APS: Think the "no move" campaign is going to work?

[Anonymous]

My daughter is starting at APS next fall and for the sake of it all I just wish APS would get on with it already - I'd like to know where she will be going to school as we've been told our building will be rezoned (we're in the VA SQ area).

The SB needs to stop trying to make everyone happy, it just won't happen and be done with it already. Stop wasting time and money, move on, pick an option, adjust the boundaries and get on with it.

As someone who grew up in SW MI with their public school system, my child is lucky to go to any school in this county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is starting at APS next fall and for the sake of it all I just wish APS would get on with it already - I'd like to know where she will be going to school as we've been told our building will be rezoned (we're in the VA SQ area).

The SB needs to stop trying to make everyone happy, it just won't happen and be done with it already. Stop wasting time and money, move on, pick an option, adjust the boundaries and get on with it.

As someone who grew up in SW MI with their public school system, my child is lucky to go to any school in this county.

Just a timing clarification, these moves won't go into effect next Fall but the following year. So your daughter will start at one school in Sept 2020 and then likely rezoned for 1st grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is starting at APS next fall and for the sake of it all I just wish APS would get on with it already - I'd like to know where she will be going to school as we've been told our building will be rezoned (we're in the VA SQ area).

The SB needs to stop trying to make everyone happy, it just won't happen and be done with it already. Stop wasting time and money, move on, pick an option, adjust the boundaries and get on with it.

As someone who grew up in SW MI with their public school system, my child is lucky to go to any school in this county.

Just a timing clarification, these moves won't go into effect next Fall but the following year. So your daughter will start at one school in Sept 2020 and then likely rezoned for 1st grade.

I know. That's the horrible part, I'd rather they not kick the can down the road any longer because I'd hate to see her have to switch in 3-4 after having established friends. We were tempted to ask if we can just put her in that school the new school K and be done with it but right like that will be figured out on time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if the county would just ditch the option schools, it would be so much easier to get this done. I just don't understand the move first approach.

Lisa Stengle made an interesting point at the SB meeting the other night about how option schools help manage capacity issues, just not in the way we usually think about them. She said that if there were no option schools and every school was neighborhood, they would have severe boundary issues and difficulty filling schools in certain parts of the county because of how schools are distributed geographically. One thing strategically-placed option schools allows them to do is open up space where schools are otherwise too close together to draw reasonable boundaries. Think Carlin Springs/Campbell/Barcroft/Claremont/Randolph or McKinley/Ashlawn/Reed/Barrett/Glebe/Tuckahoe, where it would be nearly impossible to draw boundaries for some schools without drawing from other schools' walk zones. Option schools do tend to draw disproportionately from surrounding schools so the impact on capacity in the area isn't as significant, and allows more reasonable boundaries to be drawn for the remaining neighborhood schools.

I'd always thought the argument that option schools help manage capacity was about pulling students from over-crowded schools to areas with excess capacity, and never bought into it because APS can't control where students come from (except for HB). This was a totally different way of looking at it that I hadn't thought of before, and it makes a lot of sense.

the locations of schools in arlington is really, really weird, but it's based on history, i guess, and rich folk wanting carefully tucked away schools up north.

It’s also about history of student population growth patterns. For instance, back in the early 2000s, Nottingham was so under capacity (I think around 60%) that they were talking about closing it. Within 10 years, it had swung to 140% capacity due to turnover in housing stock, Tuckahoe was also at 140%, and that part of Arlington was drowning - that was the impetus for Discovery. During at same period, the county started focusing more on increased affordable housing, but APS couldn’t start planning for that unless they had a reliable sense of how much housing would be put where, and how many students it would generate. APS knows now that affordable housing generates far more students per unit than other apartment-style housing, but that’s not something they could reasonably anticipate/plan for until it started happening. Given the number of years it takes to get a school construction project done, APS was necessarily behind the ball on responding to that growth, which they’re trying to do now (which is part of what this location process is about).

There are also geographic factors in play. For instance, the way the GE Parkway, Spout Run, 66 and Lee Highway all come together makes it virtually impossible to find a school site there where they could build a new elementary school that’s reasonably accessible transit-wise. People pointing to Dawson Terrace are completely ignoring the fact that it’s difficult to get to, would have virtually no teacher parking (even street parking), almost no walk zone so it couldn’t be a neighborhood school, and the buses needed for an option school would have difficulty navigating the roadways. So sure, we could use another elementary school in that area, but there’s no county-owned land that the county is willing to part with that would be suitable for a school.

It’s also about structural racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is starting at APS next fall and for the sake of it all I just wish APS would get on with it already - I'd like to know where she will be going to school as we've been told our building will be rezoned (we're in the VA SQ area).

The SB needs to stop trying to make everyone happy, it just won't happen and be done with it already. Stop wasting time and money, move on, pick an option, adjust the boundaries and get on with it.

As someone who grew up in SW MI with their public school system, my child is lucky to go to any school in this county.

Just a timing clarification, these moves won't go into effect next Fall but the following year. So your daughter will start at one school in Sept 2020 and then likely rezoned for 1st grade.

I know. That's the horrible part, I'd rather they not kick the can down the road any longer because I'd hate to see her have to switch in 3-4 after having established friends. We were tempted to ask if we can just put her in that school the new school K and be done with it but right like that will be figured out on time.

The boundaries will be decided before January 2021; so your request is still an option via the neighborhood school transfer policy - depending on the enrollment at that school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:No way this is a done deal.

No, but it will be on Feb 6.

Remember when the superintendent declared the swap a done deal? I think they want the change, but I won’t be shocked if it falls through. I’m ready to move on to the next phase of the boundary process, which will probably be a bigger hotter mess than this.

Yes it will! I wonder how many people realize that every school will be impacted by boundary changes. Can't wait for the yelling when they realize.

Lisa Stengle said last night re: Abingdon that the same scenarios as 2018 were going to come back because it's overcrowded. I assume that means part of Fairlington to Drew?

No. It means apartments south of columbia pike will go to an expanded Barcroft. It will make Barcroft like Carlin Springs. The CIP anticipates growth on the west end of the Pike, meaning move the kids to Barcroft. I heard it directly from a school board member.

No, because that SB member doesn’t know their a** from their elbow. That’s not happening. Abingdon needs relief, not Barcroft. Some bus riders to Abingdon are taking a bus to the half-empty and adjacent Drew.

It will be both. Abingdon will need more trailers next year, despite it's addition and renovation; so boundary changes to relieve crowding there likely send students to Drew. Once Barcroft gets an addition, it will be assigned more students and the only places they'll have to draw from are the CAFs in the west end. So, yes, Barcroft will become another Randolph and Carlin Springs sdemographically.

Abingdon does not currently have any trailers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way this is a done deal.

No, but it will be on Feb 6.

Remember when the superintendent declared the swap a done deal? I think they want the change, but I won’t be shocked if it falls through. I’m ready to move on to the next phase of the boundary process, which will probably be a bigger hotter mess than this.

Yes it will! I wonder how many people realize that every school will be impacted by boundary changes. Can't wait for the yelling when they realize.

Lisa Stengle said last night re: Abingdon that the same scenarios as 2018 were going to come back because it's overcrowded. I assume that means part of Fairlington to Drew?

No. It means apartments south of columbia pike will go to an expanded Barcroft. It will make Barcroft like Carlin Springs. The CIP anticipates growth on the west end of the Pike, meaning move the kids to Barcroft. I heard it directly from a school board member.

No, because that SB member doesn’t know their a** from their elbow. That’s not happening. Abingdon needs relief, not Barcroft. Some bus riders to Abingdon are taking a bus to the half-empty and adjacent Drew.

It will be both. Abingdon will need more trailers next year, despite it's addition and renovation; so boundary changes to relieve crowding there likely send students to Drew. Once Barcroft gets an addition, it will be assigned more students and the only places they'll have to draw from are the CAFs in the west end. So, yes, Barcroft will become another Randolph and Carlin Springs sdemographically.

Abingdon does not currently have any trailers.

Lisa Stengle's comments at the SB meeting indicated Abingdon will need trailers next year - so if there aren't any now, that would be "more," wouldn't it?

[Anonymous]

The move is happening, Key. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The move is happening, Key. Sorry.

Can we look at the swap with ASFS? That seems like the best solution at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The move is happening, Key. Sorry.

Can we look at the swap with ASFS? That seems like the best solution at this point.

Hahaha.

Nope. It’s been stopped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The move is happening, Key. Sorry.

Can we look at the swap with ASFS? That seems like the best solution at this point.

Lol, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The move is happening, Key. Sorry.

Can we look at the swap with ASFS? That seems like the best solution at this point.

Lol, no.

You don’t know what you have until it is gone!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The move is happening, Key. Sorry.

Can we look at the swap with ASFS? That seems like the best solution at this point.

Lol, no.

You don’t know what you have until it is gone!

Yep, the staff was very pointed about that back on Thursday. They’ve been working for two years on a solution to this, and twice the community got the process shut down. So now they’re out of time to consider a host of new options, what’s on the table is the only option. It’s over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The move is happening, Key. Sorry.

Can we look at the swap with ASFS? That seems like the best solution at this point.

Best solution for whom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The move is happening, Key. Sorry.

Can we look at the swap with ASFS? That seems like the best solution at this point.

Best solution for whom?

For pp.