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 8 th ) 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 & Kids AAP 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 Garza Goal: 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 8 th 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 8 th period occurs twice per week; TJ does not have late busses. Dr. Garza said publically she did not intend to eliminate TJ’s 8 th 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?