Spanish Immersion Community Table Session

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

thank you! i wonder if there's a current one.

[Anonymous]

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.

you funny

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

I can't imagine where they'd move Immersion if it's not Kenmore. Transportation-wise, it would make no sense to move it up to Williamsburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

I can't imagine where they'd move Immersion if it's not Kenmore. Transportation-wise, it would make no sense to move it up to Williamsburg.

It would take the same number of buses as Gunston. Read the report!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

I can't imagine where they'd move Immersion if it's not Kenmore. Transportation-wise, it would make no sense to move it up to Williamsburg.

It would take the same number of buses as Gunston. Read the report!

The same number of buses, but they would have much longer routes. It's not like the neighborhoods around Williamsburg are sending a ton of kids to immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

I can't imagine where they'd move Immersion if it's not Kenmore. Transportation-wise, it would make no sense to move it up to Williamsburg.

It would take the same number of buses as Gunston. Read the report!

The same number of buses, but they would have much longer routes. It's not like the neighborhoods around Williamsburg are sending a ton of kids to immersion.

I really don’t think short bus rides for option programs are the priority, or should be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

I can't imagine where they'd move Immersion if it's not Kenmore. Transportation-wise, it would make no sense to move it up to Williamsburg.

It would take the same number of buses as Gunston. Read the report!

The same number of buses, but they would have much longer routes. It's not like the neighborhoods around Williamsburg are sending a ton of kids to immersion.

I really don’t think short bus rides for option programs are the priority, or should be.

Isn’t everyone yelling that we live in a small county? How long can they be? They can always opt for neighborhood school.

Immersion was started to help draw students to under enrolled schools, maybe we need a different program to draw students to those schools now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

I can't imagine where they'd move Immersion if it's not Kenmore. Transportation-wise, it would make no sense to move it up to Williamsburg.

It would take the same number of buses as Gunston. Read the report!

The same number of buses, but they would have much longer routes. It's not like the neighborhoods around Williamsburg are sending a ton of kids to immersion.

I really don’t think short bus rides for option programs are the priority, or should be.

That's fine, but the reality is that APS already is short staffed for bus drivers, and it's just not feasible to move an option program from south Arlington, where the majority of students come from that area, across the entire county. I also think that the Williamsburg families would be incredibly opposed to it. (Gunston is my neighborhood school so I can't speak for them - just assuming that).

[Anonymous]

This is all a nice theoretical debate but the politics are such that APS will never move the immersion program to Williamsburg. I bet that they leave it at Gunston and adjust a bunch of planning unit boundaries countywide up to the north like a tube of toothpaste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

I can't imagine where they'd move Immersion if it's not Kenmore. Transportation-wise, it would make no sense to move it up to Williamsburg.

It would take the same number of buses as Gunston. Read the report!

The same number of buses, but they would have much longer routes. It's not like the neighborhoods around Williamsburg are sending a ton of kids to immersion.

I really don’t think short bus rides for option programs are the priority, or should be.

We live 4.5 miles from our immersiom school. It takes my kids’ bus 30 minutes to get to school. I’d hardly call that short. We’re not even the first stop which means the kids getting on the bus before my kids have a longer ride. Now apply that timeline to going all the way to Williamsburg. Williamsburg is 20 miles from Gunston. Than remember that is just one way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

I can't imagine where they'd move Immersion if it's not Kenmore. Transportation-wise, it would make no sense to move it up to Williamsburg.

It would take the same number of buses as Gunston. Read the report!

The same number of buses, but they would have much longer routes. It's not like the neighborhoods around Williamsburg are sending a ton of kids to immersion.

I really don’t think short bus rides for option programs are the priority, or should be.

We live 4.5 miles from our immersiom school. It takes my kids’ bus 30 minutes to get to school. I’d hardly call that short. We’re not even the first stop which means the kids getting on the bus before my kids have a longer ride. Now apply that timeline to going all the way to Williamsburg. Williamsburg is 20 miles from Gunston. Than remember that is just one way.

I think that you mean that Williamsburg is 20 minutes from Gunston, not 20 miles - I don't think it's possible for any two points in Arlington to be 20 miles from each other. But you are correct that it is very far away and not a reasonable option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

I can't imagine where they'd move Immersion if it's not Kenmore. Transportation-wise, it would make no sense to move it up to Williamsburg.

It would take the same number of buses as Gunston. Read the report!

The same number of buses, but they would have much longer routes. It's not like the neighborhoods around Williamsburg are sending a ton of kids to immersion.

I really don’t think short bus rides for option programs are the priority, or should be.

We live 4.5 miles from our immersiom school. It takes my kids’ bus 30 minutes to get to school. I’d hardly call that short. We’re not even the first stop which means the kids getting on the bus before my kids have a longer ride. Now apply that timeline to going all the way to Williamsburg. Williamsburg is 20 miles from Gunston. Than remember that is just one way.

I think that you mean that Williamsburg is 20 minutes from Gunston, not 20 miles - I don't think it's possible for any two points in Arlington to be 20 miles from each other. But you are correct that it is very far away and not a reasonable option.

NP. Yeah, the two schools are less than 8 miles apart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

They either have to do a boundary change or move Immersion elsewhere. Or both.

I can't imagine where they'd move Immersion if it's not Kenmore. Transportation-wise, it would make no sense to move it up to Williamsburg.

It would take the same number of buses as Gunston. Read the report!

The same number of buses, but they would have much longer routes. It's not like the neighborhoods around Williamsburg are sending a ton of kids to immersion.

I really don’t think short bus rides for option programs are the priority, or should be.

We live 4.5 miles from our immersiom school. It takes my kids’ bus 30 minutes to get to school. I’d hardly call that short. We’re not even the first stop which means the kids getting on the bus before my kids have a longer ride. Now apply that timeline to going all the way to Williamsburg. Williamsburg is 20 miles from Gunston. Than remember that is just one way.

I think that you mean that Williamsburg is 20 minutes from Gunston, not 20 miles - I don't think it's possible for any two points in Arlington to be 20 miles from each other. But you are correct that it is very far away and not a reasonable option.

Yes, you’re right. Typing on my phone.

[Anonymous]

Option buses should be longer than neighborhood buses. If you’re okay with a 5-mile bus ride to a neighborhood middle school, you should be perfectly fine with at least that or longer to an option school.