APS Superintendent High School Overcrowding Plan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The last few HB posts are by me. As I noted above, I'm not an HB parent. We have no more crisis today than we did many months back when the HB discussions were going on. I don't know why you think reopen in this discussion would solve the crisis. Let's say we decided to make HB a 1300-student school (doubling its size). Now what? Can it fit on the proposed site? And what do we do about the 1000+ seats we still need?

My kids are at W-L and Swanson, so trust me, I know from crowded schools.

The original plan was for a 1300 seat MS on the site, so yes, a 1300-seat HB would fit. And adding 600 seats is more than is being proposed for any other school addition.

Adding that many seats would mean adding about 340 high school seats and 260 middle school seats. It's not that different from the proposed additions at the MS and HS, but adding floors while you're building is a lot less expensive than putting additions on existing buildings, which APS is probably also going to do.

Well let's do it then. But I wonder if this is the smartest way to use political capital. Reopening this discussion means waging a big fight. Is there enough time/energy/political capital to fight that fight while also fighting for a school at the VH site? And/or fighting for a take back of a former school or two? I suspect not but YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When I did a quick google search on double shifting, the only articles that turned up were about schools in Mexico, Rwanda and other developing countries. And possibly in Florida for a brief period of time in the aftermath of a major hurricane. Do any school systems in the U.S. do this and on a long term basis? How? What are the results?

North Carolina and California have counties that do year-round multitrack schools, and it's reflective of their lack of commitment to quality public education. It's a bullshit approach to the problem, and it is proposed by people with no real-world experience of the day-in, day-out demands of public education.

My school switched to a staggered schedule for a while after a natural disaster. I liked having the free time, but I didn't receive as good an education as I would have if it had been the normal schedule.

Great. Arlington County, one of the most educated and wealthiest counties in America will operate their high schools like Rwanda. All because the County Board and the School Board don't communicate with each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious to me that the only way forward is to build a new high school on the VH land, and take back some of the old schools (now community centers) to expand elementary/middle school capacity. How can we make these things happen?

First, look into the costs of adapting old school buildings so they're suited to current requirements. Then explain to everyone who uses them currently that schools are much more important than whatever they were doing. If anyone suggests that all members of the community deserve to have programs to meet their needs, stick your fingers in your ears and sing la la la la.

With smart planning, couldn't a school be both a community center and a school? Look at TJ.

At any rate, have you ever been in any of these former schools? My kid attended a camp a few summers ago at the former school that's now the Madison Community Center. That place was completely empty except for the camp and a class or two for seniors. For cripes sake, you don't need a whole school to hold a couple knitting classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Great. Arlington County, one of the most educated and wealthiest counties in America will operate their high schools like Rwanda. All because the County Board and the School Board don't communicate with each other.

Not only because of that, but because parents aren't willing to compromise or face reality. They want the schools they remember growing up (single-stories, sprawling next to acres of open space), they want more instructional time and materials (must have FLES! must have 1:1 devices!), and they want the 85% of the county with no children to take whatever hits -- taxes, open space -- are necessary to make that happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious to me that the only way forward is to build a new high school on the VH land, and take back some of the old schools (now community centers) to expand elementary/middle school capacity. How can we make these things happen?

First, look into the costs of adapting old school buildings so they're suited to current requirements. Then explain to everyone who uses them currently that schools are much more important than whatever they were doing. If anyone suggests that all members of the community deserve to have programs to meet their needs, stick your fingers in your ears and sing la la la la.

With smart planning, couldn't a school be both a community center and a school? Look at TJ.

At any rate, have you ever been in any of these former schools? My kid attended a camp a few summers ago at the former school that's now the Madison Community Center. That place was completely empty except for the camp and a class or two for seniors. For cripes sake, you don't need a whole school to hold a couple knitting classes.

Madison appears to be the easiest option for a school, but even it won't work (this has been talked to death here and elsewhere and I have to go do my actual job, but the info is out there).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Great. Arlington County, one of the most educated and wealthiest counties in America will operate their high schools like Rwanda. All because the County Board and the School Board don't communicate with each other.

Not only because of that, but because parents aren't willing to compromise or face reality. They want the schools they remember growing up (single-stories, sprawling next to acres of open space), they want more instructional time and materials (must have FLES! must have 1:1 devices!), and they want the 85% of the county with no children to take whatever hits -- taxes, open space -- are necessary to make that happen.

You better believe I'm not going to compromise! No f***ing way is my kid, or anyone's kid, going to be forced to go to night school because you don't want more traffic, taxes, whatever the f*** you want to complain about. The kids are here, and are residents of Arlington, same as you, and same as your kids were back in the day. They don't deserve less because you can't afford to live here any longer unless we keep your taxes low. Don't like it? Sell your house for $900,000 and move to Sun City and you never need see another rug rat again.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone looked at Jennie Dean park on Four Mile Run? Already has lighted fields and parking, and the land/businesses adjacent could be taken via eminent domain. Those buildings are nothing special. And it's in S Arlington, which is where the need is. It's not perfect geographically as it's a little more than a mile from Wakefield, but no site is perfect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone looked at Jennie Dean park on Four Mile Run? Already has lighted fields and parking, and the land/businesses adjacent could be taken via eminent domain. Those buildings are nothing special. And it's in S Arlington, which is where the need is. It's not perfect geographically as it's a little more than a mile from Wakefield, but no site is perfect.

Flood Plain issues. APS will not build a school there, ever. Came out during the SAWG process.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of froyo shops have closed in the past few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Great. Arlington County, one of the most educated and wealthiest counties in America will operate their high schools like Rwanda. All because the County Board and the School Board don't communicate with each other.

Not only because of that, but because parents aren't willing to compromise or face reality. They want the schools they remember growing up (single-stories, sprawling next to acres of open space), they want more instructional time and materials (must have FLES! must have 1:1 devices!), and they want the 85% of the county with no children to take whatever hits -- taxes, open space -- are necessary to make that happen.

You better believe I'm not going to compromise! No f***ing way is my kid, or anyone's kid, going to be forced to go to night school because you don't want more traffic, taxes, whatever the f*** you want to complain about. The kids are here, and are residents of Arlington, same as you, and same as your kids were back in the day. They don't deserve less because you can't afford to live here any longer unless we keep your taxes low. Don't like it? Sell your house for $900,000 and move to Sun City and you never need see another rug rat again.

Quoting myself to retract my hot-headed earlier post. What I mean is, everyone (including HB, and seniors who don't want their community centers touched or taxes raised) needs to compromise. It should not fall only on the backs of the kids who have the misfortune of being born here during a population explosion, and the second misfortune of not winning a lottery to a choice program that is being kept small and pristine while everyone else has to deal with the problem. We are a community, and everybody is going to have to give a little so that our community remains the vibrant, attractive place it is now. It's unreasonable to demand that only those families who have kids coming up through this crisis need compromise. You want us to help you age in place? Well, there are strings attached to that. You can't have everything the way it once was either, because Arlington has changed. So, yes, maybe we can't have the sprawling campuses of days gone by, but we hardly need accept that kids and staff will be in school year-round and at all time of the day in shifts because you don't want more traffic in your neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You better believe I'm not going to compromise! No f***ing way is my kid, or anyone's kid, going to be forced to go to night school because you don't want more traffic, taxes, whatever the f*** you want to complain about. The kids are here, and are residents of Arlington, same as you, and same as your kids were back in the day. They don't deserve less because you can't afford to live here any longer unless we keep your taxes low. Don't like it? Sell your house for $900,000 and move to Sun City and you never need see another rug rat again.

Actually, I'm a parent and my kids attend APS. The vehemence of your response (and the assumptions that underlie it) are indicative of the barriers to solving the overcrowding problem in a sustainable, practical way.

[Anonymous]

Those senior centers were schools when the population of seniors were students. It's time to give back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those senior centers were schools when the population of seniors were students. It's time to give back.

Thanks Obama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone looked at Jennie Dean park on Four Mile Run? Already has lighted fields and parking, and the land/businesses adjacent could be taken via eminent domain. Those buildings are nothing special. And it's in S Arlington, which is where the need is. It's not perfect geographically as it's a little more than a mile from Wakefield, but no site is perfect.

Flood Plain issues. APS will not build a school there, ever. Came out during the SAWG process.

Then put the parking deck underneath the school and build a dyke. They are making the perfect the enemy of the good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those senior centers were schools when the population of seniors were students. It's time to give back.

Thanks Obama.

My mom would like her grandchildren to have a place to go to school.


Programs in senior centers can be moved to office buildings much more easily.