Spring 2019 Newsletter
Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope everyone got a bit of a rest and is coming back recharged for the rest of the school year. Here are some items of interest from the School Board:
FY2020 Budget
For the second year in a row, we are in a much improved budget situation. With the anticipated support of our Board of Supervisors, we will be able to complete our major investment in improved teacher scales in the coming fiscal year as well as provide a step increase for eligible employees and 1 percent market scale adjustment for non-teacher employee scales. Improved compensation has been the top priority of the Board for the past several years as we realized our teacher pay had fallen behind, especially in the mid-career areas. We will also be able to provide benefits for more parent liaisons, critical employees at our neediest schools. These were among the items in the superintendent’s $3.0 billion proposed budget and in the Board’s FY2020 Advertised Budget approved on Feb. 7. We do still have important budget decisions to make between now and the time we approve the final FY2020 budget at our May 23, 2019, Board meeting.
Among my priorities for the final budget are:
- Insuring that a new staffing formula maintains and extends our needs-based staffing for schools with high poverty, high numbers of English Language Learners and high special needs. The Board approved a motion to direct the superintendent to provide the Board with a review of the impact of the new formula for the Board to discuss at a budget work session.
- Insuring that Title I funding isn’t reduced at any of our Title I schools
- Funding a 1.0 position for Advanced Academic Resource Teachers at all our Title I schools, most of which now have only a 0.5 position
- Adding Behavior Intervention Specialists, which assist schools and teachers in the best approaches to deal with students with behavior issues, to supplement the 17 specialists we now have countywide.
- Getting started on leveling the playing field at our schools that are behind others in funding after-school programs, sports and extracurriculars, more detail below.
We will be discussing these and other amendments and proposals at budget work sessions on April 29 and May 2.
Equity in Funding for Extracurriculars and Sports
Some of our schools in Fairfax County are able to raise significant amounts of money through fundraising to support their after-school programs, high school sports and extracurriculars; others struggle to do so. Staff provided the Board with a comparison of funding our schools receive from gate receipts at the high school level and from PTAs/PTOs and other support organizations at all levels. The results see Q. 214 and 215 were eye-opening if not surprising. In February, the Board approved my follow-on motion to the budget asking staff to bring the Board recommendations on how to better support our highest-needs schools so we would not continue to have this glaring discrepancy. The Board will discuss staff’s recommendations in this area at work sessions on April 29 and May 2.
The staff recommendation would supplement funding at our high-poverty schools with per-pupil discretionary allocations, similar to needs-based staffing that provides more resources where the challenges are greater. While the recommendation is to create a new funding stream for these extras in the FY2021 budget next year, I will be looking for how we might get started in the upcoming fiscal year.
One important point: My advocacy and the staff recommendation do not involve pulling hard-earned donated resources from any other schools or their support organizations. All schools would continue to control and keep their own fundraising, which is only fair. But we should help out those schools that don’t have much fundraising capacity so their students can benefit from robust after-school programs, clubs and sports programs like students at our wealthier or better-connected schools. The superintendent is creating a working group of principals and stakeholders (PTAs, booster clubs, etc.) to create a comprehensive plan.
This effort will be one of my top priorities for the remainder of my School Board term.
Student Rights and Responsibilities
The Board will do our annual review of the Student Rights and Responsibilities (SR&R) document, starting with at our April 25 regular meeting and a work session on May 13.
This year I will be asking the Board to revisit our parent notification requirements when a student is in serious trouble. Back in 2013, the Board made extensive revisions to our discipline policy, including language requiring administrators to try to contact parents “as soon as practicable” when a student was suspected of a serious violation--and always before asking for a written statement--unless there was a risk of danger or loss of evidence. While this led to improvements, that language left room for interpretation. With six years of experience with that language, I believe it is time to review our requirements. We need to clarify that parents must be contacted sooner than what we often see now.
I will also offer an amendment involving situations where a student with an IEP is being transferred out of his or her base school for discipline reasons. In those cases, I want to make sure that the parents’ preference for the new placement is fully considered by the IEP team and that the IEP team is not limited to only one option offered by administrators.
Proposed School Calendars
Revisions for SY2019-20
The General Assembly this year passed legislation allowing school divisions to start before Labor Day without having to get a waiver of the so-called Kings Dominion Law. This was great news for systems around the state, including FCPS, so we can make our own decisions on the school calendar. However, the law also requires us to have a holiday the Friday before Labor Day. Separately, the Board also heard concerns about holding school on March 3, 2020, when there will be a presidential primary and many schools used as polling places. To accommodate these two days, staff brought us proposed revisions to the approved SY2019-20 calendar: having regular school days on Oct. 4, 2019 and March 13, 2020 (previously designated student holidays) in order to add student holidays on Aug. 30 (the Friday before Labor Day) and March 3 (the presidential primary day). The Board is set to consider these changes at our meeting on Thursday, April 25.
Proposed SY2020-21
Staff have created three potential school calendars for the Board to consider for SY2020-21, and we will review these at a work session immediately prior to our regular meeting this Thursday, April 25.
- One version starts one week before Labor Day
on Aug. 31, 2020,
- The others start two weeks before Labor Day
on Aug. 24, 2020.
While these options were developed with a calendar committee of stakeholders, I’d like to get more feedback from parents, teachers and students on these options before the Board makes its decisions, scheduled for our May 9 regular meeting. The SY2020-21 calendar is complicated by Labor Day being quite late as well as a presidential inauguration day (when we traditionally have a school holiday) that falls on the Wednesday after the Monday Martin Luther King holiday. Please take a look and give me your thoughts (keeping in mind that for any day we add a holiday, we must add a school day somewhere else to insure we meet our 180-day requirement).
Food Security
We have many wonderful programs to help feed our neediest students, from free breakfast and lunch programs throughout the school year to daily barbeque lunches at selected schools during the summer. One recently announced new program will provide afterschool meals or snacks to students, as requested by the school, at more than three dozen FCPS schools, including many attended by Mason District students: Annandale HS, Falls Church HS, Justice HS, Glasgow MS, Poe MS, Holmes MS, Jackson MS, Annandale Terrace ES, Belvedere ES, Glen Forest ES, Parklawn ES, Sleepy Hollow ES, Westlawn ES, Weyanoke ES and Woodburn ES.
A question was raised at a recent meeting at my house with PTA/PTO presidents about whether we have a comprehensive plan for food security for our students. As a result of the question, I created a Forum Topic to ask staff to look at this issue and report back to the Board. I will be raising this issue as part of our review of our Caring Culture Goal report, scheduled for June. Thanks to all the PTA/PTO presidents for your concern for our students and for the thoughtful conversation on a variety of issues.
Capital Improvement Program
The Board annually approves the CIP that provides a facilities plan, including new construction, renovations, additions and other facilities needs. In Mason District, we have Falls Church High School in planning for renovation, Justice High School in planning for an addition, and Annandale Terrace ES under renovation. We continue to be well behind where we should be in the renovation cycle due to limited funding, however.
The CIP also included Glen Forest ES as one of a handful of schools to be considered this year for a boundary change to provide capacity relief, in other words by reassigning some students there to other area schools. With about 1,100 students, many served by modular units behind the school, we have had concerns about overcrowding the core space as well as significant traffic and parking concerns. The scoping for the GFES boundary change will be recommended by staff and considered by the Board soon. A community meeting will follow shortly thereafter to start the process.
Inaccurate School “Ratings”
You may have seen online “ratings” of schools that do not reflect the wonderful education you see your child getting at our local schools. These rating sites generally use average test scores and do not take into account the socioeconomic and other challenges a school may face, and so give a highly misleading picture. At the high school level, they may not account for schools that have the International Baccalaureate (IB) program rather than Advanced Placement (AP) courses, further misleading the public about student access to and completion of advanced courses at our IB high schools.
I am working with community members and our staff to counter these destructive and inaccurate ratings. We are in the process of developing narratives with accurate information for our schools and will work to get the good news about our schools out to the larger community.In addition, the Board has directed the superintendent and staff to bring back their ideas for responding to these rating systems, including a legal analysis and consideration of a task force or committee to work on a communications and outreach plan, with a due date of June 2019.
Need Help and Don’t Know Where to Go? Try the Ombudsman
This is the first year of our Office of the Ombudsman, with veteran educator Armando Peri as our first Ombudsman. Mr. Peri can help you navigate the school system, direct you to resources and listen to your concerns to help you find solutions to issues. Mr. Peri speaks Spanish, and the Ombudsman’s office has brochures with great information in nine languages: Amharic, Arabic, English, Urdu, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Farsi, Spanish
To reach the Ombudsman, either call 571-423-4014 or email Mr. Peri at ombudsman@fcps.edu.
Welcome New Principal
Elizabeth Williams became the new principal at Bren Mar Park ES as of March 1, 2019. Ms. Williams had served as the assistant principal at Freedom Hill ES since 2017, as the assistant principal at Parklawn ES from 2013-17, and as the interim principal at Pine Spring ES during the summer of 2018. She started her career in education in Arizona before moving to Fairfax County in 2009. Welcome, Ms. Williams!
I hope you have a wonderful final quarter of the school year!
Sandy
Upcoming Events
Here are a few upcoming events for our Mason District community.
Help Our Glen Forest ES Girls
Get to Odyssey of the Mind Worlds!!
Following their outstanding success in the Odyssey of the Mind Regional and State competitions, the Glen Forest ES Space Super Girls team was announced as one of the Virginia representatives at the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals.
The finals will be held on the campus of Michigan State University from May 22-25!
A Go Fund Me Page has been started to help raise funds for the team to travel to East Lansing Michigan. The money raised by this campaign will go to cover the team's travel expenses; room and board at Michigan State University for the team, their families and coaches during the 4-day competition; and, other expenses associated with participation in the World Finals. Any leftover funds will be earmarked by the Glen Forest Elementary School PTO for use by future year's GFES's Odyssey of the Mind teams!
The team has raised more than half of their goal! If you'd like to help send them on their way to the World Competition, the Space Super Girls would be grateful!!.
Thank you for your Contributions
Culmore Multicultural Day 2019
Saturday April 27, 2019
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Woodrow Wilson Library
6101 Knollwood Drive
Falls Church, VA
Free Admission • Children’s Activities
Live Music • Folklore Dancers
Admisión gratis • actividades para niños
música en vivo • rifas y premios
For more information, call 703-324-8514
Para más informacíon, 703-324-8514
Job Fair for Fairfax County HS Students
Saturday April 27, 2019
10 a.m. - Noon
Mount Vernon High School
8515 Old Mt Vernon Rd
Alexandria, VA 22309
Fairfax County high school students looking for their first part-time job, summer and seasonal job opportunities, or who want more information about potential career pathways are invited to attend one of five teen job fairs and résumé-building workshops in Fairfax County. Local businesses and agencies will be on hand to offer a range of opportunities including part-time employment, internships, and volunteer work for prospective students.
Volunteer opportunities and résumé-building workshops will be available for younger students.
Learn more about Teen Job Fairs
Annandale High School 2 mile
Color Fun Run/Walk
April 27, 2019
10 a.m.
4700 Medford Drive
Annandale, VA 22003
The PTSA is pleased to sponsor a 2 mile Color Fun Run/Walk. to support the Class of 2022 and the PTSA. . The registration fee is $10 for student participants and $15 for adult participants.
Don't want to run? Then come help as a volunteer!
Participants get covered in color powder while you, our awesome volunteers, get to watch!
Questions? AHSColorRun2019@gmail.com
Falls Church High School
Fun Run and 5k Run/Walk
April 27, 2019
8:00 a.m. Kids 1 mi Fun Run
8:30 a.m. 5k Run/Walk
7521 Jaguar Trail
Falls Church, Virginia 22042
This will be the 14th Annual 5K Race and 1 Mile Fun Run at Falls Church High School. The course starts at the school and runs through the surrounding neighborhoods. Awards to top finishers overall and in age categories. Random prize drawings! T-shirts to all registered runners. All proceeds raised benefit the Falls Church High School athletic program.
Additional Details
Run with the Justice High School Wolves
5k Fun Run
May 11, 2019
9 a.m.
3301 Peace Valley Lane
Falls Church, VA 22044
Annual School 5K will take place at the Jerry Fauls Stadium at Justice High School. There will also be a 1 Mile Fun Run for youngsters and parents. Additionally, there will be numerous local businesses promoting their fitness programs.
Details and Registration
Falls Church High School Presents
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
May 2, 3 and 4 at 7p.m.
May 4 at 12 noon
Did you know that Lewis Carroll wrote this story for Alice Liddell and that this year, Alice would be 167 years old on May 4th? A special invitation to all of our young patrons to join us for
Alice's (un)birthday Tea Party
May 4 from 10:30-11:45 a.m.
Tickets for the tea party will be $5 for adults and $10 for kids.
Purchase your tickets for the performance and/or the Unbirthday party by clicking on this link.
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