They typically do try to grandfather, note that won't work for Nottingham kids if the school is shut down. Depending on numbers they may grandfather for any kids at the surrounding schools who could move.
Reminder it's typically for the 5th graders only, they don't always let younger sibs grandfather if it happens at all. |
I find it completely baffling that APS splits elementary schools between middle schools, AND splits middle schools between high schools. That is really rough on the kids and seems like poor planning on APS' side. |
Not to be snark, but are you new to the area or school system? This is age old...you could have read about it here on DCUM a decade ago. It's a function of fixed infrastructure, i.e., school buildings and roads, and wildly swinging demographics that shifted dramatically in both directions this century already. This ain't Loudoun where the frontier of civilization keeps expanding and you just plop down a new building when needed. |
I'm not new to the area but I've only been in the school system about 5 years. That said, every other school system a family member is in, and the ones I grew up in, all fed multiple ES' to one MS, multiple MS' to one HS. Lots of places besides Louden can figure this out. |
FWIW, my now-rising 9th grader went to an elementary school that split between two middle schools. A majority of DC’s friends went to one middle school; DC went to another. It wound up working well; even though DC is shy, they made plenty of new friends in middle school and even kept in touch with close friends who went to the other middle school. I know everyone is different, but I sometimes think parents make bigger deals out of these types of things than kids do. |
Tell that to the ASFS kids |
All this constant redrawing makes planning for future fairly difficult in my view. Currently we are districted for Taylor but very close to the border to Glebe, ASFS (kind of) and to a much much lesser extent Discovery. Kids not at that age yet but would be very much ok with either Taylor or Glebe (at least based on current ratings) but very much hoping it won't be either ASFS or Discovery.
Middle School too far away to even think about seriously but currently 5m walk from Hamm so would hope that whatever they have planned now (semms like they want to move kids who are for Hamm elsewhere) wouldn't affect our case but who knows. HS none seem particularly great (Washington Liberty doesn't) but who knows how good/bad the HS schools in area will be in the next 15-20 years. Some suggestions I have seen seems to state that Taylor and Hamm for ES/MS is good to go but then Private for HS. |
I haven’t heard anything bad about Washington-Liberty, and postings on this forum seem generally positive. College acceptance outcomes are good and AP/IB academic standards are high. The facilities are nice. Students transfer in for IB from the other high schools. Athletics teams are somewhat easier to make the cut (vs the other Arlington high schools.) |
Welcome to Arlington. Our planning unit was in nearly every boundary change proposal from elem through HS. It's never ending and they can never get it right so it's always back to the drawing board. They're all in college or private now because we got tired of it. |
If you're worried about ASFS due to past information, you may want to reconsider. We have a new principal (and assistant principal) this year, and she is VERY different than previous principal. It's been a refreshing change. |
I thought the school board had specifically decided NOT to use Nottingham as a swing space for renovating other schools? There was a massive thread about this months ago. |
They are not and no school will close. |
We thought we liked Taylor but when we were rezoned to ASFS it turned out to be much better. |
Ousted Taylor “principal”, now part of planning committee should recuse herself from all plans related to Taylor. If not, all planning options should be refused |
It’s the density here. They could only align better if they valued other factors less. |