Drew Model Elementary: proposed boundaries (s/o from APS/SA thread specific to Drew)
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Anonymous
Why are you chastising her for putting her kids in a choice program at her neighborhood school - likely because she believed it to be a better program and environment for her kids - yet it's okay for you to "plan to move anyway" and avoid what you don't like? There are hundreds of families making these choices because they don't like their default alternative. At least she's willing to advocate for a better default situation rather than just leaving and saying FU like you. |
Anonymous
On this note, what is the source of the huge differences between the newly published Sept enrollment numbers and the number of resident students with option school attendees removed in the “no change” scenarios for 2019? Ex: Abingdon K-5 2019 estimate 811 vs current enrollment 633? Barcroft 2019 estimate 572 vs current enrollment 396. Oakridge and Henry are off by more than a normal years growth too. Are there really that many new student expected in one year? https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/School-Level-Data-Table-for-Existing-and-Proposed-Boundaries-Final.pdf https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Sept-30-Membership-2018-19.pdf |
Anonymous
I don’t know for sure, but I think there are different possible explanations for each of them. Abingdon has lost its priority for Claremont and that’s expected to drive up enrollment as transfers fall. They’re planning to get rid of the year-round calendar for Barcroft which would then also cut off transfers to Randolph, so numbers could go up meaningfully there. All of the South Arlington schools lost priority for Campbell so you could see fewer transfers from all of them, which means higher neighborhood school enrollment, |
Anonymous
There are barely any transfers from Barcroft to Randolph. That is not going to cause any "meaningful" increase for Randolph or Barcroft. The calendar, likely to go away, hasn't gone through the process to kill it yet. I doubt you will see big changes in transfers to Campbell for a while - it will remain mostly Glencarlyn, probably a lot from Barcroft. You might see onesies or twosies from the north to Campbell; but it ain't going to be a mad rush until folks become more aware of the program and have a better understanding and feel for it. |
Anonymous
If Abingdon is not overcrowded than how come my special needs toddler is in a basement classroom with no windows? And yes I'm sure this "outs" me on here. I'm not sure where they get their statistics on figuring out capacity but it's wrong to have the 3 highly special needs classes in rooms that were not originally designed to be classrooms. |
Anonymous
Leaving aside the issue of special needs, this is happening at every single school. There was a grandparent complaining on AEM a while back about a windowless K or 1st classroom at Jamestown. At many other schools, the teacher lounges and computer labs are now classrooms, even though they are not close to capacity. Between the poor design of the formerly open "pod" classroom schools, and because of internal modifications to utilize space, once something is converted to classroom space it's not going to be converted back. Ever. Not because Abingdon is too crowded and needs to shed students. Someone's kids will be in that windowless classroom at Abingdon, even if you push out a couple hundred kids who currently attend. |
Anonymous
Last year these classes where in actual classrooms. Claremont changed their attendance policy and we needed more K classrooms so special needs got bumped. This problem is only going to get worse. Claremont has a sibling policy so some kids zoned for Abingdon got in because of an older sibling. In the upcoming years more kids are not going to have older siblings at Claremont meaning even more kids at Abingdon. |
Anonymous
It might be the buildings under construction. In the Barcroft boundary, Gilliam Place will open, nobody knows how many kids, but 53 seems a somewhat reasonable estimate. There are also two apartment/condo buildings under construction. Those must figure into the numbers. In Abingdon, Columbia Hills will open. I think they project over 100 kids from that building. I don't know what the reason is for Henry; as far as I know there's no large-scale construction project underway in the current boundary. Oakridge might be including an estimate for The Berkley. |
Anonymous
When K-5 space is at a premium, the Pre-K kids get bumped to wherever there is space. It happened at our school, and I know it happened at another overcrowded school my kid's friend attends. None of the parents were happy about it. Wonder where all those kids at Hoffman-Boston are going when the dust settles. |
Anonymous
Right, my point is don’t say Abingdon is not overcrowded when it is at minimum reaching capacity. Especially when Drew which is right next door will have room. |
Anonymous
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Please leave open the very distinct possibility that APS royally screwed up whatever estimates it out in the boundary change documents. And I’m not talking about estimates being off. I’m talking about forgetting to add numbers correctly or double counting planning units. They have an infinity for screwing up the most basic things when it comes to numbers. In the most recent boundary changes, people have been able to point out all kinds of basic issues with their numbers. And don’t forget how they completely forgot to count all the PUs when estimating the number of kids at McKinley during the 2009 ES boundary changes.
I laugh that people are trying to come up with APS’s rationale for these numbers. If you are involved, you need a parent knee deep in the data making their own spreadsheets. APS will make untold number of mistakes in the numbers. And again, I’m not talking about enrollment estimates but numbers where they are counting students in the system today. |
Anonymous
There were 47 transfers from Barcroft to Randolph last year, that’s not insignificant. |
Anonymous
All I am saying is that Abingdon is not at capacity. That's according to school officials. They are not at capacity, so why move 100s of kids - and the answer can't be to free up one extra room. I'm sorry your kid is in a room w/o windows -- that stinks -- but that doesn't change the fact that the school itself says it isn't at capacity for overall enrollment. |
Anonymous
It’s two extra rooms this year. Maybe more next year? Not to mention that in the event of a fire my 3 year old with cerbal palsy has to walk pretty far to get out of the building. His room doesn’t have a bathroom which makes potty training my special needs toddler that much more of a challenge. there is room at Drew. If sending him to Drew is the answer then send him to Drew I’m not fighting that. The current boundary change doesn’t send 100s of students to Drew, it reduces Abingdons numbers slightly. L |
Anonymous
It sounds like a really challenging situation and I want your three-year-old to be in the best possible class for him. I want the same for all the kids in Arlington Public Schools - mine included - regardless of where they live. On the matter of numbers, you're right it's not 100s. It's 150, based on my late night count of the data available online. But again, without APS ever really offering us explanations as to how they come up with their numbers, or why they made the proposal the way they did, we're all left grasping at straws. Below are the current Abingdon planning units being moved to other schools. Planning Unit 2019 -2020 #s (https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Planning-Unit-Level-Data-Final.pdf) 36030 23 students 37071 19 students 37070 35 students 37100 4 students 37101 6 students 37102 8 students 36060 14 students 36061 20 students 38050 21 students Total 150 Students moved from Abingdon Neighbors - please correct these numbers if they're wrong. I got them from APS's Engage website. |