Which APS elementary schools should close?
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Anonymous
Correction, Arlington has historically underinvested in the Drew neighborhood. |
Anonymous
The civic association doesn't make it easy. A guy wants to bring a restaurant to this now abandoned building the civic association has put some much pressure on him I doubt it's happening. Instead the building will just remain abandoned. |
Anonymous
I think there is one more year left on ES that got in when those in Drew's neighborhood had guaranteed admission to Claremont and Hoffman Boston. I think that ended in 2020 so current 3rd graders no longer had guaranteed admission. I would like to see if if shifted. |
Anonymous
Drew parent here. I'd gladly send the kids north of pupatella and east of Walter Reed to Hoffman Boston and kids west of Walter Reed to Randolph. Then take those south of Pupatella and combine with Abington. Make Drew k-2 and Abington 3-5 |
Anonymous
Hoffman Boston doesn’t have space and Randolph doesn’t do non-sped buses |
Anonymous
First--"hundreds" of years? Arlington's not that old. Second, I've lived in this neighborhood for 25 years and that is not my experience since I've lived here--in that time they have added the sprayground, a huge new "town center," done the massive renovations at Jennie Dean Park, built the Walter Reed Community Center, and redone Nauck and Fort Barnard Parks. The problem is the despite a lot of changes in the mix of people living in the neighborhood, the county only listens to one demographic that focuses on a narrow set of issues. It's not surprising that many parents choose to go to other schools when decisions about the neighborhood school are hugely influenced by a group of 70- and 80-year olds whose lived experience is segregation and underinvestment. The kids who go to Drew include many whose parents rent, move frequently, and just enroll their kids in the in-boundary schools/have limited English proficiency. ...... |
Anonymous
Chronic underinvesting since the end of the civil war. I'm not sure which demographic you are saying the county listens to, but I personally don't think updating a few things in recent years is going to magically make up for the long term underinvestment. If you don't think the history of segregation and underinvestment are still factors, what do you see as the problems for Drew? How would you solve them? |
Anonymous
Do those schools have the space? |
Anonymous
I thought the 2018/2019 kindergarteners were the last group that had guaranteed admission. Those kids are in MS now. |
Anonymous
Randolph doesn't "do" buses only because it doesn't need to. If you send kids there from outside the walk zone, they would "do" a bus. |
Anonymous
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MPSA should close. No neighborhood school should be asked to close for an option school that serves the whitest and wealthiest students fleeing their south Arlington schools.
Close MPSA and give neighborhood schools what they need to succeed. |
Anonymous
YES! I've tried to be tolerant and accepting of MPSA over the years. But I'm done. Guess it doesn't matter, though, since they're getting what they want. The only thing left is expanding to the high school years. But after they get everything at the CC site, does anyone believe there's any chance they won't ultimately get that, too? |
Anonymous
Not a MPSA parent. I actually don't think they should close. I'm fine with them existing as an option. I just don't think APS should keep catering to them. First they insisted they had to get out of Drew, now their alternate location isn't good enough and we must spend $$$$ to refurbish yet another building. Where does it stop? Stick them back in a neighborhood school colocated with a neighborhood program (ahem Drew), or make the whole building MPSA but give the neighborhood preference. And be done with it. |
Anonymous
Absolutely not. We finally moved away from neighborhood preferences to option schools (ie, Claremont) and should never go back. And an option program within a neighborhood school is also just bad. It didn't work. MPSA dominated to the neighborhood program students detriment. Why people keep suggesting returning to that is beyond my comprehension. MPSA is theoretically too differently organized to be in a school with a traditional bell schedule. MPSA parents know their program isn't as revered and coveted as they proclaim; that it does not serve as many underprivileged students as it should or as other option programs do even though it sets aside seats for them. But they cling to these arguments to justify not just their continued existence, but their expansion. Give neighborhood kids a new school, option programs can have the old buildings. They are optional. If people believe in the program enough, they will go. |
Anonymous
DP, but I remember EG when she was assistant principal at McKinley. She met with us in Kindergarten/first grade at our request bc our kid was having a rough time and we had her diagnosed by an outside psychologist. EG said the diagnosis paperwork wasn't like anything they had seen before and wanted to use a wait and see approach instead, would not get kid looked at by school doctor, either. Three therapists and countless private doctors later and we got an autism diagnosis, fighting with the school the whole way through for any accommodations and recognition of what was going on with our child. They fought us at every. single. turn. It didn't need to be that hard. I see that EG is now an autism specialist at Nottingham, wut? From your comment it sounds like maybe she has improved since our own experiences ten years ago. But man, our experience was Not. Good. |