Anonymous
Post 04/07/2025 16:16     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:I just did and I have questions.

First of all, I never got an actual question about middle school start times. I have students in high school and elementary school and got a question about how I feel about their current start times and whether my high schooler had a job or needed to be home after school to babysit younger siblings and that's it.

So I don't get to weigh in on middle school start times because I have a kid who won't be there til next year??
Was this a glitch?


Surveys in FCPS seem like a box to check~ they will do what they want.
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2025 13:11     Subject: Re:Did you take the middle school start times survey?
With all of these surveys and emails (start times, boundary changes, etc), I wish there was just more clarity and transparency about what they are thinking. What would MS start time changes mean for my elementary school? What options are they looking at? When would this take effect? What is the process for making these changes? Will there be additional comment periods or community discussions?
Anonymous
Post 04/06/2025 17:43     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:just fill it out mutliple times indicating middle schooler and that's its too early. All school at all levels should only be between the hours of 8am-4pm that is normal.


Nope.

Keep the schedule as is.


No, it’s too early.

It's only two years, lady. Your baby can chill.
Anonymous
Post 04/06/2025 17:42     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:just fill it out mutliple times indicating middle schooler and that's its too early. All school at all levels should only be between the hours of 8am-4pm that is normal.


Your "normal" is simply unaffordable and unrealistic.


It is realistic and affordable if they prioritize it. If they actually think of other solutions like opting in for bus, changing mileage that requires bus usage, etc.


Have you seen the county budget shortfall? You are not being realistic if you expect Fairfax to blow the budget on hundreds more buses and drivers. Use some common sense.

Maybe we could get rid of the Covid Memorial that no one wants or the elementary school that no one asked for and that part of the county doesn't need? That's like $90 Million right there.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2025 08:47     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yes that was a bad survey. (Survey methods professor here) The only question for elementary parents is just whether you think your current time is okay or not...waste of time, didn't collect meaningful information.


Professor PP, has FCPS ever put out a good survey? I've never seen anything but complaints about their methods. Sometimes the complaints are that the survey was obviously designed to produce one result. Sometimes it is that the survey was so poorly designed it couldn't be meaningful, like you say here.

And FCPS literally has in-house data employees plus hires these expensive consultants to make and analyze surveys.


This is what I don’t get. They have a whole office, ORSI, that has people with PhDs and other advanced degrees who are supposed to do surveys and data analysis. And they hire contractors for surveys (probably this one) who put together horrible surveys. My high schooler still remembers the calendar survey and is angry that the board ended up selecting a calendar totally different from any of the ones they asked about in the survey. And yet FCPS still claims they don’t have enough money from the county. Why are they never held accountable?
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2025 08:31     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Why bother. Gatehouse just does what they want anyway.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2025 15:15     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:just fill it out mutliple times indicating middle schooler and that's its too early. All school at all levels should only be between the hours of 8am-4pm that is normal.


Your "normal" is simply unaffordable and unrealistic.


It is realistic and affordable if they prioritize it. If they actually think of other solutions like opting in for bus, changing mileage that requires bus usage, etc.


Have you seen the county budget shortfall? You are not being realistic if you expect Fairfax to blow the budget on hundreds more buses and drivers. Use some common sense.

It's not a budget shortfall. They are getting more money than last year. They are just trying to spend even more than that, and threatening to take away things people like to garner sympathy. They have positions they can cut (and should cut so as not to lose federal funding due to the DEI executive order). They are choosing not to.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2025 15:11     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:just fill it out mutliple times indicating middle schooler and that's its too early. All school at all levels should only be between the hours of 8am-4pm that is normal.


Nope.

Keep the schedule as is.


No, it’s too early.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2025 13:50     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:just fill it out mutliple times indicating middle schooler and that's its too early. All school at all levels should only be between the hours of 8am-4pm that is normal.


Your "normal" is simply unaffordable and unrealistic.


It is realistic and affordable if they prioritize it. If they actually think of other solutions like opting in for bus, changing mileage that requires bus usage, etc.


Have you seen the county budget shortfall? You are not being realistic if you expect Fairfax to blow the budget on hundreds more buses and drivers. Use some common sense.


Obviously they would need to make cuts and make changes. That is what PP said. Get rid of other things to prioritize certain things. Make changes to who gets bussing.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2025 11:59     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:FCPS probably paid millions to some contractor to design a survey that very carefully does not ask the one question people actually want to answer, so that they can then just do what they want.


$1M question: What do they want? To leave as-is or upend the whole thing? I can't quite tell.


What they usually want - for us to look at Gatehouse, decide "They mean well and they're TRYING SO HARD" and love them unconditionally like we love our own children.

They seem to never understand why the residents of Fairfax County don't just give them unrestrained adoration. But man they do sure love the group of people who do give them the validation they crave.

This is why they always put out surveys that ask nothing, make compromise decisions that enrage everyone, and then act so hurt that people are made.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2025 11:46     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:FCPS probably paid millions to some contractor to design a survey that very carefully does not ask the one question people actually want to answer, so that they can then just do what they want.


$1M question: What do they want? To leave as-is or upend the whole thing? I can't quite tell.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2025 10:28     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:The secondary schools (Lake Braddock, South County and Robinson) have the same later schedule as the high schools.

If there some miraculous achievement link extra sleep benefit to moving middle schools later, we would see it in those 3 schools compared to their neighboring middle schools of Irving, Frost and Liberty.

There is no discernable difference between the later starting secondary middle schools, and their neighboring stand alone middle schools.

Keep the schedule as is. The proof is right there that 30 minutes does not make one iota difference in outcome.


There's no evidence the change in high school start times did anything either.

I can't believe anyone still believes in this foolishness.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2025 10:28     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:just fill it out mutliple times indicating middle schooler and that's its too early. All school at all levels should only be between the hours of 8am-4pm that is normal.


Your "normal" is simply unaffordable and unrealistic.


It is realistic and affordable if they prioritize it. If they actually think of other solutions like opting in for bus, changing mileage that requires bus usage, etc.


Have you seen the county budget shortfall? You are not being realistic if you expect Fairfax to blow the budget on hundreds more buses and drivers. Use some common sense.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2025 10:12     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
FCPS probably paid millions to some contractor to design a survey that very carefully does not ask the one question people actually want to answer, so that they can then just do what they want.
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 19:58     Subject: Did you take the middle school start times survey?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:just fill it out mutliple times indicating middle schooler and that's its too early. All school at all levels should only be between the hours of 8am-4pm that is normal.


Your "normal" is simply unaffordable and unrealistic.


It is realistic and affordable if they prioritize it. If they actually think of other solutions like opting in for bus, changing mileage that requires bus usage, etc.