Community feedback on changing Fairfax County Public Schools start times has now been organized by FCPS and posted on its website.

The school board will get a final presentation on the four start times option at a meeting later this month.

After a 2012 decision committing to changing high school start times, FCPS paid experts at Children’s National Medical Center more than $100,000 to study the impact on lack of sleep among teens and formulate scenarios for bell changes.

What the experts found: The students were chronically sleep deprived with a 7:20 a.m. start time. Pushing high school start times past 8 a.m. would have an impact on everything from behavior to grades to driving records and sports injuries, the experts say.

“Delaying school start times is one of most important ways to help ensure adolescents are getting enough sleep,”  study leader Judith Owens said at a May 27 meeting at South Lakes High School. She also said students who start school after 8 a.m. are less likely to be depressed, get better grades, score as much as 200 points higher on the SATs and may have higher future earnings.

The CNMC team formulated four scenarios for high school bells. The changes would not go into effect until fall of 2015. The proposals range from start times between 8 and 9:15 a.m., with various changes for elementary and middle school students in order to accommodate the high schoolers.

See details on all four proposals on FCPS’ website.

The proposals will cost between $2.7 million and $7.6 million to implement, mostly to purchase new buses, school board members said. Meanwhile, the FY2015 schools budget was passed this spring with less money than expected from the county board of supervisors, so FCPS had to make $97 million in cuts and will offer employees delayed step raises.

The feedback posted online is from small group discussions from meetings at eight FCPS high schools, including Reston’s South Lakes High School, in May and June. The comments concentrate on the pros and cons of each proposal.

All four options have pros and cons, the community feedback shows.

Some of the pros in community feedback: More sleep for high schoolers, obviously; Options 2 and 3 help families by having siblings home to watch younger kids in the afternoon; teachers will get more sleep; Option 4 is good because high schoolers get more sleep and elementary students will not be impacted.

Some of the general parent concerns about all options: cost of implementation; middle schoolers may get less sleep too; elementary students will be going to school in the dark; and that FCPS has not given the option of “no change” to bell schedule.

Visit FCPS’ website to see complete feedback.

Where do you stand on the proposed high school bell changes?

Photo: Group discussions at a May FCPS community meeting a South Lakes High School on high school start times.

Now that the students are finally off for the summer, the real work can begin at Reston’s Terraset Elementary School.

The school at 11411 Ridge Heights Rd. is undergoing a multimillion renovation. Many classes were moved into temporary classrooms this school year as the interior work began.

Late last week, work began on demolishing the dual pedestrian bridges that lead from the kiss-and-ride area to the school, which is partially built underground.

Terraset, as well as Sunrise Valley Elementary School, will transform from a late-1970s open classroom layout to a more traditional one. The Terraset renovations will increase the school’s capacity by about 300 students.

Also among the changes for Terraset:

• 3,400-square foot administrative addition to the front entrance.
• 7,613-square-foot art and music addition
• 11,100-square-foot media and classroom addition.
• 3,919-square-foot School Age Child Care addition
• 7,521-square-foot west classroom addition
• New kiss-and-ride area
• New parking areas in various locations
• Two asphalt play areas and a soccer field at the rear of the school

Fairfax County Public Schools will begin the 2014-15 school year with several changes to the Student Rights and Responsibilities regulations.

The FCPS school board approved the changes at a meeting last week. The SR&R is the guideline for school system rules and the consequences for violating them. All students must sign it each year.

Among the changes:

• Reducing the number of offenses which carry mandated consequences.
• Extending expedited review to first time use of marijuana which does not occur on school grounds during the school day or during school-sponsored activities.
• Adding smoking devices such as electronic cigarettes and hookah pens under “tobacco products.”

“The changes to the SR&R were made to better align with best practices, to reduce suspensions, and to include changes that have been made to the Code of Virginia,” School Board Chairman Ilryong Moon said in a news release. “The adopted changes emphasize the School Board’s desire to keep students in class by promoting alternative forms of discipline and reducing the length of suspension for certain offenses.

“However, serious infractions will still be dealt with in a manner that protects students and staff.”

FCPS discipline processes have been under review the last several years, in part because public pressure after suicides of two high school students who had been or were going through the discipline process for minor drug possession violations.

In 2011, the process was essentially overhauled, with additional changes to the SR&R being voted in by the school board in years following.

Other changes coming in 2014-15:

• Increased focus on school-based interventions, changing “recommendation for reassignment” and “recommendation for expulsion” to “referral to the Division Superintendent.”
• Limiting suspensions for violations which are not being referred to the Division Superintendent to a maximum of five days, and permitting principals to take action other than referral to the Division Superintendent when a student self-reports and voluntarily turns in a knife or other non-statutory weapon.
• Eliminating the requirement of a 10-day suspension when there is a referral to the Division Superintendent and instead, permitted this based on circumstances.
• A record review process by a cluster assistant superintendent (which will change to a regional assistant superintendent) to address chronic misconduct.
• A record review for students in K-6 before referral to the Division Superintendent for chronic misconduct.
• There will now be principal documentation of investigations of bullying and a reporting of all allegations of sexual harassment and discriminatory harassment to the FCPS office of Equity and Employee Relations.
• Clarification of the need to have a note to leave school early and to include the description of the use, in certain circumstances, of a letter of agreement from the Superintendent.

The School Board said it will collect data each semester on all first-time possession and/or use of marijuana cases. The data will include the total number of expedited written record reviews, disciplinary hearings, school reassignments, and recidivism rates.

Superintendent Karen Garza agreed to provide the School Board with the following data for each semester: how many students were suspended out-of-school; how many were suspended in-school; and how many were not suspended, out of the aggregate number of students referred to the Superintendent for violating the SR&R.

The amended Student Rights and Responsibilities will be published in time for the 2014-15 school year.  The current SR&R can be found on the FCPS website.

The Fairfax County Public Schools Board will vote on Thursday whether to eliminate the shortened Mondays for elementary school students.

FCPS students have been released early on Mondays for decades, allowing teachers time for planning, but Superintendent Karen Garza says the change is necessary because it will eliminate having to make up classes on account of snow days, as well as allow for more self-directed planning time for teachers.

Under the new plan, the state-required 180-day school year, currently used by FCPS, will meet Virginia requirements with a  990-hour school year. Both are options under Virginia rules. Loudoun County uses the 990-hour system and does not have to scramble when winter wreaks havoc on the schedule.

Fairfax has three days built in for weather cancellations, and FCPS says the system uses an average of four a year. By moving to an hourly system, the schools would be able to absorb 13 snow days in a school year because students would already be in school for the required number of hours.

In 2013-14, a particularly snowy winter, FCPS used 11 snow days, which has pushed the school year to June 25 in order to have the required makeup days.

The board proposal says there are other advantages to the change. Among them:

• A uniform elementary day would increase instructional time for all elementary students and would allow for the state required 20 minutes of daily recess for children.
• The uniform calendar would allow the school system to plan for two weeks of winter break.
• The changes would only be implemented with new regulations/rules that provided all elementary teachers with at least 60 minutes of self-directed time four times per week and at least 60 minutes one time per week for collaborative team planning equating to a total minimum planning time per week of 300 minutes.
• The changes are responsive to parents, who have consistently asked for the elimination of the early Mondays due to the inconvenience for many working families.
• There would be no changes to music, art and physical education.

School board documents say that the changes will cost up to $7.6 million.

“This is difficult in these tight economic times, but we believe that this is an important investment in our students and our teachers,” Garza said in the report. “As such, a growing number of County Supervisors have expressed that they will provide us financial support for this important change.  They have some monies available that were not budgeted due to unanticipated revenues from law enforcement activities.”

However, some teachers are skeptical that this would be a smooth transition in an era of cutbacks, stalled raises and mounting work requirements.

“I’d like to know where the ‘more’ planning time is coming from,” said one elementary school administrator who asked not to be named.

“When they went to Mondays, they extended the Tuesday-through-Friday day. If they shorten that, will we have less time? The Monday schedule in elementary is crucial to professional development for teachers and is one of the only places they can get training in areas they need support.”

There has also been criticism that teacher opinions were not taken into account when formulating the plan.

The new plan would go into effect as early as September. This is a separate issue from the plan to change high school start times, which may also affect elementary school students as they may start school earlier in the day. The details of that plan are still being worked out, and it will not go into effect until at least 2015-16.

See the proposed Master Calendar for 2014-15 on the FCPS website.

Photo: FCPS Superintendent Karen Garza/File photo

South Lakes and Herndon High School pyramid schools will be under new leadership beginning this summer.

Douglas Tyson, a former South Lakes assistant principal who has served as assistant superintendent for Cluster 3 since August 2013, has been named assistant superintendent for Region 1, where he will be responsible for schools in the Langley, Madison, Herndon, South Lakes, and Oakton pyramids.

Tyson joined FCPS in 2004 as an assistant principal at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) and later was named subschool principal at SLHS.

In 2009, Tyson was named principal of Kilmer Middle School, where he worked until being named assistant superintendent for Cluster 3.

The moves come as part of a restructuring of Fairfax County Public Schools administration. Instead of eight clusters, there will now be five regions, each with about 36,000 students, FCPS superintendent Karen Garza announced last month.

Reston-area schools used to be in Cluster 8 under the direction of Fabio Zuluaga. Zuluaga has been named assistant superintendent for Region 2, where he will be responsible for schools in the McLean, Marshall, Stuart, Falls Church, and Annandale pyramids, and TJHSST.

Other assistant superintendent assignments after the jump. Read More

Fairfax County Public Schools officials are considering eliminating the early release Mondays for elementary school students in order to better accommodate snow days.

Fairfax County Public Schools officials were at South Lakes High School Tuesday to discuss with the community plans for changing high school start times.

What they found there was mostly enthusiastic support, with some criticism. Most in attendance welcome the changes.

“We are unanimously for the later start times.” said Jennifer Boysko, whose daughters have gone through Herndon High. “We all have high schoolers who have suffered. I believe getting sleep is most important.”

After a 2012 decision committing to changing high school start times, FCPS paid experts at Children’s National Medical Center more than $100,000 to study the impact on lack of sleep among teens and formulate scenarios for bell changes.

FCPS high schools currently begin at 7:20 a.m. The proposals all have high school starting between 8 and 9:15 a.m., with various bell changes to elementary and middle schools as well. See all four proposals in detail on the FCPS website.

The proposals will cost between $2.7 million and $7.6 million to implement, mostly to purchase new buses. Last week, the FCPS school board approved the 2015 budget, but received less than expected from the county board of supervisors, had to make $97 million in cuts, and will offer employees delayed step raises.

Some parents at the SLHS meeting said they fear that existing programs will be cut in order to pay for the new arrangement.

“Money is being wasted,” said one mother of two high schoolers. “Teachers are not being paid. Classes are getting bigger. And these proposals will cost more money.” Read More

The Fairfax County Public Schools school board has approved its Fiscal Year 2015 budget of $2.5 billion, but it did not get there without cost cutting and reconfiguring.

The board voted 7-3 to pass the budget on Friday. The FY 2015 plan is an increase of $39 million (1.6 percent) over 2014, but it also includes reductions of more than $97 million and eliminates 720 positions.

Among the cost-saving changes:

• Reductions to school clerical and custodial staffing that were adopted from the State School Efficiency Review, presented to the Board in September 2013.
• Class size was increased by .05 students in elementary and middle schools and 1.0 students at the high school level.
• Including the FY 2015 budget, more than 2,100 positions have been eliminated since FY 2009, FCPS says.

The school system will continue to pay for test fees for Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB), something FCPS considered eliminating as it costs the system $4 million annually. Each FCPS high school will also add a position to provide in-school suspension support to students.

The transfer from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors was increased by 3 percent (to $51 million), but was far less than the 5.6 percent new schools superintendent Karen Garza had requested. The supervisors provide nearly 70 percent of funding for the schools, which are projected to see an increase of more than 2,000 students (and $19.5 million in spending on them)  next school year. FCPS is also expected to receive additional state funding.

Fairfax County, with more than 186,000 students, is one of the country’s largest school systems.

The budget, which takes effect July 1, includes a delayed salary step increase for all eligible employees. Increases in retirement rate costs are estimated to be $38.9 million, and increases in health insurance rates are estimated to be $19.9 million, FCPS said.

School Board Chair Ilryong Moon said the board was committed to giving a salary increase to employees this year.

“We realize the importance of fairly compensating our school-based and support staff members and of staying competitive in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area,” he said. “We appreciate the Board of Supervisors’ efforts to increase the transfer this year, although we remain disappointed that the board did not fully fund our transfer request. We are committed to continuing the cooperative, collaborative process that was established during this budget cycle in future years.” 

In appealing to the supervisors at budget talks in April, Moon said the school system has “reached a tipping point where the underfunding of our schools at both the county and state levels for the past several years has led us to where we now face a distressing reality — one that suggests there is very real and troubling evidence that our great school system is beginning to show signs of decline.”

Among the reasons, according to Moon: continually growing class sizes; 12 schools that are no longer accredited by the state of Virginia; higher Standards of Learning test measures/lower pass rates; and the need for extra support for growing totals of English as a Second Language and students living in poverty.

To see more budget information, visit the FCPS website.

Christie Attanasio, a first-grade teacher at Reston’s Dogwood Elementary School, has been named Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) 2014 Outstanding First-Year Teacher.

“The Dogwood administration, my co-workers, mentors, and everyone at Dogwood has truly become part of my family and has made this year so wonderful,” said Attanasio. “There hasn’t been a day that I have been in school where I haven’t felt encouraged and supported. I am so grateful and am looking forward to everything that is to come.”

Dogwood administrators say Attanasio comes to school knowing who each child is – individually, culturally, and developmentally.

Dogwood principal Terry Dade says Attanasio begins the day with a morning meeting that allows students to connect with each other and lets Attanasio determine if the students have any problems or issues that need to be addressed.  Student transitions from one lesson to another are seamless, says Dade.

“One of my favorite observations … was the ‘silent dance party’ that she has students perform before they transition to their next center or activity, ” says Dade.

Dade said that Attanasio is able to help her students meet challenges. More than 75 percent of her students receive free or reduced lunch, an indicator of poverty.

“Dogwood students come to school every day with baggage that many other students across the county do not carry,” Dade said. “For the vast majority, poverty is a way of life, English is a second language, and post-secondary education is a mystery.”

One of the strategies Attanasio uses is quality communications with parents, meeting with 100 percent of parents during parent-teacher conferences twice a year and sending home notes to the parents of each student, highlighting something they did well that month.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s in curriculum and instruction from the University of Connecticut, Attanasio came to Dogwood in September 2013. She said she had a “metaphorical backpack” that she felt was full of everything she needed.

But after meeting her class of 16 students and feeling the responsibility of having to meet their social, emotional, and academic needs, Attanasio said that suddenly her backpack felt empty.

“It became clear to me that I would need a much bigger backpack to hold all of the things I wanted to teach my students this year,” she says. “I discovered that I didn’t have to fill my backpack alone. Administrators, colleagues, mentors, parents, and even my students helped me figure out what I needed to get the job done.

“My typical day is filled with small moments of joy and unexpected surprises: a kind note from a parent, two thumbs up from a colleague, or a student who was once reluctant but is now proud to share his writing with his classmates. These are the things that I celebrate and remember — the reasons I can hardly wait to come to school each morning.”

Photo: Courtesy of Christie Attanasio

As it considers making changes to high school start times, Fairfax County Public Schools wants to know your opinion.

There will be a series of public meetings on the subject. South Lakes High School will host one from 7 to 9 p.m. on May 27.

If you cannot make a meeting, FCPS still wants to hear from you in an online survey. The survey (and a short presentation) are available here.

After working with sleep experts from Children’s National Medical Center for more than a year, the school board recently picked four scenarios recommended by the doctors that would adjust high school start times to begin after 8 a.m. Several of the plans would also adjust middle- and elementary-school start times as well.

FCPS high schools currently begin at 7:20 a.m., which leaves some teens chronically sleep deprived.

CNMC doctors say teens need eight hours of sleep or more for optimum health. Sleep deprivation leads to shortened attention span, decreased higher level cognitive skills, reduced ability to learn and remember new information, decreased efficiency in completing tasks, lower standardized test scores and decreased school achievement, says CNMC’s Project Smart Sleep website.

Fairfax County Public Schools will drastically overhaul its structure, according to an internal memo sent to staff members from Superintendent Karen Garza.

Effective July 1, FCPS will no longer have eight clusters. Instead, it will have five regions, each with about 36,000 students.

In the Reston area, South Lakes High School and Herndon High School pyramids will be in Region 1 with Langley, Madison and Oakton High Schools. One regional superintendent and one executive principal will oversee 40 schools.

The new structure also reduces the number of assistant superintendents to five from eight and adds an executive principal for school improvement in two of the regions (regions 2 and 3). FCPS will also eliminate staff that concentrated on professional learning and accountability.

Other regions:

• 2: McLean, Marshall, Stuart, Falls Church, TJ
• 3: Edison, Lee, Hayfield, Mount Vernon, West Potomac
• 4: Robinson, Lake Braddock, West Springfield, South County, Centreville
• 5: Woodson, Fairfax, Westfield, Chantilly

Garza did not elaborate whether administrators would lose their jobs under the new structure.

“The future of FCPS is up to us and it begins with how we design ourselves to move our important work forward,” Garza said in the memo. “Today, I am pleased to share with you our new organizational structure. After one year of evaluating our current situation, we have developed a new structure that I know will serve to better align our systems, improve our decision making and facilitate stronger and more differentiated support of our schools.”

Garza said FCPS took into account conversations with administrators, surveys and looking at other school systems of a similar size since she took office nine months ago. FCPS is one of the largest school systems in the country with more than 180,000 students.

The superintendent said the new structure will create “significant” budgetary savings. FCPS received less than the $98 million requested from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for Fiscal Year 2105, but FCPS will also receive additional money from the state.

Garza warned in January there may need to be more than 700 layoffs, some by attrition, if the system’s monetary needs were not met.

“All of this information was used to shape our new organizational structure,” Garza said. “There were a number of reasons for considering a new organizational structure primarily to help us to be more effective and responsive to our schools. I am pleased to report that this new design is also cost effective and will create significant budgetary savings, once fully implemented.”

Garza said in the memo that “this is an administrative change and will not affect teachers and most other employees throughout this organization.”

Photo: FCPS Superintendent Karan Garza/File photo

The morning bell for Fairfax County Public Schools high school students may ring nearly two hours later if one of several proposals for later start times goes through.

On Wednesday, the FCPS School Board heard from researchers from Children’s National Medical Center. The medical experts were hired by FCPS a year ago to study the effects of chronic sleep deprivation for teens and how other school systems nationwide have adjusted their schedules.

The CNMC panel told the board members that 67 percent of FCPS high schoolers would benefit from any of the four options presented. The options would move the first bell from the current 7:20 a.m. to as late as 9:15 a.m. With the later high school start times, middle school and elementary schools would be altered (see graphic above).

The board approved four options — with start times from 7:50 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. — to be discussed with the community. The estimated costs would be $2.8 million to $7.6 million, mostly for new bus purchases. If any of the four plans are approved they would not go into effect until at least 2015-16.

The school board says there will be community meetings in May and June on the four proposals.

Superintendent Karen Garza says she supports the effort.

“There is a growing amount of research and literature about this issue,” Garza said. “I know the easiest thing in the world is to do nothing. I know not everyone will be happy with a change. But I do think it’s very important that we do it right.”

However, the school system is facing lean times. County Supervisor Sharon Bulova sad this week the school transfer from the county will be $51 million, which is far less than the nearly $100 million she requested from the county. State funds are expected to add $30 million to the school budget for Fiscal Year 2015, but FCPS still will likely make some hard cuts.

Also, in 2009, the last time the board voted on a similar measure, it failed 10-2.

Graphic: FCPS

The Fairfax County Public Schools board will hear from sleep experts on Wednesday as part of a continuing  effort for later start times for high school students.

In April 2013, FCPS officials commissioned a study with Children’s National Medical Center doctors to see if pushing the opening bell to 8 or even 8:30 a.m. would help sleepy teens.

The board last heard from representatives of the study — which cost FCPS $143,000 — in January. At that time, it was determined that more discussion was needed. The board said in January if any changes are implemented, it would not be until at least fall of 2015.

Fairfax County high schools begin at 7:20 a.m. — which means some students are on the bus as early as 5:45 a.m. There has been a grassroots effort the last several years to change high school start times in Fairfax. The local advocacy group Start Later for Excellence in Education Proposal (SLEEP) has been very vocal, saying that 72 out of 95 Virginia counties now start at high school 8 a.m. or later. Montgomery County, Md., also is exploring later start times.

The Children’s team has proposed nine different scenarios for FCPS. Changing the high school start time would affect other schools too as elementary school and middle schools would have to adjust so high school bus routes would start later.

CNMC doctors say teens need eight hours of sleep or more for optimum health. Sleep deprivation leads to shortened attention span, decreased higher level cognitive skills, reduced ability to learn and remember new information, decreased efficiency in completing tasks, lower standardized test scores and decreased school achievement, says CNMC’s Project Smart Sleep website.

Current School Board members have made pushing back high school start times a goal since 2010. The school board passed a 2012 resolution committing to later start times. In 2009, the school board voted 10-2 against moving back high school start times. Parents and teachers were also not in favor of the plan, saying the change would affect parents’ work schedules, student activities, and child care schedules for younger students.

Also, implementing the change would cost money, something that the school system is lacking right now. The board has asked the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for $98.1 million for Fiscal Year to cover a budget gap that may be as high as $130 million.

The Fairfax County Public Schools board announced on Friday that Wednesday, June 25 will be the last day of school.

Previously, snow makeup days for June 23 and 24 were announced. The school system applied for a waiver from the state to get an exemption for the required 180 days in the school year.

FCPS had 11 snow days during 2013-14, one of the snowiest winters in recent history.

While the three new school days will be shortened days, there is likely to be a lot of movie watching and yearbook signing to take up the time.

Is a delayed summer break the best plan? Take our poll or answer in the comments.

The snowy winter of 2013-14 is still leaving its mark on Fairfax County.

The Fairfax County School Board has voted to add a day to the end of the 2013-14 school calendar as a makeup day for the 11th missed day of the year due to weather.  The Board’s action makes Wednesday, June 25, the last day of the 2013-14 school year.

“This has been a unique and challenging year due to snowstorms both early and late in the season,” said FCPS Superintendent Karen Garza.

“We explored the option of counting instructional hours instead of days; however, our elementary schools would have fallen far short due to our current model of early release Mondays. We considered converting those early release Mondays into full days, but that would have eliminated critical planning time for elementary teachers, which was a real concern for us.”

Garza said the teacher’s groups hope to plan meaningful learning options for the extra days.

June 23 and 24 have already been tacked on to the school year as makeup days. June 25 will be an early dismissal day, the system says.

From FCPS:

State law requires school divisions to provide instruction for a minimum of 180 days or 990 hours each school year. If the school division cannot meet the requirement for 180 days or 990 hours of instruction because of bad weather or other emergencies, days missed must be made up in accordance with the formula outlined in the Code of Virginia.

This formula requires that the school division must make up the first five days, and then make up one day for every two days missed in excess of the first five days missed by adding instructional days to the school calendar or extending the length of the school day. School divisions may use instructional time built into the school calendar that exceeds the 990 instructional hour minimum or add time to the remaining days to offset the days missed.

FCPS’ adopted calendar for school year 2013-14 identified specific makeup days – Feb. 17, April 7, June 23, and June 24.   The calendar approved by the School Board for the current year provided a plan for 10 makeup days.    The 11th snow day occurred on March 17, requiring the need for an additional makeup day.

FCPS officials contacted the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to discuss the possibility of a waiver for June 23-25.  VDOE advised that a waiver would not be granted for June 23 and 24 because those days are already reflected in the Board approved calendar for 2013-14 and it would be unlikely that a waiver would be granted for June 25 because state law requires school divisions to certify that all reasonable efforts for making up lost teaching days or teaching hours were exhausted before requesting a waiver.

Other Virginia jurisdictions have added time to the instructional day, eliminated early release days, or added full days to comply with the 180 day or 990 hour instructional requirement.