S. Arlington---when does boundary change planning begin?

[Anonymous]

I suppose that's fair, but Barcroft seems like a mess from what I heard. I would have to see it for myself, but I am looking at the choice schools anyhow, if they still exist. I think most people in AH send their kids to public or parochial, but I don't have private school $$$ and can't do parochial.

[Anonymous]

Alcova has to be in the new school unless planning units are split - something they don't like to do. The new AH building to be built on the site of the Pres church will hold many families. That, in addition to other AH in the area should make the new school sufficiently diverse. I am sure the county would not allow it to be more than 30% diverse anyways. If they need more poorer kids, it would make a lot of sense to move some of the buckingham kids there - they are going to be very close.

[Anonymous]

It also makes sense to move Alcova Heights to the new school because right now that neighborhood is the only one assigned to Barcroft and then TJ. All of the other Barcroft kids go to Kennmore. This is a chance to fix that issue.

[Anonymous]

Why would they not allow it to be more than 30% "diverse? Many other S. Arlington schools have 60-78% of students with FARMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would they not allow it to be more than 30% "diverse? Many other S. Arlington schools have 60-78% of students with FARMS.

Exactly what I was thinking? Although someone above mentioned putting some of the Barcoft ( apartments) kids over there. Siphon them off from Randolph and Barcroft ( elementary). that would help spread the wealth.
Or poverty as it were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would they not allow it to be more than 30% "diverse? Many other S. Arlington schools have 60-78% of students with FARMS.

Exactly what I was thinking? Although someone above mentioned putting some of the Barcoft ( apartments) kids over there. Siphon them off from Randolph and Barcroft ( elementary). that would help spread the wealth.
Or poverty as it were.

It's going to be hard to figure out who to move to Drew. It's 55% FARMS....and that's with half the school being Montessori transfers (although some of those kids are FARMS, a lot come from north Arlington.) They have to move some SFH neighborhoods into the Drew boundary.

[Anonymous]

The alcova heights and neighborhoods east are some of the wealthiest in south Arlington. Many in those neighborhoods do not want another school that is more than half FARMs. Many alcova heights parents already choice out of Barcroft, as do parents who live in single family homes in Barcroft. I guarantee at the boundary process parents will scream if the new school has a higher Farms rate than the current Henry. And I don't blame them, Henry is about 30-40% Farms, which is percentage that seems to work. Farms kids at Henry have almost no achievement gap, at least per the sol scores. If it gets too high, like at Barcroft and randolph, everyone's scores go down.

Now, no way to get any of the barcroft area apartments zoned for the new school. Only about 100 new seats will be available at new school, and many will go to the new AH planned at the church, and parents who will not choice out as they do currently zoned for Barcroft.

Besides, at least one of the school board candidates seems perfectly happy to keep high farms schools the way they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The alcova heights and neighborhoods east are some of the wealthiest in south Arlington. Many in those neighborhoods do not want another school that is more than half FARMs. Many alcova heights parents already choice out of Barcroft, as do parents who live in single family homes in Barcroft. I guarantee at the boundary process parents will scream if the new school has a higher Farms rate than the current Henry. And I don't blame them, Henry is about 30-40% Farms, which is percentage that seems to work. Farms kids at Henry have almost no achievement gap, at least per the sol scores. If it gets too high, like at Barcroft and randolph, everyone's scores go down.

Now, no way to get any of the barcroft area apartments zoned for the new school. Only about 100 new seats will be available at new school, and many will go to the new AH planned at the church, and parents who will not choice out as they do currently zoned for Barcroft.

Besides, at least one of the school board candidates seems perfectly happy to keep high farms schools the way they are.

Which candidate is that?

[Anonymous]

It's going to be hard to figure out who to move to Drew. It's 55% FARMS....and that's with half the school being Montessori transfers (although some of those kids are FARMS, a lot come from north Arlington.) They have to move some SFH neighborhoods into the Drew boundary.

OP here---that is what I am thinking too-and why I think some of the SFH's currently zoned for Randolph will move to Drew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It's going to be hard to figure out who to move to Drew. It's 55% FARMS....and that's with half the school being Montessori transfers (although some of those kids are FARMS, a lot come from north Arlington.) They have to move some SFH neighborhoods into the Drew boundary.

OP here---that is what I am thinking too-and why I think some of the SFH's currently zoned for Randolph will move to Drew.


No. Randolph is 78% farms. I think it's the highest rate among all the south Arl schools ( interestingly, their scores aren't the lowest)
I can't imagine sfh's will be zoned out of Randolph.
What neighborhood are you in op?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's going to be hard to figure out who to move to Drew. It's 55% FARMS....and that's with half the school being Montessori transfers (although some of those kids are FARMS, a lot come from north Arlington.) They have to move some SFH neighborhoods into the Drew boundary.

OP here---that is what I am thinking too-and why I think some of the SFH's currently zoned for Randolph will move to Drew.

No. Randolph is 78% farms. I think it's the highest rate among all the south Arl schools ( interestingly, their scores aren't the lowest)
I can't imagine sfh's will be zoned out of Randolph.
What neighborhood are you in op?

After the SAWG process, it's clear the community does not want to decrease socioeconomic diversity at ANY schools (Patrick Henry's community is not the only consideration), so it's unlikely that SFH's currently feeding into Randolph or Barcroft will be rezoned to the new school, because then the other schools would have even fewer high SES kids zoned for them (Carlin Springs has the highest FARMS's rate, over 80% and approaching 90% I believe). And maybe many of those higher SES children currently zoned for those schools are "choicing out" now anyway, but if deliberate planning is done to move higher SES kids out of their current zones, socioeconomic diversity will not be possible. I really don't think the SB is looking to garner ire from a lot of the community. Since I don't think the SB wants to make things less diverse at Drew either, it's likely that some planning units now zoned for Oakridge will be moved to Drew. It's also possible that Hoffman Boston could be used for an alternate purpose (Pre-K could be moved out of neighborhood schools, freeing up more space at a number of neighborhood schools), and kids now at Hoffman Boston could be sent to Drew and the new school. Patrick Henry is overcrowded right now, and now that it's been named a Blue Ribbon school, I think the SB should expect the population of kids to balloon and they need not increase the current boundary much, because I would bet many of the seats at the new elementary will be filled just with kids who are within the PH boundary by 2019.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's going to be hard to figure out who to move to Drew. It's 55% FARMS....and that's with half the school being Montessori transfers (although some of those kids are FARMS, a lot come from north Arlington.) They have to move some SFH neighborhoods into the Drew boundary.

OP here---that is what I am thinking too-and why I think some of the SFH's currently zoned for Randolph will move to Drew.

No. Randolph is 78% farms. I think it's the highest rate among all the south Arl schools ( interestingly, their scores aren't the lowest)
I can't imagine sfh's will be zoned out of Randolph.
What neighborhood are you in op?

After the SAWG process, it's clear the community does not want to decrease socioeconomic diversity at ANY schools (Patrick Henry's community is not the only consideration), so it's unlikely that SFH's currently feeding into Randolph or Barcroft will be rezoned to the new school, because then the other schools would have even fewer high SES kids zoned for them (Carlin Springs has the highest FARMS's rate, over 80% and approaching 90% I believe). And maybe many of those higher SES children currently zoned for those schools are "choicing out" now anyway, but if deliberate planning is done to move higher SES kids out of their current zones, socioeconomic diversity will not be possible. I really don't think the SB is looking to garner ire from a lot of the community. Since I don't think the SB wants to make things less diverse at Drew either, it's likely that some planning units now zoned for Oakridge will be moved to Drew. It's also possible that Hoffman Boston could be used for an alternate purpose (Pre-K could be moved out of neighborhood schools, freeing up more space at a number of neighborhood schools), and kids now at Hoffman Boston could be sent to Drew and the new school. Patrick Henry is overcrowded right now, and now that it's been named a Blue Ribbon school, I think the SB should expect the population of kids to balloon and they need not increase the current boundary much, because I would bet many of the seats at the new elementary will be filled just with kids who are within the PH boundary by 2019.




I agree with a lot of the above, but I think the general tone is shifting in these south Arlington neighborhoods. People are paying a lot to live in those neighborhoods now, and there are a few schools that have upped their game and are performing well. It's got parents zoned to the other schools agitated. Not to mention, many moved in 10 years ago ( before they had children) and choice schools were part of the equation. I'll be watching this with great interest. I think south Arlington is going to start behaving much more like north Arlington in the coming years. Especially in regards to how the county spreads and organizes their resources.

[Anonymous]

I think parts of south Arlington are moving up, but other areas will go down, much further down.

One of the reasons for the moving and slight expansion of Henry was to relieve overcrowding at Henry and Barcroft. By moving the school where they did, alcova heights must be within the new boundary. That is the only way to relieve overcrowding at Barcroft since the route 50 line is do sacred. Most farm kids at Barcroft live 3 small blocks from the school. So they will continue to go there. That takes half of the SFH out of Barcroft, making that school less diverse. And, 60+ % farms is not diverse, now that school will be more like randolph.

Part of the reason Henry has been performing do well is because it lost a lot of affordable housing in the school zone. It's farms numbers are way down to what is now a school with diversity numbers more in line with the county average. That isn't meant minimize the excellent work of the school's staff, but a factor.

So, yes, new arlington families are paying lots to live in south arlington neighborhoods, but some more than others. West end of the pike has gone down in value, not up because of the concentration of cheap housing and crime. the county has no intention of stopping the construction of more affordable housing along the western pike, none.

Lots of very vocal people want to keep south arlington highly minority and poor. The goal is to provide shelter for local low wage workers. For some, It feeds their sense of justice and they think schools with high rates of poverty are fine.

Many many families give south arlington schools a try, them get fed up and leave. You get more for your money there, but some later decide tthat education is more important. Those who bought pre kids tend to leave.

Check SB candidates' positions on last summer's affordable housing master plan and geographic distribution of affordable housing. It will tell you a lot.

[Anonymous]

Where can I find out what the candidates think?

[Anonymous]

So Oakridge will see relief due to the new school?