APS and 4th High school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought APS already had four high schools, if you include HB. Would this be a fifth one?

Oh increase enrollment at HB to relieve WL? Capital idea, but that would break the HB “model” (ie, private school on public dime)

The problem with increasing enrollment is that the HB building was built for a specific enrollment number. You can't greatly increase it in a way that will make any difference with the current building size. And they can't have trailers or really expand because of the location.

What about the abandoned VHC property near Campbell elem? Where the urgent care was?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought APS already had four high schools, if you include HB. Would this be a fifth one?

Oh increase enrollment at HB to relieve WL? Capital idea, but that would break the HB “model” (ie, private school on public dime)

The problem with increasing enrollment is that the HB building was built for a specific enrollment number. You can't greatly increase it in a way that will make any difference with the current building size. And they can't have trailers or really expand because of the location.

What about the abandoned VHC property near Campbell elem? Where the urgent care was?

Of course the $100M building has no plan for additional capacity. What a crock. Is every HB class max size? Every room utilized? Could they move Stratford somewhere else and rephrase that space?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved out of Arlington when it became obvious to us that APS wasn't well run. They favor W-L over Yorktown and Wakefield in terms of academic programs; neglect the need to build a fourth comprehensive high school; and settle for mediocrity rather than academic excellence. People like Nancy Van Doren had way too much influence over APS, and the Superintendent (then Murphy) was a lightweight.

W-L is cramped in its current location. With the expansion and 3000 kids on the horizon, it will become even more of a zoo.

Honestly, I think that's their plan - to make people move. They already do it with SPED; they gaslight parents and then force those parents into private. Murphy drove what was once a good school district into the ground and the SB let it happen. It's disgraceful.

Arlington effectively has no middle class, so the plan is for all the wealthy students in SFH to go private or move to Fairfax by high school, and the high schools will serve mostly APAH needs.

[Anonymous]

Sending our WL kids to private HS. That's how we feel about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think APS is likely going to use virtual classes to meet capacity needs without building a 4th high school.

This is the way. They mentioned this back in 2011.

They all mentioned going to school in shifts. One cohort has the early morning-afternoon shift and one has the post-lunch and later shift--or different days. Can you f--ing imagine?

[Anonymous]

It’s definitely time for another high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think APS is likely going to use virtual classes to meet capacity needs without building a 4th high school.

This is the way. They mentioned this back in 2011.

They all mentioned going to school in shifts. One cohort has the early morning-afternoon shift and one has the post-lunch and later shift--or different days. Can you f--ing imagine?

Oh your, the school in shifts! I forgot all about that, they were full of terrible terrible ideas. They have to be designed to scare away anyone with means to go private or move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think APS is likely going to use virtual classes to meet capacity needs without building a 4th high school.

This is the way. They mentioned this back in 2011.

They all mentioned going to school in shifts. One cohort has the early morning-afternoon shift and one has the post-lunch and later shift--or different days. Can you f--ing imagine?

Oh your, the school in shifts! I forgot all about that, they were full of terrible terrible ideas. They have to be designed to scare away anyone with means to go private or move.

My high school did this when I was a kid. The high achievers would use the extra periods to stack their schedules. I took 10 classes one semester with classes from 6:40 AM to 4:30 PM. Those were the days...

[Anonymous]

Of course the $100M building has no plan for additional capacity. What a crock. Is every HB class max size? Every room utilized? Could they move Stratford somewhere else and rephrase that space?

Umm, this was very clearly and publicly planned and presented. No surprises. And the space on the bottom level was designed for Shriver program students specifically. They had to be relocated temporarily and there was a large uproar at the time. I’m sorry you are late to the party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Of course the $100M building has no plan for additional capacity. What a crock. Is every HB class max size? Every room utilized? Could they move Stratford somewhere else and rephrase that space?

Umm, this was very clearly and publicly planned and presented. No surprises. And the space on the bottom level was designed for Shriver program students specifically. They had to be relocated temporarily and there was a large uproar at the time. I’m sorry you are late to the party.

And HB fought hard NOT to move. That wasn't something they wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought APS already had four high schools, if you include HB. Would this be a fifth one?

Oh increase enrollment at HB to relieve WL? Capital idea, but that would break the HB “model” (ie, private school on public dime)

The problem with increasing enrollment is that the HB building was built for a specific enrollment number. You can't greatly increase it in a way that will make any difference with the current building size. And they can't have trailers or really expand because of the location.

What about the abandoned VHC property near Campbell elem? Where the urgent care was?

Of course the $100M building has no plan for additional capacity. What a crock. Is every HB class max size? Every room utilized? Could they move Stratford somewhere else and rephrase that space?

Oh, friend. You are way too late to the party.
They COULD separate the Stratford (now Shriver) program; but that was a HUGE point of contention with the HB parents when they were told they'd be moving to a new building. There used to be a connection between the two via a buddy program and HB claimed they couldn't disrupt that. In actuality, it was another way to maintain the limit on the size of the program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved out of Arlington when it became obvious to us that APS wasn't well run. They favor W-L over Yorktown and Wakefield in terms of academic programs; neglect the need to build a fourth comprehensive high school; and settle for mediocrity rather than academic excellence. People like Nancy Van Doren had way too much influence over APS, and the Superintendent (then Murphy) was a lightweight.

W-L is cramped in its current location. With the expansion and 3000 kids on the horizon, it will become even more of a zoo.

Honestly, I think that's their plan - to make people move. They already do it with SPED; they gaslight parents and then force those parents into private. Murphy drove what was once a good school district into the ground and the SB let it happen. It's disgraceful.

Arlington effectively has no middle class, so the plan is for all the wealthy students in SFH to go private or move to Fairfax by high school, and the high schools will serve mostly APAH needs.

Oh, is that the plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Of course the $100M building has no plan for additional capacity. What a crock. Is every HB class max size? Every room utilized? Could they move Stratford somewhere else and rephrase that space?

Umm, this was very clearly and publicly planned and presented. No surprises. And the space on the bottom level was designed for Shriver program students specifically. They had to be relocated temporarily and there was a large uproar at the time. I’m sorry you are late to the party.

And HB fought hard NOT to move. That wasn't something they wanted.

FFS, they wanted to keep the largest footprint campus in North Arlington. Of course they didn’t want to more. But they are prima donna about not making the program larger; if they had communicated a willingness to help the community and plan for growth that would have fed back into the plans for the building.

[Anonymous]

I don't get why HBW has to stay 6-12 grade. We have more middle school capacity now that we've opened Hamm. Last I checked, Hamm and Williamsburg were under-enrolled, even pre-pandemic. If APS sent the HBW middle school kids back to their home schools and made HBW 9-12 instead, it would also give more kids a chance to rotate through the program because students would only stay for 4 years instead of 7 years. I've never understood why middle school has to be part of the HBW program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why HBW has to stay 6-12 grade. We have more middle school capacity now that we've opened Hamm. Last I checked, Hamm and Williamsburg were under-enrolled, even pre-pandemic. If APS sent the HBW middle school kids back to their home schools and made HBW 9-12 instead, it would also give more kids a chance to rotate through the program because students would only stay for 4 years instead of 7 years. I've never understood why middle school has to be part of the HBW program.

That is a great idea. And with high student teacher ratios in classroom that also can increase the size of the program.

They could keep HBW MS program as a program tract within the middle schools or even just the one do the middle schools in HB MS — it would fill easily, just don’t guarantee admittance the HBW HS because of the size mismatch. That seems much more equitable rather than basically have those who apply in 6th get the special treatment for 7 years rather than potentially more participating for 3 or 4 years.

Bravo.