Alexandria Redistricting Process Starting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

At least your son would be moving with all of his friends. I think it's possible they might also consider transferring some teachers as well.

That's possibly true, but I guess it depends on how they redraw the boundaries. It just seems like it is going to be hard for kids to have to make a change in an "untraditional" change/entry year. If my younger daughter has to start at a different school in K (which will not be for a year after the redistricting is supposed to occur), I'd feel differently.

I don't know which area is the outlier, but I've been surprised to hear this so frequently in this area. Where I grew up and my mom still teaches, all of the districts do school realignments fairly often. Neighborhood boundary changes and grade groupings are regularly considered. I'd say that it works out to most kids experiencing one to two shuffles during their K-8 years. It's just part of using the space efficiently. That's clearly not the tradition / culture in this area. I don't have a strong opinion either way, but I do think the school building change just gets lumped in with all of the other little changes that a kid experiences at the start of each year.

[Anonymous]

I don't know which area is the outlier, but I've been surprised to hear this so frequently in this area. Where I grew up and my mom still teaches, all of the districts do school realignments fairly often. Neighborhood boundary changes and grade groupings are regularly considered. I'd say that it works out to most kids experiencing one to two shuffles during their K-8 years.

Really? Surprised to hear that. I grew up in NYC, and that was not the case. DH grew up in Illinois and not the case either. I guess it may be different elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This seems to be driven by issues with Tucker and Ramsey. They both have to reject hundreds of in-boundary students every year because of capacity. Which results in lots of extra busing and kids not going to school in their neighborhood.

Where are they bused to now out of curiosity? Related: what schools in ACPS have capacity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't know which area is the outlier, but I've been surprised to hear this so frequently in this area. Where I grew up and my mom still teaches, all of the districts do school realignments fairly often. Neighborhood boundary changes and grade groupings are regularly considered. I'd say that it works out to most kids experiencing one to two shuffles during their K-8 years.

Really? Surprised to hear that. I grew up in NYC, and that was not the case. DH grew up in Illinois and not the case either. I guess it may be different elsewhere.

Really. This was (is) in Pennsylvania -- mostly medium density suburbs / towns. I don't know if it makes sense as part of the solution for Alexandria. Probably a resounding 'maybe'. When I stop and think about the change that my kids have dealt with each year -- new group of kids, new teacher, new schedule, new specials -- a different building doesn't bother me much. Others seem to look at the same list of changes and think that the particular building is an important constant. I can see it both ways.

But then when I think about it from a system engineering perspective (my day job ...) I'm left trying to look at the constraints (N kids in M classrooms in X number of buildings). Having to maintain a particular house in a particular building for some specified number of years and... gah. That's a REALLY tight constraint, even in the oversimplified situation. Is it important enough to drive the whole process? If so, then I'm going to need some other option -- N+ kids will have to go in a classroom (class size increase), or M+ kids go in a building (probably requires trailers), etc etc. Maintaining very tight address --> building associations might matter (obviously does to many), but it comes at a huge cost to the overall system.

[Anonymous]

Others seem to look at the same list of changes and think that the particular building is an important constant. I can see it both ways.

I don't think that anyone is saying that a different physical building per se is the issue. Every year, kids do have to deal with a new teacher, but not at all an entirely new group of kids. They already know many, many kids outside of their class through recess, aftercare, scouts, sports, other special activities etc. Also, the building is already currently housing a given number of students in each grade, and the number of students in a grade generally tends to decrease, not increase as the grades go up, given that people leave ACPS for a variety of reasons (not just because they don't like it, which is what some claim).

[Anonymous]

We are in the neighborhood behind the masonic temple. Zoned for MacArthur, which is over crowded. So yeah, probably going to end up in JH's boundary.

I am actually fine with it. I kind of like the K-8 idea. Middle school is such a mess for kids, it's nice to just keep them with the elementary kids until high school (I did this as a kid).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Others seem to look at the same list of changes and think that the particular building is an important constant. I can see it both ways.

I don't think that anyone is saying that a different physical building per se is the issue. Every year, kids do have to deal with a new teacher, but not at all an entirely new group of kids. They already know many, many kids outside of their class through recess, aftercare, scouts, sports, other special activities etc. Also, the building is already currently housing a given number of students in each grade, and the number of students in a grade generally tends to decrease, not increase as the grades go up, given that people leave ACPS for a variety of reasons (not just because they don't like it, which is what some claim).

Sorry -- yes, I agree. Just trying to keep an already long message a bit shorter. In the situations I'm familiar with, it often came down to the situation of moving a neighborhood, or splitting a neighborhood at some cut off. The split -- where K kids would start at one school while others are grandfathered -- tended to be both more difficult for current families (logistics) and more costly for the district. A neighborhood switching has typically been accepted as a fine option. Coming from an area where this kind of redistricting was accepted as an option (not as happening, but perfectly within the valid options), I was just surprised to find that the default in this area is to not even consider it.

[Anonymous]

I had heard Potomac Yards would be in JH district. Will be interested in following the process.

[Anonymous]

The school board will need to redistrict and/or adopt school choice, at least in the West End. The school board is also in the process of developing a plan to completely reorganize the districting of Lyles-Crouch, Cora Kelly, and Maury in order to re-sort the Jefferson-Houston catchment. They've been quite open about it in conversations. Might not be an entirely bad thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This seems to be driven by issues with Tucker and Ramsey. They both have to reject hundreds of in-boundary students every year because of capacity. Which results in lots of extra busing and kids not going to school in their neighborhood.

Where are they bused to now out of curiosity? Related: what schools in ACPS have capacity?

I think they are bused to Polk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had heard Potomac Yards would be in JH district. Will be interested in following the process.

Potomac Yards has always been in the JH district. There aren't any kids in JH from Potomac Yards, but that's their assigned school. It goes to show that it doesn't really matter what the district boundary is. You still have to convince parents to send their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This seems to be driven by issues with Tucker and Ramsey. They both have to reject hundreds of in-boundary students every year because of capacity. Which results in lots of extra busing and kids not going to school in their neighborhood.

Where are they bused to now out of curiosity? Related: what schools in ACPS have capacity?

I think they are bused to Polk.

I believe the schools at, or near, capacity are: Mason, Maury, Lyles Crouch, Tucker and Ramsey. Kids are not "bussed" anywhere in the term you're thinking . Some go to Polk, some to Barrett, they are all over the map. It isn't really *that* many kids though. It is cyclical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had heard Potomac Yards would be in JH district. Will be interested in following the process.

Potomac Yards has always been in the JH district. There aren't any kids in JH from Potomac Yards, but that's their assigned school. It goes to show that it doesn't really matter what the district boundary is. You still have to convince parents to send their kids.

Are there no public school kids living in Potomac Yards? Where do they go then? I'm not following you.

[Anonymous]

There aren't any kids in JH from Potomac Yards, but that's their assigned school. It goes to show that it doesn't really matter what the district boundary is. You still have to convince parents to send their kids.


Are there no public school kids living in Potomac Yards? Where do they go then? I'm not following you.

Some of them manage to get admin transfers elsewhere. Some go to private school.

[Anonymous]

I have so many conflicting feelings about this. It's desperately needed, but my kid is starting kindergarten in 2016. Currently we are slated for Maury-but will certainly be moving th J-H. If done well, I think this could be a good thing, but I hate that I'll have to decide before I know for sure where we are and whether J-H becomes a decent choice of not.