APS Closing Nottingham

[Anonymous]

So, Nottingham parents absolutely tried to get Don Beyer involved when they were targeted for an option school back in 2018ish. There are threads on here about it. Everyone was talking about how out of proportion their reaction was. Like they literally were trying to make a federal case out of moving school programs. And yes, Nottingham, you lose credibility when you cry wolf and petition your congressman about a local school issue. And you consistently blame APS staff and other school communities. It IS karma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, Nottingham parents absolutely tried to get Don Beyer involved when they were targeted for an option school back in 2018ish. There are threads on here about it. Everyone was talking about how out of proportion their reaction was. Like they literally were trying to make a federal case out of moving school programs. And yes, Nottingham, you lose credibility when you cry wolf and petition your congressman about a local school issue. And you consistently blame APS staff and other school communities. It IS karma.

No, Karma's a relaxing thought. Aren't you envious that for you it's not?

[Anonymous]

I see how it benefits your argument to create the strawman that parents dislike you because you fought against overcrowding, but these parents are saying something different that you’re simply choosing not to deal with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The other thing missing from the memories is that the move of the T kids to McK was done when the addition was scheduled to be complete but wasn't so for 1.5 years, McK was at 125 or 150 or something crazy percent over b/c of that. It really sucked.

I'm sure that sucked, but again you are misdirecting your anger at Nottingham parents because APS didn't finish construction at McKinley on time for whatever reason.

And yes, I do know exactly what it feels like to be that over capacity because that's where Nottingham used to be. The whole crux of your argument is that it's perfectly ok for another school to be overcrowded, but it's not ok when it's your own kids' school. Not going to get a lot of sympathy on that one.

I think what's missing here is McK didn't advocate for Nottingham to be overcrowded. There were options that didn't oversubscribe either school. I don't think the McK parent was doing what you think she was doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, Nottingham parents absolutely tried to get Don Beyer involved when they were targeted for an option school back in 2018ish. There are threads on here about it. Everyone was talking about how out of proportion their reaction was. Like they literally were trying to make a federal case out of moving school programs. And yes, Nottingham, you lose credibility when you cry wolf and petition your congressman about a local school issue. And you consistently blame APS staff and other school communities. It IS karma.

I'm having trouble believing this. Sounds like something you made up. If you can prove it, do it. If not, then I'm not going to believe you.

There have been so many other lies on here about Nottingham that I know to be untrue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a useful thread from back in the day: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/593495.page

Nottingham protested getting extra planning units and was then the most under-capacity school in the entire county in Fall of 2016, while McKinley was over capacity by about 50 kids (based on what the renovated school could contain, even though it was still undergoing renovations and dealing with trailers).

Also this one: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/547393.page

I used to be a McKinley parent and I posted this comment in that second thread:

I'm a current McKinley parent and I guess I don't really think this is a big deal, and that the parents are having a harder time with it than the kids will.

My child LOVED having gym in the trailer, and all the echoey sounds you could make with your voice in there.

The school dealt with space issues this year by making some specials classes "roaming" classes, so for example the kids might have Spanish or Art or Music in their own classrooms instead of going to a room dedicated to that subject. It would not be an ideal long term plan, but for a year or two I don't see any negative effects on my child or his education.

My kid has never had class all year in a trailer, but my understanding is that the kids actually quite like the trailers. It seems to build class unity and make you feel like you are your own special community, plus you can do whatever you want to the walls. Again, I wouldn't want trailers as the long term plan (which is why they are doing this renovation/addition to the school in the first place), but as a temporary thing, it's fine.

I appreciate that in general McKinley is not full of spoiled people who are constantly asking for special treatment and privileges and not taking "more than our share." When something is important -- like when Tuckahoe wanted to move two of its planning groups over so they could keep their neighborhood together even though that would have put McKinley at 110% capacity AFTER THE NEW ADDITION WAS ADDED -- we will talk reasonably to APS and get them to change their mind. In this case we are talking about a three month delay of the main new construction, so three months of a trailer fleet. I just don't think that's a big deal. And if a new child was coming to the school over from Glebe or Tuckahoe, they might find the whole thing fun and again, sort of community building. "Look we're all getting through this together." If they waited to come until the following year, they would have missed out on that.

I don't think the parking is that big of a deal because there is quite a lot of street parking.

I just think all this complaining is very much a spoiled North Arlington mindset -- "MY CHILD SHALL NOT BE INCONVENIENCED BY TRAILERS" -- when you are coming from schools that already have fleets of trailers in their fields. Maybe you just don't want to leave your home schools, and that's fair. I wouldn't want to either, probably. But we're all in this together, and we can get through it as a community.

The new school is going to be really, really beautiful.

I also defended Nottingham in that thread.

Ha ha, joke’s on me. I have since lost all positive vibes towards Nottingham parents. It seems to be an area that looks out only for its own rather than caring for the community at large, and I am tired of it. So much of this they have absolutely done to themselves, even though they blame literally everyone BUT themselves. They refused to take more kids. They got upset over Covid and fled to private. They passed the buck about being turned into an option school — that shoe just didn’t fit their dainty little foot either. And every time APS asked them to eat poop for the community, not only did they not eat the poop, they found another community to target to eat the poop and lobbied hard to give the steaming poop to that community instead, it was just such a much better fit for them.

So Nottingham, welcome to your swing space shit sandwich. Nobody else is going to eat it for you. Bon appetit.

You sound a little delusional and maybe jealous? I don’t know. Wouldn’t say this in public though.

Right. It sounds like this McKinley parent is jealous that the Nottingham parents did a better job advocating than they did. And the Nottingham PTA was proactive in addressing the needs of its school community while the McK PTA sat on its hands.

Pretty sure I’m not jealous. I don’t like the way you guys operate, why would I want to turn into that?

You can’t turn against your neighbors year after year and then be mad when they no longer support you in your hour of need. I was with Nottingham back during the boundary changes, I thought McKinley should just take the extra kids because Nottingham had been overcrowded for a while. Then they fingered McKinley for an option school. Then they joined APE in droves to complain about teachers during Covid and fled to private. You all did this to yourselves. The irony to me is that if you had accepted becoming an option school, you would be sitting pretty like Woodlawn (is that the residential area near McK?) now, with a great neighborhood school nearby and a fantastic option school that everyone loves in your backyard. But no, you resisted even the slightest inconvenience for yourselves to help APS and now you get to be Swing Space Elementary.

You may get out of this one too — that’s what Karens often do — but the community will just hate you more, so have at it. Sooner or later you will have to eat the shit sandwich, and imho it’s just going to keep getting bigger as your karma decreases until you begin to behave like decent human beings who care about anything but their own situation.

Wow. I didn’t know there were brushes that can make broad strokes that big. Feel better now, honey? You’re talking awfully lot about sandwiches - are you hungry?

So, if I follow your logic (and honestly I don’t know why I’m even engaging), the gist of your argument is at some point 7 or maybe 10 years ago, Nottingham didn’t want to be overcrowded so advocated to avoid that which somehow upset you so much that you continue to hold a grudge about it 7 or 10 years later? And now, you take great joy in that school closing because you feel the moms there are mean?

No not really actually. That’s okay though, you can be mad.

I think you should try this argument with the school board. “The Nottingham moms, who aren’t even there anymore, were mean to me 7, or maybe 10, years ago so you should close their school.”

Oh yes, please and then tell the board exactly how those awful PTA moms were mean to you. As best I can tell they asked the board not to overcrowd them again. Those meanies! The nerve!

And then let us know when you're going to speak so we all can watch.

No wonder they are closing down Nottingham. So vile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The other thing missing from the memories is that the move of the T kids to McK was done when the addition was scheduled to be complete but wasn't so for 1.5 years, McK was at 125 or 150 or something crazy percent over b/c of that. It really sucked.

I'm sure that sucked, but again you are misdirecting your anger at Nottingham parents because APS didn't finish construction at McKinley on time for whatever reason.

And yes, I do know exactly what it feels like to be that over capacity because that's where Nottingham used to be. The whole crux of your argument is that it's perfectly ok for another school to be overcrowded, but it's not ok when it's your own kids' school. Not going to get a lot of sympathy on that one.

I think what's missing here is McK didn't advocate for Nottingham to be overcrowded. There were options that didn't oversubscribe either school. I don't think the McK parent was doing what you think she was doing.

Of course they were. They wanted that extra PU to go to Nottingham instead of them, which would have overcrowded Nottingham. And they are still complaining SEVEN years later that APS didn't listen to them.

There were NO other options in that boundary process. APS was going to send that PUs to Nottingham or McKinley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a useful thread from back in the day: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/593495.page

Nottingham protested getting extra planning units and was then the most under-capacity school in the entire county in Fall of 2016, while McKinley was over capacity by about 50 kids (based on what the renovated school could contain, even though it was still undergoing renovations and dealing with trailers).

Also this one: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/547393.page

I used to be a McKinley parent and I posted this comment in that second thread:

I'm a current McKinley parent and I guess I don't really think this is a big deal, and that the parents are having a harder time with it than the kids will.

My child LOVED having gym in the trailer, and all the echoey sounds you could make with your voice in there.

The school dealt with space issues this year by making some specials classes "roaming" classes, so for example the kids might have Spanish or Art or Music in their own classrooms instead of going to a room dedicated to that subject. It would not be an ideal long term plan, but for a year or two I don't see any negative effects on my child or his education.

My kid has never had class all year in a trailer, but my understanding is that the kids actually quite like the trailers. It seems to build class unity and make you feel like you are your own special community, plus you can do whatever you want to the walls. Again, I wouldn't want trailers as the long term plan (which is why they are doing this renovation/addition to the school in the first place), but as a temporary thing, it's fine.

I appreciate that in general McKinley is not full of spoiled people who are constantly asking for special treatment and privileges and not taking "more than our share." When something is important -- like when Tuckahoe wanted to move two of its planning groups over so they could keep their neighborhood together even though that would have put McKinley at 110% capacity AFTER THE NEW ADDITION WAS ADDED -- we will talk reasonably to APS and get them to change their mind. In this case we are talking about a three month delay of the main new construction, so three months of a trailer fleet. I just don't think that's a big deal. And if a new child was coming to the school over from Glebe or Tuckahoe, they might find the whole thing fun and again, sort of community building. "Look we're all getting through this together." If they waited to come until the following year, they would have missed out on that.

I don't think the parking is that big of a deal because there is quite a lot of street parking.

I just think all this complaining is very much a spoiled North Arlington mindset -- "MY CHILD SHALL NOT BE INCONVENIENCED BY TRAILERS" -- when you are coming from schools that already have fleets of trailers in their fields. Maybe you just don't want to leave your home schools, and that's fair. I wouldn't want to either, probably. But we're all in this together, and we can get through it as a community.

The new school is going to be really, really beautiful.

I also defended Nottingham in that thread.

Ha ha, joke’s on me. I have since lost all positive vibes towards Nottingham parents. It seems to be an area that looks out only for its own rather than caring for the community at large, and I am tired of it. So much of this they have absolutely done to themselves, even though they blame literally everyone BUT themselves. They refused to take more kids. They got upset over Covid and fled to private. They passed the buck about being turned into an option school — that shoe just didn’t fit their dainty little foot either. And every time APS asked them to eat poop for the community, not only did they not eat the poop, they found another community to target to eat the poop and lobbied hard to give the steaming poop to that community instead, it was just such a much better fit for them.

So Nottingham, welcome to your swing space shit sandwich. Nobody else is going to eat it for you. Bon appetit.

You sound a little delusional and maybe jealous? I don’t know. Wouldn’t say this in public though.

Right. It sounds like this McKinley parent is jealous that the Nottingham parents did a better job advocating than they did. And the Nottingham PTA was proactive in addressing the needs of its school community while the McK PTA sat on its hands.

Pretty sure I’m not jealous. I don’t like the way you guys operate, why would I want to turn into that?

You can’t turn against your neighbors year after year and then be mad when they no longer support you in your hour of need. I was with Nottingham back during the boundary changes, I thought McKinley should just take the extra kids because Nottingham had been overcrowded for a while. Then they fingered McKinley for an option school. Then they joined APE in droves to complain about teachers during Covid and fled to private. You all did this to yourselves. The irony to me is that if you had accepted becoming an option school, you would be sitting pretty like Woodlawn (is that the residential area near McK?) now, with a great neighborhood school nearby and a fantastic option school that everyone loves in your backyard. But no, you resisted even the slightest inconvenience for yourselves to help APS and now you get to be Swing Space Elementary.

You may get out of this one too — that’s what Karens often do — but the community will just hate you more, so have at it. Sooner or later you will have to eat the shit sandwich, and imho it’s just going to keep getting bigger as your karma decreases until you begin to behave like decent human beings who care about anything but their own situation.

Careful not to shoot yourself in your own foot. While you gloat about Nottingham's fate, did it ever occur to you that taking away an entire elementary school in your part of the county might be bad for you too? or are you so blinded by your hatred of notties that you just don't care?

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you’re saying I should fight for Nottingham’s rights because it could hurt the larger community, so it’s pretty clear you haven’t understood a word I’ve said.

[Anonymous]

2018 post mentions the petition. I’m sure there are other since this post references them:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/legacy/posts/list/540/727419.page#13288833

15:41, expand all

[Anonymous]

Petition was real and easily searchable. Just look up the school and his name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you’re saying I should fight for Nottingham’s rights because it could hurt the larger community, so it’s pretty clear you haven’t understood a word I’ve said.

No I'm saying this plan may also not be good for any of the schools in the NW part of the county surrounding Nottingham because they are the ones who are going to have to take Nottingham kids. You didn't want those Tuckahoe kids seven years ago. You have complained for the past seven years how they overcrowded McKinley. So now you're perfectly ok with your kids' school - do they go to Cardinal now? - taking kids from Nottingham?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a useful thread from back in the day: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/593495.page

Nottingham protested getting extra planning units and was then the most under-capacity school in the entire county in Fall of 2016, while McKinley was over capacity by about 50 kids (based on what the renovated school could contain, even though it was still undergoing renovations and dealing with trailers).

Also this one: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/547393.page

I used to be a McKinley parent and I posted this comment in that second thread:

I'm a current McKinley parent and I guess I don't really think this is a big deal, and that the parents are having a harder time with it than the kids will.

My child LOVED having gym in the trailer, and all the echoey sounds you could make with your voice in there.

The school dealt with space issues this year by making some specials classes "roaming" classes, so for example the kids might have Spanish or Art or Music in their own classrooms instead of going to a room dedicated to that subject. It would not be an ideal long term plan, but for a year or two I don't see any negative effects on my child or his education.

My kid has never had class all year in a trailer, but my understanding is that the kids actually quite like the trailers. It seems to build class unity and make you feel like you are your own special community, plus you can do whatever you want to the walls. Again, I wouldn't want trailers as the long term plan (which is why they are doing this renovation/addition to the school in the first place), but as a temporary thing, it's fine.

I appreciate that in general McKinley is not full of spoiled people who are constantly asking for special treatment and privileges and not taking "more than our share." When something is important -- like when Tuckahoe wanted to move two of its planning groups over so they could keep their neighborhood together even though that would have put McKinley at 110% capacity AFTER THE NEW ADDITION WAS ADDED -- we will talk reasonably to APS and get them to change their mind. In this case we are talking about a three month delay of the main new construction, so three months of a trailer fleet. I just don't think that's a big deal. And if a new child was coming to the school over from Glebe or Tuckahoe, they might find the whole thing fun and again, sort of community building. "Look we're all getting through this together." If they waited to come until the following year, they would have missed out on that.

I don't think the parking is that big of a deal because there is quite a lot of street parking.

I just think all this complaining is very much a spoiled North Arlington mindset -- "MY CHILD SHALL NOT BE INCONVENIENCED BY TRAILERS" -- when you are coming from schools that already have fleets of trailers in their fields. Maybe you just don't want to leave your home schools, and that's fair. I wouldn't want to either, probably. But we're all in this together, and we can get through it as a community.

The new school is going to be really, really beautiful.

I also defended Nottingham in that thread.

Ha ha, joke’s on me. I have since lost all positive vibes towards Nottingham parents. It seems to be an area that looks out only for its own rather than caring for the community at large, and I am tired of it. So much of this they have absolutely done to themselves, even though they blame literally everyone BUT themselves. They refused to take more kids. They got upset over Covid and fled to private. They passed the buck about being turned into an option school — that shoe just didn’t fit their dainty little foot either. And every time APS asked them to eat poop for the community, not only did they not eat the poop, they found another community to target to eat the poop and lobbied hard to give the steaming poop to that community instead, it was just such a much better fit for them.

So Nottingham, welcome to your swing space shit sandwich. Nobody else is going to eat it for you. Bon appetit.

You sound a little delusional and maybe jealous? I don’t know. Wouldn’t say this in public though.

Right. It sounds like this McKinley parent is jealous that the Nottingham parents did a better job advocating than they did. And the Nottingham PTA was proactive in addressing the needs of its school community while the McK PTA sat on its hands.

Pretty sure I’m not jealous. I don’t like the way you guys operate, why would I want to turn into that?

You can’t turn against your neighbors year after year and then be mad when they no longer support you in your hour of need. I was with Nottingham back during the boundary changes, I thought McKinley should just take the extra kids because Nottingham had been overcrowded for a while. Then they fingered McKinley for an option school. Then they joined APE in droves to complain about teachers during Covid and fled to private. You all did this to yourselves. The irony to me is that if you had accepted becoming an option school, you would be sitting pretty like Woodlawn (is that the residential area near McK?) now, with a great neighborhood school nearby and a fantastic option school that everyone loves in your backyard. But no, you resisted even the slightest inconvenience for yourselves to help APS and now you get to be Swing Space Elementary.

You may get out of this one too — that’s what Karens often do — but the community will just hate you more, so have at it. Sooner or later you will have to eat the shit sandwich, and imho it’s just going to keep getting bigger as your karma decreases until you begin to behave like decent human beings who care about anything but their own situation.

Wow. I didn’t know there were brushes that can make broad strokes that big. Feel better now, honey? You’re talking awfully lot about sandwiches - are you hungry?

So, if I follow your logic (and honestly I don’t know why I’m even engaging), the gist of your argument is at some point 7 or maybe 10 years ago, Nottingham didn’t want to be overcrowded so advocated to avoid that which somehow upset you so much that you continue to hold a grudge about it 7 or 10 years later? And now, you take great joy in that school closing because you feel the moms there are mean?

I'm not the PP you're condescending to; but no, I don't believe you've gotten the gist of her argument. You have fallen prey to the typical Nottingham tendency to stop listening or following when it serves you. In this case, you stopped at what you inaccurately label a "grudge" for the boundary changes of 7 or 10 years ago. If you bothered to follow the poster's logic all the way through, it should be quite clear - as it is to me, someone not involved or with any care about any of your NE history - that the PP's "upset" developed after a sequence of Nottingham actions and attitudes since that boundary change 7 or 10 years ago. And I don't think they are taking "great joy" in NES being used for swing space. I think they just don't care about your inconvenience or dismay about NES being used for swing space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The other thing missing from the memories is that the move of the T kids to McK was done when the addition was scheduled to be complete but wasn't so for 1.5 years, McK was at 125 or 150 or something crazy percent over b/c of that. It really sucked.

I'm sure that sucked, but again you are misdirecting your anger at Nottingham parents because APS didn't finish construction at McKinley on time for whatever reason.

And yes, I do know exactly what it feels like to be that over capacity because that's where Nottingham used to be. The whole crux of your argument is that it's perfectly ok for another school to be overcrowded, but it's not ok when it's your own kids' school. Not going to get a lot of sympathy on that one.

I think what's missing here is McK didn't advocate for Nottingham to be overcrowded. There were options that didn't oversubscribe either school. I don't think the McK parent was doing what you think she was doing.

Of course they were. They wanted that extra PU to go to Nottingham instead of them, which would have overcrowded Nottingham. And they are still complaining SEVEN years later that APS didn't listen to them.

There were NO other options in that boundary process. APS was going to send that PUs to Nottingham or McKinley.

It is rather selfish and dastardly for an overcrowded school to want ONE planning unit go to another school when that school would become slightly overcrowded and their own school would STILL be significantly overcrowded. Yes, indeed. I see your point now.

[Anonymous]

Nottingham Petition addressed to Don Beyer. 2018. As advertised. Change.org. Still makes me giggle. Love you, Notties.