This makes sense but they couldn’t figure this out before. That is just rampant incompetence. And I’m not a fan of slamming APS staff. |
Now a whole new set of people get to wonder if their child is going to start 6th grade at one school and get moved to another and be in the dark about this for an entire year! Thanks APS! |
let’s not forget doing this at probably the most tumultuous social age possible. |
ha ha. I know. I mean I am kind of happy because my kid was going to have to switch in 8th and now he will be spared! My younger one will hopefully just start at a new school |
This statement can’t say this out loud but this also allows them to move elementary boundaries around at the same time if Nottingham closes. So this would seem to indicate they are full speed ahead on that. |
They are implementing full option for all schools, like San Francisco. |
Meanwhile Gunston will sit overcrowded for 2 more years and Williamsburg will be way under used for 3 more years (counting this year). Entire cohorts of kids moving through and they're doing nothing. |
Who knows? With WMS becoming an award winning school, maybe there will be more self-transfers. Its not like their projections are ever any good -- things could change. Didn't they reduce the incoming class of Immersion because McK is smaller -- so eventually the incoming immersion middle school cohort will be smaller too, maybe they are counting on that? |
That was always the plan if Nottingham closes - redistrict elementary schools for 2026. |
I know Gunston is overcrowded but I am somewhat impressed by how small my kid's class sizes are there. He has barely any classes with over 20 kids. It is interesting because someone mentioned in another post how WMS classes are 30plus kids. Also interesting because a friend at WMS says her kid does all work on the ipad and my Gunston kid does none lol (not that this has anything to do with overcrowding just though it was interesting). ANYWAY, i know that overcrowding is an issue and other resources are stressed and the hallways are chaotic. I also think PE is kind of crazy because multiple classes go at once but just found the class size comparison interesting. |
I’m glad they will do this in conjunction with high school alignment changes. It made no sense to do one without considering the other at the same time. |
Does anyone know what it will likely mean for 8th graders in 2026, the year the boundary change takes effect. Are they likely to be grandfathered? Will they be grandfathered in MS if their HS feeder is changing too? |
I think it really depends on where each school is at with capacity.
When they opened Hamm, they did not grandfather the 8th graders (I don't believe) and a bunch of them moved. But it was a huge chunk of them and Swanson was bursting and they needed to open a brand new school. But I was at McKinley way back when they added a bunch of kids with the expansion and they did allow K students to start at McKinley if they knew they were being rezoned there, if that makes any sense. So the analogy for this situation would be rising 6th graders who know they will be moved to Williamsburg in 7th will likely be given the option to go to Williamsburg in 6th. |
I do hope that doing this all at once allows them to work on keeping cohorts together. Sending one or two Planning Units off to a school by themselves has been a consistent problem with APS boundary adjustments recently.
I also don't see a single option for moving Immersion that doesn't move more kids north and exacerbate economic and diversity issues among the Middle Schools. Add in traffic & walker safety issues at Kenmore and its a huge mess. |
Oh please. So, never change boundaries because the rising 6th graders are at their most tumultuous social age possible? |