Spanish Immersion Community Table Session

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:interesting debate but am I correct that nobody knows what the actual development is?

Correct.. or no one is saying is they do know

Can someone post a recap for those who weren’t able to watch?

no recap because they canceled the meeting at the last minute. which is pretty weird

I’ve heard enrollment in WMS was way up this year, something about people leaving private school.

My kid says there are a ton of new kids and three out of four they have talked to came from Gunston.

Transfers? Isn't there a report somewhere of the # of transfers?

[Anonymous]

I assume that they use K-8 to avoid any noise from one class year that has a particularly large or small class size within a specific planning unit. The value is not in the total number, but in the comparison between the two scenarios (i.e., if immersion moves from Gunston to Kenmore, 1,900 students will have their boundaries changes, and if immersion doesn't move, 3,200 will).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my totally uninformed guess is that they are not moving immersion

Getting everyone mad and then “pausing” the process is an APS classic move, so you’re probably correct.

If they don’t move immersion, they’ll need to relocate even more middle school students. regardless of the immersion plan, there is no way to avoid moving kids from south to north. that is just the population trend

It won’t be “even more” because they can just adjust planning units at the boundaries rather dropping 200 students at Kenmore and letting it domino out from there.

I doubt more than 200 students total have to be moved.

And can we increase HBW enrollment already? Every other school will be “over capacity” — they can sit at 108% like the rest of us.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Capacity-Utilization-2021-to-2023-for-posting-online.pdf

According to the APS report, 1,900 K-8 students will live in planning units with new boundaries if the immersion program is moved. If immersion is not moved, that increases to 3,200.

Why would moving middle school immersion impact K-5?

I wondered that too. PP's numbers are meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my totally uninformed guess is that they are not moving immersion

Getting everyone mad and then “pausing” the process is an APS classic move, so you’re probably correct.

If they don’t move immersion, they’ll need to relocate even more middle school students. regardless of the immersion plan, there is no way to avoid moving kids from south to north. that is just the population trend

It won’t be “even more” because they can just adjust planning units at the boundaries rather dropping 200 students at Kenmore and letting it domino out from there.

I doubt more than 200 students total have to be moved.

And can we increase HBW enrollment already? Every other school will be “over capacity” — they can sit at 108% like the rest of us.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Capacity-Utilization-2021-to-2023-for-posting-online.pdf

Why on earth is Key at 155% of capacity and the most overcrowded elementary school in APS? It is an option school so APS could easily lower enrollment by making fewer seats available.

Because they were just moved to a smaller building (around 2021) and have pushed back on shrinking the program to make it fit in the building.

APS moved Key to a building that was too small for it?!? No wonder people fear APS is trying to undermine the immersion program.

It would not have been to small if they simply reduced the next kinder year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my totally uninformed guess is that they are not moving immersion

Getting everyone mad and then “pausing” the process is an APS classic move, so you’re probably correct.

If they don’t move immersion, they’ll need to relocate even more middle school students. regardless of the immersion plan, there is no way to avoid moving kids from south to north. that is just the population trend

It won’t be “even more” because they can just adjust planning units at the boundaries rather dropping 200 students at Kenmore and letting it domino out from there.

I doubt more than 200 students total have to be moved.

And can we increase HBW enrollment already? Every other school will be “over capacity” — they can sit at 108% like the rest of us.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Capacity-Utilization-2021-to-2023-for-posting-online.pdf

Where are you gonna put the trailers? In the middle of Wilson Blvd? Y'all should have thought of that before you insisted HB had to move to the tiny plot of land in Rosslyn where there isn't room for trailers.

. Larger class sizes like most other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:interesting debate but am I correct that nobody knows what the actual development is?

Correct.. or no one is saying is they do know

Can someone post a recap for those who weren’t able to watch?

no recap because they canceled the meeting at the last minute. which is pretty weird

I’ve heard enrollment in WMS was way up this year, something about people leaving private school.

My kid says there are a ton of new kids and three out of four they have talked to came from Gunston.

Transfers? Isn't there a report somewhere of the # of transfers?

That’s because kids from Gunston had priority yo transfer, since it’s the most overenrolled APS MS.

This is a couple of years old, but here you go:

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2019-2020_APS-Transfer-Report-All-Parts.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my totally uninformed guess is that they are not moving immersion

Getting everyone mad and then “pausing” the process is an APS classic move, so you’re probably correct.

If they don’t move immersion, they’ll need to relocate even more middle school students. regardless of the immersion plan, there is no way to avoid moving kids from south to north. that is just the population trend

It won’t be “even more” because they can just adjust planning units at the boundaries rather dropping 200 students at Kenmore and letting it domino out from there.

I doubt more than 200 students total have to be moved.

And can we increase HBW enrollment already? Every other school will be “over capacity” — they can sit at 108% like the rest of us.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Capacity-Utilization-2021-to-2023-for-posting-online.pdf

Why on earth is Key at 155% of capacity and the most overcrowded elementary school in APS? It is an option school so APS could easily lower enrollment by making fewer seats available.

Because they were just moved to a smaller building (around 2021) and have pushed back on shrinking the program to make it fit in the building.

APS moved Key to a building that was too small for it?!? No wonder people fear APS is trying to undermine the immersion program.

It would not have been to small if they simply reduced the next kinder year.

We HAVE reduced it. From 6 classes down to 4. It’s really unfortunate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my totally uninformed guess is that they are not moving immersion

Getting everyone mad and then “pausing” the process is an APS classic move, so you’re probably correct.

If they don’t move immersion, they’ll need to relocate even more middle school students. regardless of the immersion plan, there is no way to avoid moving kids from south to north. that is just the population trend

It won’t be “even more” because they can just adjust planning units at the boundaries rather dropping 200 students at Kenmore and letting it domino out from there.

I doubt more than 200 students total have to be moved.

And can we increase HBW enrollment already? Every other school will be “over capacity” — they can sit at 108% like the rest of us.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Capacity-Utilization-2021-to-2023-for-posting-online.pdf

Why on earth is Key at 155% of capacity and the most overcrowded elementary school in APS? It is an option school so APS could easily lower enrollment by making fewer seats available.

Because they were just moved to a smaller building (around 2021) and have pushed back on shrinking the program to make it fit in the building.

APS moved Key to a building that was too small for it?!? No wonder people fear APS is trying to undermine the immersion program.

Key went from 6 to 4 k classes when it moved. This year only 6/8 trailer classrooms are being used (they were all used last year).

Key let in more kids in first grade, so they went from 4 kindergarten classes to 5 first grade classes last year. This year in second grade, they're back to 4 classes, but they have 26+ students each. There really should be 5 classes in the grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I assume that they use K-8 to avoid any noise from one class year that has a particularly large or small class size within a specific planning unit. The value is not in the total number, but in the comparison between the two scenarios (i.e., if immersion moves from Gunston to Kenmore, 1,900 students will have their boundaries changes, and if immersion doesn't move, 3,200 will).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my totally uninformed guess is that they are not moving immersion

Getting everyone mad and then “pausing” the process is an APS classic move, so you’re probably correct.

If they don’t move immersion, they’ll need to relocate even more middle school students. regardless of the immersion plan, there is no way to avoid moving kids from south to north. that is just the population trend

It won’t be “even more” because they can just adjust planning units at the boundaries rather dropping 200 students at Kenmore and letting it domino out from there.

I doubt more than 200 students total have to be moved.

And can we increase HBW enrollment already? Every other school will be “over capacity” — they can sit at 108% like the rest of us.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Capacity-Utilization-2021-to-2023-for-posting-online.pdf

According to the APS report, 1,900 K-8 students will live in planning units with new boundaries if the immersion program is moved. If immersion is not moved, that increases to 3,200.

Why would moving middle school immersion impact K-5?

I wondered that too. PP's numbers are meaningless.

There is no value in the comparison, the numbers are untrustworthy if they include K-5 grades -- a later demographic bulge in nonimpact grades would distort the impact.

They should demonstrate impacted PUs and number of middle school students, and the difference in buses. Adding a PU here and there at a boundary just nudges a bus route -- obliterating half a walk zone that now must be bused introduces a dozen new routes and buses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume that they use K-8 to avoid any noise from one class year that has a particularly large or small class size within a specific planning unit. The value is not in the total number, but in the comparison between the two scenarios (i.e., if immersion moves from Gunston to Kenmore, 1,900 students will have their boundaries changes, and if immersion doesn't move, 3,200 will).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my totally uninformed guess is that they are not moving immersion

Getting everyone mad and then “pausing” the process is an APS classic move, so you’re probably correct.

If they don’t move immersion, they’ll need to relocate even more middle school students. regardless of the immersion plan, there is no way to avoid moving kids from south to north. that is just the population trend

It won’t be “even more” because they can just adjust planning units at the boundaries rather dropping 200 students at Kenmore and letting it domino out from there.

I doubt more than 200 students total have to be moved.

And can we increase HBW enrollment already? Every other school will be “over capacity” — they can sit at 108% like the rest of us.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Capacity-Utilization-2021-to-2023-for-posting-online.pdf

According to the APS report, 1,900 K-8 students will live in planning units with new boundaries if the immersion program is moved. If immersion is not moved, that increases to 3,200.

Why would moving middle school immersion impact K-5?

I wondered that too. PP's numbers are meaningless.

There is no value in the comparison, the numbers are untrustworthy if they include K-5 grades -- a later demographic bulge in nonimpact grades would distort the impact.

They should demonstrate impacted PUs and number of middle school students, and the difference in buses. Adding a PU here and there at a boundary just nudges a bus route -- obliterating half a walk zone that now must be bused introduces a dozen new routes and buses.

But minimal boundary changes around the fringes isolate kids who are in those PUs. It’s better to have a critical mass of students moved than just a few. Look at those PUs from Ashlawn who had this done to them last time around and how vocal they’ve been about the alignment mess from it.

If you’re gonna move me, fine. But please don’t make my kid one of only a handful at middle school from his elementary school.

[Anonymous]

My kid was one of a handful from elementary at middle. It was fine. Made plenty of friends. Arlington parents WAY overblown the friend thing. It’s weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid was one of a handful from elementary at middle. It was fine. Made plenty of friends. Arlington parents WAY overblown the friend thing. It’s weird.

Because your kid was fine, that surely means that all kids will be as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume that they use K-8 to avoid any noise from one class year that has a particularly large or small class size within a specific planning unit. The value is not in the total number, but in the comparison between the two scenarios (i.e., if immersion moves from Gunston to Kenmore, 1,900 students will have their boundaries changes, and if immersion doesn't move, 3,200 will).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my totally uninformed guess is that they are not moving immersion

Getting everyone mad and then “pausing” the process is an APS classic move, so you’re probably correct.

If they don’t move immersion, they’ll need to relocate even more middle school students. regardless of the immersion plan, there is no way to avoid moving kids from south to north. that is just the population trend

It won’t be “even more” because they can just adjust planning units at the boundaries rather dropping 200 students at Kenmore and letting it domino out from there.

I doubt more than 200 students total have to be moved.

And can we increase HBW enrollment already? Every other school will be “over capacity” — they can sit at 108% like the rest of us.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Capacity-Utilization-2021-to-2023-for-posting-online.pdf

According to the APS report, 1,900 K-8 students will live in planning units with new boundaries if the immersion program is moved. If immersion is not moved, that increases to 3,200.

Why would moving middle school immersion impact K-5?

I wondered that too. PP's numbers are meaningless.

There is no value in the comparison, the numbers are untrustworthy if they include K-5 grades -- a later demographic bulge in nonimpact grades would distort the impact.

They should demonstrate impacted PUs and number of middle school students, and the difference in buses. Adding a PU here and there at a boundary just nudges a bus route -- obliterating half a walk zone that now must be bused introduces a dozen new routes and buses.

But minimal boundary changes around the fringes isolate kids who are in those PUs. It’s better to have a critical mass of students moved than just a few. Look at those PUs from Ashlawn who had this done to them last time around and how vocal they’ve been about the alignment mess from it.

If you’re gonna move me, fine. But please don’t make my kid one of only a handful at middle school from his elementary school.

The middle schools don't align with elementary any way, so they can fiddle around the edges and not end up with any loners. Just grandfather in existing middle school students and its easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume that they use K-8 to avoid any noise from one class year that has a particularly large or small class size within a specific planning unit. The value is not in the total number, but in the comparison between the two scenarios (i.e., if immersion moves from Gunston to Kenmore, 1,900 students will have their boundaries changes, and if immersion doesn't move, 3,200 will).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my totally uninformed guess is that they are not moving immersion

Getting everyone mad and then “pausing” the process is an APS classic move, so you’re probably correct.

If they don’t move immersion, they’ll need to relocate even more middle school students. regardless of the immersion plan, there is no way to avoid moving kids from south to north. that is just the population trend

It won’t be “even more” because they can just adjust planning units at the boundaries rather dropping 200 students at Kenmore and letting it domino out from there.

I doubt more than 200 students total have to be moved.

And can we increase HBW enrollment already? Every other school will be “over capacity” — they can sit at 108% like the rest of us.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Capacity-Utilization-2021-to-2023-for-posting-online.pdf

According to the APS report, 1,900 K-8 students will live in planning units with new boundaries if the immersion program is moved. If immersion is not moved, that increases to 3,200.

Why would moving middle school immersion impact K-5?

I wondered that too. PP's numbers are meaningless.

There is no value in the comparison, the numbers are untrustworthy if they include K-5 grades -- a later demographic bulge in nonimpact grades would distort the impact.

They should demonstrate impacted PUs and number of middle school students, and the difference in buses. Adding a PU here and there at a boundary just nudges a bus route -- obliterating half a walk zone that now must be bused introduces a dozen new routes and buses.

But minimal boundary changes around the fringes isolate kids who are in those PUs. It’s better to have a critical mass of students moved than just a few. Look at those PUs from Ashlawn who had this done to them last time around and how vocal they’ve been about the alignment mess from it.

If you’re gonna move me, fine. But please don’t make my kid one of only a handful at middle school from his elementary school.

The middle schools don't align with elementary any way, so they can fiddle around the edges and not end up with any loners. Just grandfather in existing middle school students and its easy.

Grandfathering isn’t easy. For current 6th graders, in two years you are busing just that class to one MS and kids in the same neighborhood to another. As a FYI, bus drivers are in short supply.

[Anonymous]

I heard that someone on school board actually started paying attention and that moving Spanish immersion to the HIGHEST percentage, majority Hispanic school (45%), looked a LOT like segregation from the 50s, and would create a school with probably 60% Hispanic student population.

Unclear if it would have affected FARMS ratios — does Immersion run more low income that county average?

It’s one thing to locate near a substantial Spanish speaking population. This goes WAY beyond that and possibly opens up doorway to lawsuits?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard that someone on school board actually started paying attention and that moving Spanish immersion to the HIGHEST percentage, majority Hispanic school (45%), looked a LOT like segregation from the 50s, and would create a school with probably 60% Hispanic student population.

Unclear if it would have affected FARMS ratios — does Immersion run more low income that county average?

It’s one thing to locate near a substantial Spanish speaking population. This goes WAY beyond that and possibly opens up doorway to lawsuits?

So are they just not going to move any of the middle school boundaries this year?