APS Closing Nottingham

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Well said

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

Why do I get the sense that if the proposal were reversed, north Arlington would think it a fine proposal? If they were "shutting down" an under-enrolled south Arlington elementary and redistricting its students to nearby under-enrolled elementaries and using that school for swing space so their north Arlington schools can get renovated faster, that would be an outstanding idea...until their kids have to be bused across the county to south Arlington....so, really there is no acceptable solution for north Arlington complaint crowd other than spending tens of millions more to outfit a non-school space in order to operate it as a school somewhere not terribly inconvenient for them in case their school gets sent to the swing space. Of course, in that case, the site would need to be somewhere north of 50 and people living by the designated swing space will complain what a terrible idea because the traffic! the busing so far away! the noise of children and buses! all those parents driving their cars to drop off and pick up their kids from extended day! the pedestrian and cyclist danger!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

Why do I get the sense that if the proposal were reversed, north Arlington would think it a fine proposal? If they were "shutting down" an under-enrolled south Arlington elementary and redistricting its students to nearby under-enrolled elementaries and using that school for swing space so their north Arlington schools can get renovated faster, that would be an outstanding idea...until their kids have to be bused across the county to south Arlington....so, really there is no acceptable solution for north Arlington complaint crowd other than spending tens of millions more to outfit a non-school space in order to operate it as a school somewhere not terribly inconvenient for them in case their school gets sent to the swing space. Of course, in that case, the site would need to be somewhere north of 50 and people living by the designated swing space will complain what a terrible idea because the traffic! the busing so far away! the noise of children and buses! all those parents driving their cars to drop off and pick up their kids from extended day! the pedestrian and cyclist danger!

So North Arlington parents wouldn’t like it, and the south Arlington parents would have the same concern? I don’t understand the point you are trying to make. The simple fact is that there are so many hours in the day to advocate for stuff that doesn’t affect you, and I seriously doubt any South Arlington parent has spent more than 20 minutes this summer evaluating this proposal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

I am the PP and I just assumed it would be a southern school because I thought that was your best argument, and because Nottingham parents responding seemed especially offended for some reason that the kids coming to their neighborhood would be from South Arlington. If the schools getting renovated are nearby, the bus rides or car rides will be shorter and less of an issue, so everyone should be pretty happy.

If I were from a school that badly needed renovations and I had to go through a year of busing my kid 5 or 10 miles away so that I could wind up with a fully renovated school for the rest of my kid's time there, I would be pretty happy. If it were my kid's last year at the school, that might be a little bit of a bummer. But I'd suck it up, for the good of everyone else. Which I understand is not something that Nottingham parents are familiar with, so let me know if you need more information on what goes into that process exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

I am the PP and I just assumed it would be a southern school because I thought that was your best argument, and because Nottingham parents responding seemed especially offended for some reason that the kids coming to their neighborhood would be from South Arlington. If the schools getting renovated are nearby, the bus rides or car rides will be shorter and less of an issue, so everyone should be pretty happy.

If I were from a school that badly needed renovations and I had to go through a year of busing my kid 5 or 10 miles away so that I could wind up with a fully renovated school for the rest of my kid's time there, I would be pretty happy. If it were my kid's last year at the school, that might be a little bit of a bummer. But I'd suck it up, for the good of everyone else. Which I understand is not something that Nottingham parents are familiar with, so let me know if you need more information on what goes into that process exactly.

Still not seeing how closing down one school community and overcrowding others, so another has a good place to go for a year before returning home to a brand new Architectural Digest award winning renovation, might be taken poorly by the community being shut down to facilitate?

Either way, no one in Taylor is walking to Nottingham. Same amount of cars/busses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

I am the PP and I just assumed it would be a southern school because I thought that was your best argument, and because Nottingham parents responding seemed especially offended for some reason that the kids coming to their neighborhood would be from South Arlington. If the schools getting renovated are nearby, the bus rides or car rides will be shorter and less of an issue, so everyone should be pretty happy.

If I were from a school that badly needed renovations and I had to go through a year of busing my kid 5 or 10 miles away so that I could wind up with a fully renovated school for the rest of my kid's time there, I would be pretty happy. If it were my kid's last year at the school, that might be a little bit of a bummer. But I'd suck it up, for the good of everyone else. Which I understand is not something that Nottingham parents are familiar with, so let me know if you need more information on what goes into that process exactly.

Still not seeing how closing down one school community and overcrowding others, so another has a good place to go for a year before returning home to a brand new Architectural Digest award winning renovation, might be taken poorly by the community being shut down to facilitate?

Either way, no one in Taylor is walking to Nottingham. Same amount of cars/busses.

It will be schools from the other side of the county. Look at the list of when schools were last renovated. It isn’t hard to see we aren’t talking about Taylor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

I am the PP and I just assumed it would be a southern school because I thought that was your best argument, and because Nottingham parents responding seemed especially offended for some reason that the kids coming to their neighborhood would be from South Arlington. If the schools getting renovated are nearby, the bus rides or car rides will be shorter and less of an issue, so everyone should be pretty happy.

If I were from a school that badly needed renovations and I had to go through a year of busing my kid 5 or 10 miles away so that I could wind up with a fully renovated school for the rest of my kid's time there, I would be pretty happy. If it were my kid's last year at the school, that might be a little bit of a bummer. But I'd suck it up, for the good of everyone else. Which I understand is not something that Nottingham parents are familiar with, so let me know if you need more information on what goes into that process exactly.

You're trying to spin a narrative about S. Arlington vs. N. Arlington wars and some perceived slights by parents from an entire elementary cohort ago, but the reality is that kids coming for swing space will be coming via bus and car, regardless of where they are coming from. That's at least 4x the number of buses and who knows how many more cars (no one knows, because we don't know which school/s are being swung). It's not about the bus ride durations. Or, it might be about bus ride durations for some impacted schools/families, but those communities have not been notified of this plan (because the schools have not been identified) so they're unaware and can't consider the impacts or comment on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

Why do I get the sense that if the proposal were reversed, north Arlington would think it a fine proposal? If they were "shutting down" an under-enrolled south Arlington elementary and redistricting its students to nearby under-enrolled elementaries and using that school for swing space so their north Arlington schools can get renovated faster, that would be an outstanding idea...until their kids have to be bused across the county to south Arlington....so, really there is no acceptable solution for north Arlington complaint crowd other than spending tens of millions more to outfit a non-school space in order to operate it as a school somewhere not terribly inconvenient for them in case their school gets sent to the swing space. Of course, in that case, the site would need to be somewhere north of 50 and people living by the designated swing space will complain what a terrible idea because the traffic! the busing so far away! the noise of children and buses! all those parents driving their cars to drop off and pick up their kids from extended day! the pedestrian and cyclist danger!

So North Arlington parents wouldn’t like it, and the south Arlington parents would have the same concern? I don’t understand the point you are trying to make. The simple fact is that there are so many hours in the day to advocate for stuff that doesn’t affect you, and I seriously doubt any South Arlington parent has spent more than 20 minutes this summer evaluating this proposal.

I assure you, you are wrong.
My point is, no matter what the proposal, north Arlington never finds it acceptable if it in any way directly impacts them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

I am the PP and I just assumed it would be a southern school because I thought that was your best argument, and because Nottingham parents responding seemed especially offended for some reason that the kids coming to their neighborhood would be from South Arlington. If the schools getting renovated are nearby, the bus rides or car rides will be shorter and less of an issue, so everyone should be pretty happy.

If I were from a school that badly needed renovations and I had to go through a year of busing my kid 5 or 10 miles away so that I could wind up with a fully renovated school for the rest of my kid's time there, I would be pretty happy. If it were my kid's last year at the school, that might be a little bit of a bummer. But I'd suck it up, for the good of everyone else. Which I understand is not something that Nottingham parents are familiar with, so let me know if you need more information on what goes into that process exactly.

Still not seeing how closing down one school community and overcrowding others, so another has a good place to go for a year before returning home to a brand new Architectural Digest award winning renovation, might be taken poorly by the community being shut down to facilitate?

Either way, no one in Taylor is walking to Nottingham. Same amount of cars/busses.

It will be schools from the other side of the county. Look at the list of when schools were last renovated. It isn’t hard to see we aren’t talking about Taylor.

We'll see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

Why do I get the sense that if the proposal were reversed, north Arlington would think it a fine proposal? If they were "shutting down" an under-enrolled south Arlington elementary and redistricting its students to nearby under-enrolled elementaries and using that school for swing space so their north Arlington schools can get renovated faster, that would be an outstanding idea...until their kids have to be bused across the county to south Arlington....so, really there is no acceptable solution for north Arlington complaint crowd other than spending tens of millions more to outfit a non-school space in order to operate it as a school somewhere not terribly inconvenient for them in case their school gets sent to the swing space. Of course, in that case, the site would need to be somewhere north of 50 and people living by the designated swing space will complain what a terrible idea because the traffic! the busing so far away! the noise of children and buses! all those parents driving their cars to drop off and pick up their kids from extended day! the pedestrian and cyclist danger!

So North Arlington parents wouldn’t like it, and the south Arlington parents would have the same concern? I don’t understand the point you are trying to make. The simple fact is that there are so many hours in the day to advocate for stuff that doesn’t affect you, and I seriously doubt any South Arlington parent has spent more than 20 minutes this summer evaluating this proposal.

I assure you, you are wrong.
My point is, no matter what the proposal, north Arlington never finds it acceptable if it in any way directly impacts them.

Does anyone ever find anything acceptable that impacts them in this county? Just curious, I’ve lived here awhile and yet to see it, but will admit I am relatively new to the fiasco that is APS planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not redistribute the boundaries to make the 4 elementary schools more even? And find a swing space that is more centrally located? Driving across the county during rush hour to make it to pick up before 6 disproportionally impacts lower income families, particularly those who do not have cars or who only have one parent.

Because there is no more centrally located swing space option that doesn't require major renovation to be used as swing space and therefore isn't nearly as inexpensive as re-purposing an existing functioning elementary school.

Also because ALL the elementary schools in this are are undersubscribed, and nearby elementaries are not oversubscribed. To fill up all of these 22207 elementaries, it will mean that kids in the south have to be bused to the North as part of their normal neighborhood school experience, for years, rather than go to their southern walkable school. That's what you're suggesting instead of having kids bused for a year while their southern school gets renovated -- so you seem to think busing is some huge problem when it hurts you but not when it benefits you.

Nottingham kids will still go to great nearby schools, this is really not a big deal. Please find some perspective.

Are the southern schools actually getting renovated? You’re assuming facts not (yet) in evidence. We don’t know what they’re planning- Taylor could be first up for all we know. The decision to shut down Nottingham is coming before anything else - including whether it’s feasible to do any of these renovations in place.

APS staffers- you think you’re being clever, but we’re on to you. The whole “it’s not going to suck for you that bad” really doesn’t absolve you from having to show your work about why shutting down an entire neighborhood school is in the best interest of this community.

Why do I get the sense that if the proposal were reversed, north Arlington would think it a fine proposal? If they were "shutting down" an under-enrolled south Arlington elementary and redistricting its students to nearby under-enrolled elementaries and using that school for swing space so their north Arlington schools can get renovated faster, that would be an outstanding idea...until their kids have to be bused across the county to south Arlington....so, really there is no acceptable solution for north Arlington complaint crowd other than spending tens of millions more to outfit a non-school space in order to operate it as a school somewhere not terribly inconvenient for them in case their school gets sent to the swing space. Of course, in that case, the site would need to be somewhere north of 50 and people living by the designated swing space will complain what a terrible idea because the traffic! the busing so far away! the noise of children and buses! all those parents driving their cars to drop off and pick up their kids from extended day! the pedestrian and cyclist danger!

So North Arlington parents wouldn’t like it, and the south Arlington parents would have the same concern? I don’t understand the point you are trying to make. The simple fact is that there are so many hours in the day to advocate for stuff that doesn’t affect you, and I seriously doubt any South Arlington parent has spent more than 20 minutes this summer evaluating this proposal.

I assure you, you are wrong.
My point is, no matter what the proposal, north Arlington never finds it acceptable if it in any way directly impacts them.

Does anyone ever find anything acceptable that impacts them in this county? Just curious, I’ve lived here awhile and yet to see it, but will admit I am relatively new to the fiasco that is APS planning.

It's now becoming annual drama by staff with too much time on their hands. Causes unnecessary community angst for minimal - if any - improvement.

[Anonymous]

You guys are the ones who fled to private in droves, and then complain about the consequences of your own actions which both left your schools underenrolled and threw APS numbers and enrollment predictions off. You guys place blame everywhere (APS, McKinley and other so called “hater” schools, the. county board, etc) except on yourselves of course. *chef’s kiss*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys are the ones who fled to private in droves, and then complain about the consequences of your own actions which both left your schools underenrolled and threw APS numbers and enrollment predictions off. You guys place blame everywhere (APS, McKinley and other so called “hater” schools, the. county board, etc) except on yourselves of course. *chef’s kiss*

A broad stereotype of North Arlington.
Middle class here with kids (proudly) in APS. The teachers and school facilities are very good here and the PTAs are active and involved. Like others, we love our neighborhood school and consider them an integral part of our community.
I believe most people realize that a planning unit here or there need to be adjusted. But when it comes to an annual (and seemingly unnecessary) process of wholesale moving or closing, it's understandable that people question the needs, process, or motivations.
APS Planning frequently provides solutions to problems that don't exist.

[Anonymous]

The massive underenrollment at Nottingham and nearby schools, and elementary schools needing significant renovations that would last beyond a summer, are all actual problems that exist that APS is trying to deal with, but I totally understand your preference to deny their existence!