school board work session on enrollment and transfers in options schools(and also a new high school)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No I think the McKinley parents want some relief, not necessarily a "win". I don't think they view this as some sort of fun game. Why do you think they are just looking for a win?

Exactly. They have the only ES without a field, they've just spent a year and a half in a construction zone and the boundary refinements were so manipulated that their school is going to be close to 800 (like Oakridge, I know). Each year, more and more kids move into the McK boundary and elderly houses are turning over as fast as Arl. Co. can submit permits. They need relief. This isn't about winning. It's about using the resources that are right there!

[Anonymous]

I think the McKinley "win" witch is a troll.

[Anonymous]

This is all so freaking nuts. We do NOT need all these 'new programs.' Have there been a huge clamoring for IB in elementary or middle schools? Or is it for people who wish to 'escape' their currently zoned crappy elementary school? same for montesorri, where is all this co-called demand? They should do an actual survey of families with a robust sample size before going down all these rabbit holes. I think the majority of parents want a traditional elementary school with adequate space in schools and fields. The SB needs to focus on an adequate HS. Even if my kids are in an overcrowded neighborhood ES, I do not want them facing the prospect of going to a HS with 3000 plus kids or a satellite locations of 1300 elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is all so freaking nuts. We do NOT need all these 'new programs.' Have there been a huge clamoring for IB in elementary or middle schools? Or is it for people who wish to 'escape' their currently zoned crappy elementary school? same for montesorri, where is all this co-called demand? They should do an actual survey of families with a robust sample size before going down all these rabbit holes. I think the majority of parents want a traditional elementary school with adequate space in schools and fields. The SB needs to focus on an adequate HS. Even if my kids are in an overcrowded neighborhood ES, I do not want them facing the prospect of going to a HS with 3000 plus kids or a satellite locations of 1300 elsewhere.

Also, stop spending all this extra money on stupid things. NEWS FLASH, you don't need state of the art design for the new HB woodlawn. How about a normal, safe building designed by cost efficient architects? Also, why did they spend all this extra money on a stupid slide for Discovery and then tell other N. Arlington elementary schools they can't have a much needed media center? It's clear that the SB and the APS admin really SUCK at numbers. How about hiring an outside consultant who has to actually control spending so other projects are not sacrified? How about a group that actually knows how to do math correctly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is all so freaking nuts. We do NOT need all these 'new programs.' Have there been a huge clamoring for IB in elementary or middle schools? Or is it for people who wish to 'escape' their currently zoned crappy elementary school? same for montesorri, where is all this co-called demand? They should do an actual survey of families with a robust sample size before going down all these rabbit holes. I think the majority of parents want a traditional elementary school with adequate space in schools and fields.

The IB elementary "Primary Years Program" doesn't sound that different from a traditional elementary school. Is there a major difference? And STEAM doesn't sound all that different either, as long as reading and writing aren't neglected.

http://www.ibo.org/programmes/primary-years-programme/curriculum/written-curriculum/

The five essential elements of the PYP are:

knowledge, which is both disciplinary, represented by traditional subject areas (language, maths, science, social studies, arts, PSPE) and transdisciplinary
concepts, which students explore through structured inquiry in order to develop coherent, in-depth understanding, and which have relevance both within and beyond subject areas
skills, which are the broad capabilities students develop and apply during learning and in life beyond the classroom
attitudes, which contribute to international-mindedness and the wellbeing of individuals and learning communities, and connect directly to the IB learner profile
action, which is an expectation in the PYP that successful inquiry leads to responsible, thoughtful and appropriate action.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is all so freaking nuts. We do NOT need all these 'new programs.' Have there been a huge clamoring for IB in elementary or middle schools? Or is it for people who wish to 'escape' their currently zoned crappy elementary school? same for montesorri, where is all this co-called demand? They should do an actual survey of families with a robust sample size before going down all these rabbit holes. I think the majority of parents want a traditional elementary school with adequate space in schools and fields. The SB needs to focus on an adequate HS. Even if my kids are in an overcrowded neighborhood ES, I do not want them facing the prospect of going to a HS with 3000 plus kids or a satellite locations of 1300 elsewhere.

Also, stop spending all this extra money on stupid things. NEWS FLASH, you don't need state of the art design for the new HB woodlawn. How about a normal, safe building designed by cost efficient architects? Also, why did they spend all this extra money on a stupid slide for Discovery and then tell other N. Arlington elementary schools they can't have a much needed media center? It's clear that the SB and the APS admin really SUCK at numbers. How about hiring an outside consultant who has to actually control spending so other projects are not sacrified? How about a group that actually knows how to do math correctly?

One person's "much-needed media center" is another person's "other form of stupid crap."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the McKinley "win" witch is a troll.

No, asshole. I'm just a south Arlington parent sick of hearing you whiners.

[Anonymous]

We can disagree on media centers, but I feel certain that a slide is unnecessary and random.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Immersion and Montessori are both ideas that are thought will attract white, wealthy parents. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Even when it works, the kids are simply self segregating in the school itself.

Arlington's problem is there is no middle class so the divide is sharp - very rich and very poor - and so no efforts to relabel or create new schools will ever produce the desired result.

This has not been my experience, at all, within the school building during school hours. Some of the extracurricular activities remain segregated by financial status (not many low income kids at our school participate in the rec league sports, or in scouts, or attend birthday parties, though they ARE invited). I think it's hard for parents who work irregular schedules and don't have easy transportation to facilitate those activities for their kids. But I have not witnessed ANY type of divide within the schools. The kids consider themselves friends, and it's not based at all on their parents' income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No I think the McKinley parents want some relief, not necessarily a "win". I don't think they view this as some sort of fun game. Why do you think they are just looking for a win?

Exactly. They have the only ES without a field, they've just spent a year and a half in a construction zone and the boundary refinements were so manipulated that their school is going to be close to 800 (like Oakridge, I know). Each year, more and more kids move into the McK boundary and elderly houses are turning over as fast as Arl. Co. can submit permits. They need relief. This isn't about winning. It's about using the resources that are right there!

Absolutely. I'm not a McKinley parent (I have a high schooler who went to a different elementary), but I think it's outrageous how the school board has been making McKinley take the brunt of the problems. Every elementary school should have a field, and when there have been misjudgments as to the numbers, it truly stinks that they're not correcting them and are letting there be such huge inequities with McKinley far more crowded than most other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No I think the McKinley parents want some relief, not necessarily a "win". I don't think they view this as some sort of fun game. Why do you think they are just looking for a win?

Exactly. They have the only ES without a field, they've just spent a year and a half in a construction zone and the boundary refinements were so manipulated that their school is going to be close to 800 (like Oakridge, I know). Each year, more and more kids move into the McK boundary and elderly houses are turning over as fast as Arl. Co. can submit permits. They need relief. This isn't about winning. It's about using the resources that are right there!

Absolutely. I'm not a McKinley parent (I have a high schooler who went to a different elementary), but I think it's outrageous how the school board has been making McKinley take the brunt of the problems. Every elementary school should have a field, and when there have been misjudgments as to the numbers, it truly stinks that they're not correcting them and are letting there be such huge inequities with McKinley far more crowded than most other schools.

Same poster: I also think it's outrageous that the school board and county board won't work together on boundaries / affordable housing such that many South Arlington schools have a huge portion of FARMS students, which also gives them huge inequities compared to many other schools. I am hopeful that the realignment of boundaries that they've proposed for option schools (in a general fashion, with no specifics as to neighborhoods yet) will help with that, but they also need to figure out how to alleviate the neighborhood schools, ideally so that no school has more than maybe 35-40% FARMS population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the McKinley "win" witch is a troll.

No, asshole. I'm just a south Arlington parent sick of hearing you whiners.

Other south Arlington parent who feels you're being a bit over the top. I sympathize with what's going on at McKinley and think they do need a promise of relief.

That said, I still think an option school at Reed could provide that relief. I don't think it needs to be an exclusively neighborhood school to do that. But I understand why that community might be worried about not having a guarantee, given how they were really screwed over in the last process. I can't blame them for being mistrustful and worried that they've lost their field space for good. I'd be really upset if I were them, too.

I think we all need to calm down. This is just a conversation. None of this happens right now. The transfer and admissions policy decision is happening now, but the long-term vision for the E/W mirror schools is just a vision right now.

[Anonymous]

When will these changes take place

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Immersion and Montessori are both ideas that are thought will attract white, wealthy parents. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Even when it works, the kids are simply self segregating in the school itself.

Arlington's problem is there is no middle class so the divide is sharp - very rich and very poor - and so no efforts to relabel or create new schools will ever produce the desired result.

This has not been my experience, at all, within the school building during school hours. Some of the extracurricular activities remain segregated by financial status (not many low income kids at our school participate in the rec league sports, or in scouts, or attend birthday parties, though they ARE invited). I think it's hard for parents who work irregular schedules and don't have easy transportation to facilitate those activities for their kids. But I have not witnessed ANY type of divide within the schools. The kids consider themselves friends, and it's not based at all on their parents' income.

i'm a minority Montessori parent, and there's actually more of us than whites in this program due to income restrictions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We can disagree on media centers, but I feel certain that a slide is unnecessary and random.

what are media centers?