Drew Model Elementary: proposed boundaries (s/o from APS/SA thread specific to Drew)
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Anonymous
But you just said your Pre-K class got bumped FROM Claremont (no space for Pre-K) TO Abingdon (has space for Pre-K). PUs so not need to be moved out of Abingdon because of the Claremont change (ASFS said the same thing about Key admission policy change, and they didn't have a sudden influx to the neighborhood school when they didn't get in by General lottery). The admission policy changes will cause gradual changes to the neighborhood schools. Not a sudden one. What is more likely is that they might need to make space for the kids the know are coming from Columbia Hills. If they have to send some PUs to Drew, it should be ones that are closest and that can have a positive effect on demographics. |
Anonymous
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Not all of those planning units are zoned for Drew. Some of them are going to Randolph and when you look at a map it is strange that they are even Abingdon.
I’m not fighting CF one way or the other. I’m saying it’s silly to have kids in closet classrooms while other schools next door will have plenty of room. Especially since the only apparent reason is people don’t want to send their kids to school with “those” kids. |
Anonymous
That's terrible, by the way. But moving doesn't mean your child will be assigned to a more appropriate classroom. The Pre-K classes get shifted around, often at the last minute when someone from APS makes a different decision that has ripple effects. I think this is an issue you should bring up to SEPTA or someone, because even if it was decision made over the summer, Abingdon's administration should either have been able to find more appropriate spaces within the school for your child and the others in that class, or should've alerted APS to this issue so they could find a more suitable location for the Pre-K classes. Isn't the code for this age group that they be at ground level, with egress to ground level? No stairs. |
Anonymous
I’m honestly not sure and the way Abingdon is located on a hill it may technically be ground level? We are new to the APS SPED world so I’m not sure how to even raise the issue or if it’s a battle worth fighting when I know I have a million more to come. Plus it’s not fair to put another classroom there instead. My main point was that just because on paper Abingdon isn’t technically overcrowded doesn’t mean that it’s not feeling the crowding issues all the schools are facing. The whole point of building fleet was to help elevate some of these issues. |
Anonymous
Which PUs did I mis-identify? I only selected orange PUs currently zoned for Abingdon being shifted to Drew. I used this map. If I got one wrong, please let me know which one. Here's the map I used: https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Fall-2018-Elementary-School-Boundary-Proposal-36-by-36-Final.pdf |
Anonymous
You didn't misidentify anything. PP got some of the PUs in that area that are being redirected from Barcroft to Randolph. |
Anonymous
No I was saying it was in a classroom at Abingdon that is now being used as a Kindergarten classroom because of the Claremont admissions policy change Abingdon needed more classrooms |
Anonymous
Sorry it was late and I didn’t look at all of them on a map. I knew some planning units from Abingdon are moving to Randolph and figured they where in your list. |
Anonymous
But like you said, if there are children with disabilities who have challenges with walking, they should be the ones closest to egresses and bathrooms. Kids who don't have mobility challenges should be in the classrooms that may be further away from those two things. I guess I don't know whether it's a battle worth fighting, but maybe the issue should at least be raised so that if there is some wiggle room now or in the future, they make that change. If I were a parent at your school I would be upset to learn that kids with challenges were being put in a precarious situation, presumably so that my child who doesn't face the same challenges has a better classroom. Would I like my kid to be the one in a windowless basement room? Of course not, but I'd understand why that would be the more fair thing to do. Lastly, I will say that the idea of what crowding looks like is something we're all going to have to get used to. Fleet isn't going to do much. It's only adding 200 or so permanent seats. We have a deficit of hundreds more above that, and whether the kids are in option schools or neighborhood schools, the seat totals add up to the same, which is not enough. Fleet isn't going to be a magic bullet because of how fast the system is growing. It's great that they added 200 new seats, but there are two new housing projects in SA that are being built in places where there was no residential housing prior, and they estimate almost that many new kids just from those two projects alone. Most of our schools are going to remain overcrowded or at capacity, with kids in windowless closets and computer labs, or in trailers, for the foreseeable future, even if they do their best at spreading the kids around with this boundary change. They are very far behind in addressing seat deficits, and I think are still hoping this trend reverses. |
Anonymous
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Right, And I think that’s something we can all agree on that’s the schools are getting crowded we are running out of room.
Which is why the “not it” game people are playing with Drew is frustrating. I’m also unsure of what they plan to do with Henry down the road. Will it be torn down for the new HS? If so what’s the point of all of this? We need a new neighborhood school in SA not a fancy new school that just moves an existing old school. |
Anonymous
But frankly, I support the "not it" if it's a question of violating all the criteria. Move PUs that are closer and can help with diversity AND efficiency. Don't create a terrible boundary that will set things in stone for the foreseeable future. Since we aren't getting another new school here for at least ten years, they have to get this right. It's an entire cohorts' elementary experience. The boundary they presented is shameful. It's neither rooted in diversity, proximity, contiguity, nor alignment. It's basically moving around people who don't have a brigade of t-shirts as their representatives. They can and should do better. It doesn't just matter that they send some PUs to Drew. It also matters WHICH ONES. Unless you think the kids who are on fr/l are better served in a highly segregated high poverty school. I do not. Science does not. |
Anonymous
Fleet is adding 700 elementary seats to the system. It may only be adding 200 neighborhood seats to Henry, but the whole process is also creating hundreds of neighborhood seats at Drew. I don't think it makes sense to say that opening a new 700 seat school is only adding 200 seats. I agree with you about the challenges associated with the new housing projects. What a mess. |
Anonymous
I said new seats. It doesn't matter that neighborhood seats are opening. It's all seats that add up to same too few number. They only created 200 new seats TOTAL, which will be immediately filled as soon as the developments are complete. Again, it doesn't matter if they are option or neighborhood seats, they are only adding 200 additional new permanent seats. The rest is just shuffling kids around. |
Anonymous
Sorry, to clarify, they are in fact building 700 (or is it 725) new seats, but assuming they just move current Henry there (or that same number of kids), it's already almost to capacity. So there isn't really a net gain because they let the crowding get so bad for so long. The old Henry building is actually going to house far fewer K-5 students when it's Montessori than when it was Henry, so we're actually losing K-5 seats in that process. Drew has the same number of seats that it always had, they wil just be open to different kids. So maybe we will be using seats more efficiently, but we are still very far behind on meeting capacity. Don't expect this to be a game-changer is all. Closets will still be classrooms. There will still be trailers. |
Anonymous
753, actually. APS had stated 725 was the largest they would go to; but they managed to increase that for Fleet. I guess Henry should be glad, since it enables them to all stay together. But that's the point - Henry's enrollment will continue to increase so instead of Henry's illogical advocacy "welcoming MORE PUs," the reality is they CAN'T welcome more. In fact, their boundary should shrink in order to keep it from being overcrowded again. 750 is a HUGE elementary school and far from the optimum size. APS merely deemed 750 its maximum optimum size because that's the # of seats they needed to get. |