APS 2021-2022 boundary-adjustments

[Anonymous]

APS is going to do boundary-adjustments (again). https://sungazette.news/downscaled-boundary-adjustment-process-likely-this-fall/


Couple of middle school changes, and for elementary school:

• Moving some students from Abingdon Elementary School to Charles Drew Elementary School.

• Adjusting the attendance areas for Arlington’s two English-Spanish immersion elementary schools, and working to create a balance of half native-Spanish speakers and half English-speakers at the schools.

[Anonymous]

How are elementary enrollments in the NW sector?

You have Cardinal, Tuckahoe, Nottingham, and Discovery all in close proximity to each other. Does it still look like they'll all be around in the future as in-boundary schools?

[Anonymous]

Yes. This has all been planned. It’s part of living in a county with exploding kid population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APS is going to do boundary-adjustments (again). https://sungazette.news/downscaled-boundary-adjustment-process-likely-this-fall/


Couple of middle school changes, and for elementary school:

• Moving some students from Abingdon Elementary School to Charles Drew Elementary School.

• Adjusting the attendance areas for Arlington’s two English-Spanish immersion elementary schools, and working to create a balance of half native-Spanish speakers and half English-speakers at the schools.

If you're on APE's FB page, you will have seen how off the enrollment is this year vs. 2020. I'm glad APS is going to do a "light" boundary change this year because the numbers are subject to way too much fluctuation in the next several years and dependent on too many variables.

Abingdon/Drew is very low-hanging fruit. Abingdon's enrollment this fall is 682 while Drew's is 431 (which numbers does not factor kids in the virtual program).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is going to do boundary-adjustments (again). https://sungazette.news/downscaled-boundary-adjustment-process-likely-this-fall/


Couple of middle school changes, and for elementary school:

• Moving some students from Abingdon Elementary School to Charles Drew Elementary School.

• Adjusting the attendance areas for Arlington’s two English-Spanish immersion elementary schools, and working to create a balance of half native-Spanish speakers and half English-speakers at the schools.

If you're on APE's FB page, you will have seen how off the enrollment is this year vs. 2020. I'm glad APS is going to do a "light" boundary change this year because the numbers are subject to way too much fluctuation in the next several years and dependent on too many variables.

Abingdon/Drew is very low-hanging fruit. Abingdon's enrollment this fall is 682 while Drew's is 431 (which numbers does not factor kids in the virtual program).

Considering boundary changes are typically political 3rd rails (and especially this one for the Fairlington neighborhood), best to take it on by itself this year and leave any other painful changes for later.

[Anonymous]

This year was always supposed to be a full middle school boundary process which now sounds off the table.

Last year, they said they would do a full blown elementary boundary process in 2 years (so process next fall for implementation the following school year). They made a point of saying every planning unit could potentially be involved. This is because they kicked the can last year and did bare minimum amount possible to fill Cardinal and set up new Key neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are elementary enrollments in the NW sector?

You have Cardinal, Tuckahoe, Nottingham, and Discovery all in close proximity to each other. Does it still look like they'll all be around in the future as in-boundary schools?

I am hearing Nottingham and Discovery in particular are low enrollment. Some grade levels have only 2 classes. So maybe one of those gets the ax as neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are elementary enrollments in the NW sector?

You have Cardinal, Tuckahoe, Nottingham, and Discovery all in close proximity to each other. Does it still look like they'll all be around in the future as in-boundary schools?

I am hearing Nottingham and Discovery in particular are low enrollment. Some grade levels have only 2 classes. So maybe one of those gets the ax as neighborhood.

Since June 2020, Nottingham's and Discovery's enrollments are down by 19% and 16%, respectively. Tuckahoe's enrollment is down 21% while McKinley/Cardinal's enrollment is down 17%.

Caveat: none of that factors in students from those home schools who are in the VLP, but VLP ES students are only 2.4% of all ES students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are elementary enrollments in the NW sector?

You have Cardinal, Tuckahoe, Nottingham, and Discovery all in close proximity to each other. Does it still look like they'll all be around in the future as in-boundary schools?

I am hearing Nottingham and Discovery in particular are low enrollment. Some grade levels have only 2 classes. So maybe one of those gets the ax as neighborhood.

Since June 2020, Nottingham's and Discovery's enrollments are down by 19% and 16%, respectively. Tuckahoe's enrollment is down 21% while McKinley/Cardinal's enrollment is down 17%.

Caveat: none of that factors in students from those home schools who are in the VLP, but VLP ES students are only 2.4% of all ES students.

It also doesn't factor in which ones were under or over enrolled to begin with OR which ones had boundary changes in the meantime. McKinley/Cardinal and Tuckahoe both had boundary changes too.

[Anonymous]

Article also said moving some kids from Wakefield to W-L. All I hear from parents of kids at W-L is how packed it is there already. Is the former admin building they are converting to classrooms open yet?

W-L is just going to be so huge.

[Anonymous]

Excited to have the south Fairlington to drew battle all over again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This year was always supposed to be a full middle school boundary process which now sounds off the table.

Last year, they said they would do a full blown elementary boundary process in 2 years (so process next fall for implementation the following school year). They made a point of saying every planning unit could potentially be involved. This is because they kicked the can last year and did bare minimum amount possible to fill Cardinal and set up new Key neighborhood school.

The MS data is way too open to changes to do a full MS boundary change. We should be very thankful they're not doing one.

The students who are in 2nd-8th grades this year are very far down (vs. their enrollment when they were in K-6th grades in the 2019-2020). That is all subject to wide swings in the next few years.

Those %s declines are as follows:
*8th is -7.4% vs. when they were in 6th grade in the 2019-2020 school year
*7th is -7.9% vs. when in 5th
*6th is -10.9% vs. when in 4th
*5th grade is -10.6% vs. when in 3rd
*4th is -9.2% vs. when in 2nd
*3rd is -10.0% vs. when in 1st
*2nd is -9.3% vs. when in K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This year was always supposed to be a full middle school boundary process which now sounds off the table.

Last year, they said they would do a full blown elementary boundary process in 2 years (so process next fall for implementation the following school year). They made a point of saying every planning unit could potentially be involved. This is because they kicked the can last year and did bare minimum amount possible to fill Cardinal and set up new Key neighborhood school.

The MS data is way too open to changes to do a full MS boundary change. We should be very thankful they're not doing one.

The students who are in 2nd-8th grades this year are very far down (vs. their enrollment when they were in K-6th grades in the 2019-2020). That is all subject to wide swings in the next few years.

Those %s declines are as follows:
*8th is -7.4% vs. when they were in 6th grade in the 2019-2020 school year
*7th is -7.9% vs. when in 5th
*6th is -10.9% vs. when in 4th
*5th grade is -10.6% vs. when in 3rd
*4th is -9.2% vs. when in 2nd
*3rd is -10.0% vs. when in 1st
*2nd is -9.3% vs. when in K

For detailed analyses such as these, please join APE's Facebook group. All of this analysis was done by APE from data provided by APS (ugh - prior poster who did not cite them!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This year was always supposed to be a full middle school boundary process which now sounds off the table.

Last year, they said they would do a full blown elementary boundary process in 2 years (so process next fall for implementation the following school year). They made a point of saying every planning unit could potentially be involved. This is because they kicked the can last year and did bare minimum amount possible to fill Cardinal and set up new Key neighborhood school.

The MS data is way too open to changes to do a full MS boundary change. We should be very thankful they're not doing one.

The students who are in 2nd-8th grades this year are very far down (vs. their enrollment when they were in K-6th grades in the 2019-2020). That is all subject to wide swings in the next few years.

Those %s declines are as follows:
*8th is -7.4% vs. when they were in 6th grade in the 2019-2020 school year
*7th is -7.9% vs. when in 5th
*6th is -10.9% vs. when in 4th
*5th grade is -10.6% vs. when in 3rd
*4th is -9.2% vs. when in 2nd
*3rd is -10.0% vs. when in 1st
*2nd is -9.3% vs. when in K

I really hope these kids never come back. How possible do we think that is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is going to do boundary-adjustments (again). https://sungazette.news/downscaled-boundary-adjustment-process-likely-this-fall/


Couple of middle school changes, and for elementary school:

• Moving some students from Abingdon Elementary School to Charles Drew Elementary School.

• Adjusting the attendance areas for Arlington’s two English-Spanish immersion elementary schools, and working to create a balance of half native-Spanish speakers and half English-speakers at the schools.

If you're on APE's FB page, you will have seen how off the enrollment is this year vs. 2020. I'm glad APS is going to do a "light" boundary change this year because the numbers are subject to way too much fluctuation in the next several years and dependent on too many variables.

Abingdon/Drew is very low-hanging fruit. Abingdon's enrollment this fall is 682 while Drew's is 431 (which numbers does not factor kids in the virtual program).

Considering boundary changes are typically political 3rd rails (and especially this one for the Fairlington neighborhood), best to take it on by itself this year and leave any other painful changes for later.

I will agree, no one likes the boundary changes, but they are very necessary! The kicked the can the last time by not fully enrolling Drew. But part of the problem is that they really need to adjust the ENTIRE COUNTY at one time so they can make many shifts without hitting all these zones that are "untouchable" because they deemed them untouchable.

The best solution I've seen is to combine Drew and Abingdon. Make one a k-2 school, and the other 3-5. You'd still get complaints from people with sibling sets (like me be my DD will be in 3rd grade when my DS starts K) but it's a way to give everyone what they want and no one what they want.

I'm also curious to see how they reset Key and Claremont's boundaries so that they don't become a north/south split.