My New Favorite Anger at APS: XXL WL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I'm sorry. You want what's best for your child and feel like you're not getting it. That is SO frustrating. FWIW I think a lot of people have a less than "ideal" HS experience. What is ideal anyway? I had over 600 in my graduating class. I met with my HS counselor once. They asked where i was applying to college. I told them the list. They said ok, do you have any questions. I didn't, and that was it. Nobody at the HS looked out for me. Luckily I was the kind of kid who took AP classes and worked hard. I was in a few clubs because I'd seen too many 80s movies about HS and they gave me the impression that you were supposed to be in clubs in HS, so I did. They were all fairly unremarkable. If my parents had been involved and been able to guide me that would have been helpful. So, if you don't think your kid is getting the guidance from school I think they can still get it if you step in. The same may be true of extracurriculars. Sports outside of school. Art/dance/theater/service groups outside of school. Good luck. You're a great parent to be looking out for your kid like you are.

NP but this is a good way to look at things. But I get it, OP. That high school is just huge. By the time my kids get there, we will have moved or chosen private. There are good and bad things about living in an urban area and (IMHO) one of the bad things are overcrowded schools. This is just one of the trade offs people make to live in Arlington. I’m far from educated about all of the other area school districts, but it’s my understanding a lot of the area schools have crowding to some degree, such as the Alexandria HS mentioned earlier in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I'm sorry. You want what's best for your child and feel like you're not getting it. That is SO frustrating. FWIW I think a lot of people have a less than "ideal" HS experience. What is ideal anyway? I had over 600 in my graduating class. I met with my HS counselor once. They asked where i was applying to college. I told them the list. They said ok, do you have any questions. I didn't, and that was it. Nobody at the HS looked out for me. Luckily I was the kind of kid who took AP classes and worked hard. I was in a few clubs because I'd seen too many 80s movies about HS and they gave me the impression that you were supposed to be in clubs in HS, so I did. They were all fairly unremarkable. If my parents had been involved and been able to guide me that would have been helpful. So, if you don't think your kid is getting the guidance from school I think they can still get it if you step in. The same may be true of extracurriculars. Sports outside of school. Art/dance/theater/service groups outside of school. Good luck. You're a great parent to be looking out for your kid like you are.

NP but this is a good way to look at things. But I get it, OP. That high school is just huge. By the time my kids get there, we will have moved or chosen private. There are good and bad things about living in an urban area and (IMHO) one of the bad things are overcrowded schools. This is just one of the trade offs people make to live in Arlington. I’m far from educated about all of the other area school districts, but it’s my understanding a lot of the area schools have crowding to some degree, such as the Alexandria HS mentioned earlier in this thread.

Lake Braddock and Robinson are big schools too, but have huge campuses compared to WL. WL building used to actually be bigger, they shrunk it when they renovated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then move or go private.

Oh, buy another house or hemorrhage money in private.

Please note, I alluded to boxed wine -- we don't have the money to go private, and moving means a long drive to our jobs which has its own compounding costs.

All because school board is holding out hope it can make WL miserable enough to have people move away or go private.

I don’t know what to tell you, OP. You sound like you just want to complain. You knew this was coming.

[Anonymous]

Can you pay to go OOB @ FCC schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I'm sorry. You want what's best for your child and feel like you're not getting it. That is SO frustrating. FWIW I think a lot of people have a less than "ideal" HS experience. What is ideal anyway? I had over 600 in my graduating class. I met with my HS counselor once. They asked where i was applying to college. I told them the list. They said ok, do you have any questions. I didn't, and that was it. Nobody at the HS looked out for me. Luckily I was the kind of kid who took AP classes and worked hard. I was in a few clubs because I'd seen too many 80s movies about HS and they gave me the impression that you were supposed to be in clubs in HS, so I did. They were all fairly unremarkable. If my parents had been involved and been able to guide me that would have been helpful. So, if you don't think your kid is getting the guidance from school I think they can still get it if you step in. The same may be true of extracurriculars. Sports outside of school. Art/dance/theater/service groups outside of school. Good luck. You're a great parent to be looking out for your kid like you are.

NP but this is a good way to look at things. But I get it, OP. That high school is just huge. By the time my kids get there, we will have moved or chosen private. There are good and bad things about living in an urban area and (IMHO) one of the bad things are overcrowded schools. This is just one of the trade offs people make to live in Arlington. I’m far from educated about all of the other area school districts, but it’s my understanding a lot of the area schools have crowding to some degree, such as the Alexandria HS mentioned earlier in this thread.

Lake Braddock and Robinson are big schools too, but have huge campuses compared to WL. WL building used to actually be bigger, they shrunk it when they renovated.

One of APS’s biggest failures was replacing older schools with new schools that had less capacity than the schools they replaced, and then not building a fourth high school. We saw the writing on the wall and moved.

[Anonymous]

It's not just W-L. The new Wakefield building was designed for 1600 students and the current enrollment of WHS is 2240. That's why they had to change the boundaries again to send kids back to W-L only a few years after moving W-L neighborhoods to Wakefield. They are chasing their tail.

[Anonymous]

Why does Arlington owe you a pseudo private experience on the taxpayer dime?

Don’t you think lots of other kids are just like your daughter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, please get help with your anger problems.

and entitlement.

I had a kid at HB and a kid at WL. HB isn't the end all be all either. The biggest drawback is that the same teacher might teach the same course year in, year out. HB offers fewer classes per subject; has fewer electives. My kids at WL got a great education.
I went to Lake Braddock in FFX county - graduated with close to 1000 kids, back in the 90s. Large student bodies ain't new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does Arlington owe you a pseudo private experience on the taxpayer dime?

Don’t you think lots of other kids are just like your daughter?

Plus W-L- gets very low equity scores on Great Schools.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s perfectly fair to be disappointed in the limited and crowded public school options. I, like an earlier poster, also graduated in the 90’s from a school with 1000 kids, but the building was not over capacity and 1000 is a lot different than 2000. I hope you find a solution that works for you and your family. I will say that I have heard mostly good things about the WL experience. As a neighbor, I just wish they would come up with a traffic mitigation system at dismissal time. Absolute nightmare.

[Anonymous]

My son is in 9th at W-L. So far, we have not been blown away by the school. My main issue is that he has had subs in his Geometry class all year - just started the 3rd one this week There has not been any information about this from the school at all. I understand that all schools are overwhelmed, but I don't think it is unreasonable to send out an email to parents explaining the situation and what they are doing to help students. I did contact an admin earlier this year, and he responded, but that was only after I CCed the principal. His teachers seem to be a mix - some really great, and some OK. He doesn't complain about the size and his classes seem manageable sizewise. He's a good, but not great student and it has been a bit overwhelming at times. With all that, I do think W-L is a great school for motivated students. They offer a lot of advanced classes, and the IB program is amazing. For a student like my son who is in the middle, I am afraid he's getting a bit lost.

[Anonymous]

All Arlington high schools have a single goal: get as many kids into JMU as possible.

If an overcrowded school doesn't negatively impact that metric, then that's what you'll get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does Arlington owe you a pseudo private experience on the taxpayer dime?

Don’t you think lots of other kids are just like your daughter?

Sure, we give psuedo private to just 700 kids, and don't worry about the rest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, please get help with your anger problems.

and entitlement.

I had a kid at HB and a kid at WL. HB isn't the end all be all either. The biggest drawback is that the same teacher might teach the same course year in, year out. HB offers fewer classes per subject; has fewer electives. My kids at WL got a great education.
I went to Lake Braddock in FFX county - graduated with close to 1000 kids, back in the 90s. Large student bodies ain't new.

Whatever. You are enjoying WL before it gets drowned, that's why your kid got a great education.

Okay you went to Lake Braddock, which sits on a 58 acre campus; WL is about 4 acres; exactly the same /s

[Anonymous]

Guess you should have supported Career Center full 4th high school. But no one cared because it’s in SA. Well WL is now adding seats every year.