The Fairfax County School Board will discuss a proposal to overhaul admissions policies for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology at its meeting tonight (Wednesday).
With the goal of improving the diversity of prestigious magnet school, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Brabrand has proposed eliminating the standardized test currently used to evaluate applicants, waiving the $100 application fee, and implementing a merit lottery system to allocate seats.
“This process that we shared keeps rigor in the application while eliminating the testing component that squeezed out talent and squeezed out diversity in our system,” Brabrand told the school board at its work session on Oct. 6. “There are other ways beyond a test to be sure that we can support making sure that students can be successful at TJ.”
The school board agreed that the test requirement and application fee should be jettisoned and showed its support for creating a different admissions process for Thomas Jefferson Class of 2025 applicants in a consensus vote.
However, like the Fairfax community more broadly, board members were divided when it came to the question of a merit lottery, asking Brabrand to develop another possible admissions model that does not involve a lottery before its Oct. 8 meeting.
Since it was proposed on Sept. 15, the idea of using a lottery to select students for a school prized for its high academic standards and strong focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) has proven contentious.
Concerns that top-performing students would be shut out prompted Brabrand to present a second proposal to the school board on Tuesday, where 100 of the 500 seats available to Fairfax County students would be allocated to the “highest-evaluated” applicants.
The remaining 400 slots would be awarded through a lottery in proportion to student enrollment in each of FCPS’s five regions. Under Brabrand’s original proposal, a merit lottery would have been used to select all 500 seats. Read More
The Fairfax County School Board’s effort to rename Mosby Woods Elementary School has a key source of support: the Confederate leader’s descendants.
The great-great-grandchildren of Colonel John S. Mosby requested in a June 19 letter to the school board that the Fairfax school no longer use their ancestor’s moniker, arguing that the school’s name should “reflect the commitment to diversity the school embodies today.”
Joined by four of Mosby’s great-great-great-grandchildren, John Mosby Fuller, M. Dare Fuller DeLano, and James Lewis Ransom Fuller acknowledge that Mosby was notable for his military skills, but they argue that Confederate leaders should not be recognized with monuments and school names, given the Confederacy’s goal of preserving slavery and its valorization by contemporary white supremacists.
“We grew up in Fairfax County and are keenly aware of the affection that many Virginians feel toward our great-great-grandfather,” the letter says. “…As parents and educators, however, we must consider what message we send when we choose which aspects of our history to celebrate and which to condemn.”
The letter’s signatories say they were compelled to ask for a Mosby Woods name change as a gesture of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests for racial justice that spread across the U.S. this summer after Minneapolis police officers killed George Floyd on May 25.
The school board will hold a public hearing on the Mosby Woods renaming today at 6:00 p.m. before voting on whether to change the name during its regular meeting on Thursday.
Mosby Woods is the second Fairfax County public school to be considered for a new name this year. The school board voted unanimously on July 23 to rename Springfield’s Robert E. Lee High School after late U.S. Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis.
“In the FCPS strategic plan, we commit to fostering a responsive, caring, and inclusive culture,” said Providence District representative Karl Frisch, who introduced the Mosby Woods renaming proposal to the school board on June 18 with at-large member Karen Keys-Gamarra. “We cannot live up to that standard if we force students to attend schools named in honor of the racist vestiges of our past. A school system that honors the Confederacy cannot honor Black lives.”
Provided to Tysons Reporter by Frisch, the full letter from Mosby’s descendants has been reprinted below the jump. Read More
Mosby’s Raiders led a guerrilla campaign against Union supply and communications lines throughout Northern Virginia during the Civil War. Today, Mosby Woods Elementary School honors the group’s commander, John S. Mosby, but that could change.
A public hearing on potentially renaming Mosby Woods Elementary School is scheduled for the Wednesday, Oct. 7, school board meeting. The change was proposed by Providence School Board representative Karl Frisch and at-large member Karen Keys-Gamarra.
Like countless other discussions about renaming or removing honors to the Confederacy or Confederate soldiers, there’s been vocal support and opposition to the change. Feedback emailed to the School Board fell along the now-familiar arguments that the outdated name does not represent diversity of the school district, or that Confederate leaders should be judged by contemporary rather than modern standards.
“As the parent of a 5th grader who has been at Mosby Woods since kindergarten, I strongly support changing the name,” one anonymous parent said in an email to the School Board. “We are long overdue to remove honorifics for those who fought to separate and destroy our nation.”
Potential name replacements included Mosaic Elementary School — in relation to the nearby Mosaic District — or renaming the school to honor recently deceased Chadwick Boseman, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or the less-recently deceased Alexander Hamilton.
Others made the case that Mosby was less of a cut-and-dry case, as Mosby himself wasn’t a dyed-in-the-wool secessionist the way Confederates like Jubal Early were.
“I understand and support the current movement to remove Confederate monuments, memorials, and public buildings named for Confederate leaders,” the emailer wrote. “However, I would note that the case of John Mosby is not as clear-cut as many of the others, and I would urge people to read up on this person before jumping to a conclusion. John Mosby was against slavery and secession. Although he personally opposed the Confederacy’s positions, he joined the war out of a sense of patriotism and loyalty to the state of Virginia.”
Despite Mosby’s recorded opposition to slavery, he did own a slave during the war. Mosby joined President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration in the years after the war and became a vocal opponent to the Lost Cause mythos.
If the change is approved, the Superintendent will return with a recommendation for a new name. Comments on the name change can be emailed to [email protected].
Image via FCPS
About 6,700 students could start trickling into Fairfax County Public Schools during October, according to a plan for limited in-person learning developed by the district.
Although Board of Education members indicated they approve of bringing back students, prioritizing those who need extra support in school, they criticized the plan as Superintendent Scott Brabrand presented to them during a work session Tuesday evening.
Members told Brabrand his presentation lacked the numbers that parents and teachers need to reconfigure their lives. They also pointed out that there was minimal information on the thresholds that the district needs to offer or suspend in-person instruction, depending on health levels.
“We continue to say, ‘data, data, data, measurements,’ and I don’t see it here,” Springfield District Representative Laura Jane Cohen said. “I don’t think this gives our staff and our families any sense of understanding of what is to come.”
Brabrand assured members that their thirst for data will be quenched once the Virginia Department of Health publishes a dashboard that currently only officials can access.
“The state dashboard health metrics will be a game-changer for this community and this school board, and it will be available in just a few days,” he said.
Members flooded FCPS administrators with other questions and concerns, chief among them, when kindergarten, first- and second-grade students can return.
Currently, students can come to be assessed for support services, groups can sit for socially distanced exams and teachers can access their classrooms.
By late October, administrators estimate that 653 teachers can teach 6,707 students in school buildings for anywhere between one half-day to four full days a week.
The district is targeting students who receive special education services, attend preschool, are English-language learners, newcomers to U.S. schools or have limited formal education. High school students can also come for certain technical-education courses.
But Vice-Chair and Sully District Representative Stella Petarsky said she is disappointed that English-language learners are only coming in for a half-day, once a week. She doubted that was “worth the inherent risk of bringing kids to school.”
Melanie K. Meren, the Hunter Mill District representative, said teachers are overwhelmed, and some are “outright resigning.” Others told her they are hurting from funding shortages that resulted from lower enrollment.
This year, 8,000 students unenrolled from FCPS.
The extent of the impact of lower enrollments has yet to be measured, but staffing problems could strain the return-to-school plan.
Over the summer, the district surveyed teachers to gauge if they prefer in-person or virtual learning during the pandemic. Teachers who preferred virtual learning were separated into four categories: At-risk teachers formed Tier 1, while those living with at-risk individuals comprised Tier 2. Those who worried about child-care formed Tier 3, while teachers with none of these concerns formed Tier 4.
To support in-person learning, most of the teachers in Tiers 2 through 4 need to teach in schools, or “make a decision not to work for Fairfax County Public Schools,” Brabrand said.
“If we want to bring the majority of our kids in each cohort, we have to bring back the majority of teachers who themselves do not have health accommodations,” he said.
Teachers in Tier 1 would be offered accommodations or be given a leave of absence. Those needing childcare can have temporary absence covered by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The district would try to match some teachers with virtual students, Brabrand said.
In response, a majority of board members told the superintendent they want to review the data on the staff who said they would consider leaving the district, and see if they could be offered a leave of absence instead.
“We do have enough staff for the first phase of the plan and will work on other matters moving forward to ensure a safe return for our staff and students into school buildings,” Caldwell said in the email.
Photo via Element5 Digital/Unsplash
Falls Church and Fairfax County officials are revisiting efforts to rename schools with names linked to the Confederacy as communities across the U.S. tackle a racial reckoning.
The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of police killing George Floyd in Minneapolis has reignited discussions of how buildings, monuments and places with Confederate ties perpetuate racial oppression.
The push to remove names and images linked to the Confederacy at local schools isn’t new.
Fairfax County officials renamed JEB Stuart High School to Justice High School in 2017, with students changing the mascot in 2018. Fairfax High School’s principal changed the mascot this year. A few weeks ago, the Fairfax County School Board voted to rename Robert E. Lee High School to honor late U.S. Congressman John Lewis.
Tysons Reporter looked into how the two public school systems have tackled the renaming issue this summer and what’s coming up for schools in the Tysons area.
Falls Church Moving Forward With Renamings
After several meetings and hundreds of public comments, the Falls Church City School Board made the decision to move forward with renaming George Mason High School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in late June. Both Founding Fathers were slaveholders.
A few months ago, a petition with more than 250 signatures and growing public pressure prompted the school board to start considering the name changes in the second week of June.
“We’re at a point where it’s time to really begin the conversation,” Greg Anderson, the school board’s chair, said at a school board meeting this summer.
One of the biggest renaming questions the school board tackled is whether or not to hire a consultant to aid in the process, with some members saying it was a good idea in order to maintain neutrality and to gather more information about Mason and Jefferson and others pointing out the costs.
“Lots of folks don’t really know the history of who he is,” School Board member Lawrence Webb said about Mason.
The school board resolved that dilemma this week by voting to hire Herndon-based K-12 Insight to conduct the surveys, the Falls Church News-Press reported.
Now that the school board has approved moving forward with the renaming process, they will need to decide what the new names will be.
The school board wants to make sure the renaming process isn’t rushed, agreeing that it’s important to get many perspectives on this issue.
“I think we need to take our time so we know what the community has to say,” said Susan Dimock. Read More
With uncertainty about the future of social distancing requirements and community health guidelines, Fairfax County Public School Board members are discussing what the upcoming fall semester might look like for teachers and students.
Though they said they won’t be making an official decision until the June meeting, board members bounced around ideas for online schedules and smaller class sizes at a work session on Monday (May 11).
The main concerns for the board include how to respect social distancing measures, how to help students who might not be able to return due to health concerns for themselves or their family, training for teachers and staff and finally how to ensure the continued quality of education, according to a slideshow shared at the work session.
Given current conditions, though, the board said it is looking at several possible options for the fall semester and is waiting to make a final decision until it has more guidance.
“We lack clarity around the time and conditions we might return under,” said Sloan Presidio, FCPS Superintendent. “We are hoping to get that clarity from the state in the coming weeks.”
The first possibility would be to begin the school year virtually using distance learning, giving faculty to revise schedules and curriculum that “best-fits students needs.”
To help with child care services and other needs that are usually fulfilled with in-person education, Presidio suggested that FCPS would work with faith-based organizations and similar institutions to fill the gap.
Yet another scenario would be returning to school in the fall, but with social distancing guidelines.
“That would require us to serve students based on their needs,” Presidio said, adding that priority would be given to students who would benefit the most from in-person instruction. Examples include students with learning disabilities or students learning English as a second language.
He also noted that it is easier for middle school and high school students to transition online than for elementary school students who have shorter attention spans.
Melanie K. Meren, Hunter Mill District Representative voiced concern at the meeting over the best ways to build communities for younger students, who are familiar with touch and play in their learning process.
“I would like to have more information about how we are going to acclimate our youngest learners to school,” she said.
A final scenario would be fully returning to a normal school schedule and offering online enrollment opportunities for students who wish to stay home, according to the meeting documentation.
Ricardy Anderson, a Mason District Board Member also suggested that schools send out a survey to parents, asking if they would let their students return to school regardless of FCPS’s decision — so FCPS could plan ahead and offer a more advanced online learning opportunities and partnerships.
Karen Keys-Gamarra an at-large board member also suggested that FCPS should work harder to communicate plans with parents and said that better channels of communication would “relieve anxiety” that many people are currently feeling.
Going forward, Anderson said FCPS must develop a “robust infrastructure” to guide online learning.
For a worst-case scenario, FCPS is also working on a plan if, for whatever reason, students would have to once again transition back into distance learning.
To help with the mental welfare of students in the coming months, regardless of in-person or online instruction, the board said they want to implement a stronger social-emotional learning plan.
“That is foundational to everything else we want to do academically,” one of the board members said.
The cost of the program would cost roughly $7 million according to the documentation at the meeting, which when broken down includes roughly $1 million for development of the curriculum, another $1 million for the screening tools and the remaining $5 million for new staffers and instructors.
Photo via Element5 Digital on Unsplash
Locals will soon have the chance to join a virtual town hall and ask questions to Fairfax County representatives for the Providence District.
Dalia Palchik with the Board of Supervisors and Karl Frisch with the Fairfax County School Board announced that they will host the meeting at 2:30 p.m. this Saturday (May 9).
The meeting will be held on Facebook Live, according to the event page.
Palchik and Frisch are expected to lead a discussion surrounding topics brought up by community members in attendance.
Though there doesn’t seem to be a pre-set agenda, people can email to inquire about the meeting.
Tune in this Saturday May, 9th for a discussion with @KarlFrischFCPS and @SupvPalchik!
Email any questions with the subject line TownHall to: [email protected] pic.twitter.com/hY5uwigLDF
— Dalia Palchik (@SupvPalchik) May 5, 2020
A Fairfax County School Board member says that 14 trailers at McLean High School will soon get replaced with a modular unit to help address overcrowding issues.
Elaine Tholen, the school board member who represents the Dranesville District, said in her newsletter yesterday that the school board is looking to add a 12-classroom unit and bathrooms outside the school building. Tholen called the plan “an effort to alleviate some of the overcrowding issues.”
School officials’ consideration of a boundary change for the school, which is at 118% capacity, with nearby Langley High School has stalled as the public school system grapples with changes due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tholen reiterated in her newsletter that plans to implement the proposed boundary change this fall will no longer happen.
“As soon as we can figure out the best way to have public meetings to move forward on the boundary scoping process, those meetings will continue,” she said.
Now, the modular idea will be on the consent agenda for the school board’s upcoming meeting on May 7, Tholen said. Following the meeting, families in the McLean and Langley pyramids can expect a note, she added.
“We will continue to analyze development numbers and enrollment figures for McLean High School to monitor the need for an addition to the school,” Tholen said.
Updated 4/29/2020 — This story originally said the school board would discuss the proposal. The item was instead on the school board’s list of new items.
A proposal that would add a modular to mitigate overcrowding at McLean High School heads to the Fairfax County School Board tomorrow (Thursday).
School officials have been trying to find a way to lessen crowding issues at the high school, which has resorted to more than a dozen trailers to accommodate classes.
The draft CIP says that McLean High School is currently at 118% capacity, which are projected to increase in the 2024-2025 school year and could rise even more if the school sees an employment spike due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In March, the school board voted to expand the study of a possible boundary change for McLean and Langley high schools to include the two feeder middle schools.
Elaine Tholen, who represents the Dranesville District on the school board, has said that the original goal to implement the boundary change by the 2020-2021 school year won’t happen.
Tholen told families during a digital town hall last week that the modular idea would be a short-term solution “to make that situation much better.”
Now, the school board will consider whether or not to jumpstart the project by awarding a contract to a bidder, but the board won’t vote on the matter tomorrow.
“Bids were received on March 25, 2020,” according to the agenda. “The bid tabulation and recommendation for award will be furnished prior to the May 7, 2020, School Board meeting.”
The proposed modular addition will be paid for by the 2017 bond referendum, according to the school board.
In addition to the high school modular idea, the school board is scheduled to hear an update on the distance learning plan and the superintendent’s recommended changes to fiscal year 2021 budget.
The meeting is set to start at 10 a.m.
Fairfax County school board members expressed major dismay over the botched rollout of the school system’s first week of distance learning, including security issues and technical problems with Blackboard’s system.
At an online meeting today (Thursday), school officials acknowledged the school’s leadership failed to ensure adequate security measures were in place when students and teachers logged on to online sessions.
Teacher-led distance learning was canceled this week due to technical issues the school system is working to resolve.
FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand told the school board today that the issues have been two-fold: capacity and load issues on Blackboard’s end and failures to implement and monitor security protocol by FCPS.
Security Issues
Sloan Presidio, the school system’s assistant superintendent for instructional services, described security issues as a “leadership failure.”
“We failed to properly train the staff,” Presidio said, adding that the school’s leadership did not communicate how teachers should properly set up online sessions and make sure security settings were in place.
In some cases, students were able to set up and run unmonitored chat sessions that were not seen by moderators. Some students were able to log on with fake names and upload inappropriate photos.
“We absolutely share the concern and the dismay at some of the behavior that was reported,” Tim Tomlinson, Blackboard’s chief product officer, said. “It’s unconscionable.”
Although instructors were given guidance on how to maintain security and set up online sessions, school officials said the information was not properly disseminated. Once school officials were made aware of security issues, additional guidance on security was provided.
School board member Megan McLaughlin said she was “shocked” the 10th largest school system in the country did not conduct load testing prior to the launch of the system.
“There is no getting around it,” McLaughlin said.
Blackboard Problems
In addition to security challenges, the system experience log-in issues on the first day of learning, following by problems associated with Blackboard’s servers. The Reston-based company is working on upgrades to the system to resolve ongoing issues.
Tomlinson said that Blackboard “had no indication that these problems would occur” and shared a statement from the company apologizing for the disruption.
“We are working with FCPS to require students to log in to the FCPS 24-7 site and authenticate their identity before they are permitted to join a virtual classroom,” according to the Blackboard statement.
Tomlinson also noted that FCPS chose not to update its software for three years to the latest system. Seven updates were publicly available but not applied, he said.
But Maribeth Luftglass, assistant superintendent of the school system’s department of information technology, noted that the school system was never told those upgrades were required for performance purposes, especially prior to the launch of distance learning. She also added that the system was due for a planned upgrade this June.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic hit locally, the school system had plans in place to replace Blackboard Learn, a virtual learning environment, with Schoology, another distance learning tool operated by PowerSchool Unified Classroom, over the next two years.
The school system hopes to pilot the system in the fall.
School Board Responds
School board members also questioned why distance learning proceeded if there was indication there were technical problems prior the launch. Several of the members urged FCPS to consider learning alternatives, like resources from Google.
“If Blackboard can’t handle this, lets try Google” Laura Jane Cohen, who represents the Springfield District. “Everyone has worked too hard to make this happen.”
According to the presentation, less than half of the teachers have Google Classroom sites, which could be used as a learning supplement.
“There would be significant teacher training required and additional workload on teachers to create these sites,” the presentation said. “Additionally, Google Classroom is not linked to the student information system and teachers would have to manually create courses.”
The presentation notes that students and teachers have equal permissions on Google Meet, which could let students override teacher content, and that guest access is allowed.
“Additionally, Google engineers expressed concern about handling the volume of FCPS users,” the presentation said.
Other school board members said a two-hour delay in instructor-led learning on Wednesday was not communicated effectively to the school community.
Brabrand apologized for not making the “right call” when he called for the two-hour delay.
“We could have communicated it better,” Brabrand said, adding that his mistake “caused undue confusion for our teachers and our principals.”
Next Steps
Blackboard is currently working on software patches this week to address the capacity issues behind the login difficulties, Luftglass said.
On April 14, Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, a real-time video conferencing tool, were linked with a new feature that will only allow students enrolled in a class to join the class session and ban guest access, school officials said. Additionally, a back-up plan is being developed using Collaborate Ultra, they said.
FCPS aims to resume its synchronous learning on April 20.
Catherine Douglas Moran contributed reporting
Image via FCPS
