details to her successor, and was then caught flat-footed when the increase in 2018-19 was larger than expected; and (2) other School Board members want to hold McLean and Langley hostage while they debate "One Fairfax" and see what they can get for their own districts before allowing a boundary change to happen.

This inaction has real consequences. McLean will be well over 300 kids over capacity this fall, with over 18 trailers. Langley won't be able to offer the same range of electives as McLean and other schools, and had to appeal to avoid getting moved down to a lower VHSL division this coming year. Meanwhile, the School Board doesn't have a new framework yet for considering boundary changes and individual members send out conflicting and confusing messages (i.e., Strauss "promises" Langley parents that they won't be redistricted to Herndon for at least another decade, while Hynes tweets away that "Changing school boundaries must be the primary tool of integrating schools for diversity" and "The school bd. and Supt are developing a comprehensive boundary plan, to serve the goal of diversity above all").

If Tholen, Mobasheri, or Karloutsos can cut through this nonsense, they'd be a giant improvement. When Tholen launched her campaign, she declared her allegiance to "One Fairfax" and only mentioned addressing capacity issues in passing. She seems to now realize it's a big issue in Dranesville. Mobasheri's materials seem to suggest that all he really cares about is keeping Great Falls zoned for Langley, but maybe he'll recognize that McLean needs capacity relief now, and that many in Herndon feel ignored. Karloutsos doesn't seem to have a web site yet.
Anonymous
Post 06/23/2019 08:22     Subject: FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Hello Everyone:

I would be happy to discuss my platform with you at your convenience over the coming weeks and months. Please reach out to be at ardavan@ardavan2019.com and I would be happy to schedule a meet & greet shortly.

I am running an independent campaign that will not be beholden to any party and ideologies. I did not seek nor would I have accepted the endorsements of any party, nor am I accepting funding from any of them

I am not doing the bidding for any town and am not prioritizing any town over the other. My platform seeks to resolve:

1) The overcrowding in McLean by finding a long term solution to what will be causing the overcrowding to get worse in the coming decades which is the expansion in Tysons. Do I know that there are others who will not necessarily agree with me on the board? Of course, I do. But that is not a reason not to fight for it.

2) Provide the necessary resources to allow Herndon HS to improve its statewide ratings and standing by trying to level the playing field for its many lower-income students.

3) Keeping all of Great Falls as one town, one community, and one school pyramid.

The overcrowding at McLean is NOW, and needs to be addressed NOW- not after some BS study to determine the "long term solution. It is a NO BRAINER- one school is vastly under enrolled, one school is vastly over enrolled. Move part of Tysons (where the growth is expected) from the over enrolled school to the under enrolled school. It. is. not. rocket. science.


+1000. Meanwhile on Twitter that phony Pat Hynes is bullshitting about the need for an extended study AFTER she has already paved the way for big additions at South Lakes and Madison over in Hunter Mill and done the bidding of higher/income folks by moving kids from Jackson to Thoreau. What a HYPOCRITE! No more of her ilk on the School Board, please.
Anonymous
Post 06/23/2019 08:06     Subject: FCPS School Board candidates in Dranesville
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Hello Everyone:

I would be happy to discuss my platform with you at your convenience over the coming weeks and months. Please reach out to be at ardavan@ardavan2019.com and I would be happy to schedule a meet & greet shortly.

I am running an independent campaign that will not be beholden to any party and ideologies. I did not seek nor would I have accepted the endorsements of any party, nor am I accepting funding from any of them

I am not doing the bidding for any town and am not prioritizing any town over the other. My platform seeks to resolve:

1) The overcrowding in McLean by finding a long term solution to what will be causing the overcrowding to get worse in the coming decades which is the expansion in Tysons. Do I know that there are others who will not necessarily agree with me on the board? Of course, I do. But that is not a reason not to fight for it.

2) Provide the necessary resources to allow Herndon HS to improve its statewide ratings and standing by trying to level the playing field for its many lower-income students.

3) Keeping all of Great Falls as one town, one community, and one school pyramid.



Western Great Falls belongs at Herndon. While I realize that you politically can't support that, it is the truth. Probably can't be done now because of the crowding at Herndon, but it should eventually come to pass. Unless of course the School Board purposely never builds the western high school. Where do you stand on the western high school?

Do you support expanding West Potomac while there is plenty of room next door at Mt. Vernon?

If the School Board performs its job as a county wide body and does what is right, selfish individual Board members will not get their way.


Representative republics are just that.


But is it working? If it was working properly, the rest of the School Board would have told Karen Corbett-Sanders to pound sand when it came to expanding West Potomac while Mt. Vernon has available space.

My guess is that many backdoor deals are being made to avoid changing boundaries.


In a representative republic, it is the job of the elected official to represent the people in his/her district.


Yes, but it is up to the other Board members to stand up to the selfish interest. The School Board is spending taxpayer dollars from all over Fairfax to expand West Potomac when there are hundreds of seats available next door at Mt. Vernon. This is why I think there are backdoor deals being made all over. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. The truth is that the elected School Board has failed us over the last 15-20 years and let the situation get out of hand. Now they can't fix it.

I agree that McLean students should be moved to Langley - this will make use of the space available at Langley. In the future, if the western high school is built, then Great Falls should be moved to Herndon as there will be a need for cascading boundary changes.