LAST APS meeting on new high school and countywide rezoning (4/4, 7 pm Yorktown)
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Anonymous
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Last chance to provide input on 3 new high school options and countywide policies on choice schools/transfers/zoning tomorrow, Tuesday April 4 from 7-9 pm at Yorktown.
DCUM comments don't count - go in-person or send an email to school.board @apsva.us Link to what is being decided: https://www.apsva.us/post/policy-update-presented-enrollment-transfers-school-board-work-session/ Quick summary: High School: - 3500-4000 school at W-L through addition at Ed Center - 1300 seats at 32-acre Kenmore site (possibility to move middle school later if VHC land becomes available) - 1300 seats at Career Center, co-located with Arlington Tech Countywide rezoning / options - New East/West "zones" countywide with neighborhood schools and options in each zomecatveach kevej. - ATS, Campbell, HB, Arlington Tech remain. As countywide lottery schools ES - ASFS becomes neighborhood school - Immersion: Claremont for West, Key for East - IB: Reed for West (NOT a neighborhood school), Randolph for East - All neighborhood schools are STEAM MS - Immersion: New program at Williamsburg for West, Gunston for East - IB: New program at Swanson for West, Jefferson for East - STEAM - New program at Kenmore for West, new program at Stratford for East |
Anonymous
| Unfortunately tomorrow is my bday so I can't make the meeting. Just studied slide deck. Does this mean if you don't go to an immersion ES just your neighborhood ES which i guess is now a STEAM school and you were originally zoned for Williamsburg you would now go to Kenmore? How are thry going to handle all these applications!? APS couldn't even handle the stupid extended care sign up! |
Anonymous
If it is like it is today no. In MS and HS immersion is a program within the school. It is only in Elementary where the whole school is in the immersion program. |
Anonymous
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I went on Thursday at Wakefield.
There is also a proposal that all incoming K and 5th students should be automatically entered into the option lotteries Also with the East/West proposal Key will no longer be a neighborhood school. Everyone will have to lottery in to all option schools. |
Anonymous
| Correct - and no more cluster, team or neighborhood automatic entry into any school with this proposal. |
Anonymous
| Thank you, OP, for the very good summary. I honestly am okay with most of the proposed changes except don't want a 3500-4000 student high school. |
Anonymous
What? This doesn't make any fucking sense!? Are you saying you can't send your kid to the neighborhood school walking distance from our home? We are currently 1 mile or less from our neighborhood es.ms and hs. Does anyone have any confidence that aps can handle all of these applications s, etc? They have gotten the numbers wrong each time. Also, how do they really know sufficient demand exists for montessori es etc? As others have suggested this may be more about people moving to avoid overcrowding. Further, on the other thread someone mentioned how the current montessori program seemed disproportionately brown bc of the number if slots reserved for poorer families. Why should they reserve 2/3 of those seats? Why not do away with all preferences then? |
Anonymous
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Sorry if I was confusing. Most schools at ES would be neighborhood, but they do away with the random and unequal policies for option schools. As an example, today, 3 schools are in a "team" with Key and have priority. At Claremont, there is a cluster of schools with priority. Different policy for Campbell. In the proposal, all kids can apply to countywide option programs (for ES - ATS, Campbell and Montessaori). Within each zone, they are proposing at least 2 more options - Immersiom and IB. Science Focus becomes a neighborhood school (because it basically is anyway.)
People need to speak up - in-person and I'm writing - if they have views. For example, this proposal would make Reed a choice IB school - not a neighborhood school. Immersion people are concerned about supporting 2 Immersion middle schools. How does a second IB program get implemented at Swanson when it is overcrowded? For high school, some believe APS and school board already decided to build a 4,000 seat W-L. If you don't like that idea and prefer the other two options, speak up now. These decisions will be made in the next 45-60 days. |
Anonymous
| A 4000-student school is ridiculous, to state the obvious. What are these people thinking? |
Anonymous
| What's going to become of ASFS? |
Anonymous
+1 That's crazy. |
Anonymous
Neighborhood school, no more team. |
Anonymous
Um, nobody is fooled by the "West-East" thing. Why bother doing this? All this does is further lock in the North-South divide. At least right now, anyone who really wants immersion goes to Gunston, and anyone who really wants IB goes to Jefferson. All this will do is cause further segregation...as if it's not bad enough right now. |
Anonymous
Interesting. Hope this doesn't hurt Key in terms of enrollment. |
Anonymous
| Hey, OP, thanks for this (so many meetings/work sessions -- I get lost). |