Friday, February 22, 2013
Fairfax County's Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights and Responsibilities hosts last listening session Saturday in month-long tour to get input on the system's disciplinary process.
A committee tasked with reviewing the system's student rights and responsibilities handbook will host its last community meeting Saturday seeking input from residents on what changes it should consider moving forward. The Fairfax County School Board appointed the Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights and Responsibilities in September. The 40-member group has met regularly since October, and tthroughout February, it has traveled across the county seeking parent, student and community member feedback on how to improve Fairfax County Public Schools' disciplinary procedures. The group's final meeting is from 1 to 3 p.m Saturday in Falls Church High School's Little Theater. At one of the group's meetings earlier this month in McLean, …
Friday, February 15, 2013
Senate Committee Kills ‘Tebow Bill’ on Thursday night, but some Patch readers think proposal should be voted into law.
Virginia's Senate Education and Health Committee shot down a bill Thursday that would have allowed home-schooled students to participate in public schools’ sports teams. Committee members killed House Bill 1442 — also known as the “Tebow bill" — on a 7-8 vote, shelving it for the remainder of this legislative session. But should the bill have reached the full Senate floor? In a Patch blog post, Fairfax County School Board member Ryan McElveen highlighted the defeat of the bill as one of the three most important actions residents could advocate for this session as Richmond pressed on with what he called an "educational extremism." The school board voted to advocate against the proposal, McElveen wrote, "because, in short, the bill would …
Monday, February 11, 2013
Parents can apply to interview semifinalist candidates for Fairfax County's next superintendent.
The Fairfax County School Board is seeking parents, staff and community members for a committee that will help interview candidates for the school system's next superintendent. Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates (HYA)—the search firm hired by the board this fall that held a number of input meetings with stakeholders — met with thousands of parents, staff, members of the business community and other stakeholders in late 2012. Those meetings were to gauge what kind of qualities people would look for in a leader to replace Superintendent Jack Dale, who retires in June after nine years at the helm of one of the country's largest school systems. But the board, in an effort to make this search process more open and inclusive than the one that …
Friday, February 8, 2013
Members vote to increase request in county transfer to fund field custodians, remedies to achievement gap issues.
The Fairfax County School Board approved an advertised $2.5 billion fiscal year 2014 budget Thursday that asks county supervisors for $3 million more in their annual transfer to the system, to fund field custodian positions and add more part-time advanced academic resource teachers in elementary schools with high risk populations. That request comes on top of a 5.5 percent increase ($92.4 million) in funding from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors — for a total transfer of $1.77 billion — already in the proposal Superintendent Jack Dale unveiled last month. The 10-2 vote sends the spending plan to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Fairfax County Executive Ed Long will release his budget Feb. 26. Board members passed three …
Friday, February 1, 2013
Restoring full day elementary on Mondays also discussed as Fairfax County School Board stares down Feb. 7 budget vote.
Amendments to Fairfax Superintendent Jack Dale's $2.5 billion proposed Fiscal Year 2014 budget could direct more money toward head start and early learning programs, along with those that tackle the county's achievement gap, school board members said Thursday at a work session on the spending plan. Though board members are still in the process of drafting amendments to the budget, some gave a glimpse of what they hope to adjust next week before the plan is adopted and sent to the Board of Supervisors. On Tuesday a dozen speakers addressed the board with their own concerns about the proposal: that it doesn't adequately address teacher compensation, time or workload issues, a living wage for other employees like bus drivers, food service …
Friday, January 25, 2013
Fairfax County School Board votes against expanding at Thoreau, Cooper, Herndon middle schools, asks for broader study of advanced academic program offerings as a whole.
Fairfax County School Board members voted Thursday to expand the system's Advanced Academic Program Centers to three additional elementary schools this fall in an effort to relieve overcrowding at several existing centers. But they stopped short of expanding the program across about a dozen and a half more elementary and middle schools in time for the next school year, as was proposed last fall, pending a broader discussion of what advanced academics truly means in Fairfax County, whether the system is in line with national best practices of gifted and general education and where board members envision the program going in the future. The decision came at the end of a four-hour discussion Thursday that stretched into the wee hours of …
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Superintendent Jack Dale's proposed $2.5 billion budget for FY 2014 doesn't adequately compensate educators compared to neighboring jurisdictions, leaders say.
As he presented his $2.5 billion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2014 on Thursday, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Dale threw up a "red flag" about the county's ability to pay teachers compared to other neighboring jurisdictions, which could hurt its ability to attract and retain educators, he said. Dale's proposed budget is $62.7 million larger than last year's budget but relies heavily on a proposed 5.5 percent increase ($92.4 million) in funding from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors — for a total transfer of $1.77 billion — as a revenue source. Compensation — including an extra 293 positions to accommodate student growth and the costs of benefits and a state-mandated Virginia Retirement System shift — makes up …
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Fairfax County school board members will vote on five-year school building, renovation plan later this month.
Parents and students told the Fairfax County School Board on Monday night it worried the 2014-2018 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) wouldn't adequately address overcrowding in all places. Doing small boundary adjustments to overcrowded areas and then readjusting the plan's renovation queue, which calculates the order in which major school repairs will occur, might be a better, more efficient long-term strategy, they said. The five-year CIP budget will total $871.2 million or roughly $174.2 million per year. Funds approved in the 2011 School Bond Referendum and previous referenda will address approximately $190.8 million of the five-year requirement, leaving a balance of $680.3 million unfunded. Officials expect another school bond referendum…
Friday, December 21, 2012
Superintendent search firm compiles thousands of community responses to online survey about the system's next leader.
A month into Fairfax County's superintendent search community input process, a picture of what Fairfax County Public Schools next leader could look like is taking shape: someone who focuses on visibility and engagement, has a good business sense and can navigate the system through difficult budget seasons. Thousands of residents, staff and administrators have weighed in on the system's strengths and challenges and what characteristics will be key for the next leader of one of the country's largest school systems, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates (HYA)—the search firm hired by the board this fall—told school board members Thursday night. The consultants held 56 sessions with stakeholders to gather input over the past four weeks. Another …
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
System renegotiates with publishers to purchase books after online subscriptions fall short.
Fairfax County middle and high schools will now be allowed to purchase additional printed math textbooks to supplement online subscriptions introduced at the beginning of the school year, a move that comes after months of student, parent and teacher complaints about the program and the approach used to implement it. At a school board work session Monday, Craig Herring, the director of pre-k through 12 curriculum and instruction, said Fairfax County Public schools had renegotiated a one-time price reduction from each of three publishers that provide the online books for grade levels across the county. Each school principal will now have the choice to purchase hardcopy textbooks to be used by students in the affected classes, Herring said…
Gleb Taran
2:15 am on Sunday, March 24, 2013
It is about tolerance! It is about multi-culturalism! It is about diversity! It is about accepting those different than you! You cannot discard those students who are being home schooled like they are second class citizens. When their parents pay for it, they are entitled to it however they see fit! They can choose to use it all. They can choose to use not of it. They can pick and choose whatever… more ›