APS budget is unacceptable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I'd really like to stop are these "Friday Five" emails and texts etc. Just send group emails when there is truly something to report. We are busy people with jobs and kids. I don't have time to read something -- really multiple things -- from APS every single week. You guys know we already get communications from the actual schools our kids are in, right? [/quot

We don’t need a tv crew and we don’t need feel good PR BS. Just give us the actual information parents need and never seem to have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cutting the aquatics field trip will save almost no money. APS barely funds field trips. Mostly to planetarium, outdoor lab and pools. PTAs fundraise for Jamestown and the like.

Kids like pool week. No sense in cutting it. And APS is not going to fund something better.

Yes, cutting aquatics would save money in staff positions and busing. How many buses are used? How many aquatics program staff are there?

And it would give back a lot of instructional time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we shut cut the APS aquatics program.

Doesn't this make money for APS?

I think they mean the 3rd and 8th grade units where they bus kids to the pool.

yes that's what I mean.

How much does that cost?

[Anonymous]

Thoughts on teacher guy posting on AEM about 4 day school weeks? Methinks he's a little off his rocker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suggest cutting every single one of the bus routes that duplicate public transit lines at the secondary school level. Metrobus and Art Buses are now free for students.

That would be great IF those Metro and ART routes ran at the right times to get students to and from school at the right times AND have sufficient capacity for get all the now-APS bus students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we shut cut the APS aquatics program.

Doesn't this make money for APS?

I think they mean the 3rd and 8th grade units where they bus kids to the pool.

I doubt that program will ever end since a large number of Arlington students don’t know how to swim. Even junior high age kids.

This swimming competency initiative goes back some 50 plus years and has a ton of support, kind of like the planetarium which almost got the axe.

I get the reasoning but no kid is learning to swim in the short time they’re in this program if they have no water experience. If I remember it was just a week when my kids did it.

The main purpose is to make sure kids have enough ability to not drown - tread water, jump off a diving board, stay afloat. We're not trying to train olympic medalists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thoughts on teacher guy posting on AEM about 4 day school weeks? Methinks he's a little off his rocker.

He’s been off his rocker for years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we shut cut the APS aquatics program.

Doesn't this make money for APS?

I think they mean the 3rd and 8th grade units where they bus kids to the pool.

I doubt that program will ever end since a large number of Arlington students don’t know how to swim. Even junior high age kids.

This swimming competency initiative goes back some 50 plus years and has a ton of support, kind of like the planetarium which almost got the axe.

I get the reasoning but no kid is learning to swim in the short time they’re in this program if they have no water experience. If I remember it was just a week when my kids did it.

The main purpose is to make sure kids have enough ability to not drown - tread water, jump off a diving board, stay afloat. We're not trying to train olympic medalists.

That’s not happening in a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we shut cut the APS aquatics program.

Doesn't this make money for APS?

I think they mean the 3rd and 8th grade units where they bus kids to the pool.

I doubt that program will ever end since a large number of Arlington students don’t know how to swim. Even junior high age kids.

This swimming competency initiative goes back some 50 plus years and has a ton of support, kind of like the planetarium which almost got the axe.

I'd love if they dropped the field trips to the pool and instead just offered APS kids in certain grades free access to public swim times at APS pools. It would cost APS very little, but would improve access and encourage kids to go routinely to actually learn to swim.

So, you just want to cut the PE swim units. I'm not in support of subsidizing free passes for kids who may not even ever go. just because a family's 3rd grader has a free pass isn't making it any more likely a poor/non-pool family is going to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we shut cut the APS aquatics program.

Doesn't this make money for APS?

I think they mean the 3rd and 8th grade units where they bus kids to the pool.

I doubt that program will ever end since a large number of Arlington students don’t know how to swim. Even junior high age kids.

This swimming competency initiative goes back some 50 plus years and has a ton of support, kind of like the planetarium which almost got the axe.

I'd love if they dropped the field trips to the pool and instead just offered APS kids in certain grades free access to public swim times at APS pools. It would cost APS very little, but would improve access and encourage kids to go routinely to actually learn to swim.

The problem is how to do that equitably for students from various backgrounds. Not all families have the time, resources, ore desire to go swimming on their own. Their kids will miss out.

Doing it equitably is easy. All third graders have access for free. Send out information on swim times via the APS app several times during the year. Done.

You cant force kids to learn to swim. You can't force parents to introduce their kids to swimming. And the current field trips are disruptive and don't actually teach any kids to swim. It has to be up to kids and families. All you can do is improve access.

This is such a small blade to fall on. It is not that disruptive. And you "can" "force" kids to learn to swim, just like you force them to do all the other stupid sports and games in PE classes. Don't know your standard for "being able to swim" but, again, the point is to give them enough skill and confidence to not drown if they find themselves in a body of water or having to jump into a body of water for survival.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is currently doing the swim program (this week). They are literally busing kids across the street from Claremont to Wakefield. Whatever that costs is a ridiculous expense, even if it is minimal. Of the 25 kids in their class, 5 seem to have limited swimming exposure. This week isn’t changing their skill. And the kids are otherwise missing a week of instructional time. My kid is having a blast but this ain’t it y’all.

1. I agree Claremont to Wakefield should be a WALKING field trip! That's LUDICROUS!
2. So what if most of the kids can already swim? It's nice to have fun in PE for a change. Many kids don't like PE. And the kids who don't know how to swim - probably more likely than not lower on the socioeconomic scale and don't go to public or private pools - get the opportunity to learn how to not drown.
3. It's elementary school. One week of going across the street for a swim class is not preventing them from getting into Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kind of rich that the Arlington teacher now going after TJ and options programs was pushing pushing pushing for the virtual learning program for a long time.

But did you hear him suggest cutting the VLP? I didn't. I don't think that is one of the special programs he was referring to for consideration to be eliminated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we shut cut the APS aquatics program.

Doesn't this make money for APS?

I think they mean the 3rd and 8th grade units where they bus kids to the pool.

I doubt that program will ever end since a large number of Arlington students don’t know how to swim. Even junior high age kids.

This swimming competency initiative goes back some 50 plus years and has a ton of support, kind of like the planetarium which almost got the axe.

I'd love if they dropped the field trips to the pool and instead just offered APS kids in certain grades free access to public swim times at APS pools. It would cost APS very little, but would improve access and encourage kids to go routinely to actually learn to swim.

The problem is how to do that equitably for students from various backgrounds. Not all families have the time, resources, ore desire to go swimming on their own. Their kids will miss out.

But is swimming really a critical life skill that schools MUST teach? I say no. And yes I know a kid drowned 50 years ago, and that's the impetus for the program. But today, kids are dying of fentanyl overdoses. Let's reorder our priorities. You don't keep a program just because it's been around for 50 years.

Is it critical that schools teach swimming? No. But has anyone answered the question of how much that program actually costs? Is this even worth bickering about? It's already been noted that at least some of the cost for it can be reduced by walking kids from Claremont to Wakefield instead of busing them. I'd suggest even Abingdon could walk, too, as well as any schools close to YHS and WL. Buy some extra blankets for the kids to wrap up in if they have to go during the winter and don't have a hat or coat.

[Anonymous]

I say they start by asking the right questions, such as why Duran increased central office staff by 40% and how is that helping kids learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoughts on teacher guy posting on AEM about 4 day school weeks? Methinks he's a little off his rocker.

He’s been off his rocker for years

Don’t be a jerk on an anonymous forum. Get thee over to AEM and comment there with your name if you’re going to criticize (let alone personally attack) individual teachers who are working hard to advocate for teachers and students.