pattern of siblings "winning lottery"at HB Woodlawn

[Anonymous]

It’s crazy that APs spends so much money on so few kids when the high schools suck and are bursting at the seams. They are going to “shifts” for in person learning in the next few years while hb has like 100 per grade? Insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

Exactly. It only shows numbers. If this process is on the up and up, why doesn't APS show you what your kid's lottery number is when you register for the lottery? Then when the numbers are announced, you would know if your child was admitted. I can't think of another reason to do it this way except to leave themselves room to manipulate the outcome.

Because you don't get a number until the drawing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

I have participated in the lottery and yeah there is some manual intervention. It happened 2 years ago and they had tried to hide the fact they had 2 copies of lists in the system - one created by the system from parents who registered and then one they created manually in the system. it became apparent and people started commenting. I bet someone could dig up a thread here. It probably had to do with needing to retain some seats that they could assign for whatever reason - maybe administrative transfer?

There is no way to administrative transfer to hb. It is not an option on the website so only some direct back door deal is possible to get in.

Administrative transfers are always case by case, not public, usually because of some specific problem a child is having. Often these kids are in a bad place and the circumstances are private.

This is the case for all admin transfer to any school in APS. I highly doubt they let a lot of kids into HB as admin transfers because if they did, you'd see it in the numbers.

[Anonymous]

I am new to APS and my kids are young. Can someone tell me what is so good about HB Woodlawn compared to other APS schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am new to APS and my kids are young. Can someone tell me what is so good about HB Woodlawn compared to other APS schools?

Lower student: teacher ratios. Also a fancy new building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ashlawn 3 times that I know of between 2011 and 2018. Heard siblings again this year. Those are some lucky families. Seems rigged.

Hmm, at least one Ashlawn kid that got in this year is an only child, and one of the others is the oldest of two so I wouldn't believe this rumor. At most 1 or maybe 2 have a sibling there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

I have participated in the lottery and yeah there is some manual intervention. It happened 2 years ago and they had tried to hide the fact they had 2 copies of lists in the system - one created by the system from parents who registered and then one they created manually in the system. it became apparent and people started commenting. I bet someone could dig up a thread here. It probably had to do with needing to retain some seats that they could assign for whatever reason - maybe administrative transfer?

There is no way to administrative transfer to hb. It is not an option on the website so only some direct back door deal is possible to get in.

Administrative transfers are always case by case, not public, usually because of some specific problem a child is having. Often these kids are in a bad place and the circumstances are private.

This is the case for all admin transfer to any school in APS. I highly doubt they let a lot of kids into HB as admin transfers because if they did, you'd see it in the numbers.

You do see it in the numbers. Lottery chooses 75 rising sixth graders. Final middle school class sizes end up being around 81-82. That is 6-7 kids who get in each year outside of the lottery. I can't imagine there are that many kids each year who have issues which cannot be dealt with by a neighborhood school. Somehow, these extra 6-7 kids are being admitted each year through a process outside of the lottery....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

I have participated in the lottery and yeah there is some manual intervention. It happened 2 years ago and they had tried to hide the fact they had 2 copies of lists in the system - one created by the system from parents who registered and then one they created manually in the system. it became apparent and people started commenting. I bet someone could dig up a thread here. It probably had to do with needing to retain some seats that they could assign for whatever reason - maybe administrative transfer?

There is no way to administrative transfer to hb. It is not an option on the website so only some direct back door deal is possible to get in.

Administrative transfers are always case by case, not public, usually because of some specific problem a child is having. Often these kids are in a bad place and the circumstances are private.

This is the case for all admin transfer to any school in APS. I highly doubt they let a lot of kids into HB as admin transfers because if they did, you'd see it in the numbers.

You do see it in the numbers. Lottery chooses 75 rising sixth graders. Final middle school class sizes end up being around 81-82. That is 6-7 kids who get in each year outside of the lottery. I can't imagine there are that many kids each year who have issues which cannot be dealt with by a neighborhood school. Somehow, these extra 6-7 kids are being admitted each year through a process outside of the lottery....

I don’t know how fair that is, but 6-7 kids total from what, 20 elementary schools? So that’s six out of maybe 2500? It could very well be the case that they are chosen out of “need” rather than favoritism based on the numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

Exactly. It only shows numbers. If this process is on the up and up, why doesn't APS show you what your kid's lottery number is when you register for the lottery? Then when the numbers are announced, you would know if your child was admitted. I can't think of another reason to do it this way except to leave themselves room to manipulate the outcome.

Because you don't get a number until the drawing.

Right, or maybe within the week after the drawing.

Again, why? What is the legitimate argument for doing it in this secretive way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am new to APS and my kids are young. Can someone tell me what is so good about HB Woodlawn compared to other APS schools?

Lower student: teacher ratios. Also a fancy new building.

With no open grass fields or open space to run around. In the middle of a very busy city (Rosslyn) amongst hi-rises.

No thanks. The reason HB got put there is because noone wanted to send their ES kids to a school in the middle of a city (the original plan was consideration of an ES vs MS/HS).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, they did the lottery live on MS Teams. I watched the whole thing. Yes, it only showed the numbers of the kids who won, not the names, but there will be a clear paper trail, it would be simple to audit after the fact. The type of shenanigans you are implying would require a high level of fraud, with many people “in on it.” I know it is disappointing when your kid doesn’t get in, but the lottery is not rigged.

I have participated in the lottery and yeah there is some manual intervention. It happened 2 years ago and they had tried to hide the fact they had 2 copies of lists in the system - one created by the system from parents who registered and then one they created manually in the system. it became apparent and people started commenting. I bet someone could dig up a thread here. It probably had to do with needing to retain some seats that they could assign for whatever reason - maybe administrative transfer?

There is no way to administrative transfer to hb. It is not an option on the website so only some direct back door deal is possible to get in.

Administrative transfers are always case by case, not public, usually because of some specific problem a child is having. Often these kids are in a bad place and the circumstances are private.

This is the case for all admin transfer to any school in APS. I highly doubt they let a lot of kids into HB as admin transfers because if they did, you'd see it in the numbers.

You do see it in the numbers. Lottery chooses 75 rising sixth graders. Final middle school class sizes end up being around 81-82. That is 6-7 kids who get in each year outside of the lottery. I can't imagine there are that many kids each year who have issues which cannot be dealt with by a neighborhood school. Somehow, these extra 6-7 kids are being admitted each year through a process outside of the lottery....

Beyond lottery, twins (multiples) count as one for lottery, individually for enrollment. Also, there used to be an autism or Asperger program for middle school that is phasing out.

[Anonymous]

The special needs thing was stopped years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am new to APS and my kids are young. Can someone tell me what is so good about HB Woodlawn compared to other APS schools?

Lower student: teacher ratios. Also a fancy new building.

With no open grass fields or open space to run around. In the middle of a very busy city (Rosslyn) amongst hi-rises.

No thanks. The reason HB got put there is because noone wanted to send their ES kids to a school in the middle of a city (the original plan was consideration of an ES vs MS/HS).

It was actually supposed to be another middle school. Families that (now) feed into Hamm lost their minds at the thought of shlepping ALL THE WAY to Rosslyn from Cherrydale. That's how it ended up HB -- they moved to rosslyn and their old building became a new middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am new to APS and my kids are young. Can someone tell me what is so good about HB Woodlawn compared to other APS schools?

Lower student: teacher ratios. Also a fancy new building.

With no open grass fields or open space to run around. In the middle of a very busy city (Rosslyn) amongst hi-rises.

No thanks. The reason HB got put there is because noone wanted to send their ES kids to a school in the middle of a city (the original plan was consideration of an ES vs MS/HS).

It was actually supposed to be another middle school. Families that (now) feed into Hamm lost their minds at the thought of shlepping ALL THE WAY to Rosslyn from Cherrydale. That's how it ended up HB -- they moved to rosslyn and their old building became a new middle school.

Nice try. It's because neighborhood families wanted the middle schools campus for... a middle school! Not the 2-acre urban campus. That was the more appropriate option for a choice program.

[Anonymous]

I have heard this for so many years- not necessarily just siblings getting in, but other slightly off things regarding the lottery, that it really seems that there is something going on. You don’t hear this about ATS, for instance, which is also wildly popular. That tells me that it’s more than sour grapes.