Anonymous wrote:We’ve been disappointed with our over $30,000/year school.

Will you return to public?

We’ve been disappointed with our over $30,000/year school.

Anonymous wrote:We are not in fcps, but I would say my DC kindergarten experience is nothing impressive. I think his private daycare with preschool curriculum is more fun and challenging than this public kindergarten one in mcps. They covered more knowledge and more higher grade curriculum in daycare. As other says, kindergarten teacher is teaching curriculum assuming that kids never attend daycare/preschool.

I cannot afford $40k private kindergarten. If I could, I would find one that can challenge my child more.

You can probably find one that is well under that price tag, most Catholic schools are in the $10,000 range. The crazy high cost schools are not that exciting.

We are not in fcps, but I would say my DC kindergarten experience is nothing impressive. I think his private daycare with preschool curriculum is more fun and challenging than this public kindergarten one in mcps. They covered more knowledge and more higher grade curriculum in daycare. As other says, kindergarten teacher is teaching curriculum assuming that kids never attend daycare/preschool.

I cannot afford $40k private kindergarten. If I could, I would find one that can challenge my child more.

I agree with the OP. The negros in the old south had it so much better.

I feel sad for you, OP, because you are wasting so much money. My Kindergartener is having a GREAT experience. She has a wonderful teacher, phonics-based reading instruction, and comes home spouting facts that she learned every single day. She loves her teacher, her friends, her principal, and her entire kindergarten experience. I am SO GLAD we stayed the course!!

"Woe is me, I can afford private school, so I am going to go dump on the public school families".

I have asked for your post to be deleted or moved somewhere that people care what you are saying. We don't.

I have a sophomore in HS now. I am pretty thankful for the variety of programs available to her. I mean, maybe other diverse, well to do suburban school systems have the same opportunities. But not even all the other DC area suburban schools have the same mix available that FCPS has. Next year, she will be taking one class at an Academy program in Dance (this will be her third year), a sports medicine class and a new specialized class that allows her to better prepare herself for the challenge of college classes (she has ADHD and struggles with notes, studying etc and of course starting high school virtually didn’t help)

I have been happy with our schools. Not always super impressed with the materials/homework, but I feel like my older and now younger (I have another in ES) daughters have had engaged and caring teachers. Many of them even live in our neighborhood. I grew up the child of educators and I appreciate our school staff very much

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved here for the excellent public schools and I now find myself in the position of sending my DC to $40k/year Kindergarten. Several people we know were gung ho about public and then Covid hit, and they’ve lost complete faith in the school system’s ability to put kids first and focus on what’s high priority. Basically everyone I know who had the foresight and the money switched to private and they’re not coming back. I know, don’t let the door hit us on the way out. But I’m disappointed because I would have loved to send public but no longer feel it’s a great option.

Sears right there with you OP. We bought a SFH in FFX specifically for the excellent reputation of the schools.

Fast-forward to Covid, and the elected school board has been exposed for the radicals they are. They are so extreme!

But their views aside, they are not putting our kids first. They serve only to please the teachers union. They spend and spend, wasting our money (and federal money) on the most ridiculous projects, which do not help our kids learn!

+100

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved here for the excellent public schools and I now find myself in the position of sending my DC to $40k/year Kindergarten. Several people we know were gung ho about public and then Covid hit, and they’ve lost complete faith in the school system’s ability to put kids first and focus on what’s high priority. Basically everyone I know who had the foresight and the money switched to private and they’re not coming back. I know, don’t let the door hit us on the way out. But I’m disappointed because I would have loved to send public but no longer feel it’s a great option.

Sears right there with you OP. We bought a SFH in FFX specifically for the excellent reputation of the schools.

Fast-forward to Covid, and the elected school board has been exposed for the radicals they are. They are so extreme!

But their views aside, they are not putting our kids first. They serve only to please the teachers union. They spend and spend, wasting our money (and federal money) on the most ridiculous projects, which do not help our kids learn!

+1

Stop adding a plus one to your own post PP. We see you and you are full of BS. It’s one thing to criticize specific issues but the Fox News drivel about teachers unions and school boards blah blah blah. Just stop.

DP. I hate comments like this. You just don't like the fact that others agree with the PP, so you resort to accusing them of sock puppeting. Grow up. I'm going to add a big +100 to the PP's post. Have a great day!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is super disappointing. Sorry you didn’t realize it before you moved here. They are a marketing machine and have skated by on a old reputation.

+1
FCPS *used* to be excellent. That is true. It no longer is.

Please prove this. Show us that high schoolers are getting into far worse colleges or have lower graduation rates.

People have been making the same damn complaints since I started reading DCUM 11 years ago. And yet a couple generations of kids have come and gone through the system and idone incredibly well in lif

PP here. I'm one of those prior generations who went through FCPS when it actually was world-class. 1970's-80s and part of the 90s. That was when there was a challenging curriculum, an emphasis on language arts (reading, writing, spelling, grammar), and a very small GT program for kids who were actually gifted. I was excited to send my own kids to FCPS - until I realized that GT was no more. Instead, we were stuck with "AAP" - an advanced program for the many above average kids in the system. Additionally, there was no real grammar or spelling instruction. Book reports had become video assignments. Lots of wasted time, including a once-a-week hour of "language immersion" in which the teacher talked at the kids in a foreign language and actually expected them to learn that way.

In short, everything has been watered-down. FCPS is a mere shadow of what it used to be. And if you had also attended these schools yourself, you'd know this is true.

OP, we "had the foresight and the money [to switch] to private" but unlike your assertion, we ARE coming back. It was just a temporary response to COVID. I'd say of the families we know well who made the switch to private due to COVID (about a dozen or so), it's a pretty even split of who is open to or planning on returning vs. those who seem inclined to remain at a private from here on out.

But let's be real, there's no way a 180k student district was going to be able to pivot and manage a response in anywhere near the timeline or with the agility of an independent institution that's only a fraction of the size. That's not a knock on FCPS, that's just the nature of large vs. small organizations. And that's why we made the switch (and have been very glad that we did).

So yes, we saw the writing on the wall in spring 2020, luckily found a school we like with an opening, and there we have been the past two school years. We're staying one more because we think FCPS (and society) still needs a year to normalize and play some catch-up, as well as keeping the option to remain beyond next year just as a hedge against something like BA.2 or whatever's next coming along and throwing things completely back off track. But we've got many years of schooling left, and are excited to get back to FCPS when the time is right. We're "almost" there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved here for the excellent public schools and I now find myself in the position of sending my DC to $40k/year Kindergarten. Several people we know were gung ho about public and then Covid hit, and they’ve lost complete faith in the school system’s ability to put kids first and focus on what’s high priority. Basically everyone I know who had the foresight and the money switched to private and they’re not coming back. I know, don’t let the door hit us on the way out. But I’m disappointed because I would have loved to send public but no longer feel it’s a great option.

Sears right there with you OP. We bought a SFH in FFX specifically for the excellent reputation of the schools.

Fast-forward to Covid, and the elected school board has been exposed for the radicals they are. They are so extreme!

But their views aside, they are not putting our kids first. They serve only to please the teachers union. They spend and spend, wasting our money (and federal money) on the most ridiculous projects, which do not help our kids learn!

+1

Stop adding a plus one to your own post PP. We see you and you are full of BS. It’s one thing to criticize specific issues but the Fox News drivel about teachers unions and school boards blah blah blah. Just stop.

At the kindergarten level, what is the schoolboard decision that effect directly to your K-children? I thoughts K is suppose to just play and learn to read/write… is FCpS insert the “woke” article on your K- learning alphabet material?
Parents complaining no matter what, either the material too advance or too slow.
Your kids will even out by the time they are 6th grade. Trust me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved here for the excellent public schools and I now find myself in the position of sending my DC to $40k/year Kindergarten. Several people we know were gung ho about public and then Covid hit, and they’ve lost complete faith in the school system’s ability to put kids first and focus on what’s high priority. Basically everyone I know who had the foresight and the money switched to private and they’re not coming back. I know, don’t let the door hit us on the way out. But I’m disappointed because I would have loved to send public but no longer feel it’s a great option.

Sears right there with you OP. We bought a SFH in FFX specifically for the excellent reputation of the schools.

Fast-forward to Covid, and the elected school board has been exposed for the radicals they are. They are so extreme!

But their views aside, they are not putting our kids first. They serve only to please the teachers union. They spend and spend, wasting our money (and federal money) on the most ridiculous projects, which do not help our kids learn!

+1