Editor’s Note: Dorian Charpentier is the Student Liaison to the School Board. Charpentier will be regularly writing in a column to let students know what the Board has been up to and highlight events concerning students.
Here are four essential items from the School Board that concern you, the student.
- Field trip policy
You may have heard about a new field trip policy. Recently, the soccer team, the Model United Nations club and the band class have all had to get their overnight trips approved by the School Board. This is not due to a change in the policy. All trips have previously had to be approved by the Superintendent. She is currently choosing to have overnight trips approved by the School Board in her discretion. Policy 6.38 which was last updated in 2008 is still being applied today. However, it is under review to address categorization issues between curricular trips and extracurricular trips.
- Apple Watches
Students may have also noticed Apple Watches on the wrists of the principals. Superintendent Dr. Jones made Apple Watches available to the some employees, including the principal’s teams. She commented that they are very useful for receiving notifications when the phone is in another room. The Board will ask for regular updates about its uses. Some members also stated that technologies today like smartphones first appeared to be gimmicks. In the face of this, Dr. Jones donated $5,000 to the school division.
- The New George Mason and Mary Ellen Henderson
Parents and students in Falls Church are closely following the plans for the new schools. Students should come to the visioning sessions that are held specifically to collect input regarding the project.
Here is a general schedule for the project. Companies will file their conceptual proposals by the end of October. Then, experts will review the conceptual proposals to generate a short list of bidders, and the City will hold visioning sessions to collect input from the community. All this will help shape a detailed request for proposal. Bidders then come back with a detailed proposal in April. These will be reviewed and in the case that a proposal fits the City’s vision, Falls Church will enter into a comprehensive agreement with a single bidder. The new schools will then be constructed from Fall 2017 to the end of Summer 2019.
- Triennial Plan: School Board Priorities and Work Plan
The list of School Board Priorities and its supporting Work Plan were passed this past September. The priorities outline focus points for the the School Board to follow in the next three years. The work plan translates these priority points into actionable items for FCCPS staff to work with.
One new priority under the header “Community Engagement” reads, “Engage the full diversity of our parents, staff, students, businesses, and other community members, and sustain measurably high levels of communication and collaboration with them.” The Board felt it should clearly state that community engagement has been one of their major aims.
