APS Engage Update Pre-CIP Report

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

Do you not know the history? APS wanted to put a neighborhood school there. But the neighborhood around the now Hamm complained and lobbied very loudly, so APS caved, and they kicked HB to Rosslyn and put Hamm on HB's old site.

I remember this. The neighborhood around the then HB wanted the site, said their snowflakes couldn't go to school in Rosslyn, so they killed the plan to build a ms in Rosslyn. And we got Hamm.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people in that neighborhood who now may have to take a bus to Williamsburg to balance capacity. They caused this situation!

I’m sure I’ll be sorry I asked, but what is wrong with Rosslyn? The new HB site is beautiful. That could have been a brand new neighborhood school in a community surrounded by multi family housing and around the corner from a metro stop (ideally it would be walkable for most but I think siting schools near public transit makes sense in our community).

If APS really caved to the parents, shame on them. I hope they repurpose that brand new school in the heart of Rosslyn as a true community resource. What a waste.

Yes HB Heights is amazing. That is NOT what the neighborhood school would have gotten. They were planning to include 300 more students for a 1000 student neighborhood school on the same plot. The airy spacious building would this be turned into a warehouse, with kids bussed from 3 miles away in rush hour Rosslyn traffic.

I actually live in Rosslyn in one of the high rises (my kids are in high school now), and there are very few kids in any of the multi family housing in Rosslyn, at least middle school or high school age. So majority of a Rosslyn middle school would come from near the Stratford site

Sure, but some of them would have come from Lyon Village, the neighborhood north of Langston, etc. There would have been walkers.

Meanwhile all the parents who insisted that their kids needed to be able to walk to MS and therefore needed the site on Vacation Lane shifted gears as soon as the decision was made and insisted the site needed to provide convenient dropoff lanes.

My kids would have gone to the Wilson Blvd 1300-student middle school, and I would have been fine with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

Do you not know the history? APS wanted to put a neighborhood school there. But the neighborhood around the now Hamm complained and lobbied very loudly, so APS caved, and they kicked HB to Rosslyn and put Hamm on HB's old site.

I remember this. The neighborhood around the then HB wanted the site, said their snowflakes couldn't go to school in Rosslyn, so they killed the plan to build a ms in Rosslyn. And we got Hamm.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people in that neighborhood who now may have to take a bus to Williamsburg to balance capacity. They caused this situation!

I’m sure I’ll be sorry I asked, but what is wrong with Rosslyn? The new HB site is beautiful. That could have been a brand new neighborhood school in a community surrounded by multi family housing and around the corner from a metro stop (ideally it would be walkable for most but I think siting schools near public transit makes sense in our community).

If APS really caved to the parents, shame on them. I hope they repurpose that brand new school in the heart of Rosslyn as a true community resource. What a waste.

Yes HB Heights is amazing. That is NOT what the neighborhood school would have gotten. They were planning to include 300 more students for a 1000 student neighborhood school on the same plot. The airy spacious building would this be turned into a warehouse, with kids bussed from 3 miles away in rush hour Rosslyn traffic.

I actually live in Rosslyn in one of the high rises (my kids are in high school now), and there are very few kids in any of the multi family housing in Rosslyn, at least middle school or high school age. So majority of a Rosslyn middle school would come from near the Stratford site

Sure, but some of them would have come from Lyon Village, the neighborhood north of Langston, etc. There would have been walkers.

Meanwhile all the parents who insisted that their kids needed to be able to walk to MS and therefore needed the site on Vacation Lane shifted gears as soon as the decision was made and insisted the site needed to provide convenient dropoff lanes.

My kids would have gone to the Wilson Blvd 1300-student middle school, and I would have been fine with that.

Ok now I’m back on your side 🤣. I wasn’t here for this situation. But a neighborhood school in Rosslyn a block from the metro in a county that is getting incredibly urban seems like a no-brained. And yes I agree North Highlands, Lyon Village, and maybe even parts of Lyon Park could have used this school if it were a MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

Do you not know the history? APS wanted to put a neighborhood school there. But the neighborhood around the now Hamm complained and lobbied very loudly, so APS caved, and they kicked HB to Rosslyn and put Hamm on HB's old site.

I remember this. The neighborhood around the then HB wanted the site, said their snowflakes couldn't go to school in Rosslyn, so they killed the plan to build a ms in Rosslyn. And we got Hamm.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people in that neighborhood who now may have to take a bus to Williamsburg to balance capacity. They caused this situation!

I’m sure I’ll be sorry I asked, but what is wrong with Rosslyn? The new HB site is beautiful. That could have been a brand new neighborhood school in a community surrounded by multi family housing and around the corner from a metro stop (ideally it would be walkable for most but I think siting schools near public transit makes sense in our community).

If APS really caved to the parents, shame on them. I hope they repurpose that brand new school in the heart of Rosslyn as a true community resource. What a waste.

Yes HB Heights is amazing. That is NOT what the neighborhood school would have gotten. They were planning to include 300 more students for a 1000 student neighborhood school on the same plot. The airy spacious building would this be turned into a warehouse, with kids bussed from 3 miles away in rush hour Rosslyn traffic.

I actually live in Rosslyn in one of the high rises (my kids are in high school now), and there are very few kids in any of the multi family housing in Rosslyn, at least middle school or high school age. So majority of a Rosslyn middle school would come from near the Stratford site

Sure, but some of them would have come from Lyon Village, the neighborhood north of Langston, etc. There would have been walkers.

Meanwhile all the parents who insisted that their kids needed to be able to walk to MS and therefore needed the site on Vacation Lane shifted gears as soon as the decision was made and insisted the site needed to provide convenient dropoff lanes.

My kids would have gone to the Wilson Blvd 1300-student middle school, and I would have been fine with that.

Adorbs. Most of Lyon Village send their MS and HS kids to private. Even more so if they had zero field space in a Rosslyn warehouse.

North of Langston? You mean the Highlands neighborhood near Dawson Terrace? There are even fewer families and older kids there, nestled between Lee Highway and GW parkway.

Okay, you would have been fine? Sure? Most parents weren’t.

[Anonymous]

The Sycamore school is moving across the street into empty office space this summer. There are always creative ways to expand seats, even in Rosslyn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

Do you not know the history? APS wanted to put a neighborhood school there. But the neighborhood around the now Hamm complained and lobbied very loudly, so APS caved, and they kicked HB to Rosslyn and put Hamm on HB's old site.

I remember this. The neighborhood around the then HB wanted the site, said their snowflakes couldn't go to school in Rosslyn, so they killed the plan to build a ms in Rosslyn. And we got Hamm.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people in that neighborhood who now may have to take a bus to Williamsburg to balance capacity. They caused this situation!

I’m sure I’ll be sorry I asked, but what is wrong with Rosslyn? The new HB site is beautiful. That could have been a brand new neighborhood school in a community surrounded by multi family housing and around the corner from a metro stop (ideally it would be walkable for most but I think siting schools near public transit makes sense in our community).

If APS really caved to the parents, shame on them. I hope they repurpose that brand new school in the heart of Rosslyn as a true community resource. What a waste.

Yes HB Heights is amazing. That is NOT what the neighborhood school would have gotten. They were planning to include 300 more students for a 1000 student neighborhood school on the same plot. The airy spacious building would this be turned into a warehouse, with kids bussed from 3 miles away in rush hour Rosslyn traffic.

I actually live in Rosslyn in one of the high rises (my kids are in high school now), and there are very few kids in any of the multi family housing in Rosslyn, at least middle school or high school age. So majority of a Rosslyn middle school would come from near the Stratford site

Sure, but some of them would have come from Lyon Village, the neighborhood north of Langston, etc. There would have been walkers.

Meanwhile all the parents who insisted that their kids needed to be able to walk to MS and therefore needed the site on Vacation Lane shifted gears as soon as the decision was made and insisted the site needed to provide convenient dropoff lanes.

My kids would have gone to the Wilson Blvd 1300-student middle school, and I would have been fine with that.

Ok now I’m back on your side 🤣. I wasn’t here for this situation. But a neighborhood school in Rosslyn a block from the metro in a county that is getting incredibly urban seems like a no-brained. And yes I agree North Highlands, Lyon Village, and maybe even parts of Lyon Park could have used this school if it were a MS.

Do any of you live in the urban bits? There almost ZERO families there. It’s all DINKS and singles. That’s partly why Arlington has such a low percentage of households that have children (19%), because of all these urban households without kids. There almost no 3 bedrooms. Most apartments don’t have any playspace. The only families are in affordable housing, because they don’t have better options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Sycamore school is moving across the street into empty office space this summer. There are always creative ways to expand seats, even in Rosslyn.

*Across from HB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Sycamore school is moving across the street into empty office space this summer. There are always creative ways to expand seats, even in Rosslyn.

Maybe we could expand high school seats by enlarging the HBW program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

Do you not know the history? APS wanted to put a neighborhood school there. But the neighborhood around the now Hamm complained and lobbied very loudly, so APS caved, and they kicked HB to Rosslyn and put Hamm on HB's old site.

I remember this. The neighborhood around the then HB wanted the site, said their snowflakes couldn't go to school in Rosslyn, so they killed the plan to build a ms in Rosslyn. And we got Hamm.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people in that neighborhood who now may have to take a bus to Williamsburg to balance capacity. They caused this situation!

I’m sure I’ll be sorry I asked, but what is wrong with Rosslyn? The new HB site is beautiful. That could have been a brand new neighborhood school in a community surrounded by multi family housing and around the corner from a metro stop (ideally it would be walkable for most but I think siting schools near public transit makes sense in our community).

If APS really caved to the parents, shame on them. I hope they repurpose that brand new school in the heart of Rosslyn as a true community resource. What a waste.

Yes HB Heights is amazing. That is NOT what the neighborhood school would have gotten. They were planning to include 300 more students for a 1000 student neighborhood school on the same plot. The airy spacious building would this be turned into a warehouse, with kids bussed from 3 miles away in rush hour Rosslyn traffic.

I actually live in Rosslyn in one of the high rises (my kids are in high school now), and there are very few kids in any of the multi family housing in Rosslyn, at least middle school or high school age. So majority of a Rosslyn middle school would come from near the Stratford site

Sure, but some of them would have come from Lyon Village, the neighborhood north of Langston, etc. There would have been walkers.

Meanwhile all the parents who insisted that their kids needed to be able to walk to MS and therefore needed the site on Vacation Lane shifted gears as soon as the decision was made and insisted the site needed to provide convenient dropoff lanes.

My kids would have gone to the Wilson Blvd 1300-student middle school, and I would have been fine with that.

Ok now I’m back on your side 🤣. I wasn’t here for this situation. But a neighborhood school in Rosslyn a block from the metro in a county that is getting incredibly urban seems like a no-brained. And yes I agree North Highlands, Lyon Village, and maybe even parts of Lyon Park could have used this school if it were a MS.

Do any of you live in the urban bits? There almost ZERO families there. It’s all DINKS and singles. That’s partly why Arlington has such a low percentage of households that have children (19%), because of all these urban households without kids. There almost no 3 bedrooms. Most apartments don’t have any playspace. The only families are in affordable housing, because they don’t have better options.

They live in the affordable housing in Rosslyn. Close to 300 kids will be joining APS in 2025 from one affordable housing building in Rosslyn alone. This is where the county and APS need to collaborate. Affordable Housing on Langston is a pipe dream. We all know it’s going in Rosslyn. They need a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

Do you not know the history? APS wanted to put a neighborhood school there. But the neighborhood around the now Hamm complained and lobbied very loudly, so APS caved, and they kicked HB to Rosslyn and put Hamm on HB's old site.

I remember this. The neighborhood around the then HB wanted the site, said their snowflakes couldn't go to school in Rosslyn, so they killed the plan to build a ms in Rosslyn. And we got Hamm.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people in that neighborhood who now may have to take a bus to Williamsburg to balance capacity. They caused this situation!

I’m sure I’ll be sorry I asked, but what is wrong with Rosslyn? The new HB site is beautiful. That could have been a brand new neighborhood school in a community surrounded by multi family housing and around the corner from a metro stop (ideally it would be walkable for most but I think siting schools near public transit makes sense in our community).

If APS really caved to the parents, shame on them. I hope they repurpose that brand new school in the heart of Rosslyn as a true community resource. What a waste.

Yes HB Heights is amazing. That is NOT what the neighborhood school would have gotten. They were planning to include 300 more students for a 1000 student neighborhood school on the same plot. The airy spacious building would this be turned into a warehouse, with kids bussed from 3 miles away in rush hour Rosslyn traffic.

I actually live in Rosslyn in one of the high rises (my kids are in high school now), and there are very few kids in any of the multi family housing in Rosslyn, at least middle school or high school age. So majority of a Rosslyn middle school would come from near the Stratford site

Sure, but some of them would have come from Lyon Village, the neighborhood north of Langston, etc. There would have been walkers.

Meanwhile all the parents who insisted that their kids needed to be able to walk to MS and therefore needed the site on Vacation Lane shifted gears as soon as the decision was made and insisted the site needed to provide convenient dropoff lanes.

My kids would have gone to the Wilson Blvd 1300-student middle school, and I would have been fine with that.

Ok now I’m back on your side 🤣. I wasn’t here for this situation. But a neighborhood school in Rosslyn a block from the metro in a county that is getting incredibly urban seems like a no-brained. And yes I agree North Highlands, Lyon Village, and maybe even parts of Lyon Park could have used this school if it were a MS.

Do any of you live in the urban bits? There almost ZERO families there. It’s all DINKS and singles. That’s partly why Arlington has such a low percentage of households that have children (19%), because of all these urban households without kids. There almost no 3 bedrooms. Most apartments don’t have any playspace. The only families are in affordable housing, because they don’t have better options.

They live in the affordable housing in Rosslyn. Close to 300 kids will be joining APS in 2025 from one affordable housing building in Rosslyn alone. This is where the county and APS need to collaborate. Affordable Housing on Langston is a pipe dream. We all know it’s going in Rosslyn. They need a school.

Yes they need an ELEMENTARY school. Which is what should have gone where the Heights is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

Do you not know the history? APS wanted to put a neighborhood school there. But the neighborhood around the now Hamm complained and lobbied very loudly, so APS caved, and they kicked HB to Rosslyn and put Hamm on HB's old site.

I remember this. The neighborhood around the then HB wanted the site, said their snowflakes couldn't go to school in Rosslyn, so they killed the plan to build a ms in Rosslyn. And we got Hamm.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people in that neighborhood who now may have to take a bus to Williamsburg to balance capacity. They caused this situation!

I’m sure I’ll be sorry I asked, but what is wrong with Rosslyn? The new HB site is beautiful. That could have been a brand new neighborhood school in a community surrounded by multi family housing and around the corner from a metro stop (ideally it would be walkable for most but I think siting schools near public transit makes sense in our community).

If APS really caved to the parents, shame on them. I hope they repurpose that brand new school in the heart of Rosslyn as a true community resource. What a waste.

Yes HB Heights is amazing. That is NOT what the neighborhood school would have gotten. They were planning to include 300 more students for a 1000 student neighborhood school on the same plot. The airy spacious building would this be turned into a warehouse, with kids bussed from 3 miles away in rush hour Rosslyn traffic.

I actually live in Rosslyn in one of the high rises (my kids are in high school now), and there are very few kids in any of the multi family housing in Rosslyn, at least middle school or high school age. So majority of a Rosslyn middle school would come from near the Stratford site

Sure, but some of them would have come from Lyon Village, the neighborhood north of Langston, etc. There would have been walkers.

Meanwhile all the parents who insisted that their kids needed to be able to walk to MS and therefore needed the site on Vacation Lane shifted gears as soon as the decision was made and insisted the site needed to provide convenient dropoff lanes.

My kids would have gone to the Wilson Blvd 1300-student middle school, and I would have been fine with that.

Ok now I’m back on your side 🤣. I wasn’t here for this situation. But a neighborhood school in Rosslyn a block from the metro in a county that is getting incredibly urban seems like a no-brained. And yes I agree North Highlands, Lyon Village, and maybe even parts of Lyon Park could have used this school if it were a MS.

Do any of you live in the urban bits? There almost ZERO families there. It’s all DINKS and singles. That’s partly why Arlington has such a low percentage of households that have children (19%), because of all these urban households without kids. There almost no 3 bedrooms. Most apartments don’t have any playspace. The only families are in affordable housing, because they don’t have better options.

They live in the affordable housing in Rosslyn. Close to 300 kids will be joining APS in 2025 from one affordable housing building in Rosslyn alone. This is where the county and APS need to collaborate. Affordable Housing on Langston is a pipe dream. We all know it’s going in Rosslyn. They need a school.

Yes they need an ELEMENTARY school. Which is what should have gone where the Heights is.

Yes, totally agree!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

I love living in Arlington. But this is my biggest concern about staying here. My kids are young and already it’s clear we did not plan for the growth in the south and we are not planning for future growth. Seems like we are rearranging deck chairs on the titanic now because there’s no place to build new schools.

As a parent of a middle school and high school student, I’d say that these concerns have been front and center since we’ve been in the system. It’s mostly wasted energy and angst, in retrospect. My experience has been that school location and assignments etc. tend to work out well enough, even if you’re unlucky enough to be in a cohort that is forced to transition to a different school at some point (been there, done that). All if this distracts from the issue you should be worrying about, and that is the curriculum and the education your child is getting. Focus on what they’re learning or not learning; worry less about where they’ll be doing it.

PP. I’m concerned about the overcrowding in the middle school
And high schools and how much worse it’s going to get. And there’s no good relief for south Arlington elementaries. Career center will be a band aid for the high school crunch.

Not worried about moving schools. Worried about not having enough seats in schools with all the growth the county is planning for.

Nah, high school is easy. They will just add more seats to WL with rented office space and the buck property. Maybe some night courses and virtual.

Which Buck property? I thought the Buck Property that could be used by APS was in the Wakefield zone. Is there another one? I’m curious! I agree about the leased office space, night school, and virtual options. I think these are the solutions APS will use.

The Buck property is the one across the street from W-L. It’s currently zoned for light industrial uses, and IIRC the County owns the site, not APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

I love living in Arlington. But this is my biggest concern about staying here. My kids are young and already it’s clear we did not plan for the growth in the south and we are not planning for future growth. Seems like we are rearranging deck chairs on the titanic now because there’s no place to build new schools.

As a parent of a middle school and high school student, I’d say that these concerns have been front and center since we’ve been in the system. It’s mostly wasted energy and angst, in retrospect. My experience has been that school location and assignments etc. tend to work out well enough, even if you’re unlucky enough to be in a cohort that is forced to transition to a different school at some point (been there, done that). All if this distracts from the issue you should be worrying about, and that is the curriculum and the education your child is getting. Focus on what they’re learning or not learning; worry less about where they’ll be doing it.

PP. I’m concerned about the overcrowding in the middle school
And high schools and how much worse it’s going to get. And there’s no good relief for south Arlington elementaries. Career center will be a band aid for the high school crunch.

Not worried about moving schools. Worried about not having enough seats in schools with all the growth the county is planning for.

Nah, high school is easy. They will just add more seats to WL with rented office space and the buck property. Maybe some night courses and virtual.

Which Buck property? I thought the Buck Property that could be used by APS was in the Wakefield zone. Is there another one? I’m curious! I agree about the leased office space, night school, and virtual options. I think these are the solutions APS will use.

The Buck property is the one across the street from W-L. It’s currently zoned for light industrial uses, and IIRC the County owns the site, not APS.

You are correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

Do you not know the history? APS wanted to put a neighborhood school there. But the neighborhood around the now Hamm complained and lobbied very loudly, so APS caved, and they kicked HB to Rosslyn and put Hamm on HB's old site.

I remember this. The neighborhood around the then HB wanted the site, said their snowflakes couldn't go to school in Rosslyn, so they killed the plan to build a ms in Rosslyn. And we got Hamm.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people in that neighborhood who now may have to take a bus to Williamsburg to balance capacity. They caused this situation!

I’m sure I’ll be sorry I asked, but what is wrong with Rosslyn? The new HB site is beautiful. That could have been a brand new neighborhood school in a community surrounded by multi family housing and around the corner from a metro stop (ideally it would be walkable for most but I think siting schools near public transit makes sense in our community).

If APS really caved to the parents, shame on them. I hope they repurpose that brand new school in the heart of Rosslyn as a true community resource. What a waste.

Yes HB Heights is amazing. That is NOT what the neighborhood school would have gotten. They were planning to include 300 more students for a 1000 student neighborhood school on the same plot. The airy spacious building would this be turned into a warehouse, with kids bussed from 3 miles away in rush hour Rosslyn traffic.

I actually live in Rosslyn in one of the high rises (my kids are in high school now), and there are very few kids in any of the multi family housing in Rosslyn, at least middle school or high school age. So majority of a Rosslyn middle school would come from near the Stratford site

Sure, but some of them would have come from Lyon Village, the neighborhood north of Langston, etc. There would have been walkers.

Meanwhile all the parents who insisted that their kids needed to be able to walk to MS and therefore needed the site on Vacation Lane shifted gears as soon as the decision was made and insisted the site needed to provide convenient dropoff lanes.

My kids would have gone to the Wilson Blvd 1300-student middle school, and I would have been fine with that.

Adorbs. Most of Lyon Village send their MS and HS kids to private. Even more so if they had zero field space in a Rosslyn warehouse.

North of Langston? You mean the Highlands neighborhood near Dawson Terrace? There are even fewer families and older kids there, nestled between Lee Highway and GW parkway.

Okay, you would have been fine? Sure? Most parents weren’t.

Most parents would, but the loudest parents are still trying to piss and moan about any change that means their kids' school won't look like the schools they attended 30 or 40 years earlier.

If putting a 1300-seat MS on Wilson would have gotten more parents to send their kids private, that's OK with me. I don't think most of the current batch of MS and HS parents send their kids to private, judging by bus stops and yard signs, but the parents who can afford the $2M+ houses are definitely choosing private for their kids just starting school. I loved it when people with anti-MM, "school overcrowding" signs in their yards had private school bumper stickers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build new facilities in South Arlington, where the county needs them, already!

Stop messing around with boundaries and whatnot to try to alleviate crowding in the south by moving kids north. Please.

And I live in North Arlington.

They can’t. APS has stated In published reports that they are beyond the point of building their way out of the capacity crisis. They have to work with the facilities that they have. Even if they had the capital, it takes 10 years to bring a new school online. I would expect boundary changes, relocatable classrooms, and potentially leased office space for schools in the future. They can’t build anything new. It’s not even worth discussing.

It really defies all logic to say Arlington county cannot fix this. Sure different entities within Arlington county own different parcels of land, but come on. It is all one county government.

The overcrowding has been an issue for more than a decade. Poor planning then, and continued poor planning now, makes the problem worse. Leasing space for schools is a good idea though. It would be quicker than building a new school.

I agree that that they have been terrible planners. The money spent on HB Woodlawn- a school in Rosslyn surrounded by current and projected affordable housing units- blows my mind. Those kids aren’t in the walk zone for anywhere and we could have had some type of neighborhood school there rather than a fancy option school for rich people. But I do take APS at face when they say they aren’t building more schools. I think they are going to try and be creative with existing schools and possibly leading vacant office space. G_d help us.

Do you not know the history? APS wanted to put a neighborhood school there. But the neighborhood around the now Hamm complained and lobbied very loudly, so APS caved, and they kicked HB to Rosslyn and put Hamm on HB's old site.

I remember this. The neighborhood around the then HB wanted the site, said their snowflakes couldn't go to school in Rosslyn, so they killed the plan to build a ms in Rosslyn. And we got Hamm.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people in that neighborhood who now may have to take a bus to Williamsburg to balance capacity. They caused this situation!

I’m sure I’ll be sorry I asked, but what is wrong with Rosslyn? The new HB site is beautiful. That could have been a brand new neighborhood school in a community surrounded by multi family housing and around the corner from a metro stop (ideally it would be walkable for most but I think siting schools near public transit makes sense in our community).

If APS really caved to the parents, shame on them. I hope they repurpose that brand new school in the heart of Rosslyn as a true community resource. What a waste.

Yes HB Heights is amazing. That is NOT what the neighborhood school would have gotten. They were planning to include 300 more students for a 1000 student neighborhood school on the same plot. The airy spacious building would this be turned into a warehouse, with kids bussed from 3 miles away in rush hour Rosslyn traffic.

I actually live in Rosslyn in one of the high rises (my kids are in high school now), and there are very few kids in any of the multi family housing in Rosslyn, at least middle school or high school age. So majority of a Rosslyn middle school would come from near the Stratford site

Sure, but some of them would have come from Lyon Village, the neighborhood north of Langston, etc. There would have been walkers.

Meanwhile all the parents who insisted that their kids needed to be able to walk to MS and therefore needed the site on Vacation Lane shifted gears as soon as the decision was made and insisted the site needed to provide convenient dropoff lanes.

My kids would have gone to the Wilson Blvd 1300-student middle school, and I would have been fine with that.

Adorbs. Most of Lyon Village send their MS and HS kids to private. Even more so if they had zero field space in a Rosslyn warehouse.

North of Langston? You mean the Highlands neighborhood near Dawson Terrace? There are even fewer families and older kids there, nestled between Lee Highway and GW parkway.

Okay, you would have been fine? Sure? Most parents weren’t.

Most parents would, but the loudest parents are still trying to piss and moan about any change that means their kids' school won't look like the schools they attended 30 or 40 years earlier.

If putting a 1300-seat MS on Wilson would have gotten more parents to send their kids private, that's OK with me. I don't think most of the current batch of MS and HS parents send their kids to private, judging by bus stops and yard signs, but the parents who can afford the $2M+ houses are definitely choosing private for their kids just starting school. I loved it when people with anti-MM, "school overcrowding" signs in their yards had private school bumper stickers.

+1.

[Anonymous]

With the elem seats needed in Rosslyn, it doesn't make sense to close an elem school in North Arlington. They can send the Rosslyn overflow to Taylor and then shift everyone west but only IF they keep NES open.