To their credit, Elaine Tholen and Janie Strauss haven't held themselves out as Mother Teresa, while simultaneously basking in the support of a reactionary right-wing group like One Great Falls/Voices of Fairfax.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anastasia Karloutsos has a long history of working for less-privileged children.

This is good because when she is elected to the Board she will bring that perspective of actually working to help these students.

"Anastasia S. Karloutsos is a passionate advocate for education, school safety, and parental involvement. As a high school student, Anastasia founded a nonprofit to provide a safe after-school learning environment for underperforming, low-income elementary school children, for which she received the America’s Promise Award presented by Governor Jeb Bush and Ret. General Colin Powell in 2000.

She also served six years on the Board of HOPE Partnership for Education, a nonprofit school serving underprivileged, low performing students in 5th-8th grade in North Philadelphia."

https://anastasia4kids.com/about/

Nothing quite says "I love diversity" like moving into the Langley district, the least diverse in NoVa, and then touting an endorsement from a local group (Voices of Fairfax) started by a bunch of Great Falls residents who call Herndon a "gang-ridden * * * sanctuary city" and show up at School Board work sessions screaming that FCPS "lets all the illegals in."

She may be better than the people she surrounds herself with, but sheesh...

Excuse me, where does Elaine Tholen live? Janie Strauss?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anastasia Karloutsos has a long history of working for less-privileged children.

This is good because when she is elected to the Board she will bring that perspective of actually working to help these students.

"Anastasia S. Karloutsos is a passionate advocate for education, school safety, and parental involvement. As a high school student, Anastasia founded a nonprofit to provide a safe after-school learning environment for underperforming, low-income elementary school children, for which she received the America’s Promise Award presented by Governor Jeb Bush and Ret. General Colin Powell in 2000.

She also served six years on the Board of HOPE Partnership for Education, a nonprofit school serving underprivileged, low performing students in 5th-8th grade in North Philadelphia."

https://anastasia4kids.com/about/

Nothing quite says "I love diversity" like moving into the Langley district, the least diverse in NoVa, and then touting an endorsement from a local group (Voices of Fairfax) started by a bunch of Great Falls residents who call Herndon a "gang-ridden * * * sanctuary city" and show up at School Board work sessions screaming that FCPS "lets all the illegals in."

She may be better than the people she surrounds herself with, but sheesh...

Anonymous wrote:Anastasia Karloutsos has a long history of working for less-privileged children.

This is good because when she is elected to the Board she will bring that perspective of actually working to help these students.

"Anastasia S. Karloutsos is a passionate advocate for education, school safety, and parental involvement. As a high school student, Anastasia founded a nonprofit to provide a safe after-school learning environment for underperforming, low-income elementary school children, for which she received the America’s Promise Award presented by Governor Jeb Bush and Ret. General Colin Powell in 2000.

She also served six years on the Board of HOPE Partnership for Education, a nonprofit school serving underprivileged, low performing students in 5th-8th grade in North Philadelphia."

https://anastasia4kids.com/about/

Anonymous wrote:Right, tell this to the GF folks. They should be fine if their kids were moved to Herndon if it were to happen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would each of these candidates do for Herndon to make it desirable? Additional resources and new ways of teaching (project momentum) have been provided for years and ratings continue to decline.

Nothing is going to boost Herndon's ratings so it doesn't matter who I vote for. All candidates most likely will throw some money or get behind some program to look like they're doing something for Herndon all while keeping Langley and McLean happy.

Anonymous wrote:What would each of these candidates do for Herndon to make it desirable? Additional resources and new ways of teaching (project momentum) have been provided for years and ratings continue to decline.

Anonymous wrote:Well at least we know that Pat "get rid of gifted and talented programs" Hynes supports Elaine Tholen.

Very reassuring.

Anonymous wrote:Why are the feelings of Langley students so paramount when students from the McLean pyramid now stand to be redistricted to Cooper/Langley because FCPS added capacity where it wasn't needed and failed to add capacity where it was?

As I understand it, no one is getting moved out of Langley until the 2030s, whereas kids will get booted out of McLean as early as next year. It seems like there is an inverse relationship between the people who have the most reason to be concerned and those making the most noise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big story of this election is how a group of Langley parents from the Forestville ES part of Great Falls got so agitated over a rumor that they might get moved back to Herndon some day (never mind that Langley is under capacity and Herndon is full) that they started a well-funded group to try and replace the Democrats on the School Board with a bunch of right-wing Republicans more to their liking.

When they realized that people elsewhere wouldn’t care much about something that might only affect the Langley boundaries in 2032, they changed their name from “One Great Falls” to “Voices of Fairfax,” started pretending to care about the overcrowding at McLean, and struck an alliance with people like Elizabeth Schultz.

Then they found a weak candidate in Dranesville who only moved to the DC area after Trump’s election (Anastasia Karloutsos) and continued to spread misinformation about the School Board’s plans, in particular by suggesting that even considering SES factors when adjusting boundaries is tantamount to a county-wide redistricting to bus kids at every level back and forth across the county. The lies were so egregious that Superintendent Scott Brabrand, who has every incentive to stay out of their politics, felt compelled to issue a statement and video to debunk their claims.

Fortunately, there is a good choice in Dranesville: Elaine Tholen. She’s a long-time county resident and educator, with a strong commitment to forward-looking thinking. She lives in Great Falls, so it’s not like she’s going to throw Langley overboard, but her election should help put the non-productive rumor-mongering of groups like VOF to a halt.

Look another person who doesn't know what they are talking about. "a well-funded group"? HA! The group is made up of volunteers (many of whom are NOT wealthy and are NOT Republicans) who have not collected a cent and made a big impact by sharing the school boards OWN WORDS. You are clearly biased and ignorant about a messenger. McLean wouldn't even be on the CIP if it wasn't for Voices of Fairfax forcing the issue with the school board and their radical policy changes would have passed by now under the radar - withut your input - like they hoped. Voices of Fairfax isn't the only group either. One Mantua formed and is getting an equal cold shoulder from the school board and their candidates won't engage with them or show up to their debate. If they won't engage with the community while campaigning, why would you think they'd represent you once elected?

The fact of the matter is you have choices in front of you. Some issues are more pressing than others, and right now a radical agenda is being pushed on our children. If you look past your party lines for once and look at some of the Republican candidates at the moment, they are incredibly diverse and have children in the schools now! They are on fire when it comes to the boundary issue, transparency, and representing YOU. I am not a Republican, and I am impressed with how open they've been to discussing the issues with me. The Democrats this round are not the party I grew up with - they refuse to engage and get very hateful.

We have to stop this radical agenda from being pushed onto our children and get the school board focused on educational excellence (which is how we became the best public schools in the nation - we lost that title since). Howard County is going through this right now. They are just a diverse community as ours, with minorities speaking out against it. Their board wants to "spread poverty" around their county. Really?! That's the goal? Shouldn't they be meeting their obligation to make sure there is equal opportunity in every school for educational excellence?

Tholen hasn't a spine and won't vote against the progressive agenda. Her kids are grown. Ardavan is a hateful Democrat disguised as an Independent - we don't need another liar on the board - who can't give a complete answer on the issues (and has no chance). Those pushing this radical approach to close the achievement gap DO NOT HAVE KIDS IN FCPS. Redistricting to alleviate overcrowding is one thing (which they have refused to do until the spotlight hit them before an election). But redistricting to solve the “achievement gap” by mixing children up will not helping those kids that need it. MILLIONS OF DOLLARS are wasted by these people and their agendas. Wake up people and look passed your political biases and vote on the local issues in front of you. So, yes I'm voting Republican this round. Keep politics out of education!

Anastasia Karloutsos - a devotee of the "talk first, think later" Elizabeth Schultz school of politics - should move to Howard County if she's so worried about what will happen there. She hasn't lived in Fairfax long enough to understand the politics here are different. In fact, she only moved here from Philly two years ago when her husband took a political job with the Trump Administration. If Trump loses in 2020 (please!!), they will most likely leave and saddle the taxpayers with the $250K cost of another unnecessary special election, which is exactly what the Republicans inflicted on us after Jeannette Hough resigned in 2017 (they asked her to resign earlier than she needed to, because they thought their candidate would have a better shot in a special election than he'd have in the next general election).

I feel pretty good about Tholen serving as a sensible, moderate voice on the School Board. With Hynes leaving, she can also be a leader on environmental education and stewardship within FCPS, which is important to many of us and will save FCPS money over the long haul. It's ironic that PP is complaining that Tholen's kids are now out of FCPS - do they really think the rest of us don't realize they are the same people claiming elsewhere that Laura Jane Cohen would not have time to serve as the Springfield District representative because she has kids in FCPS. How about we let these women decide what they are capable of taking on, rather than make those decisions for them?

I don’t think you can count being new to the area against a candidate..... many of us are transplants. From what I can tell both Anastasia and Elaine are good, well-intentioned and sensible people who want to do right by kids and their constituents. I think it comes down to whether you think a democratic or republican agenda/priorities are better for our kids and county. Ardavan isn’t a consideration for me for two reasons.... history suggests he doesn’t have a chance of winning and he seems more focused on dissing both the Rs and the Ds then in talking about what he would do. I’m an independent who thinks both Elaine and Anastasia would make good additions to the school board...... just depends on your worldview. Democratic majority brought One Fairfax.... do you want more of that or less?