APS Construction - Never believe their schedules

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It completely sucks. It's not a question of not believing their schedules. They make the best plan they can and then sometimes shit happens.

People have wildly unrealistic expectations about this kind of thing. I would hate to be a school administrator dealing with the parents on this stuff.

So, why aren't they delaying the boundary changes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anyone who has ever had a construction project understands the possibility of delays. Do you want it communicated differently for people who don't realize this?

I think the main issues are (1) that they knew about the delays since December, but are only communicating them to the community now and (2) they should be delaying the boundary moves for a year because it's a waste of resources to bring back the trailers that just(!!) left to put a school under contruction up at 712 kids.

[Anonymous]

Also, the parking will be much worse. They won't be delivering the extra 20 parking spots when school starts, but they will be increasing the number of staff due to the larger population.

[Anonymous]

APS is one huge clusterfuck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APS is one huge clusterfuck.

It's how they like to weed out the wimps.

One way to make more open seats!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is one huge clusterfuck.

It's how they like to weed out the wimps.

One way to make more open seats!

Nope, just inept planning. Spent too much time and money on Discovery, but let other problems fester with no solutions in sight or transparency with parents. Everyone suffers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Nope, just inept planning. Spent too much time and money on Discovery, but let other problems fester with no solutions in sight or transparency with parents. Everyone suffers.

At best, it is incompetence. I agree with you on Discovery. They spent a long time making a decision and building a school that was too small to fit the increasing need for seats and then caved to the pressure from (loud, influential) parents to create boundaries that only benefited the few. Next year, Discovery, Jamestown and Nottingham will all have capacity to absorb more students, but APS planning will not use those resources. Instead, they will push through with plans they claim will help in 5 years without regard to what it does to schools in the present. I'm not sure why they pretend that their numbers 5 years out are written in stone b/c they can't even get the projections right from year to year. I would like to think it is just incompetence and that the SB would step in and do something, but the fact that nothing has changed makes me think it is all political.

http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/Capacity_Utilization_FallProjections16-25_Final_Revised_11172015.pdf
That's the projections, but now McKinley will have a capacity of 443 for at least the first sememster (but quite likely much longer), but a student population of 712.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can anyone ever be surprised when construction doesn't run on schedule?

Typ SAHM or lib arts people

[Anonymous]

Yes and the new middle school is already slated to be well-beyond their original opening date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nope, just inept planning. Spent too much time and money on Discovery, but let other problems fester with no solutions in sight or transparency with parents. Everyone suffers.

At best, it is incompetence. I agree with you on Discovery. They spent a long time making a decision and building a school that was too small to fit the increasing need for seats and then caved to the pressure from (loud, influential) parents to create boundaries that only benefited the few. Next year, Discovery, Jamestown and Nottingham will all have capacity to absorb more students, but APS planning will not use those resources. Instead, they will push through with plans they claim will help in 5 years without regard to what it does to schools in the present. I'm not sure why they pretend that their numbers 5 years out are written in stone b/c they can't even get the projections right from year to year. I would like to think it is just incompetence and that the SB would step in and do something, but the fact that nothing has changed makes me think it is all political.

http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/Capacity_Utilization_FallProjections16-25_Final_Revised_11172015.pdf
That's the projections, but now McKinley will have a capacity of 443 for at least the first sememster (but quite likely much longer), but a student population of 712.

It's too bad McK didn't have enough loud and influential parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nope, just inept planning. Spent too much time and money on Discovery, but let other problems fester with no solutions in sight or transparency with parents. Everyone suffers.

At best, it is incompetence. I agree with you on Discovery. They spent a long time making a decision and building a school that was too small to fit the increasing need for seats and then caved to the pressure from (loud, influential) parents to create boundaries that only benefited the few. Next year, Discovery, Jamestown and Nottingham will all have capacity to absorb more students, but APS planning will not use those resources. Instead, they will push through with plans they claim will help in 5 years without regard to what it does to schools in the present. I'm not sure why they pretend that their numbers 5 years out are written in stone b/c they can't even get the projections right from year to year. I would like to think it is just incompetence and that the SB would step in and do something, but the fact that nothing has changed makes me think it is all political.

http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/Capacity_Utilization_FallProjections16-25_Final_Revised_11172015.pdf
That's the projections, but now McKinley will have a capacity of 443 for at least the first sememster (but quite likely much longer), but a student population of 712.

It's too bad McK didn't have enough loud and influential parents

Yeah - they probably just bitched about it on DCUM instead of doing something meaningful.

[Anonymous]

I still can't believe that Discovery wasted $ on a 2-level slide. That alone tells me something is a little off with APS school planning.

[Anonymous]

McKinley is a very welcoming community, so they never had a push to keep people out of their schools. They have always put forth requests for balanced enrollment. McKinley has plenty of parents who are active in APS and try to work with the planners, but APS throws up numbers like 712 in a 483 school and refuses to consider anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nope, just inept planning. Spent too much time and money on Discovery, but let other problems fester with no solutions in sight or transparency with parents. Everyone suffers.

At best, it is incompetence. I agree with you on Discovery. They spent a long time making a decision and building a school that was too small to fit the increasing need for seats and then caved to the pressure from (loud, influential) parents to create boundaries that only benefited the few. Next year, Discovery, Jamestown and Nottingham will all have capacity to absorb more students, but APS planning will not use those resources. Instead, they will push through with plans they claim will help in 5 years without regard to what it does to schools in the present. I'm not sure why they pretend that their numbers 5 years out are written in stone b/c they can't even get the projections right from year to year. I would like to think it is just incompetence and that the SB would step in and do something, but the fact that nothing has changed makes me think it is all political.

http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/Capacity_Utilization_FallProjections16-25_Final_Revised_11172015.pdf
That's the projections, but now McKinley will have a capacity of 443 for at least the first sememster (but quite likely much longer), but a student population of 712.

It's too bad McK didn't have enough loud and influential parents

Yeah - they probably just bitched about it on DCUM instead of doing something meaningful.

No. APS just told the community THIS WEEK that they'd be putting the school at almost 150% capacity. They've known since December, but failed to say anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nope, just inept planning. Spent too much time and money on Discovery, but let other problems fester with no solutions in sight or transparency with parents. Everyone suffers.

At best, it is incompetence. I agree with you on Discovery. They spent a long time making a decision and building a school that was too small to fit the increasing need for seats and then caved to the pressure from (loud, influential) parents to create boundaries that only benefited the few. Next year, Discovery, Jamestown and Nottingham will all have capacity to absorb more students, but APS planning will not use those resources. Instead, they will push through with plans they claim will help in 5 years without regard to what it does to schools in the present. I'm not sure why they pretend that their numbers 5 years out are written in stone b/c they can't even get the projections right from year to year. I would like to think it is just incompetence and that the SB would step in and do something, but the fact that nothing has changed makes me think it is all political.

http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/Capacity_Utilization_FallProjections16-25_Final_Revised_11172015.pdf
That's the projections, but now McKinley will have a capacity of 443 for at least the first sememster (but quite likely much longer), but a student population of 712.

It's too bad McK didn't have enough loud and influential parents

Yeah - they probably just bitched about it on DCUM instead of doing something meaningful.

Tell me something meaningful. Write letters, meet with planners, meet with school board - It got them nowhere.