APS Closing Nottingham

[Anonymous]

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

I didn’t sign this petition, wasn’t even in APS at the time, yet it’s my kid that’s going to have to school in an overcrowded Tuckahoe. I’m not a Buddhist and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but I’m don’t think that “karma” as a religious concept applies to me here.

Perhaps when APS staff is meeting with Buddhist religious leaders to decide what days we need to take off, they can ask them if they should make school planning decisions based on “karma”. Or what’s the other one? Ah yes, the sh*t sandwich.

[Anonymous]

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?

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.

THANK YOU. I feel seen. I don't wish this on them, but I don't mind it, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

I didn’t sign this petition, wasn’t even in APS at the time, yet it’s my kid that’s going to have to school in an overcrowded Tuckahoe. I’m not a Buddhist and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but I’m don’t think that “karma” as a religious concept applies to me here.

Perhaps when APS staff is meeting with Buddhist religious leaders to decide what days we need to take off, they can ask them if they should make school planning decisions based on “karma”. Or what’s the other one? Ah yes, the sh*t sandwich.

If I’m Tuckahoe, I’m very cautious about letting Nottingham work me up about a potential for mild overcrowding. It’s not clear what those numbers will be and 113 is NOT worrisome overcrowding. Buying into the Nottingham drama to block this is not your best move for a positive outcome for Tuckahoe. Work with APS staff instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I didn’t sign this petition, wasn’t even in APS at the time, yet it’s my kid that’s going to have to school in an overcrowded Tuckahoe. I’m not a Buddhist and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but I’m don’t think that “karma” as a religious concept applies to me here.

Perhaps when APS staff is meeting with Buddhist religious leaders to decide what days we need to take off, they can ask them if they should make school planning decisions based on “karma”. Or what’s the other one? Ah yes, the sh*t sandwich.

If I’m Tuckahoe, I’m very cautious about letting Nottingham work me up about a potential for mild overcrowding. It’s not clear what those numbers will be and 113 is NOT worrisome overcrowding. Buying into the Nottingham drama to block this is not your best move for a positive outcome for Tuckahoe. Work with APS staff instead.

I think pretty clearly you’re not Tuckahoe. And maybe have not experienced severe overcrowding. Tuckahoe has. Nottingham has. I would not endorse a plan that overcrowds my school by 113% on day one. What happens year two? Year three?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I didn’t sign this petition, wasn’t even in APS at the time, yet it’s my kid that’s going to have to school in an overcrowded Tuckahoe. I’m not a Buddhist and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but I’m don’t think that “karma” as a religious concept applies to me here.

Perhaps when APS staff is meeting with Buddhist religious leaders to decide what days we need to take off, they can ask them if they should make school planning decisions based on “karma”. Or what’s the other one? Ah yes, the sh*t sandwich.

If I’m Tuckahoe, I’m very cautious about letting Nottingham work me up about a potential for mild overcrowding. It’s not clear what those numbers will be and 113 is NOT worrisome overcrowding. Buying into the Nottingham drama to block this is not your best move for a positive outcome for Tuckahoe. Work with APS staff instead.

I think pretty clearly you’re not Tuckahoe. And maybe have not experienced severe overcrowding. Tuckahoe has. Nottingham has. I would not endorse a plan that overcrowds my school by 113% on day one. What happens year two? Year three?

Did you look at the enrollment projections?

[Anonymous]

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?

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.

Yes it is clearly a grudge and an irrational one at that. You realize that families cycle through elementary school right? PTA leaders change yearly. Also Nottingham admin and staff almost completely turned over. The people you’re mad at from 7 years ago are different from the people you’re mad at from 5 years ago and are different from the people there now who will be impacted by this. There isn’t some big Nottingham conspiracy against you.

[Anonymous]

[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I didn’t sign this petition, wasn’t even in APS at the time, yet it’s my kid that’s going to have to school in an overcrowded Tuckahoe. I’m not a Buddhist and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but I’m don’t think that “karma” as a religious concept applies to me here.

Perhaps when APS staff is meeting with Buddhist religious leaders to decide what days we need to take off, they can ask them if they should make school planning decisions based on “karma”. Or what’s the other one? Ah yes, the sh*t sandwich.

If I’m Tuckahoe, I’m very cautious about letting Nottingham work me up about a potential for mild overcrowding. It’s not clear what those numbers will be and 113 is NOT worrisome overcrowding. Buying into the Nottingham drama to block this is not your best move for a positive outcome for Tuckahoe. Work with APS staff instead.

I think pretty clearly you’re not Tuckahoe. And maybe have not experienced severe overcrowding. Tuckahoe has. Nottingham has. I would not endorse a plan that overcrowds my school by 113% on day one. What happens year two? Year three?

Meanwhile, SA schools are overcrowded year after year. Maybe it’s NA’s turn to take one for the team so some of these old buildings can be renovated.

[Anonymous]

You are all vile and collectively make a strong case that no one in their right mind would want to live in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are all vile and collectively make a strong case that no one in their right mind would want to live in Arlington.

At least not in 22207 or 22205.

[Anonymous]

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?

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.

Yes it is clearly a grudge and an irrational one at that. You realize that families cycle through elementary school right? PTA leaders change yearly. Also Nottingham admin and staff almost completely turned over. The people you’re mad at from 7 years ago are different from the people you’re mad at from 5 years ago and are different from the people there now who will be impacted by this. There isn’t some big Nottingham conspiracy against you.

+1, these posters feel wronged by a handful of now-high school and middle school moms and are set on taking it out on a bunch of kids who were infants or not yet born at the time. Totally logical.

[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?

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.

Yes it is clearly a grudge and an irrational one at that. You realize that families cycle through elementary school right? PTA leaders change yearly. Also Nottingham admin and staff almost completely turned over. The people you’re mad at from 7 years ago are different from the people you’re mad at from 5 years ago and are different from the people there now who will be impacted by this. There isn’t some big Nottingham conspiracy against you.

+1, these posters feel wronged by a handful of now-high school and middle school moms and are set on taking it out on a bunch of kids who were infants or not yet born at the time. Totally logical.

Don’t let facts get in the way of a good argument/grudge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I didn’t sign this petition, wasn’t even in APS at the time, yet it’s my kid that’s going to have to school in an overcrowded Tuckahoe. I’m not a Buddhist and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but I’m don’t think that “karma” as a religious concept applies to me here.

Perhaps when APS staff is meeting with Buddhist religious leaders to decide what days we need to take off, they can ask them if they should make school planning decisions based on “karma”. Or what’s the other one? Ah yes, the sh*t sandwich.

If I’m Tuckahoe, I’m very cautious about letting Nottingham work me up about a potential for mild overcrowding. It’s not clear what those numbers will be and 113 is NOT worrisome overcrowding. Buying into the Nottingham drama to block this is not your best move for a positive outcome for Tuckahoe. Work with APS staff instead.

I think pretty clearly you’re not Tuckahoe. And maybe have not experienced severe overcrowding. Tuckahoe has. Nottingham has. I would not endorse a plan that overcrowds my school by 113% on day one. What happens year two? Year three?

Meanwhile, SA schools are overcrowded year after year. Maybe it’s NA’s turn to take one for the team so some of these old buildings can be renovated.

SA doesn’t want to give up Zumba at the Fairlington community center, or their “green space” at MPSA, which are the most realistic possibilities for relieving their overcrowding. That’s fine, but those are choices they are making. There isn’t some huge cache of land open for sale in SA. The idea that everyone else needs to suffer equally is just ludicrous. Overcrowding is bad, full stop.

[Anonymous]

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?

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.

Yes it is clearly a grudge and an irrational one at that. You realize that families cycle through elementary school right? PTA leaders change yearly. Also Nottingham admin and staff almost completely turned over. The people you’re mad at from 7 years ago are different from the people you’re mad at from 5 years ago and are different from the people there now who will be impacted by this. There isn’t some big Nottingham conspiracy against you.

You realize none of that matters, right? The reputation of a group of people precedes any future people rotating in and replacing the previous crowd. And when the new people continue in the same vein as their predecessors, it does nothing to change that reputation.

I, for one, don't give a rat's a** whether you're all new people or not. You still manipulate others' comments to fit the attack and insinuation you want to make and bend things in an effort to support your narrative and what you want to happen.

BTW, all PTA leaders don't change on a yearly basis. Many PTAs have two-year terms and some serve consecutive terms, etc. And as someone else pointed out, people linger in elementary school for several years as their multiple children pass through. I remember a parent noting at a PTA meeting once that it was her TWELFTH year as a parent at that elementary school. So, no, I don't necessarily know that you're all a completely new set of parents. More importantly, I don't care. If you continue the patterns of the past, you're all the same to the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I didn’t sign this petition, wasn’t even in APS at the time, yet it’s my kid that’s going to have to school in an overcrowded Tuckahoe. I’m not a Buddhist and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but I’m don’t think that “karma” as a religious concept applies to me here.

Perhaps when APS staff is meeting with Buddhist religious leaders to decide what days we need to take off, they can ask them if they should make school planning decisions based on “karma”. Or what’s the other one? Ah yes, the sh*t sandwich.

If I’m Tuckahoe, I’m very cautious about letting Nottingham work me up about a potential for mild overcrowding. It’s not clear what those numbers will be and 113 is NOT worrisome overcrowding. Buying into the Nottingham drama to block this is not your best move for a positive outcome for Tuckahoe. Work with APS staff instead.

I think pretty clearly you’re not Tuckahoe. And maybe have not experienced severe overcrowding. Tuckahoe has. Nottingham has. I would not endorse a plan that overcrowds my school by 113% on day one. What happens year two? Year three?

Meanwhile, SA schools are overcrowded year after year. Maybe it’s NA’s turn to take one for the team so some of these old buildings can be renovated.

SA doesn’t want to give up Zumba at the Fairlington community center, or their “green space” at MPSA, which are the most realistic possibilities for relieving their overcrowding. That’s fine, but those are choices they are making. There isn’t some huge cache of land open for sale in SA. The idea that everyone else needs to suffer equally is just ludicrous. Overcrowding is bad, full stop.

Oh, I see. And NA was begging the County to turn over its community centers when they were so overcrowded. yeah, I remember that. And you're all begging to hand over your green spaces to missing middle housing, too, right? You do realize y'all have more green space than us greedy entitled southerners?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I didn’t sign this petition, wasn’t even in APS at the time, yet it’s my kid that’s going to have to school in an overcrowded Tuckahoe. I’m not a Buddhist and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but I’m don’t think that “karma” as a religious concept applies to me here.

Perhaps when APS staff is meeting with Buddhist religious leaders to decide what days we need to take off, they can ask them if they should make school planning decisions based on “karma”. Or what’s the other one? Ah yes, the sh*t sandwich.

If I’m Tuckahoe, I’m very cautious about letting Nottingham work me up about a potential for mild overcrowding. It’s not clear what those numbers will be and 113 is NOT worrisome overcrowding. Buying into the Nottingham drama to block this is not your best move for a positive outcome for Tuckahoe. Work with APS staff instead.

I think pretty clearly you’re not Tuckahoe. And maybe have not experienced severe overcrowding. Tuckahoe has. Nottingham has. I would not endorse a plan that overcrowds my school by 113% on day one. What happens year two? Year three?

Meanwhile, SA schools are overcrowded year after year. Maybe it’s NA’s turn to take one for the team so some of these old buildings can be renovated.

SA doesn’t want to give up Zumba at the Fairlington community center, or their “green space” at MPSA, which are the most realistic possibilities for relieving their overcrowding. That’s fine, but those are choices they are making. There isn’t some huge cache of land open for sale in SA. The idea that everyone else needs to suffer equally is just ludicrous. Overcrowding is bad, full stop.

Oh, I see. And NA was begging the County to turn over its community centers when they were so overcrowded. yeah, I remember that. And you're all begging to hand over your green spaces to missing middle housing, too, right? You do realize y'all have more green space than us greedy entitled southerners?

A lot of NA supported turning Madison back into an elementary school.

It’s a crummy facility woefully underused.