APS - new CIP proposal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Expanding Kenmore is only a good idea if boundaries are redrawn to bring in the families in single family homes. Otherwise it will just continue to be a school where the majority of families are economically disadvantaged.

OR, make the additional seats the middle school immersion seats. That opens 300 seats at Gunston. I'm sure the Kenmore boundary can be expanded northward or eastward or northeastward, whatever it needs to, to fill-up the other 200 new seats. But I think centralizing middle school immersion will encourage more to continue the program beyond elementary and a 500-seat expansion at Kenmore could easily and fairly quickly fill-up with just immersion.

I think this also helps to keep all the middle schools essentially the same size, since the immersion program could be made to be independent or partially independent within the larger school, giving the sense of the rest of the school being similar in size to the other middle schools. It also opens middle seats farther in South Arlington where they'll be needed. Hamm is still under-capacity and can take on students in the north.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Expanding Kenmore is only a good idea if boundaries are redrawn to bring in the families in single family homes. Otherwise it will just continue to be a school where the majority of families are economically disadvantaged.

OR, make the additional seats the middle school immersion seats. That opens 300 seats at Gunston. I'm sure the Kenmore boundary can be expanded northward or eastward or northeastward, whatever it needs to, to fill-up the other 200 new seats. But I think centralizing middle school immersion will encourage more to continue the program beyond elementary and a 500-seat expansion at Kenmore could easily and fairly quickly fill-up with just immersion.

I think this also helps to keep all the middle schools essentially the same size, since the immersion program could be made to be independent or partially independent within the larger school, giving the sense of the rest of the school being similar in size to the other middle schools. It also opens middle seats farther in South Arlington where they'll be needed. Hamm is still under-capacity and can take on students in the north.

I agree with this take. As long as the additional seats are not neighborhood. It’s not equitable or fair to supersize Kenmore, the only MS with a majority disadvantaged population. If the seats are Immersion and largely independent, it’s not as much an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Expanding Kenmore is only a good idea if boundaries are redrawn to bring in the families in single family homes. Otherwise it will just continue to be a school where the majority of families are economically disadvantaged.

OR, make the additional seats the middle school immersion seats. That opens 300 seats at Gunston. I'm sure the Kenmore boundary can be expanded northward or eastward or northeastward, whatever it needs to, to fill-up the other 200 new seats. But I think centralizing middle school immersion will encourage more to continue the program beyond elementary and a 500-seat expansion at Kenmore could easily and fairly quickly fill-up with just immersion.

I think this also helps to keep all the middle schools essentially the same size, since the immersion program could be made to be independent or partially independent within the larger school, giving the sense of the rest of the school being similar in size to the other middle schools. It also opens middle seats farther in South Arlington where they'll be needed. Hamm is still under-capacity and can take on students in the north.

+ 1

This is the kind of thinking we need from APS. They could also build MS Arlington Tech here if they are so concerned that it needs to exist, but with busing issues and cost, I would far rather just move an existing program here and grow it to stand-alone size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Expanding Kenmore is only a good idea if boundaries are redrawn to bring in the families in single family homes. Otherwise it will just continue to be a school where the majority of families are economically disadvantaged.

OR, make the additional seats the middle school immersion seats. That opens 300 seats at Gunston. I'm sure the Kenmore boundary can be expanded northward or eastward or northeastward, whatever it needs to, to fill-up the other 200 new seats. But I think centralizing middle school immersion will encourage more to continue the program beyond elementary and a 500-seat expansion at Kenmore could easily and fairly quickly fill-up with just immersion.

I think this also helps to keep all the middle schools essentially the same size, since the immersion program could be made to be independent or partially independent within the larger school, giving the sense of the rest of the school being similar in size to the other middle schools. It also opens middle seats farther in South Arlington where they'll be needed. Hamm is still under-capacity and can take on students in the north.

+ 1

This is the kind of thinking we need from APS. They could also build MS Arlington Tech here if they are so concerned that it needs to exist, but with busing issues and cost, I would far rather just move an existing program here and grow it to stand-alone size.

Does anyone know - is the School Board doing any more work sessions on the CIP or just proceeding to vote out a final proposal on Thursday? If they are just going to vote, what are they voting on, now that the CC mega-project won't work? Are they still just going with $185 million at the Career Center without any plan of what it will result in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Expanding Kenmore is only a good idea if boundaries are redrawn to bring in the families in single family homes. Otherwise it will just continue to be a school where the majority of families are economically disadvantaged.

OR, make the additional seats the middle school immersion seats. That opens 300 seats at Gunston. I'm sure the Kenmore boundary can be expanded northward or eastward or northeastward, whatever it needs to, to fill-up the other 200 new seats. But I think centralizing middle school immersion will encourage more to continue the program beyond elementary and a 500-seat expansion at Kenmore could easily and fairly quickly fill-up with just immersion.

I think this also helps to keep all the middle schools essentially the same size, since the immersion program could be made to be independent or partially independent within the larger school, giving the sense of the rest of the school being similar in size to the other middle schools. It also opens middle seats farther in South Arlington where they'll be needed. Hamm is still under-capacity and can take on students in the north.

+ 1

This is the kind of thinking we need from APS. They could also build MS Arlington Tech here if they are so concerned that it needs to exist, but with busing issues and cost, I would far rather just move an existing program here and grow it to stand-alone size.

Does anyone know - is the School Board doing any more work sessions on the CIP or just proceeding to vote out a final proposal on Thursday? If they are just going to vote, what are they voting on, now that the CC mega-project won't work? Are they still just going with $185 million at the Career Center without any plan of what it will result in?

Okay, so I might have answered my own question. The CIP PowerPoint for Thursday night is already posted: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/C44K9X50D84A/$file/E-1%20FY2022-2024%20Capital%20Improvement%20Plan.pdf

It shows an allocation of $31.22 million of bond money to "planning" for the Career Center project to add as many secondary seats as possible but everything is really TBD. This is slide 11. We could have a 500+ seat addition at Kenmore for $26 million, but we are allowing over $30 million for CC planning? Or is the $31.22 million the total budget for the Career Center project to get the building finished, and then they are holding back remaining budget for other future projects? I think the latter, but am not certain. If it is $31.22 million for all design and construction, it seems unlikely that Arlington Tech will expand much.

And then perhaps slide 12 is showing $2 million allocated to other capacity planning? Such as additions to Kenmore or Gunston, perhaps? I wonder if they are going to do another CIP next year to get this sorted out. We are running out of time if they want to get seats online by 2025 or 2026.

APS tried to go with this "solve the entire capacity crisis at the Career Center" plan way back in 2017. It has taken them 4 years with no construction on site to figure out that it won't work. The Arlington Tech students are going to have to wait another 4+ years to have adequate facilities. What a waste of time and money.