APS DHMS walk zone nuclear option

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

You're not very informed.

APS already has a plan to have enough seats at the high school level.

Also WMS is already open to neighborhood transfers.

Haha, their “plan” is the expectation that population will decline, and if not they will keep cramming kids into WL, and have already documented night shift and remote learning plans

At some point they will probably try this and then be SHOCKED at the abysmally low test scores and high truancy levels of those who opt in.

Honestly I used to hate the idea of night school and virtual school, but I kind of think of it like work from home. Some kids might do really well in that environment, and some are going to choose it to disengage. And these are the kids who would be disengaged anywhere. So maybe getting them out of the overcrowded classrooms and letting them do whatever at home or in night school wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. My 2 cents.

Hard disagree. If m sure there are kids for whim virtual in some classes would be nice. Kids on the margin who need extra encouragement to engage absolutely should be in the classroom.

Then hopefully their parents wouldn’t allow them to opt in to virtual (I personally don’t believe it will be forced upon anyone). But if APS doesn’t have enough physical seats and is asked to do more with less, I’m ok with the potential negative consequence of night and virtual school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

You're not very informed.

APS already has a plan to have enough seats at the high school level.

Also WMS is already open to neighborhood transfers.

Haha, their “plan” is the expectation that population will decline, and if not they will keep cramming kids into WL, and have already documented night shift and remote learning plans

At some point they will probably try this and then be SHOCKED at the abysmally low test scores and high truancy levels of those who opt in.

Honestly I used to hate the idea of night school and virtual school, but I kind of think of it like work from home. Some kids might do really well in that environment, and some are going to choose it to disengage. And these are the kids who would be disengaged anywhere. So maybe getting them out of the overcrowded classrooms and letting them do whatever at home or in night school wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. My 2 cents.

Hard disagree. If m sure there are kids for whim virtual in some classes would be nice. Kids on the margin who need extra encouragement to engage absolutely should be in the classroom.

Then hopefully their parents wouldn’t allow them to opt in to virtual (I personally don’t believe it will be forced upon anyone). But if APS doesn’t have enough physical seats and is asked to do more with less, I’m ok with the potential negative consequence of night and virtual school.

But they have 300 physical seats for high school tied up for HBW middle schoolers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

You're not very informed.

APS already has a plan to have enough seats at the high school level.

Also WMS is already open to neighborhood transfers.

Haha, their “plan” is the expectation that population will decline, and if not they will keep cramming kids into WL, and have already documented night shift and remote learning plans

At some point they will probably try this and then be SHOCKED at the abysmally low test scores and high truancy levels of those who opt in.

Honestly I used to hate the idea of night school and virtual school, but I kind of think of it like work from home. Some kids might do really well in that environment, and some are going to choose it to disengage. And these are the kids who would be disengaged anywhere. So maybe getting them out of the overcrowded classrooms and letting them do whatever at home or in night school wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. My 2 cents.

Hard disagree. If m sure there are kids for whim virtual in some classes would be nice. Kids on the margin who need extra encouragement to engage absolutely should be in the classroom.

Then hopefully their parents wouldn’t allow them to opt in to virtual (I personally don’t believe it will be forced upon anyone). But if APS doesn’t have enough physical seats and is asked to do more with less, I’m ok with the potential negative consequence of night and virtual school.

But they have 300 physical seats for high school tied up for HBW middle schoolers.

And I’m fine with them paring down option schools, especially HB Woodlawn, which is located in Rosslyn, where a lot of affordable housing and CAF buildings are located or planned. But I don’t see them axing HB Woodlawn, and my comment was made in the context of an APS that still has option schools.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t they just let the Hamm walk zone stay at Hamm and bus everyone else to Williamsburg? Wouldn’t this keep everyone happy?

Yes. And it's consistent with APS diversity goals.

I don’t see how recreating the Rosslyn Island to Williamsburg is fine but moving immersion to Williamsburg is a nonstarter. It’s the exact same issues.

No, it's not. Immersion is a countywide program and you need to get students to Williamsburg from all over the County. Rosslyn island to Williamsburg is just a few buses of kids from the NE quadrant to the NW quadrant. Also, those Rosslyn students would be assigned to WMS; whereas immersion students have to choose to continue in the program and many have a far more convenient default and therefore more likely to opt-out....defeating the purpose (alleviating crowding in south Arlington) of moving the program.

Immersion runs busses all over the county no matter where it’s located. Also, why should we care that immersion students have to choose between an inconvenient special program and a more convenient neighborhood option? It’s optional! We should be prioritizing the default. It’s not like Gunston is convenient for people who live near Rosslyn and Courthouse but according to the map they still attend. Williamsburg is projected to be at 65% in a few years. We could just move immersion there and be done without adding bus runs for walk zone kids or creating islands.

OK. Go ahead with that plan and see how it works. I'll put my money down on "it isn't going to play out the way you think it will."

Yes, we already heard this. “Moving Key will kill the school. Families won’t be willing to travel to a new location.”

And yet. 92% of the students moved to the new location. Of the 49 that didn’t, 20 moved out of the county entirely. If the program is truly strong and valuable, people will follow it.

It’s not just about current families moving to a new location. It’s about needing native Spanish speakers for the model to work moving forward. Been to Williamsburg lately? How do you think that will work out?

For those of you rabid to put a stop to any change, this idea isn’t it.

If Spanish speakers don’t want to enroll their children in Immersion, moving to closer won’t work either. I have heard exactly 0 parents IRL say the reason they don’t want Immersion is location. And even telling them that their children’s outcomes will be better isn’t doing the trick. Maybe they don’t want the program? And it’s a bit patronizing to try to make them want it because it’s for their own good.

Option programs need to go where there is space and that’s that. The rest of the county shouldn’t be shuffled around and disrupted for an OPTIONAL program.

Hard disagree. What works best for any school also should be a top consideration. Options are just as real schools as neighborhood, no less.

They moved around the ES to make space for neighborhood students, and it didn’t destroy any programs. Maybe made them less convenient, but I don’t think the convenience for kids in optional programs should be prioritized over, for instance, furthering the demographic disparity at Kenmore, and I say this as an option parent.

DP. I don't think the convenience of any kids should be prioritized over demographic diversity in all of our schools.

+1000. And at a minimum those option schools should have spots allowed for a more representative portion of students receiving Free and Reduced Lunch. The HB Woodlawn stats are pitiful. If they supposedly can’t work it out for the neighborhood schools, they must do it for the lottery schools. Their diversity priority is a joke.

I don't think you have a very good grasp of the legalities involved here.

APS’s own policy requires them to consider demographics when creating school boundaries. This isn’t illegal.

That's very different from admissions to choice schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

APS needs more option programs for kids in middle school, not less. A school system needs to be driven by more than capacity planning. You know, like education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

You're not very informed.

APS already has a plan to have enough seats at the high school level.

Also WMS is already open to neighborhood transfers.

Haha, their “plan” is the expectation that population will decline, and if not they will keep cramming kids into WL, and have already documented night shift and remote learning plans

What documented night shift and remote learning plans? Link please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

You're not very informed.

APS already has a plan to have enough seats at the high school level.

Also WMS is already open to neighborhood transfers.

Haha, their “plan” is the expectation that population will decline, and if not they will keep cramming kids into WL, and have already documented night shift and remote learning plans

They added a lot of seats at W-L. You oppose filling them?

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t they just let the Hamm walk zone stay at Hamm and bus everyone else to Williamsburg? Wouldn’t this keep everyone happy?

Yes. And it's consistent with APS diversity goals.

I don’t see how recreating the Rosslyn Island to Williamsburg is fine but moving immersion to Williamsburg is a nonstarter. It’s the exact same issues.

No, it's not. Immersion is a countywide program and you need to get students to Williamsburg from all over the County. Rosslyn island to Williamsburg is just a few buses of kids from the NE quadrant to the NW quadrant. Also, those Rosslyn students would be assigned to WMS; whereas immersion students have to choose to continue in the program and many have a far more convenient default and therefore more likely to opt-out....defeating the purpose (alleviating crowding in south Arlington) of moving the program.

Immersion runs busses all over the county no matter where it’s located. Also, why should we care that immersion students have to choose between an inconvenient special program and a more convenient neighborhood option? It’s optional! We should be prioritizing the default. It’s not like Gunston is convenient for people who live near Rosslyn and Courthouse but according to the map they still attend. Williamsburg is projected to be at 65% in a few years. We could just move immersion there and be done without adding bus runs for walk zone kids or creating islands.

OK. Go ahead with that plan and see how it works. I'll put my money down on "it isn't going to play out the way you think it will."

Yes, we already heard this. “Moving Key will kill the school. Families won’t be willing to travel to a new location.”

And yet. 92% of the students moved to the new location. Of the 49 that didn’t, 20 moved out of the county entirely. If the program is truly strong and valuable, people will follow it.

It’s not just about current families moving to a new location. It’s about needing native Spanish speakers for the model to work moving forward. Been to Williamsburg lately? How do you think that will work out?

For those of you rabid to put a stop to any change, this idea isn’t it.

If Spanish speakers don’t want to enroll their children in Immersion, moving to closer won’t work either. I have heard exactly 0 parents IRL say the reason they don’t want Immersion is location. And even telling them that their children’s outcomes will be better isn’t doing the trick. Maybe they don’t want the program? And it’s a bit patronizing to try to make them want it because it’s for their own good.

Option programs need to go where there is space and that’s that. The rest of the county shouldn’t be shuffled around and disrupted for an OPTIONAL program.

Hard disagree. What works best for any school also should be a top consideration. Options are just as real schools as neighborhood, no less.

They moved around the ES to make space for neighborhood students, and it didn’t destroy any programs. Maybe made them less convenient, but I don’t think the convenience for kids in optional programs should be prioritized over, for instance, furthering the demographic disparity at Kenmore, and I say this as an option parent.

DP. I don't think the convenience of any kids should be prioritized over demographic diversity in all of our schools.

+1000. And at a minimum those option schools should have spots allowed for a more representative portion of students receiving Free and Reduced Lunch. The HB Woodlawn stats are pitiful. If they supposedly can’t work it out for the neighborhood schools, they must do it for the lottery schools. Their diversity priority is a joke.

I don't think you have a very good grasp of the legalities involved here.

APS’s own policy requires them to consider demographics when creating school boundaries. This isn’t illegal.

That's very different from admissions to choice schools.

What specifically do you think is illegal? APS used to allow neighborhood kids a preference at certain option schools. It hasn’t always been a straight lottery. I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as you think.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t they just let the Hamm walk zone stay at Hamm and bus everyone else to Williamsburg? Wouldn’t this keep everyone happy?

Yes. And it's consistent with APS diversity goals.

I don’t see how recreating the Rosslyn Island to Williamsburg is fine but moving immersion to Williamsburg is a nonstarter. It’s the exact same issues.

No, it's not. Immersion is a countywide program and you need to get students to Williamsburg from all over the County. Rosslyn island to Williamsburg is just a few buses of kids from the NE quadrant to the NW quadrant. Also, those Rosslyn students would be assigned to WMS; whereas immersion students have to choose to continue in the program and many have a far more convenient default and therefore more likely to opt-out....defeating the purpose (alleviating crowding in south Arlington) of moving the program.

Immersion runs busses all over the county no matter where it’s located. Also, why should we care that immersion students have to choose between an inconvenient special program and a more convenient neighborhood option? It’s optional! We should be prioritizing the default. It’s not like Gunston is convenient for people who live near Rosslyn and Courthouse but according to the map they still attend. Williamsburg is projected to be at 65% in a few years. We could just move immersion there and be done without adding bus runs for walk zone kids or creating islands.

OK. Go ahead with that plan and see how it works. I'll put my money down on "it isn't going to play out the way you think it will."

Yes, we already heard this. “Moving Key will kill the school. Families won’t be willing to travel to a new location.”

And yet. 92% of the students moved to the new location. Of the 49 that didn’t, 20 moved out of the county entirely. If the program is truly strong and valuable, people will follow it.

It’s not just about current families moving to a new location. It’s about needing native Spanish speakers for the model to work moving forward. Been to Williamsburg lately? How do you think that will work out?

For those of you rabid to put a stop to any change, this idea isn’t it.

If Spanish speakers don’t want to enroll their children in Immersion, moving to closer won’t work either. I have heard exactly 0 parents IRL say the reason they don’t want Immersion is location. And even telling them that their children’s outcomes will be better isn’t doing the trick. Maybe they don’t want the program? And it’s a bit patronizing to try to make them want it because it’s for their own good.

Option programs need to go where there is space and that’s that. The rest of the county shouldn’t be shuffled around and disrupted for an OPTIONAL program.

Hard disagree. What works best for any school also should be a top consideration. Options are just as real schools as neighborhood, no less.

They moved around the ES to make space for neighborhood students, and it didn’t destroy any programs. Maybe made them less convenient, but I don’t think the convenience for kids in optional programs should be prioritized over, for instance, furthering the demographic disparity at Kenmore, and I say this as an option parent.

DP. I don't think the convenience of any kids should be prioritized over demographic diversity in all of our schools.

+1000. And at a minimum those option schools should have spots allowed for a more representative portion of students receiving Free and Reduced Lunch. The HB Woodlawn stats are pitiful. If they supposedly can’t work it out for the neighborhood schools, they must do it for the lottery schools. Their diversity priority is a joke.

I don't think you have a very good grasp of the legalities involved here.

APS’s own policy requires them to consider demographics when creating school boundaries. This isn’t illegal.

That's very different from admissions to choice schools.

If anything is illegal, it’s the barriers to attending HBW that make the demographics so skewed for that school. I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

You're not very informed.

APS already has a plan to have enough seats at the high school level.

Also WMS is already open to neighborhood transfers.

There are a lot of hoops for neighborhood transfers and it is not well advertised. There are lots of families at the other MSs who are not happy who would jump at opportunity to switch if they knew about it and was easy to do so. APS plans are lol. Smaller schools are better and the high schools are too big.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

APS needs more option programs for kids in middle school, not less. A school system needs to be driven by more than capacity planning. You know, like education.

No.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don’t they just let the Hamm walk zone stay at Hamm and bus everyone else to Williamsburg? Wouldn’t this keep everyone happy?

Yes. And it's consistent with APS diversity goals.

I don’t see how recreating the Rosslyn Island to Williamsburg is fine but moving immersion to Williamsburg is a nonstarter. It’s the exact same issues.

No, it's not. Immersion is a countywide program and you need to get students to Williamsburg from all over the County. Rosslyn island to Williamsburg is just a few buses of kids from the NE quadrant to the NW quadrant. Also, those Rosslyn students would be assigned to WMS; whereas immersion students have to choose to continue in the program and many have a far more convenient default and therefore more likely to opt-out....defeating the purpose (alleviating crowding in south Arlington) of moving the program.

Immersion runs busses all over the county no matter where it’s located. Also, why should we care that immersion students have to choose between an inconvenient special program and a more convenient neighborhood option? It’s optional! We should be prioritizing the default. It’s not like Gunston is convenient for people who live near Rosslyn and Courthouse but according to the map they still attend. Williamsburg is projected to be at 65% in a few years. We could just move immersion there and be done without adding bus runs for walk zone kids or creating islands.

OK. Go ahead with that plan and see how it works. I'll put my money down on "it isn't going to play out the way you think it will."

Yes, we already heard this. “Moving Key will kill the school. Families won’t be willing to travel to a new location.”

And yet. 92% of the students moved to the new location. Of the 49 that didn’t, 20 moved out of the county entirely. If the program is truly strong and valuable, people will follow it.

It’s not just about current families moving to a new location. It’s about needing native Spanish speakers for the model to work moving forward. Been to Williamsburg lately? How do you think that will work out?

For those of you rabid to put a stop to any change, this idea isn’t it.

If Spanish speakers don’t want to enroll their children in Immersion, moving to closer won’t work either. I have heard exactly 0 parents IRL say the reason they don’t want Immersion is location. And even telling them that their children’s outcomes will be better isn’t doing the trick. Maybe they don’t want the program? And it’s a bit patronizing to try to make them want it because it’s for their own good.

Option programs need to go where there is space and that’s that. The rest of the county shouldn’t be shuffled around and disrupted for an OPTIONAL program.

Hard disagree. What works best for any school also should be a top consideration. Options are just as real schools as neighborhood, no less.

They moved around the ES to make space for neighborhood students, and it didn’t destroy any programs. Maybe made them less convenient, but I don’t think the convenience for kids in optional programs should be prioritized over, for instance, furthering the demographic disparity at Kenmore, and I say this as an option parent.

DP. I don't think the convenience of any kids should be prioritized over demographic diversity in all of our schools.

+1000. And at a minimum those option schools should have spots allowed for a more representative portion of students receiving Free and Reduced Lunch. The HB Woodlawn stats are pitiful. If they supposedly can’t work it out for the neighborhood schools, they must do it for the lottery schools. Their diversity priority is a joke.

I don't think you have a very good grasp of the legalities involved here.

APS’s own policy requires them to consider demographics when creating school boundaries. This isn’t illegal.

That's very different from admissions to choice schools.

If anything is illegal, it’s the barriers to attending HBW that make the demographics so skewed for that school. I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing.

I don't think this is accurate. The most limiting factor is HBW's size. The admissions, however, proportionally allocate seats to every single elementary school. You might be able to argue that the ensuing mathematics lead to more wealthy students than poor. But when a school like Carlin Springs is allocated seats and nobody takes them, that's not the admissions policy at fault. That's clearly lack of interest for whatever reason(s). Which suggests APS needs to do a better job selling the program to whatever groups are under-represented at HBW.

I don't think the HB system is the best; but it is better than a voluntary lottery system. There are two methods I think are better:

1. Opt-out of lottery, rather than opt-in. Everyone's name goes in the hat. Equal chance for every individual student. (No sibling preferences, especially 1 = 3 at HB when one triplet gets in, the other 2 automatically get in. Yes, I know it doesn't take away the # of lottery seats; but it triples the chances of getting in for 3 students merely because they're triplets.)

2. Admissions criteria (goals and recruitment efforts) consisting of 30% FRL-eligible students and 50/50 male/female. (or whatever ratios represent the student body at-large)
I absolutely see legal challenges to that, especially when it's for a special program. That's another reason why I would support this type of enrollment process county-wide for all schools - then it isn't a situation in which some people get something and certain other people don't; everyone's getting treated the same way and everyone has much more similar learning environments and resources. Everyone gets bused from all over, some still end up walking; not "us walk" and "them bus."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

You're not very informed.

APS already has a plan to have enough seats at the high school level.

Also WMS is already open to neighborhood transfers.

Haha, their “plan” is the expectation that population will decline, and if not they will keep cramming kids into WL, and have already documented night shift and remote learning plans

They added a lot of seats at W-L. You oppose filling them?

I opposed the supersizing of WL. It will degrade the experience to keep increasing the student population in such a small footprint site.

That said, we needed a 4th high school, not 600 seats, so once we burn through the 600 seat capacity, and they struggle to lure students to ArlVoTech, we will end up with remote learning (proven to “work” already) and night shift classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

You're not very informed.

APS already has a plan to have enough seats at the high school level.

Also WMS is already open to neighborhood transfers.

Haha, their “plan” is the expectation that population will decline, and if not they will keep cramming kids into WL, and have already documented night shift and remote learning plans

They added a lot of seats at W-L. You oppose filling them?

I opposed the supersizing of WL. It will degrade the experience to keep increasing the student population in such a small footprint site.

That said, we needed a 4th high school, not 600 seats, so once we burn through the 600 seat capacity, and they struggle to lure students to ArlVoTech, we will end up with remote learning (proven to “work” already) and night shift classes.

They are not struggling to lure students to AT.
It's a small program, but will be expanded a bit with the redevelopment of the site. They won't struggle to fill those additional seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make HB high school only to alleviate crowding at other high schools. Move immersion to WMS. If haven’t seen a legitimate reason not to move it to WMS but if one exists, open up WMS for kids outside the boundary to opt-in. Lots of families looking to leave Gunston and Kenmore. Not a convenient location but opt-ins would need to figure out their own transit.

You're not very informed.

APS already has a plan to have enough seats at the high school level.

Also WMS is already open to neighborhood transfers.

Haha, their “plan” is the expectation that population will decline, and if not they will keep cramming kids into WL, and have already documented night shift and remote learning plans

At some point they will probably try this and then be SHOCKED at the abysmally low test scores and high truancy levels of those who opt in.

Honestly I used to hate the idea of night school and virtual school, but I kind of think of it like work from home. Some kids might do really well in that environment, and some are going to choose it to disengage. And these are the kids who would be disengaged anywhere. So maybe getting them out of the overcrowded classrooms and letting them do whatever at home or in night school wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. My 2 cents.

Hard disagree. If m sure there are kids for whim virtual in some classes would be nice. Kids on the margin who need extra encouragement to engage absolutely should be in the classroom.

Then hopefully their parents wouldn’t allow them to opt in to virtual (I personally don’t believe it will be forced upon anyone). But if APS doesn’t have enough physical seats and is asked to do more with less, I’m ok with the potential negative consequence of night and virtual school.

I was responding to the poster saying virtual was fine because some kids will disengage even if in person. I think kids who can be coaxed to participate (which I'd argue is all kids) have a better chance at staying involved in person. But I am curious what negative consequences of night and virtual school you are comfortable with for 14-18 year olds.