APS - is the elementary debacle just a distraction from the Career Center?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not normally a conspiracy theorist, but did the SB aim to pit parents against each other in a no-seats-added, zero-sum game of moving choice schools so they'd have less input on the Career Center site?

You really think they're that clever?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are not 'willing to take one for the team." They want to get their kids out of wakefield and increase their property values. Wakefield isn't going to have 3,000 kids, WL is.

This is all about a wealthy area of south arlington trying to separate itself from the rest of south arlington where schools and resources are dominated by lower income family needs. I don't blame them and would do the same if I lived in that neighborhood.

They are taking one for the team, even if the decision is smart - who wants 10 years of construction with frequent water shut offs, dust, vibration, noise all day, no parking, followed by insane traffic increase, all right in their backyard? Glen Carlyn clearly didn’t want it. The neighborhoods around the VHC site that’s getting the bus depot didn’t want it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looked to me like Stengel is doing the ES process and Nattress and Chadwick are the main staff on CC. They have to do both at the same time. There is a complete lack of leadership at the top though. WTF did the SB renew Murphy’s contract? Where is he in any of these conversations?

Murphy knows where his bread is buttered. That’s telling old guard Arlington Dem’s that we can out source our schools, go online, do shifts - ya know BE INNOVATIVE... and not have to spend money on seats the old timers don’t need. He’s telling the people who actually vote, what they want to hear. Please please please go to a SB caucus some day. Silver hair as far as the eye can see. The people making policy - meaningful policy - don’t have kids in the schools. We squabble over the crumbs we’re thrown.

I am the PP and you are preaching to the choir! I volunteered at the last caucus actually... and begged and pleaded with my younger neighbors to come out to vote. There were more strollers than prior elections (leading to Lander's defeat for sure) but still a lot of clueless parents who couldn't bother to show up. I know why NVD pushed Murphy's contract renewal through early. It is just so irritating that they don't hold him accountable for anything. He is the CEO of APS and he should be developing a plan to build these seats and selling it to the community. He just hides behind his staff and it is complete and utter BS. If Mark Schwartz acted that way, the County Board would fire him in a heartbeat. Not that Mark Schwartz is perfect by any means either... but at least he can speak eloquently about his diabolical plan to over-build residential buildings to make up for the loss of commercial tax revenue. Have you ever heard Murphy speak coherently about anything longer-term?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looked to me like Stengel is doing the ES process and Nattress and Chadwick are the main staff on CC. They have to do both at the same time. There is a complete lack of leadership at the top though. WTF did the SB renew Murphy’s contract? Where is he in any of these conversations?

He sits in a dark cave, lit up by dozens of computer screens, working on the grand master solution, which he will slide in one day (night) before the scheduled vote, labeled option “4.1.b, revised”.

Ha ha. This is a very funny comment, but sadly too accurate. My guess is 4.1.b revised will be released in three years at the end of his contract as an announcement that Murphy is leaving Arlington to take a higher paying job with a bigger school system. And he'll conveniently get out before the worst of the high school capacity crap hits the fan but without actually doing anything meaningful to fix it. And then the School Board will have a heck of a time finding anyone good to take his place, because nobody will want to walk into such a mess at that point. It is a bleak future my friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. The people who are paying attention to the elementary boundary process aren't largely not the same people as who are paying attention to the high school process. Most of the people this elementary process would affect (people with K/1st graders and younger) aren't paying attention to high school because it's so far off and they figure people with older kids are paying attention to that, oblivious to the fact that an awful lot of those people aren't focused on it because their kids will be out or nearly out of APS by the time any of these seats are created.

Agree.

My youngest is a 4th grader and nothing is slated to happen until he starts MS in 6th grade. My 6th and 8th grader will be at the new MS.

I have completely tapped out of the issues with elementary school and my energies are directed at the HS level now since MS and Elem are a done deal for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looked to me like Stengel is doing the ES process and Nattress and Chadwick are the main staff on CC. They have to do both at the same time. There is a complete lack of leadership at the top though. WTF did the SB renew Murphy’s contract? Where is he in any of these conversations?

Murphy knows where his bread is buttered. That’s telling old guard Arlington Dem’s that we can out source our schools, go online, do shifts - ya know BE INNOVATIVE... and not have to spend money on seats the old timers don’t need. He’s telling the people who actually vote, what they want to hear. Please please please go to a SB caucus some day. Silver hair as far as the eye can see. The people making policy - meaningful policy - don’t have kids in the schools. We squabble over the crumbs we’re thrown.

I am the PP and you are preaching to the choir! I volunteered at the last caucus actually... and begged and pleaded with my younger neighbors to come out to vote. There were more strollers than prior elections (leading to Lander's defeat for sure) but still a lot of clueless parents who couldn't bother to show up. I know why NVD pushed Murphy's contract renewal through early. It is just so irritating that they don't hold him accountable for anything. He is the CEO of APS and he should be developing a plan to build these seats and selling it to the community. He just hides behind his staff and it is complete and utter BS. If Mark Schwartz acted that way, the County Board would fire him in a heartbeat. Not that Mark Schwartz is perfect by any means either... but at least he can speak eloquently about his diabolical plan to over-build residential buildings to make up for the loss of commercial tax revenue. Have you ever heard Murphy speak coherently about anything longer-term?

The vote was 3-2 to renew his contract. Kanninen and Goldstein voted no. I bet if it were voted on today, they could get O'Grady to join them, because it happened before she took office. Not that it changes anything right now, but just FYI that he's not beloved by the entire board.

[Anonymous]

NVD knew that, that’s why she did it. She is the worst.

[Anonymous]

Exactly. That’s why I said above that Nancy knew exactly what she was doing by pushing his contract renewal through a year early. You know what they should have done? Tell Murphy to present his long term plan and they decide this year (when his contract was actually up for renewal) whether he is the right guy for the job now. Nancy and Tannia don’t understand what a board is supposed to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exactly. That’s why I said above that Nancy knew exactly what she was doing by pushing his contract renewal through a year early. You know what they should have done? Tell Murphy to present his long term plan and they decide this year (when his contract was actually up for renewal) whether he is the right guy for the job now. Nancy and Tannia don’t understand what a board is supposed to do.

That is ridiculous. When is NVD up for re-election?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly. That’s why I said above that Nancy knew exactly what she was doing by pushing his contract renewal through a year early. You know what they should have done? Tell Murphy to present his long term plan and they decide this year (when his contract was actually up for renewal) whether he is the right guy for the job now. Nancy and Tannia don’t understand what a board is supposed to do.

That is ridiculous. When is NVD up for re-election?

2020. Sounds like it's time for you all to start thinking about a primary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exactly. That’s why I said above that Nancy knew exactly what she was doing by pushing his contract renewal through a year early. You know what they should have done? Tell Murphy to present his long term plan and they decide this year (when his contract was actually up for renewal) whether he is the right guy for the job now. Nancy and Tannia don’t understand what a board is supposed to do.

I agree with this and the PP before that. Renewing his contract a year early was an unjustifiable mistake. I listened to them say: There are so many unprecedented challenges right now, we don't have time to look for someone new. Well, he is the reason, we are in this position now, and that was a lazy excuse to reward someone for mismanagement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly. That’s why I said above that Nancy knew exactly what she was doing by pushing his contract renewal through a year early. You know what they should have done? Tell Murphy to present his long term plan and they decide this year (when his contract was actually up for renewal) whether he is the right guy for the job now. Nancy and Tannia don’t understand what a board is supposed to do.

That is ridiculous. When is NVD up for re-election?

2020. Sounds like it's time for you all to start thinking about a primary.

2020 cannot come soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly. That’s why I said above that Nancy knew exactly what she was doing by pushing his contract renewal through a year early. You know what they should have done? Tell Murphy to present his long term plan and they decide this year (when his contract was actually up for renewal) whether he is the right guy for the job now. Nancy and Tannia don’t understand what a board is supposed to do.

That is ridiculous. When is NVD up for re-election?

2020. Sounds like it's time for you all to start thinking about a primary.

2020 cannot come soon enough.

Is there another mechanism for removing her from her position?