Is APS really looking to close a N. Arlington elem school again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are hating on the Taylor families since they fought to keep the neighborhoods adjacent to Dorothy Hamm MS from being rezoned to Williamsburg MS. They were portrayed as the villains in that boundary battle, even though they did win in the end. And the ultimate outcome was the firing of the entire APS Planning Department.

Is this confirmed?

At a minimum, I hope IG was finally fired - she did so much damage to Taylor in her year as principal and then when she targeted the school as payback when she was “promoted” to Syphax.

Yes, they did get fired. APS took the coward's way out.

[Anonymous]

IG still works at Syphax 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor has to have a huge boundary now in order to keep it open. Looking at the map, there are so many parts of the Taylor zone that are actually closer to other schools.

Glebe and Science Focus are both over capacity. Innovation has a lot of new housing coming online, including high rise CAF buildings, so they have been careful to leave space there. The realistic scenario for closing Taylor would mean most of those kids going to Jamestown or Discovery, which isn't any better. It's got to be Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown.

Everything is going to shift a lot no matter which school closes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor has to have a huge boundary now in order to keep it open. Looking at the map, there are so many parts of the Taylor zone that are actually closer to other schools.

Glebe and Science Focus are both over capacity. Innovation has a lot of new housing coming online, including high rise CAF buildings, so they have been careful to leave space there. The realistic scenario for closing Taylor would mean most of those kids going to Jamestown or Discovery, which isn't any better. It's got to be Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown.

Are those Rosslyn CAF buildings zoned to Innovation actually moving forward? Even before the election, I was under the impression that marker conditions were slowing or even stopping at least one of the two Marbella towers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most MPSA students come from south Arlington. There is a need for seats in SA, the question is how many people would stick with it if moved across the county and would neighborhood schools have the space to handle those who didn’t?

The MPSA parents are like a cult. They will stick with it wherever it is located.

Samuel, but the North Arlington to South Arlington extended day pick up or 30 minute bus ride is a deterrent for a lot of people.

It doesn’t deter all the South Arlington parents who choose ATS.

30 minute bus rides are common for option school kids, IME.

Kids are bused from North Highlands to Taylor past TWO elementary schools - almost 3 miles in a county 5 miles across.

30 minutes for options kids is nothing.

great then we can close Taylor and they can go to the closer schools.

Keep trying, it's going to be Nottingham unless you can scrounge up some more kids. Once the current 4th and 5th graders move on the numbers are really low.

K - 43
1 - 47
2 - 53
3 - 57
4 - 70
5 - 70

sure but it won't be low once we get all those taylor kids in there!

Why do you have such a vendetta against that school? Did it hurt you?

Also I had no idea Nottingham had such few students!!!

That has to be IG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ATS wait list is long enough to justify a 2nd ATS school. Maybe some other option schools also have long enough waitlists.

they do!

Not even close

ATS has almost 500 kids on wait list and MPSA is next with around 150.

https://www.apsva.us/school-transfer-data/

Agree with your overall assessment, but you appear to have included the VPI cohort in your ATS number but not the corresponding PreK in Montessori. There are 420 PreK waitlisted for Montessori across APS, 206 of whom are waiting at MPSA. The apples-to-apples for school buildings ATS and MPSA is actually 490 ATS and 363. As programs, all ATS v. Prek-K APS Montessori, it is 490 and 577. Both very strong.

We should exclude prek for all programs; that is a financial incentive for subsidized childcare. K+ waitlist only.

anybody can waitlist for free pre K via Montessori which is why the waitlist is so long. For VPI, you have to qualify. Nobody wants Montessori except for those of you who have it.

You know that MPSA pre-K isn’t free, right? We paid the same amount we would have paid for private pre-K. There’s a sliding scale, but definitely not free.

Montessori is free (taxpayer funded) for 2/3rds of each class. Only 1/3 pays (not cheap, and they don’t always fill those seats). This applies to the 3s, 4s, and 5s (K). That shows you how much SES stats will be skewed for schools that have Montessori classes. Including MPSA.

The preschool has terrible hours. And of course no summer. So doesn’t work working parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor has to have a huge boundary now in order to keep it open. Looking at the map, there are so many parts of the Taylor zone that are actually closer to other schools.

Glebe and Science Focus are both over capacity. Innovation has a lot of new housing coming online, including high rise CAF buildings, so they have been careful to leave space there. The realistic scenario for closing Taylor would mean most of those kids going to Jamestown or Discovery, which isn't any better. It's got to be Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown.

The irony of closing Discovey…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most MPSA students come from south Arlington. There is a need for seats in SA, the question is how many people would stick with it if moved across the county and would neighborhood schools have the space to handle those who didn’t?

The MPSA parents are like a cult. They will stick with it wherever it is located.

Samuel, but the North Arlington to South Arlington extended day pick up or 30 minute bus ride is a deterrent for a lot of people.

It doesn’t deter all the South Arlington parents who choose ATS.

30 minute bus rides are common for option school kids, IME.

Kids are bused from North Highlands to Taylor past TWO elementary schools - almost 3 miles in a county 5 miles across.

30 minutes for options kids is nothing.

great then we can close Taylor and they can go to the closer schools.

Keep trying, it's going to be Nottingham unless you can scrounge up some more kids. Once the current 4th and 5th graders move on the numbers are really low.

K - 43
1 - 47
2 - 53
3 - 57
4 - 70
5 - 70

sure but it won't be low once we get all those taylor kids in there!

Why do you have such a vendetta against that school? Did it hurt you?

Also I had no idea Nottingham had such few students!!!

That has to be IG.

PP here, I have no idea who IG is and I have nothing against Taylor itself. I do know the building is non functional though so it doesnt make sense to keep it open when it is very poorly designed and would require major renos to make it functional. I get you want to keep your kids' school open but it's not about you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor has to have a huge boundary now in order to keep it open. Looking at the map, there are so many parts of the Taylor zone that are actually closer to other schools.

Glebe and Science Focus are both over capacity. Innovation has a lot of new housing coming online, including high rise CAF buildings, so they have been careful to leave space there. The realistic scenario for closing Taylor would mean most of those kids going to Jamestown or Discovery, which isn't any better. It's got to be Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown.

Glebe is only over capacity because APS was trying to empty Nottingham. There are kids at Glebe in the walk zone for Cardinal who could have been zoned there, and kids at Cardinal in the walk zone for Nottingham who could have been zoned there. It makes feeder patterns for Glebe hard because those kids, who should really be at Cardinal, don't track with classmates for middle or high 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:Most MPSA students come from south Arlington. There is a need for seats in SA, the question is how many people would stick with it if moved across the county and would neighborhood schools have the space to handle those who didn’t?

The MPSA parents are like a cult. They will stick with it wherever it is located.

Samuel, but the North Arlington to South Arlington extended day pick up or 30 minute bus ride is a deterrent for a lot of people.

It doesn’t deter all the South Arlington parents who choose ATS.

30 minute bus rides are common for option school kids, IME.

Kids are bused from North Highlands to Taylor past TWO elementary schools - almost 3 miles in a county 5 miles across.

30 minutes for options kids is nothing.

great then we can close Taylor and they can go to the closer schools.

Keep trying, it's going to be Nottingham unless you can scrounge up some more kids. Once the current 4th and 5th graders move on the numbers are really low.

K - 43
1 - 47
2 - 53
3 - 57
4 - 70
5 - 70

sure but it won't be low once we get all those taylor kids in there!

Why do you have such a vendetta against that school? Did it hurt you?

Also I had no idea Nottingham had such few students!!!

That has to be IG.

PP here, I have no idea who IG is and I have nothing against Taylor itself. I do know the building is non functional though so it doesnt make sense to keep it open when it is very poorly designed and would require major renos to make it functional. I get you want to keep your kids' school open but it's not about you.

Taylor was last renovated 20 years ago, and has AC, so it’s not a compete “hopeless” vestige of the 1950s or 60s. But it is due for a remodel. (People forget that many Arlington schools didn’t even have AC that long ago.)

APS has said they are not mothballing any school sites like they did in the 1980s. So even if Taylor closes and the school becomes a holding facility, which you may support, the building would still need upgrades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor has to have a huge boundary now in order to keep it open. Looking at the map, there are so many parts of the Taylor zone that are actually closer to other schools.

Glebe and Science Focus are both over capacity. Innovation has a lot of new housing coming online, including high rise CAF buildings, so they have been careful to leave space there. The realistic scenario for closing Taylor would mean most of those kids going to Jamestown or Discovery, which isn't any better. It's got to be Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown.

Glebe is only over capacity because APS was trying to empty Nottingham. There are kids at Glebe in the walk zone for Cardinal who could have been zoned there, and kids at Cardinal in the walk zone for Nottingham who could have been zoned there. It makes feeder patterns for Glebe hard because those kids, who should really be at Cardinal, don't track with classmates for middle or high school.

I don’t think this is true. The east end of the Nottingham zone is bus eligible. https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2023/08/ES_Nottingham_SY23_24.pdf

The issue is that Nottingham, Discovery, and Tuckahoe have overlapping zones and not enough kids to fill them. That’s why they did the Great Option Swap of 2021. Imagine how much worse this would be if the building ATS is in was also a neighborhood school and there was no neighborhood school in Courthouse.

As for the weirdness of that spike on the west end of the Glebe zone, that happened because the McKinley people were losing their minds about some people being zoned to Ashlawn instead of Cardinal so they tried to leave them mostly together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor has to have a huge boundary now in order to keep it open. Looking at the map, there are so many parts of the Taylor zone that are actually closer to other schools.

Glebe and Science Focus are both over capacity. Innovation has a lot of new housing coming online, including high rise CAF buildings, so they have been careful to leave space there. The realistic scenario for closing Taylor would mean most of those kids going to Jamestown or Discovery, which isn't any better. It's got to be Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown.

Glebe is only over capacity because APS was trying to empty Nottingham. There are kids at Glebe in the walk zone for Cardinal who could have been zoned there, and kids at Cardinal in the walk zone for Nottingham who could have been zoned there. It makes feeder patterns for Glebe hard because those kids, who should really be at Cardinal, don't track with classmates for middle or high school.

I don’t think this is true. The east end of the Nottingham zone is bus eligible. https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2023/08/ES_Nottingham_SY23_24.pdf

The issue is that Nottingham, Discovery, and Tuckahoe have overlapping zones and not enough kids to fill them. That’s why they did the Great Option Swap of 2021. Imagine how much worse this would be if the building ATS is in was also a neighborhood school and there was no neighborhood school in Courthouse.

As for the weirdness of that spike on the west end of the Glebe zone, that happened because the McKinley people were losing their minds about some people being zoned to Ashlawn instead of Cardinal so they tried to leave them mostly together.

It is notable to see people now openly saying this was the right thing to do. Of course it was the right thing to do to close McKinley and turn it into ATS and create a neighborhood school in Courthouse. Many people thought so at the time. Guess who didn't? A loud and vocal minority led by School Board member Mary Kadera. Somehow in an inexplicable turn of events, Kadera and her band lost this fight. There are people in the community who STILL complain about this. They were wrong then and they have been proven wrong over time and they'll still say they are right. What is anyone supposed to do with this kind of behavior.

The point is APS cannot win. Many people in this community are so awful that APS has an extremely difficult time doing strategic and reasonable things.

And no I don't work for APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor has to have a huge boundary now in order to keep it open. Looking at the map, there are so many parts of the Taylor zone that are actually closer to other schools.

Glebe and Science Focus are both over capacity. Innovation has a lot of new housing coming online, including high rise CAF buildings, so they have been careful to leave space there. The realistic scenario for closing Taylor would mean most of those kids going to Jamestown or Discovery, which isn't any better. It's got to be Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown.

Glebe is only over capacity because APS was trying to empty Nottingham. There are kids at Glebe in the walk zone for Cardinal who could have been zoned there, and kids at Cardinal in the walk zone for Nottingham who could have been zoned there. It makes feeder patterns for Glebe hard because those kids, who should really be at Cardinal, don't track with classmates for middle or high school.

I don’t think this is true. The east end of the Nottingham zone is bus eligible. https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2023/08/ES_Nottingham_SY23_24.pdf

The issue is that Nottingham, Discovery, and Tuckahoe have overlapping zones and not enough kids to fill them. That’s why they did the Great Option Swap of 2021. Imagine how much worse this would be if the building ATS is in was also a neighborhood school and there was no neighborhood school in Courthouse.

As for the weirdness of that spike on the west end of the Glebe zone, that happened because the McKinley people were losing their minds about some people being zoned to Ashlawn instead of Cardinal so they tried to leave them mostly together.

If I recall, those neighborhoods that were zoned McKinley/Swanson/W-L wanted to remain in the walkable Cardinal zone. Makes sense they would fight for that, especially when APS had originally promised the boundaries for the McKinley replacement at Reed would not change. Still, the neighborhoods south of 66 were rezoned to Ashlawn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor has to have a huge boundary now in order to keep it open. Looking at the map, there are so many parts of the Taylor zone that are actually closer to other schools.

Glebe and Science Focus are both over capacity. Innovation has a lot of new housing coming online, including high rise CAF buildings, so they have been careful to leave space there. The realistic scenario for closing Taylor would mean most of those kids going to Jamestown or Discovery, which isn't any better. It's got to be Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown.

Glebe is only over capacity because APS was trying to empty Nottingham. There are kids at Glebe in the walk zone for Cardinal who could have been zoned there, and kids at Cardinal in the walk zone for Nottingham who could have been zoned there. It makes feeder patterns for Glebe hard because those kids, who should really be at Cardinal, don't track with classmates for middle or high school.

I don’t think this is true. The east end of the Nottingham zone is bus eligible. https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2023/08/ES_Nottingham_SY23_24.pdf

The issue is that Nottingham, Discovery, and Tuckahoe have overlapping zones and not enough kids to fill them. That’s why they did the Great Option Swap of 2021. Imagine how much worse this would be if the building ATS is in was also a neighborhood school and there was no neighborhood school in Courthouse.

As for the weirdness of that spike on the west end of the Glebe zone, that happened because the McKinley people were losing their minds about some people being zoned to Ashlawn instead of Cardinal so they tried to leave them mostly together.

It is notable to see people now openly saying this was the right thing to do. Of course it was the right thing to do to close McKinley and turn it into ATS and create a neighborhood school in Courthouse. Many people thought so at the time. Guess who didn't? A loud and vocal minority led by School Board member Mary Kadera. Somehow in an inexplicable turn of events, Kadera and her band lost this fight. There are people in the community who STILL complain about this. They were wrong then and they have been proven wrong over time and they'll still say they are right. What is anyone supposed to do with this kind of behavior.

The point is APS cannot win. Many people in this community are so awful that APS has an extremely difficult time doing strategic and reasonable things.

And no I don't work for APS.

I don’t live in Lyon Village so I don’t personally care about those schools, but as I recall, both Key and Science Focus served the Courthouse through Rosslyn area as two neighborhood schools, with co-located option programs, that were both quite popular. Kind of like Campbell or the old Drew Model School. So the Courthouse and Rosslyn areas technically had two neighborhood schools. I believe Taylor was an option as well for those families. And at at one point in time Jamestown was also part of that cluster of neighborhood schools where transfers were encouraged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor has to have a huge boundary now in order to keep it open. Looking at the map, there are so many parts of the Taylor zone that are actually closer to other schools.

Glebe and Science Focus are both over capacity. Innovation has a lot of new housing coming online, including high rise CAF buildings, so they have been careful to leave space there. The realistic scenario for closing Taylor would mean most of those kids going to Jamestown or Discovery, which isn't any better. It's got to be Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown.

Glebe is only over capacity because APS was trying to empty Nottingham. There are kids at Glebe in the walk zone for Cardinal who could have been zoned there, and kids at Cardinal in the walk zone for Nottingham who could have been zoned there. It makes feeder patterns for Glebe hard because those kids, who should really be at Cardinal, don't track with classmates for middle or high school.

I don’t think this is true. The east end of the Nottingham zone is bus eligible. https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2023/08/ES_Nottingham_SY23_24.pdf

The issue is that Nottingham, Discovery, and Tuckahoe have overlapping zones and not enough kids to fill them. That’s why they did the Great Option Swap of 2021. Imagine how much worse this would be if the building ATS is in was also a neighborhood school and there was no neighborhood school in Courthouse.

As for the weirdness of that spike on the west end of the Glebe zone, that happened because the McKinley people were losing their minds about some people being zoned to Ashlawn instead of Cardinal so they tried to leave them mostly together.

It is notable to see people now openly saying this was the right thing to do. Of course it was the right thing to do to close McKinley and turn it into ATS and create a neighborhood school in Courthouse. Many people thought so at the time. Guess who didn't? A loud and vocal minority led by School Board member Mary Kadera. Somehow in an inexplicable turn of events, Kadera and her band lost this fight. There are people in the community who STILL complain about this. They were wrong then and they have been proven wrong over time and they'll still say they are right. What is anyone supposed to do with this kind of behavior.

The point is APS cannot win. Many people in this community are so awful that APS has an extremely difficult time doing strategic and reasonable things.

And no I don't work for APS.

there are always groups who fight for their own personal interests