Anonymous wrote:The after-school cross country was transformational for my son in terms of self-confidence. I hope it doesn’t go away.

Anonymous wrote:They need a DoGe equivalent for Gatehouse to clear that place out.

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Anonymous wrote:Middle school is such an isolating time for kids, after school clubs is how they make friends. It was this way when I was in middle school 30 years ago. This is devastating for my rising 7th grader - all her friends have told her how much fun middle school is.

How's it isolating? Do they really lose touch with friends/stop hanging out with neighborhood friends the second middle school starts? MS is no picnic for sure, but i didn't realize it was that bad

My kid, and most of his friends, only have one other kid from their ES in any of their MS classes. The only time they see friends from ES is lunch time. Clubs give kids a chance to socialize with new people as well as be exposed to new activities. And then you have clubs like Mathcounts, Science Olympiad and other academic competitions.

I am not sure why the MS is being targeted when HSs have similar clubs and activities.

HS teachers are not paid to oversee clubs. It is purely out of kindness that they do it. At that level though, the juniors/seniors run the club, the teacher just offers their room and provides adult coverage in case of an emergency.

Kids can generally get themselves home in Hs since enough have their license, so they can have a 45 minute meeting and go home whereas MS needs supervision until buses come.

A lot of the activities are not clubs. Coaches get paid for sports. Doesn't the Journalism teacher get paid for all the newspaper work? Drama teachers don't get paid for all the extra time? Music teachers?

You would be surprised. Even crazy things like chaperoning a club to a national competition for a week out of state in the summer—unpaid. The FBLA teacher at our school had to pay her own way to attend with her kids because they didn’t raise enough money.

A lot of activities do have stipends attached, middle and high school. They are not on the chopping block. The middle school band/orchestra/yearbook/theater will still exist.

You can see here what max pay is.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/DE7JYN4E9DBC/$file/N4650%2024-25%20revised%20(1).pdf

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Anonymous wrote:Middle school is such an isolating time for kids, after school clubs is how they make friends. It was this way when I was in middle school 30 years ago. This is devastating for my rising 7th grader - all her friends have told her how much fun middle school is.

How's it isolating? Do they really lose touch with friends/stop hanging out with neighborhood friends the second middle school starts? MS is no picnic for sure, but i didn't realize it was that bad

My kid, and most of his friends, only have one other kid from their ES in any of their MS classes. The only time they see friends from ES is lunch time. Clubs give kids a chance to socialize with new people as well as be exposed to new activities. And then you have clubs like Mathcounts, Science Olympiad and other academic competitions.

I am not sure why the MS is being targeted when HSs have similar clubs and activities.

HS teachers are not paid to oversee clubs. It is purely out of kindness that they do it. At that level though, the juniors/seniors run the club, the teacher just offers their room and provides adult coverage in case of an emergency.

Kids can generally get themselves home in Hs since enough have their license, so they can have a 45 minute meeting and go home whereas MS needs supervision until buses come.

A lot of the activities are not clubs. Coaches get paid for sports. Doesn't the Journalism teacher get paid for all the newspaper work? Drama teachers don't get paid for all the extra time? Music teachers?

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Anonymous wrote:This is devastating for kids who are going to be in 7th next year. The bus times aren't changing, they just come home at 2:30 to nothing.

I get that everyone's situation is different and not every kid has other kids near by. But, it's so weird to me that ppl think 7th graders are incapable of entertaining themselves without screens.

Stfu. The after school program isn’t just about “entertaining kids without screens.” You clearly don’t have a middle schooler who benefitted from the program or you would absolutely 100% get it. It is devastating and will totally sour the middle school experience.

The stfu was totally unnecessary. It was a genuine question and statement.

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Anonymous wrote:Seeing some school board emails where they mention the school board and Fairfax county board need to work together- that is true, but didn’t like how rest of email that suggests middle school after school programs, hs crossing guards, etc are at risk bc of federal govt. These programs were on chopping block long before the federal changes so FCPS shouldn’t spin it now that it’s the federal chaos that is reason it pull plug. To have a hope to get programs like this back, both boards will need to take ownership and not just try to spin and hide decisions behind federal saying nothing they can do. And if they don’t want to get programs like this back, they can just own that too.

Well, the SB could conform to the new mandates and avoid having federal funds pulled.

Anonymous wrote:Seeing some school board emails where they mention the school board and Fairfax county board need to work together- that is true, but didn’t like how rest of email that suggests middle school after school programs, hs crossing guards, etc are at risk bc of federal govt. These programs were on chopping block long before the federal changes so FCPS shouldn’t spin it now that it’s the federal chaos that is reason it pull plug. To have a hope to get programs like this back, both boards will need to take ownership and not just try to spin and hide decisions behind federal saying nothing they can do. And if they don’t want to get programs like this back, they can just own that too.

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Anonymous wrote:Cutting middle school afterschool activities is a terrible idea. These activities were a life line for my son who is a shy and quiet kid. It gave him the opportunity to make friends, meet with teachers, and try new clubs. He had a good group of friends going into 7th grade but that group fell apart and he was lost and unhappy for a bit. It was when he started going to some of these clubs and finding common ground outside of class that he flourished. He even participated in the school play this year. I can't tell you how much we've appreciated this outlet. My kid will be in high school next year so the budget cut here won't hurt him but it will hurt other kids like him... kids who need the chance to play and make new friends. Don't take away that joy.

In your opinion, what should they cut instead? They have to make up the money somewhere.

Drop IB. I am sure that sucks up a good deal of the budget with little return.

Remove the AAP Centers at the MS level. There are enough kids coming from ES who are AAP eligible that each MS can run its own AAP program. That bus money saved can be used for the after school busses.

Reduce the DEI staffing.

For the hundredth time- MSAS is in the County budget, not FCPS.

For the hundredth time - the county is asking FCPS to pick up at least some of the cost if not all this year.

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Anonymous wrote:Middle school is such an isolating time for kids, after school clubs is how they make friends. It was this way when I was in middle school 30 years ago. This is devastating for my rising 7th grader - all her friends have told her how much fun middle school is.

How's it isolating? Do they really lose touch with friends/stop hanging out with neighborhood friends the second middle school starts? MS is no picnic for sure, but i didn't realize it was that bad

My kid, and most of his friends, only have one other kid from their ES in any of their MS classes. The only time they see friends from ES is lunch time. Clubs give kids a chance to socialize with new people as well as be exposed to new activities. And then you have clubs like Mathcounts, Science Olympiad and other academic competitions.

I am not sure why the MS is being targeted when HSs have similar clubs and activities.

HS teachers are not paid to oversee clubs. It is purely out of kindness that they do it. At that level though, the juniors/seniors run the club, the teacher just offers their room and provides adult coverage in case of an emergency.

Kids can generally get themselves home in Hs since enough have their license, so they can have a 45 minute meeting and go home whereas MS needs supervision until buses come.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle school is such an isolating time for kids, after school clubs is how they make friends. It was this way when I was in middle school 30 years ago. This is devastating for my rising 7th grader - all her friends have told her how much fun middle school is.

How's it isolating? Do they really lose touch with friends/stop hanging out with neighborhood friends the second middle school starts? MS is no picnic for sure, but i didn't realize it was that bad

My kid, and most of his friends, only have one other kid from their ES in any of their MS classes. The only time they see friends from ES is lunch time. Clubs give kids a chance to socialize with new people as well as be exposed to new activities. And then you have clubs like Mathcounts, Science Olympiad and other academic competitions.

I am not sure why the MS is being targeted when HSs have similar clubs and activities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is devastating for kids who are going to be in 7th next year. The bus times aren't changing, they just come home at 2:30 to nothing.

I get that everyone's situation is different and not every kid has other kids near by. But, it's so weird to me that ppl think 7th graders are incapable of entertaining themselves without screens.

Stfu. The after school program isn’t just about “entertaining kids without screens.” You clearly don’t have a middle schooler who benefitted from the program or you would absolutely 100% get it. It is devastating and will totally sour the middle school experience.