Another choice school in N Arlington?

[Anonymous]

If ASFS moves, will the existing school just become a plane old neighborhood school? Why not just convert ASFS program to a neighborhood school (which for most part it is anyway). What % of students at ASFS come from Taylor/Jamestown? I mean rest of the county has no access to ASFS so won't affect most folks anyway.

[Anonymous]

Putting key at Reed won't work. It's a Spanish immersion school is placed in that part of town, it will have to allow transfers from the neighborhoods within which it resides. That means all of the kids who are at the schools transferring to Claremont, would then be in the key district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Move Key/Immersion to Reed.

This is an interesting thought. It would mean that both immersion schools would be on the west side of the county - and the county is split east/west for immersion lottery purposes - but that would surely not be a dealbreaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Putting key at Reed won't work. It's a Spanish immersion school is placed in that part of town, it will have to allow transfers from the neighborhoods within which it resides. That means all of the kids who are at the schools transferring to Claremont, would then be in the key district.

well certainly not all- right now kids from McKinley/Tuckahoe/Nottingham can't get into Claremont- unless they already have a sibling there.

I don't understand the discussion of moving ASFS- its not a choice school.

[Anonymous]

Just wait, science focus people and westover people - this is your future. ASFS is moving to Reed. No Reed neighborhood preference. Current ASFS will become a neighborhood school. APS is counting on current ASFS people to be buses to Reed. Communities be damned!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move Key/Immersion to Reed.

This is an interesting thought. It would mean that both immersion schools would be on the west side of the county - and the county is split east/west for immersion lottery purposes - but that would surely not be a dealbreaker.

How? Claremont is way south and East?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wait, science focus people and westover people - this is your future. ASFS is moving to Reed. No Reed neighborhood preference. Current ASFS will become a neighborhood school. APS is counting on current ASFS people to be buses to Reed. Communities be damned!!

If the idea is move a "choice" school, they should move Key. Otherwise convert ASFS to a real choice option like ATS and move it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Putting key at Reed won't work. It's a Spanish immersion school is placed in that part of town, it will have to allow transfers from the neighborhoods within which it resides. That means all of the kids who are at the schools transferring to Claremont, would then be in the key district.

well certainly not all- right now kids from McKinley/Tuckahoe/Nottingham can't get into Claremont- unless they already have a sibling there.

I don't understand the discussion of moving ASFS- its not a choice school.

So, last year only 50 of the 682 students at Claremont were from the neighborhoods around Reed. If Key moved to Reed, APS would have to let in more from the neighborhood b/c it would be insane to have an immersion school in your backyard that you can't apply to b/c of zones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wait, science focus people and westover people - this is your future. ASFS is moving to Reed. No Reed neighborhood preference. Current ASFS will become a neighborhood school. APS is counting on current ASFS people to be buses to Reed. Communities be damned!!

This is pretty much the worst case scenario.

[Anonymous]

There is really no choice anymore with overcapacity. There is about a 3% chance that you can lottery into ATS. The choice is an overcrowded school with a trailer, homeschooling or private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like a neighborhood school would be good for the Westover people. I understand that they would welcome an elementary school if it is a neighborhood school.

The SB's estimates/projections (which have never been accurate) about overcrowding have changed. Now the SB believes that crowding will be worse in the Balston - Rosalyn corridor, and still be overcrowded, but less so in the NW quadrant. What changes will come out of next year's projections? IF they need to solve and overcrowding in the B-R corridor, and no parcel is available in the B-R corridor, Then build a neighborhood school in Westover and change boundaries --

When is the last time the SB looked at boundaries in a comprehensive way? Seems like that could solve some issues.

The issue is that they just spent a ton of money expanding McK and Ashlawn to 685 student schools, but these two facilities are extremely close to Reed (McK in particular). It is hard to draw boundaries for these three NW facilities (Reed, McK, and Ashlawn) as neighborhood schools that meaningfully alleviates NE overcrowding especially when Ashlawn itself is still overcrowded even with the addition. What they should have done is turned Reed into an ES and put the money for the McK addition towards an addition at one of the NE ES buildings-- but too late for that. However, the only way choice works as a solution to the NE overcrowding is if enough NE families are willing to travel to Reed for ES. And those of you in South Arlington who are lobbying for Reed to be a choice school-- go right ahead, but it won't help your situation. Look at the CIP deck-- once the new ES is up and running and they redraw South Arlington boundaries, they are predicting a SURPLUS of South Arlington seats. They will prioritize seats at a new Reed choice school to North Arlington residents because they have to do that to relieve NE overcrowding. Don't yell at me for saying that-- just look at slide #8 of the CIP deck that is linked in one of the prior posts. Those are the numbers APS is working with and they have to slice down that NE capacity crunch in some way. They aren't looking to engage in some sort of policy debate about the value of choice schools with South Arlington. APS thinks the new ES takes care of all of your problems. Don't complain here... go to the School Board meeting on Thursday.

Actually, slide #8 shows that there would still be a deficit of seats in SW Arlington, which is the poorest area of the county and where the county is agitating to add/concentrate even more affordable housing. Seems like redrawing the boundaries to draw in some of those students to Reed could be a good solution; it evens out some of the demographics, satisfies S Arlington parents, and alleviates some of the overcrowding.

True, but they can also even out that SW issue by redistricting some of the SW kids to SE once the new S. Arl ES is finished. Overall, South Arlington has a net seat surplus in 2020/21 of +254 seats. Meanwhile, North Arlington combined has a deficit of -920. My point is that S. Arl should not assume they are going to get a piece of whatever they put in Reed, because that program is primarily directed at reducing the 920 student capacity issue in N. Arl. They will need all 725 seats to go to N. Arl students to make a dent in the overcrowding in the North (and especially in NE). So you can argue to make Reed a choice school, but don't assume that it will be open to you. It is likely to give preference to NE students for capacity reasons-- that is the only way the numbers support opening it as a choice school. (Again, I am not making this a policy debate about choice schools, and neither is APS. They are focused on the overcapacity numbers in deciding how to best use Reed.)

[Anonymous]

Key will never move because moving it would cause more problems that it would solve!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW, Reed as an ES is NOT a done deal. That was the super's recommendation. It was never presented in any of the previous CIP meetings. APS said they would form a working group to determine the location of the ES and Reed was only ever presented (publicly) as an early education center. So, when the Super presented the plan to make Reed an ES and bypass the whole NAWG plan, even the Facilities Advisory Committee was caught off guard.

Speaking as someone who was part of the vaunted SAWG, I can tell you the result you'll get if you form a NAWG: you will delay the construction of a new school by about a year, and the end result will be the one APS had in mind all along. But, please do go ahead with the charade so that you can see for yourself. Truly, APS is out of good options, so the working groups are not going to magically find one. They won't let you include the Buck property, because APS doesn't and won't own it, just like SAWG wasn't allowed to include the VHC site, or the two different sites that developers were offering in exchange for up-zoning. But if you need this process so that you can come to the same conclusion, be my guest. Just trying to show you the real picture.

Is there a good place to find this information? I'd like to share this with neighbors pushing for a NAWG, but I think it would sound better if I had a source I would point them to other than DCUM.

The meeting minutes posted online: http://www.apsva.us/Page/30469

I haven't read them, so I'm not sure that they will accurately reflect the experience, or my take on the experience. I think they tried to be fair, certainly the facilitators did, but we weren't allowed to even consider some of the sites, and APS only did renderings of APS-owned sites (all were schools if I remember correctly, to show what the campuses would look like with two schools placed on them). Also, the people who joined the WG had preconceived ideas coming in about where a school should be, and really it was a lot of what you'd expect: most coming out for their own neighborhood or school or personal best interest. Ultimately, the group decided the need for a new school in 2019 was greater than finding the ideal location, which I agreed with even before joining the WG. Doesn't mean I think they chose the most ideal site. Basically, we have a bunch of truly shitty options moving forward. So, if APS and their advisory committees are recommending a certain site, and recommending that it's choice vs. neighborhood, it is out of necessity and not some hidden agenda and I don't think you'll be able to change much with a working group, but you might delay it, which is what happened down here. If I had it to do over again, I would've rather tucked my kids into bed all of those evenings. Cynical, I know, but my advice would be to save your energy to fight for ways to mitigate the traffic/parking/etc. issues, or to help guide which of the choice programs would be moved here (how to get the least bad out of of your set of options).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is really no choice anymore with overcapacity. There is about a 3% chance that you can lottery into ATS. The choice is an overcrowded school with a trailer, homeschooling or private school.

Yet year after year, enrollment in the most crowded schools goes up, and real estate values in the most desirable zip codes go up. The economics of revealed preferences doesn't lie--people clearly prefer overcrowded north Arlington schools to the alternatives (longer commutes/Falls Church-Fairfax, more diverse schools/south Arlington-Alexandria, bigger mortgages/McLean-Bethesda, or lotteries/DC).

[Anonymous]

Build a neighborhood school at Reed. Fill with neighborhood kids. Allow folks from other overcrowded schools to transfer into Reed if there are any vacancies. I doubt there will be vacancies.