WOW!! It's terrifying that many of you are parents and have the time to gripe about this. "I never look in my kid's backpack" Seriously? No wonder your children struggle in school, YOU AREN'T RAISING THEM!! Take the time you're spending on this senseless drivel and read to your kids, conduct a science experiment or build something. Public Schools are top-heavy. There are about three admins for every teacher and guess who barely makes a living wage? Boosterthon is NOT the problem you all should be outraged about. Take the time to effect change through political means. Read Diane Ravich, or John Dewey for that matter. Invest the time to learn HOW to effect changes and organize parents into powerful voting blocks to get it done! If the "silent majority" and "tea party" can do it, so can parents. The late Jerry Garcia said " Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us."

Since school board members (McElveen, Moon, Velkoff) and FCPS "leaders" (e.g., Atwater, Garza, Lockard) refuse to address Boosterthon in a meaningful way, a political solution is the ONLY solution.

Boostertoon is going to come up at the election sessions. Look at the numbers from previous elections. They were close! It is going to be difficult for anyone supporting the use of instructional time, the lack of transparency, the backgrounds of the Boosterthon people and the contractual "funhouse" to make much progress.

Hopefully a new school board will take the necessary steps. If not, individual school administrators are likely to be bombarded with questions and protests. At some point, it would not be surprising if legal action were taken to enforce, if nothing else, an "opt out" provision. Not all parents want their kids subjected to this, not all parents want to enrich the Boosterthon organization.

According to psychologists, Boosterthon is not a good thing:

https://fundraisingaps.wordpress.com/parents-testimonials/

Never too late to update an old thread, eh? ;)

FCPS finally publishes their new R1370 prohibiting PTA/Os from Boosterthons.

New thead:
http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/2646631/2646631.html