South Arlington schools

[Anonymous]

And another one of those AH Barcroft zealots is now on the civic association board and will do everything he can to stop the association from writing anymore letters opposing additional AH on the west like. He fought fiendishly, and lost, to stop a letter last year. At least his board candidate failed.

And guess where his kids go to school.... ATS!

The board and AH advocates only care about AH, they do. It care about people in SFH.

barcroft apartments need to be zoned to abingdon. They just expanded Abingdon and some of that school's boundary will go to Drew.

Barcroft got screwed when they zoned the arlington mill AH to that school. They could have sent those kids to carlin springs, they are on the street that borders the two zones. Carlin springs had room, barcroft did not and that school really suffered from sudden over crowding because of it. I live in barcroft, obviously, do not send my kids there and I know no less than a dozen families over the last 5 years that left before there kids were old enough for grade school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And another one of those AH Barcroft zealots is now on the civic association board and will do everything he can to stop the association from writing anymore letters opposing additional AH on the west like. He fought fiendishly, and lost, to stop a letter last year. At least his board candidate failed.

And guess where his kids go to school.... ATS!

The board and AH advocates only care about AH, they do. It care about people in SFH.

barcroft apartments need to be zoned to abingdon. They just expanded Abingdon and some of that school's boundary will go to Drew.

Barcroft got screwed when they zoned the arlington mill AH to that school. They could have sent those kids to carlin springs, they are on the street that borders the two zones. Carlin springs had room, barcroft did not and that school really suffered from sudden over crowding because of it. I live in barcroft, obviously, do not send my kids there and I know no less than a dozen families over the last 5 years that left before there kids were old enough for grade school.

Seems the rest of the neighborhood that was "shamed" into going along with all of the AH has realized where their complacent attitude has lead. I hear more and more people willing to say out loud that they are against AH. Interesting times...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And another one of those AH Barcroft zealots is now on the civic association board and will do everything he can to stop the association from writing anymore letters opposing additional AH on the west like. He fought fiendishly, and lost, to stop a letter last year. At least his board candidate failed.

And guess where his kids go to school.... ATS!

The board and AH advocates only care about AH, they do. It care about people in SFH.

barcroft apartments need to be zoned to abingdon. They just expanded Abingdon and some of that school's boundary will go to Drew.

Barcroft got screwed when they zoned the arlington mill AH to that school. They could have sent those kids to carlin springs, they are on the street that borders the two zones. Carlin springs had room, barcroft did not and that school really suffered from sudden over crowding because of it. I live in barcroft, obviously, do not send my kids there and I know no less than a dozen families over the last 5 years that left before there kids were old enough for grade school.

I think you're wrong with a couple details. Advocate Dude who was just elected to the board (by about 7 people) doesn't have kids yet. He is completely insufferable. Other advocate dude who is super active on the various list servs and might be on the board has kids at Drew Montessori program I think. Either way, we all know their views are NOT representative of the neighborhood, not even the majority of voting members of the neighborhood association. Problem is nobody has time to go to the stupid CA meetings and most of us aren't great about remembering to pay dues anyway, so out of the hundreds of households there are 100 or fewer that are eligible to vote. Upcoming meeting is about amending the bylaws. I suspect they want to waive the dues for certain individuals, and get more people who live in AH involved in the CA. If they would say which bylaws are being changed prior to the meeting that would be great. Good luck with the 4th of July parade if you chase all the families of means from our neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Either way you slice it, the ones pushing for more all seem to have some things in common. They choice their own kids out of the neighborhood school, and often their living is being made off of more ah development.
Of course if you bring up any opposition to more and more poverty brought in, they'll get shrill really quick.
Supposedly the market rate apts are quickly disappearing.
If that's true why aren't the school demographics changing?

[Anonymous]

The basic curriculum is the same at all Arlington schools. All the rest of this hand wringing is just polite cover for racism. So sick of this.

[Anonymous]

I really think your anger at AH is misplaced. AH improves school outcomes, not the other way around. Part of the problem with the FARMS kids is transience. They end up attending many different schools- frequent mid year moves, etc.,b/c of housing issues. AH substantially helps with transience.

[Anonymous]

oh and I'm 7:51 again- I'm an Arlington resident, my kids are in a 40% FARMS school, and I have no financial stake in AH. I think it is good policy for our community and I support it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really think your anger at AH is misplaced. AH improves school outcomes, not the other way around. Part of the problem with the FARMS kids is transience. They end up attending many different schools- frequent mid year moves, etc.,b/c of housing issues. AH substantially helps with transience.

The concern isn't with AH in general, it's with the concentration of it in one area. You are essentially locking in the poverty, which DOES impact schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:oh and I'm 7:51 again- I'm an Arlington resident, my kids are in a 40% FARMS school, and I have no financial stake in AH. I think it is good policy for our community and I support it.

That's great. I think most people feel like you do. Now imagine if your kids' school was 60%+ or 80%+ FARMS, with more FARMS kids on the way. Would you still consider AH "good policy" and support it in that same area? Would you send your kids to the same school? Or would you support a better distribution of AH?

I support AH too and I DO send my DC to the high-FARMS school, but I think we are at the point where even supporters of AH think we need to go about adding AH in smarter ways, not just packing it into the same small area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The basic curriculum is the same at all Arlington schools. All the rest of this hand wringing is just polite cover for racism. So sick of this.

Keyword is basic. The high farnm schools can't even achieve basic let alone gt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oh and I'm 7:51 again- I'm an Arlington resident, my kids are in a 40% FARMS school, and I have no financial stake in AH. I think it is good policy for our community and I support it.

That's great. I think most people feel like you do. Now imagine if your kids' school was 60%+ or 80%+ FARMS, with more FARMS kids on the way. Would you still consider AH "good policy" and support it in that same area? Would you send your kids to the same school? Or would you support a better distribution of AH?

I support AH too and I DO send my DC to the high-FARMS school, but I think we are at the point where even supporters of AH think we need to go about adding AH in smarter ways, not just packing it into the same small area.

Well okay- the idea that the county is concentrating AH is just not true. Just saying it over and over again doesn't make it true. Here is a list of AH units in Arlington-
https://housing.arlingtonva.us/get-help/rental-services/affordable-units/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The basic curriculum is the same at all Arlington schools. All the rest of this hand wringing is just polite cover for racism. So sick of this.

Keyword is basic. The high farnm schools can't even achieve basic let alone gt

Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:oh and I'm 7:51 again- I'm an Arlington resident, my kids are in a 40% FARMS school, and I have no financial stake in AH. I think it is good policy for our community and I support it.

That's great. I think most people feel like you do. Now imagine if your kids' school was 60%+ or 80%+ FARMS, with more FARMS kids on the way. Would you still consider AH "good policy" and support it in that same area? Would you send your kids to the same school? Or would you support a better distribution of AH?

I support AH too and I DO send my DC to the high-FARMS school, but I think we are at the point where even supporters of AH think we need to go about adding AH in smarter ways, not just packing it into the same small area.

Well okay- the idea that the county is concentrating AH is just not true. Just saying it over and over again doesn't make it true. Here is a list of AH units in Arlington-
https://housing.arlingtonva.us/get-help/rental-services/affordable-units/

Awesome. One of the zealots finally showed up. lying about AH not being evenly distributed over and over over again, doesnt't make it true. We are actually seeing and living with these terrible policies. It's not just a pie chart anymore.
Your kid goes to a 40% farms school... Big deal. We are talking about 80% in some of these schools.
Don't feel smug, you've got no cause.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The basic curriculum is the same at all Arlington schools. All the rest of this hand wringing is just polite cover for racism. So sick of this.

Hi there, we're a minority family and no, it's not a polite cover for racism. Basic curriculum =/= quality of education.

You want to send your kids to an underachieving school? Go right ahead. In fact, if you aren't, you're a huge hypocrite. But I want to send my kids where they will do best, not where I can see bleeding heart policies at play so that my kids get a subpar education so some lily white women in far north Arlington can feel good about helping the poors and oh, isn't wonderful how DIVERSE Arlington is!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The basic curriculum is the same at all Arlington schools. All the rest of this hand wringing is just polite cover for racism. So sick of this.

I'm a middle class white person who has sent my kids to elementary and middle school in south Arlington, so I am walking the walk. But I also understand why people don't want to send their kids to an elementary school (if your family speaks English) where 80% of the kids come from homes that do not speak English or where 30-40% of the kids turn over from year to year, especially when three miles away there are elementary schools where 90% of the kids come from homes where both parents have graduate degrees, 90% of the kids live in stable homes that their parents own and will stay in for the entire school career, and the PTA can raise over a hundred thousand dollars a year and pour resources into that school. Some of us aren't arguing that south Arlington schools are bad--we're arguing that the overall system is bad because there are huge differences among schools that result from underlying residential segregation and use of a neighborhood school model, and that school board and county board policies are either perpetuating it or actively making it worse. I never say "south Arlington schools are bad, avoid them." I say "south Arlington schools are getting the short end of the stick, fix the whole thing." Don't be too quick to slap the "racism" label on everyone who raises the issue--some people are trying to find a solution, not just avoid a problem.