School Growth -- Arlington

[Anonymous]

I've read a few threads on this board about possible overcrowding at many Arlington schools in the next 5-10 years. I was wondering if someone could sum up for me what is happening (I understand population growth, but it seemed like there was discussion of boundary changes, etc.) We are currently looking to purchase and I've looked in archives but I haven't seen any one place sum up what the concerns are and what schools will most be impacted.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

No plans yet for boundary changes. Last significant change that affected the whole county was in '95 when an old junior high was reopened, and other closed schools reopened.

When a new elementary school opens (likely in North Arlington) in about a couple years expect boundary changes and/or a new magnet option. When the new Wakefield HS opens in 2013 there may or may not be high school boundary changes. No one will know APS' plans or proposals until at least the Superintendent's report sometime early next year.

With boundary changes current students and siblings are usually grandfathered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've read a few threads on this board about possible overcrowding at many Arlington schools in the next 5-10 years. I was wondering if someone could sum up for me what is happening (I understand population growth, but it seemed like there was discussion of boundary changes, etc.) We are currently looking to purchase and I've looked in archives but I haven't seen any one place sum up what the concerns are and what schools will most be impacted.

Thank you!

There will be more students, but I'm not sure that's "overcrowding."

No talk of redistricting or anything. They may build new schools or use trailers. The trailers aren't any big deal -- some of them are nicer than the classrooms themselves these days.

Arlington has had higher numbers of students in the past. Nothing they can't handle.

[Anonymous]

Thank you both!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There will be more students, but I'm not sure that's "overcrowding."

No talk of redistricting or anything. They may build new schools or use trailers. The trailers aren't any big deal -- some of them are nicer than the classrooms themselves these days.

Arlington has had higher numbers of students in the past. Nothing they can't handle.

though Arl didn't have to handle such widening gap between N and S schools in the past, i don't think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There will be more students, but I'm not sure that's "overcrowding."

No talk of redistricting or anything. They may build new schools or use trailers. The trailers aren't any big deal -- some of them are nicer than the classrooms themselves these days.

Arlington has had higher numbers of students in the past. Nothing they can't handle.

though Arl didn't have to handle such widening gap between N and S schools in the past, i don't think.

PP here: You make a good point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Arlington has had higher numbers of students in the past. Nothing they can't handle.

though Arl didn't have to handle such widening gap between N and S schools in the past, i don't think.

But how much of the gap is SArl schools falling behind and how much is NArl schools moving ahead? My kids go to one of the NArl schools with privileged kids and high scores, and a neighbor who grew up here says that in her day, our school was nowhere you'd want to send your child. So is the school system giving up on the SArl schools, or is the increasing number of privileged families in NArl just making it easier for schools to look good.

I hope I don't sound like I'm writing off the accomplishments of NArl teachers and administrators, because ours are awesome -- hardworking and creative. But maybe the good results are just easier for them to get because their students have more advantages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Arlington has had higher numbers of students in the past. Nothing they can't handle.

though Arl didn't have to handle such widening gap between N and S schools in the past, i don't think.

But how much of the gap is SArl schools falling behind and how much is NArl schools moving ahead? My kids go to one of the NArl schools with privileged kids and high scores, and a neighbor who grew up here says that in her day, our school was nowhere you'd want to send your child. So is the school system giving up on the SArl schools, or is the increasing number of privileged families in NArl just making it easier for schools to look good.

I hope I don't sound like I'm writing off the accomplishments of NArl teachers and administrators, because ours are awesome -- hardworking and creative. But maybe the good results are just easier for them to get because their students have more advantages.

The original poster above might have been referring to the enrollment gap, as well as the achievement gap. N Arlington schools are over capacity in most instances, while many S Arlington schools are below capacity. How the County resolves this issue is a part of the school growth puzzle. One way that the county may be trying to deal with this is by expanding capacity at "choice schools." DC attends Claremont (we're districted for a N Arlington school) and there's an additional kindergarten class this year and trailers have arrived for the first time. Our bus stop for the school has a lot more kids than in past years.

[Anonymous]

The school system has a website on which they are posting materials related to the capacity planning process: http://www.apsva.us/capacity

Last I saw, the school system had acknowledged that adding trailers and turning computer/art/other rooms into classrooms would not be sufficient to accommodate the anticipated population growth. They had identified several schools as potential candidates for expansion, were considering reopening schools that had been turned into community centers when the student population dropped a while back, were exploring other possible building sites, and evaluating other strategies (e.g., moving around pre-K or other programs that are housed in the schools). Since it sounds like capacity cannot be added evenly among the existing elementary schools, it seems inevitable that there would be some boundary changes to allocate more incoming students to those schools that are either new or newly expanded.

There's also a chart on the website of the current capacity of each school and the projected capacity in the coming years, which could be helpful info if you are considering specific schools as part of your house hunt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Arlington has had higher numbers of students in the past. Nothing they can't handle.

though Arl didn't have to handle such widening gap between N and S schools in the past, i don't think.

But how much of the gap is SArl schools falling behind and how much is NArl schools moving ahead? My kids go to one of the NArl schools with privileged kids and high scores, and a neighbor who grew up here says that in her day, our school was nowhere you'd want to send your child. So is the school system giving up on the SArl schools, or is the increasing number of privileged families in NArl just making it easier for schools to look good.

I hope I don't sound like I'm writing off the accomplishments of NArl teachers and administrators, because ours are awesome -- hardworking and creative. But maybe the good results are just easier for them to get because their students have more advantages.

no doubt about it.

it's much much easier to deal with enrollment gap than achievement gap. i see the county has a good plan for more classrooms in N Arl, but not so sure there's one for higher achievement in S Arl. the more resource spent on solving N issues the less on S.