Alexandria schools - why so bad?!

[Anonymous]

Can all the cyclists and anti-cyclists please stop hijacking this thread? The topic is schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can all the cyclists and anti-cyclists please stop hijacking this thread? The topic is schools.

Don't be an ostrich with your head in the sand. Our schools ARE negatively affected by the bad traffic in Alexandria. Students who might be taking classes at satellite campuses WOULD be negatively impacted by the traffic. Traffic is as germane to this conversation as the topics of TAG or textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can all the cyclists and anti-cyclists please stop hijacking this thread? The topic is schools.

Sure. Go ahead. What did you want to say?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we go back to the initial topic? What do you think of the current TAG program and the recent updates of the program in ACPS? How can we convince ACPS to go two or three high schools, given the continuous growth of the population?

First eliminate all the racial and economic inequalities in society. Because until you do, the fear that even an equitable zoning arrangement between two high schools would not last, would be a big obstacle.

The whole point of ACPS's exercise is to socially re-segregate the schools. Two school board members were paid very handsomely by the charter school industry (and one "forgot" to report like 90% of the campaign's funding). The contractors that the school board hired are charter school builders - that's what they do. If the school board actually wanted more space, they could build out TC right now, for one third of what they budgeted. That's not what they want. They want to remove what they think of as the statistical problems. Easier than teaching them.

[Anonymous]

So as residents of Alexandria, we just don’t have any power or voice to influence the future of the school?

[Anonymous]

They are bad, OP. My daughter teaches in ACPS. They live in Fairfax. She would not send her kids to school in Alexandria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we go back to the initial topic? What do you think of the current TAG program and the recent updates of the program in ACPS? How can we convince ACPS to go two or three high schools, given the continuous growth of the population?

First eliminate all the racial and economic inequalities in society. Because until you do, the fear that even an equitable zoning arrangement between two high schools would not last, would be a big obstacle.

The whole point of ACPS's exercise is to socially re-segregate the schools. Two school board members were paid very handsomely by the charter school industry (and one "forgot" to report like 90% of the campaign's funding). The contractors that the school board hired are charter school builders - that's what they do. If the school board actually wanted more space, they could build out TC right now, for one third of what they budgeted. That's not what they want. They want to remove what they think of as the statistical problems. Easier than teaching them.

Gosh, what mis-information pp here. If TCWHS had been designed right, including attention to footers and foundation to allow a build up, do you truly believe this would not be being discussed right now. The 2004 Superindent and design crew went "lateral" in design at the expense of much needed future "vertical". And at $110 million dollars in 2007, TCWHS lateral was one of the most expensive public high schools in the nation. Go Figure!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So as residents of Alexandria, we just don’t have any power or voice to influence the future of the school?

No none. The school board is dominated by the charter advocates, who are driving the new high school that's being designed to re-segregate T.C. Williams. The superintendent was hired by the last school board, but most of the members who hired him were voted off a few months after he was hired. The city gives the school board everything it wants and more - the city even gave the school board more than what they asked for this year so that they wouldn't contract-off a bunch of school jobs. But the schools keep getting worse anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's almost as if driving those streets multiple times per day everyday for the last 6 years can give me a good idea of what the changes have and haven't done to the traffic flow. What they haven't done is created the OMG MASS GRIDLOCK that the SUVS-UBER-ALLES crowd claimed, nor has it even really had a noticeable impact on travel times for anyone who isn't flying or impatient as all get-out.

My neighbors and I would be happy to begin keeping logs and posting them. The road redesign has had an appreciable negative impact on our lives. 3 weeks ago it took me 47 minutes to go from TC to the bottom of Prince Street. I was running a car pool. We were using Waze. I should be able to get a bunch of 14 year-olds, loaded with gear, a distance of less than 2 miles in less than 47 minutes at about 4 in the afternoon. Just because YOU have nothing better to do PP doesn't mean the same holds true for the rest of us.

I used to drive up King from Callahan to Quaker every morning rush, before and after the changes, and a the reverse in evening rush a couple times per week. Aside from a couple-week readjustment period to get used to the new traffic pattern, it made no appreciable difference in drive time for me. 47 minutes from TC to the riverfront on King at rush hour seems fairly normal to me, pre- and post-road changes, but perhaps we should ask council to install a Very Important Alexandrian lane just for you and your neighbors.

Huh. We must have different ideas about what is a reasonable amount of time to go less than 3 miles. 47 minutes seems far too long for such a short distance. Alexandria needs to resolve its traffic problems.

I didn't say reasonable, I said normal- those are two different words with two different meanings. Alexandria's traffic problems are the region's traffic problems and they won't be solved in a vacuum, nor will they be solved by keeping King, Quaker, Seminary at 35-40MPH 4-lane configurations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we go back to the initial topic? What do you think of the current TAG program and the recent updates of the program in ACPS? How can we convince ACPS to go two or three high schools, given the continuous growth of the population?

First eliminate all the racial and economic inequalities in society. Because until you do, the fear that even an equitable zoning arrangement between two high schools would not last, would be a big obstacle.

The whole point of ACPS's exercise is to socially re-segregate the schools. Two school board members were paid very handsomely by the charter school industry (and one "forgot" to report like 90% of the campaign's funding). The contractors that the school board hired are charter school builders - that's what they do. If the school board actually wanted more space, they could build out TC right now, for one third of what they budgeted. That's not what they want. They want to remove what they think of as the statistical problems. Easier than teaching them.

Yup.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/group-tied-to-charter-school-backers-spent-thousands-in-va-school-board-election/2018/11/24/2a11fbc0-e696-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html?utm_term=.9477656cf8dc
https://npeaction.org/tfa-billionaire-funded-pac-gives-thousands-alexandria-school-board-election/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So as residents of Alexandria, we just don’t have any power or voice to influence the future of the school?

We've lived here since 1987 pp, sans kids. When with kids, we sent them to ACPS and spoke up both at ACPS Board meetings and as participants in all schools attended. We've also written published letters, and sent our opinions to our Alexandria City Council. We spoke up in 2007 after the firing of the Super.

Yes it's true in our opinions. Valuing educational rigor greatly, all the decades of speaking up, volunterism, tax support has proven to us that in Alexandria City, nothing changes with ACPS.

Does it truly surprise you given our City average annual income, that concerned City taxpayers attempted for decades to urge academic rigor over anything else at ACPS, just to see what a joke it is asking same? Review the VDOE ACPS standing going back thirty years and tell us what's new. It's shameful what is and has happened in Alexandria City Public Schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So as residents of Alexandria, we just don’t have any power or voice to influence the future of the school?

We've lived here since 1987 pp, sans kids. When with kids, we sent them to ACPS and spoke up both at ACPS Board meetings and as participants in all schools attended. We've also written published letters, and sent our opinions to our Alexandria City Council. We spoke up in 2007 after the firing of the Super.

Yes it's true in our opinions. Valuing educational rigor greatly, all the decades of speaking up, volunterism, tax support has proven to us that in Alexandria City, nothing changes with ACPS.

Does it truly surprise you given our City average annual income, that concerned City taxpayers attempted for decades to urge academic rigor over anything else at ACPS, just to see what a joke it is asking same? Review the VDOE ACPS standing going back thirty years and tell us what's new. It's shameful what is and has happened in Alexandria City Public Schools.

Is your disappointment really with ACPS or your children's lack of achievement? In our case, DC couldn't have done better in terms of educational outcomes or college admissions at Sidwell or St. Albans. And they would not have given DC the breadth of friendships and cultural street smarts that ACPS provided. I think there are plenty of problems with ACPS, but it is almost exclusively with how they educate English learners and low-income students - basically most of the students of color. You just can't blame the schools for your kid's shortcomings.

[Anonymous]

Whoa, PP, you're way off base in attacking another poster's children. The poster made no claims about educational outcomes for his/her children.

I agree with the other poster that there are significant problems with ACPS. The problems start at the top with the School Board. Those fools can't find their butts with their hands superglued to their cheeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whoa, PP, you're way off base in attacking another poster's children. The poster made no claims about educational outcomes for his/her children.

I agree with the other poster that there are significant problems with ACPS. The problems start at the top with the School Board. Those fools can't find their butts with their hands superglued to their cheeks.

PP here. Exactly right, except for the District B vice chair and the new District A member, who between the two of them received close to $100,000 in "campaign contributions" from charter school business leaders, most of which apparently just slipped somebody's mind and never got reported in filings, for three straight years.

An openly corrupt school board, with a zero-authority hold-over superintendent hired by the last school board, planning a new stripped-down high school using contractors associated with their donors. Yep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoa, PP, you're way off base in attacking another poster's children. The poster made no claims about educational outcomes for his/her children.

I agree with the other poster that there are significant problems with ACPS. The problems start at the top with the School Board. Those fools can't find their butts with their hands superglued to their cheeks.

PP here. Exactly right, except for the District B vice chair and the new District A member, who between the two of them received close to $100,000 in "campaign contributions" from charter school business leaders, most of which apparently just slipped somebody's mind and never got reported in filings, for three straight years.

An openly corrupt school board, with a zero-authority hold-over superintendent hired by the last school board, planning a new stripped-down high school using contractors associated with their donors. Yep.

As an ACPS parent, this is news to me. And yes, I know I should be paying more attention.
Does anyone have a list of SB members and the $ they’ve taken from charter school interests?