Where is Carlin Springs in all of this?

[Anonymous]

I think there is something in store from APS staff regarding the immersion program at Claremont and Carlin Springs. No one has dropped that bombshell, yet. Parents and staff at Carlin Springs have been informed of possible changes in the county and Carlin Springs will defiantly be in the mix. APS staff already have there mind made up how this will play out.

[Anonymous]

I heard Barcroft is in the mix because they want to nix the year round calendar, and the school has one of the highest transfer rates. Wouldn't be surprised to see them relocate immersion there. They have a ton of field space for trailers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there is something in store from APS staff regarding the immersion program at Claremont and Carlin Springs. No one has dropped that bombshell, yet. Parents and staff at Carlin Springs have been informed of possible changes in the county and Carlin Springs will defiantly be in the mix. APS staff already have there mind made up how this will play out.

They very well may already have their answer in mind, and that's not necessarily a bad thing (which I say as a parent who isn't personally happy with the staff's short list). We all may know the ins and outs and needs and interests of our little pockets of Arlington better than the staff does, but the staff knows the ins and outs and needs and interests of the county as a whole better than the vast majority of us. If we're being honest with ourselves, we are all cherry picking priorities based on whether they are most favorable to our own community (or, in some cases, seemingly based on whether we can stick it to another community we have a grudge against) and saying those should be the top priorities. The staff, with a little more distance from it all and a bit of a broader perspective, probably can better integrate all of these priorities and find a solution that, yes, will be a compromise and, yes, will mean some communities get the short end of it, but is probably closest to what someone with zero personal interest in any of it would design as an optimal solution.

Some of us are going to win in this and some of us are going to lose, but let's try not to be assholes to each other. Of course we're all going to advocate for our own kids and our own communities, but let's try to treat other communities the way we would want to be treated. We can acknowledge the needs of other communities even if we think ours are even greater. We can give other communities the benefit of the doubt instead of demonizing them. And if we look at the solution we're pushing and realize that getting our way will screw a community that can't afford to be screwed but may not have the resources we do to advocate for themselves, perhaps we should back off that solution and come up with something a little more fair.

[Anonymous]

You have way too much faith in staff. They have already bungled the data. And, if you think that they don't have agendas based on SB priorities.... you are delusional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have way too much faith in staff. They have already bungled the data. And, if you think that they don't have agendas based on SB priorities.... you are delusional.

Of course they have an agenda based on SB priorities. That’s the whole point of the system. We elect SB members, they exercise their judgment as to what the priorities should be, and then we re-elect them or vote them out based on whether we agree with their priorities. You can’t run APS as a direct democracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard Barcroft is in the mix because they want to nix the year round calendar, and the school has one of the highest transfer rates. Wouldn't be surprised to see them relocate immersion there. They have a ton of field space for trailers.

People hear what they want to hear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard Barcroft is in the mix because they want to nix the year round calendar, and the school has one of the highest transfer rates. Wouldn't be surprised to see them relocate immersion there. They have a ton of field space for trailers.

They still have ten trailers there now.
Nobody seems to have heard the SB members say they want to see the analysis after other factors are considered....like the accessibility to the site for vehicular traffic. Barcroft is not particularly accessible for a countywide program. And, it is also a very highly walkable school. I don't recall hearing them say a school's calendar is one of the factors for consideration of a change to an option program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Barcroft is in the mix because they want to nix the year round calendar, and the school has one of the highest transfer rates. Wouldn't be surprised to see them relocate immersion there. They have a ton of field space for trailers.

They still have ten trailers there now.
Nobody seems to have heard the SB members say they want to see the analysis after other factors are considered....like the accessibility to the site for vehicular traffic. Barcroft is not particularly accessible for a countywide program. And, it is also a very highly walkable school. I don't recall hearing them say a school's calendar is one of the factors for consideration of a change to an option program.

DP. Of course "Calendar" isn't going to be one of the considerations for identifying promising candidates for option school locations. But if they're faced with deciding between a few sites including Barcroft that all have their pros and cons, eliminating an unpopular school calendar could end up in the pro column for Barcroft. Other schools will have their own unique pros and cons.

[Anonymous]

10 trailers but underenrolled. Trailers don't mean overcapacity. It just means a school kept its trailers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Barcroft is in the mix because they want to nix the year round calendar, and the school has one of the highest transfer rates. Wouldn't be surprised to see them relocate immersion there. They have a ton of field space for trailers.

They still have ten trailers there now.
Nobody seems to have heard the SB members say they want to see the analysis after other factors are considered....like the accessibility to the site for vehicular traffic. Barcroft is not particularly accessible for a countywide program. And, it is also a very highly walkable school. I don't recall hearing them say a school's calendar is one of the factors for consideration of a change to an option program.

DP. Of course "Calendar" isn't going to be one of the considerations for identifying promising candidates for option school locations. But if they're faced with deciding between a few sites including Barcroft that all have their pros and cons, eliminating an unpopular school calendar could end up in the pro column for Barcroft. Other schools will have their own unique pros and cons.

The calendar seems to be unpopular by people who don't even attend the school and who have not even given it a try. I have not heard any outcry about the calendar from the families enrolled there. That does not necessarily mean the current enrolled families will fight to the death to keep it, or that all of them care strongly one way or the other. But while a school's instructional focus may not be popular among those who don't attend it, that doesn't mean it isn't popular among those who go there. Same with Barcroft's calendar.

And, despite the calendar, it remains a highly walkable school and many of its current students walk there now. Follow all the other discussions about how low-income families have to have walkable neighborhood schools? Well, Barcroft apartments is chock full of low-income families who walk to their neighborhood schools.

It may be under-enrolled now; but that doesn't mean it will remain that way when additional CAF projects are complete and boundaries are readjusted.

[Anonymous]

Except it has the highest rate of transfers out. Yes it's popular with those who choose it. But it is not serving its neighborhood as well as it could if families are voting with their feet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Except it has the highest rate of transfers out. Yes it's popular with those who choose it. But it is not serving its neighborhood as well as it could if families are voting with their feet.

Meh. With few exceptions, the south Arlington elementary schools aren’t really focused on serving the umc homeowners living nearby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Barcroft is in the mix because they want to nix the year round calendar, and the school has one of the highest transfer rates. Wouldn't be surprised to see them relocate immersion there. They have a ton of field space for trailers.

They still have ten trailers there now.
Nobody seems to have heard the SB members say they want to see the analysis after other factors are considered....like the accessibility to the site for vehicular traffic. Barcroft is not particularly accessible for a countywide program. And, it is also a very highly walkable school. I don't recall hearing them say a school's calendar is one of the factors for consideration of a change to an option program.

DP. Of course "Calendar" isn't going to be one of the considerations for identifying promising candidates for option school locations. But if they're faced with deciding between a few sites including Barcroft that all have their pros and cons, eliminating an unpopular school calendar could end up in the pro column for Barcroft. Other schools will have their own unique pros and cons.

The calendar seems to be unpopular by people who don't even attend the school and who have not even given it a try. I have not heard any outcry about the calendar from the families enrolled there. That does not necessarily mean the current enrolled families will fight to the death to keep it, or that all of them care strongly one way or the other. But while a school's instructional focus may not be popular among those who don't attend it, that doesn't mean it isn't popular among those who go there. Same with Barcroft's calendar.

And, despite the calendar, it remains a highly walkable school and many of its current students walk there now. Follow all the other discussions about how low-income families have to have walkable neighborhood schools? Well, Barcroft apartments is chock full of low-income families who walk to their neighborhood schools.

It may be under-enrolled now; but that doesn't mean it will remain that way when additional CAF projects are complete and boundaries are readjusted.

What CAF's are under construction in the Barcroft walk zone? None. It will be some crazy gerrymandered boundary of they pull the Columbia Hills kids over to Barcroft. And the Barcroft Apartments are neither in Barcroft nor in the walk zone. The majority of the Barcroft Apartments are zoned to Randolph. The majority of he Barcroft walk zone does not attend Barcroft and they don't want the calendar.

[Anonymous]

My kid might be transferring to public in the area next year...can someone give me a brief rundown of what you guys are talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid might be transferring to public in the area next year...can someone give me a brief rundown of what you guys are talking about?

Redrawing elementary school boundaries and possibly relocating some/all of the option to sites that current house neighborhood schools (which would then cease to exist).