APS: Can we just move Key to ATS and get rid of the Traditional program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ATS is the most in-demand option program in the county. They are not going to disband it.

This. And also chill with flipping out over the buses. Thanks to the expanded walk zone (apparently you didn’t read the whole thing, OP), they are going to drop several buses.
They will be on par with other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS is the most in-demand option program in the county. They are not going to disband it.

This. And also chill with flipping out over the buses. Thanks to the expanded walk zone (apparently you didn’t read the whole thing, OP), they are going to drop several buses.
They will be on par with other schools.

Apparently you are a moron. Who walks to ATS? It is an option school that pulls from across the county. 519 kids from it ride the bus! Check your facts. None of this walk zone business will decrease who walks to ATS. It won’t be on par with anyone.

[Anonymous]

So we're OK with spending five more millions on the new Reed school, but want to kill a program that serves the entire county well over twenty years over buses? I'm not sure what direction the community is currently going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So we're OK with spending five more millions on the new Reed school, but want to kill a program that serves the entire county well over twenty years over buses? I'm not sure what direction the community is currently going.

I wouldn’t assume those are the same groups of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS is the most in-demand option program in the county. They are not going to disband it.

This. And also chill with flipping out over the buses. Thanks to the expanded walk zone (apparently you didn’t read the whole thing, OP), they are going to drop several buses.
They will be on par with other schools.

Apparently you are a moron. Who walks to ATS? It is an option school that pulls from across the county. 519 kids from it ride the bus! Check your facts. None of this walk zone business will decrease who walks to ATS. It won’t be on par with anyone.

You lack basic reading comprehension, so you must be referring to yourself with your insults. APS staff writes that several ATS buses can be cut due to the walk zone expansion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest goal of the school system is to educate children, and ATS consistently shows the strongest scores for all economic and racial groups in the county. So it seems pretty dumb to get rid of that model for whatever 13 buses costs.

If only we could expand the model (involved parents who care enough to enter the lottery) across the county! Scores would skyrocket without all the dead weight! Really though, it’s not going to be dissolved despite its lack of an actual differentiated curriculum. Move it to Carlin Springs if that would make people feel better.

Why pick on Catlin Spring? Why not Barcroft or Barrett?

[Anonymous]

I doubt too many people send their kids there to avoid overcrowding. It's a small building and every classroom always has the maximum number of students, unlike a lot of other elementaries. It's a strong program that makes the county look good, in terms of scores. It's a dumb idea to get rid of it.

[Anonymous]

Don't disband ATS, just move it. move it to a more southern part of the county.

ATS' location is in the heart of the overcrowding in Arlington county. I shake my head when, time and again, the school board is too weak to propose making it back into a n'hood school. Making it back to a n'hood school would alleviate SO much of the problems we have been facing for years.

[Anonymous]

Overcrowding in ES/MS is just the trickle down effect of the SB unwilling (too weak) to redraw HS boundary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't disband ATS, just move it. move it to a more southern part of the county.

ATS' location is in the heart of the overcrowding in Arlington county. I shake my head when, time and again, the school board is too weak to propose making it back into a n'hood school. Making it back to a n'hood school would alleviate SO much of the problems we have been facing for years.

It was never on the table. Just like HB.

They might throw the option school haters a bone by effing with the Immersion schools and Campbell. But HB and ATS are and will remain sacred.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amen! ATS is just a regular school. Get rid of it. It creates too many constraints in a time when we need flexibility.

What is unique about ATS's program? I have never seen that specified. Yes, they may have great rankings but how much of that is demographics and self selection vs the program itself.

[Anonymous]

Agree. Pick any program in the County and put it in a relatively affluent neighborhood. Invite everyone in the County to apply. You will get a school fully of kids with motivated parents and get 100%on your SOLs. ATS does nothing special. It also doesn't get enough ESL kids to justify all the trumpeting of its scores. Campbell, Key and Claremont don't qualify because they have had neighborhood preferences. You might start to see their score skyrocket to now that they are open to everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And if APS has more money because it doesn’t pay for a ridiculous amount of busses for one option school? That money can go to help all students, not just the lucky few who get into ATS.

It needs to go. We can’t afford the disproportionate amount of funds it sucks out of other schools with all those buses.

What you think is a waste (transportation), many members of our community feel is a good use of funds, one that helps them work longer hours to afford the feed their children and keep roofs over their heads. Time that they would spend walking their young kids to school is time that they can't be working. Forcing everyone to walk, to save money for the overall system to use in ways that may or may not benefit every student, is not equity. It's uniformity. The two words don't mean the same thing. Not all students or families need the same or would benefit from the same thing. This isn't about ATS per se, but all option schools. Just because you don't place value in something does not mean there isn't value for some family or some child. Who are you to tell others what is best? Not everything is best for everyone.

Public education is not intended to be parents' childcare service. We've institutionalized an agrarian school calendar to accommodate agriculture; and now we cater to dual-working parent schedules with extended day services and sticking with the agrarian-based calendar so as not to interfere with families' summer vacations. What is the priority for a public education system? It should be education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And if APS has more money because it doesn’t pay for a ridiculous amount of busses for one option school? That money can go to help all students, not just the lucky few who get into ATS.

It needs to go. We can’t afford the disproportionate amount of funds it sucks out of other schools with all those buses.

What you think is a waste (transportation), many members of our community feel is a good use of funds, one that helps them work longer hours to afford the feed their children and keep roofs over their heads. Time that they would spend walking their young kids to school is time that they can't be working. Forcing everyone to walk, to save money for the overall system to use in ways that may or may not benefit every student, is not equity. It's uniformity. The two words don't mean the same thing. Not all students or families need the same or would benefit from the same thing. This isn't about ATS per se, but all option schools. Just because you don't place value in something does not mean there isn't value for some family or some child. Who are you to tell others what is best? Not everything is best for everyone.

Public education is not intended to be parents' childcare service. We've institutionalized an agrarian school calendar to accommodate agriculture; and now we cater to dual-working parent schedules with extended day services and sticking with the agrarian-based calendar so as not to interfere with families' summer vacations. What is the priority for a public education system? It should be education.

Parents pay for extended day care. And not keeping schools open year-round saves the school system money. It also opens a market for private camps, creating summer jobs for high school and college students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And if APS has more money because it doesn’t pay for a ridiculous amount of busses for one option school? That money can go to help all students, not just the lucky few who get into ATS.

It needs to go. We can’t afford the disproportionate amount of funds it sucks out of other schools with all those buses.

What you think is a waste (transportation), many members of our community feel is a good use of funds, one that helps them work longer hours to afford the feed their children and keep roofs over their heads. Time that they would spend walking their young kids to school is time that they can't be working. Forcing everyone to walk, to save money for the overall system to use in ways that may or may not benefit every student, is not equity. It's uniformity. The two words don't mean the same thing. Not all students or families need the same or would benefit from the same thing. This isn't about ATS per se, but all option schools. Just because you don't place value in something does not mean there isn't value for some family or some child. Who are you to tell others what is best? Not everything is best for everyone.

Public education is not intended to be parents' childcare service. We've institutionalized an agrarian school calendar to accommodate agriculture; and now we cater to dual-working parent schedules with extended day services and sticking with the agrarian-based calendar so as not to interfere with families' summer vacations. What is the priority for a public education system? It should be education.

Part of public education is removing potential barriers to education. That's why we feed kids, and have psychologists and social workers and nurses at schools. Without those supports, education would be delivered but not necessarily received.

Would reducing bus service to poor kids be a good idea, do you think? Would making parents who work hourly wage jobs, take 30 plus minutes to walk a young child to school be something that could enhance or impede learning?