Another choice school in N Arlington?

[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.

I live in boundary for ASF. No way in hell would I send my kids all the way over to Reed.

We walk to school or drive there in 4 minutes.

We are there because it's our neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As another upper middle class south arlington parent here, we need more county wide choice schools. No more neighborhood schools. Each of those choice schools siphons off students from all the other overcrowded schools. Two more choice schools adds capacity across the county. This is not a north south issue.

And, for those of your thinking the real issue is over crowding in north arlington schools, have you looked at the planned affordable housing family development plans for south arlington? You all passed a plan to add what, 17,000 more mostly family units in the next few decades? Hell, just in the west pike along there are plans for 1,000 units, 300 of which will break ground within a year. These kids in affordable housing will need to most academic resources just to get by. Has the county even considered that? Nope

There are a lot of middle to upper middle class families in south arlington who are pissed off. It isn't the low performing schools, meaning that SOL scores are low for the entire school. It is thst scores are low for kids in their kid's same demographic. Thst is a problem. Many parents complain of low expectations. The school activities are sub par with those same few parents participating. Don't even ask about PTA activities.

If anyone complains, they are labeled racists, classist and what ever. AH advocates love to point out how we middle class parents are blaming children. In a way, of course we are. And their families. They are poor, uneducated and often have low expectations for their own kids. They probably work several jobs yet don't bring in the same money as other families who may work long hours too, but make six figures doing it. It isn't the schools, it is the kids in the schools. Just admit it. I do and people call me classist, then fine, be pc about it and nothing will change.

The county board and many south arlington residents (not of course the same south arlington residents who complain about schools) have taken steps to ensure that much of south Arlington will never gentrify, ever. They don't want it that way. Columbia pike is intended to be poor and the county board wants to keep it that way, period.

And by the way, some of the most vocal pro affordable housing name calling folks, send their kids to ATS!!

Sorry for the lack of hyphens.....

Yes. That's why I chose to buy a smaller house in N Arl v a larger one in S Arl. Schools/crime.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Where is this info coming from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The residents of Westover don't want a choice school. They want their kids to all go to a neighborhood school, instead of being bused out to 4 different school. Bringing in more kids that don't live there while bussing out the kids who do is idiotic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Where is this info coming from?

This info is coming from people in the Westover neighborhood who attended last week's SB meeting. The CIP plan specificially states that they are turning Reed into an ES- that is a done deal. So some of the Westover residents went to hear the plan. There was a lot of discussion among the SB members was then about the best use of Reed, with a lot of discussion about using Reed as a new choice school. (You can also find a story about this on ArlingtonNow-- here's the link: https://www.arlnow.com/2016/05/12/elementary-school-proposed-for-reed-school-in-westover/

Since that meeting, Westover neighbors have been all the SB and APS staff trying to get more information. Everyone keeps saying that Reed needs to be used as a solution to solve the overcrowding in the NE corridor because there is no land in that area to build a new ES. Moving ASF has been mentioned in numerous conversations. I think most of the NE families are totally oblivious, because who really attends SB meetings? (Shame on all of us for that!) Anyway, the second SB meeting on the CIP is tonight. Then the public forum (where you can make a 2 or 3 minute speech to the SB) is this Thursday (May 19).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The residents of Westover don't want a choice school. They want their kids to all go to a neighborhood school, instead of being bused out to 4 different school. Bringing in more kids that don't live there while bussing out the kids who do is idiotic.

Yes. No one is interested in stealing ASF. Reed needs to be used in a way that alleviates overcrowding both in the Rosslyn-Ballston area AND the area around Reed. Which is also predicted to be -500 seats within 10 years (vs. -800 seats in the NE quadrant).

[Anonymous]

BTW, Reed as an ES is NOT a done deal. That was the super's recommendation. It was never presented in any of the previous CIP meetings. APS said they would form a working group to determine the location of the ES and Reed was only ever presented (publicly) as an early education center. So, when the Super presented the plan to make Reed an ES and bypass the whole NAWG plan, even the Facilities Advisory Committee was caught off guard.

[Anonymous]

10:47 - Left off why it isn't a done deal. The SB has to vote in June to approve the CIP. In many instances in the past, the super's plan gets revised before it even goes to vote.

[Anonymous]

The real issue is the continued push to segregate affordable housing and saturate certain parts of the county (Columbia Pike, Central Arlington, South Arlington) with nearly ALL the affordable housing units, and not to spread it evenly throughout the county.

This allows for pockets of extremely low SES, non-native-speakers who drive down school scores. The fact that the county is adding tons more affordable housing when we have a school population crisis is INSANE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real issue is the continued push to segregate affordable housing and saturate certain parts of the county (Columbia Pike, Central Arlington, South Arlington) with nearly ALL the affordable housing units, and not to spread it evenly throughout the county.

This allows for pockets of extremely low SES, non-native-speakers who drive down school scores. The fact that the county is adding tons more affordable housing when we have a school population crisis is INSANE.

Please start a different thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BTW, Reed as an ES is NOT a done deal. That was the super's recommendation. It was never presented in any of the previous CIP meetings. APS said they would form a working group to determine the location of the ES and Reed was only ever presented (publicly) as an early education center. So, when the Super presented the plan to make Reed an ES and bypass the whole NAWG plan, even the Facilities Advisory Committee was caught off guard.

Speaking as someone who was part of the vaunted SAWG, I can tell you the result you'll get if you form a NAWG: you will delay the construction of a new school by about a year, and the end result will be the one APS had in mind all along. But, please do go ahead with the charade so that you can see for yourself. Truly, APS is out of good options, so the working groups are not going to magically find one. They won't let you include the Buck property, because APS doesn't and won't own it, just like SAWG wasn't allowed to include the VHC site, or the two different sites that developers were offering in exchange for up-zoning. But if you need this process so that you can come to the same conclusion, be my guest. Just trying to show you the real picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real issue is the continued push to segregate affordable housing and saturate certain parts of the county (Columbia Pike, Central Arlington, South Arlington) with nearly ALL the affordable housing units, and not to spread it evenly throughout the county.

This allows for pockets of extremely low SES, non-native-speakers who drive down school scores. The fact that the county is adding tons more affordable housing when we have a school population crisis is INSANE.

Exactly to your point, the county/affordable housing lobby wants even more affordable housing along the Pike. Here is an opportunity to get involved and (attempt) to do something about it. Below is from our neighborhood list serve, sent yesterday:

Kay Langenbeck [Vice President, Arlington Mill Civic Association] and I would like to invite you to a presentation from AHC and discussion with David Cristeal [Director of Arlington's Housing Division]. AHC and Arlington County would like 90 more units of Affordable Housing to go into Arlington Mill. We would like to hear from you.

We meet at Arlington Mill Community Center [TONIGHT, 17 May], in room 527. Parking is free. Our program for the evening:
7:00-7:15 -- regular update from the police department on crime situation at Pike Plaza
7:15-7:30 AHC
7:30 -- David Cristeal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW, Reed as an ES is NOT a done deal. That was the super's recommendation. It was never presented in any of the previous CIP meetings. APS said they would form a working group to determine the location of the ES and Reed was only ever presented (publicly) as an early education center. So, when the Super presented the plan to make Reed an ES and bypass the whole NAWG plan, even the Facilities Advisory Committee was caught off guard.

Speaking as someone who was part of the vaunted SAWG, I can tell you the result you'll get if you form a NAWG: you will delay the construction of a new school by about a year, and the end result will be the one APS had in mind all along. But, please do go ahead with the charade so that you can see for yourself. Truly, APS is out of good options, so the working groups are not going to magically find one. They won't let you include the Buck property, because APS doesn't and won't own it, just like SAWG wasn't allowed to include the VHC site, or the two different sites that developers were offering in exchange for up-zoning. But if you need this process so that you can come to the same conclusion, be my guest. Just trying to show you the real picture.

+1

Ps- for those of you saying the N v. S discussion is a different thread. You are wrong. South Arlington homeowners want another choice option, for all of the previously stated reasons. We will be lobbying for Reed to be another choice program for our kids.

[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.

If you live in the Key/ASFS neighborhood both are your neighborhood school options.
These are note choice only schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW, Reed as an ES is NOT a done deal. That was the super's recommendation. It was never presented in any of the previous CIP meetings. APS said they would form a working group to determine the location of the ES and Reed was only ever presented (publicly) as an early education center. So, when the Super presented the plan to make Reed an ES and bypass the whole NAWG plan, even the Facilities Advisory Committee was caught off guard.

Speaking as someone who was part of the vaunted SAWG, I can tell you the result you'll get if you form a NAWG: you will delay the construction of a new school by about a year, and the end result will be the one APS had in mind all along. But, please do go ahead with the charade so that you can see for yourself. Truly, APS is out of good options, so the working groups are not going to magically find one. They won't let you include the Buck property, because APS doesn't and won't own it, just like SAWG wasn't allowed to include the VHC site, or the two different sites that developers were offering in exchange for up-zoning. But if you need this process so that you can come to the same conclusion, be my guest. Just trying to show you the real picture.

+1

Ps- for those of you saying the N v. S discussion is a different thread. You are wrong. South Arlington homeowners want another choice option, for all of the previously stated reasons. We will be lobbying for Reed to be another choice program for our kids.

Just your kids? Dream on.