NP. This is a dumb debate. Sure transportation matters. A 30 minute round trip walk and an Orange line metro on the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor is not going to be the pathway for loads of kids/families who don't have cars to get to school. Please. Talk about a bus route if you're going to sell public transport. |
Actually, we are talking about commuting adults. See the post above about parents needing to use public transportation for extended day pick-ups, parent teacher conferences, etc. Also, the 52 ART bus goes from metro to a bus stop at the corner of Sycamore and 26th, which cuts out most of the walk. |
With extended day pick up, the kid is with them one way right? But ok, the need is really the parents needing to get to the school using the metro. These parents have enough time and flexibility in their job to take time off to ride the metro, walk to school (or wait for a bus...would take longer but ok), go to the school event or meeting, get back to the metro, ride the metro back to work. This is a multi-hour affair at this point. And yet these very same people don't have cars. I'd like to meet this population. You're acting like this is Manhattan. |
Oh sweetie, keep living in your privileged bubble. |
DP. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you have never ridden an ART bus. |
Not only have I ridden an ART bus, through my work I have a lot of knowledge of bus ridership stats and the demographics and housing options along the R-B corridor. But keep on acting like there is this massive population of people who would behave the way you are suggesting in this part of the County. |
"in this part of the County" is doing an awful lot of work here. People who live it the Tuckahoe neighborhood generally aren't the people we are talking about here. We are talking about whether an option school will still be accessible to lower-income families south of Rt. 50 after it moves to North Arlington (which will need to happen given how overcrowded south Arlington schools are becoming, additional housing coming online, and the lack of funding to build a new school down there). Tuckahoe is not a perfect solution (nor is there a perfect solution elsewhere), but as compared to Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown, it is by far the most accessible school for people who rely on mass transit because of its proximity to that metro stop. Not just because of metro itself, but also because the station is a hub for buses from so many other areas/ |
Not PP, but I think they are suggesting that if they relocate a school that’s currently in south Arlington, where people who don’t have cars DO commute by bus, even to and from their school events, they could continue to send their child to this particular school IF it were relocated to a place with public transportation in place. As with all other option schools, over time, the population would likely shift to more heavily reflect its location. New families in the neighborhood where Campbell is currently located may not consider it and may not apply. But at least with the consideration of public transportation, current families might not be forced out of the option school due to lack of transportation if the program were relocated. |
The reference was to the orange line because otherwise it's a metro line transfer, yet another hurdle that would stop families from bothering to even consider the option school. Have you transferred at Rosslyn at rush hour times? It's a nightmare. Or they'll change buses at Rosslyn or Ballston. Equally onerous. If the goal of the option schools is to bring together more of a mix of kids, these schools in play are not the answer in my opinion. Choose a school that is more centrally located near more of a central transportation hub for the whole County where you won't just get self-selected bunch of N. Arlington families using the option school. How many S. Arlington families are going to willingly sign up for Tuckahoe or these other schools? If they are, they are highly motivated families and not really getting at the root of the issues many people claim they are trying to solve. The ATS people objected moving from their previously more central location to McKinley for this very reason. And McKinley is much better situated than these other schools. My objection all along is acting like offering up Tuckahoe as option is some obvious solution. Its not. It's kind of dumb. |
This is a great point. I see this. I also think this exactly points up one of APS's problem. They focus heavily on and appease current families and then the rest of us are left holding the bag when those families are gone. Make more strategic long-term decisions. Down the road I continue to think yet another option school in this part of the County does not make sense. |
The problem is development. South Arlington is going gang busters and they don’t have any land or money to build new schools, so they have to move an option school away. And the NW quadrant is zoned in a way that the surge of school-aged children has come and gone. SFHs don’t turn over at the rate that apartments and condos and CAFs do. They know the ES growth won’t be in this part of the county, but this is where they had the land to build new schools. So, they either have to draw very large “gerrymandered”-looking boundaries to fill the schools equally, or relocate yet another option school. |
This is likely not going to be true for Lee Hwy for long if you've followed that planning process. But yes, it will take some time to hit. |
Honestly, I think the "theme" of the option school will be as important as the location. Make it a STEM magnet and people will be clamoring to get in. |
Same issue as poster pointed out above. What is the goal here? Agree that would work and guess who would be most likely to opt in. |
Or "science of reading". |