Anonymous wrote:These McLean parents of last year’s 7th graders were so entitled that they could not understand they couldn’t get their way. I saw them put their kids out there and feed them lines. Instead of teaching them to be resilient, they taught them victimhood. The boundary change needed to happen. You can’t grandfather forever. I would have liked it to go even faster but they tried to grandfather those close to high school. Your kids will be fine at Langley, for goodness sake.

Last year's 7th graders are this year's 8th graders. That's the cohort that were in the minority of kids at Colvin Run going to Longfellow, and now next year they'll be the only Longfellow kids going to Langley when 95% of Longfellow will go to McLean (or TJ). So they get affected differently than the current 7th graders, who are all at Cooper, or the current 9th graders, who were given the option to attend either Langley or McLean (the majority opted for McLean). So it's only the current 8th graders who are getting bounced around.

Sure, they'll survive. But their parents weren't nuts for requesting that they also have an option to choose between schools, like the current 9th graders, or to ask why Tholen was pushing through a boundary change during a pandemic when FCPS was saying it could no longer project future enrollments due to all the Covid-related uncertainty. And the way that Tholen literally waited until two hours before the Board meeting earlier this year to disclose that she was going to reassign different neighborhoods than the ones FCPS staff had proposed to move will never sit well. They took years to make a decision, so she could have given people more than two hours' notice of her preferred approach. PP is right that the other School Board members just went along with what Elaine wanted, even though it didn't align with FCPS's supposed commitment to equity (staff wanted to add housing diversity to Langley; Tholen made sure only $1M+ single-family homes got moved).

And now, even as McLean remains overcrowded, due in part to enrolling more kids from Longfellow who are not getting into TJ after the changes to the TJ admissions process that Tholen supported, her response is to tell people that she's "monitoring" the situation. Sorry, but that's not good enough. At a minimum, she ought to be fighting hard to get McLean a permanent addition, like FCPS agreed to build at Madison and Justice, not coming up with platitudes. It's hard to know why she's so passive, and it doesn't bode well for her or any other Democratic candidate running for the Dranesville seat in 2023.

As long as R candidates are pushing crt lies, book banning, and other divisive culture wars, they don’t have my vote even though I am against the TJ changes and some other things like the Lewis Academy.

These McLean parents of last year’s 7th graders were so entitled that they could not understand they couldn’t get their way. I saw them put their kids out there and feed them lines. Instead of teaching them to be resilient, they taught them victimhood. The boundary change needed to happen. You can’t grandfather forever. I would have liked it to go even faster but they tried to grandfather those close to high school. Your kids will be fine at Langley, for goodness sake.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think the in crowd will allow local sane Democrat newcomers to become the nominees!?

Lol

Louise Epstein came close to beating Janie Strauss in Dranesville in 2011, and people weren't nearly as dissatisfied with FCPS leadership and the School Board as they are now.

Stay the course.

Im a Dem and want to stay the course, but the Dem party's course these days is too progressive. Sure, let's all hope for a centrist who is focused on teaching kids the core curriculum instead of CRT, but in reality and in this climate, I fear the Dem party will only put forward candidates equally as progressive, which in this context I mean more focused on imposing their morals vice teaching kids to read/write. Plus the entire board is Dem, and look at where we are now. Im not optimistic.

Tholen goes along with the "progressive" agenda so long as she can cut deals with other Democratic members to keep her schools (Great Falls, Cooper, Langley) free of any meaningful economic diversity. It's like Kathy Smith is her spirit animal.

I wonder who this is who is so upset about the demographics of one school like it’s half of FCPS. There’s more to the school system than Langley you know.

Not my post, but allow me to answer please. Tholen's mismanagement and duplicity on the boundary is but one of many examples of her incompetence. Tholen's blatant effort to appease her neighbors in Great Falls shows how far she will go to curry favor with other SB members and her merry band of friends while leaving the kids behind. We all talk about how tough last year was on our kids, right? How about take that pandemic pressure, then further burden the kids with a boundary change. And remember, the boundary change only shifted maybe 30 kids this year, so it made no difference anyway. So if Tholen is willing put a group of kids she "represents" through that stress for zero gain to MHS in terms of capacity relief, imagine how she will deal with issues not directly related to Dranesville.

All the while, gamara and sizemore sat back and nodded their righteous heads as Tholen outlined her boundary plan, and rolled their eyes in condemnation at parents. They all represent the 'we know better than anyone else what is good for the kids" mentality.

So yes, Langley is but one school of many, but if Tholen screws up things so badly in her own back yard, it is clear there is no hope.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think the in crowd will allow local sane Democrat newcomers to become the nominees!?

Lol

Louise Epstein came close to beating Janie Strauss in Dranesville in 2011, and people weren't nearly as dissatisfied with FCPS leadership and the School Board as they are now.

Stay the course.

Im a Dem and want to stay the course, but the Dem party's course these days is too progressive. Sure, let's all hope for a centrist who is focused on teaching kids the core curriculum instead of CRT, but in reality and in this climate, I fear the Dem party will only put forward candidates equally as progressive, which in this context I mean more focused on imposing their morals vice teaching kids to read/write. Plus the entire board is Dem, and look at where we are now. Im not optimistic.

Tholen goes along with the "progressive" agenda so long as she can cut deals with other Democratic members to keep her schools (Great Falls, Cooper, Langley) free of any meaningful economic diversity. It's like Kathy Smith is her spirit animal.

I wonder who this is who is so upset about the demographics of one school like it’s half of FCPS. There’s more to the school system than Langley you know.

Anonymous wrote:Are there any republicans on the board?

Not the current one. There were 3 Republicans elected to the 2015-2019 board - Jennette Hough (at-large), Elizabeth Schultz (Springfield), and Tom Wilson (Sully). Hough resigned in 2017 due to her military family's moving to Europe and was replaced by Karen Keys Gamarra, who had lost the Sully seat to Wilson in 2015.

Are there any republicans on the board?

Anonymous wrote:You think the in crowd will allow local sane Democrat newcomers to become the nominees!?

Lol

Louise Epstein came close to beating Janie Strauss in Dranesville in 2011, and people weren't nearly as dissatisfied with FCPS leadership and the School Board as they are now.

Stay the course.

You think the in crowd will allow local sane Democrat newcomers to become the nominees!?

Lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not OK. This SB needs to be replaced.

Join FCDC and get better candidates on their sample ballot. It's the only realistic way.

I guess if Abrar Omeish could join the FCDC and get Ilryong Moon kicked off the at-large ballot someone could join and try to replace Tholen.

Sad thing was that there were also better D alternatives to Frisch and Cohen and the FCDC crowd went for them instead.

Anonymous wrote:It’s not OK. This SB needs to be replaced.

Join FCDC and get better candidates on their sample ballot. It's the only realistic way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any update on revisiting Tholen's recall and how it was handled by Hingely?

I wouldn't get my hopes up. Better to look for someone to replace her in 2023 who isn't such a shill (for the FEA) and hypocrite (when it comes to keeping Langley free of any economic diversity).

The best way to do that would be for people who don't like these current board members to join FCDC and get someone on their sample ballot who is an academic-focused, kid-focused candidate.

Otherwise the people who only remember FCPS's glory days and just check the blue sample ballot will continue to doom us all.

Anonymous wrote:Is there any update on revisiting Tholen's recall and how it was handled by Hingely?

I wouldn't get my hopes up. Better to look for someone to replace her in 2023 who isn't such a shill (for the FEA) and hypocrite (when it comes to keeping Langley free of any economic diversity).

Is there any update on revisiting Tholen's recall and how it was handled by Hingely?

10,000 kids left FCPS this year. Sure some of that is pandemic related, but in reality, a lot of it is how FCPS reacted to the pandemic.

I just wish i could afford to send my kids to private school or to home school.