Is Arlington planning to eliminate neighborhood schools?
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Anonymous
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There have been two recent articles on Arlington news sites about APS reformulating the way they draw school boundaries. In both articles, commenters have interpreted APS's statements as indicating a preference towards cross-county busing with the goal of eliminating neighborhood schools (the implication being that kids from poor areas will be bused to affluent schools in N Arlington, and N Arlington kids will be bused to South Arlington).
Personally, I did not initially interpret APS's statements that way, but upon re-reading them, I can see where there's ambiguity and cause for alarm. Specifically, there's this article from ARLNow: http://www.arlnow.com/2012/10/10/changes-proposed-to-aps-boundary-policy/ where the school board added a criteria for "promoting demographic diversity" and at the same time appeared to remove much neighborhood input from the redistricting process. And then there’s this article from the Arlington Mercury: http://arlingtonmercury.org/articles/aps-staff-prep-for-boundary-decisions which talks about eliminating permanent school boundaries. From the article: "The days of 'permanent' school boundaries may be numbered. The school board talked about adjusting school boundaries on a much more regular basis “so they don’t appear be fixed." Does anyone familiar with the APS redistricting study have any more insight into this? I can see Arlington, with its progressive elected officials who rarely face election challenges, favoring eliminating neighborhood schools to get poor, minority kids into the mostly white and affluent N. Arlington elementary schools that are now overcrowded. But on the other hand, it's hard to imagine them doing something that drastic. I'm not sure how I feel about this – any thoughts? |
Anonymous
| NO. |
Anonymous
| No, there are a lot of fringe ideas floating around, but they're only being given cursory consideration. |
Anonymous
do you know how ridiculous this statement sounds :
(the implication being that kids from poor areas will be bused to affluent schools in N Arlington, and N Arlington kids will be bused to South Arlington). So, basically the demographics would remain the same in this scenario--but the bus ride would be longer for each group. No, no and no. We are very active with Arlington Co. school board. My spouse has spoke at several of the meetings/hearings. This is not an issue. Besides--how do you think it will play out when all of the million dollar home residents that currently walk to their elementary schools are going to be bussed across town. Complete anarchy and not ever a scenario they'd realistically consider. Hell-- they have busing issues as it is. You really think they are going to create more (and longer) bus routes. The only boundary issues that are on-going are for the new elementary schools. This effects the same demographics/populations---just taking the overflow from N.Arl school and moving some to the brand new N.Arl school. Nobody is complaining about this because the schools are equal. The plans for the next few years are all in this same circle. None of these students are going to be bused to S.Arl. |
Anonymous
Not PP but I don't think she said ALL kids from N. Arlington would be bused to S. Arlington and ALL kids from S. Arlington would be bused to N. Arlington. |
Anonymous
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There is one fringe idea to create a 4th and 5th Grade Academy at the new Williamsburg ES they're building. I don't think it's getting any traction (thankfully) but that could launch some similar effort to consolidate those grades in other areas, creating a pre-middle school of sorts. That might involve some busing.
Again, this seems to be something a very small group of parents (like maybe one or two) are pushing, and I don't think there's any real interest in it. |
Anonymous
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I think the school board is just looking at a way to prepare parents that boundaries will change with each school or addition being built. That people should not get too comfortable with their current neighborhood school. Boundaries HAVE to be shifted around because of the new schools/additions planned over the next 2-7 years. I DON"T think they are talking about bussing kids all over the county.
It's 'planting the seed' so parents aren't surprised when they are zoned for a new school in a couple of years. |
Anonymous
| geez, drama queen much, OP? |
Anonymous
| Frankly, I think we've been lucky so far that they just don't draw a line in the sand about school overcrowding. In many school districts, if your school is "oversubscribed," you are forced to go to a different school that is NOT oversubscribed. That could mean pushing kids from the most crowded areas of North Arlington into South Arlington where there is plenty of space. Not sure it will ever happen, but I'm surprised it hasn't been discussed. |
Anonymous
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As a N Arlington parent of a child bussed (willingly) to a school in S Arlington, I just laugh when I read these hysterical posts from parents fretting that their little snowflakes might have to endure such traumatic change. The horrors of associating with S Arlington riff-raff (BTW, there are plenty of educated white parents/kids across S Arlington, and several excellent elementary schools)!
When I read threads like this, I am SO glad that we didn't send DC to our local N Arlington school... |
Anonymous
And, actually, it may shock you (continuing my reply) that there are actually educated, well-off non-white parents/kids in S Arlington (and quite a few across N Arlington as well). |
Anonymous
Ditto. And ditto to 11:19. |
Anonymous
You "I'm so superior because I send my kids to the South Arlington schools because I'm not afraid of brown children unlike you uptight (and closet racist) North Arlington parents" types are so annoying. Yes, congratulations, you have proven how open-minded and chill you are, and I'm sure you enjoy looking down your noses at the rest of us. Why don't you just buy in South Arlington and decrease your carbon footprint and let our tax dollars go to the kids' libraries and books instead of hauling your kids ass across the county twice a day just so you can indulge your need to feel superior? |
Anonymous
| Touchy? Not poster you were responding to but your over thbe top reaction is ridiculous. |
Anonymous
I think people are concerned about the amount of time - why would you want your kid to spend 30 minutes on a bus when they could have a 5 minute walk to school? |