APS: I can't keep up! (ASFS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the ASFS families are so concerned with diversity, I propose we bus Barcroft apts ( zoned Randolph and Barcroft) to ASFS. They will get the diversity they so cherish and those 2 schools will get a fighting chance to improve.
Win-win.

Which kids will be displaced? Are those parents are ok with a long bus ride?

It's 3.6 miles away.
Honestly I think anywhere the Farms rate is over 50% should be broken up. This is going to get me majorly flammed, but I think those extremely poor enclaves in south Arlington should be broken up and blocks of those complexes should be shipped to schools with a lower Farms rate. No, I don't think north Arlington families who pay the lions share of taxes should have to put their kids on a bus. They should get the walkable school they paid for.
But it's not good to clump all that poverty together. Break it up. Let the affordable housing slush fund pay for shuttles for parents on back to school nights etc...
The county is going to need $$$. And it's going to need middle class homebuyers to look elsewhere ( not Westover!). We need more taxes pulled from south Arlington. We need the county to stop talking about seniors not paying their taxes AND not collecting deferred tax plus interest once the home is sold. Deferred taxes? Fine, but they need to square with the county when it sells. We are going to need 2-3 more elementary schools ( not including the new Henry and Reed) another new middle school and a comprehensive high school on top of all the extra seats we're looking at now.
Having schools rated 2/3 hurts property taxes. We simply can't afford it anymore.

If those families are ok with bussing I think that's a great idea. Maybe allocate x% "administrative transfers" to the schools with low FARMS (and tons of space).

[Anonymous]

What if we had "sister schools". Schools are paired across the county (high & low FARMS) and some % of kids are welcome to transfer between, PTAs are teamed up, share resources, community projects together, etc?

Just throwing it out there.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:And rather than saying "hey, here is a school that is creating this great environment for all of these kids, let's try to build on that and do MORE of that over the county" these a-holes criticize the school and ultimately will remove the diversity and ruin a good thing. You are shooting yourself in the foot.

As a former ASFS parent I agree with you that diversity is one of the schools' strengths though it has become less SES diverse over time. How do you propose to replicate this in the county without either major boundary changes or busing?

The sad reality is that the team concept that created ASFS is broken and many ES are overcrowded. Given these two facts, admission to ASFS has to change in one way or another. And if it's going to become a neighborhood school it should serve its actual neighborhood.

I'm in Courthouse up by Lee Highway. If ASFS becomes local to the houses surrounding it (fairly logical), where are my kids supposed to go if I don't want bilingual education? There are no walkable schools. I don't actually care at this point because my last kid is in the upper grades and this won't affect us, but they should have stopped allowing transfers in from anywhere that wasn't right nearby (e.g., Jamestown kids go to Jamestown, and northern Taylor go to a Taylor). ASFS is a lovely neighborhood school, and it just needs some boundary adjustments and no more "teaming". The big mistake was made when ASFS/Key wasn't included in the boundary redraw exercise.

No there was no capacity issue at key or ASFS until school board made this abrupt and hawk decision to import a huge new population into the key school via lottery. And aluminate neighborhood preference. There wasn't a lot of excess capacity, so it would not of helped the overcrowded schools like Taylor, so it made sense to exclude it from the process. But now they are going to be importing and an almost an entire new elementary School population into the same two schools. So will have capacity crisis until they get around to redistricting.

It's not abrupt. They should have eliminated neighborhood preferences for lottery schools decades ago. People have been complaining about this for ages, rightly so, and APS was just setting themselves up for litigation with a policy so inequitable. ASFS is, in essence, a neighborhood school with a focus. It will continue to be one, but you might not be in the boundary. It happens.

Also, this BS about "busing." Dumbies, we don't and never will have enough land or bond capacity to build so that every school is perfectly located with all students in a walk zone. Will some kids who were walkers have to get on a bus? Yes, probably. But some kid who has to get on a bus may now be able to walk. This is a crap argument within Arlington in general, and certainly within neighboring zones.

It is abrupt because they will end up with 800 students at almost 200% capacity rather than redistricting and converting to neighborhood school at that point.

For us, I know we are still in ASFS boundaries almost without a doubt, and we are out in two years, but we feel this is a ridiculous treatment of a principal and staff who have done wonders with a diverse population. Set them up for failure when you can't even provide enough seats.

Someone up thread very clearly laid out why you will NOT have 800 students suddenly in the next 2-3 years and why this is a bogus argument full of hyperbole. I guess precious isn't at ASFS yet? If they postpone the policy change to coincide with a larger boundary shift whenever the new ES comes online, they will be shutting out many families from immersion, as has been happening for a few years now, all while crowding at Claremont and Key worsens. This is a countywide problem, and must be dealt with as such. Nobody is getting a pass.

They themselves demonstrated that their were 800 in-bound neighborhood students. The only relieve value the offered was the ASSUMPTION that the 50/50 ratio will drive more acceptance from Spanish speaking population in Key zone. But there are easily a huge population of native Spanish students that will feed into the lottery and thus displace this entire population into ASFS.

It won't be 2018, but 2 or 3 years easily ratcheting up the numbers.

Key will continue to take a majority of the 280 neighborhood students that currently go there for many years. For your doomsday scenario of an 800+ ASF to come true the following would need to happen:

1 - None of the neighborhood kids would get into Key (50/50 or not) for six straight years.
2 - There are no siblings grandfathered at Key beyond the six years.
3 - None of the neighborhood kids would get into ANY other Option school.
4 - APS would not address enrollment in the 2019 (and/or future) boundary changes.
5 - APS would not add Spanish Immersion capacity to address the demand.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but we need to stay in the world of reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if we had "sister schools". Schools are paired across the county (high & low FARMS) and some % of kids are welcome to transfer between, PTAs are teamed up, share resources, community projects together, etc?

Just throwing it out there.

It's a good idea, but in practice it falls apart when it becomes a one-way flow from the "poor" school to the "rich" school.

This idea (in a larger pool) is what many school systems do in terms of private funding, such as PTAs, for schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APS currently has 23 elementary schools. Please consider this and take a comprehensive view when looking at the pros and cons of a policy change.

The enrollment and transfer policy is outdated and is part of the problem, given the increase in enrollment. It must be changed.

That said, there is no perfect solution and there will be some areas/schools that will be negatively affected by the changes. However, there will be more good to come out of the changes than bad and folks need to remember to see the big picture. (Think 23 elementary schools.)

APS must do everything it can to help mitigate the negative impacts of changing policy, but this does not mean to delay or avoid making the hard decisions.

This is long overdue and if you've been affected by the outdated policy you know that it's time.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some ASFS parents want to delay the changes so they can lobby for ASFS to become the option school, rather than Key.

Where was all the interest in opening up science focus before when nobody but the lucky few could get in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some ASFS parents want to delay the changes so they can lobby for ASFS to become the option school, rather than Key.

Where was all the interest in opening up science focus before when nobody but the lucky few could get in?

Not going to happen, unless the Spanish program is moved from Key to another building. They can't force kids into immersion, so those kids have to be automatically in somewhere without immersion. They should do a rename and call it "ASFS boundary" (vice "Key boundary") and then start redrawing the ES boundaries to right size the schools.

[Anonymous]

Exactly f*ckers. My home is in the Key/ASF zone. My kids moved here after first grade so they had to go to ASF. It is my neighborhood school. I am not zoned for a 'traditional school'.

The vitriol some people have on this board is ridiculous.

Go bitch and moan about the families that all seem to get every single one of their kids into HB even though it's supposed to be a completely 'random' lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5. Fear that they will be rezoned out of ASFS. If the boundaries are adjusted to actually include the closeby neighborhoods, someone will have to go.

We have to move away from strict zoning, and ASFS has been a gateway for that to happen. Losing Abby from the School Board has hurt us immensely.

It's time to adopt the "skin in the game" model people talk about the President and Secretary DeVos talk about, and link school choice to tax base. Each kid gets scored on what tax value they bring into the community. Homeowners in Lyon Village trump owners of Cape Cods in McKinley, who trump townhouse owners along Columbia Pike, who trump renters along Lee Highway, who trump FARMS and AH kids.

We set a normal day, at 95% capacity, for each school. Families rank their choices like the Medical Residency "match" process.

If you live in a $3 million-plus home by Jamestown, then you're set. Your older daughter attends HB, and your son attends ATS.

If you own a $1.5 million home, you have to think just a bit more. Maybe you go ahead and lock in a spot at Discovery, rather than hoping for ATS. Perhaps you go for ideal teachers at Yorktown, rather than taking a chance on being at the bottom of the barrel at HB or in W-L IB.

If you own a $900k house, maybe your best bet is to go for Wakefield if you can get that customized course load with the best teachers.

In any event, the traditional school day at all schools will be for the givers. They'll get a traditional day slot in SOME school, and enjoy 95% capacity and an absence of FARMS.

The takers will get shift scheduling, with evening classes. They'll have to give up the gym for travel and rec teams, but they'll get an equal education with no consideration of race.

There are still a few wrinkles to iron out. But this is happening. We can't let people who don't commit to Arlington mess up everyone's education. This plan will skyrocket property values, eliminate the need for construction, and enhance public safety.

You've been writing this crap for a while. It's supposed to be satire?

You know what? It sounds great. Me and my friends bought sfh's in south Arlington. I'm sitting on close to a million dollar home now, so go ahead, see what we care. I've got the same property value as many in north Arlington, just with a bigger lot and nicer home. So I say go right ahead. I'm guessing people who squeezed into a shack in Bluemont won't be pleased, but have at it.

Don't take the bait and sound defensive. A lesson for life as well as dcum. You're welcome.

[Anonymous]

Don't take the bait and sound defensive. A lesson for life as well as dcum. You're welcome.

You have difficulties with tone and social cues, don't you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Question--at the school board work session meeting earlier this week, one of the slides showed they will need 2-4 more elementary schools in the coming decade-plus. Where are possible locations for these? Is there a list of potential sites somewhere? I remember for the high school process there was a document (pdf?) online showing 15+ possible locations (of which three were chosen as the finalists), but I can't find that document now (I can never find anything on the APSVA website).

They will definitely need one of those future elementary schools to relieve crowding in the northeastern part of the county (Taylor, ASFS, Glebe). Where on earth could they put it?

How about Dawson Terrace? I'd have to look at the map but I'm sure there are some options.

I love that idea but converting community centers to schools (despite the fact that many of these centers were once schools!) is politically impossible. Madison would be a great idea too. Never going to happen.

Dawson Terrace lot is quite small. I don't see how they could put a school on it.

Its also the only gren space for a LOT of dense housing there and all other parks cross Lee hwy -- there would be strong opposition most likely

The property size is roughly the same as Key. And just like Key most of the green space could be used heavily by the neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Whatever they do with it Dawson Terrace it is very underutilized space. A handful of martial arts classes and a playground. In prime real estate.

Maybe they could the VPI classrooms there. Such a sweet little quiet area - perfect for preK.

Or something....

[Anonymous]

I wasn't familiar with Dawson's Terrace, so I googled it. Given the description on the interwebs, someone (and we know who she is, will ask for it to be protected for historic reasons. "Dawson Terrace provides space for numerous martial arts programs and is the only surviving stone structure in the county dating to the 18th or 19th century. It’s a unique, recognizable and tangible piece of Arlington’s past. The home belonged to Thomas B. Dawson."

[Anonymous]

Dawson's Terrace is about to undergo a significant construction effort. Tennis courts, etc.
https://projects.arlingtonva.us/projects/dawson-terrace-park-renovation/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5. Fear that they will be rezoned out of ASFS. If the boundaries are adjusted to actually include the closeby neighborhoods, someone will have to go.

We have to move away from strict zoning, and ASFS has been a gateway for that to happen. Losing Abby from the School Board has hurt us immensely.

It's time to adopt the "skin in the game" model people talk about the President and Secretary DeVos talk about, and link school choice to tax base. Each kid gets scored on what tax value they bring into the community. Homeowners in Lyon Village trump owners of Cape Cods in McKinley, who trump townhouse owners along Columbia Pike, who trump renters along Lee Highway, who trump FARMS and AH kids.

We set a normal day, at 95% capacity, for each school. Families rank their choices like the Medical Residency "match" process.

If you live in a $3 million-plus home by Jamestown, then you're set. Your older daughter attends HB, and your son attends ATS.

If you own a $1.5 million home, you have to think just a bit more. Maybe you go ahead and lock in a spot at Discovery, rather than hoping for ATS. Perhaps you go for ideal teachers at Yorktown, rather than taking a chance on being at the bottom of the barrel at HB or in W-L IB.

If you own a $900k house, maybe your best bet is to go for Wakefield if you can get that customized course load with the best teachers.

In any event, the traditional school day at all schools will be for the givers. They'll get a traditional day slot in SOME school, and enjoy 95% capacity and an absence of FARMS.

The takers will get shift scheduling, with evening classes. They'll have to give up the gym for travel and rec teams, but they'll get an equal education with no consideration of race.

There are still a few wrinkles to iron out. But this is happening. We can't let people who don't commit to Arlington mess up everyone's education. This plan will skyrocket property values, eliminate the need for construction, and enhance public safety.

What a load of anti-American horse shit. We have universal education in this country. That's a good thing.

Why do you hate America and all that she stands for? Serious question.