As part of her campaign to convince Fairfax residents to put pressure on the Board of Supervisors to allocate more money to the schools, Karen Garza has claimed that the schools are well run.

If that is so, then she should have no problem responding to the following:


(1) FCPS engaged Tara Brach to set up a "mindfulness initiative" (whatever that is). The publications cited by Brach even said there was no evidence that "mindfulness" worked. Nonetheless, this moves forward, and Brach gets to sell her books and CDs at places such as Woodson High.

(2) FCPS went ahead with a massive program of building turf fields. They ignored two major problems: the hard surface of turf fields causes injuries, and the rubber pellets cause cancer.

(3) FCPS awarded a sole source contract to Eric Jensen based on his education and experience. His education consists of a degree in English and a degree in "human development" (or some such foolishness) from an online school. His experience seems to consist of having been a motivational speaker. Yet, FCPS accepted his credentials as evidence of his expertise in poverty, neuroscience, and music.

(4) FCPS, specifically MVHS' very own Nardos King, hired Menville "Flip" Flippen as a consultant. Flippen's credentials are interesting. He has an INACTIVE "licensed professional counselor" license in Texas. He has also referred to having "privileges at psychiatric hospitals" yet he fails to name the physicians who supervised his work. FCPS and King appear not to bother to check whether credentials are valid or not.

Also very suspect is the Buck Institute for Education. What, exactly, is this "project based learning" we are paying so much money for?

The floor is yours, Dr. Garza!

Good list. Post should be sent to school board and to K Garza. If we face such a dire budget next year, these expenditures must be questioned. FXUG good place to vent, but don't expect answers or resolution.

But at least we have a welcoming environment for the Caitlyn Jenner types.

Good grief. Project based learning is a hoax!! It came around once before and it didn't work then. Call out these teachers poorly implementing this group with thing. Please. Pathetic excuse for a teaching strategy.

All of these things, project based learning, capturing kids' hearts, teaching with poverty in mind and so on are hoaxes.

Some of it is really old. Did Menville "Flip" Flippen think he invented the idea of a social contract? Or of shaking hands?

Some of it is just made up. Look at Eric Jensen's stuff. It is gibberish.

Some of it is recycled new age nonsense. But, Tara Brach does well at it, driving around in a BMW and living in an EXPENSIVE house in Great Falls.

They are all hoaxes to make money.

The building of turf fields was an idea cooked up and funded by the general county when the housing bubble burst in an effort to offset the loss of tax revenue when property values tanked. Beleive it or not turf fields generate a ton of cash the goes directly into the county's coffers from leagues that pay by the hour to use them. The school system has the land and there was supposed to be equitble sharing of revenues. But the only benefit that FCPS has seen is the nice feilds for use for their events be it football soccer or lacross games. The indivisual schools can't even use the newly installed turf fields to practice on if leagues have them booked. So the gain for the schools is minimal other than they look good and are great for pep rallies. The BOS also used the devaluing of homes/loss of tax revenues as a reason to cut the portion of taxes that go to the schools.

So OP get your facts strait before you slam FCPS on turf fields. Ms. Garza doesn't have any control over the revenue generated by the turf fields. And if you think the turf fields are a boondoggle next time you are at a school and see a cell tower on the grounds ask how much FCPS gets from the tower owner for the FREE land their towers are on...

You people don't have any idea what you are talking about.

But Hold On Now Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The building of turf fields was an idea cooked up
> and funded by the general county when the housing
> bubble burst in an effort to offset the loss of
> tax revenue when property values tanked. Beleive
> it or not turf fields generate a ton of cash the
> goes directly into the county's coffers from
> leagues that pay by the hour to use them. The
> school system has the land and there was supposed
> to be equitble sharing of revenues. But the only
> benefit that FCPS has seen is the nice feilds for
> use for their events be it football soccer or
> lacross games. The indivisual schools can't even
> use the newly installed turf fields to practice on
> if leagues have them booked. So the gain for the
> schools is minimal other than they look good and
> are great for pep rallies. The BOS also used the
> devaluing of homes/loss of tax revenues as a
> reason to cut the portion of taxes that go to the
> schools.
>
> So OP get your facts strait before you slam FCPS
> on turf fields. Ms. Garza doesn't have any control
> over the revenue generated by the turf fields. And
> if you think the turf fields are a boondoggle next
> time you are at a school and see a cell tower on
> the grounds ask how much FCPS gets from the tower
> owner for the FREE land their towers are on...
>
> You people don't have any idea what you are
> talking about.

Even if you are right about the turf fields, and I'm not saying you are, then what about Buck, Brach, Flippen, and Jensen? Those all sound like a complete waste of money to me.

Well ??????? Ms. Gaza...are you there?

Pls respond why you are wasting tax payer dollars???????

To: Well Lets see Now

Yes you are 100% correct about the waste for those others you mention. I don't know anything about them though so can't comment. Keep in mind that I am not defending Garza it's just that the turf fields were not her idea and the school system sees very little benefit from them. The turf fields and cell tower ideas were concocted by people within FCPS and are self serving "deals" made between contractors, county and school officials to bennefit themselves and the contractors. FCPS did not pay for the turf fields. The schools portion of the funding came from boosters with the rest being ponied up by the county. The only school board costs were site construction management of the projects and those dollars come from the bond referendum. The cell tower construction was completely unsupervised by FCPS as far as I know. The tower owners get to lease space the towers are on and pay the school system very little for that lease. They get what amounts to a free place to install them. What seemed like a good deal for FCPS at the time turns out to be a huge finacial gain for the tower owners. Turf field agreements are structured the same way. What it boils down to is FCPS is getting bent over a barrel because of bad deals made by poeple that had no business making them. In short the people who made the deals got hoodwinked.

FCPS can't have it both ways. If you complain to them about turf, they make it look like it was their idea and tell you how great it is. If they are in fact getting bent over they should say so and blame Bulova.

It still seems like a waste of money.

It is still pretty obvious that FCPS is just a big money pit. It is time for the school board and Garza to go.

Anyone with a valid point wouldn't waste time putting it on this dribble site.

LOSERS

YES, ALL OF YOU. :p

It is a WELL KNOWN FACT that at least Ryan McElveen reads this website. He tweets about it.

You, probably applied to be the transgender consultant, right after Caitlyn Jenner.

...fucking assholes. Same old tired-ass shit over amd over and over again. Just move to Arkansas already, you worthless bunch of good-old-boy dipshits, You're all plenty braindead enough to fit right in down there.

What's braindead is allowing schools to hand out high dollar sole source contracts to consultants without checking their credentials.

Just remember half of every dollar YOU pay in taxes goes to the schools. I see no reason why I should pay about $1500 a year so FCPS can hire what are little more than motivational speakers with online degrees.

If you question FCPS they give you the runaround. There are probably kickbacks and who knows what else going on here.

The solution is obvious, we need a new school board. The first act of the new board is to thank Garza for her time here and then send her back to Texas. Jack Dale was bad but she has been worse.

If you want to make a difference, OP, present your list public ally at an upcoming school board meeting which is attended by Garza. School board meetings are recorded and made public. Your words would reach many.

I agree with you,btw. Mindfulness is a joke. It is pseudoscience new agey nothingness. No need to hire anyone to push mindfulness. Let parents seek it out on their own dime if it interests them.

I tried to speak to at a school board meeting when the mindfulness thing first came up. I even suggested that they invite Tara Brach to come to defend her position.

Since she was not available the night of the meeting, I was not invited to speak.

I guess it would have raised questions that could not easily be answered!

I do intend to be a vigorous participant at school board campaign debates though.

School Board Speaker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I tried to speak to at a school board meeting when
> the mindfulness thing first came up. I even
> suggested that they invite Tara Brach to come to
> defend her position.
>
> Since she was not available the night of the
> meeting, I was not invited to speak.
>
> I guess it would have raised questions that could
> not easily be answered!
>
> I do intend to be a vigorous participant at school
> board campaign debates though.


Please go back and speak to the schoolboard even if Brach is unable to attend. You will make a difference and start a conversation. Do it.

>...fucking assholes. Same old tired-ass shit over amd over and over again
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes hacks advocating throwing money at the schools telling people your getting good education.

Cut Back FCPS live within a budget that's reasonable. The rest of the country does it.

Same Old Same Old Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >...fucking assholes. Same old tired-ass shit over
> amd over and over again
> --------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------
>
> Yes hacks advocating throwing money at the schools
> telling people your getting good education.
>
> Cut Back FCPS live within a budget that's
> reasonable. The rest of the country does it.

To make FCPS do this, a new board is needed. If this does not happen they will do everything they can do raise your taxes. When you get a $10,000 tax bill to pay for all the crap in the schools it may be too late to make a change.

In November, you have the chance to make the change. Vote against EVERY SINGLE INCUMBENT on the school board and board of supervisors. They are all far beyond reform, they must be voted out.

To Rock the Vote,

Be careful when you say every INCUMBENT. The woman running against Patty Reed is much, much worse. She makes McElveen look good.

http://www.daliaforschoolboard.com/#!issues/cl75

She claims to want better management, but the key is in the statement at the top: More Funding!

Reed advocates taxation authority for the schools. That's a negative.

She fails to stand up to McElveen and Kaufax. If she disagrees with their crap she should say so.

Voting them all out is not that bad. Even if this Dalia is bad, at least McElveen and Kaufax would be gone.

I also say vote in a bunch of Republicans to the Board of Supervisors. They can cut FCPS budget to nothing (schools are crap anyway) and decide to go invade Poland or something.

Why would you put in a social activist instead of Reed?

Dalia is a Dem activist. She won the local Dem award last year.

The big problem with Reed is the school board taxation authority thing. Oh and I guess abstaining from key votes.

I'm afraid she, Velkoff, and McElveen, the ones pushing for the taxation authority will get it, or get the Board of Supervisors to raise the tax rate.

The other concern with the people who want more and more money is that Marcus Simon supports the Bulova meals tax for the schools.

Reed needs to reverse her position. Too many of these people are just too entrenched for my liking.

I also disagree with some of Reed's positions, but if you look at the stuff Dalia works for...........

Dalia and Reed need to do a debate with questions from the audience.

Delia's ideology scares me.

Reed's taxation scares me.

Clowns can't buy groceries and they think they know how to run a school system. What a bunch of losers.

Delia's ideology scares me.

Reed's taxation scares me.

Believe me, Dalia also wants taxation.

Dalia has political ambitions--just like McElveen. She is teaching in a private school in DC where the tuition is over 30K. Yet, her big concern is the achievement of minority students.

believe me Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Delia's ideology scares me.
>
> Reed's taxation scares me.
>
> Believe me, Dalia also wants taxation.
>
> Dalia has political ambitions--just like McElveen.
> She is teaching in a private school in DC where
> the tuition is over 30K. Yet, her big concern is
> the achievement of minority students.

Elections should have a "none of the above" option. If "none of the above" wins, the candidates are barred from running again and they pay the cost of a new election.

Since both Delia and Reed want to tax, I don't want either one of them. If the Republicans don't come up with candidates I don't want any of the at large members either.

MAYBE the only solution is to get rid of the Board of Supervisors and hope a new board would put an end to the Karen Garza spending spree.

http://www.hellasconstruction.com/2015/05/fairfax-county-public-schools-knows-synthetic-turf-and-chooses-hellas-construction/

But Hold On Now Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To: Well Lets see Now
>
> Yes you are 100% correct about the waste for those
> others you mention. I don't know anything about
> them though so can't comment. Keep in mind that I
> am not defending Garza it's just that the turf
> fields were not her idea and the school system
> sees very little benefit from them. The turf
> fields and cell tower ideas were concocted by
> people within FCPS and are self serving "deals"
> made between contractors, county and school
> officials to bennefit themselves and the
> contractors. FCPS did not pay for the turf fields.
> The schools portion of the funding came from
> boosters with the rest being ponied up by the
> county. The only school board costs were site
> construction management of the projects and those
> dollars come from the bond referendum. The cell
> tower construction was completely unsupervised by
> FCPS as far as I know. The tower owners get to
> lease space the towers are on and pay the school
> system very little for that lease. They get what
> amounts to a free place to install them. What
> seemed like a good deal for FCPS at the time turns
> out to be a huge finacial gain for the tower
> owners. Turf field agreements are structured the
> same way. What it boils down to is FCPS is
> getting bent over a barrel because of bad deals
> made by poeple that had no business making them.
> In short the people who made the deals got
> hoodwinked.

Actually, this are two subjects something I know quite a bit about:

1. The cell sites are a pretty big cash windfall for FCPS. On average, each set of antenna brings FCPS an average of about $1200 monthly for a lease that increases by 3% compaounded each year for 25 years. There are close to 400 antenna installations (not poles, but installations) on FCPS property.

As of today, $1200 x 400 = $480,000 monthly, or $5,760,000 annually.

2. Yes, turf fields in each of the communities in Fx County were mostly funded by proffers from local youth clubs and HS boosters in return for priority scheduling on those fields for their teams. However, their are two things to keep in mind.
First, FCPS and Fx County Park & Rec are both saving hundreds of thousands of dollars, collectively millions, in taxpayer monies for maintenance of the grass fields. That is tax money now used for other purposes.
Second,each HS has control of their fields (and their gyms) for their teams and allows county rental based upon schedules released by their respective DSA. If it is true that your own local HS teams are being cheated of field time, then it is the fault of the HS Director of School Activities.

FCPS Taking a Hard Look at Slashing $100M in Costs
SCHOOLS
by Karen Goff — June 16, 2015 at 9:30 am 773 31 Comments

Eliminate Advanced Academic Centers, elementary band and strings programs and speech therapists; go back to mini-Mondays; charge tuition for language immersion programs; and cut back the number of custodians and make kids clean the school.

---

I see we're back to "Washington Monument" approach from what FCPS is telling the press above. How about pay freeze, eliminate employee travel/conferences, reduce administrative staff, sell Gatehouse - no, they pick the items that have the largest constituency so they can extort more money from the BOS, and thus taxpayers.

Seems like the journalist cherry-picked the suggestions to mention in her article, rather than specifically mention the ones that got the highest number of votes. It's interesting to note that one of the issues with the highest # of votes is a plea NOT to cut band, strings and art classes. With AAP Centers, there seems to be about a 50/50 split with regard to how people feel; most agree that there's room to cut out at least some excess, but few seem to want the program eliminated entirely. The bottom line is that IF Fairfax Co/ FCPS wants to dig itself out of the hole, the School Board and BOS needs to seriously consider its future and decide what type of families and businesses it wants to attract. Middle/ upper-miiddle/ upper SES families WILL start leaving if the programs that drew them to the school system initially start disappearing. Retirees and people who don't have kids aren't going to buy or stay in an area where their property values start declining due to a weakened school system.

LOLZ1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Middle/
> upper-miiddle/ upper SES families WILL start
> leaving if the programs that drew them to the
> school system initially start disappearing.

WILL? Try ARE, and quickly. In my little (and former) Vienna subdivision of about 200 homes, it's gone to close to 50% foreign-born in the last 15 years. By the time I left (in 2014) for Arlington, it was a nothing like the community I moved into in 15 years ago. That, plus the insanity of Rte 7, drove me away. I'm not sure what FCPS was like in 90's and before, but by the time my kids hit FCPS in the late 00's, I felt like it was a big bait and switch. I still get the old neighborhood e-mail's, and it's on pace to turn over something like 15% of the houses this year. People are abandoning ship, and fast. What's moving in are people who are either clueless or happy with sending their kids to a school that's not a mud hut.

running with the money ...

and running with the devil.

But Hold On Now Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The building of turf fields was an idea cooked up
> and funded by the general county when the housing
> bubble burst in an effort to offset the loss of
> tax revenue when property values tanked. Beleive
> it or not turf fields generate a ton of cash the
> goes directly into the county's coffers from
> leagues that pay by the hour to use them. The
> school system has the land and there was supposed
> to be equitble sharing of revenues. But the only
> benefit that FCPS has seen is the nice feilds for
> use for their events be it football soccer or
> lacross games. The indivisual schools can't even
> use the newly installed turf fields to practice on
> if leagues have them booked. So the gain for the
> schools is minimal other than they look good and
> are great for pep rallies. The BOS also used the
> devaluing of homes/loss of tax revenues as a
> reason to cut the portion of taxes that go to the
> schools.
>
> So OP get your facts strait before you slam FCPS
> on turf fields. Ms. Garza doesn't have any control
> over the revenue generated by the turf fields. And
> if you think the turf fields are a boondoggle next
> time you are at a school and see a cell tower on
> the grounds ask how much FCPS gets from the tower
> owner for the FREE land their towers are on...
>
> You people don't have any idea what you are
> talking about.

"And if you think the turf fields are a boondoggle next time you are at a school and see a cell tower on the grounds ask how much FCPS gets from the tower owner for the FREE land their towers are on..."


Shit, I wish they'd put more cell towers on school property. Can't get shit for a signal and forget about using data.

Former FFX Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LOLZ1 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Middle/
> > upper-miiddle/ upper SES families WILL start
> > leaving if the programs that drew them to the
> > school system initially start disappearing.
>
> WILL? Try ARE, and quickly. In my little (and
> former) Vienna subdivision of about 200 homes,
> it's gone to close to 50% foreign-born in the last
> 15 years. By the time I left (in 2014) for
> Arlington, it was a nothing like the community I
> moved into in 15 years ago. That, plus the
> insanity of Rte 7, drove me away. I'm not sure
> what FCPS was like in 90's and before, but by the
> time my kids hit FCPS in the late 00's, I felt
> like it was a big bait and switch. I still get
> the old neighborhood e-mail's, and it's on pace to
> turn over something like 15% of the houses this
> year. People are abandoning ship, and fast.
> What's moving in are people who are either
> clueless or happy with sending their kids to a
> school that's not a mud hut.

You moved out of Vienna for Arlington schools? Ha ha ha. There's not a single school in Arlington that comes close to matching Madison, Oakton, McLean, Langley or Marshall, all of which are attended by Vienna kids.

Guess you can swim a lap in one of the Arlington pools stuck inside a high school because there's nowhere else to put them and reflect on what an imbecile you were to move to a mediocre under-performing school district like APS. Those foreign-born folks living in your old Vienna neighborhood? They are making lots more money than the dumb-ass white bureaucrats who move to Arlington because their kids can't hack it at schools in Fairfax with Asian students. Fuck off, you stupid cow.

JESUS CHRIST SHUT UP ABOUT TURF FIELDS IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.

1. We have dug a fiscal money pit on these shit fields. MONEY PIT. $750k PER FIELD and we have how many? 70? 80? Do the fucking math geniuses. and guess what they last MAYBE 7 years. go look at west springfields field.

2. VERY FEW have been paid by private groups. Private groups, btw, are you and me either thru sports boosters or youth clubs. WASTE OF PRECIOUS DOLLARS.

3. It is not cheap to maintain/refurbish them. Add in at least $100k during their 7 year life.

4 Name a county that has anywhere near the number we have. go ahead. MOCO? nope. We spend money like we are Beverly hills for petes sake.

5. NOBODY, repeat, NOBODY has bothered to calculate the financial commitment we have made on these shit fields. WHY? Because taxpayers would thro every damn one of them out of office if they ever knew.

6. I'll spend 30 seconds calcing it for you morons. 70 fields cost about $50 million to install. every year we replace 10 at a cost of about $7-8 million per year.over 10 years? I don't know. Let's go with $150 million fucking dollars.

7. These costs NEVER end---on and on--until what? we come to our fucking senses and rip the carcinogens out and go back to grass.

You fuckheads deserve to get financially raped by the people you elect.
BAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH. FUCKING SHEEP.

You're right about one thing. Your name.

You ARE clueless about turf....

Fear of Taxes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The big problem with Reed is the school board
> taxation authority thing. Oh and I guess
> abstaining from key votes.
>
> I'm afraid she, Velkoff, and McElveen, the ones
> pushing for the taxation authority will get it, or
> get the Board of Supervisors to raise the tax
> rate.
>
> The other concern with the people who want more
> and more money is that Marcus Simon supports the
> Bulova meals tax for the schools.
>
> Reed needs to reverse her position. Too many of
> these people are just too entrenched for my
> liking.


don't vote for anyone who got a raise and wants to increase taxes to pay for admn traveling and dining

Vienna Rocks, Arlington Sucks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Former FFX Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > LOLZ1 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------

>
> You moved out of Vienna for Arlington schools? Ha
> ha ha. There's not a single school in Arlington
> that comes close to matching Madison, Oakton,
> McLean, Langley or Marshall, all of which are
> attended by Vienna kids.
>


Well, the move does require a commitment to private schools. It is amazing how deep the FCPS brainwashing goes - those schools are all going downhill, and the population explosion in FCPS is going to accelerate the trend. Even in a "safe" and "good" school, you see the problem with mods, class size, and apathetic teachers. There is not safe school in FCPS - they are all being affected. And that's before whatever they decide to do with their $100M shortfall next year - either taxes will sour or they need some combination of staff & program cuts to get there.