I think part of the issue is that FCPS asked for more funds because of the promise to increase teacher salaries to recruit and retain good teachers. I wonder if they considered scaling the after school clubs to 3 days per week.

Wr wouldn’t have to make so many cuts if Youngkin didn’t cut the budget.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are raising assessments AND the property tax rate. I don't understand where all the money goes. The county services our family would use are libraries--which are in complete disrepair and disgusting and unusable--and the ms afterschool program. Our kids play rec soccer and they don't even get to practice on a real field because our league says there is a field shortage. They play rec basketball and practice once a week in school gyms and those are closed half the time and practice is canceled. Other counties have much nicer amenities. Where does all the money go?

70% of our taxes (from food, property, gas, plastic bags, etc) go to Richmond and south.
There's relarively a small/disproportional amt for the northern counties despite the dense population (1.8 million people in Ffx Co...I'm guessing adjacent counties are also almost as highly populated).

+1. It's long past time to tweak the LCI. We should not be sending 70% of our tax dollars downstate and getting pennies in return.

FCPS should cut the availability of the summer credit recovery program to the minimum required for a specific student to meet their graduation requirements by the end of 12th grade. Right now we have too many students who don't study at all during the year and prefer to take it over the summer because "it's so easy" (direct student quote, and it is) or because they want to move on to the next level for bragging rights to their friends or for the worthless "advanced diploma" sticker.

These kids keep failing up and are less and less prepared as they move up. They should just retake the class the following year unless it's going to prevent them from graduating on time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oof, if I were a local business owner I’d be campaigning to keep the program. On Fridays when it doesn’t happen the local shopping centers are mobbed with middle schoolers behaving poorly, to the point cops have been called many times.

12-14 year olds cannot get out at 2:15 and be on their own for 3-5 hours. They will find trouble.

If they’re pushing middle schoolers to be the late start/end schools, I’m okay with it.

Why are today’s 12-15yo kids less capable of being allowed to get out at 2:30 than GenX at the same age? And don’t even start with the nonsense that moms were home. We were the latchkey kids.

Gen X latchkey here. It was a terrible experience which I wouldn’t recommend for any MS child.

Why? Most I know credit being on own to being able to grow up. Any studies on latch keyers and where and how they ended up in life? How many ended up self-sufficient with jobs v. no job living with parents?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oof, if I were a local business owner I’d be campaigning to keep the program. On Fridays when it doesn’t happen the local shopping centers are mobbed with middle schoolers behaving poorly, to the point cops have been called many times.

12-14 year olds cannot get out at 2:15 and be on their own for 3-5 hours. They will find trouble.

If they’re pushing middle schoolers to be the late start/end schools, I’m okay with it.

Why are today’s 12-15yo kids less capable of being allowed to get out at 2:30 than GenX at the same age? And don’t even start with the nonsense that moms were home. We were the latchkey kids.

Gen X latchkey here. It was a terrible experience which I wouldn’t recommend for any MS child.

Would you mind sharing why it was so terrible? Just curious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is getting buried in the start times thread, but wanted to ask everyone to please contact the Board of Supervisors and ask them to NOT push this proposed cut through next year. Middle schoolers love the after school program and it give a lot of kids who might otherwise get in trouble or be at home all alone something to do after school a few days a week. Everyone I've talked to has praised this program. Again, please contact your district's supervisor and ask them to say no to this proposal.

*NOTE this is NOT related to the start times at all. This is a COUNTY budget issue, whereas the start times are an FCPS issue.

Where are you getting this info from and what are the specifics?

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/budget/sites/budget/files/Assets/Documents/fy2026/advertised/overview/Reduction%20Package.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree about the busses. For one thing, if you choose to send your child to Thomas Jefferson, you should be responsible for getting your child to and from. There is no reason to dedicate busses all over the county to transport kids to that school. It's incredibly inefficient.

+1000.

Wouldn’t even make a dent if cut this because is sweeper buses that do this. Biggest cost cut would be to cut your ES for AAP, which may happen if stop centers with new boundaries. But as is, won’t cut either bc that is how getting experience admits to the schools. Would only hurt those with financial need, etc if did now.

Anonymous wrote:They are raising assessments AND the property tax rate. I don't understand where all the money goes. The county services our family would use are libraries--which are in complete disrepair and disgusting and unusable--and the ms afterschool program. Our kids play rec soccer and they don't even get to practice on a real field because our league says there is a field shortage. They play rec basketball and practice once a week in school gyms and those are closed half the time and practice is canceled. Other counties have much nicer amenities. Where does all the money go?

I agree with you. We send our three children to private school partly because I hate when public keeps cutting things arbitrarily.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are raising assessments AND the property tax rate. I don't understand where all the money goes. The county services our family would use are libraries--which are in complete disrepair and disgusting and unusable--and the ms afterschool program. Our kids play rec soccer and they don't even get to practice on a real field because our league says there is a field shortage. They play rec basketball and practice once a week in school gyms and those are closed half the time and practice is canceled. Other counties have much nicer amenities. Where does all the money go?

70% of our taxes (from food, property, gas, plastic bags, etc) go to Richmond and south.
There's relarively a small/disproportional amt for the northern counties despite the dense population (1.8 million people in Ffx Co...I'm guessing adjacent counties are also almost as highly populated).

+1

Anonymous wrote:I agree about the busses. For one thing, if you choose to send your child to Thomas Jefferson, you should be responsible for getting your child to and from. There is no reason to dedicate busses all over the county to transport kids to that school. It's incredibly inefficient.

+1000.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can the middle schools do what elementary PTAs do, and offer after school activities from outside organizations?

Or perhaps fcps can keep the activities but ditch the late busses. Parents who want the activities can pick up their own kids.

I know you mean well PP, but both suggestions revreal an extremely privileged lens. Please take a step back and remember that public schools are meant to provide opportunity and access to all students they serve.

These aren’t programs offered by FCPS though, is that correct? They are county programs based on PPs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can't afford afterschool programs but are building....a covid memorial? Is this real?

The COVID memorial is $200k. The afterschool program is just under $4M. I’m not saying that the COVID memorial is worth it, I’m just pointing out that the magnitudes are different.

Its 200k wasted and makes you wonder what other foolishness is being spent.

Nothing can ever be cut from the school budget. Absolutely nothing. How can our kids learn if they don't have a... COVID memorial. Yep, definitely need that.

I agree about the busses. For one thing, if you choose to send your child to Thomas Jefferson, you should be responsible for getting your child to and from. There is no reason to dedicate busses all over the county to transport kids to that school. It's incredibly inefficient.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oof, if I were a local business owner I’d be campaigning to keep the program. On Fridays when it doesn’t happen the local shopping centers are mobbed with middle schoolers behaving poorly, to the point cops have been called many times.

12-14 year olds cannot get out at 2:15 and be on their own for 3-5 hours. They will find trouble.

If they’re pushing middle schoolers to be the late start/end schools, I’m okay with it.

Why are today’s 12-15yo kids less capable of being allowed to get out at 2:30 than GenX at the same age? And don’t even start with the nonsense that moms were home. We were the latchkey kids.

+1