Joyce Kilmer Middle School

Coordinates: 38°54′9.44″N 77°13′29.55″W / 38.9026222°N 77.2248750°W / 38.9026222; -77.2248750

Joyce Kilmer Middle School is a school in the Fairfax County Public Schools System in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, east of the city of Vienna. Kilmer serves grades 7-8. It was named after the journalist and poet Joyce Kilmer. Kilmer has a GT program for students who have been determined to be "Gifted and Talented." It is now called AAP, or "Advanced Academics Program."^[1]

Feeder schools

This school feeds into Madison High School, George C. Marshall High School,^[2] and Langley High School.

Demographics

Kilmer's student body is 54.4% White, 25% Asian, 11.6% Hispanic, 5.5% Unspecified, and 3.5% black.^[3]

No contact rule

Kilmer Middle School had a strict rule/policy of "no physical contact", meaning that contact such as high fives or hugs between friends were not allowed. The FCPS stood behind the rule and refused to rescind the rule. The issue was brought to light after a 13-year-old student was reprimanded for putting his arm around his girlfriend during a break, and his parents wrote to the Fairfax County School Board.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Test scores

Kilmer is fully accredited by the Virginia Department of Education. The following chart is for the 2006-2007 school year.

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Music program

Kilmer is known for its music program. The school received the Blue Ribbon Award in 2008, 2009 and 2010,^[11] which is given to schools whose top performing groups from orchestra, chorus and band all receive Superior ratings at Festival,^[11] the highest rating possible. The Kilmer 2010 Symphonic Band played at the Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA) Conference in Norfolk, VA.

Teachers

48% of the teachers have a Bachelor degrees, 52% have Masters degrees. There is an average of about 19.5 students per teacher. There is a 97% attendance rate.

GT center conversion controversy

In 2006, Fairfax County Public Schools decided that many Gifted and Talented students from Kilmer would be moved to Luther Jackson Middle School due to overpopulation. This created a controversy among Vienna parents, concerned with transportation issues and split-feeder schools - meaning that students would be split up from their classmates from elementary and middle school. This decision attracted media attention from the Washington Post,^[12] Fairfax Extra, The Connection and other local news. The School Board decided to open the new Luther Jackson GT Center in two stages. In its first year, only GT-eligible students in the base Luther Jackson district would attend, and Vienna students whose base middle school was Thoreau would attend the GT Center at Kilmer.

Alumni

• Mike "Mud" Hindert, the bassist from the New York band The Bravery, attended Kilmer Middle school.
• Barry Weeks, record producer and staff writer for Universal Music Group attended Kilmer Middle school in the mid 1970s.
• Zachary Adam Chesser, accused of aiding a foreign terrorist organization, attended Kilmer's GT program around 2003.^[13]
• Brent Runyon, author of The Burn Journals, doused his bathrobe in gasoline and lit himself on fire after having received a threat of expulsion from Kilmer's administration while he was in the eighth grade at the middle school.^[14]

References