Arlington CB - who is good for schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of them. Based off of private conversations with her probably Coffee is the worst for schools because she doesn’t believe in trying to reign in development or have infrastructure investment (schools, roads, etc) keep pace with new development.

Agree with "none of them."

None of them mention schools except for Roy who pushes more community and county partnerships with schools. She is also focused on transit - although in speaking with her one-on-one, she didn't seem to grasp how the County can collaborate with schools with the bus routes and times. She said that students already have the iRide program and just looked at me blankly when I tried to explain that the bus routes need to be efficient and timed to school needs for more students to actually use ART/Metro buses to go to school. She didn't seem to understand that the bus would take my kids 2 transfers and 45 minutes to an hour one way v. taking the existing school bus (10-15 minutes) or driving themselves (7 minutes)....let alone that the timing of the ART/Metro routes do not correspond with when school starts or dismisses, or extra curricular activities begin/end. She would be my first choice for schools except for her focus on getting developers to contribute more to the county's affordable housing fund - which in turn goes to AHC and APAH so they can keep adding 200+unit affordable housing buildings in the same neighborhoods and developments they already have 100% committed affordable housing....merely continuing to add to the already 65%+high FRL schools.

Droomdogle, or whatever his name is, at least mentions encouraging developers to include 10% affordable units in their housing developments which is at least a departure from all the AH advocates/CB who just want to keep building more where it already is and preserving it all forever where it currently is. This at least would "spread the wealth" of opportunity and resources a little bit by giving more low-income kids and families access to schools not already disproportionately burdened by very high FRL and high ELL needs, etc. (It won't happen; but at least he mentions it, even though it's not in any context of schools).

Cunningham has at least been involved in some new school planning processes and has been positively viewed on her performance in that context. She also isn't pushing the increased density goals current CB has. That, in turn, helps schools when APS and the County can't/won't plan effectively long-term for school needs.

The rest of them are just for maximum density with no thought to schools or infrastructure.

I can't vote for Roy. Seems like a nice person. Completely out of touch when it comes to young kids and schools. Coffey might be fine, but we've seen how easily led young people without kids like her are on the county board and school board. Maybe Cunningham first and not sure who for 2nd.

Roy’s kids are APS graduates, maybe 8-10 years out of school and she has coached for APS sports teams for years. So she’s aware of schools issues but perhaps could benefit from hearing the concerns of current APS parents. I wouldn’t write her off re schools issues at all.

+1 She's also opposed to how missing-middle was pushed through and as a realtor who deals with a lot of developers understands that it is a gift to developers, not something that is good for neighborhoods/schools.

She's my #1, Cunningham #2

[Anonymous]

I have the same top 2: 1) Cunningham, 2) Roy. I'm not even sure I will pick a third.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have the same top 2: 1) Cunningham, 2) Roy. I'm not even sure I will pick a third.

Same.

[Anonymous]

+1 Cunningham Roy

[Anonymous]

Cunninngham and undecided

[Anonymous]

Cunningham and Spain

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t mean to be super negative, but my observation has been that the Boards are very siloed and that the CB is more than happy to push off comments about the schools to the school board. They aren’t going to engage because it’s not what they do.

In the grand scheme of things, the county board has a much larger population to answer to than Arlington County parents. The schools aren’t a priority.

I understand what you're saying, but this feels like a convenient copout that the CB likes to pull when there are school issues that would go against CB desires (MM, anyone...). It's less "we need to think of all stakeholders" and more "this one particular group doesn't matter because we already give them a bunch of money". Like, ok, but your decisions can make it easier/harder for them to spend that money responsibly. So they really need to work together. But the political math is not favorable to that approach, so this slate of candidates is what we get.....

[Anonymous]

I think Cunningham and Spain are the two best candidates to bring more attention to APS issues. It's an open secret that the the county and APS have a dysfunctional relationship.

Cunningham has a lot of relevant experience with kids in the system and in her professional roles. Spain doesn't know schools well but isn't afraid to speak his mind and disagree. Those are my two votes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Cunningham and Spain are the two best candidates to bring more attention to APS issues. It's an open secret that the the county and APS have a dysfunctional relationship.

Cunningham has a lot of relevant experience with kids in the system and in her professional roles. Spain doesn't know schools well but isn't afraid to speak his mind and disagree. Those are my two votes.

Disagree about Spain.
Highly recommend reading APE's questionnaire referenced in an earlier post. Dromgoole clearly knows absolutely NOTHING - more importantly, does not seem to CARE to know anything - about APS/schools. Cunningham has been my #2 after Roy; but the responses to the APE questionnaire have me reversing that order. I also like Weaver's responses to a few of the questions; but uncertain how I feel about him otherwise to make him (or anyone) my #3. I'm inclined to rank only my top 2; but that may be a disadvantage if one or both of my top 2 aren't the winners. My least intolerable among the remaining candidates may need my #3 vote.

[Anonymous]

Cunningham is my #1 vote. Her APE responses were the most substantive, and I was genuinely surprised when she mentioned APS needing an actually independent auditor. That's a level of detail I wasn't expecting from any candidate. My hope is that it means she's serious about requiring more from APS on the transparency and good management practices front.

For background, APS basically fired their supposedly independent auditor, and it was clearly driven by two things: 1) he wrote an honest report about what went wrong with the virtual learning program (as is his professional responsibility), and 2) he resisted efforts to give the Superintendent a say in the committee that oversaw his work, which would violate basic independence requirements for government auditing, and would result in that office losing accreditation. It was an absolute scandal that should have gotten more press than it did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Cunningham and Spain are the two best candidates to bring more attention to APS issues. It's an open secret that the the county and APS have a dysfunctional relationship.

Cunningham has a lot of relevant experience with kids in the system and in her professional roles. Spain doesn't know schools well but isn't afraid to speak his mind and disagree. Those are my two votes.

Disagree about Spain.
Highly recommend reading APE's questionnaire referenced in an earlier post. Dromgoole clearly knows absolutely NOTHING - more importantly, does not seem to CARE to know anything - about APS/schools. Cunningham has been my #2 after Roy; but the responses to the APE questionnaire have me reversing that order. I also like Weaver's responses to a few of the questions; but uncertain how I feel about him otherwise to make him (or anyone) my #3. I'm inclined to rank only my top 2; but that may be a disadvantage if one or both of my top 2 aren't the winners. My least intolerable among the remaining candidates may need my #3 vote.

I was very impressed with cunningham’s responses. She is really knowledgeable and thoughtful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Cunningham and Spain are the two best candidates to bring more attention to APS issues. It's an open secret that the the county and APS have a dysfunctional relationship.

Cunningham has a lot of relevant experience with kids in the system and in her professional roles. Spain doesn't know schools well but isn't afraid to speak his mind and disagree. Those are my two votes.

Disagree about Spain.
Highly recommend reading APE's questionnaire referenced in an earlier post. Dromgoole clearly knows absolutely NOTHING - more importantly, does not seem to CARE to know anything - about APS/schools. Cunningham has been my #2 after Roy; but the responses to the APE questionnaire have me reversing that order. I also like Weaver's responses to a few of the questions; but uncertain how I feel about him otherwise to make him (or anyone) my #3. I'm inclined to rank only my top 2; but that may be a disadvantage if one or both of my top 2 aren't the winners. My least intolerable among the remaining candidates may need my #3 vote.

I was very impressed with cunningham’s responses. She is really knowledgeable and thoughtful.

+1. Her work on DHMS - basically getting the County and APS to work together on the changes to the school and Stratford park - was remarkable. Having kids in APS is also a plus in my book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t mean to be super negative, but my observation has been that the Boards are very siloed and that the CB is more than happy to push off comments about the schools to the school board. They aren’t going to engage because it’s not what they do.

In the grand scheme of things, the county board has a much larger population to answer to than Arlington County parents. The schools aren’t a priority.

I understand what you're saying, but this feels like a convenient copout that the CB likes to pull when there are school issues that would go against CB desires (MM, anyone...). It's less "we need to think of all stakeholders" and more "this one particular group doesn't matter because we already give them a bunch of money". Like, ok, but your decisions can make it easier/harder for them to spend that money responsibly. So they really need to work together. But the political math is not favorable to that approach, so this slate of candidates is what we get.....

Any CB member blind and deaf to schools and related infrastructure is then also blind to the fact that it’s the families with kids in Arlington who make up a huge chunk of their taxpayers… while the 20-30 single contingent is large here - that population is transient, and it’s not who’s paying them property taxes and vehicle property taxes and all of their other taxes…

[Anonymous]

How many people are running for how many slots? Seems like more names than we ever had!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many people are running for how many slots? Seems like more names than we ever had!?

6 candidates for 2 openings. It helps that county board raised the salary last year and This year. County board pays about 75 thousand now. School board is like 25 thousand.