Monday, May 13, 2013
Some school board members say "disconnect," mistrust still exists between principals, parents.
As the Fairfax County School Board prepares to vote on another round of changes in a years-long push for reform of its discipline policies, board members are struggling to find common ground on when parents should be notified if their child could be suspended or expelled. Fairfax County Public Schools staff returned to the school board Monday with a number of proposed changes to the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, some of them based on a list of 52 recommendations to overhaul discipline practices systemwide a community committee put forth earlier this spring. See all proposed changes here. But parental notification — an issue on which there has been little agreement since the push for reform began following the suicide of two…
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Debate heats up as school board weighs community and staff recommendations before coming school year.
Two weeks after a community committee detailed 52 recommendations to overhaul discipline practices systemwide, Fairfax County Public Schools staff has presented its own proposal for policy changes. But the plan leaves out two programs some see as key to a years-long push for reform — sparking a debate Monday on what role both groups would play in how the system moves forward. Staff leaders backed many of the ideas put forward by the 40-member Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights and Responsibilities, including initiatives to make the discipline handbook easier to understand, keep students in school as they appeal a suspension and give principals tiered, age-specific approaches to a range of offenses. But staff members said they …
Friday, October 12, 2012
Forty-person group charged with reviewing FCPS discipline policies will meet Oct. 24.
The Fairfax County School Board unanimously appointed 40 members Thursday to a newly-created committee tasked with reviewing the system's student rights and responsibilities handbook, putting the body in place to begin its work by the end of October. The Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights and Responsibilities (SR&R), created by the board Sept. 20, includes representatives appointed by the county's three major teachers unions, high school and middle school principal associations, as well as the county's associations for school social workers and psychologists. It also includes Bob Bermingham, Director of the county's Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court, Hearings Officer JD Anderson, and two students. Among the committee'…
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Newly-approved committee charged with reviewing Fairfax County school discipline policy should research prevention, intervention, rehabilitation and restoration, community member says.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
To the Editor: The Fairfax County School Board recently voted to create a 40-member Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights & Responsibilities (SR&R). The group will be comprised of principals, teachers, counselors, and psychologists chosen by their various professional organizations; a representative selected by the county government; an employee from the FCPS hearings office which administers student appeals of expulsion recommendations; and 24 individuals appointed by the school board members from within their magisterial districts. I watched the various discussions and debates over this issue with great interest. I heard several comments about school board members feeling bullied, intimidated and/or threatened by community …
Friday, September 21, 2012
Fairfax County School Board will charge group with reviewing policies, handbook.
The Fairfax County School Board unanimously approved the creation of a 40-member committee charged with reviewing its student rights and responsibilities handbook Thursday, moving forward a months-long reform of its disciplinary process. Members had discussed the makeup of the committee since late last month, falling on opposite sides of debates on whether a list compiled by staff was a good starting point, how many community members should be appointed to the group, who should lead the committee and what kind of message its membership would send to the greater Fairfax County community about both the board and the issue, which has polarized residents in the past few years. While the board spent much of its Thursday meeting discussing what …
Friday, September 7, 2012
Fairfax County School Board to discuss issue further at Monday work session, will vote Sept. 20
Saying they felt they had not yet had a "full, robust" discussion on the makeup of a committee charged with reviewing the system's discipline policies, Fairfax County School Board members delayed a vote Thursday that would have established the 29-member group, pushing discussion to a Monday work session and a final vote to later this month. Though the creation of the committee — the latest of several changes the board has made to its discipline policies during the past year-and-a-half — has been on the table since July, board chairman Ilryong Moon (At-large) said perhaps the board had "not paid [the committee] the close attention it needed to have," particularly with the "number of amendments just proposed in the last few days." Along with…
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Twenty-nine appointees will recommend changes to student handbook
The Fairfax County School Board is scheduled to vote Thursday night to establish a special committee charged with reviewing and recommending changes to the system's Student Rights and Responsibilities (SR&R) manual, continuing a broader reform of its disciplinary process that began nearly two years ago. The 29-person committee — whose members will range from citizens and judicial representatives to administrators and students — will be charged with slimming the 44-page document, making it easier to understand and ensuring it reflects the "community's values, School Board policies and Virginia laws," according to school board documents posted in advance of the meeting. It will deliver its recommendations to the board by March 2013, …
Friday, April 27, 2012
Parental notification still absent from proposed changes, but could be introduced through amendments
Nearly a year after overhauling the student disciplinary system, the Fairfax County School Board is preparing to make several more adjustments to its Students Rights and Responsibilities handbook, among them, adding synthetic marijuana to the list of substances which result in a five-day suspension and mandating principals immediately notify police after alcohol, assault, firearm, bomb threat and certain drug violations. Among other significant modifications proposed, according to board documents, are the inclusion of peer mediation and restorative justice as methods of resolving disputes and addressing student behavior; expanding the section on bullying to include electronic communication; and allowing cell phone and use of other …
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Discipline reform has become a key issue in this school board race. See how the candidates stack up
Patch has asked the candidates running for an at-large seat on the Fairfax County School Board a series of questions on discipline policy reform - a topic fast becoming a key issue in this race. 1. Do you think the recent reforms passed by the school board changing the discipline policy were appropriate? I do not believe that the current measures and policy changes are appropriate for a simple reason: They come across as a knee jerk reaction to totally called-for pressure from parents and community for a more comprehensive disciplinary reform. What I mean by this is that it appears to be a cosmetic change and it fails to address some of the "structural fissures" in the system. Personally, being the parent of two teenagers, I can't …
Friday, July 22, 2011
Discipline reform has become a key issue in this school board race. See how the candidates stack up
Patch has asked the candidates running for an at-large seat on the Fairfax County School Board a series of questions on discipline policy reform - a topic fast becoming a key issue in this race. 1. Do you think the recent reforms passed by the school board changing the discipline policy were appropriate? I don’t believe the school board went far enough in making these long overdue changes to FCPS discipline policy. To be honest, the school board made the changes it did only because parents and advocacy groups pushed hard for them. For all the improvements the school board made to its discipline policies, including lessening involuntary school transfers of students, the most critical component of the “Student’s Rights and Responsibilities…
Michele Menapace
11:09 am on Wednesday, May 15, 2013
It seems the best solution to this issue is for parents to be informed before any "investigation" or questioning of any student in any school by any administrator takes place. Parents can be educated about their children's constitutional rights. It would then be incumbent on parents to direct their children to respectfully decline to answer questions or write any statements until a parent is … more ›