Thread by @bigklittleatie, Gather round boys and girls while I tell you the tale of [...]

Gather round boys and girls while I tell you the tale of how the school board of one of the most affluent counties in the entire country has unilaterally set the entire @fcpsnews system on a path toward self destruction.

Last night, twelve SB members sat in a Working Session hosted by @FCPSSupt where they were told the latest plans on Return to School. They were told by the superintendent that no vote would be held or required.
This is the plan we have arrived at, after six months of preparing.

The @FCPSSupt described the mitigation protocols which align with all @VDHgov and @CDCgov standards, as well as the metrics which help determine that our school system is in fact ready to return in person. He presented the timeline for return-Students would stagger 1/19 up to 2/9

Another major update in the latest plan, which is something parents who have been begging for a return to school have advocated for, was a shift in allowing a local school by school decision process, rather ing than shuttering the entire system together.

FCPS is one of the largest school divisions in the US w/198 schools & (at one point before all this) 180,000+ students-much less now of course, with so many unenrolling-but I digress.
Allowing local schools to decide on whether to open / close based on their metrics is critical.

After the presentation of the plan (first time families who want their students to return began to see a light at the end of the tunnel) - it was the board members turn to speak.. of course that light turned out the be an oncoming Train with FCPS SCHOOL BOARD tagged on the side

I listened to the Working Session for over 4 hours; the following items were what was covered in terms of the board members’ concerns and what they felt the need to focus their time and energy discussing:

Concerns of inequities- if some schools need to delay, it’s not fair to others. Instead they’ll make all of FCPS suffer the struggles brought forth by DL when even our incoming Sec of Ed @teachcardona agrees that DL is inequitable & strongly advocates all PS prioritize in-person

Rambling questions of not understanding vaccine eligibility for teachers and school staff, despite being reminded numerous times by the expert guest speakers that Teachers WILL be eligible under Group 1B in VA (as essential front line workers.. Because that’s what they are.)

Discussions of pushing for surveillance testing (which has been spoken against at length by Dr. Gloria of @fairfaxhealth) & is not supported by the VDH or CDC as a mitigation method. Many SB members continued to push for random testing just to throw more hurdles in the soup.

Frantic twisting of the words spoken by the Principal Association members who were present for the meeting- (making it sound as though they were refusing to return!) when they were merely stating they recognize the path ahead will have challenges and they have some apprehension.

Blatant claims of incompetence on the part of @fairfaxhealth put out by @KarlFrischFCPS for 'not properly performing contact tracing'—which Dr. Gloria had to spend time explaining and refuting because of the clear lack of understanding as to when & why someone may be contacted

Very specific operational items like that “kids should eat lunch outside” was brought up.... Which is something that very well could have (and should have) been discussed back in August when the idea of returning to school with an airborne virus was on the horizon

Numerous claims the timeline was “too fast” despite the fact that we are 300 days out from the last time children were allowed inside the school buildings

Questioning that the data presented by @FCPSSupt about Covid case numbers experienced in the fall, (when 3.5% of the most vulnerable students returned for a short time) was labeled as “not significant enough to make decisions on because the sample size is too small.....”

But never once did I hear questions of advocacy and concern for the mental health & wellbeing of the children they’re here to serve. At one point, early on in the fall, this was of concern of the SB .... Some even pushed for @FCPSSupt to expedite getting students back in the fall

And now months later @FCPSSupt brings a plan that isn’t even very aggressive, but actually has a goal- a plan that has something to aim for- to prepare for- an end in sight- to be able to take a wobbly step toward something more positive than having children stuck behind screens.

And the @fcpsnews School Board ripped it all away from us.

I'm disgusted by their lack of trust in the @fairfaxhealth - Dr. Gloria shared that @fairfaxhealth is the one & only HD in the entire state of Virginia who is partnering with their local school system.

She said the @fairfaxhealth has been standing by with expanded capacity, at the beck & call of FCPS, pledging a one day turn around for answers and test results.... And yet they’ve squandered our resources & continue to keep our school buildings closed to the entire student body

I want to know if they’ve stopped to ponder the idea that community spread may be skyrocketing because the ever-broadening amount of "teacher planning days" and all of the “asynchronous learning" that outweighs the actual teacher-led instruction that is being offered by FCPS...

Which is making people realize that they can be anywhere in the world and do virtual learning -- families all over have decided to take long weekend get-aways and go on vacations to visit family because, well who cares, there's no REAL school anyway!

As one of the Board Members stated, "people in the community are making bad decisions," — I encourage them to think about whether all of this mixing about in the community would be happening as much as it is if students were in school

School: where at one point they were actually 'required' to be....or if not, strict penalization— as opposed to where we are now with kids essentially running wild in the streets. The facts remain, in-school is where students as a whole are the most safe m.

How did it end you ask? We are not moving forward with anything - continuing to “pause”. Pause at the expense of our kids and their mental health.

Their plan is to talk about it all again on February 2nd. Which is coincidentally - you guessed it - Groundhog Day.

#openfcps

Add: You may be someone who reads this and thinks, why is this such a big deal - “a path to self destruction?! Total hyperbole!” —
Are you one of those pollyannas that thinks kids will catch up;

“Kids are resilient! Let them flounder and eventually they will soar again!”

But families are leaving @FCPSnews in droves.

To private schools, homeschooling to get their kids off the computer, or moving away altogether.....

What does that mean for public schools?

It means less money. (Duh, it’s always about the money!)

This year, the SB was able to sneakily get the state to approve their 20-21 funding based on March 2020”s enrollment numbers.... The state of VA gives FCPS ~$8000 per child to FCPS.

We were told in the fall there had been an approx 10,000 student drop in enrollment - That is $80,000,000 less money that the schools would get from the state.

These are rough cocktail napkins calcs here, but I think you get the picture.

If FCPS continues to fail it’s families who want their children in-person,

(oh & by the way, we have NOT been given a shred of confidence that come the end of August’21 we’ll have 5 days in the building back)

Why would the families w/any means to send to Private schools remain?

Talk about equity!!

So not only have they lost tens of thousands of students and the state funding along with them....

But they’ve also lost the families who are the most well off. I think we all know what this means in terms of the Achievement Gap.

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