Any update on the McKinley mess?
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Anonymous
I agree that Reid seems to be, by far, the strongest School Board member. |
Anonymous
Maura McMahon lives in my neighborhood. She's running for School Board because she is as frustrated as us with the current School Board. She is in favor of a fourth comprehensive high school, and long-term planning generally. I don't honestly know much about her other positions - I need to do some research - but she already seems like a better option that what we have now. |
Anonymous
He is the liaison to McKinley. What has he done to help ease the situation there? |
Anonymous
| The School Board won't touch the McKinley mess until the APS consultant revises the numbers. The McKinley numbers should be a fairly easy fix, but now they are rolled into the controversy about the Yorktown/W-L numbers also being wrong. So Chadwick's office won't release any interim corrections to the McKinley numbers. He's told everyone that we need to wait until the spring projections come out for the entire County (which the APS consultant is reviewing from top to bottom). I'm glad they are taking their mistake seriously, but the problem is that it will be too late to do anything at McKinley next year. It will be McKinley's third year without a field, but APS clearly doesn't care about field space or they wouldn't be looking at the Education Center parcel as the location for the new "4th high school" |
Anonymous
This is what he does. He withholds info until he claims it's too late to do anything. That is why families on the cusp should be starting to push for their transfers now. |
Anonymous
If you know families with rising kindergarterners, let them know they can petition to transfer from McK to another school. |
Anonymous
| Just to clarify: Is this a problem for Kindergartners entering this fall? I called McKinley and was told that the issue with Glebe/Tuckahoe rezoning happened during last year's Kindergarten, and there are no issues with this year's K class. Is this incorrect? (We are brand new to the area.) |
Anonymous
They are full of it if they told you that. Because they haven't released the publicly re-done numbers, they don't know the answer. The small 5th grade departs, and they are planning for a larger K cohort, even though their own current numbers don't indicate that's the case. It's why the principal has decided to keep trailers onsite until fall once they know how many kids actually show up. If you are interested in having your child attend Ashlawn, Nottingham, Tuckahoe, or Glebe (or even making the trip to Discovery or Jamestown), contact APS. Reid said at a civic association meeting in February that they might consider it on a case by case basis. |
Anonymous
I think what the office is saying is that there are no planned boundary changes for the 2017/18 school year, which is true. The larger issue is that the School Board screwed up the boundary refinement process in 2015 and used bad data, so McKinley ended up a lot bigger than expected once the boundary changes went into effect this school year (2016/17). The situation is expected to get worse next year, because this year's 5th grade class is small (due to the Tuckahoe & Glebe 5th graders being grandfathered)-- but when that class moves onto Swanson, the incoming K class is expected to be double the size of the outgoing 5th grade class. Right now, the School Board doesn't seem inclined to do anything to fix the enrollment imbalance-- likely because they want to make a decision about how to use Reed before they put the area through another boundary change. |
Anonymous
| McKinley will have 3 classes leaving the school and at least 5 starting next year. |
Anonymous
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Our McKinley school newsletter told us today that while the newly hired projections consultant will be addressing the school board at its meeting tomorrow, there seems to be no commitment to releasing his actual projections. So I guess we're just playing an amusing game of "hide the ball until it's too late to do anything in time for the influx" next year. Goodie!
I am really beginning to passionately hate the school board. |
Anonymous
| I have learned that you cannot expect APS or the school board to actually do anything that is in the best interest of the greater good. They only listen to certain groups. If you do not want your kid to be at enormous school with no field to even learn how to play kickball, you have to work out the transfer yourself. If families were allowed to leave discovery and transfer back in to Nottingham because they didn't like their school, it clearly can happen. There are other nearby schools that have room. |
Anonymous
how many did? |
Anonymous
I don't have that info, but a friend at Discovery told me of two families that moved back. |
Anonymous
Incoming K families wouldn't know that's an option unless they proactively looked and learned about the crunch McKinley is facing. It's not like it will be widely advertised at K Info Night. "Hey parents. McKinley, Oak Ridge and Claremont are all packed to the gills. You can apply for your child to attend a less-crowded neighboring elementary school by filling out this form." |