The demise of McKinley ES (APS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The #saveMcKinley parents look so self-centered.

Face it. Just about everyone who posts on DCUM is a self-centered asshole, but each in their own special way.

Certainly when it comes to potential school changes. This is far from a McKinley thing. In fact, there have been Nottingham posters throwing scorn at McKinley parents for years for not fighting hard enough for what they want, and telling them that they deserved the overcrowding they got. Plenty of a$$holery all around.

What? Nottingham parent here and I have never heard anyone tell McKinley that they deserved overcrowding. You're just trying to stir the pot. I don't understand why, other than maybe you're still trying to blame Nottingham.

No one deserves overcrowding and hopefully they will actually balance things this time around.

Um, no, and I’m not even a McKinley parent; we live in the Discovery zone. There has been a lot of ugliness over the past few years, with gloating like this:

As a Mom with young children at Nottingham, I cannot say enough how grateful I am to the foresighted parents who were at Nottingham before us. Thank goodness they convinced APS staff to push Tuckahoe and Glebe planning units to McKinley rather than cascading up to Discovery and us.

I don’t know what to say about the selective memory, aside from maybe the comments didn’t even register with you? I’m not a member of either community, but even I can see that some of the current disparaging of McKinley is wildly hypocritical.

Please provide a source for that quote.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/703289.page#12422339

Pp, that is a troll— if you think that person is actually affiliated with McKinley or Nottingham, you are mistaken.
There are tons of trolls on the aps threads, look at all the asfs-cherrosslyn war threads if you don’t believe me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The #saveMcKinley parents look so self-centered.

Face it. Just about everyone who posts on DCUM is a self-centered asshole, but each in their own special way.

Certainly when it comes to potential school changes. This is far from a McKinley thing. In fact, there have been Nottingham posters throwing scorn at McKinley parents for years for not fighting hard enough for what they want, and telling them that they deserved the overcrowding they got. Plenty of a$$holery all around.

What? Nottingham parent here and I have never heard anyone tell McKinley that they deserved overcrowding. You're just trying to stir the pot. I don't understand why, other than maybe you're still trying to blame Nottingham.

No one deserves overcrowding and hopefully they will actually balance things this time around.

Um, no, and I’m not even a McKinley parent; we live in the Discovery zone. There has been a lot of ugliness over the past few years, with gloating like this:

As a Mom with young children at Nottingham, I cannot say enough how grateful I am to the foresighted parents who were at Nottingham before us. Thank goodness they convinced APS staff to push Tuckahoe and Glebe planning units to McKinley rather than cascading up to Discovery and us.

I don’t know what to say about the selective memory, aside from maybe the comments didn’t even register with you? I’m not a member of either community, but even I can see that some of the current disparaging of McKinley is wildly hypocritical.

Please provide a source for that quote.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/703289.page#12422339

Pp, that is a troll— if you think that person is actually affiliated with McKinley or Nottingham, you are mistaken.
There are tons of trolls on the aps threads, look at all the asfs-cherrosslyn war threads if you don’t believe me.

LOL, yes obviously a troll. PP, you can't point to anonymous comments on DCUM as "proof" of how a school community actually feels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The #saveMcKinley parents look so self-centered.

Face it. Just about everyone who posts on DCUM is a self-centered asshole, but each in their own special way.

Certainly when it comes to potential school changes. This is far from a McKinley thing. In fact, there have been Nottingham posters throwing scorn at McKinley parents for years for not fighting hard enough for what they want, and telling them that they deserved the overcrowding they got. Plenty of a$$holery all around.

What? Nottingham parent here and I have never heard anyone tell McKinley that they deserved overcrowding. You're just trying to stir the pot. I don't understand why, other than maybe you're still trying to blame Nottingham.

No one deserves overcrowding and hopefully they will actually balance things this time around.

Um, no, and I’m not even a McKinley parent; we live in the Discovery zone. There has been a lot of ugliness over the past few years, with gloating like this:

As a Mom with young children at Nottingham, I cannot say enough how grateful I am to the foresighted parents who were at Nottingham before us. Thank goodness they convinced APS staff to push Tuckahoe and Glebe planning units to McKinley rather than cascading up to Discovery and us.

I don’t know what to say about the selective memory, aside from maybe the comments didn’t even register with you? I’m not a member of either community, but even I can see that some of the current disparaging of McKinley is wildly hypocritical.

Please provide a source for that quote.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/703289.page#12422339

You’re citing to a troll post? I think we’re done here.

[Anonymous]

Wow, that thread is a hoot! "It's not a den of racists!" protests the Nottingham defender. Weird flex but okay.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/105/703289.page#top

[Anonymous]

And for what it's worth, there is another Nottingham (non-troll) poster in there who does say McKinley got what it deserved (from the bottom of the second to last page of the thread):

Agreed. We were at Nottingham during those overcrowding years, and no one at the other schools, especially not McKinley, gave a shit about what our kids were going through. Yet they all expected us to then go to bat for them, even when it meant our school still potentially being overcrowded. I feel for the families who went from Tuckahoe to McKinley because they never got relief, but the rest? Selfish hypocrites who have reaped what they sowed.

But whatever, I'm sure there is a reason why this is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The #saveMcKinley parents look so self-centered.

Face it. Just about everyone who posts on DCUM is a self-centered asshole, but each in their own special way.

Certainly when it comes to potential school changes. This is far from a McKinley thing. In fact, there have been Nottingham posters throwing scorn at McKinley parents for years for not fighting hard enough for what they want, and telling them that they deserved the overcrowding they got. Plenty of a$$holery all around.

What? Nottingham parent here and I have never heard anyone tell McKinley that they deserved overcrowding. You're just trying to stir the pot. I don't understand why, other than maybe you're still trying to blame Nottingham.

No one deserves overcrowding and hopefully they will actually balance things this time around.

Um, no, and I’m not even a McKinley parent; we live in the Discovery zone. There has been a lot of ugliness over the past few years, with gloating like this:

As a Mom with young children at Nottingham, I cannot say enough how grateful I am to the foresighted parents who were at Nottingham before us. Thank goodness they convinced APS staff to push Tuckahoe and Glebe planning units to McKinley rather than cascading up to Discovery and us.

I don’t know what to say about the selective memory, aside from maybe the comments didn’t even register with you? I’m not a member of either community, but even I can see that some of the current disparaging of McKinley is wildly hypocritical.

Please provide a source for that quote.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/703289.page#12422339

Pp, that is a troll— if you think that person is actually affiliated with McKinley or Nottingham, you are mistaken.
There are tons of trolls on the aps threads, look at all the asfs-cherrosslyn war threads if you don’t believe me.

Originator of "cherrosslyn" here. Just lapping in my DCUM fame...

I think that war is over now, though, Key is moving and though some of Rosslyn goes to Long Branch, it looks like things will be the best they can be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is nice to hear. People opposing the plan because they think they may someday need more neighborhood seats in the NW (where they already have excess) are really looking selfish. They SHOULD be giving some more seats up--not hoarding them and offering up a smaller school.

The NW is still hoarding seats under this plan. McKinley is 98 students over capacity today. Reed is only 41 seats bigger than McKinley. The whole school doesn't fit. And the overflow isn't being pushed to another NW school. It is being pushed to Ashlawn, which is in Zone 2, and is projected to be at or over-capacity in both plans. Just look at the NW schools that are under-capacity today. They will still be under-capacity when this plan is implemented.

I'm not a Save McKinley person. But Reed, Glebe and Ashlawn families need to wake up and smell the coffee. Those are the kids about to get screwed. This plan does not leave enough room for growth in central Arlington.

Agree. And for what it's worth, Nottingham successfully did this same thing 2 years ago in arguing that McKinley's overcrowding shouldn't be corrected in the short term, it should just be lived with, because Nottingham/Discovery numbers were going to go up, but I guess this wasn't "really looking selfish" when 22207 does it and gets away with it:

Also, you have to look at long-term projections. If you look at what's expected to happen in 2020, McKinley's enrollment is expected to be down from where it is now, but Discovery is expected to gain nearly 100 students and Nottingham is projected to gain almost 150. I realize that's cold comfort for people whose kids won't be in McKinley in 2020, but the school board can't just ignore it.

Nottingham's arguments about how overcrowded they would be by 2020 is part of what got McK to 800 kids in the first place. But now they're scornful of anyone who wonders whether there will be a capacity problem in 2 years if we're starting at 100%? Oh yeah that's consistent.

[Anonymous]

How many trailers does McK have now?

[Anonymous]

Originator of "cherrosslyn" here. Just lapping in my DCUM fame...

I think that war is over now, though, Key is moving and though some of Rosslyn goes to Long Branch, it looks like things will be the best they can be?

Don’t you think you should start your own thread with the question, now that the war is over, who won? Yes, Rosslyn is getting its own school but I thought the war was over ASFS, so I guess that means Cherrydale won? They got ASFS back as their neighborhood school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Originator of "cherrosslyn" here. Just lapping in my DCUM fame...

I think that war is over now, though, Key is moving and though some of Rosslyn goes to Long Branch, it looks like things will be the best they can be?

Don’t you think you should start your own thread with the question, now that the war is over, who won? Yes, Rosslyn is getting its own school but I thought the war was over ASFS, so I guess that means Cherrydale won? They got ASFS back as their neighborhood school?

DP. Everyone wins.
Rosslyn doesn’t have long bus rides.
Cherrydale/VA Square gets walkable neighborhood school.
Clarendon/Courthouse/LV gets walkable neighborhood school.
No need to cram kids into more trailers at ASFS.
Key will be closer to more Spanish speaking kids.

[Anonymous]

Taylor parent here who isn’t sure if we’ll stay at Taylor or be shifted over to ASFS. Sad for my kid whose friends will be split up as some NE friends will peel off to Key and ASFS but it’s minor compared to fixing the capacity issues across the whole county. I really wish the SB would release everything together so people can check the numbers. Every boundary reassignment I’ve seen since 2010 has been off. For example did staff analyze the differences in where immersion moves as impacting the students who would leave for their neighborhood school? For example if key went somewhere less desirable I could see plenty of our neighbors who currently attend key leaving. Why not canvas the commitment from current families first and require a commitment to finishing out that school if the relative neighborhood school is over capacity.
Sort of a lock up if you will. This would allow a bit of stability in forecasting for school officials. And perhaps the numbers would be closer to what actually happens once boundaries are redrawn.
Also what about swapping one of the NA schools that are clustered too closely with the Madison Center? Not sure if it would solve things but if all these nw schools are too close together why not open up that location? Just spitballing without all the figures but wondering if the admin looked into this.

At any rate the SB needs to grow a pair and do the best for the largest group of students. Ignore all the small interest groups. If people come forward with better ideas or catch errors that should be given serious consideration but barring stuff like that proceed.

In the meantime they need a coalition for people to tackle the future growth/locations bc the current status quo hasn’t been good at all. I’d like to see a lessons learned document where staff highlights considerations a nd outcomes and then a plan for avoiding the same kinds of mistakes in the future. For example if staff got the math wrong bc they are incompetent with respect to numbers they should not be allowed to do the math for future boundaries. It should be that simple.

[Anonymous]

Karma is when you spend four years wishing harm on another school and your own is disbanded instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Karma is when you spend four years wishing harm on another school and your own is disbanded instead.

Are they breaking up Nottingham?

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I think it's natural for some people to be sad that McKinely is getting split up, even if it were "inevitable". Some families had kids there for years and years and have very fond memories. Once it becomes ATS, McK as they knew it will be gone. They won't have a place to go back to visit. They won't able to walk around and look at the classrooms that meant a lot to them, the seating nook where the colored light would come in, the stage where they performed in their first play. I know it is part of life, but it is OK to feel sad about this.

I think APS is making a big mistake, based upon the numbers of seats that will remain open and where those would be. I'd say that they should be taking one of Tuck/Nott?Disc and making it the option seat, but they I'd be pushing that sadness off on others.

[Anonymous]

APS needs to start prioritizing neighborhood over choice. While they are doing that at Key, they are going to screw the area between Lee and 50 b/c they won't force the upper N schools to use their seats. We definitely need Reed b/c they can pull in more walkers than any other school in the area, but do we really need some of the above-Lee schools who can't seem to fill their seats? The growth isn't there and the numbers opting for private go up each year.