APS Families--Pls email county and school boards by Tues. 5/24!!
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Anonymous
| All these parents out there with their heads in the sand about alternative scheduling need to wake up... that was about the most concrete idea discussed tonight. "All you need to get kids to show up for their zero period English class at 7AM is some good coffee." Seriously, that was said by a County board member tonight. This ignores numerous studies that have found that teens need more sleep. Do we still have any chance at a 4th high school at the VHC site? It seemed off the table to me, but maybe I am being too pessimistic. |
Anonymous
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I only caught the meeting from around 6:40 on. I was wondering if anyone knows where to get a copy of the document they were referring to? I double checked the CIP that was posted earlier and it does not have the mention of those properties.
I agree the school board was depressing, particularly van doren who made it sound like WL was great the way it is now--over crowded. But it did seem somewhat encouraging toward the end when they mentioned the 3 properties and how they needed to look into the possibility of acquiring that property and then explore options of building schools. Forgive my ignorance but can someone tell me the location of the Ed Center and the Buck Property in relation to WL? Thanks! |
Anonymous
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I thought it was also smart and maybe a little encouraging for the County Board to ask what the School Board thought the high school numbers would be at AFTER ten years out. (Because, presumably, what's the point of building a whole new high school for two years of crazy overcapacity if the numbers will just go down in another few years?)
At the same time, can you really predict that far out in advance? Like, will Metro even be running in 15 years? On the other hand, maybe our cars will be driving us automatically in 15 years so we might as well all live out in Bowie, and Arlington won't be at such a premium. Two other things: 1. The School Board was really putting out there that the seat shortage could be much worse down the road than they are projecting now -- that in 10 years they may need an additional 10,000 seats instead of 6,000 seats. That is almost twice as many seats, a huge, huge number that absolutely no one is prepared for. 2. There were warnings in there that if people in our county started using housing in the same way as other populations do, we will start to see much, much bigger numbers than we are seeing now. (Were they talking about affordable housing or single family homes? They were talking about packing lots of people into small spaces.) They said they weren't seeing that here yet, but that if it started, it would be something that could potentially be a huge problem for both boards in terms of funding. PP, I think the Education Center is the Syphax Education Center off Washington Blvd in 22204. http://www.apsva.us/adulted It's pretty big and almost seems like a college class building, but perhaps there isn't a huge amount of green space around it. Not sure about the Buck property, or where to find the document you referenced. |
Anonymous
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I've read that there is a 150k to 250k up charge for buying into the " good" schools in north Arlington...
Glad I didn't pay it. |
Anonymous
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The Ed Center is next door to W-L. It's where the school board meetings are held. It's a curvy building - the planetarium is in the courtyard. The buck property is across the street from there -- right now they are parking cars for a car dealership and there is an indoor bounce house there.
Holy cow. |
Anonymous
| Isn't the reason AH is a problem is b/c they are fighting for the same land the schools need to accommodate another HS? |
Anonymous
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This presentation from the facilities study has a lot of information on both Arlington demographic trends and housing trends. Some key findings:
--The largest family sizes are from single family homes, but single family homes are the smallest group of homes in Arlington (26% single family detached and 10% duplexes/townhomes) and only 40% of Arlingtonians are homeowners --Under 5, 20-somethings, and over-55 are the fastest growing age groups --Market rate affordable apartments (rent=60% of area median income/$64,200) have decreased from over 10,000 apartments in 2000 to just over 3,000 apartments in 2014 --On average about 28 new SFHs are added per year (not counting teardown and replace) but 1,100 new multifamily units (condos and apartments) are added each year http://arlingtonva.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2015/03/CFS_SC3_County_Forecasts.pdf |
Anonymous
| The person who mentioned CARD above--I looked at their website. I see plenty of buzz words but what exactly is it they are working for? What does "thoughtful" placement of AH mean? What is more important to them AH issues or school issues or do they seem them as inextricably entwined? Where are they on the capacity issue? |
Anonymous
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My recommendation to this complex and vexing issue, move APS administrators from their building into trailers on the parking deck and turn their office building into additional seats. It solve a small piece of the problem. But perhaps it will motivate our well paid administrators to find ways to trim their budget and find more funds for this crisis issue, find land or buildings for more schools, and a way out of this seating crisis. Even if County increased the sharing ratio from 47% to 50% of all County revenue, we just get more expensive consultants and technology, not more seats. The relocation of HB to the Rosslyn site is a good explain of how wisely they use the funds, a new school with a cap of 775 seats for just a mere $100 million. Yorktown HS new building (2011-2013 costs) provided 1600 seats for $103 million. I will grant that a smaller project can actual cost as much as a slight larger one, 2011 costs are lower than 2016 costs, and the siting is different. Taking that all into account does even out the the cost per seat between the 2013 HS and the new Rosslyn school.
And let's remember this is not a new issue. This has been vexing APS since 2011. "Facing a burgeoning school population that has grown by 15 percent since 2006 and is projected to balloon another 20+ percent by 2017, school leaders are examining numerous options for new buildings, additions and renovations. Sixteen options for buildings or additions on Arlington Public Schools property were presented at a public meeting last week, and more options are on the way." Arlingotn Now, 12/5/2011 |
Anonymous
| Oh god I LOVE the idea of putting the administrators into trailers. It's so good I'm almost crying. |
Anonymous
I think it means not just cramming it into South Arlington while falsely claiming land is cheaper there. It means building more mixed income complexes, and affordable units being equally distributed throughout the county, and along major transit corridors that aren't just Columbia Pike. |
Anonymous
I'd be happy to help them pack up their offices. |
Anonymous
There are plans, and it was referenced last night, to substantially increase population density along Lee Highway in the coming decades. It's a prime spot for multi-family housing, including MARKs and CAFs. |
Anonymous
| So is the negative effect of the overcrowding of the high schools expected to hit W-L the hardest and somehow Yorktown will be spared? |
Anonymous
| What about Wakefield? |