New APS Elem Boundaries (ASFS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way they should "swap" Key with ASFS. The whole idea is to make choice schools more central, because they're serving kids from a larger geographic footprint. That needs to be a priority over whatever that one neighborhood is clamoring for now. Moving Immersion deeper into N Arlington doesn't cut it, especially since the Immersion "split" is designed to be East/West, not North/South.

Thank you.

We're zoned for Key but sent our kids elsewhere because the principal seemed [not kid-friendly]. But parents who chase test scores need to be ignored, especially if they're part of a demographic in which the kids are going to do fine pretty much anywhere, and certainly in any of the schools Lyon Village kids could conceivably be sent to. Might there be a better fit for some kids at some schools? Yes, but so what? It's public school. You're not entitled to get a spot wherever you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way they should "swap" Key with ASFS. The whole idea is to make choice schools more central, because they're serving kids from a larger geographic footprint. That needs to be a priority over whatever that one neighborhood is clamoring for now. Moving Immersion deeper into N Arlington doesn't cut it, especially since the Immersion "split" is designed to be East/West, not North/South.

Thank you.

We're zoned for Key but sent our kids elsewhere because the principal seemed [not kid-friendly]. But parents who chase test scores need to be ignored, especially if they're part of a demographic in which the kids are going to do fine pretty much anywhere, and certainly in any of the schools Lyon Village kids could conceivably be sent to. Might there be a better fit for some kids at some schools? Yes, but so what? It's public school. You're not entitled to get a spot wherever you want.

Except the board's recent actions have shown that this is exactly what these parents can demand and expect to be given. Who cares about everyone so long as the vocal few are appeased?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea right they would close a park to build a school. Its expensive and no way that community would be ok with losing a park for a year or two. And Key is more centrally located anyways, building a bigger school there doesn't solve the problem that there isn't a school within 2 miles of Rosslyn other than Key. And Rosslyn is supposed to be car free according to the parking zoning -- new development is going to only have one parking spot for every 5 housing units. If the county board hadn't passed the restrictive parking for courthouse/clarendon/rosslyn, I think you could get away with saying that those kids can ride a bus to taylor or jamestown. But if you remove the walkable school at this point by making it an option school, you basically say that courthouse/clarendon/rosslyn isn't supposed to own a car but kids can't walk to school, therefore families shouldn't live there. Its at complete odds with one another.

I agree. Also, ASFS currently has 510 kids from the Key zone based on the transfer report compared to the 280 Key zone kids who actually go to Key. I think that shows a clear demand for a neighborhood school over immersion even before Key changing to all lottery.

No, it shows a clear preference for the school with higher test scores. It's not some mystery. If it were between Spanish Immersion and a neighborhood GS 3 school, Key would've been as overcrowded as Claremont and ASFS would've been under enrolled.

I have no dog in this fight, but we don't have enough money or time for perfect solutions everywhere. It's going to have to be "good enough." If you bought a house in an area without a walkable school, you have no right to demand one be created. Put your kids on the bus, they'll live. And yes, they don't want families in the R-B corridor. Duh, you were all supposed to move out to a McMansion in Herndon before Kindergarten.

Generally, the Arlington community values walking and proximity. Hopefully, the end solution allows the greatest # of families to walk to their neighborhood schools. Given that Key is a countywide program I don't think proximity is as important of a factor. Centrally located would be ideal of course but I'd prioritize the distribution of neighborhood schools over special programs.

[Anonymous]

If you are walking distance to Key, you will be walking distance to your middle and high schools. So if you have to take a bus to elementary school, so what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are walking distance to Key, you will be walking distance to your middle and high schools. So if you have to take a bus to elementary school, so what?

Elementary school is the only time you need to explicitly pick your kid up from school -- they cannot walk by themselves. I don't own a car because my condo does not have a parking spot associated with it, right now my kids and I commute via metro. This is how my neighborhood was planned -- its supposed to be "carless". Look at the last county board meeting where they passed the parking restrictions. My area is supposed to be car free and walkable. Cherrydale is not supposed to be, new housing there can have as much parking as they want, and its all single family houses anyways. how am I supposed to pick my kid up from extended day if we get zoned to taylor? Actually come to rosslyn around rush hour and tell me that it makes sense to bus kids to taylor. All you are doing is changing the demographics of the neighborhood.

I will likely move if we get rezoned to Taylor, but don't try to convince yourself that what you're doing is not pandering. You're pandering to the people who live in that neighborhood who want to have a walkable school (when they all own cars and have plenty of parking in their neighborhood) when they are within 1.5 miles of 3 schools! 3! Glebe, Taylor, and the current ASFS building are all within a mile of most of that neighborhood. That neighborhood doesn't need another neighborhood school. Rosslyn is 3 miles from Taylor. 3 miles! In a 26 square mile county, that is really far. The key building is within a mile of my house. We would totally walk. But wait, the arlington way is that only rich kids who live in multimillion dollar houses should be able to walk, not people who live in apartments or condos. You're a transient anyways right?

And sorry but when I bought my condo in Rosslyn\Courthouse, I had a walkable neighborhood school. Key was my neighborhood school. There is plenty of parking in cherrydale. Everyone I know who lives in that neighborhood that goes to asfs actually drives the quarter mile walk. Those jerks totally monopolized the discussion last spring when we should have been arguing to keep key a neighborhood school. They kept spouting their "walk zone" and "keep the team" and so no one even understood the ramifications for my neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way they should "swap" Key with ASFS. The whole idea is to make choice schools more central, because they're serving kids from a larger geographic footprint. That needs to be a priority over whatever that one neighborhood is clamoring for now. Moving Immersion deeper into N Arlington doesn't cut it, especially since the Immersion "split" is designed to be East/West, not North/South.

Thank you.

We're zoned for Key but sent our kids elsewhere because the principal seemed [not kid-friendly]. But parents who chase test scores need to be ignored, especially if they're part of a demographic in which the kids are going to do fine pretty much anywhere, and certainly in any of the schools Lyon Village kids could conceivably be sent to. Might there be a better fit for some kids at some schools? Yes, but so what? It's public school. You're not entitled to get a spot wherever you want.

Sorry but the kids in Lyon village aren't the ones that are going to be rezoned out of asfs or bussed anywhere. OF course lyon village is going to be part of the walk zone for whatever they come up with.
The kids that are going to get screwed are the ones that live in colonial village, or clarendon, or rosslyn where its mostly apartments and condos and tonwhouses. Yes you can argue that those kids are still better off than people that live in affordable housing, but they are a different demographic than lyon village.

[Anonymous]

They will slice rB corridor into horizontal strips. ASFS will be thermometer shape, with bulb around school and long stem out to Rosslyn, with North parts going to Taylor and sourh to Long Branch and narrow slice continue at ASFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way they should "swap" Key with ASFS. The whole idea is to make choice schools more central, because they're serving kids from a larger geographic footprint. That needs to be a priority over whatever that one neighborhood is clamoring for now. Moving Immersion deeper into N Arlington doesn't cut it, especially since the Immersion "split" is designed to be East/West, not North/South.

The ASFS building is exactly parallel with Key -- its only 0.5 miles west. So you're not moving the immersion program further north, if you switch facilities, you're just moving it west closer to ballston.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are walking distance to Key, you will be walking distance to your middle and high schools. So if you have to take a bus to elementary school, so what?

I live in Rosslyn. The only way we're walking to middle and high school is if we lottery into HB Woodlawn at the new building. We will be fine if we have to take a bus to Taylor, Long Branch, or ASFS, but it certainly complicates the aftercare situation. Most families in our neighborhood have 2 working parents. Remember, they are taking away the by-right admission to Key that we had before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are walking distance to Key, you will be walking distance to your middle and high schools. So if you have to take a bus to elementary school, so what?

I live in Rosslyn. The only way we're walking to middle and high school is if we lottery into HB Woodlawn at the new building. We will be fine if we have to take a bus to Taylor, Long Branch, or ASFS, but it certainly complicates the aftercare situation. Most families in our neighborhood have 2 working parents. Remember, they are taking away the by-right admission to Key that we had before.

Look, you bought in Key so you could go to ASFS anyway, and you would've been on a bus. You aren't fooling anyone. You bought into a neighborhood that didn't have walkable school. Deal with it. We don't have the resources to make life even easier for every white walker. Key is more accessible for families who need to use public transportation to even entertain the idea of immersion (remember, dual immersion doesn't work if you don't have enough native Spanish speakers, and there aren't enough native Spanish speakers living around Key any longer. They've been priced out.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are walking distance to Key, you will be walking distance to your middle and high schools. So if you have to take a bus to elementary school, so what?

I live in Rosslyn. The only way we're walking to middle and high school is if we lottery into HB Woodlawn at the new building. We will be fine if we have to take a bus to Taylor, Long Branch, or ASFS, but it certainly complicates the aftercare situation. Most families in our neighborhood have 2 working parents. Remember, they are taking away the by-right admission to Key that we had before.

Look, you bought in Key so you could go to ASFS anyway, and you would've been on a bus. You aren't fooling anyone. You bought into a neighborhood that didn't have walkable school. Deal with it. We don't have the resources to make life even easier for every white walker. Key is more accessible for families who need to use public transportation to even entertain the idea of immersion (remember, dual immersion doesn't work if you don't have enough native Spanish speakers, and there aren't enough native Spanish speakers living around Key any longer. They've been priced out.)

Ok so walkability is a right for every part of Arlington except the Rosslyn ballston corridor which is supposed to be planned careless. That makes sense. Remember the asfs building is just as accessible to metro. It's within half a mile of two metro stations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are walking distance to Key, you will be walking distance to your middle and high schools. So if you have to take a bus to elementary school, so what?

I have no issue if my own kids take the bus. Overall we as a community should locate our neighborhood elementary schools where they will serve the most amount of children in walking distance or a short bus ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way they should "swap" Key with ASFS. The whole idea is to make choice schools more central, because they're serving kids from a larger geographic footprint. That needs to be a priority over whatever that one neighborhood is clamoring for now. Moving Immersion deeper into N Arlington doesn't cut it, especially since the Immersion "split" is designed to be East/West, not North/South.

The ASFS building is exactly parallel with Key -- its only 0.5 miles west. So you're not moving the immersion program further north, if you switch facilities, you're just moving it west closer to ballston.

1.5 miles West

Still pretty "central"

[Anonymous]

Efficiency and proximity should trump everything. If it is most efficient to bus Rosslyn to Taylor then let's do it. If it's most efficient to move asfs to the key building, let's do it. Long branch can't accommodate more kids even after offloading some kids to fleet. So it's just a question of who it makes more sense to bus to Taylor, glebe, reed, and Jamestown/discovery.
We have no idea what the most efficient solution might be. Aps staff might. Let's hope they try to do what's best for everyone and aren't as vindictive and vitriolic as you guys.

[Anonymous]

I love that long branch will sending kids to fleet. Makes sense that the new south arl elementary would be used by north Arlington. As it should be.