South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say I don’t think because S Arlington is not always represented on this website that people don’t care. My S Arlington neighborhood is filled with MC and IMC. We care. Yes we are busy but don’t let haters tell you we must not care about are kids if we don’t live in N Arlington. In fact, I care about my kids and myself that’s why we chose S Arlington got the down to earth vibe and commute. We are zoned Henry Jefferson/ Fleet Jefferson. I do admit to a slight concern about high school..., but in the 8 years I’ve lived on he South side our neighborhood has changed a lot. Do I am waiting to see on high school. I also think the bds enrollment numbers are way off and 2020/21 is going to be a crazy year for kindergarten

No one thinks anything negative about Henry. It’s on par with the performance of the north Arlington Schools. These discussions are really about Randolph, Barcroft, Drew, and Carlin Springs.

But why does Barcroft appear to be so bad? We live just across Glebe and the houses are just as nice.

Agree that 2020 is going to be nuts in S Arl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nauck is a hard to understand situation. There is a huge history to that area. There are some local activists that think it’s going to be wonderful as a neighborhood school and don’t really understand the performance issues. Or think that once the performance issues are out in the open- they will be fixed...

Here's the other thing. In 1990, Nauck was 90% African-American, now it is down to about a third. It is partly gentrified and partly just diversified. The "community" doesn't have any kind of collective view on things anymore, although the older A-A residents still dominate the civic association -- and the county's perception of who they need to be responsive to. It is going to be a very difficult conversation because the Drew boundaries are where all these racial discussions are going to get hashed out in public.

White gentrifier Nauck resident here. Drew still has a relatively heavily black population, second only to Hoffman-Boston in Arlington. I would expect that may skew higher when the Montessori moves out, I'm not sure (maybe not, depending on influx from the other school zones). And those kids have not been well served by Drew statistically speaking, as Portia pointed out in her letter. You're right about the civic association still being dominated by the older black residents, and I think there is resentment about the school being so dominated by the Montessori, which I can understand. Thanks to the PP for explaining a bit about the history, by the way. I'm not sure it's going to be all that racially charged, except to the extent of (1) those populations do not historically perform well on tests and the school in general needs to improve, which may be accomplished simply by ceasing the split-program thing, and (2) the usual concern over concentrated minority/poor and the desire of non-minority/wealthy to therefore avoid. From what I've seen at civic association meetings, there are other projects in the works to emphasize and celebrate the history of the area, for example the coming Nauck town square and Jennie Dean park, both of which appear to receive a lot of focus.

[Anonymous]

FYI. If you read the SB work session documents on elementary boundaries from November, you will see that they have pretty much decided to put off setting any elementary boundaries until next fall. Looks like the spring discussion now will focus only on which programs to move where and what schools to turn into choice programs and what choice programs to turn into neighborhood schools. Not just in S. Arl either. It's gonna make middle school boundaries look like a walk in the park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say I don’t think because S Arlington is not always represented on this website that people don’t care. My S Arlington neighborhood is filled with MC and IMC. We care. Yes we are busy but don’t let haters tell you we must not care about are kids if we don’t live in N Arlington. In fact, I care about my kids and myself that’s why we chose S Arlington got the down to earth vibe and commute. We are zoned Henry Jefferson/ Fleet Jefferson. I do admit to a slight concern about high school..., but in the 8 years I’ve lived on he South side our neighborhood has changed a lot. Do I am waiting to see on high school. I also think the bds enrollment numbers are way off and 2020/21 is going to be a crazy year for kindergarten

No one thinks anything negative about Henry. It’s on par with the performance of the north Arlington Schools. These discussions are really about Randolph, Barcroft, Drew, and Carlin Springs.

But why does Barcroft appear to be so bad? We live just across Glebe and the houses are just as nice.

Agree that 2020 is going to be nuts in S Arl.

Barcroft has multiple projects zoned to it. Across the street has a lower number of crappy apts. it’s pretty simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say I don’t think because S Arlington is not always represented on this website that people don’t care. My S Arlington neighborhood is filled with MC and IMC. We care. Yes we are busy but don’t let haters tell you we must not care about are kids if we don’t live in N Arlington. In fact, I care about my kids and myself that’s why we chose S Arlington got the down to earth vibe and commute. We are zoned Henry Jefferson/ Fleet Jefferson. I do admit to a slight concern about high school..., but in the 8 years I’ve lived on he South side our neighborhood has changed a lot. Do I am waiting to see on high school. I also think the bds enrollment numbers are way off and 2020/21 is going to be a crazy year for kindergarten

No one thinks anything negative about Henry. It’s on par with the performance of the north Arlington Schools. These discussions are really about Randolph, Barcroft, Drew, and Carlin Springs.

But why does Barcroft appear to be so bad? We live just across Glebe and the houses are just as nice.

Agree that 2020 is going to be nuts in S Arl.

Barcroft has multiple projects zoned to it. Across the street has a lower number of crappy apts. it’s pretty simple.

So really it's Buchanan Gardens we should be angry at? Fillmore Apts always seemed nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say I don’t think because S Arlington is not always represented on this website that people don’t care. My S Arlington neighborhood is filled with MC and IMC. We care. Yes we are busy but don’t let haters tell you we must not care about are kids if we don’t live in N Arlington. In fact, I care about my kids and myself that’s why we chose S Arlington got the down to earth vibe and commute. We are zoned Henry Jefferson/ Fleet Jefferson. I do admit to a slight concern about high school..., but in the 8 years I’ve lived on he South side our neighborhood has changed a lot. Do I am waiting to see on high school. I also think the bds enrollment numbers are way off and 2020/21 is going to be a crazy year for kindergarten

No one thinks anything negative about Henry. It’s on par with the performance of the north Arlington Schools. These discussions are really about Randolph, Barcroft, Drew, and Carlin Springs.

But why does Barcroft appear to be so bad? We live just across Glebe and the houses are just as nice.

Agree that 2020 is going to be nuts in S Arl.

Barcroft has multiple projects zoned to it. Across the street has a lower number of crappy apts. it’s pretty simple.

So really it's Buchanan Gardens we should be angry at? Fillmore Apts always seemed nice.

It’s not about being angry with the apartments, is about holding people accountable for piss poor public policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nauck is a hard to understand situation. There is a huge history to that area. There are some local activists that think it’s going to be wonderful as a neighborhood school and don’t really understand the performance issues. Or think that once the performance issues are out in the open- they will be fixed...

Here's the other thing. In 1990, Nauck was 90% African-American, now it is down to about a third. It is partly gentrified and partly just diversified. The "community" doesn't have any kind of collective view on things anymore, although the older A-A residents still dominate the civic association -- and the county's perception of who they need to be responsive to. It is going to be a very difficult conversation because the Drew boundaries are where all these racial discussions are going to get hashed out in public.

White gentrifier Nauck resident here. Drew still has a relatively heavily black population, second only to Hoffman-Boston in Arlington. I would expect that may skew higher when the Montessori moves out, I'm not sure (maybe not, depending on influx from the other school zones). And those kids have not been well served by Drew statistically speaking, as Portia pointed out in her letter. You're right about the civic association still being dominated by the older black residents, and I think there is resentment about the school being so dominated by the Montessori, which I can understand. Thanks to the PP for explaining a bit about the history, by the way. I'm not sure it's going to be all that racially charged, except to the extent of (1) those populations do not historically perform well on tests and the school in general needs to improve, which may be accomplished simply by ceasing the split-program thing, and (2) the usual concern over concentrated minority/poor and the desire of non-minority/wealthy to therefore avoid. From what I've seen at civic association meetings, there are other projects in the works to emphasize and celebrate the history of the area, for example the coming Nauck town square and Jennie Dean park, both of which appear to receive a lot of focus.

A lot of the black students at Drew now are African immigrants or the children of immigrants, not African-Americans. It is a different community with different issues. There are also a lot of middle Eastern and south/central American immigrants. A lot of these families move around quite a bit, even within Arlington, and change schools frequently. Parents may or may not speak English. A quarter of the kids in the school are in High Intensity Language Training.

[Anonymous]

How much is it costing Arlington to run Carlin Springs as a quasi boarding school? If that is what it takes to get kids proficient, why isn’t this happening in Barcroft, Randolph, and and Drew?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say I don’t think because S Arlington is not always represented on this website that people don’t care. My S Arlington neighborhood is filled with MC and IMC. We care. Yes we are busy but don’t let haters tell you we must not care about are kids if we don’t live in N Arlington. In fact, I care about my kids and myself that’s why we chose S Arlington got the down to earth vibe and commute. We are zoned Henry Jefferson/ Fleet Jefferson. I do admit to a slight concern about high school..., but in the 8 years I’ve lived on he South side our neighborhood has changed a lot. Do I am waiting to see on high school. I also think the bds enrollment numbers are way off and 2020/21 is going to be a crazy year for kindergarten

No one thinks anything negative about Henry. It’s on par with the performance of the north Arlington Schools. These discussions are really about Randolph, Barcroft, Drew, and Carlin Springs.

But why does Barcroft appear to be so bad? We live just across Glebe and the houses are just as nice.

Agree that 2020 is going to be nuts in S Arl.

Barcroft has multiple projects zoned to it. Across the street has a lower number of crappy apts. it’s pretty simple.

So really it's Buchanan Gardens we should be angry at? Fillmore Apts always seemed nice.

It’s not about being angry with the apartments, is about holding people accountable for piss poor public policy.

So I think there has to be more to this story of what happened to Barcroft and why their test scores have fallen in recent years. I mean, there are multiple schools with equivalent or even higher levels of poverty that have been doing better for every demographic. What is the particular issue at this school? Was it the former principal? Are there a higher number of SpEd students who don't test well? Ineffective teachers? What? Some other thing we don't know about? Because something is or was going on.

I still contend their year round calendar is a big negative for a lot of families living in the SFH who might have considered the school. I know a few who are at other Title 1 schools as transfers, so I have no reason to think they would not have enrolled at their neighborhood Title 1 school if the calendar hadn't presented an issue.

This neighborhood has houses that range from about $700,000 to $1.3 million. If even half of the kids from these houses went to Barcroft the school would be far more economically diverse and have more parental support. But it's asking for a lot of faith from them when the recent history has been so negative.

[Anonymous]

The year round calendar is for that benfit of the immigrant community.
After Tania Talento’s awful speech about how wonderful it is that people can choose where they live, and how much that community just wants to cluster together around a school, why don’t they just draw a line around all those crappy apartments and give the community what they want. Give them a school. The county board and school sees no issues with clustering poverty and championing walkability respectively. Give that community the school it’s asked for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nauck is a hard to understand situation. There is a huge history to that area. There are some local activists that think it’s going to be wonderful as a neighborhood school and don’t really understand the performance issues. Or think that once the performance issues are out in the open- they will be fixed...

Here's the other thing. In 1990, Nauck was 90% African-American, now it is down to about a third. It is partly gentrified and partly just diversified. The "community" doesn't have any kind of collective view on things anymore, although the older A-A residents still dominate the civic association -- and the county's perception of who they need to be responsive to. It is going to be a very difficult conversation because the Drew boundaries are where all these racial discussions are going to get hashed out in public.

White gentrifier Nauck resident here. Drew still has a relatively heavily black population, second only to Hoffman-Boston in Arlington. I would expect that may skew higher when the Montessori moves out, I'm not sure (maybe not, depending on influx from the other school zones). And those kids have not been well served by Drew statistically speaking, as Portia pointed out in her letter. You're right about the civic association still being dominated by the older black residents, and I think there is resentment about the school being so dominated by the Montessori, which I can understand. Thanks to the PP for explaining a bit about the history, by the way. I'm not sure it's going to be all that racially charged, except to the extent of (1) those populations do not historically perform well on tests and the school in general needs to improve, which may be accomplished simply by ceasing the split-program thing, and (2) the usual concern over concentrated minority/poor and the desire of non-minority/wealthy to therefore avoid. From what I've seen at civic association meetings, there are other projects in the works to emphasize and celebrate the history of the area, for example the coming Nauck town square and Jennie Dean park, both of which appear to receive a lot of focus.

A lot of the black students at Drew now are African immigrants or the children of immigrants, not African-Americans. It is a different community with different issues. There are also a lot of middle Eastern and south/central American immigrants. A lot of these families move around quite a bit, even within Arlington, and change schools frequently. Parents may or may not speak English. A quarter of the kids in the school are in High Intensity Language Training.

I agree with you and assume that's what the other PP (or you, if that was you) was talking about w/r/t the neighborhood diversifying. I don't think most of those kids, excepting the ones who immigrate from African countries, would be classified as black/AA though. In any event, I'm just not sure how much it will matter. Seems to me that most people treat race only as relevant to these discussions to the extent it is a proxy for low-income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The year round calendar is for that benfit of the immigrant community.
After Tania Talento’s awful speech about how wonderful it is that people can choose where they live, and how much that community just wants to cluster together around a school, why don’t they just draw a line around all those crappy apartments and give the community what they want. Give them a school. The county board and school sees no issues with clustering poverty and championing walkability respectively. Give that community the school it’s asked for.

I thought I read somewhere on DCUM that the year round was going away?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The year round calendar is for that benfit of the immigrant community.
After Tania Talento’s awful speech about how wonderful it is that people can choose where they live, and how much that community just wants to cluster together around a school, why don’t they just draw a line around all those crappy apartments and give the community what they want. Give them a school. The county board and school sees no issues with clustering poverty and championing walkability respectively. Give that community the school it’s asked for.

I thought I read somewhere on DCUM that the year round was going away?

I think so, but I’m not sure that’s a good thing. It allowed people to transfer out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to say I don’t think because S Arlington is not always represented on this website that people don’t care. My S Arlington neighborhood is filled with MC and IMC. We care. Yes we are busy but don’t let haters tell you we must not care about are kids if we don’t live in N Arlington. In fact, I care about my kids and myself that’s why we chose S Arlington got the down to earth vibe and commute. We are zoned Henry Jefferson/ Fleet Jefferson. I do admit to a slight concern about high school..., but in the 8 years I’ve lived on he South side our neighborhood has changed a lot. Do I am waiting to see on high school. I also think the bds enrollment numbers are way off and 2020/21 is going to be a crazy year for kindergarten

No one thinks anything negative about Henry. It’s on par with the performance of the north Arlington Schools. These discussions are really about Randolph, Barcroft, Drew, and Carlin Springs.

But why does Barcroft appear to be so bad? We live just across Glebe and the houses are just as nice.

Agree that 2020 is going to be nuts in S Arl.

Barcroft has multiple projects zoned to it. Across the street has a lower number of crappy apts. it’s pretty simple.

So really it's Buchanan Gardens we should be angry at? Fillmore Apts always seemed nice.

It’s not about being angry with the apartments, is about holding people accountable for piss poor public policy.

So I think there has to be more to this story of what happened to Barcroft and why their test scores have fallen in recent years. I mean, there are multiple schools with equivalent or even higher levels of poverty that have been doing better for every demographic. What is the particular issue at this school? Was it the former principal? Are there a higher number of SpEd students who don't test well? Ineffective teachers? What? Some other thing we don't know about? Because something is or was going on.

I still contend their year round calendar is a big negative for a lot of families living in the SFH who might have considered the school. I know a few who are at other Title 1 schools as transfers, so I have no reason to think they would not have enrolled at their neighborhood Title 1 school if the calendar hadn't presented an issue.

This neighborhood has houses that range from about $700,000 to $1.3 million. If even half of the kids from these houses went to Barcroft the school would be far more economically diverse and have more parental support. But it's asking for a lot of faith from them when the recent history has been so negative.

Long time area resident here with kids in a different school "(don't live in Barcroft boundary). Please remember that the scores shown in great school etc. are still from 2016---there is a big lag. Brief history as I understand it (take this with a grain of salt):

-School was starting to get a lot of neighborhood buy-in and had a long time (and I believe popular and successful principal)
-Arlington Mill opened in the middle of a school year. While it was being built it was unclear if the families there would be districted to Barcroft or Carlin Springs
-There was a pretty large influx mid-year of kids from Arlington Mill. This was hard for the administration. Lots of changes for kids and class sizes and teachers. APAH has said they are going to handle things differently in terms of working with APS and when they open up to renters.
-At this time everything was coming together with Gilliam Place, also in the Barcoft boundary.
-People started getting angry and frustrated on all sides. CARD became active.
-Some (or possibly many--I'm not sure) of the families with current students and older students began moving or applying for transfers or switching to private.
-People began to actively post to this board and others complaining about all of the poor, non-English speaking kids
-Long-time principal retired
-More families lost confidence. People talked.
-New principal came in. She wasn't that great. Everything above continued to spiral.
-during all of this time SFH prices in Barcroft continued, in general, to rise and more and more families were spending 900k to $1 million on houses. They were unfamiliar with history and only heard recent stories. Parents of toddlers scared away by people who had left (valid) or who had never even considered (not valid) the school.
-As more middle class families left, test scores seemed worse.

I am not sure if Randolph and Barcroft and Carlin Springs saw a small uptick of enrollment from unaccompanied minors a few years ago, but it's possible that they did and a big influx of additional brand new English language learners could have turned more parents off (it wouldn't affect scores if they were brand new).

Can't speak to the year-round schedule at Barcroft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The year round calendar is for that benfit of the immigrant community.
After Tania Talento’s awful speech about how wonderful it is that people can choose where they live, and how much that community just wants to cluster together around a school, why don’t they just draw a line around all those crappy apartments and give the community what they want. Give them a school. The county board and school sees no issues with clustering poverty and championing walkability respectively. Give that community the school it’s asked for.

Treating your comment as serious and not just borne of frustration, I don't think it's fair to assume the community is okay with a far inferior school that is close by simply because they don't want to be bused to the Yorktown area. Those parents showed up to the HS rezoning meetings and they were not having any of moving them out of W-L in favor of Wakefield. (Yes, I think this was unfair to Wakefield but that is a separate issue.) They aren't just bowing and scraping happy to be here. And, Talento's wisdom aside, actually folks can't necessarily choose where they live. Certainly folks in AH can't be said to have much of a choice to live in North Arlington, because there isn't AH to speak of up there. Put those things together and I don't think your solution is the right one. I'm no fan of committed AH myself, but we have it and have obligations to the folks who live in it because they are members of the community just as we are.

*steps off soapbox*