Barcroft elementary/ south Arlington crisis

[Anonymous]

Some things just do not have enough appeal to be fundamentally transformed. Columbia Pike is one of them--a wasteland.

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of affordable condo options in N . Arl that feed into the good schools. It's a choice - do you get a bigger place and go to a crappy school and be the rich or a smaller place and a great school and be one of the poors?

There is always choices. No one on here is truly stuck in S Arl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of affordable condo options in N . Arl that feed into the good schools. It's a choice - do you get a bigger place and go to a crappy school and be the rich or a smaller place and a great school and be one of the poors?

There is always choices. No one on here is truly stuck in S Arl.

But don't "the poors" whatever that means--get to use the same schools, the same parks, the same roads, etc., "the rich" do? i think busing would solve these problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of affordable condo options in N . Arl that feed into the good schools. It's a choice - do you get a bigger place and go to a crappy school and be the rich or a smaller place and a great school and be one of the poors?

There is always choices. No one on here is truly stuck in S Arl.

Wow, what an over simplified, uninformed, and unwelcome opinion. You really captured the ignorance of someone who isn't familiar with our neighborhoods, with just a dash of self satisfied, elitism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of affordable condo options in N . Arl that feed into the good schools. It's a choice - do you get a bigger place and go to a crappy school and be the rich or a smaller place and a great school and be one of the poors?

There is always choices. No one on here is truly stuck in S Arl.

But don't "the poors" whatever that means--get to use the same schools, the same parks, the same roads, etc., "the rich" do? i think busing would solve these problems.

I think you're unfamiliar with our relatively recent history with education in this country. Busing did NOT, in fact, solve any problems. It just created more of them.

[Anonymous]

In fact, there is a strong case to be made that forced busing in the 1970s and 1980s is largely why where we are now with education haves and have nots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It continues to puzzle me: why has such a dichotomy developed between n and s arlington over the past few years?

It's not just the last few years, there has long been a N/S split. This article gets into some of the history http://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/May-June-2015/Are-There-Two-Arlingtons/

[Anonymous]

While, it scratches a certain itch to imagine a much needed dose of reality shipped over to Jamestown, I'm in agreement that busing will not solve the problems the county is creating.
We need actual community planning. It boggles the mind that we can know what we do about functional, diverse neighborhoods, and then do almost exactly the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While, it scratches a certain itch to imagine a much needed dose of reality shipped over to Jamestown, I'm in agreement that busing will not solve the problems the county is creating.
We need actual community planning. It boggles the mind that we can know what we do about functional, diverse neighborhoods, and then do almost exactly the opposite.

I agree with this. Yet when it comes down to South Arlington, the county balks all the time. The street car is emblematic of the whole problem of this North/South divide. The North has a Metro, so why does it need a streetcar in the South? The North as high performing schools and less economically disadvantaged students, so why does the South need more or better resourced schools?

I posted before. I'm one of those young couples who just had a child and between the lack of daycare and preschool options, watching the school battle is disheartening. Arlington spends more per student than any other municipality in the US outside of New York city. You'd think we could have rational school planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It continues to puzzle me: why has such a dichotomy developed between n and s arlington over the past few years?

It's not just the last few years, there has long been a N/S split. This article gets into some of the history http://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/May-June-2015/Are-There-Two-Arlingtons/

Interesting article. Definitely touches on the " squeaky wheel" factor. I believe we get the communities we work and fight for. See you all at the meeting!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of affordable condo options in N . Arl that feed into the good schools. It's a choice - do you get a bigger place and go to a crappy school and be the rich or a smaller place and a great school and be one of the poors?

There is always choices. No one on here is truly stuck in S Arl.

This is so myopic. Arlington County Public Schools should be ashamed there is such a geographical merit/performance distinction between it's schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of affordable condo options in N . Arl that feed into the good schools. It's a choice - do you get a bigger place and go to a crappy school and be the rich or a smaller place and a great school and be one of the poors?

There is always choices. No one on here is truly stuck in S Arl.

This is so myopic. Arlington County Public Schools should be ashamed there is such a geographical merit/performance distinction between it's schools.

+1 It should not be acceptable that on the Virginia Index of Performance Awards that were just released nearly every N. Arl. elementary school was on the list but only Patrick Henry from South hit the levels of achievement to recognized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While, it scratches a certain itch to imagine a much needed dose of reality shipped over to Jamestown, I'm in agreement that busing will not solve the problems the county is creating.
We need actual community planning. It boggles the mind that we can know what we do about functional, diverse neighborhoods, and then do almost exactly the opposite.

If a school like Jamestown has over 10% extra capacity, I do not have a problem with busing students in from a lower performing school. However, countywide busing is a bad solution because people lose their sense of community.

I don't understand why the county only looks at putting affordable housing in the south or, perhaps in the Glebe neighborhood in the north. If they really wanted to help, they would look at Waze of balancing the inequity between schools like Discovery and those in the south.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of affordable condo options in N . Arl that feed into the good schools. It's a choice - do you get a bigger place and go to a crappy school and be the rich or a smaller place and a great school and be one of the poors?

There is always choices. No one on here is truly stuck in S Arl.

Wow, what an over simplified, uninformed, and unwelcome opinion. You really captured the ignorance of someone who isn't familiar with our neighborhoods, with just a dash of self satisfied, elitism.

Sorry but I am extremely familiar with the situation and yes, this is what it boils down to. Those buying SFH in S Arl don't want to live in a condo in N Arl and be branded a "poor". It's perception. If it was dedication to education, there would be plenty of families in the condos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:18:54 here. we are in the barcroft boundary. Lots of younger families leaving, they lived here when childless, rented or just saved their money and moved up in careers and can afford to move to north Arlington, mc lean or fairfax. The sole reason for the move is schools.

Not everyone of course. i would move in a heartbeat, but cannot afford to.

The problem, though, is that unless I'm misunderstanding your earlier post, none of the people you are saying left actually had kids in the schools they "left." (Before kindergarten and then before middle school.) I don't understand why their opinions carry weight. I know nothing about Barcroft. My kids go to Oakridge. You wouldn't take my word about Barcroft or Kenmore - and you shouldn't- so why listen to your neighbors who also never went to Barcroft or Kenmore? I really don't get it.

Because when you live in a neighborhood and talk to other parents with kids in a school, you get a lot of information about the school from people with kids in the school, so you're able to make an informed decision. If most everything you hear is negative, why would you make your kids guinea pigs?

But that's a different story. You were saying (or PP, if you aren't the same person) that people are fleeing SA before K and before middle school, never having been in the schools they are zoned for. Using their opinion of a school they never attended is silly.
Of course there are people who are dissatisfied with their school and pull their kids. That happens everywhere; that's a different thing. People in NA pull their kids and send them to privates. Pulling a kid from a school in SA - who has actually been in that school - and moving to NA or Fairfax Co is happening far less than you suggest, as demonstrated by the overcrowding.