August/September 2023 School Board update
As we finish up the 4th week of school and move into the 5th, I hope most everyone and their kids are settling into a routine. The board has been hard at work, and we’ve heard from many parents and staff about issues ranging from advanced academics at Oak Street Elementary to potential changes to start times and early release Wednesdays (which I’ll abbreviate ERW going forward). We’ve also addressed other issues, including easements, enrollment, and a safety and security presentation. As always, you can contact the board at schoolboard@fccps.org.
Start Times and Early Release Wednesday (ERW)
The big issue that many parents and staff are interested in is the potential change to start times and the ERW schedule. These two issues have been discussed by the board previously in the winter and spring of last school year and were discussed at the recent August 22 meeting. You can find the video of that discussion here and the slideshow here. Before getting into a more detailed discussion, I want to note that a variety of options are being considered for both start times and ERW. For start times, in addition to the status quo, we are considering later starts that are paired with later releases and later starts paired with releases near the current release times. For ERW, we are considering many options from keeping the status quo to some level of reduction. Here is a table that gives some idea of the things being considered (noting that this is a non-exhaustive set of options).
| Options | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start/Release Times | Early Release | |||||
| Start | Release | notes | Elementary | Secondary | notes | |
| 8:05 | 3:00 | Current schedule | ~3/month | 1/month | Current schedule | |
| 8:30 | 3:25 | Shifting by 25 minutes | 2/month | 1/month | The secondary ERW would be aligned with one of the elementary’s | |
| 8:30 | 3:10 | Start shifted by 25 minutes, release shifted by less than 25 minutes (there many permutations of this options) | 1/month | 1/month | These Wednesdays would be aligned | |
| 2/month | 2/month | |||||
| Any of the above options but on Fridays | ||||||
NOTE: This is a non-exhaustive list of options, and some options have just been floated as an idea in order to open up considerations. All board members are keeping an open mind and nothing has been decided (though some do have their initially preferred outcomes). We are gathering feedback from staff and the community. The board is holding town halls with the staff over the next two weeks, and we are planning multiple town halls in October for community members to provide feedback as well. Specific dates and times will be announced soon. And as always you can provide feedback to us at schoolboard@fccps.org.
To start, the reason why we are taking up changes in school start times is because many parents are concerned about their child’s sleep, and many studies and professional medical associations recommend later start times to aid adolescents in getting more sleep. The Health and Wellness Advisory Committee also recommended later start times to the board. Many parents and staff got in touch with the board when this was discussed this past February worried about the impact on after school extracurricular activities. You can see that the option that shifts the start time by 25 minutes but shifts the release time by less than 25 minutes alleviates much of that concern. I will note that many surrounding high schools and middle schools have school days that are 15 minutes shorter than our current bell schedule. Changing start times at the secondary campus does have implications for elementary start times.
(Edit added 9/19: Just as a reminder, during the renovation and expansion of Mt. Daniel (which is located in Fairfax County) several years ago, FCCPS signed an agreement to not start prior to 8:50 a.m. and to end no later than 4:00 p.m.)
Regarding ERW: This has been something many parents have mentioned to the board for several years, and the board is being responsive to the community by addressing the issue and considering all options and the tradeoffs implicit in those options. We have also heard from school staff that ERW can be hard on low-income families. On the flip side, we recognize that ERW is a benefit to teachers that allows time for the professional development that aids them in providing our kids an excellent education. Here are some things we are considering (non-exhaustive list):
Burden on families who have to find childcare
Disparate impact on low-income families that incur a financial burden if they are actually able to find childcare
The difficulty of creating childcare options to cover ERW (not enough staff to create sufficient childcare options (e.g. very long waitlist for current Rec and Parks ERW program and sometimes not enough staff to provide any childcare option)
The benefit of teachers receiving professional development along with planning and collaboration time
ERW as a recruitment tool to attract teachers to the district.
Changes in ERW schedule also might come with changes to release times. You can see some examples in the slideshow.
Advanced Academics and Teacher Recruitment at Oak Street
A few weeks before the start of school, two fourth grade teachers notified the schools that they would not be returning this year. This led to a scramble to fill the positions, and FCCPS was unable to find satisfactory candidates. This is just an example of how the nationwide teacher shortage is impacting FCCPS. Those two classrooms are currently each being staffed by a long-term substitute and one of either a math or literacy specialist, in addition to co-teaching with a special education teacher. The search for a permanent teacher continues.
Additionally, some parents alerted the board that students identified as gifted were concentrated in fewer classes than what the approved Gifted Education Plan calls for. You can find the Gifted Education Plan that we approved in June here and as well as the spring presentation given to the school board (video here, slides here). This plan included clustering small groups of gifted students (5-7) in classrooms throughout each grade level so that classes are heterogeneous and allow for effective differentiated instruction. This is not how things ended up. The students identified as gifted ended up being placed in fewer classes, leading to higher concentrations of gifted students. Ms. Daugherty has taken responsibility for this mistake and notified families about particular interventions that are being taken to provide advanced academic curriculum to all classes. She has addressed this in an email to the Oak Street Elementary community, and Dr. Noonan and the board addressed it at the meeting on September 12. Everyone involved recognizes this error and is committed to ensuring that future class placements occur as the board approved.
Enrollment
In August, Superintendent Noonan noted that enrollment was up significantly over both last year’s enrollment and the projections for this year. You can find the school and grade-level breakdown in the opening school report from the September 12 meeting here and below. We are still determining the residential sources of the variance from projections.
Two things to note:
Related to Oak Street: the fourth grade cohort is larger than in years’ past and the current enrollment per class is 24-25 kids per class.
Related to questions about capacity: I have included a table below listing current enrollment (as of 9/5/2023) and the capacity of each school from the Capital Improvement Plan. The capacity in use ranges from 71 percent to 80%. FCCPS is also below pre-pandemic enrollment.
| School | Capacity | 9/5/2023 Enrollment | Capacity in Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jessie Thackrey Preschool | 100 | 71 | 71% |
| Mt. Daniel Elementary | 660 | 482 | 73% |
| Oak Street Elementary | 750 | 558 | 74% |
| Mary Ellen Henderson Middle | 768 | 616 | 80% |
| Meridian High | 1200-1500 | 896 | 59%-75% |
Safety and Security Presentation
I won’t cover this in detail but I did want to alert any who might be interested in the presentation on Safety and Security and Student Behavior (slides, video). Staff presented the preparations and interventions they take to ensure students physical safety, as well as the approaches to addressing student behavior at various levels of intervention.
West Falls Church Easement
As the construction of the buildings at the high school finishes with exterior work and moves into the interior, we are getting prepared for the redevelopment of the buildings next door (which are in Fairfax County) to the current construction. Developers will be constructing a residential building and a new office building, which would house the Coalition for Smart Construction. The new office building is planned to include a large solar canopy. The board has approved an aerial easement that would allow the solar canopy to hang over the FCCPS property (where the pedestrian path is) by approximately 8 feet. The solar canopy is planned to be approximately 100 feet high. In exchange, FCCPS has secured a no-build easement along the north side of the property (which borders the football field and the southeast corner of Meridian where the entrance is). This ensures that no building construction occurs on or near the property lines. You can see a video of the presentation here and the slideshow here.
