Is APS really looking to close a N. Arlington elem school again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Not being obtuse - why do we care given how under enrolled it is? I don’t see enrollment picking back up naturally (ie via new families moving in) and “north north” Arlington is already bursting at the seams with elementary schools.

Missing middle will draw in a lot more students if that happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Not being obtuse - why do we care given how under enrolled it is? I don’t see enrollment picking back up naturally (ie via new families moving in) and “north north” Arlington is already bursting at the seams with elementary schools.

Missing middle will draw in a lot more students if that happens.

It's not just MM, but the CAFs as well. That Goodwill project on Glebe should have everyone who is zoned to Fleet/Jefferson worried. It will be twice as big as Gilliam Place down the road and will force a rezoning. But APS will wait until the last minute to do anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Not being obtuse - why do we care given how under enrolled it is? I don’t see enrollment picking back up naturally (ie via new families moving in) and “north north” Arlington is already bursting at the seams with elementary schools.

Missing middle will draw in a lot more students if that happens.

Will it though? The couple MM properties that made it through sold for $1.6M+ a unit in areas around the orange line corridor. Why would young families move into a duplex for $1.6 zoned to Nottingham where they still have to drive everywhere when they can get a SFH for $1.6 in Westover zoned to Cardinal that gives them walkability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Wow, grabbing the popcorn. She's using her last meeting to propose closing Nottingham AND a cascading boundary process that will impact Jamestown, Discovery, Tuckahoe, Taylor, Glebe and Cardinal? 340 students may not sound like much but they're not going to easily get rolled into the next school over. There aren't 170 seats available at Discovery and Tuckahoe. It's going to be a cascading boundary process to balance enrollments across all those schools. That's a pretty cowardly thing to do at your last meeting. Make your successors run a controversial school closing and boundary process while you get out of town. And what are they gonna do with a closed building anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Not being obtuse - why do we care given how under enrolled it is? I don’t see enrollment picking back up naturally (ie via new families moving in) and “north north” Arlington is already bursting at the seams with elementary schools.

Missing middle will draw in a lot more students if that happens.

Will it though? The couple MM properties that made it through sold for $1.6M+ a unit in areas around the orange line corridor. Why would young families move into a duplex for $1.6 zoned to Nottingham where they still have to drive everywhere when they can get a SFH for $1.6 in Westover zoned to Cardinal that gives them walkability.

My point was that we will have a growing student population; i agree wealthy areas will not as they send kids to private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Wow, grabbing the popcorn. She's using her last meeting to propose closing Nottingham AND a cascading boundary process that will impact Jamestown, Discovery, Tuckahoe, Taylor, Glebe and Cardinal? 340 students may not sound like much but they're not going to easily get rolled into the next school over. There aren't 170 seats available at Discovery and Tuckahoe. It's going to be a cascading boundary process to balance enrollments across all those schools. That's a pretty cowardly thing to do at your last meeting. Make your successors run a controversial school closing and boundary process while you get out of town. And what are they gonna do with a closed building anyway?

Empty Nottingham, then temporary move all of Taylor and raze that building and put up classrooms with walls etc. but they just built new playground so that seems unlikely. Probably a SA school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Wow, grabbing the popcorn. She's using her last meeting to propose closing Nottingham AND a cascading boundary process that will impact Jamestown, Discovery, Tuckahoe, Taylor, Glebe and Cardinal? 340 students may not sound like much but they're not going to easily get rolled into the next school over. There aren't 170 seats available at Discovery and Tuckahoe. It's going to be a cascading boundary process to balance enrollments across all those schools. That's a pretty cowardly thing to do at your last meeting. Make your successors run a controversial school closing and boundary process while you get out of town. And what are they gonna do with a closed building anyway?

Empty Nottingham, then temporary move all of Taylor and raze that building and put up classrooms with walls etc. but they just built new playground so that seems unlikely. Probably a SA school?

It'll be where they put Montessori, because the old Career Center building is needed for TJ middle school swing space while they renovate there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Wow, grabbing the popcorn. She's using her last meeting to propose closing Nottingham AND a cascading boundary process that will impact Jamestown, Discovery, Tuckahoe, Taylor, Glebe and Cardinal? 340 students may not sound like much but they're not going to easily get rolled into the next school over. There aren't 170 seats available at Discovery and Tuckahoe. It's going to be a cascading boundary process to balance enrollments across all those schools. That's a pretty cowardly thing to do at your last meeting. Make your successors run a controversial school closing and boundary process while you get out of town. And what are they gonna do with a closed building anyway?

Empty Nottingham, then temporary move all of Taylor and raze that building and put up classrooms with walls etc. but they just built new playground so that seems unlikely. Probably a SA school?

It'll be where they put Montessori, because the old Career Center building is needed for TJ middle school swing space while they renovate there.

That makes sense. TJ can go to the old Career Center building. And Taylor could go to the old Nottingham while Taylor is rebuilt. And Montessori can remain in the old Patrick Henry building for a few more years, with necessary repairs to keep the building healthy/usable. The Career Center surface parking lot and construction staging area there can be converted to temporary field space. And APS can lease the adjacent garage.

[Anonymous]

Rebuild Taylor? Come on. There’s no money for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rebuild Taylor? Come on. There’s no money for that.

Well the monthly fire truck visit burns money too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Wow, grabbing the popcorn. She's using her last meeting to propose closing Nottingham AND a cascading boundary process that will impact Jamestown, Discovery, Tuckahoe, Taylor, Glebe and Cardinal? 340 students may not sound like much but they're not going to easily get rolled into the next school over. There aren't 170 seats available at Discovery and Tuckahoe. It's going to be a cascading boundary process to balance enrollments across all those schools. That's a pretty cowardly thing to do at your last meeting. Make your successors run a controversial school closing and boundary process while you get out of town. And what are they gonna do with a closed building anyway?

Empty Nottingham, then temporary move all of Taylor and raze that building and put up classrooms with walls etc. but they just built new playground so that seems unlikely. Probably a SA school?

It'll be where they put Montessori, because the old Career Center building is needed for TJ middle school swing space while they renovate there.

That makes sense. TJ can go to the old Career Center building. And Taylor could go to the old Nottingham while Taylor is rebuilt. And Montessori can remain in the old Patrick Henry building for a few more years, with necessary repairs to keep the building healthy/usable. The Career Center surface parking lot and construction staging area there can be converted to temporary field space. And APS can lease the adjacent garage.

So many problems with this “plan.” The career center cannot just be a middle school swing space without a substantial renovation. And then you’re delaying that whole site’s completion. You’re also delaying TJ. The costs start adding up. And what will you do with a renovated career center after TJ is done?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Wow, grabbing the popcorn. She's using her last meeting to propose closing Nottingham AND a cascading boundary process that will impact Jamestown, Discovery, Tuckahoe, Taylor, Glebe and Cardinal? 340 students may not sound like much but they're not going to easily get rolled into the next school over. There aren't 170 seats available at Discovery and Tuckahoe. It's going to be a cascading boundary process to balance enrollments across all those schools. That's a pretty cowardly thing to do at your last meeting. Make your successors run a controversial school closing and boundary process while you get out of town. And what are they gonna do with a closed building anyway?

Empty Nottingham, then temporary move all of Taylor and raze that building and put up classrooms with walls etc. but they just built new playground so that seems unlikely. Probably a SA school?

It'll be where they put Montessori, because the old Career Center building is needed for TJ middle school swing space while they renovate there.

That makes sense. TJ can go to the old Career Center building. And Taylor could go to the old Nottingham while Taylor is rebuilt. And Montessori can remain in the old Patrick Henry building for a few more years, with necessary repairs to keep the building healthy/usable. The Career Center surface parking lot and construction staging area there can be converted to temporary field space. And APS can lease the adjacent garage.

So many problems with this “plan.” The career center cannot just be a middle school swing space without a substantial renovation. And then you’re delaying that whole site’s completion. You’re also delaying TJ. The costs start adding up. And what will you do with a renovated career center after TJ is done?

The Ed Center renovation was designed so that it could become a future elementary or middle school, or other program, if the population of W-L shrinks substantially in the future. That was the requirement the school board placed on the superintendent's plan to renovate the Ed Center for W-L. The same flexibility could easily be incorporated in a Career Center renovation. But it takes a school board who thinks outside the box. And it takes guts to make those tough decisions.

Covid prolonged the W-L Ed Center conversion, as I think it was only supposed to take a year.

[Anonymous]

Another ATS site could be filled from the wait list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another ATS site could be filled from the wait list.

But why? We have too many elementary seats already and no extra bus capacity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Nottingham, Mary K. is going to kill your school. Tune in to the board meeting Dec. 18. She’s already ruled out closing Taylor and while Mary’s proposal will mention a south ES, the huge lack of seats in the south means not even Drew will be converted to an option school. (Also, good luck taking that historic black community’s school from them and bussing their kids elsewhere, amirite?). This means only Nottingham is left and please remember Mary supported that school being swing space last year. Good luck.

Wow, grabbing the popcorn. She's using her last meeting to propose closing Nottingham AND a cascading boundary process that will impact Jamestown, Discovery, Tuckahoe, Taylor, Glebe and Cardinal? 340 students may not sound like much but they're not going to easily get rolled into the next school over. There aren't 170 seats available at Discovery and Tuckahoe. It's going to be a cascading boundary process to balance enrollments across all those schools. That's a pretty cowardly thing to do at your last meeting. Make your successors run a controversial school closing and boundary process while you get out of town. And what are they gonna do with a closed building anyway?

Empty Nottingham, then temporary move all of Taylor and raze that building and put up classrooms with walls etc. but they just built new playground so that seems unlikely. Probably a SA school?

It'll be where they put Montessori, because the old Career Center building is needed for TJ middle school swing space while they renovate there.

That makes sense. TJ can go to the old Career Center building. And Taylor could go to the old Nottingham while Taylor is rebuilt. And Montessori can remain in the old Patrick Henry building for a few more years, with necessary repairs to keep the building healthy/usable. The Career Center surface parking lot and construction staging area there can be converted to temporary field space. And APS can lease the adjacent garage.

So many problems with this “plan.” The career center cannot just be a middle school swing space without a substantial renovation. And then you’re delaying that whole site’s completion. You’re also delaying TJ. The costs start adding up. And what will you do with a renovated career center after TJ is done?

The Ed Center renovation was designed so that it could become a future elementary or middle school, or other program, if the population of W-L shrinks substantially in the future. That was the requirement the school board placed on the superintendent's plan to renovate the Ed Center for W-L. The same flexibility could easily be incorporated in a Career Center renovation. But it takes a school board who thinks outside the box. And it takes guts to make those tough decisions.

Covid prolonged the W-L Ed Center conversion, as I think it was only supposed to take a year.

How does Ed center become another school without field space or a playground for elem? That seems like a polite fiction.