APS Superintendent High School Overcrowding Plan

[Anonymous]

What about Reed school for a choice school? There is some serious NIMBYism over there, too. Too bad the elementary school option got shot down there 10 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about Reed school for a choice school? There is some serious NIMBYism over there, too. Too bad the elementary school option got shot down there 10 years ago.

There is already a post about that. We're talking about high schools over here.

[Anonymous]

I live about one block from the Madison Community Center. It is grossly underutilized and needs to be converted back into a school. Whatever the reasons for rejecting it in the past need to be revisited under the circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live about one block from the Madison Community Center. It is grossly underutilized and needs to be converted back into a school. Whatever the reasons for rejecting it in the past need to be revisited under the circumstances.

I agree. It's ridiculous to not use the site b/c some historic thing was found there once.

[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.

Don't forget they are putting the Stratford program on that site, too, which is a good portion of the "seats" and a lot of the expense. They could have left those kids in the existing building and had a smaller middle school in north Arlington, but they neighborhood was having none of it. So Stratford is moving to a new building along with an about-the-same-size H-B program, and north Arlington gets a new "walkable" middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live about one block from the Madison Community Center. It is grossly underutilized and needs to be converted back into a school. Whatever the reasons for rejecting it in the past need to be revisited under the circumstances.

I agree. It's ridiculous to not use the site b/c some historic thing was found there once.

This. I'm tired of hearing how the site is too small for expansion (well, then build up) and also tired of hearing that the location is too remote/not located in the right place. Bullshit. Here's an idea: Move a choice school to one of these "remote" locations and use the more centrally located choice school site as a regular school of some sort. (I'm looking at you, ATS.)

Regarding high school crowding: The idea of turning the VH parcel into a country-wide 9th-grade-only school is a good one, IMO. Build the school big enough to be turned into a high-school in the future if need be (say, 2000 seats). In the meantime, bus the 9th graders there. This frees up a ton of space at all 3 existing high schools. And it makes it easier on the neighborhood: Less traffic because there will be no student drivers, and the kids are old enough that even the special snowflakes can walk or take the bus instead of being driven to school. Set the start time the same as middle school, and you contain any traffic issues to before 8 am, easing concerns about morning rush. This also means the school lets out earlier than the high schools, which allows time for freshmen who play on JV/V teams or who are involved in after-school high school activities to travel to their home high schools.

The VH site on S. Carlin Springs Road is big enough to build this school. What the hell are we waiting for?

http://projects.arlingtonva.us/types/county-facilities/county-considering-selling-land-to-virginia-hospital-center-for-expansion/

The pin marks the location on google maps:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Northern+Virginia+Surgical+Arts/@38.8652559,-77.1360597,13z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89b7b474bc6fbddb:0xa3313619fc8aae7d!8m2!3d38.8595041!4d-77.1264467

[Anonymous]

https://docs.google.com/gview?url=https%3A%2F%2Farlington.granicus.com%2FDocumentViewer.php%3Ffile%3Darlington_5e2d1b77f465f574cca48414e88a5768.pdf%26view%3D1&embedded=true

Which of these meetings do we need to be at? All of them? Is there a community group that has formed to support putting a school on the VH site?

[Anonymous]

Alexandria city does a combo of schools and rec center and honestly it's a big fail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, the idea of schools operating in shifts is so ridiculous on its face that I can't imagine APS seriously thinks it is an option. I think they are just laying the cards on the table: this is how many students we think we are going to have. This is the only way we are going to be able to house them unless we build more schools. They've got to be hoping that laying out the worst case scenario will be galvanizing.

Well, I feel galvanized but I'm not sure what to do about it. What's the best way to effect change here? 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?

Another poster here who totally agrees with this. What is the best way to make this happen? Also, I agree with poster below who says we should scrap HB. It's ridiculous to support such an expensive project that will benefit so few students. We need to solve the over capacity issue at all the public schools before throwing that much money at so few students.

[Anonymous]

https://www.arlnow.com/events/school-board-debate/

School board debate tonight.

[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.

How about clear out all the crap where the bus depot/trades center is off Arlington Mill Dr and make that a school site? You have to decentralize that stuff, but who cares? That site is huge.

[Anonymous]

Send emails to the school board: [e-mail]

Write to the planners: [e-mail].

Go to office hours:
Monday May 9 Emma Violand-Sanchez
Monday May 16 Nancy Van Doren
Monday May 23, 5:30 - 7:30 PM James Lander
TUESDAY May 31 (AM) Emma Violand-Sanchez

Or go chat with a County Board member: http://countyboard.arlingtonva.us/open-door-mondays/

Email that board, too! [e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Send emails to the school board: [e-mail]

Write to the planners: [e-mail].

Go to office hours:
Monday May 9 Emma Violand-Sanchez
Monday May 16 Nancy Van Doren
Monday May 23, 5:30 - 7:30 PM James Lander
TUESDAY May 31 (AM) Emma Violand-Sanchez

Or go chat with a County Board member: http://countyboard.arlingtonva.us/open-door-mondays/

Email that board, too! [e-mail]

Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alexandria city does a combo of schools and rec center and honestly it's a big fail.

Arlington has this at Jefferson Middle School/Community Center. I don't live near there, but have used the community center, attended community and school events there, and have friends whose kids go to school there. It's never seemed like a failure to me in any way, but I fully admit I am not in a position to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: kids are old enough that even the special snowflakes can walk or take the bus instead of being driven to school.

Oh, I think you do not understand the depth of commitment of the snowflake-chauffeurs. Trust me, those kids are never walking or taking a bus anywhere.