APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown

[Anonymous]

If you have posted here and are concerned about what the School Board will decide for the new high school, please come tonight! If we don't get more people to come out, they will build the 4,000 seat W-L. Don't fall for their bait and switch tactics - "first we build 1300 and then we'll give you a fourth comprehensive high school later". If they don't build 1300 seats at Kenmore, we will never have bonding capacity nor the land to build a fourth comprehensive.

If you can't come tonight, please email:

[e-mail]

Dear Members of the School Board:

I am a voter in Arlington and I strongly favor building more high school seats that gives the easiest path to a fourth comprehensive high school. Please wait to build at the Ed Center until a future time when we need to expand all high schools. Our community does not like the idea of 4,000 students at the same campus - regardless of what kind of instructional program it is. A 4,000 seat high school creates serious inequities in the county. Please vote to build at Kenmore with a co-located high school and middle school on the large 32-acre site. This plan is the only plan that establishes a solid pathway to a fourth comprehensive high school. The traffic in all of Arlington is poor; however, Carlin Springs can be workable. It would be better to have spread-out start times with high school, middle and elementary all starting at different times. The Ed Center site would create an absolute nightmare with 4,000 kids all starting at the same time.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have posted here and are concerned about what the School Board will decide for the new high school, please come tonight! If we don't get more people to come out, they will build the 4,000 seat W-L. Don't fall for their bait and switch tactics - "first we build 1300 and then we'll give you a fourth comprehensive high school later". If they don't build 1300 seats at Kenmore, we will never have bonding capacity nor the land to build a fourth comprehensive.

If you can't come tonight, please email:

[e-mail]

Dear Members of the School Board:

I am a voter in Arlington and I strongly favor building more high school seats that gives the easiest path to a fourth comprehensive high school. Please wait to build at the Ed Center until a future time when we need to expand all high schools. Our community does not like the idea of 4,000 students at the same campus - regardless of what kind of instructional program it is. A 4,000 seat high school creates serious inequities in the county. Please vote to build at Kenmore with a co-located high school and middle school on the large 32-acre site. This plan is the only plan that establishes a solid pathway to a fourth comprehensive high school. The traffic in all of Arlington is poor; however, Carlin Springs can be workable. It would be better to have spread-out start times with high school, middle and elementary all starting at different times. The Ed Center site would create an absolute nightmare with 4,000 kids all starting at the same time.

Thank you

Adding to this -- I've been told it's better to email the board members individually as they are more likely to see those emails than ones to the group email (although cc; that one too)

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[Anonymous]

I might spend all day +1'ing this post so it stays at the top of Recent Topics.

Thank you, PP! Yorktown PTA is hosting two SB members, Barbara and Reid. It's important to continue to reinforce to them, but they need three votes. NVD is against a 4th comprehensive. Tannia is likely going to vote like NVD, so the kicker is that Lander's vote this spring really matters. Put the pressure on him between now and the caucus to commit to voting for the Kenmore site in June.

[Anonymous]

Email sent. I don't think they care, though.

[Anonymous]

Why not a petition with this as the text? Set it up so signatures go to all School and County Board members as well as key APS staff (Murphy, Nattrass and the engage email address). Do you want help setting it up?

[Anonymous]

County Board and School board tend to host a ton of these stupid events to give the constituents the false sense that they have a voice. Then, they just do what they want even if it is against what the majority of the people want.

I will send the emails. I am not convinced they will do much. But--we have to at least try.

[Anonymous]

Call them, too! 703-228-6000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not a petition with this as the text? Set it up so signatures go to all School and County Board members as well as key APS staff (Murphy, Nattrass and the engage email address). Do you want help setting it up?

Do online petitions have more effect on Arlington SB members than they do generally?

[Anonymous]

The petition last June worked - we got 1000 signatures in two days and the SB changed the CIP. This decision-making process is the result of that.

[Anonymous]

Do they publicly release the results of their own surveys? I want to see the results of the high school survey that just closed a week or so ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do they publicly release the results of their own surveys? I want to see the results of the high school survey that just closed a week or so ago.

That survey was so poorly worded that it won't be decipherable! And they probably won't release it in time!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The petition last June worked - we got 1000 signatures in two days and the SB changed the CIP. This decision-making process is the result of that.

Was the petition the only thing people did? I mean, go ahead, create one. It's easy enough. But I'm wondering if the petition was the stone in the stone soup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The petition last June worked - we got 1000 signatures in two days and the SB changed the CIP. This decision-making process is the result of that.

I'm happy to sign a petition if there a chance it will help.

[Anonymous]

Here are the survey results. Agree the survey was poorly designed.

http://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Community-Feedback-School-Options-FINAL.pdf

[Anonymous]

Of course the survey wasn't the only factor but it probably helped. It provides an easy way to keep track of how many people favor a particular option. Showing up in person is also important but some people aren't able to do that - especially parents of very young children, who are going to be most impacted by this decision.