BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF ADVOCATES FOR GIFTED CHILDREN AND CONNECTING

THE PEOPLE AND PROGRAMS THAT SUPPORT THEM.

Fairfax County Association for the Gifted (FCAG)

Meet Greet & Strategize

FCAG Current Initiatives

Advocacy for AAP Centers and other programs serving the needs of gifted/academically advanced kids

Advocacy for High School programs, which creates a sense of community (IB, AP, TJ 8th ) and encourage taking on academic challenges

Public presentations/events for kids and/or parents 3 events per year (Fall, Winter, Spring) Some previous events include: panel of high schoolers on science

competitions, panel of math teachers on teaching outside the box, panel of College Board and County specialists on AP versus IB programs, presentation by specialists on 2E kids, presentation by authors on Competition…

Summer Enrichment Fair (January 13, mark your calendar!) AMC 8 and AMC 10 Data requests and analysis Recommendations to the County (TJ admissions, AAP structure)

Winter Event: Music & KidsAAP Centers: what is “critical mass”? Is the

program too big?TJ Admissions Efforts: what kind of school do

we want to have and how do we create an admissions process that works toward that goal?

Do people want to create a Governor’s school for the Arts?

Competitions: we do the AMC 8 and AMC 10. Do we want to sponsor other competitions?

FCAG Future Initiatives

THE COUNTY IS REQUIRED BY LAW TO HAVE A BALANCED BUDGET

Budget Woes

FCPS Budget Task Force

Created by Superintendent Karen GarzaGoal: recommend budget cuts for the FY

2017 Budget: $75 million, $50 million (originally also had to find $100 million in cuts)

Budget Task Force has 36 voting members, including 12 who were each appointed by a School Board member

Created tools to get community input on saving $$ Central location to put suggestions Budget Tool

Program at risk Details

AAP Level IV Centers eliminated; creation of

local level IV at all elementary schools

No bussing to Centers for kids zoned to schools w/ local level IV

Creation of Level IV at every middle school

Increase classroom size only for AAP Level IV classrooms

About 20% of kids in the County qualify for Level IV services

Centers play a vital roll in creating critical mass, typically with 3+ classrooms of AAP LIV students in elementary schools.

No bussing = reduced access, and it’s harder for working families and families with fewer resources

Middle School Centers typically provide 3 standard curricular choices general education, Honors, and AAP

AAP Classrooms are already significantly larger than general education classrooms.

Fairfax Budget Task Force: Proposed Cuts

Program at risk Details

8th Period at TJ – eliminate program

Middle years IB program – eliminate program

IB program – eliminate program or support staff

Language immersion – eliminate program

Strings and Band – 1 year delay

AP also at risk through minimum class numbers

TJ’s 8th period occurs twice per week; TJ does not have late busses. Dr. Garza said publically she did not intend to eliminate TJ’s 8th period. The school board may override

IB may be consolidated rather than eliminated, especially in the Southern part of the County.

IB requires a lot of support (complicated and expensive program). Will the program thrive if there are reduced IB advisors? No Middle Years? The County may be looking to phase this out more slowly

Public comments on string/band suggest that the BTF does not see any problem in delaying the start of the music programs by a year

Fairfax Budget Task Force: Proposed Cuts

WHERE’S THE DATA?

Financials

Actual costs difficult to pin down Budget Task Force has posted

information about how much $$ would be saved

Much of the information was revised for the Budget Tool

BTF has been unable or unwilling to provide the assumptions and calculations behind the numbers

Programs have costs that are unclear how to ascribe. If a school is overcrowded, is that attributable to AAP or other programs at that school? If kids leave language immersion and move to AAP, which program should bear the cost of the move?

Example: bussing to Centers for kids whose base school has Local Level IV is listed as costing $600,000 ($.6 million) on August 20. Similarly, eliminating all Centers was listed at $1.7 million on August 20

A few weeks later, the Budget Tool listed the cost of eliminating bussing for kids with base schools with AAP at $1,200,000. The cost savings for eliminating Centers changed to $4.3 million.

What should we do?

Write to School Board members

Write to Superintendent Garza

Set up meetings with staff members of FCPS (AAP Office? Chief Academic Officer?)?

Create and maintain opportunities outside of FCPS

Create public pressure – write an op-ed?

FOIA requests to obtain data?

FCAG created a statement and shared it widely

FCAG endorsed a petition which was circulated widely

FCAG created Stories for Centers

Let it be?