Which APS elementary schools should close?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we vote to get rid of certain principals instead of closing schools? As long as we’re voting.

CG

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are only so many highly rated elementary schools in Arlington and you guys begrudge them or advocate for them to be closed? 100% agree, you guys are nuts.

DP
I begrudge them because they haven’t demonstrated demand to warrant such an expansion at the K-8 level. It’s a literal waste of money to build seats that may not be occupied. If APS wants to expand Pre-K access for lower income kids by expanding MPSA and can figure out how to fund it, meaning charging $0 for income-qualified families, I’m all for it! Otherwise I am not in favor, especially when the VPI program is being cut.

VPI is being cut? I didn’t know that. Can you explain?

Enrollment has not bounced back since COVID so I’m not sure this is a bad decision. I know our school is cutting a class

It’s not based on enrollment. The state cut funding and APS didn’t budget to make up the difference. I think they thought the County would make up difference but they did not.

I doubt this will affect ATS lottery in a meaningful way. I don’t know how they determined which VPI classes would close, but since ATS has the highest number of applicants, it’s probably not going to be there.

At my specific school the cut is due to several years of low enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all sound nuts. It sounds like you believe MPSA has some grand secret scheme to take over the world.

AMAC has been well organized for years. You’re either part of the montessori mafia or you haven’t paid much attention.

Good for them. I wish my shitty neighborhood school had parents who cared this much.

Ironically, you would have more parents who cared at your neighborhood school if APS would stop creating so many option schools for families to flee to.

Nope they would just move or send kids to private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we vote to get rid of certain principals instead of closing schools? As long as we’re voting.

CG

We don’t know who you’re talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we vote to get rid of certain principals instead of closing schools? As long as we’re voting.

CG

We don’t know who you’re talking about.

MPSA principal. Get rid of her. Then close MPSA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we vote to get rid of certain principals instead of closing schools? As long as we’re voting.

CG

We don’t know who you’re talking about.

MPSA principal. Get rid of her. Then close MPSA.

MPSA (and APS for that matter) won't tell you this but... two weeks after "earning" employee of the year, she slandered one of the kindest and most dedicated bus drivers APS had working for them and had him kicked off the route. He was very well-liked. As if she (and MPSA) were not already entitled enough, getting that award made her even more "special."
MPSA was only created for the folks in South Arlington who wanted the benefits of a private school education for their kids without the cost. They are for themselves only and not for APS. Tear the whole thing down!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all sound nuts. It sounds like you believe MPSA has some grand secret scheme to take over the world.

AMAC has been well organized for years. You’re either part of the montessori mafia or you haven’t paid much attention.

Good for them. I wish my shitty neighborhood school had parents who cared this much.

Ironically, you would have more parents who cared at your neighborhood school if APS would stop creating so many option schools for families to flee to.

Nope they would just move or send kids to private.

Not really, most families are still using APS and most people don't really want to pay for private, even those families that can. This is something that people say out of self-interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all sound nuts. It sounds like you believe MPSA has some grand secret scheme to take over the world.

AMAC has been well organized for years. You’re either part of the montessori mafia or you haven’t paid much attention.

Good for them. I wish my shitty neighborhood school had parents who cared this much.

Ironically, you would have more parents who cared at your neighborhood school if APS would stop creating so many option schools for families to flee to.

Nope they would just move or send kids to private.

Please move or send your kids to private schools. No one will miss these families or their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MPSA should close. No neighborhood school should be asked to close for an option school that serves the whitest and wealthiest students fleeing their south Arlington schools.

Close MPSA and give neighborhood schools what they need to succeed.

YES!
I've tried to be tolerant and accepting of MPSA over the years. But I'm done. Guess it doesn't matter, though, since they're getting what they want. The only thing left is expanding to the high school years. But after they get everything at the CC site, does anyone believe there's any chance they won't ultimately get that, too?

I’m so happy you lost and so happy for alol option schools, not just MPSA. I totally disagree with you and am happy that neighborhood schools finally have to get in line and accept that choice programs should get their due when it is their time. I’m tired of local ES schools get g built and seeing who has the better slide while a school like MPSA has THE worst ES building in the system. There are no second-class schools in this county and never should be. Get over yourselves, I have.

Hi back! Your threat of ill will is empty...it was always there. You NArl people only ever cared about your own school. I've seen this through the decades. Now there is a coming fight based on who should get renovations and I am happy that all of your neighborhood schools will be ranked on merit of which buildings need what - and not because you're some Mayberry fantasyland that deserves higher billing over other Mayberry schools.
P.S. - to anyone else here accusing MPSA of "angling" for the CC like it's a Cardinal/Fleet/Discovery or otherwise opulent new building, you must be new here or a Trump-like voter who is easily influenced. By the time Montessori moves in to the CC building, it will be more than a decade after they left Drew. And - go ahead and mark my words and come back to check in three years - it won't be a gleaming new building with a slide in the lobby. Rather, it will still be a barely renovated 60-year old brutalist shell. If you think there was a deep conspiracy of people who pulled marionette strings and sacrificed political lives just to come up with that, you must be daft. Also, good luck with whatever you're going to try to push for your own school because I bet you have even less support ...because nobody cares about your bespoke neighborhood Mayberry school but you, especially not other people at other bespoke neighborhood Mayberry schools. You all are going to spend the next decade eating each other until you figure out what the common good means again, including for other schools like choice.

Hi MPSA parent! We all know you angled to get the Patrick Henry building (which should have been torn down years ago) to get your dream one later. You won though for now. But you also have a lot of ill will from the wider community. APS is in a worse place because of your truly selfish advocacy. Sorry not sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MPSA begging for a new building when they would have done anything, even accept a substandard building to get out of Drew, is rich

I thought Drew didn't want MPSA in their building, it made more sense to move a county-wide program to a more central Arlington location, and APS wanted to fill Drew with S Arlington kids from nearby overcrowded schools. Or am I misremembering the reasons for moving MPSA?

You're not wrong. The move was sparked by desperate need for seats in SA and Montessori needed to leave Drew.
Still, during the process of determining where now Fleet should be built, Montessori pushed to leave Drew and insisted they would "take anything" - they didn't care, just "anything" that gave them their own space. I distinctly remember MO saying that more than once. Montessori knew there was no way they were going to get the new school that was going to be built in SA; so they were "happy" to "Take anything" and move out of Drew. That was merely step one on the road to their custom-built new facility and vision for preK-12 program.

Despite Montessori's immediate complaints about the Patrick Henry building once they moved into it, they were probably glad it was in such bad shape because it would support their advocacy for the next step: a brand new building of their own.

All this current jabber about how MPSA is a south arlington school and must stay in SA? BS. They were pushing hard to get the renovated Ed Center space - that's not in south Arlington. Now they suddenly have to stay south of 50.

Don't expect them to be done asking for more once they're in the renovated CC building.

Baloney. MPSA parent here: we have absolutely no plan or proposal for a K-12 OR any other building beyond CC. When we moved out of Drew, we didn't even have a plan for CC...that was new to us after moving into Henry. You have to remember that at the time the planning occurred for Drew and Montessori to split, it still seemed like NArl was booming. There was talk of moving Montessori into Carlin Springs maybe. But Henry quickly became the landing spot because the Henry/Fleet community got excited to get there new building finally. Yes, we wanted our own school, but we did say anywhere and literally we made it work at Henry. Who else would have moved into that building?! Now you criticize us because the Henry building is failing? Of course our time was limited there, just like it was for the Fleet community that was happy to move out. The fact is the Montessori school keeps growing with other people's leftover buildings. I get that you might hate us, but whatever you accuse us of "angling" for is actually the thing people like you readily discard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we vote to get rid of certain principals instead of closing schools? As long as we’re voting.

CG

We don’t know who you’re talking about.

MPSA principal. Get rid of her. Then close MPSA.

MPSA (and APS for that matter) won't tell you this but... two weeks after "earning" employee of the year, she slandered one of the kindest and most dedicated bus drivers APS had working for them and had him kicked off the route. He was very well-liked. As if she (and MPSA) were not already entitled enough, getting that award made her even more "special."
MPSA was only created for the folks in South Arlington who wanted the benefits of a private school education for their kids without the cost. They are for themselves only and not for APS. Tear the whole thing down!

This post is slander. I challenge you to go to ArlNow.com or APE and make a case for this using your own name. You are nothing but a slanderer if you don't. I absolutely challenge you, coward.
I don't expect everyone at every school to love their principal. I don;t even know the principal at my kid's MS. But this post here is the definition of slander.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MPSA should close. No neighborhood school should be asked to close for an option school that serves the whitest and wealthiest students fleeing their south Arlington schools.

Close MPSA and give neighborhood schools what they need to succeed.

YES!
I've tried to be tolerant and accepting of MPSA over the years. But I'm done. Guess it doesn't matter, though, since they're getting what they want. The only thing left is expanding to the high school years. But after they get everything at the CC site, does anyone believe there's any chance they won't ultimately get that, too?

I’m so happy you lost and so happy for alol option schools, not just MPSA. I totally disagree with you and am happy that neighborhood schools finally have to get in line and accept that choice programs should get their due when it is their time. I’m tired of local ES schools get g built and seeing who has the better slide while a school like MPSA has THE worst ES building in the system. There are no second-class schools in this county and never should be. Get over yourselves, I have.

Hi back! Your threat of ill will is empty...it was always there. You NArl people only ever cared about your own school. I've seen this through the decades. Now there is a coming fight based on who should get renovations and I am happy that all of your neighborhood schools will be ranked on merit of which buildings need what - and not because you're some Mayberry fantasyland that deserves higher billing over other Mayberry schools.
P.S. - to anyone else here accusing MPSA of "angling" for the CC like it's a Cardinal/Fleet/Discovery or otherwise opulent new building, you must be new here or a Trump-like voter who is easily influenced. By the time Montessori moves in to the CC building, it will be more than a decade after they left Drew. And - go ahead and mark my words and come back to check in three years - it won't be a gleaming new building with a slide in the lobby. Rather, it will still be a barely renovated 60-year old brutalist shell. If you think there was a deep conspiracy of people who pulled marionette strings and sacrificed political lives just to come up with that, you must be daft. Also, good luck with whatever you're going to try to push for your own school because I bet you have even less support ...because nobody cares about your bespoke neighborhood Mayberry school but you, especially not other people at other bespoke neighborhood Mayberry schools. You all are going to spend the next decade eating each other until you figure out what the common good means again, including for other schools like choice.

Hi MPSA parent! We all know you angled to get the Patrick Henry building (which should have been torn down years ago) to get your dream one later. You won though for now. But you also have a lot of ill will from the wider community. APS is in a worse place because of your truly selfish advocacy. Sorry not sorry.

Just in case anyone is wondering why MPSA parents get a bad rap, this post says it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we vote to get rid of certain principals instead of closing schools? As long as we’re voting.

CG

We don’t know who you’re talking about.

MPSA principal. Get rid of her. Then close MPSA.

MPSA (and APS for that matter) won't tell you this but... two weeks after "earning" employee of the year, she slandered one of the kindest and most dedicated bus drivers APS had working for them and had him kicked off the route. He was very well-liked. As if she (and MPSA) were not already entitled enough, getting that award made her even more "special."
MPSA was only created for the folks in South Arlington who wanted the benefits of a private school education for their kids without the cost. They are for themselves only and not for APS. Tear the whole thing down!

This post is slander. I challenge you to go to ArlNow.com or APE and make a case for this using your own name. You are nothing but a slanderer if you don't. I absolutely challenge you, coward.
I don't expect everyone at every school to love their principal. I don;t even know the principal at my kid's MS. But this post here is the definition of slander.

Anonymous posters gone wild! Lolololol.

Also, why go to APE? They're useless. And their kids go to MPSA.

[Anonymous]

Discovery should close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we vote to get rid of certain principals instead of closing schools? As long as we’re voting.

CG

We don’t know who you’re talking about.

MPSA principal. Get rid of her. Then close MPSA.

MPSA (and APS for that matter) won't tell you this but... two weeks after "earning" employee of the year, she slandered one of the kindest and most dedicated bus drivers APS had working for them and had him kicked off the route. He was very well-liked. As if she (and MPSA) were not already entitled enough, getting that award made her even more "special."
MPSA was only created for the folks in South Arlington who wanted the benefits of a private school education for their kids without the cost. They are for themselves only and not for APS. Tear the whole thing down!

This post is slander. I challenge you to go to ArlNow.com or APE and make a case for this using your own name. You are nothing but a slanderer if you don't. I absolutely challenge you, coward.
I don't expect everyone at every school to love their principal. I don;t even know the principal at my kid's MS. But this post here is the definition of slander.

So if accusing someone is slander is itself “slander” then what does that say about you?
Lol at MPSA parents, so quick to defend their royal queen! Tell me you’re a part of a cult without telling me you’re a part of a cult! 😂