Budget, Disciplne Major Subjects at McLean High PTSA

Dranesville School Board member Jane Strauss spoke at the McLean High School PTSA meeting Tuesday night on two subjects: the proposed $2.2 billion schools budget and the schools process for  disciplining students caught using drugs.

Here are the highlights. First the budget:

---Overview. Strauss explained that she and fellow school board members last week approved a budget that asks Fairfax County supervisors to give the schools  nearly $50 million dollars more this year --- a three per cent increase to pay for teacher pay raises.

"Our first priority is to pay our teachers," she said.

---All Day Kindergarten. The school board, as part of the budget, asked the school superintendent for a plan to start all day kindergarten in the 37 schools now without it in the next three years.

None of McLean's four elementary schools has all day kindergarten.

Cost: $8 million. "We have no idea how we will do it," she said. But they board had made a commitment and "we are going to find a way to move forward."

It's a necessity she said because expectations of first graders are now the expectation in kindergarten.

---Erasing Fees for Advance Placement Tests. This year the schools started charging parents and students $75 to take the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests to avoid cuts in school programs. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinella recently ruled the fees are probably unconstitutional.

'This is a burden we are not pleased to carry on," so the board will get rid of the fees, she said. Cost: $2 million.

The longest discussion are about how to punish students for having drugs.

Strauss: "We don't have a zero tolerance policy. Every infraction is treated on a case-by-case basis."

Also, she said, possession of marijuana is against the law in Virginia.

The parents vehemently disagreed and said it was well-known that a student found with drugs was transferred to another school.

Twelve parents attended the meeting with Strauss. Some of them made clear they wanted more leniency/compassion given to students found with marijuana. They want the students to remain in their school.

Background: A former Langley student committed  suicide the day before his hearing on a second drug offense.  After the first offense,  he was transferred to South Lakes High School.

Stay tuned. This debate over the schools' disciplinary process is heating up. A Fairfax County supervisor and the school superintendent went head to head last week over whether school disciplinary procedures do more harm than good to students.