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VA Public Schools other than FCPS
APS Closing Nottingham
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Anonymous
Why should I care when you obviously don’t? Just curious. |
Anonymous
Not really. Some passionate defenses of why a temporary relocation to the NW corner is worth it because the affected communities getting a brand new school, refusal to acknowledge viable alternatives, and a particularly patronizing refusal to engage in questions about their god-awful projection methodology driving the decisions. And a lot of technical issues. Oh- also that they’ve had this whole plan cooked up since April but wanted to wait until the dead of summer to drop it. That’s pretty much it. |
Anonymous
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And yet, somehow, McKinley has this huge chip on their shoulder about how horrible everyone at Nottingham is. Give it a rest. It's the whole '05 vs. '07 thing from the McKinley folks...they feel inadequate and someone has to pay. |
Anonymous
Ok if you don't like our principal then what does that have to do with your attacks on the parents at Nottingham? It's not like we like her either. And sure some people went private but they aren't the ones impacted by this. We are. |
Anonymous
Brand new school? as in knock down and rebuild on the same site? Did they give any more info about the affected communities? |
Anonymous
It's the whole '05 vs. '07 thing from the McKinley folks...they feel inadequate and someone has to pay. I don't understand what their problem is. They got what they wanted. The Board caved to their demand for a neighborhood school at Westover. Most of the McKinley school community got to move there together into a really nice brand new building. And ATS got their old building. |
Anonymous
So basically the neighborhoods proposed successfully fought it with the SB in the last boundary change, with the SB talking about some vague notion of adding more Pre-K classes there instead. That never materialized because there isn’t funding, VPI actually had a hard time even filling at their current locations because of Covid, and just relocating the classes from other schools costs money in transportation and the majority of VPI families aren’t in favor of that anyway. Now they’re doing all the ES boundaries I am certain they are going to have to better utilize Drew, because the surrounding schools are overcrowded, with more housing that brings kids is on the horizon, and they can’t possibly justify it any longer. I think this buys SA a couple years before they need an additional school, but it will be needed eventually. You can’t keep building CAFs and not build additional schools. CAFs generate more children than any other housing type, and the number of children never decreases because of churn. It’s not like owner-occupied housing on 20-30 year cycle. It’s more like 2-3 years. There will always be kids who need school seats. |
Anonymous
I don't understand what their problem is. They got what they wanted. The Board caved to their demand for a neighborhood school at Westover. Most of the McKinley school community got to move there together into a really nice brand new building. And ATS got their old building. 100% |
Anonymous
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Oakridge and Abingdon and both way more overcrowded than any "move them to Drew" fix would allow. Drew is hemmed in by 395 and Randolph (whose boundaries can't be moved because of walk zone/bussing issues). It's more complicated than just "move these people here". Also, please don't forget that the entire county owes Green Valley a debt for the way the neighborhood has been treated historically. So take a few deeps breaths before your go on and on about how "unfair" this is to a community of people that have enormous resources. It is rare the richest, whitest community members are actually treated unfairly in any sort of broader historical context.
Nottingham is surrounded by schools WITH capacity to take the students easily, right? Closing Nottingham does not push any other school over capacity nearby, right? |
Anonymous
Jamestown had a K enrollment of 55. Long Branch had 59. Randolph of 57. Barely more than Nottingham so why are you picking on "just two classes" as a reason Nottingham should be closed? (all of the others had nice cushy K class sizes of 18-19 kids while the Nottingham kids were 25 a class). Barrett had 69 first graders across four classes while Nottingham had 65 across three. That's only a four person difference with a much better classroom experience for the Barrett kids. |
Anonymous
Oh my goodness, take a breath on the woke social Justice warrior crap. It is true that history does not reflect well on what the Arlington County of the past did to the people of Green Valley. Yes, it happened. It was awful, never to be repeated. It is also true that the neighborhood is gentrifying at a rapid pace, with many of the original owners realizing a significant return on their investment. It is also true that there is no valid operational reason for having an under enrolled school in that part of the county. We can’t afford to make schools monuments when we have overstuffed and suboptimal conditions elsewhere. That is what is harming minorities (indeed all kids) today. As for capacity needs, well all of that is reliant on APS projections. They are consistently wrong in that regard, because their methodology is based on assumptions of how Arlington worked 20-30 years ago before the average SFH cost over $m. They were something like 10% wrong this year alone. 10% year over year wrong results in the NW schools being tremendously overcrowded very quickly, just like they were before. |
Anonymous
Nope, we know nothing about what renovations they are planning and where, other than that the affected communities are going to get beautiful spaces. Good for them, I guess. We get overcrowding with large class sizes, they get award winning spaces. |
Anonymous
It does - Tuckahoe goes overcapacity to 113 percent as it takes in Nottingham students. |
Anonymous
I don’t know, but closing the neighborhood school, having 25+ kids crammed into each Kindergarten class helmed by a long-term sub instead of a properly licensed and hired teacher, and having more 3-4 day weeks than full 5 day weeks with no option for aftercare isn’t going to do it. APS is pretty much begging every family that has the ability to take their kids and bail out. Wealthy people don’t need vouchers, but every “lower UMC” family is going to feel a real pinch from private school tuition. Every single one of those families now becomes susceptible to a Youngkin voucher push. Democrats in other places have supported vouchers when they felt the schools were no longer serving them well - we are not immune to that here. |
Anonymous
You're probably clamoring to sell your NA house to move to Green Valley, right? |