HB Woodlawn HS questions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And here’s one of the ranters right on cue!

Spouting uninformed nonsense as usual!

What in my post was incorrect? I had facts and numbers and you throw insults.

I'm done trying to provide you with accurate info. Stay ignorant.

Uh new poster and the persons statements are accurate. Say what is incorrrct.

Nope, I'm done engaging with know it all conspiracy theorists who don't need info about a school their kids don't attend.

Ah, so you probably know even more siblings, and you keep claiming you are done engaging rather than actual facts.

I do! Tons. Not limited to siblings either. Everyone who gets in to Woodlawn makes huge campaign contributions to all Arlington county school board members. We weren’t sure that was enough though because that’s what everyone does. So we loaned out our vacation home to some top officials and flew them there on our private jet too. Plus I had my congressman put in a good word. I got my 4 kids in that way. Congratulations on figuring it out. You cracked the code.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And here’s one of the ranters right on cue!

Spouting uninformed nonsense as usual!

What in my post was incorrect? I had facts and numbers and you throw insults.

I'm done trying to provide you with accurate info. Stay ignorant.

Uh new poster and the persons statements are accurate. Say what is incorrrct.

Nope, I'm done engaging with know it all conspiracy theorists who don't need info about a school their kids don't attend.

Ah, so you probably know even more siblings, and you keep claiming you are done engaging rather than actual facts.

I do! Tons. Not limited to siblings either. Everyone who gets in to Woodlawn makes huge campaign contributions to all Arlington county school board members. We weren’t sure that was enough though because that’s what everyone does. So we loaned out our vacation home to some top officials and flew them there on our private jet too. Plus I had my congressman put in a good word. I got my 4 kids in that way. Congratulations on figuring it out. You cracked the code.

So you continue spouting nonsense rather than have a discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

See, here's the thing. HB families were forced to move to where they are now so their old building could be converted to Hamm. It was the last thing the community wanted to do. They were perfectly fine in their crappy old building. So it's really not fair to pin this on them.

Stratford is the LARGEST plot of land with a middle school on it. Of course they were happy to stay there; they were given the option of staying if they were willing to expand the school to help middle school overcrowding but they said that the small size was a core necessity of their program.

Lots of students in Arlington have crappy old buildings; most middle school students, tech until last year, probably half of the elementary schools are much much worse.

This is not true. I had kids there at the time. The community fought tooth and nail not to move. In fact, the HB community back then quite deliberately never complained about their aging facility because they didn't want to rock the boat.

I'm not sure what you expected the county to do. Force the school to move and then build it something shitty to move to?

The "Stay and Expand" Option
In the early planning stages (circa early 2014), the initial proposal was actually for HBW to stay at the Stratford site and potentially grow by a small amount, while a new neighborhood middle school would be built at the Wilson School site in Rosslyn. This was known among community members as "Option M-5." 
However, several factors led the School Board to shift away from this:
• The Enrollment Crisis: APS needed to create 1,300 new middle school seats quickly. The Stratford site was one of the largest properties available.
• The "Smallness" of HBW: H-B Woodlawn is a choice program that prides itself on a small, intimate community (at the time, roughly 650–700 students). To justify keeping HBW on such a large site during a seat shortage, the program would have had to expand significantly (to 1,000+ or even 1,300 seats).
• Program Culture: The HBW community and staff were vocal that doubling the size of the program to meet the county's capacity needs would fundamentally "break" the school's culture and philosophy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

See, here's the thing. HB families were forced to move to where they are now so their old building could be converted to Hamm. It was the last thing the community wanted to do. They were perfectly fine in their crappy old building. So it's really not fair to pin this on them.

Stratford is the LARGEST plot of land with a middle school on it. Of course they were happy to stay there; they were given the option of staying if they were willing to expand the school to help middle school overcrowding but they said that the small size was a core necessity of their program.

Lots of students in Arlington have crappy old buildings; most middle school students, tech until last year, probably half of the elementary schools are much much worse.

This is not true. I had kids there at the time. The community fought tooth and nail not to move. In fact, the HB community back then quite deliberately never complained about their aging facility because they didn't want to rock the boat.

I'm not sure what you expected the county to do. Force the school to move and then build it something shitty to move to?

The "Stay and Expand" Option
In the early planning stages (circa early 2014), the initial proposal was actually for HBW to stay at the Stratford site and potentially grow by a small amount, while a new neighborhood middle school would be built at the Wilson School site in Rosslyn. This was known among community members as "Option M-5." 
However, several factors led the School Board to shift away from this:
• The Enrollment Crisis: APS needed to create 1,300 new middle school seats quickly. The Stratford site was one of the largest properties available.
• The "Smallness" of HBW: H-B Woodlawn is a choice program that prides itself on a small, intimate community (at the time, roughly 650–700 students). To justify keeping HBW on such a large site during a seat shortage, the program would have had to expand significantly (to 1,000+ or even 1,300 seats).
• Program Culture: The HBW community and staff were vocal that doubling the size of the program to meet the county's capacity needs would fundamentally "break" the school's culture and philosophy.

That doesn't prove what you think it does. In fact, it proves the opposite. The school system needed a large middle school quickly and it needed HB's space to do it. For HB to stay there, it would have to double in size. That didn't make sense to anyone involved.

I lived it. You didn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

See, here's the thing. HB families were forced to move to where they are now so their old building could be converted to Hamm. It was the last thing the community wanted to do. They were perfectly fine in their crappy old building. So it's really not fair to pin this on them.

Stratford is the LARGEST plot of land with a middle school on it. Of course they were happy to stay there; they were given the option of staying if they were willing to expand the school to help middle school overcrowding but they said that the small size was a core necessity of their program.

Lots of students in Arlington have crappy old buildings; most middle school students, tech until last year, probably half of the elementary schools are much much worse.

This is not true. I had kids there at the time. The community fought tooth and nail not to move. In fact, the HB community back then quite deliberately never complained about their aging facility because they didn't want to rock the boat.

I'm not sure what you expected the county to do. Force the school to move and then build it something shitty to move to?

The "Stay and Expand" Option
In the early planning stages (circa early 2014), the initial proposal was actually for HBW to stay at the Stratford site and potentially grow by a small amount, while a new neighborhood middle school would be built at the Wilson School site in Rosslyn. This was known among community members as "Option M-5." 
However, several factors led the School Board to shift away from this:
• The Enrollment Crisis: APS needed to create 1,300 new middle school seats quickly. The Stratford site was one of the largest properties available.
• The "Smallness" of HBW: H-B Woodlawn is a choice program that prides itself on a small, intimate community (at the time, roughly 650–700 students). To justify keeping HBW on such a large site during a seat shortage, the program would have had to expand significantly (to 1,000+ or even 1,300 seats).
• Program Culture: The HBW community and staff were vocal that doubling the size of the program to meet the county's capacity needs would fundamentally "break" the school's culture and philosophy.

That doesn't prove what you think it does. In fact, it proves the opposite. The school system needed a large middle school quickly and it needed HB's space to do it. For HB to stay there, it would have to double in size. That didn't make sense to anyone involved.

I lived it. You didn't.

They literally were given the option to stay but had to double in size. And they refused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

See, here's the thing. HB families were forced to move to where they are now so their old building could be converted to Hamm. It was the last thing the community wanted to do. They were perfectly fine in their crappy old building. So it's really not fair to pin this on them.

Stratford is the LARGEST plot of land with a middle school on it. Of course they were happy to stay there; they were given the option of staying if they were willing to expand the school to help middle school overcrowding but they said that the small size was a core necessity of their program.

Lots of students in Arlington have crappy old buildings; most middle school students, tech until last year, probably half of the elementary schools are much much worse.

This is not true. I had kids there at the time. The community fought tooth and nail not to move. In fact, the HB community back then quite deliberately never complained about their aging facility because they didn't want to rock the boat.

I'm not sure what you expected the county to do. Force the school to move and then build it something shitty to move to?

The "Stay and Expand" Option
In the early planning stages (circa early 2014), the initial proposal was actually for HBW to stay at the Stratford site and potentially grow by a small amount, while a new neighborhood middle school would be built at the Wilson School site in Rosslyn. This was known among community members as "Option M-5." 
However, several factors led the School Board to shift away from this:
• The Enrollment Crisis: APS needed to create 1,300 new middle school seats quickly. The Stratford site was one of the largest properties available.
• The "Smallness" of HBW: H-B Woodlawn is a choice program that prides itself on a small, intimate community (at the time, roughly 650–700 students). To justify keeping HBW on such a large site during a seat shortage, the program would have had to expand significantly (to 1,000+ or even 1,300 seats).
• Program Culture: The HBW community and staff were vocal that doubling the size of the program to meet the county's capacity needs would fundamentally "break" the school's culture and philosophy.

That doesn't prove what you think it does. In fact, it proves the opposite. The school system needed a large middle school quickly and it needed HB's space to do it. For HB to stay there, it would have to double in size. That didn't make sense to anyone involved.

I lived it. You didn't.

So they were given the choice to stay, but refused because they didn’t want to enlarge. That is exactly what I’ve said many times. HBW was not forced to move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

See, here's the thing. HB families were forced to move to where they are now so their old building could be converted to Hamm. It was the last thing the community wanted to do. They were perfectly fine in their crappy old building. So it's really not fair to pin this on them.

Stratford is the LARGEST plot of land with a middle school on it. Of course they were happy to stay there; they were given the option of staying if they were willing to expand the school to help middle school overcrowding but they said that the small size was a core necessity of their program.

Lots of students in Arlington have crappy old buildings; most middle school students, tech until last year, probably half of the elementary schools are much much worse.

This is not true. I had kids there at the time. The community fought tooth and nail not to move. In fact, the HB community back then quite deliberately never complained about their aging facility because they didn't want to rock the boat.

I'm not sure what you expected the county to do. Force the school to move and then build it something shitty to move to?

The "Stay and Expand" Option
In the early planning stages (circa early 2014), the initial proposal was actually for HBW to stay at the Stratford site and potentially grow by a small amount, while a new neighborhood middle school would be built at the Wilson School site in Rosslyn. This was known among community members as "Option M-5." 
However, several factors led the School Board to shift away from this:
• The Enrollment Crisis: APS needed to create 1,300 new middle school seats quickly. The Stratford site was one of the largest properties available.
• The "Smallness" of HBW: H-B Woodlawn is a choice program that prides itself on a small, intimate community (at the time, roughly 650–700 students). To justify keeping HBW on such a large site during a seat shortage, the program would have had to expand significantly (to 1,000+ or even 1,300 seats).
• Program Culture: The HBW community and staff were vocal that doubling the size of the program to meet the county's capacity needs would fundamentally "break" the school's culture and philosophy.

That doesn't prove what you think it does. In fact, it proves the opposite. The school system needed a large middle school quickly and it needed HB's space to do it. For HB to stay there, it would have to double in size. That didn't make sense to anyone involved.

I lived it. You didn't.

And even after doubling, the high school portion would be 1/2 neighborhood schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

See, here's the thing. HB families were forced to move to where they are now so their old building could be converted to Hamm. It was the last thing the community wanted to do. They were perfectly fine in their crappy old building. So it's really not fair to pin this on them.

Stratford is the LARGEST plot of land with a middle school on it. Of course they were happy to stay there; they were given the option of staying if they were willing to expand the school to help middle school overcrowding but they said that the small size was a core necessity of their program.

Lots of students in Arlington have crappy old buildings; most middle school students, tech until last year, probably half of the elementary schools are much much worse.

This is not true. I had kids there at the time. The community fought tooth and nail not to move. In fact, the HB community back then quite deliberately never complained about their aging facility because they didn't want to rock the boat.

I'm not sure what you expected the county to do. Force the school to move and then build it something shitty to move to?

The "Stay and Expand" Option
In the early planning stages (circa early 2014), the initial proposal was actually for HBW to stay at the Stratford site and potentially grow by a small amount, while a new neighborhood middle school would be built at the Wilson School site in Rosslyn. This was known among community members as "Option M-5." 
However, several factors led the School Board to shift away from this:
• The Enrollment Crisis: APS needed to create 1,300 new middle school seats quickly. The Stratford site was one of the largest properties available.
• The "Smallness" of HBW: H-B Woodlawn is a choice program that prides itself on a small, intimate community (at the time, roughly 650–700 students). To justify keeping HBW on such a large site during a seat shortage, the program would have had to expand significantly (to 1,000+ or even 1,300 seats).
• Program Culture: The HBW community and staff were vocal that doubling the size of the program to meet the county's capacity needs would fundamentally "break" the school's culture and philosophy.

That doesn't prove what you think it does. In fact, it proves the opposite. The school system needed a large middle school quickly and it needed HB's space to do it. For HB to stay there, it would have to double in size. That didn't make sense to anyone involved.

I lived it. You didn't.

So they were given the choice to stay, but refused because they didn’t want to enlarge. That is exactly what I’ve said many times. HBW was not forced to move.

Nope. The school board made the decision after taking into account all of the factors. No one seriously considered doubling the size of HB. If you knew how to read, you'd better understand what you just posted. One of the proposals was for HB to stay and expand a "small amount," but that wasn't going to work because the site was the only one available for the much larger school that the community needed. No one ever seriously considered expanding HB to 1000 to 1300 students.

HB bashing has been going on forever. It's so tiresome. I've had kids go to both HB and the neighborhood schools. Academically they're really no different, and if you send the wrong kid to HB watch out. Honestly, you're not missing out on anything. HB isn't Sidwell for chrissake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And here’s one of the ranters right on cue!

Spouting uninformed nonsense as usual!

What in my post was incorrect? I had facts and numbers and you throw insults.

I'm done trying to provide you with accurate info. Stay ignorant.

Uh new poster and the persons statements are accurate. Say what is incorrrct.

Nope, I'm done engaging with know it all conspiracy theorists who don't need info about a school their kids don't attend.

Ah, so you probably know even more siblings, and you keep claiming you are done engaging rather than actual facts.

I do! Tons. Not limited to siblings either. Everyone who gets in to Woodlawn makes huge campaign contributions to all Arlington county school board members. We weren’t sure that was enough though because that’s what everyone does. So we loaned out our vacation home to some top officials and flew them there on our private jet too. Plus I had my congressman put in a good word. I got my 4 kids in that way. Congratulations on figuring it out. You cracked the code.

So you continue spouting nonsense rather than have a discussion.

I mean, since you wanted to talk nonsense...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

See, here's the thing. HB families were forced to move to where they are now so their old building could be converted to Hamm. It was the last thing the community wanted to do. They were perfectly fine in their crappy old building. So it's really not fair to pin this on them.

Stratford is the LARGEST plot of land with a middle school on it. Of course they were happy to stay there; they were given the option of staying if they were willing to expand the school to help middle school overcrowding but they said that the small size was a core necessity of their program.

Lots of students in Arlington have crappy old buildings; most middle school students, tech until last year, probably half of the elementary schools are much much worse.

This is not true. I had kids there at the time. The community fought tooth and nail not to move. In fact, the HB community back then quite deliberately never complained about their aging facility because they didn't want to rock the boat.

I'm not sure what you expected the county to do. Force the school to move and then build it something shitty to move to?

The "Stay and Expand" Option
In the early planning stages (circa early 2014), the initial proposal was actually for HBW to stay at the Stratford site and potentially grow by a small amount, while a new neighborhood middle school would be built at the Wilson School site in Rosslyn. This was known among community members as "Option M-5." 
However, several factors led the School Board to shift away from this:
• The Enrollment Crisis: APS needed to create 1,300 new middle school seats quickly. The Stratford site was one of the largest properties available.
• The "Smallness" of HBW: H-B Woodlawn is a choice program that prides itself on a small, intimate community (at the time, roughly 650–700 students). To justify keeping HBW on such a large site during a seat shortage, the program would have had to expand significantly (to 1,000+ or even 1,300 seats).
• Program Culture: The HBW community and staff were vocal that doubling the size of the program to meet the county's capacity needs would fundamentally "break" the school's culture and philosophy.

That doesn't prove what you think it does. In fact, it proves the opposite. The school system needed a large middle school quickly and it needed HB's space to do it. For HB to stay there, it would have to double in size. That didn't make sense to anyone involved.

I lived it. You didn't.

So they were given the choice to stay, but refused because they didn’t want to enlarge. That is exactly what I’ve said many times. HBW was not forced to move.

Nope. The school board made the decision after taking into account all of the factors. No one seriously considered doubling the size of HB. If you knew how to read, you'd better understand what you just posted. One of the proposals was for HB to stay and expand a "small amount," but that wasn't going to work because the site was the only one available for the much larger school that the community needed. No one ever seriously considered expanding HB to 1000 to 1300 students.

HB bashing has been going on forever. It's so tiresome. I've had kids go to both HB and the neighborhood schools. Academically they're really no different, and if you send the wrong kid to HB watch out. Honestly, you're not missing out on anything. HB isn't Sidwell for chrissake.

+1

If you seriously think a school gets a choice in these types of things, you are delusional. HB had no choice, the school board makes the choices. just because an option was on the table didn't mean hb got to decide.

also i was there too. there was no choice.

[Anonymous]

https://www.arlnow.com/2014/11/19/superintendent-recommends-moving-h-b-woodlawn-to-wilson-school/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

See, here's the thing. HB families were forced to move to where they are now so their old building could be converted to Hamm. It was the last thing the community wanted to do. They were perfectly fine in their crappy old building. So it's really not fair to pin this on them.

Stratford is the LARGEST plot of land with a middle school on it. Of course they were happy to stay there; they were given the option of staying if they were willing to expand the school to help middle school overcrowding but they said that the small size was a core necessity of their program.

Lots of students in Arlington have crappy old buildings; most middle school students, tech until last year, probably half of the elementary schools are much much worse.

This is not true. I had kids there at the time. The community fought tooth and nail not to move. In fact, the HB community back then quite deliberately never complained about their aging facility because they didn't want to rock the boat.

I'm not sure what you expected the county to do. Force the school to move and then build it something shitty to move to?

The "Stay and Expand" Option
In the early planning stages (circa early 2014), the initial proposal was actually for HBW to stay at the Stratford site and potentially grow by a small amount, while a new neighborhood middle school would be built at the Wilson School site in Rosslyn. This was known among community members as "Option M-5." 
However, several factors led the School Board to shift away from this:
• The Enrollment Crisis: APS needed to create 1,300 new middle school seats quickly. The Stratford site was one of the largest properties available.
• The "Smallness" of HBW: H-B Woodlawn is a choice program that prides itself on a small, intimate community (at the time, roughly 650–700 students). To justify keeping HBW on such a large site during a seat shortage, the program would have had to expand significantly (to 1,000+ or even 1,300 seats).
• Program Culture: The HBW community and staff were vocal that doubling the size of the program to meet the county's capacity needs would fundamentally "break" the school's culture and philosophy.

That doesn't prove what you think it does. In fact, it proves the opposite. The school system needed a large middle school quickly and it needed HB's space to do it. For HB to stay there, it would have to double in size. That didn't make sense to anyone involved.

I lived it. You didn't.

So they were given the choice to stay, but refused because they didn’t want to enlarge. That is exactly what I’ve said many times. HBW was not forced to move.

Nope. The school board made the decision after taking into account all of the factors. No one seriously considered doubling the size of HB. If you knew how to read, you'd better understand what you just posted. One of the proposals was for HB to stay and expand a "small amount," but that wasn't going to work because the site was the only one available for the much larger school that the community needed. No one ever seriously considered expanding HB to 1000 to 1300 students.

HB bashing has been going on forever. It's so tiresome. I've had kids go to both HB and the neighborhood schools. Academically they're really no different, and if you send the wrong kid to HB watch out. Honestly, you're not missing out on anything. HB isn't Sidwell for chrissake.

+1

If you seriously think a school gets a choice in these types of things, you are delusional. HB had no choice, the school board makes the choices. just because an option was on the table didn't mean hb got to decide.

also i was there too. there was no choice.

You can’t deny they protested expansion, that is fact. The ultimate decision obviously is as the board, but it was clear that to placate the HBW mafia, moving them to a $100M marquee property with HALF the population originally proposed was a better play than doubling their population at Stratford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

See, here's the thing. HB families were forced to move to where they are now so their old building could be converted to Hamm. It was the last thing the community wanted to do. They were perfectly fine in their crappy old building. So it's really not fair to pin this on them.

Stratford is the LARGEST plot of land with a middle school on it. Of course they were happy to stay there; they were given the option of staying if they were willing to expand the school to help middle school overcrowding but they said that the small size was a core necessity of their program.

Lots of students in Arlington have crappy old buildings; most middle school students, tech until last year, probably half of the elementary schools are much much worse.

This is not true. I had kids there at the time. The community fought tooth and nail not to move. In fact, the HB community back then quite deliberately never complained about their aging facility because they didn't want to rock the boat.

I'm not sure what you expected the county to do. Force the school to move and then build it something shitty to move to?

The "Stay and Expand" Option
In the early planning stages (circa early 2014), the initial proposal was actually for HBW to stay at the Stratford site and potentially grow by a small amount, while a new neighborhood middle school would be built at the Wilson School site in Rosslyn. This was known among community members as "Option M-5." 
However, several factors led the School Board to shift away from this:
• The Enrollment Crisis: APS needed to create 1,300 new middle school seats quickly. The Stratford site was one of the largest properties available.
• The "Smallness" of HBW: H-B Woodlawn is a choice program that prides itself on a small, intimate community (at the time, roughly 650–700 students). To justify keeping HBW on such a large site during a seat shortage, the program would have had to expand significantly (to 1,000+ or even 1,300 seats).
• Program Culture: The HBW community and staff were vocal that doubling the size of the program to meet the county's capacity needs would fundamentally "break" the school's culture and philosophy.

That doesn't prove what you think it does. In fact, it proves the opposite. The school system needed a large middle school quickly and it needed HB's space to do it. For HB to stay there, it would have to double in size. That didn't make sense to anyone involved.

I lived it. You didn't.

So they were given the choice to stay, but refused because they didn’t want to enlarge. That is exactly what I’ve said many times. HBW was not forced to move.

Nope. The school board made the decision after taking into account all of the factors. No one seriously considered doubling the size of HB. If you knew how to read, you'd better understand what you just posted. One of the proposals was for HB to stay and expand a "small amount," but that wasn't going to work because the site was the only one available for the much larger school that the community needed. No one ever seriously considered expanding HB to 1000 to 1300 students.

HB bashing has been going on forever. It's so tiresome. I've had kids go to both HB and the neighborhood schools. Academically they're really no different, and if you send the wrong kid to HB watch out. Honestly, you're not missing out on anything. HB isn't Sidwell for chrissake.

+1

If you seriously think a school gets a choice in these types of things, you are delusional. HB had no choice, the school board makes the choices. just because an option was on the table didn't mean hb got to decide.

also i was there too. there was no choice.

You can’t deny they protested expansion, that is fact. The ultimate decision obviously is as the board, but it was clear that to placate the HBW mafia, moving them to a $100M marquee property with HALF the population originally proposed was a better play than doubling their population at Stratford

You need to take your meds. Again, you are misreading the option as presented. No one ever seriously considered doubling the size of HB. It wasn't a matter of "one option is to double the size of HB." Rather, it was "the only way for HB to stay where it is would be to double its size," and that was never going to happen. No one wanted that. Not the HB community, not the superintendent, not the school board. It just wasn't a sensible solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

See, here's the thing. HB families were forced to move to where they are now so their old building could be converted to Hamm. It was the last thing the community wanted to do. They were perfectly fine in their crappy old building. So it's really not fair to pin this on them.

Stratford is the LARGEST plot of land with a middle school on it. Of course they were happy to stay there; they were given the option of staying if they were willing to expand the school to help middle school overcrowding but they said that the small size was a core necessity of their program.

Lots of students in Arlington have crappy old buildings; most middle school students, tech until last year, probably half of the elementary schools are much much worse.

This is not true. I had kids there at the time. The community fought tooth and nail not to move. In fact, the HB community back then quite deliberately never complained about their aging facility because they didn't want to rock the boat.

I'm not sure what you expected the county to do. Force the school to move and then build it something shitty to move to?

The "Stay and Expand" Option
In the early planning stages (circa early 2014), the initial proposal was actually for HBW to stay at the Stratford site and potentially grow by a small amount, while a new neighborhood middle school would be built at the Wilson School site in Rosslyn. This was known among community members as "Option M-5." 
However, several factors led the School Board to shift away from this:
• The Enrollment Crisis: APS needed to create 1,300 new middle school seats quickly. The Stratford site was one of the largest properties available.
• The "Smallness" of HBW: H-B Woodlawn is a choice program that prides itself on a small, intimate community (at the time, roughly 650–700 students). To justify keeping HBW on such a large site during a seat shortage, the program would have had to expand significantly (to 1,000+ or even 1,300 seats).
• Program Culture: The HBW community and staff were vocal that doubling the size of the program to meet the county's capacity needs would fundamentally "break" the school's culture and philosophy.

That doesn't prove what you think it does. In fact, it proves the opposite. The school system needed a large middle school quickly and it needed HB's space to do it. For HB to stay there, it would have to double in size. That didn't make sense to anyone involved.

I lived it. You didn't.

So they were given the choice to stay, but refused because they didn’t want to enlarge. That is exactly what I’ve said many times. HBW was not forced to move.

Nope. The school board made the decision after taking into account all of the factors. No one seriously considered doubling the size of HB. If you knew how to read, you'd better understand what you just posted. One of the proposals was for HB to stay and expand a "small amount," but that wasn't going to work because the site was the only one available for the much larger school that the community needed. No one ever seriously considered expanding HB to 1000 to 1300 students.

HB bashing has been going on forever. It's so tiresome. I've had kids go to both HB and the neighborhood schools. Academically they're really no different, and if you send the wrong kid to HB watch out. Honestly, you're not missing out on anything. HB isn't Sidwell for chrissake.

+1

If you seriously think a school gets a choice in these types of things, you are delusional. HB had no choice, the school board makes the choices. just because an option was on the table didn't mean hb got to decide.

also i was there too. there was no choice.

You can’t deny they protested expansion, that is fact. The ultimate decision obviously is as the board, but it was clear that to placate the HBW mafia, moving them to a $100M marquee property with HALF the population originally proposed was a better play than doubling their population at Stratford

I'm not denying that HB didn't want to expand, but now you're moving the goalposts. You said HB could have chosen to stay at Stratford if they agreed to expand. That is a LIE.

The truth is HB didn't want to move at all. Then after they were forced to move to the location no one else wanted, you accuse them of getting some huge advantage.

[Anonymous]

I lived through all this too. HB didn’t want to leave and didn’t want to expand. They wanted to be left alone. APS did scope out the Rosslyn site for a middle school. I don’t remember how far that process went. People pushed hard for HB to be forced to move because the now Hamm school was better for a middle school in terms of having regular amenities (fields etc) and being more of a walkable neighborhood option.

In short, I agree HB did not ask for or want some more fancy and new building.