Alexandria Redistricting Process Starting

[Anonymous]

When do people hear on admin transfers? Has anyone received one for this year-- if so, from what school to what school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is in pre-k. We live on King Street across from the Masonic Temple, near the King Street metro. Currently zoned for Maury which is walking distance. Neighbors across the street are zoned for MacArthur but several have waivers for Maury. Do you think we will be re-zoned for J-H or MacArthur? Crossing King Street is very dangerous and we are much closer to Maury and J-H. I wish the redistricting committee would have more info on the proposed boundaries. We have friends who live in Old Town north of Braddock Rd. where that new development is and are zoned for Maury. Would make more sense for some of those families to be zoned for J-H than making Rosemont and near Masonic temple for J-H. Though J-H is very close to my house too.

I live right by there. From what I understand, this area is definitely being eye-ed by the Board to include in the Jefferson Houston catchment. It's fairly close and would relieve some of the overcrowding that McAuthur and Maury are projecting.

Yes, I would think J-H is definitely a possibility. You could also walk there, right?

Yeah. We regularly use that playground on the weekends. Honestly, since the school is under capacity, I imagine pulling from MacAurthur which is supposed to absorb some of the west end overfill and Maury, which is over capacity makes sense. I'm not thrilled about it, but wish the decision would be made so we can decide to either invest in the school or move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is in pre-k. We live on King Street across from the Masonic Temple, near the King Street metro. Currently zoned for Maury which is walking distance. Neighbors across the street are zoned for MacArthur but several have waivers for Maury. Do you think we will be re-zoned for J-H or MacArthur? Crossing King Street is very dangerous and we are much closer to Maury and J-H. I wish the redistricting committee would have more info on the proposed boundaries. We have friends who live in Old Town north of Braddock Rd. where that new development is and are zoned for Maury. Would make more sense for some of those families to be zoned for J-H than making Rosemont and near Masonic temple for J-H. Though J-H is very close to my house too.

I live right by there. From what I understand, this area is definitely being eye-ed by the Board to include in the Jefferson Houston catchment. It's fairly close and would relieve some of the overcrowding that McAuthur and Maury are projecting.

Yes, I would think J-H is definitely a possibility. You could also walk there, right?

Yeah. We regularly use that playground on the weekends. Honestly, since the school is under capacity, I imagine pulling from MacAurthur which is supposed to absorb some of the west end overfill and Maury, which is over capacity makes sense. I'm not thrilled about it, but wish the decision would be made so we can decide to either invest in the school or move.

For what it's worth, MacArthur is slated to be torn down and rebuilt in a few years. The entire school population will be sent to a swing space for a number of years (together), but who knows where that location will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When do people hear on admin transfers? Has anyone received one for this year-- if so, from what school to what school?

Do you mean admin transfers for next school year? Those won't be confirmed until August.

[Anonymous]

This process is dragging on so long. Sigh.

School Board Votes On Some Redistricting Policies But Not Grandfathering

The Alexandria City School Board has voted on a series of redistricting policies that include class sizes and the designation of educational programs.

The School Board deferred a vote on policies that will decide grandfathering until the Redistricting Review Committee has had a chance to work with the proposed outlines for them in the fall and assess whether they work. The Redistricting Review Committee will work with the proposed policies to redraw boundaries in the fall.

Under the newly approved policies, families may request to have their child enroll in a school other than their zoned school if they wish them to enroll in a specific educational program, and there is space in that program. Transfers into these programs will be known as programmatic transfers. The School Board voted to designate specific school programs eligible for programmatic transfers: Dual Language Program, the K-8 Program and the Modified Calendar Program.

http://www.alexandrianews.org/2016/05/school-board-votes-on-some-redistricting-policies-but-not-grandfathering/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This process is dragging on so long. Sigh.

School Board Votes On Some Redistricting Policies But Not Grandfathering

The Alexandria City School Board has voted on a series of redistricting policies that include class sizes and the designation of educational programs.

The School Board deferred a vote on policies that will decide grandfathering until the Redistricting Review Committee has had a chance to work with the proposed outlines for them in the fall and assess whether they work. The Redistricting Review Committee will work with the proposed policies to redraw boundaries in the fall.

Under the newly approved policies, families may request to have their child enroll in a school other than their zoned school if they wish them to enroll in a specific educational program, and there is space in that program. Transfers into these programs will be known as programmatic transfers. The School Board voted to designate specific school programs eligible for programmatic transfers: Dual Language Program, the K-8 Program and the Modified Calendar Program.

http://www.alexandrianews.org/2016/05/school-board-votes-on-some-redistricting-policies-but-not-grandfathering/

The inability of this inept school board to make sound decisions is terrifying. I've been watching the discussion about redistricting and it is a joke. The fact that the sb refused to vote on a grandfathering policy in May 2016 when they want to implement new lines in Sept 2017 is insane. How is the redistricting committee supposed to come up with eeffective proposals if they don't know what the grandfathering policy will be (and hence the numbers of kids who might stay, etc). It is a joke of a process

[Anonymous]

They are discussing grandfathering of 6th and 5th graders and there siblings, as I understand it. Meaning the siblings stay until they too graduate from the school.

Won't that just keep the East white kids in place at the expense of spreading out diversity to the most hurting West End schools? Sounds like 1998/1999 redistricting effect all over again.

[Anonymous]

Haha, just came upon this in passing. The School Board should hurry up:

ACPS: 3 out of 10 Great Schools District rating

http://www.greatschools.org/virginia/alexandria/alexandria-city-public-schools/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are discussing grandfathering of 6th and 5th graders and there siblings, as I understand it. Meaning the siblings stay until they too graduate from the school.

Won't that just keep the East white kids in place at the expense of spreading out diversity to the most hurting West End schools? Sounds like 1998/1999 redistricting effect all over again.

First of all, theyre taking about grandfathering for rising 4&5th graders. Second, it's not like like they'll be bussing "East white kids" (ew to you're expression) across town to the West end under whatever new lines will be drawn, regardless of how broad or narrow grandfathering is. Third, you're telling me its better to uproot a family that has been at a school for five or six years? Give me a break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are discussing grandfathering of 6th and 5th graders and there siblings, as I understand it. Meaning the siblings stay until they too graduate from the school.

Won't that just keep the East white kids in place at the expense of spreading out diversity to the most hurting West End schools? Sounds like 1998/1999 redistricting effect all over again.

First of all, theyre taking about grandfathering for rising 4&5th graders. Second, it's not like like they'll be bussing "East white kids" (ew to you're expression) across town to the West end under whatever new lines will be drawn, regardless of how broad or narrow grandfathering is. Third, you're telling me its better to uproot a family that has been at a school for five or six years? Give me a break.

Did you see the May school board meeting where the workers and parents of Lyles Crouch Elementary, after days of twitter innuendo their school might have to change, came out en force to pressure the SB not to change a thing? Lyles Crouch is the envy of all elementary parents (think PTA big bucks $$$ and Old Town realtors $$$ and promises made when LC homeowners bought Old Town real estate). Just the mere mention of any LC upset was enough to get the SB to kiss their feet and back down. It was this or the next meeting after this forceful parent showing that the Board delayed grandfathering to fall, 2016.

Why do you think West End schools rank so much worse than east of Quaker schools? If the Board doesn't shake redistricting up in tangible ways to work to fix not only capacity but also to ensure schools are better integrated, ACPS will be doomed to more decades of mediocracy, just at a super higher price tag for the taxpayers. Why put off such an important decision about grandfathering to the fall? Surely the School Board has had sufficient time (an entire year) to think and discuss through this most basic of redistricting points. It is the School Board's mandate. It doesn't make sense to uproot an almost finished student, but surely the younger siblings in lower grades need to be transferred to new schools if capacity and full integrations requires it.

Alexandria doesn't need a repeat of the feeble 1999 redistricting which, btw, did keep east city whites largely separated from other west city races.

[Anonymous]

Redistricting always brings out lots of emotion-based irrationality.

"Lyles Crouch is the envy of all elementary parents"

I'm not sure parents of Maury, MacArthur, or George Mason would want to switch to Lyles Crouch. Remember, Old Town has an older resident base/fewer school age children and the school board has geographic districts, so no one is bending over backward to accommodate Old Town residents over their own constituents.

"Why do you think West End schools rank so much worse than east of Quaker schools?"

Like every other city in the country, Alexandria has clear ethnic and economically segregated neighborhoods and that impacts average test scores. I would argue that the school system is no more segregated than the neighborhoods. The West End is lower income and more diverse than the East End. But, the children who attend ACPS who live in Old Town are predominately African-American and there is a Latino child majority in Del Ray/Arlandria. What it doesn't impact is how any individual child will do nor does it say much about the quality of teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Haha, just came upon this in passing. The School Board should hurry up:

ACPS: 3 out of 10 Great Schools District rating

http://www.greatschools.org/virginia/alexandria/alexandria-city-public-schools/

Wow! two best schools are Charles Barrett and Lyles Crouch! What happened to George Mason? Their scores fell off a cliff.....