APS Families--Pls email county and school boards by Tues. 5/24!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone with kids at WL when it was almost 3000 students tell us what that is like? Isn't harder to make sports teams, etc? When do kids eat lunch?

Just ask any parent with kids in the large Fairfax County high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do we know if the only options are either a fourth high school or attending high school in shifts. I don't think so. On the W-L PTA survey I supported the 9th grade academy. Is that still in play?

I agree that the county and the school board need to work together on this issue.

The draft proposal from the superintendent has a number of smaller fixes including 300 additional seats at Yorktown and Wkaefield, some redistributing and other small improvements. The total seats however is still only 1,200, far shy of the needed amount.

How does a 9th grade academy solve this? Do we really want all the ninth graders to be at a different site?

No. According to the PTA's description, it would be an addition onto W-L so the school would be around 2,900 students which used to be the size of the school years ago (details were on the survey form). The survey results showed a lot of support for that idea and also boundary changes. Shift scheduling was the least popular. I don't think anyone will take that idea seriously.

I read the proposal as being renovating the education center -- which is a separate building -- into a 9th grade academy with its own common spaces. So, that's not the same as an addition to W-L. And the location makes sense since it's in the center of the county.

The addition would be for W-L only and would mostly house 9th graders but they would not be fully separated from the rest of the school. I don't know anything about an idea for a county-wide 9th grade academy. That's not what was explained to me. I think its safe to assume that similar additions could be built at the other high schools in the future, but only W-L has looked at the concept seriously because the school needs the space. It would be nice if APS could knock down the Ed Center and build right there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The VHC parcel makes great sense as a 4th high school. They could alleviate over crowding and potentially have three high schools with great, diverse student bodies. It would help solve the integration problem we have developed. W-l, Wakefield, and the new school would all be similar to W-l now. Yorktown would most likely remain as is. Which is fine. People are happy with it.

Please write to the county board about this. Affordable housing wants that land.

+1,000. The affordable housing advocates are very vocal. Parents need to engage the county emphatically if they want to have an impact. APS doesn't own any parcels of land big enough for a new school. Nor can the go over the 10% debt limit imposed by the county to afford a new school. Without approval. The County Board needs to know that this is aridity for arlingtonians.

Can anyone explain to me why affordable housing advocates get so much traction with the county?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The VHC parcel makes great sense as a 4th high school. They could alleviate over crowding and potentially have three high schools with great, diverse student bodies. It would help solve the integration problem we have developed. W-l, Wakefield, and the new school would all be similar to W-l now. Yorktown would most likely remain as is. Which is fine. People are happy with it.

Please write to the county board about this. Affordable housing wants that land.

+1,000. The affordable housing advocates are very vocal. Parents need to engage the county emphatically if they want to have an impact. APS doesn't own any parcels of land big enough for a new school. Nor can the go over the 10% debt limit imposed by the county to afford a new school. Without approval. The County Board needs to know that this is aridity for arlingtonians.

Can anyone explain to me why affordable housing advocates get so much traction with the county?

Liberal guilt? Federal laws? maybe the county genuinely cares.

[Anonymous]

Can someone please post the initial note on the Mona Listserve ? I haven't heard much about this issue in that forum, and I think it's important to motivate more to write to the school board and county. We are sending a letter today!

[Anonymous]

Sent a letter to the SB and ready to send to County Board. Question: is there an advantage to sending all the board members the letter individually vs the general board email?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do we know if the only options are either a fourth high school or attending high school in shifts. I don't think so. On the W-L PTA survey I supported the 9th grade academy. Is that still in play?

I agree that the county and the school board need to work together on this issue.

9th grade academy sounds like the worst of all possible options to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do we know if the only options are either a fourth high school or attending high school in shifts. I don't think so. On the W-L PTA survey I supported the 9th grade academy. Is that still in play?

I agree that the county and the school board need to work together on this issue.

The draft proposal from the superintendent has a number of smaller fixes including 300 additional seats at Yorktown and Wkaefield, some redistributing and other small improvements. The total seats however is still only 1,200, far shy of the needed amount.

These things can be done with existing capital reserves (they don't need new bond money) and add a lot more seats in the short term -- so they should ALSO be done. This isn't either/or.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do we know if the only options are either a fourth high school or attending high school in shifts. I don't think so. On the W-L PTA survey I supported the 9th grade academy. Is that still in play?

I agree that the county and the school board need to work together on this issue.

The draft proposal from the superintendent has a number of smaller fixes including 300 additional seats at Yorktown and Wkaefield, some redistributing and other small improvements. The total seats however is still only 1,200, far shy of the needed amount.

These things can be done with existing capital reserves (they don't need new bond money) and add a lot more seats in the short term -- so they should ALSO be done. This isn't either/or.

Agreed. BUT, those smaller fixes don't totally resolve the problem. They still come up over 1,000 seats short without a new school.

Of course, they could always add another 500-1,000 kids at HB Woodlawn and make it a comprehensive-sized HS. Nah.... can't touch the golden calf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do we know if the only options are either a fourth high school or attending high school in shifts. I don't think so. On the W-L PTA survey I supported the 9th grade academy. Is that still in play?

I agree that the county and the school board need to work together on this issue.

9th grade academy sounds like the worst of all possible options to me.

The majority of parents liked it and the survey was sent to elementary and middle school parents too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do we know if the only options are either a fourth high school or attending high school in shifts. I don't think so. On the W-L PTA survey I supported the 9th grade academy. Is that still in play?

I agree that the county and the school board need to work together on this issue.

9th grade academy sounds like the worst of all possible options to me.

The majority of parents liked it and the survey was sent to elementary and middle school parents too.

What an awful idea. I went to one of these in Ohio. It sucked. I don't think Alexandria's experience with Minnie Howard is anything to write home about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do we know if the only options are either a fourth high school or attending high school in shifts. I don't think so. On the W-L PTA survey I supported the 9th grade academy. Is that still in play?

I agree that the county and the school board need to work together on this issue.

9th grade academy sounds like the worst of all possible options to me.

The majority of parents liked it and the survey was sent to elementary and middle school parents too.

So you mean the survey that was only given to current and future W-L families? My understanding is that the majority of W-L parents liked the idea of a 9th grade academy, just for W-L. Sure, you don't want to be rezoned and you want an academy to avoid that. We get it. But your HS isn't the only one that will be overcrowded and we need a real comprehensive solution for the 1,000 plus seat deficit that will occur across the board, even with internal renovations at Yorktown and Wakefield, and a W-L academy. We need another HS ultimately. A 9th grade academy for W-L is a temporary solution to a permanent problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone with kids at WL when it was almost 3000 students tell us what that is like? Isn't harder to make sports teams, etc? When do kids eat lunch?

Just ask any parent with kids in the large Fairfax County high schools.

No high schools in FCPS have 3000 kids in 9-12, or as many freshmen as W-L has this year. Nice try to deflect from APS's overcrowding issues, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The VHC parcel makes great sense as a 4th high school. They could alleviate over crowding and potentially have three high schools with great, diverse student bodies. It would help solve the integration problem we have developed. W-l, Wakefield, and the new school would all be similar to W-l now. Yorktown would most likely remain as is. Which is fine. People are happy with it.

The county is planning a land swap with VHC so yes, it could be a reality (HS location)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please post the initial note on the Mona Listserve ? I haven't heard much about this issue in that forum, and I think it's important to motivate more to write to the school board and county. We are sending a letter today!

If you are on Mona, you can post it.