Another choice school in N Arlington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does every forum have to turn into a N vs. S debate? Jeez. I want to start a new one about whether Reed should be a neighborhood school or not (and as someone whose kid would literally pass Reed to get to McKinley next year, I think it should).

Yes. When the county no longer has 11 schools with superior ratings and 11 with inferior ratings, the debate can end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does every forum have to turn into a N vs. S debate? Jeez. I want to start a new one about whether Reed should be a neighborhood school or not (and as someone whose kid would literally pass Reed to get to McKinley next year, I think it should).

Yes. When the county no longer has 11 schools with superior ratings and 11 with inferior ratings, the debate can end.

Then start a forum on that. This forum is about Reed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does every forum have to turn into a N vs. S debate? Jeez. I want to start a new one about whether Reed should be a neighborhood school or not (and as someone whose kid would literally pass Reed to get to McKinley next year, I think it should).

Yes. When the county no longer has 11 schools with superior ratings and 11 with inferior ratings, the debate can end.

Then start a forum on that. This forum is about Reed.

It's the same discussion.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I really think that parents who live in the key district specifically so their kids can attend ASFS will bus their kids to Reed if the school is moved. Not all, but many. Many of those kids are already bused to ASFS because the school in NOT in their neighborhood but rather is located inside Taylor boundaries. And if the team concept is maintained at a "new ASFS" then there will be many Taylor and Jamestown parents who have had basically no shot at ASFS who will be willing to bus their kids to Reed.

I am not taking a position one way or other about moving ASFS to Reed, and I think the team concept is currently completely broken. Moving ASFS to Reed and maintaining the team seems illogical but then it may be logical to the planners who have to find seats for elementary students.

I think the high school overcrowding is a much bigger issue and what goes into Reed pales in comparison.

Signed a Taylor parent who spent 16 consecutive years at ASFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I really think that parents who live in the key district specifically so their kids can attend ASFS will bus their kids to Reed if the school is moved. Not all, but many. Many of those kids are already bused to ASFS because the school in NOT in their neighborhood but rather is located inside Taylor boundaries. And if the team concept is maintained at a "new ASFS" then there will be many Taylor and Jamestown parents who have had basically no shot at ASFS who will be willing to bus their kids to Reed.

I am not taking a position one way or other about moving ASFS to Reed, and I think the team concept is currently completely broken. Moving ASFS to Reed and maintaining the team seems illogical but then it may be logical to the planners who have to find seats for elementary students.

I think the high school overcrowding is a much bigger issue and what goes into Reed pales in comparison.

Signed a Taylor parent who spent 16 consecutive years at ASFS.

Me again. The real issue is how much political clout ASFS has because the PTA and other groups have invested significant amounts of money on projects within the school, such as the new investigation station, geared for science. Years and years and big, big bucks. They will not want to leave that behind.

[Anonymous]

ASFS is not all that.

[Anonymous]

And again, just to be clear, if you look at the numbers on the APS spreadsheets, you will need 400-500 kids to voluntarily leave the ASF/Key and Long Branch schools to attend a choice school at Reed in Westover in order to meaningfully relieve projected overcrowding in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. The numbers are really clear if you look at the APS utilization statistics. I have no doubt that some kids will do that, but the question is will enough kids do that? Because if not, then you have the same overcrowded neighborhood school building in Clarendon, just with a new program inside. The enrollment spreadsheet is at the link below, and the column to look at is the 2020/21 numbers because that is the year they want to bring Reed on-line. (Note: These numbers don't seem to have been updated to reflect the new S. Arlington ES.)

I think there are too many people on this thread talking about anecdotal evidence and not looking hard enough at the data APS is working from when making these decisions. My question for those of you in the zones above though is whether you really think that many people will leave. Because reopening Reed as a choice school is being done by the School Board specifically to target overcrowding in the NE section of Arlington and the success of this plan depends on NE families moving. Reed is not being opened as a choice school because the School Board feels warm and fuzzy about expanding choice programs-- they are screwed because there is no more land in NE Arlington and Reed happens to be available.

http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/11/Capacity_Utilization_FallProjections16-25_Final_Revised_11172015.pdf

Also, look at Slide 8 in the CIP deck-- the NE 571 and NW 349 numbers are what the School Board is focused on. They think the S. Arlington numbers are taken care of by the new ES, based on the projected surplus in SE. I have heard discussion that the new choice school will likely give preference to North Arlington because of the capacity crisis there-- so don't bank on it helping the S. Arlington situation:

http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/110/G-2%20Supt%20Proposed%20CIP%20PPT%20Presentation.pdf

[Anonymous]

I would not bus my kid to Reed from Key. If ASFS became a regular neighborhood school, I'd send him there. I didn't chose ASFS for a special program, I chose it b/c I didn't want immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would not bus my kid to Reed from Key. If ASFS became a regular neighborhood school, I'd send him there. I didn't chose ASFS for a special program, I chose it b/c I didn't want immersion.

+1

Can we move Key program to the Reed space and convert the Key building to a regular neighborhood school. We would LOVE that. Walkable, not immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not bus my kid to Reed from Key. If ASFS became a regular neighborhood school, I'd send him there. I didn't chose ASFS for a special program, I chose it b/c I didn't want immersion.

+1

Can we move Key program to the Reed space and convert the Key building to a regular neighborhood school. We would LOVE that. Walkable, not immersion.

Those of you in ASF/Key need to start following the debate at a granular level ASAP. Because the rumblings around Reed are that they are looking to move the ASF program to Reed and blow it out to 725 students. They think that is the only way to attract away enough students in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor to relieve overcrowding. This thread is turning into a North vs. South debate, but the real question is specifically whether it makes sense to turn Reed into a choice school to alleviate overcrowding in the NE section of Arlington in 2020/21. Right now, the only residents who seem to be expressing an opinion are the people who live around Westover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ASFS is not all that.

???

[Anonymous]

If they want to make it a choice school why not make a second school in the ATS model? People seem willing to travel for that and the wait list might indicate how many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they want to make it a choice school why not make a second school in the ATS model? People seem willing to travel for that and the wait list might indicate how many.

It would have to be a 2nd ATS almost exclusively for kids in Roslyn-Ballston. That would make a lot of other people very unhappy.

[Anonymous]

ATS is pretty close to Reed. In fact, that would be 2 choice schools within the McK neighborhoods.

Immersion in Reed couldn't just pull from R/B, though. The neighborhoods near Reed have Claremont as their immersion school. They aren't going to stand for having their kids bused out to Claremont (if they can get a space) when there is a school in their own neighborhood doing the same thing.

It seems like a choice school is a very bad idea. If they are going to use Reed, it should be for neighborhood and blow up the boundaries. The Nottingham/Tuckahoe/Mckinley disaster is enough proof that a rework needs to happen anyway.

APS needs to stand by what they said at the CIP meeting and form a working group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they want to make it a choice school why not make a second school in the ATS model? People seem willing to travel for that and the wait list might indicate how many.

Half of ATS is filled with kids who live nearby. It doesn't actually draw from the whole county. I thought about immersion, but I didn't want the ride to Claremont, so we passed. I'd choose neighborhood over a long ride.