LAST APS meeting on new high school and countywide rezoning (4/4, 7 pm Yorktown)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes a 4000 seat WL is a terrible idea, but so what? It's a problem of our own making. Everyone is squeezing in bounds for it and no one wants to be moved out. Add to that parents wanting access to metro, and here we are.
We had an opportunity to have better transit in other parts of the county and no one wanted to pay for it.
Did no one consider that it might be a good idea to draw middle class families elsewhere?
We've concentrated poverty, so we have schools that no middle class families will consider. We created an uncrossable imaginary line at route 50.
No sympathy for WL and McKinley. No one forces people to perpetuate this cycle and this is the logical consequence of our collective behavior.

McKinley was not a product of what you listed above. McKinley was a product of Nottingham parents pushing students out of their school. If the SB had kept the orginal boundaries and sent the Tuckahoe families to Nottingham, none of that mess would have happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes a 4000 seat WL is a terrible idea, but so what? It's a problem of our own making. Everyone is squeezing in bounds for it and no one wants to be moved out. Add to that parents wanting access to metro, and here we are.
We had an opportunity to have better transit in other parts of the county and no one wanted to pay for it.
Did no one consider that it might be a good idea to draw middle class families elsewhere?
We've concentrated poverty, so we have schools that no middle class families will consider. We created an uncrossable imaginary line at route 50.
No sympathy for WL and McKinley. No one forces people to perpetuate this cycle and this is the logical consequence of our collective behavior.

I agree with some of what you've said but a 4,000 seat WL is not because everyone is moving inbounds for it, parents want metro access and refuse to go elsewhere. A 4,000 seat WL will bc the SB puts on WL's campus a 1300 choice school that by its very existence will have to draw kids from all over the county, a very different scenario than you describe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes a 4000 seat WL is a terrible idea, but so what? It's a problem of our own making. Everyone is squeezing in bounds for it and no one wants to be moved out. Add to that parents wanting access to metro, and here we are.
We had an opportunity to have better transit in other parts of the county and no one wanted to pay for it.
Did no one consider that it might be a good idea to draw middle class families elsewhere?
We've concentrated poverty, so we have schools that no middle class families will consider. We created an uncrossable imaginary line at route 50.
No sympathy for WL and McKinley. No one forces people to perpetuate this cycle and this is the logical consequence of our collective behavior.

Truth

Actually, not truth. The 1300 new HS seats are also meant to help alleviate projected overcrowding at Wakefield and Yorktown. Hence it will be a choice school for all, not a mere extension of WL for the students in WL's boundaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes a 4000 seat WL is a terrible idea, but so what? It's a problem of our own making. Everyone is squeezing in bounds for it and no one wants to be moved out. Add to that parents wanting access to metro, and here we are.
We had an opportunity to have better transit in other parts of the county and no one wanted to pay for it.
Did no one consider that it might be a good idea to draw middle class families elsewhere?
We've concentrated poverty, so we have schools that no middle class families will consider. We created an uncrossable imaginary line at route 50.
No sympathy for WL and McKinley. No one forces people to perpetuate this cycle and this is the logical consequence of our collective behavior.

Truth

Actually, not truth. The 1300 new HS seats are also meant to help alleviate projected overcrowding at Wakefield and Yorktown. Hence it will be a choice school for all, not a mere extension of WL for the students in WL's boundaries.

We'll see about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes a 4000 seat WL is a terrible idea, but so what? It's a problem of our own making. Everyone is squeezing in bounds for it and no one wants to be moved out. Add to that parents wanting access to metro, and here we are.
We had an opportunity to have better transit in other parts of the county and no one wanted to pay for it.
Did no one consider that it might be a good idea to draw middle class families elsewhere?
We've concentrated poverty, so we have schools that no middle class families will consider. We created an uncrossable imaginary line at route 50.
No sympathy for WL and McKinley. No one forces people to perpetuate this cycle and this is the logical consequence of our collective behavior.

Truth

Actually, not truth. The 1300 new HS seats are also meant to help alleviate projected overcrowding at Wakefield and Yorktown. Hence it will be a choice school for all, not a mere extension of WL for the students in WL's boundaries.

that means WL is NOT becoming a 4K seats school - rather WL is still a 2,700 seats school but with a neighboring 1,300 seats school, right? not ideal traffic-wise but like posters said upthread it's hardly unique in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That means WL is NOT becoming a 4K seats school - rather WL is still a 2,700 seats school but with a neighboring 1,300 seats school, right? not ideal traffic-wise but like posters said upthread it's hardly unique in Arlington.

No, it's a 4000- student high school with one grade having most of its classes in another building. So a permanent trailer pod, basically.

Which is also not unique in Arlington

[Anonymous]

The "truth" is no one knows yet exactly which mess APS will create at W-L, but many of us are bailing now. You don't have to go far for better schools in Fairfax or Montgomery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The "truth" is no one knows yet exactly which mess APS will create at W-L, but many of us are bailing now. You don't have to go far for better schools in Fairfax or Montgomery.

I thought those school systems are having their own significant problems? No?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "truth" is no one knows yet exactly which mess APS will create at W-L, but many of us are bailing now. You don't have to go far for better schools in Fairfax or Montgomery.

I thought those school systems are having their own significant problems? No?

Not of this magnitude of incompetency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The "truth" is no one knows yet exactly which mess APS will create at W-L, but many of us are bailing now. You don't have to go far for better schools in Fairfax or Montgomery.

Unfortunately the real estate market doesn't bear that out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "truth" is no one knows yet exactly which mess APS will create at W-L, but many of us are bailing now. You don't have to go far for better schools in Fairfax or Montgomery.

Unfortunately the real estate market doesn't bear that out.

Several parts of Arlington saw declining prices over the past year. The school situation is not looking good. Yorktown and Wakefield have long punched under their weight academically, given their demographics, and it's hard to see things improving with the projected overcrowding and lack of commitment to building a fourth neighborhood high school that is comparable to the existing ones in terms of either facilities and programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That means WL is NOT becoming a 4K seats school - rather WL is still a 2,700 seats school but with a neighboring 1,300 seats school, right? not ideal traffic-wise but like posters said upthread it's hardly unique in Arlington.

No, it's a 4000- student high school with one grade having most of its classes in another building. So a permanent trailer pod, basically.

Which is also not unique in Arlington

Are you talking about a 9th gr academy at Ed Ctr? That's different from a choice program PP mentioned. A choice program with non-traditional EC could work at Ed Ctr I think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That means WL is NOT becoming a 4K seats school - rather WL is still a 2,700 seats school but with a neighboring 1,300 seats school, right? not ideal traffic-wise but like posters said upthread it's hardly unique in Arlington.

No, it's a 4000- student high school with one grade having most of its classes in another building. So a permanent trailer pod, basically.

Which is also not unique in Arlington

Are you talking about a 9th gr academy at Ed Ctr? That's different from a choice program PP mentioned. A choice program with non-traditional EC could work at Ed Ctr I think.

It doesn't matter whether it is a choice school or not. Whatever it is, it will have no gym (unlike all the other choice schools in the county) and no fields or green space of its own (unlike all the other choice schools in the county. Likely given the size of the building and the proximity of W-L, it will also have no library. Students at the choice school (or 9th grade academy) will use W-L for these purposes. That's why it will feel very much like W-L has 4000 students. All those students will be in and around W-L all day long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That means WL is NOT becoming a 4K seats school - rather WL is still a 2,700 seats school but with a neighboring 1,300 seats school, right? not ideal traffic-wise but like posters said upthread it's hardly unique in Arlington.

No, it's a 4000- student high school with one grade having most of its classes in another building. So a permanent trailer pod, basically.

Which is also not unique in Arlington

Are you talking about a 9th gr academy at Ed Ctr? That's different from a choice program PP mentioned. A choice program with non-traditional EC could work at Ed Ctr I think.

It doesn't matter whether it is a choice school or not. Whatever it is, it will have no gym (unlike all the other choice schools in the county) and no fields or green space of its own (unlike all the other choice schools in the county. Likely given the size of the building and the proximity of W-L, it will also have no library. Students at the choice school (or 9th grade academy) will use W-L for these purposes. That's why it will feel very much like W-L has 4000 students. All those students will be in and around W-L all day long.

+1 (for the analysis, not the coming mess).

[Anonymous]

See it does make a difference, because a choice program can do away all the amenities you specified, because students/families voluntarily choose the program (whatever it is) over all the 'necessities' of a regular HS. This is not different than the ArlTech program which has no gym no green space no auditorium no library no field etc. HB has no major school sports teams and limited field/green space in the new campus.

But you can't have a regular 9th gr academy without those, I don't think.