APS Middle School Boundaries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile Gunston will sit overcrowded for 2 more years and Williamsburg will be way under used for 3 more years (counting this year). Entire cohorts of kids moving through and they're doing nothing.

I know Gunston is overcrowded but I am somewhat impressed by how small my kid's class sizes are there. He has barely any classes with over 20 kids. It is interesting because someone mentioned in another post how WMS classes are 30plus kids. Also interesting because a friend at WMS says her kid does all work on the ipad and my Gunston kid does none lol (not that this has anything to do with overcrowding just though it was interesting). ANYWAY, i know that overcrowding is an issue and other resources are stressed and the hallways are chaotic. I also think PE is kind of crazy because multiple classes go at once but just found the class size comparison interesting.

Yes, this is a crazy phenomenon. Most under-enrolled school by far = completely overcrowded classrooms, most overcrowded school by far = small class sizes.

But yes, overall the overcrowded school will feel this strain more and more, while for the under-enrolled school this just seems to be mismanagement that could be fixed more easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m glad they will do this in conjunction with high school alignment changes. It made no sense to do one without considering the other at the same time.

Good luck with that. Alignment to high school will be a tall order.

If they move immersion to Kenmore, that will be ANOTHER roadblock to the needed 4th high school. It’s so short sighted. That’s the only site they have, and they will need the seats unless DC shuts down and never opens again and everyone moves away.

Years ago, there was a serious set of meetings regarding a 4th High School. The result was that there will never ever be a 4th High School at Kenmore - no matter what, due to the physical position of the parcel. This was not a punt. This was unrelated to the neighborhood protests ("our traffic") - this had to do with unnegotiable mandated and "forever unavailable" access to the parcel - and with Fairfax County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

I hate all the options too. I think they are totally bogus but HB is 1000% the most ridiculous of them all. And the only thing relocating immersion has done is educate me about how silly it is as well. At first blush, it struck me as a real alternate educational program (unlike HB) but it turns out to be a huge waste as implemented by the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

I hate all the options too. I think they are totally bogus but HB is 1000% the most ridiculous of them all. And the only thing relocating immersion has done is educate me about how silly it is as well. At first blush, it struck me as a real alternate educational program (unlike HB) but it turns out to be a huge waste as implemented by the county.

I just read the linked NEW "Dual Immersion Framework" and I have to agree. Only 218 students are currently enrolled across the entire HS level, so that's 54 students per HS grade from the entire county. We have about 8144 HS students this year who have a ton of needs, and I'm not sure the resources spent are worth the investment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

I hate all the options too. I think they are totally bogus but HB is 1000% the most ridiculous of them all. And the only thing relocating immersion has done is educate me about how silly it is as well. At first blush, it struck me as a real alternate educational program (unlike HB) but it turns out to be a huge waste as implemented by the county.

I just read the linked NEW "Dual Immersion Framework" and I have to agree. Only 218 students are currently enrolled across the entire HS level, so that's 54 students per HS grade from the entire county. We have about 8144 HS students this year who have a ton of needs, and I'm not sure the resources spent are worth the investment.

I mean, we built a $100M award winning green building for 100 HS kids per grade. The Heights site should have been allocated for Arlington Tech or some other high capacity high school options program sized for 1300 students, imagine how much that would have helped overcrowding. Or just have increased HBW, at least at the high school level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

I hate all the options too. I think they are totally bogus but HB is 1000% the most ridiculous of them all. And the only thing relocating immersion has done is educate me about how silly it is as well. At first blush, it struck me as a real alternate educational program (unlike HB) but it turns out to be a huge waste as implemented by the county.

I just read the linked NEW "Dual Immersion Framework" and I have to agree. Only 218 students are currently enrolled across the entire HS level, so that's 54 students per HS grade from the entire county. We have about 8144 HS students this year who have a ton of needs, and I'm not sure the resources spent are worth the investment.

I mean, we built a $100M award winning green building for 100 HS kids per grade. The Heights site should have been allocated for Arlington Tech or some other high capacity high school options program sized for 1300 students, imagine how much that would have helped overcrowding. Or just have increased HBW, at least at the high school level.

HBW didn't want the building, so don't blame them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

I hate all the options too. I think they are totally bogus but HB is 1000% the most ridiculous of them all. And the only thing relocating immersion has done is educate me about how silly it is as well. At first blush, it struck me as a real alternate educational program (unlike HB) but it turns out to be a huge waste as implemented by the county.

I just read the linked NEW "Dual Immersion Framework" and I have to agree. Only 218 students are currently enrolled across the entire HS level, so that's 54 students per HS grade from the entire county. We have about 8144 HS students this year who have a ton of needs, and I'm not sure the resources spent are worth the investment.

I understood that many immersion students take the capstone AP Spanish lit class as Freshman or Sophomores, so that 218 isn't spread across all four years. I think there's another seminar class available after the AP capstone, but that seems more optional, especially if the student is taking many other AP classes to try to get into a selective college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

I hate all the options too. I think they are totally bogus but HB is 1000% the most ridiculous of them all. And the only thing relocating immersion has done is educate me about how silly it is as well. At first blush, it struck me as a real alternate educational program (unlike HB) but it turns out to be a huge waste as implemented by the county.

I just read the linked NEW "Dual Immersion Framework" and I have to agree. Only 218 students are currently enrolled across the entire HS level, so that's 54 students per HS grade from the entire county. We have about 8144 HS students this year who have a ton of needs, and I'm not sure the resources spent are worth the investment.

I understood that many immersion students take the capstone AP Spanish lit class as Freshman or Sophomores, so that 218 isn't spread across all four years. I think there's another seminar class available after the AP capstone, but that seems more optional, especially if the student is taking many other AP classes to try to get into a selective college.

If you look at the course offerings, there are really only two years of HS immersion classes (biology, chemistry, algebra, geometry and AP spanish), not counting a senior project and a seminar course. Everything else would be done by freshman or sophomore year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

Adding to my original points:
This is not going to "fix" alignment from middle to high school programs. ALL of Jefferson is IB but very little of Jefferson is zoned to WL. Alignment would send ALL of a middle school to the same high school to continue the pathway.

What impact does this have on Wakefield? All the artsy kids will get to transfer to Yorktown, draining Wakefield of its arts programs and leaving it with a few hundred immersion kids, most of whom would be attending Wakefield anyway.

This is not some new idea APS has finally developed. It is merely trying to pick locations for programs it already has. And maybe make YHS feel like it is not the only high school without a special program?? The ONLY thing "new" here is the STEM program which we all knew was coming anyway as a feeder for Arlington Tech.

Montessori must be feeling really left out. Or is there already some unspoken behind the scenes decision that the middle school Montessori program will join the elementary program in its new building at the CC site? and presumably add the high school years? or do they all get to relinquish their pathway when they go to high school?

And why should the HBW pathway, which already exists, be in its own location with the high school follow-on? All the other programs have to find a home in another middle school. So, how about moving the HBW middle school program to one of the remaining middle schools without a niche pathway and expanding the high school program?

I know a lot of people think the planning staff is terrible; but this is our academic department!!! This is the biggest show of incompetency and worthless contribution at Syphax yet. Flabbergasting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

+100

I can't even believe this.
Immersion is a dying program that has to beg native speakers to attend, and English speakers are largely there only because they are not happy with their elementary and then often don't continue it.
Neither group would continue, if the option was or is in any way inconvenient.
HB is only popular because of its size - it's not a pathway description anyone would choose otherwise, let's be real.
Do you really want to decide if an 11 yr old is going to a STEM or Arts focused program through graduating from HS?

I thought they'd focus on the "honors" or "advanced" classes all middle schools are supposed to be offering soon from grade 6? I thought this was going to be a challenge for them already to fully implement.

I hate all the options too. I think they are totally bogus but HB is 1000% the most ridiculous of them all. And the only thing relocating immersion has done is educate me about how silly it is as well. At first blush, it struck me as a real alternate educational program (unlike HB) but it turns out to be a huge waste as implemented by the county.

I just read the linked NEW "Dual Immersion Framework" and I have to agree. Only 218 students are currently enrolled across the entire HS level, so that's 54 students per HS grade from the entire county. We have about 8144 HS students this year who have a ton of needs, and I'm not sure the resources spent are worth the investment.

I mean, we built a $100M award winning green building for 100 HS kids per grade. The Heights site should have been allocated for Arlington Tech or some other high capacity high school options program sized for 1300 students, imagine how much that would have helped overcrowding. Or just have increased HBW, at least at the high school level.

HBW didn't want the building, so don't blame them.

They refuse to grow their size or they could hav become a program in a neighborhood school like immersion. Staying small on the largest middle school site was indefensible. But yes the budget was APS fault, the small size and waste remains with HBW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These pathways are so bogus. IB? Really? How many kids will get to transfer to TJ for that pathway. This is just stupid. And if kids want to take spots at WL for OB, they have to do the full diploma. With the long waitlist they need to start sending kids back to their home schools when they are clearly only doing partial IB.

Agreed!
1. distinct pathways beginning in 6th grade is dumb. We shouldn't be pigeon-holing 11 year olds into specific paths.
2. if you're going to do something like this, every middle school should have its "pathway" and that focus be for the entire school. Immersion is clearly not taking up an entire middle school; but IB does at Jefferson.
3. These "enticements" DO NOT WORK for balancing enrollment.
4. Only 4 pathways are indicated. We have 6 middle schools. So what are the other 2 middle schools going to offer?
5. HBW's "program" description is absolutely awful. Especially the caring community part - implying care and community are not part of any other middle school.
6. How about just a good ol' fashioned emphasis on a rigorous well-rounded education for every student, allowing every student to develop and learn their special interests and talents and giving them opportunities to explore them via extracurriculars and electives in high school.

Adding to my original points:
This is not going to "fix" alignment from middle to high school programs. ALL of Jefferson is IB but very little of Jefferson is zoned to WL. Alignment would send ALL of a middle school to the same high school to continue the pathway.

What impact does this have on Wakefield? All the artsy kids will get to transfer to Yorktown, draining Wakefield of its arts programs and leaving it with a few hundred immersion kids, most of whom would be attending Wakefield anyway.

This is not some new idea APS has finally developed. It is merely trying to pick locations for programs it already has. And maybe make YHS feel like it is not the only high school without a special program?? The ONLY thing "new" here is the STEM program which we all knew was coming anyway as a feeder for Arlington Tech.

Montessori must be feeling really left out. Or is there already some unspoken behind the scenes decision that the middle school Montessori program will join the elementary program in its new building at the CC site? and presumably add the high school years? or do they all get to relinquish their pathway when they go to high school?

And why should the HBW pathway, which already exists, be in its own location with the high school follow-on? All the other programs have to find a home in another middle school. So, how about moving the HBW middle school program to one of the remaining middle schools without a niche pathway and expanding the high school program?

I know a lot of people think the planning staff is terrible; but this is our academic department!!! This is the biggest show of incompetency and worthless contribution at Syphax yet. Flabbergasting.

I posted a detail mathematical analysis of why moving the middle school students from the Heights And making HB heights high school only yields about 300 new high school seats — meanwhile we have way excess middle school seats albeit in wrong places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if any of this is to be believed, but this is why APS annoys me.

I am in the Swanson walk zone and would prefer to go to Williamsburg with the rest of the elementary school. Most families I've talked to feel this way. But according to this unsubstantiated plan, you're going to bus some kids from TJ and Kenmore to fill Willamsburg? Huh?

I think this is all probably fake news, but it's like because some group of very loud Hamm people are not okay with taking a bus the new plan is that walk zones will be preserved at all costs. There is a diagram! That's the plan! They saw the diagram in the secret diagram room!

The sad part is if the loud people didn't always get listened to in the past, I might feel certain this is all a bunch of BS. But you can never be sure with APS.

If there are PUs at Swanson that want to go to WMS, they should raise their hands. There is zero reason for APS not to move them.

Except didn't you hear about the diagram????? The walk zones are preserved.

If APS is going to move heaven and earth to keep the Hamm walk zone intact what's the logic to not do the same thing with the Swanson one. They have to have some cover of consistency and a plan based on policy as opposed to just listening to a group of whiners.

I might be wrong, but isn't the elementary school referred to by this poster Nottingham? Once Nottingham is closed, won't these PUs be moved to Tuckahoe - then having them go to Swanson and not WMS will make sense, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For every kid they kick back to their home school they can take another freshman from the IB waitlist. Expand the boundaries. Fill up the school. I don’t care. But stop this ruse that we are somehow creating an IB pathway when one MS offers it and there aren’t 100 spots at TJ for transfers.

All of the options and MS pathways/focus are a waste of resources.

They should just focus on strong fundamentals in elem and middle school, with an honors option in middle school (they just started this).

Kids can explore IB AP dance in high school where it’s universally available.

I would even get rid of middle school sports — it’s limited capacity so ends up just for kids who played travel since they were 6. No need to support their athletic career, their parents have already invested heavily. I think lots of intramurals and athletics during the day would be better for getting all students fit.

Can you run for school board?

I was with you til the sports. Why doesn’t your argument apply to high school? I see tons of kids at the basketball games, for example. It’s fun for more than just the players. Plus, I don’t see how athletics is any less valuable than all the other afterschool activities that are offered (and any of which are limited by space, eg, maker space).

I know my limits. Cutting high school sports and the pathways to college that provides is a non-starter, know your audience.

Only athletics have literal cut sports -- every other after school sport etc simply expands participation and shares resources (so in your example maybe they will get the maker space only once a week rather than three times a week). Middle school sports cuts people for ability, when most ability has been goosed by parents paying for travel/training for years. If you read again, I did say athletics was important, but I recommend a more inclusive implementation that benefits more students and promotes fitness for the entire student body not just those whose parents had foresight to pay for travel basketball and tennis lessons.

.

If it makes you feel any better, there’s no middle school baseball teams. And I would fully support more intramural teams but the reality is that the “cuts” are usually due to predominately space issues. For example, WMS uses YHS tennis courts (and I think they’re like ten of them?) so WMS has a huge tennis team. So does Jefferson, also tons of courts. Hamm, not so much, they have two courts. Ultimate Frisbee is usually no cut, but so many kids sign up that is basically a one day a week after school club (because they have to rotate who gets to use the fields) rather than a team sport. Basketball is probably the hardest because cuts are real but remember that the season is super, super short — like six weeks — because the “winter” is split between the girls season and the boys season, since only one team has the gym. Bottom line: you can increase access to sports in APS with only if you can increase space. And no one is biting on that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“ APS is pausing the 2023 Middle School Boundary Process and the Proposal to Relocate the Spanish Immersion Program until Fall 2024.” In email now.

So will be radio silence until what, August 2024? Is there no way to ask staff for updates? What if you go to SB member office hours — can they procure status?

They’ve tipped their hand that a big change is coming, will they be transparent about the process!? Or this weird cancel and delay with nary a peep the new normal and we’ll have to fight to make sure decisions aren’t made by a small group of self-interested parties like a “vision board”. Change is coming, have an open discussion and demonstrate decisions are made that benefit the majority of APS and not just those with a few staffers in the hook.