APS middle school boundary process
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Anonymous
Despite what you keep posting, they are not pursuing "rapid resegregation". They have a severe overcrowding problem, and the smallest county in the nation doesn't have any extra space. There were very few viable options for a new middle school -- it was always going to be reconverting Stratford back to a regular middle school. It was where it was. Once that was decided, then you get into all the proximity discussions they're having now. The racial imbalance has to do with broader zoning issues that a middle school boundary process cannot fix. |
Anonymous
+1. For every supposed example of outrageous decision-making in the current map, there has been a rational alternative explanation as well. I think it really boils down to people having a hard time coping with the idea of not getting their way all the time. |
Anonymous
Or it has something to do with the actual outcome on the student population. The intent may be to walk but if the outcome makes schools majority white, predominantly black, and majority Hispanic there is a problem. Devos and company will not be in place long enough to protect APS. |
Anonymous
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The increasing economic segregation in Virginia schools mirrors a national trend of rising residential segregation in neighborhoods across the country. As income inequality grows, it allows high income families to sort themselves into higher cost neighborhoods. Nationwide, this has resulted in the rate of high income families that live in predominantly high income neighborhoods doubling from 1980 to 2010. In Virginia, where cities are independent of their surrounding counties, this can often take the form of families moving to suburban communities in a surrounding or nearby county. For example, stark differences in income and poverty can be seen across school division lines in places like Richmond City and Chesterfield and Henrico counties or Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2017/10/26/unequal-opportunities-fewer-resources-worse-outcomes-for-students-in-schools-with-concentrated-poverty/ |
Anonymous
You don't understand the law in this area at all. |
Anonymous
And there is no low income housing for seniors. After all that...I feel like such a snob. But, dammit I want my kid educated first. http://www.culpeppergarden.org/ Are you lower income? Because I don't see how your kid is suffering -- really, truly not getting an appropriate education -- unless s/he has SN or an LD or something similar. Otherwise, you've got the same great teachers working for the same incompetent administration we've had for a decade. It's not ideal, but the average APS family (of which I am one) has it pretty good. |
Anonymous
+1. The School Board is misguided at times, but they're basically trying to navigate the mess the County has left them. Watch Gutshall and the Board continue to concentrate AH in 2-3 areas of S Arlington. |
Anonymous
Again, I'm not saying the County didn't create/institutionalize this mess, beginning all the way back at the end of slavery and all through Jim Crow and into the present day. But the School Board is undoing school boundaries that were created by previous School Boards with the specific intention of desegregating the schools, as if we're not still living under residential segregation. The residential segregation has not changed, so why should the school board not continue to pursue efforts to desegregate the schools? Even against community objections? We're on the wrong side of history on this one. |
Anonymous
Just because some people in the community object doesn't mean others in the community don't agree with the board's decision. The current objectors are not the only people whose voices matter. Yes, people want more diversity in Williamsburg. But does that mean that the right decision is to keep the Williamsburg island and Hall's Hill there, even though the residents of those areas said they want to go to the schools closer by with their ES classmates? Who does that benefit? People all over the county has spoken out in favor of proximity, even those for whom it means going to lower-performing schools. Why do you not respect them enough to let them decide what's best for their kids? Who are you to declare that you know better and they're just too ignorant to make good choices for their kids? |
Anonymous
I'm not actually referencing the Halls Hill neighborhood, nor the Williamsburg Island. Halls Hill and Rosslyn are not very diverse any longer, and I don't think this is a reasonable way to achieve diversity at Williamsburg, because it doesn't actually do this anyway. It makes sense for this area to be zoned to Stratford from both a diversity and proximity standpoint. Because these areas are no longer very diverse. I'm not suggesting this community should be ignored. What concerns me is the overall trend, because we are running out of easy fixes that won't meaningfully impact instruction and academic experience. There's always going to be a next time and a next time. And in each successive change, the disparity and segregation increases instead of being lessened. And we sit idly by and say there's nothing we can do. That's not true. We're choosing not to. And while many communities say they want to remain at their neighborhood schools, you also need to recognize what many mean when they say that. For Buckingham, Swanson IS and has been their neighborhood middle school; they do not feel that they're being bused by force and they are not asking to be moved to a more proximate school. For the families around Kenmore, W-L is their neighborhood HS and they want to remain there even though Wakefield is geographically closer. I want to see a plan that does have a mechanism in place for achieving, or at least attempting to achieve, diversity before the plan is adopted. For instance, APS should name the program it would place at Williamsburg with a promise to provide transportation. I also want to see a plan that leaves south Arlington schools that already HAVE programs in place with the capacity to continue to allow for transfers in to those programs. |
Anonymous
| Did they decide to drop Diversity as a consideration last night? It seems to have the lowest priority. |
Anonymous
It's officially a goal but no longer practiced, as last year's high school boundary adjustment showed. |
Anonymous
I think the staff member who comes up with a map that has the highest concentration of F&RL will get a gold star and the largest Christmas bonus in APS. |
Anonymous
Bingo! |
Anonymous
Officially, no. In practice, yes. Separate is equal now. |