APS boundary process this fall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry the handful of tuckahoe planning units and the one Nottingham one aren’t going to be enough. Time to get some more people currently in zone to Williamsburg to start using public again.

What? You want more students to return to public just so Williamsburg isn’t underenrolled?

That is the last thing APS wants, all their long term plans are based on declining enrollment, and pushing those with means to private is one of their best tools. They stay and pay taxes but no student costs!

Seriously, the easiest thing is to just move immersion or setup some kind of option sub-school at WMS that will attract students to the location. Maybe a tech hub like mini AT?

Good plan. All the people with the means to do so should leave the school system. That won’t have any effect on the quality of the schools and the support for them.

How about move Hb’s middle school program to Williamsburg and expand the highschool portion at the heights building? That’s an easy button if I ever heard one!

HB is the opposite of WMS, good luck with that.

School within a schools can be different programs. This is a good use of excess middle school seats to relieve high school overcrowding.

You don’t understand HB at all

They have co-existed with Stratford for decades. I’m sure they can manage to share a building to mainstream students.

Oh, true the advantage of HB is a small student population, and if you are co-located you will now be same size as a normal middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry the handful of tuckahoe planning units and the one Nottingham one aren’t going to be enough. Time to get some more people currently in zone to Williamsburg to start using public again.

What? You want more students to return to public just so Williamsburg isn’t underenrolled?

That is the last thing APS wants, all their long term plans are based on declining enrollment, and pushing those with means to private is one of their best tools. They stay and pay taxes but no student costs!

Seriously, the easiest thing is to just move immersion or setup some kind of option sub-school at WMS that will attract students to the location. Maybe a tech hub like mini AT?

Good plan. All the people with the means to do so should leave the school system. That won’t have any effect on the quality of the schools and the support for them.

How about move Hb’s middle school program to Williamsburg and expand the highschool portion at the heights building? That’s an easy button if I ever heard one!

HB is the opposite of WMS, good luck with that.

Tell me specifically what you mean so I can understand the HB pedagogy. Because the ONLY feature of HB that distinct is small. And do not tell me anything about independence, because I guarantee you the administrators at WMS would also say they are teaching independence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry the handful of tuckahoe planning units and the one Nottingham one aren’t going to be enough. Time to get some more people currently in zone to Williamsburg to start using public again.

What? You want more students to return to public just so Williamsburg isn’t underenrolled?

That is the last thing APS wants, all their long term plans are based on declining enrollment, and pushing those with means to private is one of their best tools. They stay and pay taxes but no student costs!

Seriously, the easiest thing is to just move immersion or setup some kind of option sub-school at WMS that will attract students to the location. Maybe a tech hub like mini AT?

Good plan. All the people with the means to do so should leave the school system. That won’t have any effect on the quality of the schools and the support for them.

How about move Hb’s middle school program to Williamsburg and expand the highschool portion at the heights building? That’s an easy button if I ever heard one!

HB is the opposite of WMS, good luck with that.

School within a schools can be different programs. This is a good use of excess middle school seats to relieve high school overcrowding.

You don’t understand HB at all

They have co-existed with Stratford for decades. I’m sure they can manage to share a building to mainstream students.

Oh, true the advantage of HB is a small student population, and if you are co-located you will now be same size as a normal middle school.

This exactly. Moving the middle school
program would make sense. It would allow for excess middle school capacity to be used for highschool seats (which would get filled, hb has an extremely long waiting list). Either that or phase out the middle school program.

[Anonymous]

Boundary re-drawing happening in 2025. New boundaries will take effect in 2026. Has to be done. Everyone should remember three things:
1. just like Social Security and Medicare, the real costs of the system are created by the demands of the privileged, not needy. People want "walkable" but demand the busses to cross the nearby artery and ironically they drive anyway.
2. you don't save anything without laying off teachers. In other words, don't get distracted by talk of closing buildings...that does not matter in the budget without letting go educators. Facts!
3. And never forget that for generation after generation, APS families have demanded buildings, option programs, highly skilled staff, and improved test results. None of that has or will change. But what has changed is that there is a growing cadre of "post-school" boomers who want money now for other projects (e.g., affordable housing, 2nd Metro entrances, trees, retiring-in-place, zero-energy living, etc.). Families with children have to push back. It's not like anyone will get tax cuts, rather, the money will just get used for other non-school purposes. Stand up to county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boundary re-drawing happening in 2025. New boundaries will take effect in 2026. Has to be done. Everyone should remember three things:
1. just like Social Security and Medicare, the real costs of the system are created by the demands of the privileged, not needy. People want "walkable" but demand the busses to cross the nearby artery and ironically they drive anyway.
2. you don't save anything without laying off teachers. In other words, don't get distracted by talk of closing buildings...that does not matter in the budget without letting go educators. Facts!
3. And never forget that for generation after generation, APS families have demanded buildings, option programs, highly skilled staff, and improved test results. None of that has or will change. But what has changed is that there is a growing cadre of "post-school" boomers who want money now for other projects (e.g., affordable housing, 2nd Metro entrances, trees, retiring-in-place, zero-energy living, etc.). Families with children have to push back. It's not like anyone will get tax cuts, rather, the money will just get used for other non-school purposes. Stand up to county.

Can you please link where you got this info?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boundary re-drawing happening in 2025. New boundaries will take effect in 2026. Has to be done. Everyone should remember three things:
1. just like Social Security and Medicare, the real costs of the system are created by the demands of the privileged, not needy. People want "walkable" but demand the busses to cross the nearby artery and ironically they drive anyway.
2. you don't save anything without laying off teachers. In other words, don't get distracted by talk of closing buildings...that does not matter in the budget without letting go educators. Facts!
3. And never forget that for generation after generation, APS families have demanded buildings, option programs, highly skilled staff, and improved test results. None of that has or will change. But what has changed is that there is a growing cadre of "post-school" boomers who want money now for other projects (e.g., affordable housing, 2nd Metro entrances, trees, retiring-in-place, zero-energy living, etc.). Families with children have to push back. It's not like anyone will get tax cuts, rather, the money will just get used for other non-school purposes. Stand up to county.

Can you please link where you got this info?

Check out the Nov. 19 work session by APS school board. Sorry, can’t link video at moment, but it’s only a hour. Staff made presentation on boundary changes and new program capacity audit. Board knows they will be talking about closing a building maybe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boundary re-drawing happening in 2025. New boundaries will take effect in 2026. Has to be done. Everyone should remember three things:
1. just like Social Security and Medicare, the real costs of the system are created by the demands of the privileged, not needy. People want "walkable" but demand the busses to cross the nearby artery and ironically they drive anyway.
2. you don't save anything without laying off teachers. In other words, don't get distracted by talk of closing buildings...that does not matter in the budget without letting go educators. Facts!
3. And never forget that for generation after generation, APS families have demanded buildings, option programs, highly skilled staff, and improved test results. None of that has or will change. But what has changed is that there is a growing cadre of "post-school" boomers who want money now for other projects (e.g., affordable housing, 2nd Metro entrances, trees, retiring-in-place, zero-energy living, etc.). Families with children have to push back. It's not like anyone will get tax cuts, rather, the money will just get used for other non-school purposes. Stand up to county.

Can you please link where you got this info?

Check out the Nov. 19 work session by APS school board. Sorry, can’t link video at moment, but it’s only a hour. Staff made presentation on boundary changes and new program capacity audit. Board knows they will be talking about closing a building maybe.

Thanks. Did they mention moving MS immersion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boundary re-drawing happening in 2025. New boundaries will take effect in 2026. Has to be done. Everyone should remember three things:
1. just like Social Security and Medicare, the real costs of the system are created by the demands of the privileged, not needy. People want "walkable" but demand the busses to cross the nearby artery and ironically they drive anyway.
2. you don't save anything without laying off teachers. In other words, don't get distracted by talk of closing buildings...that does not matter in the budget without letting go educators. Facts!
3. And never forget that for generation after generation, APS families have demanded buildings, option programs, highly skilled staff, and improved test results. None of that has or will change. But what has changed is that there is a growing cadre of "post-school" boomers who want money now for other projects (e.g., affordable housing, 2nd Metro entrances, trees, retiring-in-place, zero-energy living, etc.). Families with children have to push back. It's not like anyone will get tax cuts, rather, the money will just get used for other non-school purposes. Stand up to county.

No one who is walkable demands buses. And DHMS car drop off is far too short to be many walkers driving. These are middle schoolers, they go to school super early and are completely capable of walking, and the parents let them so they can enjoy their own coffee and start of day.

Less walkers means more buses and drivers, facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which middle schools are over-crowded? Last year, they were fine.

Once they started enforcing proof of address, no overcrowding existed.

They need to strictly enforce it every year, every grade, or at least biannual!!
Then perhaps suddenly APS will have all of its budget and space problems solved!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry the handful of tuckahoe planning units and the one Nottingham one aren’t going to be enough. Time to get some more people currently in zone to Williamsburg to start using public again.

What? You want more students to return to public just so Williamsburg isn’t underenrolled?

That is the last thing APS wants, all their long term plans are based on declining enrollment, and pushing those with means to private is one of their best tools. They stay and pay taxes but no student costs!

Seriously, the easiest thing is to just move immersion or setup some kind of option sub-school at WMS that will attract students to the location. Maybe a tech hub like mini AT?

Good plan. All the people with the means to do so should leave the school system. That won’t have any effect on the quality of the schools and the support for them.

How about move Hb’s middle school program to Williamsburg and expand the highschool portion at the heights building? That’s an easy button if I ever heard one!

HB is the opposite of WMS, good luck with that.

How so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t immersion serve a dedicated Hispanic ESL population when it was a neighborhood school, Key ES at its original Courthouse location? It moved and became an option program because upper middle class families wanted more room for their kids in the program.

I doubt all immersion families truly value the original purpose of immersion, to help ESL students. It’s become a prized option program.

Uh no, the Key community didn't want to move. APS wanted to put a neighborhood elementary school at the Key location and forced the move. Key still follows the 50/50 model that it did before the move. That hasn't changed at all.

And did it die like you cried when they moved Key to the former ATS site? No. MS can also move without destroying the program. It’s not serving the largest populations of ESL kids now at any level from K-12, who are in the South Arlington neighborhood schools, schools which you want to further segregate and impoverish for your own selfish convenience.

No, but the move forced us to go from 6 K classes to 4 due to reduced building size. So APS shrunk the immersion program with the move. That is a big part of why we fought the move.

But they objections were that the Hispanic families (in particular ESL) wouldn’t follow the program and would just stay at the neighborhood school. If that hasn’t actually happened, then you can’t really cry foul about moving the location of the MS program. Yes, it’s less convenient for the kids who come up from Claremont and make up the current majority of the MS program, but it might mean attracting more Key students who currently don’t want the long commute to Gunston to stay in immersion. It may change who opts to stay in the program long term, but if it’s still attracting kids from both English and Spanish speaking families, I don’t think it matters whether they come from the Claremont or Key community. And if the program itself isn’t harmed by a move, and I argue that it would not be harmed just like Key was not harmed, it is the simplest and least disruptive way to address the imbalance of population at the MS level.

For those who are advocating moving the middle school immersion program, I want to make sure you known there’s also a high school immersion program. That program is located at Wakefield. Are you all also proposing to move that program, or are you saying immersion kids should just go Key or Claremont/Williamsburg/Wakefield? It isn’t simple and it is disruptive to move the middle school program 20 minutes away, especially without a coherent plan for the high school program.

Wakefield is also very overcrowded, so perhaps that should be on the table during boundary discussions! It’s almost an entirely self-contained program. Kids in Immersion only take PE in 9/10 and their one elective and have lunch with non-immersion students. I’m not sure it would matter if they are at Wakefield or Yorktown since they’re an entity unto themselves and pretty much have their own friend groups, the kids they were friends with in the ES and MS Immersion programs. There just isn’t a ton of mixing about. Do you have a kid this age yet? Just wait and see.

How many immersion students continue with the program through high school? Is it the majority? Does it entail a transfer, or is it guaranteed admission to Wakefield?

It was only 25 students to Senior level. None of this is even worth the discussion.

The immersion program could be closed tomorrow. The Hispanic families don’t care, they have to be lured in, and simply pick the closest school in most cases. The other families are only avoiding some other school until it is not necessary anymore, even if they rationalize otherwise. This explains the drop to 25 seniors.

[Anonymous]

Move MS immersion to WMS and HS to Yorktown.

[Anonymous]

Just kill Montessori once and for all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Move MS immersion to WMS and HS to Yorktown.

That would kill the program - and we can leave aside the question of the program’s value - so it’s not a solution. (If the program dies a couple years after a move like this, then we’ll just be in the same place we’re in now in two years.)

Moving and expanding HB is a much better long-term solution; so many people want those seats that they will go wherever the program is. The program will thrive wherever it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move MS immersion to WMS and HS to Yorktown.

That would kill the program - and we can leave aside the question of the program’s value - so it’s not a solution. (If the program dies a couple years after a move like this, then we’ll just be in the same place we’re in now in two years.)

Moving and expanding HB is a much better long-term solution; so many people want those seats that they will go wherever the program is. The program will thrive wherever it is.

Stop with the it will "kill the program" nonsense. It's already mostly white kids by MS and HS whose parents picked the program to avoid a South Arlington school in the first place. They'd love to send their kids to the toniest zip codes in Arlington. For the same reason, more Hispanic families may decide to stick with it.