What do you expect from APS staff (option/neighborhood) on 4/30?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't even guess what will happen tonight because it's really strange to post an updated document with no School Board Mtg or even work session also taking place. What, they're going to drop a pdf on apsva and that's it?

I don't understand this process.

They might send out an email and provide a few ways to give feedback (online form, email, meeting dates coming up). It's not that strange.

I just find it odd that there's no meeting to explain any new document. I don't receive emails--is there a way to sign up for those if you don't have school aged kids? Mine are in preschool.

You can register for SchoolTalk as a member of the community here: https://www.apsva.us/schooltalk/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't even guess what will happen tonight because it's really strange to post an updated document with no School Board Mtg or even work session also taking place. What, they're going to drop a pdf on apsva and that's it?

I don't understand this process.

They might send out an email and provide a few ways to give feedback (online form, email, meeting dates coming up). It's not that strange.

I just find it odd that there's no meeting to explain any new document. I don't receive emails--is there a way to sign up for those if you don't have school aged kids? Mine are in preschool.

Maybe look to see if there is a way to subscribe on the engage website? I can also post whatever I receive on here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't even guess what will happen tonight because it's really strange to post an updated document with no School Board Mtg or even work session also taking place. What, they're going to drop a pdf on apsva and that's it?

I don't understand this process.

They might send out an email and provide a few ways to give feedback (online form, email, meeting dates coming up). It's not that strange.

I just find it odd that there's no meeting to explain any new document. I don't receive emails--is there a way to sign up for those if you don't have school aged kids? Mine are in preschool.

You can register for SchoolTalk as a member of the community here: https://www.apsva.us/schooltalk/

Thanks! Appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so whatever will be the decision, when do the changes go into effect? for the 2018-19 school year or 2019-2020?

Changes will be phased in over a few years. Nothing will go into effect for next school year, the first wave will be boundary realignment around Fleet when that school opens in 2019-20; how far those boundary shifts extend into the rest of the county will depend on a number of factors including which, if any, option schools are going to be relocated. If any option schools are moving, those moves will happen in either the summer of 2020 or the summer of 2021. If they move programs in the summer of 2020, we will then see a second wave of boundary shifts for the 2020-21 school year to accommodate that. Then there will be a final round of boundary shifts before Reed opens for the 2021-22 school year to accommodate that new school and any option program movements in the summer before. The plan is to figure out this fall where all of the neighborhood schools and their boundaries will be (if option programs are going to move, they'll figure out which ones will go where in summer of 2019) and then create the schedule for when everything will move, with a potential round of boundary tweaks in the Fall of 2020 for those boundaries set to move for the 2021-22 school year (since those boundaries will have been set based on projections that are at that point two years out of date).

APS has laid out the whole schedule here: https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Handout_ES-Planning-Initiative_FINAL-ENGLISH-Updated-April-19.pdf

[Anonymous]

I realize they're probably doing stuff like meeting with principals and other administrators to review the analysis before it goes public and people have a million questions (and probably didn't want to do that before today given the odds the information shared would be leaked), but c'mon, just post it already!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I realize they're probably doing stuff like meeting with principals and other administrators to review the analysis before it goes public and people have a million questions (and probably didn't want to do that before today given the odds the information shared would be leaked), but c'mon, just post it already!

Seems after 5 is the norm. During the MS process, one got posted after 10pm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting the popcorn ready (and a large bottle of wine) should be an interesting evening. I think Ashlawn or McK are on the short list.

I won’t be surprised, but there were multiple schools who scored higher on the criteria than either, including Nottingham. Tuckahoe and Jamestown would have too if they hadn’t been magically re iced from consideration. If suddenly 22205 is on the block, then APas will have totally caved.

*removed*

We will see. If they stick with Schools that can take more trailers, that takes a lot of schools out of contention. If they go with Tallento who wants major roads for option schools, that will make a big difference. Without clear criteria, it is anyone’s guess. This is all bogus. They are making it up as they go along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realize they're probably doing stuff like meeting with principals and other administrators to review the analysis before it goes public and people have a million questions (and probably didn't want to do that before today given the odds the information shared would be leaked), but c'mon, just post it already!

Seems after 5 is the norm. During the MS process, one got posted after 10pm.

These are the little things APS does that I feel like do more to alienate the community than the staff may realize. The longer people spend hitting refresh to see if it's up, the more pent-up frustration they have when they finally get it, and the more likely they are to vent that frustration onto the analysis. It also doesn't inspire confidence when they can't get it out during the business day because it suggests they were scrambling to get it ready against the deadline and thus may not have given it quite the review it required (hence the screw-ups in round one that anyone double checking the analysis should have caught).

[Anonymous]

There is a community meeting scheduled for May 9 at Syphax. It is on the APS website page entitled “Elementary School Planning Initiative”— honestly, I appreciate that people can get confused but it also isn’t fair to expect them to spoon feed you this info...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a community meeting scheduled for May 9 at Syphax. It is on the APS website page entitled “Elementary School Planning Initiative”— honestly, I appreciate that people can get confused but it also isn’t fair to expect them to spoon feed you this info...

I'm not one of the posters who complained about the lack of meeting today, but there is a difference between a meeting at the time the analysis is released where the staff walks through the analysis and answers questions from the SB to help everyone understand it at the outset, and a meeting a week and a half after it's released when everyone has had to just figure it out for themselves in the meantime. This way of doing it is ripe for misunderstandings and unwarranted inferences to run unchecked until the meeting, creating even more drama in the process. I get they have their reasons for doing it this way, but you can't claim there aren't any differences or drawbacks to doing it this way.

[Anonymous]

Schools with names that start with 'N' will get an extra 5 points on the APS Staff rubric. Lucky You!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools with names that start with 'N' will get an extra 5 points on the APS Staff rubric. Lucky You!

BINGO - Extra credit for Nottingham trolls.

[Anonymous]

What can we expect at the Community Meeting on the 9th? Will it just be the staff presenting its analysis and answering questions? Does the SB attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realize they're probably doing stuff like meeting with principals and other administrators to review the analysis before it goes public and people have a million questions (and probably didn't want to do that before today given the odds the information shared would be leaked), but c'mon, just post it already!

Seems after 5 is the norm. During the MS process, one got posted after 10pm.

These are the little things APS does that I feel like do more to alienate the community than the staff may realize. The longer people spend hitting refresh to see if it's up, the more pent-up frustration they have when they finally get it, and the more likely they are to vent that frustration onto the analysis. It also doesn't inspire confidence when they can't get it out during the business day because it suggests they were scrambling to get it ready against the deadline and thus may not have given it quite the review it required (hence the screw-ups in round one that anyone double checking the analysis should have caught).

Because it is a Monday, I’m sure whatever SB member has office hours today would like it to come out as late as possible so people can’t difest it in time to complain. I’m not saying they tell the staff to hold it for that reason, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it is held late after a wink-wink nod-nod type of conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realize they're probably doing stuff like meeting with principals and other administrators to review the analysis before it goes public and people have a million questions (and probably didn't want to do that before today given the odds the information shared would be leaked), but c'mon, just post it already!

Seems after 5 is the norm. During the MS process, one got posted after 10pm.

These are the little things APS does that I feel like do more to alienate the community than the staff may realize. The longer people spend hitting refresh to see if it's up, the more pent-up frustration they have when they finally get it, and the more likely they are to vent that frustration onto the analysis. It also doesn't inspire confidence when they can't get it out during the business day because it suggests they were scrambling to get it ready against the deadline and thus may not have given it quite the review it required (hence the screw-ups in round one that anyone double checking the analysis should have caught).

Because it is a Monday, I’m sure whatever SB member has office hours today would like it to come out as late as possible so people can’t difest it in time to complain. I’m not saying they tell the staff to hold it for that reason, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it is held late after a wink-wink nod-nod type of conversation.

Ugh, you're probably right.