APS boundary process this fall?

[Anonymous]

No sympathy for packed Swanson or Cardinal. The Westover families threw fits about proposals that they be moved out of those school zones. Even when there was room at Williamsburg, Nottingham, Tuckahoe. They won and the schools are packed to the gills. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about making ATS a feeder into WMS? That way friend groups could stay together post-elementary.

DC schools do this where option programs have their own feeder path.

Yes. Campbell, both immersion schools, Montessori, and ATS could all feed into Williamsburg then Yorktown. That would solve the underenrolled North Arlington schools once and for all.

Huh? I don't know that those numbers add up at all and it's a super weird grouping. Immersion needs to be considered separately because it has specific needs and is intended to benefit and support English learners.

I do think it would work well to give ATS students the option to continue at WMS so they can stay with friends, even if the program doesn't continue into middle school.

I know less about the Campbell program and whether those families would be interested in continuing at WMS given commutes and whether most of those kids end up at the same middle school(s) already.

And yet somehow Claremont has a lower FARMS rate and percentage of English learners than the surrounding neighborhood schools. I bet those parents would be happy to opt out of Gunston.

Huh? The ratio of English learners in immersion is set to 50/50 by definition. And immersion feeds into Gunston so signing up for immersion isn't opting out of Gunston. And Escuela Key parents are opting into Gunston and out of WMS/Hamm/Swanson by choosing immersion.

Voluntary transfers last year prioritized TJ and Swanson as the most overcrowded APS middle schools. If Gunston becomes the most crowded, presumably Gunston parents will be prioritized for a voluntary transfer to an underenrolled middle school.

It annoys me that this is thrown out as the solution. People want to know where their kids will go to middle school and know they will go with a cohort from their elementary school and their neighbors. It's not a solution to just say people from overcrowded schools can opt to go elsewhere. Listen to what you're saying. My school and its boundary works for me so several other over enrolled schools should just send their overages to my school.

I don't think that's what it's saying at all. I have a kid from an elementary school that splits for middle school. The kids who didn't have an older sibling at the crowded middle school tended to apply to transfer, but those who did have an older sibling opted to go to the same school as their sibling. This seemed to work out pretty well, with a lot of students going to their preferred school and less stressful than forcing students to swap.

It doesn't work well for me. I have a kid at Tuckahoe zoned to Swanson. I don't really care where he goes. Don't mind if we get a bus or not although he would be a walker to Swanson. What about kids who want to go to the other school and don't get a transfer? A lot of these schools have 1 or a just a handful of PUs going to a middle school. If most kids get a transfer out and he doesn't, that sucks for him. He was already supposed to go to Swanson with not many kids from his elementary school and what if he's one of the only ones who ends up there? That's stressful. Unless the policy is these kids are guaranteed placement at either school of their choice, which I don't think is the case.

You're guaranteed to go to your home school. No one is guaranteed a transfer. It's not a that hard. And yes, some boundary splits suck (see prior posts by Glebe, Ashlawn and ASFS parents) and don't make sense. But the next round could very well be worse and redrawing boundaries is always disruptive.

This is what it is for a lot of people. What we have doesn't work and a lot of kids are getting screwed but my kid isn't currently screwed so let's stick with what we have because in a new system my own kid could be worse off.

This is why APS sucks. This attitude is prevalent and APS totally caves to it over and over.

Its super disruptive to school communities and families to redraw boundaries. It should be done as infrequently as possible. Voluntary transfers are minimally disruptive and are a great measure to stretch out the time between boundary changes.

Guess what is super disruptive to school communities. Having your kid in a school packed like a sardine can for 3 years. Just lived it for 3 years with one kid. Voluntary transfers don't really help this issue.

The point of transfers is to deal with overcrowding. If it's not sufficient, that's a different discussion.

You can't force enough kids to take an optional transfer to Williamsburg to fix the imbalance. The way you would fix the issue is by...rezoning kids.

I wanted to transfer but they don’t offer transportation so I couldn’t make it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about making ATS a feeder into WMS? That way friend groups could stay together post-elementary.

DC schools do this where option programs have their own feeder path.

Yes. Campbell, both immersion schools, Montessori, and ATS could all feed into Williamsburg then Yorktown. That would solve the underenrolled North Arlington schools once and for all.

Huh? I don't know that those numbers add up at all and it's a super weird grouping. Immersion needs to be considered separately because it has specific needs and is intended to benefit and support English learners.

I do think it would work well to give ATS students the option to continue at WMS so they can stay with friends, even if the program doesn't continue into middle school.

I know less about the Campbell program and whether those families would be interested in continuing at WMS given commutes and whether most of those kids end up at the same middle school(s) already.

And yet somehow Claremont has a lower FARMS rate and percentage of English learners than the surrounding neighborhood schools. I bet those parents would be happy to opt out of Gunston.

Huh? The ratio of English learners in immersion is set to 50/50 by definition. And immersion feeds into Gunston so signing up for immersion isn't opting out of Gunston. And Escuela Key parents are opting into Gunston and out of WMS/Hamm/Swanson by choosing immersion.

Voluntary transfers last year prioritized TJ and Swanson as the most overcrowded APS middle schools. If Gunston becomes the most crowded, presumably Gunston parents will be prioritized for a voluntary transfer to an underenrolled middle school.

It annoys me that this is thrown out as the solution. People want to know where their kids will go to middle school and know they will go with a cohort from their elementary school and their neighbors. It's not a solution to just say people from overcrowded schools can opt to go elsewhere. Listen to what you're saying. My school and its boundary works for me so several other over enrolled schools should just send their overages to my school.

I don't think that's what it's saying at all. I have a kid from an elementary school that splits for middle school. The kids who didn't have an older sibling at the crowded middle school tended to apply to transfer, but those who did have an older sibling opted to go to the same school as their sibling. This seemed to work out pretty well, with a lot of students going to their preferred school and less stressful than forcing students to swap.

It doesn't work well for me. I have a kid at Tuckahoe zoned to Swanson. I don't really care where he goes. Don't mind if we get a bus or not although he would be a walker to Swanson. What about kids who want to go to the other school and don't get a transfer? A lot of these schools have 1 or a just a handful of PUs going to a middle school. If most kids get a transfer out and he doesn't, that sucks for him. He was already supposed to go to Swanson with not many kids from his elementary school and what if he's one of the only ones who ends up there? That's stressful. Unless the policy is these kids are guaranteed placement at either school of their choice, which I don't think is the case.

You're guaranteed to go to your home school. No one is guaranteed a transfer. It's not a that hard. And yes, some boundary splits suck (see prior posts by Glebe, Ashlawn and ASFS parents) and don't make sense. But the next round could very well be worse and redrawing boundaries is always disruptive.

This is what it is for a lot of people. What we have doesn't work and a lot of kids are getting screwed but my kid isn't currently screwed so let's stick with what we have because in a new system my own kid could be worse off.

This is why APS sucks. This attitude is prevalent and APS totally caves to it over and over.

Its super disruptive to school communities and families to redraw boundaries. It should be done as infrequently as possible. Voluntary transfers are minimally disruptive and are a great measure to stretch out the time between boundary changes.

Guess what is super disruptive to school communities. Having your kid in a school packed like a sardine can for 3 years. Just lived it for 3 years with one kid. Voluntary transfers don't really help this issue.

The point of transfers is to deal with overcrowding. If it's not sufficient, that's a different discussion.

You can't force enough kids to take an optional transfer to Williamsburg to fix the imbalance. The way you would fix the issue is by...rezoning kids.

I wanted to transfer but they don’t offer transportation so I couldn’t make it work.

Yeah it's not really a good plan to offer transfers to relieve overcrowding when the families have to figure out transportation themselves. Seems like nothing more than offering the option for a small number of privileged kids to pick a different school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about making ATS a feeder into WMS? That way friend groups could stay together post-elementary.

DC schools do this where option programs have their own feeder path.

Yes. Campbell, both immersion schools, Montessori, and ATS could all feed into Williamsburg then Yorktown. That would solve the underenrolled North Arlington schools once and for all.

Huh? I don't know that those numbers add up at all and it's a super weird grouping. Immersion needs to be considered separately because it has specific needs and is intended to benefit and support English learners.

I do think it would work well to give ATS students the option to continue at WMS so they can stay with friends, even if the program doesn't continue into middle school.

I know less about the Campbell program and whether those families would be interested in continuing at WMS given commutes and whether most of those kids end up at the same middle school(s) already.

And yet somehow Claremont has a lower FARMS rate and percentage of English learners than the surrounding neighborhood schools. I bet those parents would be happy to opt out of Gunston.

Huh? The ratio of English learners in immersion is set to 50/50 by definition. And immersion feeds into Gunston so signing up for immersion isn't opting out of Gunston. And Escuela Key parents are opting into Gunston and out of WMS/Hamm/Swanson by choosing immersion.

Voluntary transfers last year prioritized TJ and Swanson as the most overcrowded APS middle schools. If Gunston becomes the most crowded, presumably Gunston parents will be prioritized for a voluntary transfer to an underenrolled middle school.

It annoys me that this is thrown out as the solution. People want to know where their kids will go to middle school and know they will go with a cohort from their elementary school and their neighbors. It's not a solution to just say people from overcrowded schools can opt to go elsewhere. Listen to what you're saying. My school and its boundary works for me so several other over enrolled schools should just send their overages to my school.

I don't think that's what it's saying at all. I have a kid from an elementary school that splits for middle school. The kids who didn't have an older sibling at the crowded middle school tended to apply to transfer, but those who did have an older sibling opted to go to the same school as their sibling. This seemed to work out pretty well, with a lot of students going to their preferred school and less stressful than forcing students to swap.

It doesn't work well for me. I have a kid at Tuckahoe zoned to Swanson. I don't really care where he goes. Don't mind if we get a bus or not although he would be a walker to Swanson. What about kids who want to go to the other school and don't get a transfer? A lot of these schools have 1 or a just a handful of PUs going to a middle school. If most kids get a transfer out and he doesn't, that sucks for him. He was already supposed to go to Swanson with not many kids from his elementary school and what if he's one of the only ones who ends up there? That's stressful. Unless the policy is these kids are guaranteed placement at either school of their choice, which I don't think is the case.

You're guaranteed to go to your home school. No one is guaranteed a transfer. It's not a that hard. And yes, some boundary splits suck (see prior posts by Glebe, Ashlawn and ASFS parents) and don't make sense. But the next round could very well be worse and redrawing boundaries is always disruptive.

This is what it is for a lot of people. What we have doesn't work and a lot of kids are getting screwed but my kid isn't currently screwed so let's stick with what we have because in a new system my own kid could be worse off.

This is why APS sucks. This attitude is prevalent and APS totally caves to it over and over.

Its super disruptive to school communities and families to redraw boundaries. It should be done as infrequently as possible. Voluntary transfers are minimally disruptive and are a great measure to stretch out the time between boundary changes.

Guess what is super disruptive to school communities. Having your kid in a school packed like a sardine can for 3 years. Just lived it for 3 years with one kid. Voluntary transfers don't really help this issue.

The point of transfers is to deal with overcrowding. If it's not sufficient, that's a different discussion.

You can't force enough kids to take an optional transfer to Williamsburg to fix the imbalance. The way you would fix the issue is by...rezoning kids.

I wanted to transfer but they don’t offer transportation so I couldn’t make it work.

Yeah it's not really a good plan to offer transfers to relieve overcrowding when the families have to figure out transportation themselves. Seems like nothing more than offering the option for a small number of privileged kids to pick a different school.

The good thing is that public transit (busses, but not the trains) are now free for students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about making ATS a feeder into WMS? That way friend groups could stay together post-elementary.

DC schools do this where option programs have their own feeder path.

Yes. Campbell, both immersion schools, Montessori, and ATS could all feed into Williamsburg then Yorktown. That would solve the underenrolled North Arlington schools once and for all.

Huh? I don't know that those numbers add up at all and it's a super weird grouping. Immersion needs to be considered separately because it has specific needs and is intended to benefit and support English learners.

I do think it would work well to give ATS students the option to continue at WMS so they can stay with friends, even if the program doesn't continue into middle school.

I know less about the Campbell program and whether those families would be interested in continuing at WMS given commutes and whether most of those kids end up at the same middle school(s) already.

And yet somehow Claremont has a lower FARMS rate and percentage of English learners than the surrounding neighborhood schools. I bet those parents would be happy to opt out of Gunston.

Huh? The ratio of English learners in immersion is set to 50/50 by definition. And immersion feeds into Gunston so signing up for immersion isn't opting out of Gunston. And Escuela Key parents are opting into Gunston and out of WMS/Hamm/Swanson by choosing immersion.

Voluntary transfers last year prioritized TJ and Swanson as the most overcrowded APS middle schools. If Gunston becomes the most crowded, presumably Gunston parents will be prioritized for a voluntary transfer to an underenrolled middle school.

It annoys me that this is thrown out as the solution. People want to know where their kids will go to middle school and know they will go with a cohort from their elementary school and their neighbors. It's not a solution to just say people from overcrowded schools can opt to go elsewhere. Listen to what you're saying. My school and its boundary works for me so several other over enrolled schools should just send their overages to my school.

I don't think that's what it's saying at all. I have a kid from an elementary school that splits for middle school. The kids who didn't have an older sibling at the crowded middle school tended to apply to transfer, but those who did have an older sibling opted to go to the same school as their sibling. This seemed to work out pretty well, with a lot of students going to their preferred school and less stressful than forcing students to swap.

It doesn't work well for me. I have a kid at Tuckahoe zoned to Swanson. I don't really care where he goes. Don't mind if we get a bus or not although he would be a walker to Swanson. What about kids who want to go to the other school and don't get a transfer? A lot of these schools have 1 or a just a handful of PUs going to a middle school. If most kids get a transfer out and he doesn't, that sucks for him. He was already supposed to go to Swanson with not many kids from his elementary school and what if he's one of the only ones who ends up there? That's stressful. Unless the policy is these kids are guaranteed placement at either school of their choice, which I don't think is the case.

You're guaranteed to go to your home school. No one is guaranteed a transfer. It's not a that hard. And yes, some boundary splits suck (see prior posts by Glebe, Ashlawn and ASFS parents) and don't make sense. But the next round could very well be worse and redrawing boundaries is always disruptive.

This is what it is for a lot of people. What we have doesn't work and a lot of kids are getting screwed but my kid isn't currently screwed so let's stick with what we have because in a new system my own kid could be worse off.

This is why APS sucks. This attitude is prevalent and APS totally caves to it over and over.

Its super disruptive to school communities and families to redraw boundaries. It should be done as infrequently as possible. Voluntary transfers are minimally disruptive and are a great measure to stretch out the time between boundary changes.

Guess what is super disruptive to school communities. Having your kid in a school packed like a sardine can for 3 years. Just lived it for 3 years with one kid. Voluntary transfers don't really help this issue.

The point of transfers is to deal with overcrowding. If it's not sufficient, that's a different discussion.

You can't force enough kids to take an optional transfer to Williamsburg to fix the imbalance. The way you would fix the issue is by...rezoning kids.

I wanted to transfer but they don’t offer transportation so I couldn’t make it work.

Yeah it's not really a good plan to offer transfers to relieve overcrowding when the families have to figure out transportation themselves. Seems like nothing more than offering the option for a small number of privileged kids to pick a different school.

The good thing is that public transit (busses, but not the trains) are now free for students.

Public transit to Williamsburg. That’s funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about making ATS a feeder into WMS? That way friend groups could stay together post-elementary.

DC schools do this where option programs have their own feeder path.

Yes. Campbell, both immersion schools, Montessori, and ATS could all feed into Williamsburg then Yorktown. That would solve the underenrolled North Arlington schools once and for all.

Huh? I don't know that those numbers add up at all and it's a super weird grouping. Immersion needs to be considered separately because it has specific needs and is intended to benefit and support English learners.

I do think it would work well to give ATS students the option to continue at WMS so they can stay with friends, even if the program doesn't continue into middle school.

I know less about the Campbell program and whether those families would be interested in continuing at WMS given commutes and whether most of those kids end up at the same middle school(s) already.

And yet somehow Claremont has a lower FARMS rate and percentage of English learners than the surrounding neighborhood schools. I bet those parents would be happy to opt out of Gunston.

Huh? The ratio of English learners in immersion is set to 50/50 by definition. And immersion feeds into Gunston so signing up for immersion isn't opting out of Gunston. And Escuela Key parents are opting into Gunston and out of WMS/Hamm/Swanson by choosing immersion.

Voluntary transfers last year prioritized TJ and Swanson as the most overcrowded APS middle schools. If Gunston becomes the most crowded, presumably Gunston parents will be prioritized for a voluntary transfer to an underenrolled middle school.

It annoys me that this is thrown out as the solution. People want to know where their kids will go to middle school and know they will go with a cohort from their elementary school and their neighbors. It's not a solution to just say people from overcrowded schools can opt to go elsewhere. Listen to what you're saying. My school and its boundary works for me so several other over enrolled schools should just send their overages to my school.

I don't think that's what it's saying at all. I have a kid from an elementary school that splits for middle school. The kids who didn't have an older sibling at the crowded middle school tended to apply to transfer, but those who did have an older sibling opted to go to the same school as their sibling. This seemed to work out pretty well, with a lot of students going to their preferred school and less stressful than forcing students to swap.

It doesn't work well for me. I have a kid at Tuckahoe zoned to Swanson. I don't really care where he goes. Don't mind if we get a bus or not although he would be a walker to Swanson. What about kids who want to go to the other school and don't get a transfer? A lot of these schools have 1 or a just a handful of PUs going to a middle school. If most kids get a transfer out and he doesn't, that sucks for him. He was already supposed to go to Swanson with not many kids from his elementary school and what if he's one of the only ones who ends up there? That's stressful. Unless the policy is these kids are guaranteed placement at either school of their choice, which I don't think is the case.

You're guaranteed to go to your home school. No one is guaranteed a transfer. It's not a that hard. And yes, some boundary splits suck (see prior posts by Glebe, Ashlawn and ASFS parents) and don't make sense. But the next round could very well be worse and redrawing boundaries is always disruptive.

This is what it is for a lot of people. What we have doesn't work and a lot of kids are getting screwed but my kid isn't currently screwed so let's stick with what we have because in a new system my own kid could be worse off.

This is why APS sucks. This attitude is prevalent and APS totally caves to it over and over.

Its super disruptive to school communities and families to redraw boundaries. It should be done as infrequently as possible. Voluntary transfers are minimally disruptive and are a great measure to stretch out the time between boundary changes.

Guess what is super disruptive to school communities. Having your kid in a school packed like a sardine can for 3 years. Just lived it for 3 years with one kid. Voluntary transfers don't really help this issue.

The point of transfers is to deal with overcrowding. If it's not sufficient, that's a different discussion.

You can't force enough kids to take an optional transfer to Williamsburg to fix the imbalance. The way you would fix the issue is by...rezoning kids.

I wanted to transfer but they don’t offer transportation so I couldn’t make it work.

Yeah it's not really a good plan to offer transfers to relieve overcrowding when the families have to figure out transportation themselves. Seems like nothing more than offering the option for a small number of privileged kids to pick a different school.

The good thing is that public transit (busses, but not the trains) are now free for students.

That is good, we looked into it and it would have been 40+ minutes so not a good solution. We did an option school so we weren’t new to long bus rides but it was just too long

[Anonymous]

This past year there were 10 slots offered to Williamsburg. This is not a solution APS is putting on the table to relieve crowding. It’s a joke.

[Anonymous]

Voluntary transfers are not an adequate solution when a school like Williamsburg - at 80% capacity - is allowed to decide that it only wants to take 10 transfers. Swanson is still left overcrowded and Williamsburg only made a symbolic gesture in taking a few extra kids. Why does APS allow this? So the richest middle school in the county is also the least crowded by a long shot? We are a Glebe family and, due to the voluntary transfers, what would be about a 50/50 split between Hamm and Swanson ends up being probably a 80/20 split with several kids left disappointed and on the wait list for transferring to Hamm. Just let them all transfer or none of them - or better yet, switch the PUs to Hamm so that some kids aren’t left behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Voluntary transfers are not an adequate solution when a school like Williamsburg - at 80% capacity - is allowed to decide that it only wants to take 10 transfers. Swanson is still left overcrowded and Williamsburg only made a symbolic gesture in taking a few extra kids. Why does APS allow this? So the richest middle school in the county is also the least crowded by a long shot? We are a Glebe family and, due to the voluntary transfers, what would be about a 50/50 split between Hamm and Swanson ends up being probably a 80/20 split with several kids left disappointed and on the wait list for transferring to Hamm. Just let them all transfer or none of them - or better yet, switch the PUs to Hamm so that some kids aren’t left behind.

All of Glebe should probably go to Hamm.

That should’ve been an obvious boundary move when the Hamm boundaries were first drawn, but the APS planners didn’t think there would be room at the new school. Hamm’s pre-pandemic enrollment projections were much, much higher.

More Ashlawn and Barrett planning units should’ve moved to Swanson as planned last year (with Tuckahoe and Glebe neighborhoods moving from Swanson to Williamsburg and Hamm), even though that would unfortunately move some wealthy neighborhoods away from Kenmore.

Maybe increase the arts program slots at Kenmore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about making ATS a feeder into WMS? That way friend groups could stay together post-elementary.

DC schools do this where option programs have their own feeder path.

Yes. Campbell, both immersion schools, Montessori, and ATS could all feed into Williamsburg then Yorktown. That would solve the underenrolled North Arlington schools once and for all.

Huh? I don't know that those numbers add up at all and it's a super weird grouping. Immersion needs to be considered separately because it has specific needs and is intended to benefit and support English learners.

I do think it would work well to give ATS students the option to continue at WMS so they can stay with friends, even if the program doesn't continue into middle school.

I know less about the Campbell program and whether those families would be interested in continuing at WMS given commutes and whether most of those kids end up at the same middle school(s) already.

And yet somehow Claremont has a lower FARMS rate and percentage of English learners than the surrounding neighborhood schools. I bet those parents would be happy to opt out of Gunston.

Huh? The ratio of English learners in immersion is set to 50/50 by definition. And immersion feeds into Gunston so signing up for immersion isn't opting out of Gunston. And Escuela Key parents are opting into Gunston and out of WMS/Hamm/Swanson by choosing immersion.

Voluntary transfers last year prioritized TJ and Swanson as the most overcrowded APS middle schools. If Gunston becomes the most crowded, presumably Gunston parents will be prioritized for a voluntary transfer to an underenrolled middle school.

It annoys me that this is thrown out as the solution. People want to know where their kids will go to middle school and know they will go with a cohort from their elementary school and their neighbors. It's not a solution to just say people from overcrowded schools can opt to go elsewhere. Listen to what you're saying. My school and its boundary works for me so several other over enrolled schools should just send their overages to my school.

I don't think that's what it's saying at all. I have a kid from an elementary school that splits for middle school. The kids who didn't have an older sibling at the crowded middle school tended to apply to transfer, but those who did have an older sibling opted to go to the same school as their sibling. This seemed to work out pretty well, with a lot of students going to their preferred school and less stressful than forcing students to swap.

It doesn't work well for me. I have a kid at Tuckahoe zoned to Swanson. I don't really care where he goes. Don't mind if we get a bus or not although he would be a walker to Swanson. What about kids who want to go to the other school and don't get a transfer? A lot of these schools have 1 or a just a handful of PUs going to a middle school. If most kids get a transfer out and he doesn't, that sucks for him. He was already supposed to go to Swanson with not many kids from his elementary school and what if he's one of the only ones who ends up there? That's stressful. Unless the policy is these kids are guaranteed placement at either school of their choice, which I don't think is the case.

You're guaranteed to go to your home school. No one is guaranteed a transfer. It's not a that hard. And yes, some boundary splits suck (see prior posts by Glebe, Ashlawn and ASFS parents) and don't make sense. But the next round could very well be worse and redrawing boundaries is always disruptive.

This is what it is for a lot of people. What we have doesn't work and a lot of kids are getting screwed but my kid isn't currently screwed so let's stick with what we have because in a new system my own kid could be worse off.

This is why APS sucks. This attitude is prevalent and APS totally caves to it over and over.

Its super disruptive to school communities and families to redraw boundaries. It should be done as infrequently as possible. Voluntary transfers are minimally disruptive and are a great measure to stretch out the time between boundary changes.

Guess what is super disruptive to school communities. Having your kid in a school packed like a sardine can for 3 years. Just lived it for 3 years with one kid. Voluntary transfers don't really help this issue.

The point of transfers is to deal with overcrowding. If it's not sufficient, that's a different discussion.

You can't force enough kids to take an optional transfer to Williamsburg to fix the imbalance. The way you would fix the issue is by...rezoning kids.

I wanted to transfer but they don’t offer transportation so I couldn’t make it work.

Yeah it's not really a good plan to offer transfers to relieve overcrowding when the families have to figure out transportation themselves. Seems like nothing more than offering the option for a small number of privileged kids to pick a different school.

The good thing is that public transit (busses, but not the trains) are now free for students.

Public transit to Williamsburg. That’s funny.

for an 11 year old. no thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Voluntary transfers are not an adequate solution when a school like Williamsburg - at 80% capacity - is allowed to decide that it only wants to take 10 transfers. Swanson is still left overcrowded and Williamsburg only made a symbolic gesture in taking a few extra kids. Why does APS allow this? So the richest middle school in the county is also the least crowded by a long shot? We are a Glebe family and, due to the voluntary transfers, what would be about a 50/50 split between Hamm and Swanson ends up being probably a 80/20 split with several kids left disappointed and on the wait list for transferring to Hamm. Just let them all transfer or none of them - or better yet, switch the PUs to Hamm so that some kids aren’t left behind.

What do you mean by richest? You do understand that APS doesn’t give any extra money to the schools when it accepts transfers. They don’t get to hire any more teachers or any additional staff. Schools are told how much money they have and then the school makes a decision about transfers. If APS really wanted to use transfers to help it would have to give schools money based on number of students after transfers are factored in. Please learn how things work before spouting off about how schools don’t take 20% more students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Voluntary transfers are not an adequate solution when a school like Williamsburg - at 80% capacity - is allowed to decide that it only wants to take 10 transfers. Swanson is still left overcrowded and Williamsburg only made a symbolic gesture in taking a few extra kids. Why does APS allow this? So the richest middle school in the county is also the least crowded by a long shot? We are a Glebe family and, due to the voluntary transfers, what would be about a 50/50 split between Hamm and Swanson ends up being probably a 80/20 split with several kids left disappointed and on the wait list for transferring to Hamm. Just let them all transfer or none of them - or better yet, switch the PUs to Hamm so that some kids aren’t left behind.

What do you mean by richest? You do understand that APS doesn’t give any extra money to the schools when it accepts transfers. They don’t get to hire any more teachers or any additional staff. Schools are told how much money they have and then the school makes a decision about transfers. If APS really wanted to use transfers to help it would have to give schools money based on number of students after transfers are factored in. Please learn how things work before spouting off about how schools don’t take 20% more students.

I assume they meant richest as in that’s where the wealthiest people in the county live. Speaking of not spouting off when you don’t understand how things work, if they accepted more student, they would hire more teachers. That’s been a complaint at Williamsburg, classes are quite large because they don’t have enough students for an additional team or more sections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Voluntary transfers are not an adequate solution when a school like Williamsburg - at 80% capacity - is allowed to decide that it only wants to take 10 transfers. Swanson is still left overcrowded and Williamsburg only made a symbolic gesture in taking a few extra kids. Why does APS allow this? So the richest middle school in the county is also the least crowded by a long shot? We are a Glebe family and, due to the voluntary transfers, what would be about a 50/50 split between Hamm and Swanson ends up being probably a 80/20 split with several kids left disappointed and on the wait list for transferring to Hamm. Just let them all transfer or none of them - or better yet, switch the PUs to Hamm so that some kids aren’t left behind.

What do you mean by richest? You do understand that APS doesn’t give any extra money to the schools when it accepts transfers. They don’t get to hire any more teachers or any additional staff. Schools are told how much money they have and then the school makes a decision about transfers. If APS really wanted to use transfers to help it would have to give schools money based on number of students after transfers are factored in. Please learn how things work before spouting off about how schools don’t take 20% more students.

I assume they meant richest as in that’s where the wealthiest people in the county live. Speaking of not spouting off when you don’t understand how things work, if they accepted more student, they would hire more teachers. That’s been a complaint at Williamsburg, classes are quite large because they don’t have enough students for an additional team or more sections.

That’s not terribly accurate. What is true is that Williamsburg is no longer zoned to neighborhoods with more affordable housing types.

And yes, the large class sizes have been a serious problem there. The building is also quite old and in need of a complete rebuild (along with TJ).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Voluntary transfers are not an adequate solution when a school like Williamsburg - at 80% capacity - is allowed to decide that it only wants to take 10 transfers. Swanson is still left overcrowded and Williamsburg only made a symbolic gesture in taking a few extra kids. Why does APS allow this? So the richest middle school in the county is also the least crowded by a long shot? We are a Glebe family and, due to the voluntary transfers, what would be about a 50/50 split between Hamm and Swanson ends up being probably a 80/20 split with several kids left disappointed and on the wait list for transferring to Hamm. Just let them all transfer or none of them - or better yet, switch the PUs to Hamm so that some kids aren’t left behind.

PPs have shared this stress is not important as long as boundaries don’t move. Because they explain that is what’s stressful for them and their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Voluntary transfers are not an adequate solution when a school like Williamsburg - at 80% capacity - is allowed to decide that it only wants to take 10 transfers. Swanson is still left overcrowded and Williamsburg only made a symbolic gesture in taking a few extra kids. Why does APS allow this? So the richest middle school in the county is also the least crowded by a long shot? We are a Glebe family and, due to the voluntary transfers, what would be about a 50/50 split between Hamm and Swanson ends up being probably a 80/20 split with several kids left disappointed and on the wait list for transferring to Hamm. Just let them all transfer or none of them - or better yet, switch the PUs to Hamm so that some kids aren’t left behind.

What do you mean by richest? You do understand that APS doesn’t give any extra money to the schools when it accepts transfers. They don’t get to hire any more teachers or any additional staff. Schools are told how much money they have and then the school makes a decision about transfers. If APS really wanted to use transfers to help it would have to give schools money based on number of students after transfers are factored in. Please learn how things work before spouting off about how schools don’t take 20% more students.

I assume they meant richest as in that’s where the wealthiest people in the county live. Speaking of not spouting off when you don’t understand how things work, if they accepted more student, they would hire more teachers. That’s been a complaint at Williamsburg, classes are quite large because they don’t have enough students for an additional team or more sections.

That’s not terribly accurate. What is true is that Williamsburg is no longer zoned to neighborhoods with more affordable housing types.

And yes, the large class sizes have been a serious problem there. The building is also quite old and in need of a complete rebuild (along with TJ).

And Swanson and Gunston.

Middle schools across the board except Hamm and Kenmore are in rough shape.