Low Enrollment Prompted South County School TV Cuts

Fairfax County Public Schools says the decision to cut professional television production classes from four schools in the county — and three teachers along with them — is not due to budget cuts, but instead to declining enrollment.

Patch reported last week that Dave Ruby, a professional TV production teacher at Fairfax Academy, who also leads the student-run production company, Digital Wave, will be laid off at the end of the school year. Students, alumni and supporters alike started an online petition soon after to try and help save his job.

This week, FCPS spokesperson John Torre told Patch that TV production programs at Lorton's South County High School, West Potomac High School in Alexandria and JEB Stuart High School in Falls Church will also be canceled.

He said the program at Fairfax Academy will remain, but Ruby had received a "reduction in force" notification.

The reasons behind the cuts? Plummeting enrollment.

"It's an enrollment issue, not a budget cut," he said.

Torre said in the 2010-11 school year, for example, enrollment in the program at JEB Stuart went from 53 to just 10 in 2012-13.

At West Potomac, Torre said enrollment dropped from 53 in 2010-11 to 20 for the upcoming year of 2013-14.

Enrollment at Fairfax Academy, on the other hand, has remained steady over the past few years, which is why that program will remain open.

Students from high schools that are losing the program will have the option of transferring to Fairfax Academy, Torre said.

Mantelli, who taught the West Potomac class using the same curriculum as Fairfax Academy, is one of the other teachers who, like Ruby, has lost her job.

"I am shocked and saddened at the fact that a county the size of Fairfax, with 180,000 students, has chosen to close three of the four programs that teaches these 21st-century technology classes," she said.

Mantelli said the classes offer just as much value as any AP class, and said, it's not just about being "the next Steven Spielberg" - it's about having a highly sought-after and marketable skill that will win you real jobs.

"There isn't a vertical market in the world that doesn't use video to either sell a product or train its people," she said. "Every industry has a team on staff or an employee to do what I train these students to do. Taking away these classes from high school students is like taking pen and paper away from a child."

"YouTube doesn't have five million hits a day by accident," she added. "All I wanted to do was teach these kids a marketable skill, and now it's gone."

Mantelli said though FCPS says students from the three other county schools who still wish to take the professional TV production classes will be told they can transfer to Fairfax Academy, she knows that is too far out of reach for some of them.

"Go from Mount Vernon to Fairfax? It will take an hour. Some won't be able to do it," she said.

Patch will update this story as more information becomes available.

UPDATE, 11:08 A.M.: The County informed Patch that the new teacher of the TV production classes at Fairfax Academy will be Matthew Pastic from JEB Stuart High School, as he is the most senior of the four TV production teachers in the county. 

What do you think of the reduction in high school TV production classes in Fairfax County? Tell us in the comments.