APS Engage Update Pre-CIP Report

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:For the Hamm people complaining, what is your proposal to fill Williamsburg then? Who should get bused over there? Not your children. We’ve got that.

Question: why is APS so bad at calculating seats/future needs? Are less families moving to WMS/DHMS? Is this driven in part by the exodus of North Arlington families to private school? Does APS track or publish that information?

Just my observations watching this over many years.

1. Covid definitely impacted things.
2. In past boundary adjustments, the School Board responds to the people screaming in their faces right in the moment. This was the case with the boundary adjustments when Hamm was opened. Hamm never had enough kids and Swanson had too many. People screamed about not leaving Swanson. Same issue with Cardinal. The McKinley community screamed and yelled to stay together and give it a couple years that school will be overcrowded. The problem is this thread. What's going on right now. Listening to current families over what makes sense longer-term.

Right, I don’t disagree with you. But I still would be very curious about the covid impact. How big was it? Is it here to stay? What are the current numbers?

APS does not give two wits about the kids leaving for PS, I know, which is one of the reasons they are leaving. But it’s impacting neighborhoods/neighborhood schools in N Arlington communities in a way that is new and different. It would be useful to understand it. Especially when APS appears to be absolutely abysmal at forecasting seating/buildings.

+1. APS seems to be awful at predicting what it is going to make sense for the long term. In the face of a global pandemic that’s completely upended what we thought we knew about school growth (which was hard learned in the face of being repeatedly wrong before), you’d think some humility would be in order.

And I disagree threads like this are the problem. We are right to question half-baked assumptions and poke holes in flawed methodologies. The fact that the school board keeps buckling in the face of opposition shows they have little faith in staff’s analysis and the assumptions don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Schools are meant to serve the educational needs of students, and APS seems to have completely lost sight of this chasing the Syphax wishlists of the day. APS may be happy to see these parents go, but we all know what happens when people with money and influence lose faith in the public school system. The whole system benefits when the entire community is engaged and invested. Take a look at ACPS for an example of what happens if when UMC and MC parents disengage.

After observing the McKinley/Key/ATS/Cardinal boundary process up close and looking at all the data from all sides in depth, I began to really question this often repeated narrative. Sorry it's inconvenient, but APS staff is capable of making good recommendations with the best information they have and often times parents really don't have the full picture. Who is more self-interested? Them or you?

I just think the narrative that APS stuff constantly sucks and is incompetent is unfair. Do they make mistakes and get things wrong at times? Yes. Are they plotting against you? Probably not. My opinion is the parent communities can just be insanely obstinate. There is no reasoning with people who want what they want and are used to getting their way.

I don’t understand how this happens so often and the seats are so off. That’s where I see the ineffectiveness. DHMS has operated for what four years? They need to completely upend the boundaries of a school they just opened?

Why aren't parents better at predicting the future than APS is at projections? Ceases to amaze me that parents seem to think they have more foresight than the people they expect to predict the future with 100% accuracy.

Hyperbole much? I mean who said anything about 100% accuracy? Seems like a brand new school should not have to be redrawn every four years? That seems inept. And they get paid A LOT and this process is time consuming, bitter and incredibly wasteful. Seems like doing it less often would be a huge win for everyone. Yet they keep doing it. All the time. It’s not that I don’t expect this ever as a parent but is every year a huge fight about moving students around because the planners at APS cannot accurately predict.
Ever.

More revisionist history. APS had committed publicly to a full elementary and middle school boundary process when they re-zoned Cardinal and you all freaked out and said Covid was hard and it was too hard for your kids and they kicked the can down the road. So now here we all are. Just a couple years later.

They cave to your demands and then you are relentlessly unhappy and miserable anyway. Sincerely it would be better if APS just made plans and told everyone.

Ignoring DHMS point. Again.

The projections in the report show Hamm as stable and right around capacity. There’s really no reason to mess with it in this round. I don’t know why they are moving that big chunk to Williamsburg.

Hamm is picking up some Swanson kids and some TJ kids to relieve pressure on those schools and it's not smart to leave one middle school at capacity and one significantly under capacity. Williamsburg is at 65 percent. It's preposterously low.

That said, I bet APS will give Hamm back some of those PUs right around the school they're showing go to Williamsburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the Hamm people complaining, what is your proposal to fill Williamsburg then? Who should get bused over there? Not your children. We’ve got that.

Restore the “Rosslyn Island.” The Rosslyn students in high density housing were zoned to Williamsburg up until 2019 or so when the boundaries last changed. No one except APS staff complained about it since it looked “weird.”

It contributed to socio-economic diversity and also helped fill the school since Williamsburg is in an area of low density single family homes.

^Rosslyn students would be bussed to any middle school. So it shouldn’t be too hard for APS staff to draw a contiguous boundary with Rosslyn to create a Williamsburg MS zone for Innovation ES. It doesn’t have to be an “island” boundary like before if APS staff finds that unacceptable. If APS gave any thought to both walkability and socio-economic diversity, such a scenario would be a no-brainer.

It's maddening that everyone has such short or distorted memory. APS staff isn't to blame for the dislike for "map islands." That was ALL because of COMMUNITY complaints. People always pick whatever bolsters their self-interests to argue for certain boundary outcomes. Then they blame APS staff for listening.

Actually you’re wrong. The island as it existed kept upper income neighborhoods at WL and Swanson while bussing Rosslyn to Yorktown and Williamsburg, all in the name of diversity. APS staff during public outreach said they (i.e. staff) preferred getting rid of the island to create a contiguous boundaries. The W-L students were outraged and spoke at the school board meeting.

The boundary policy has a consideration for contiguous boundaries, staff was fixing a non contiguous boundary,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the obsession with walkable schools. My kids have gone to both walkable and non-walkable. Particularly in elementary school, getting bused is awesome. Great community at the bus stop. I built more neighborhood community doing that than being a walker. Very convenient in the mornings in particular if you work. My kids loved the bus. Walkable schools when they're young and need to be accompanied on the walk and you're on the outer part of the walkable area is a pain in the ass.

+1
I'll let you in on a secret, though: it isn't about being able to walk to school. It's about being entitled to whatever you want, where you want it, when you want it, how you want it. And, more critically, what you don't want and what you purposely planned and paid to avoid. It just sounds nicer under the banners of "walkability" and "efficiency."

Transportation costs money, wastes time, and is bad for the environment. “Car free diet”, remember?

Just a few short years ago the county was complaining about a shortage of bus drivers and reducing bus costs. Now they want to force buses and cars all over the county. Specifically, on to hilly roads with poor line of sight, built 70 years ago and not fit for the purpose. People have died on Little Falls Street within sight of Nottingham. We only just got 4 way stops, and only after much complaining. I guess that’s entitlement for you, that we don’t want our community members dying in pedestrian incidents.

It’s a neighborhood area that needs less cut through traffic, not more. And APS hasn’t said boo about that in all 200+ pages of its “analysis”.

I guess that’s entitlement to you. Sorry you have lower standards. Some of us expect better for the money spent.

These issues aren't the job of the school board sweetie. Their job is to educate students. Sorry you don't like the 2002 Honda Civics driving by your house, but that's not a good reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the obsession with walkable schools. My kids have gone to both walkable and non-walkable. Particularly in elementary school, getting bused is awesome. Great community at the bus stop. I built more neighborhood community doing that than being a walker. Very convenient in the mornings in particular if you work. My kids loved the bus. Walkable schools when they're young and need to be accompanied on the walk and you're on the outer part of the walkable area is a pain in the ass.

+1
I'll let you in on a secret, though: it isn't about being able to walk to school. It's about being entitled to whatever you want, where you want it, when you want it, how you want it. And, more critically, what you don't want and what you purposely planned and paid to avoid. It just sounds nicer under the banners of "walkability" and "efficiency."

Transportation costs money, wastes time, and is bad for the environment. “Car free diet”, remember?

Just a few short years ago the county was complaining about a shortage of bus drivers and reducing bus costs. Now they want to force buses and cars all over the county. Specifically, on to hilly roads with poor line of sight, built 70 years ago and not fit for the purpose. People have died on Little Falls Street within sight of Nottingham. We only just got 4 way stops, and only after much complaining. I guess that’s entitlement for you, that we don’t want our community members dying in pedestrian incidents.

It’s a neighborhood area that needs less cut through traffic, not more. And APS hasn’t said boo about that in all 200+ pages of its “analysis”.

I guess that’s entitlement to you. Sorry you have lower standards. Some of us expect better for the money spent.

These issues aren't the job of the school board sweetie. Their job is to educate students. Sorry you don't like the 2002 Honda Civics driving by your house, but that's not a good reason.

OMG, OMG, what if they PARK it there all day? House values will plummet! /s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

Of course you do!
And let's keep the next generation or two of south elementary students jammed into their facilities while we northerners enjoy air and space and calm until that additional school can be built in the south. Duh. It's the simple and logical solution. We'll even offer-up some of our teachers to those crowded schools with hundreds more children.

Well I will add more facts — I live in North Arlington but my children attend Campbell, which is in South Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the obsession with walkable schools. My kids have gone to both walkable and non-walkable. Particularly in elementary school, getting bused is awesome. Great community at the bus stop. I built more neighborhood community doing that than being a walker. Very convenient in the mornings in particular if you work. My kids loved the bus. Walkable schools when they're young and need to be accompanied on the walk and you're on the outer part of the walkable area is a pain in the ass.

+1
I'll let you in on a secret, though: it isn't about being able to walk to school. It's about being entitled to whatever you want, where you want it, when you want it, how you want it. And, more critically, what you don't want and what you purposely planned and paid to avoid. It just sounds nicer under the banners of "walkability" and "efficiency."

Transportation costs money, wastes time, and is bad for the environment. “Car free diet”, remember?

Just a few short years ago the county was complaining about a shortage of bus drivers and reducing bus costs. Now they want to force buses and cars all over the county. Specifically, on to hilly roads with poor line of sight, built 70 years ago and not fit for the purpose. People have died on Little Falls Street within sight of Nottingham. We only just got 4 way stops, and only after much complaining. I guess that’s entitlement for you, that we don’t want our community members dying in pedestrian incidents.

It’s a neighborhood area that needs less cut through traffic, not more. And APS hasn’t said boo about that in all 200+ pages of its “analysis”.

I guess that’s entitlement to you. Sorry you have lower standards. Some of us expect better for the money spent.

These issues aren't the job of the school board sweetie. Their job is to educate students. Sorry you don't like the 2002 Honda Civics driving by your house, but that's not a good reason.

Yes, sweetie, their job is to educate students. Please tell me, how well have they been doing at that job since March 2020? Particularly for the children riding in the back of the 2002 Honda Civics of Arlington?

Because it was my understanding that they have been doing an exceptionally poor job in job. Can’t fill teacher positions, classrooms are overcrowded, teachers are overwhelmed and resigning, and student performance is down on every metric with no plans for making up lost learning.

But hey, the jobs program at Syphax is growing like gangbusters, we have multiple do nothing DE&I staff, and they even have 2 additional weeks of paid holidays now. And the central office planners continue to get away with making half-baked, shortsighted proposals because people like you are itching at the bit to stick it to people you perceive as more privileged than yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

So the County should spend tens of millions of dollars to build new elementary schools and leave some half empty. Um, no.

It’s not great, but when all the population growth is in South Arlington but the underenrolled schools are in North Arlington, the County is going to have to redistribute the kids every few years over and over to keep moving kids north if they don’t build more facilities in the south, where the kids are!

IN THE MEANTIME.....
You do realize it takes ten years to get a new building (1) sited (2) planned and (3) built?
You can't share your space and sacrifice a little so others don't have to endure disproportionate burden? Oh, sorry. I forgot - your kid having to go on a bus or a little farther away is disproportionate burden to a bunch of other kids having classes in hallways and closets, lunch at 9:45, and no running during recess.

I don’t understand who the “you” is here that the poster is arguing against. The poster wants them to share their space, so maybe they are talking to parents at the North Arlington schools? I don’t think there is a groundswell against “sharing space” at North Arlington schools. The objections are coming from people who don’t want their kids moved FROM a certain school.

And then the poster also argues against people who don’t want their kids bussed. The children who will be bussed will largely be the children in South Arlington, although I guess there are some kids who used to walk to Nottingham who will now be bus riders, but many of those kids can actually walk to their new schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the obsession with walkable schools. My kids have gone to both walkable and non-walkable. Particularly in elementary school, getting bused is awesome. Great community at the bus stop. I built more neighborhood community doing that than being a walker. Very convenient in the mornings in particular if you work. My kids loved the bus. Walkable schools when they're young and need to be accompanied on the walk and you're on the outer part of the walkable area is a pain in the ass.

+1
I'll let you in on a secret, though: it isn't about being able to walk to school. It's about being entitled to whatever you want, where you want it, when you want it, how you want it. And, more critically, what you don't want and what you purposely planned and paid to avoid. It just sounds nicer under the banners of "walkability" and "efficiency."

Transportation costs money, wastes time, and is bad for the environment. “Car free diet”, remember?

Just a few short years ago the county was complaining about a shortage of bus drivers and reducing bus costs. Now they want to force buses and cars all over the county. Specifically, on to hilly roads with poor line of sight, built 70 years ago and not fit for the purpose. People have died on Little Falls Street within sight of Nottingham. We only just got 4 way stops, and only after much complaining. I guess that’s entitlement for you, that we don’t want our community members dying in pedestrian incidents.

It’s a neighborhood area that needs less cut through traffic, not more. And APS hasn’t said boo about that in all 200+ pages of its “analysis”.

I guess that’s entitlement to you. Sorry you have lower standards. Some of us expect better for the money spent.

This past year several elementary schools were forced to move up their start time to 7:50am due to the bus shortage. A shortage of drivers and reducing bus costs is an ongoing issue and it makes zero sense for APS to exacerbate this problem.

My kids' bus stop has no sidewalks. Most of the kids have to walk home from there along a street with no sidewalks. The street goes up a hill, around a curve, and has signs reminding drivers there is a blind curve and drivers can't see over the top of the hill. But yea, lets sent the elementary school kids down this road every day.

South Arlington already has too much cut through traffic. I'm not saying North Arlington should get bad things to even things out, but a lot of what North Arlington complains about already is reality for South Arlington.

As for posters saying there is no space for new schools, there used to be a time schools would be built on part of the playground one year, and then the kids moved in the next year. There was a North Arlington school (maybe Taylor) I visited this past year. I was shocked by how much green space was around it.
Plenty for another school to be built on. How many other elementary schools have large parks next to them? Probably none in south Arlington, but I have been very surprised how much construction has been happening in south Arlington the past 10 years or so. I'd think if it was a space issue Arlington could have built where all of the new construction is happening in south arlington, any time in the past decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the obsession with walkable schools. My kids have gone to both walkable and non-walkable. Particularly in elementary school, getting bused is awesome. Great community at the bus stop. I built more neighborhood community doing that than being a walker. Very convenient in the mornings in particular if you work. My kids loved the bus. Walkable schools when they're young and need to be accompanied on the walk and you're on the outer part of the walkable area is a pain in the ass.

+1
I'll let you in on a secret, though: it isn't about being able to walk to school. It's about being entitled to whatever you want, where you want it, when you want it, how you want it. And, more critically, what you don't want and what you purposely planned and paid to avoid. It just sounds nicer under the banners of "walkability" and "efficiency."

Transportation costs money, wastes time, and is bad for the environment. “Car free diet”, remember?

Just a few short years ago the county was complaining about a shortage of bus drivers and reducing bus costs. Now they want to force buses and cars all over the county. Specifically, on to hilly roads with poor line of sight, built 70 years ago and not fit for the purpose. People have died on Little Falls Street within sight of Nottingham. We only just got 4 way stops, and only after much complaining. I guess that’s entitlement for you, that we don’t want our community members dying in pedestrian incidents.

It’s a neighborhood area that needs less cut through traffic, not more. And APS hasn’t said boo about that in all 200+ pages of its “analysis”.

I guess that’s entitlement to you. Sorry you have lower standards. Some of us expect better for the money spent.

You haven't seen real cut-through traffic. Where are people cutting through to?! Get out of your little corner of the County once in a while and see actual traffic in other neighborhoods. I don't give a _____ what you paid for your house. That was YOUR CHOICE. And you most likely financially had a LOT more OPTIONS to choose from than most of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the obsession with walkable schools. My kids have gone to both walkable and non-walkable. Particularly in elementary school, getting bused is awesome. Great community at the bus stop. I built more neighborhood community doing that than being a walker. Very convenient in the mornings in particular if you work. My kids loved the bus. Walkable schools when they're young and need to be accompanied on the walk and you're on the outer part of the walkable area is a pain in the ass.

+1
I'll let you in on a secret, though: it isn't about being able to walk to school. It's about being entitled to whatever you want, where you want it, when you want it, how you want it. And, more critically, what you don't want and what you purposely planned and paid to avoid. It just sounds nicer under the banners of "walkability" and "efficiency."

Transportation costs money, wastes time, and is bad for the environment. “Car free diet”, remember?

Just a few short years ago the county was complaining about a shortage of bus drivers and reducing bus costs. Now they want to force buses and cars all over the county. Specifically, on to hilly roads with poor line of sight, built 70 years ago and not fit for the purpose. People have died on Little Falls Street within sight of Nottingham. We only just got 4 way stops, and only after much complaining. I guess that’s entitlement for you, that we don’t want our community members dying in pedestrian incidents.

It’s a neighborhood area that needs less cut through traffic, not more. And APS hasn’t said boo about that in all 200+ pages of its “analysis”.

I guess that’s entitlement to you. Sorry you have lower standards. Some of us expect better for the money spent.

This past year several elementary schools were forced to move up their start time to 7:50am due to the bus shortage. A shortage of drivers and reducing bus costs is an ongoing issue and it makes zero sense for APS to exacerbate this problem.

My kids' bus stop has no sidewalks. Most of the kids have to walk home from there along a street with no sidewalks. The street goes up a hill, around a curve, and has signs reminding drivers there is a blind curve and drivers can't see over the top of the hill. But yea, lets sent the elementary school kids down this road every day.

South Arlington already has too much cut through traffic. I'm not saying North Arlington should get bad things to even things out, but a lot of what North Arlington complains about already is reality for South Arlington.

As for posters saying there is no space for new schools, there used to be a time schools would be built on part of the playground one year, and then the kids moved in the next year. There was a North Arlington school (maybe Taylor) I visited this past year. I was shocked by how much green space was around it.
Plenty for another school to be built on. How many other elementary schools have large parks next to them? Probably none in south Arlington, but I have been very surprised how much construction has been happening in south Arlington the past 10 years or so. I'd think if it was a space issue Arlington could have built where all of the new construction is happening in south arlington, any time in the past decade.

Not if they don’t own the land and can’t afford to buy it.

[Anonymous]

What these discussions reveal is that most people have zero clue how anything actually works in local government.

The County cannot just build schools anywhere.

The County does not have endless piles of money to spend to make sure your child is guaranteed to walk to school for life and never changes schools.

There are many other things going on in this County and MOST people in this County don't send kids to APS and don't care about APS at all. Their are many other populations who also pay taxes and want and require services and other competing priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the Hamm people complaining, what is your proposal to fill Williamsburg then? Who should get bused over there? Not your children. We’ve got that.

Restore the “Rosslyn Island.” The Rosslyn students in high density housing were zoned to Williamsburg up until 2019 or so when the boundaries last changed. No one except APS staff complained about it since it looked “weird.”

It contributed to socio-economic diversity and also helped fill the school since Williamsburg is in an area of low density single family homes.

Rosslyn families complained. But I guess they shouldn’t have a voice.

Rosslyn students would either be bussed to Williamsburg or Hamm. I think homes a block away from Hamm within view of the school itself should be zoned to Hamm over bussing neighborhoods from Rosslyn.

Of course Rosslyn families should have a voice. But their options are limited since there are no middle schools near Rosslyn.

I don’t think many people here were on the original conversations when they were creating hamm. Rosslyn wanted to go to tj. It’s much closer than any other school since it’s off of rt 50. Aps pushed them going to hamm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the Hamm people complaining, what is your proposal to fill Williamsburg then? Who should get bused over there? Not your children. We’ve got that.

Restore the “Rosslyn Island.” The Rosslyn students in high density housing were zoned to Williamsburg up until 2019 or so when the boundaries last changed. No one except APS staff complained about it since it looked “weird.”


It contributed to socio-economic diversity and also helped fill the school since Williamsburg is in an area of low density single family homes.

Rosslyn families complained. But I guess they shouldn’t have a voice.

Rosslyn students would either be bussed to Williamsburg or Hamm. I think homes a block away from Hamm within view of the school itself should be zoned to Hamm over bussing neighborhoods from Rosslyn.

Of course Rosslyn families should have a voice. But their options are limited since there are no middle schools near Rosslyn.

Hamm is near Rosslyn! And yes they did complain about Williamsburg.

What I can’t stand is the self-serving logic that comes out in these conversations. Throwing any talking point at the wall which means my kid doesn’t have to…

Just say what it is. I don’t want to be personally disrupted.

Back in the day, the original idea was to have hamm at the heights (leave the Stratford building the location for hb). Taylor parents pushed for Stratford to be a middle school. Ironic now that they won’t go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What these discussions reveal is that most people have zero clue how anything actually works in local government.

The County cannot just build schools anywhere.

The County does not have endless piles of money to spend to make sure your child is guaranteed to walk to school for life and never changes schools.

There are many other things going on in this County and MOST people in this County don't send kids to APS and don't care about APS at all. Their are many other populations who also pay taxes and want and require services and other competing priorities.

No, they don’t have endless piles of money, but in APS they have a whole lot, and they have not been wise stewards of it in recent years.

For what it’s worth, I have been paying taxes in Arlington for over a decade with no kids in schools, and I will be paying taxes for years after they are done. Funding public education is one of the main responsibilities of county government. I am not unreasonable to expect that my taxpayer money be used wisely and based on sound decisonmaking principles.

The School Board has an obligation to show its work and address public concerns. Given the long history of failure in this regard I’m not taking their word as fact and I’m not assuming their assumptions are sound.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the Hamm people complaining, what is your proposal to fill Williamsburg then? Who should get bused over there? Not your children. We’ve got that.

Question: why is APS so bad at calculating seats/future needs? Are less families moving to WMS/DHMS? Is this driven in part by the exodus of North Arlington families to private school? Does APS track or publish that information?

Just my observations watching this over many years.

1. Covid definitely impacted things.
2. In past boundary adjustments, the School Board responds to the people screaming in their faces right in the moment. This was the case with the boundary adjustments when Hamm was opened. Hamm never had enough kids and Swanson had too many. People screamed about not leaving Swanson. Same issue with Cardinal. The McKinley community screamed and yelled to stay together and give it a couple years that school will be overcrowded. The problem is this thread. What's going on right now. Listening to current families over what makes sense longer-term.

Right, I don’t disagree with you. But I still would be very curious about the covid impact. How big was it? Is it here to stay? What are the current numbers?

APS does not give two wits about the kids leaving for PS, I know, which is one of the reasons they are leaving. But it’s impacting neighborhoods/neighborhood schools in N Arlington communities in a way that is new and different. It would be useful to understand it. Especially when APS appears to be absolutely abysmal at forecasting seating/buildings.

+1. APS seems to be awful at predicting what it is going to make sense for the long term. In the face of a global pandemic that’s completely upended what we thought we knew about school growth (which was hard learned in the face of being repeatedly wrong before), you’d think some humility would be in order.

And I disagree threads like this are the problem. We are right to question half-baked assumptions and poke holes in flawed methodologies. The fact that the school board keeps buckling in the face of opposition shows they have little faith in staff’s analysis and the assumptions don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Schools are meant to serve the educational needs of students, and APS seems to have completely lost sight of this chasing the Syphax wishlists of the day. APS may be happy to see these parents go, but we all know what happens when people with money and influence lose faith in the public school system. The whole system benefits when the entire community is engaged and invested. Take a look at ACPS for an example of what happens if when UMC and MC parents disengage.

After observing the McKinley/Key/ATS/Cardinal boundary process up close and looking at all the data from all sides in depth, I began to really question this often repeated narrative. Sorry it's inconvenient, but APS staff is capable of making good recommendations with the best information they have and often times parents really don't have the full picture. Who is more self-interested? Them or you?

I just think the narrative that APS stuff constantly sucks and is incompetent is unfair. Do they make mistakes and get things wrong at times? Yes. Are they plotting against you? Probably not. My opinion is the parent communities can just be insanely obstinate. There is no reasoning with people who want what they want and are used to getting their way.

Hahaha.
When they were opening hamm— my neighborhood had to fight to be put in there instead of getting zoned to tj. They said the school (without us) would open at 102%. With us it would be at 106%. We thought they had some bad assumptions— particularly that they thought 100% or immersion students would not go to Gunston from the hamm area. The school board made them move us. The school opened at 80%. They were so wrong!