MPSA - new school or move to north Arlington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people in NW Arlington care which school MPSA takes over? Assuming it won’t go into Discovery because the building is too new.

Discovery is losing teachers and families left and right. Many are not happy.

Same with nottingham.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people in NW Arlington care which school MPSA takes over? Assuming it won’t go into Discovery because the building is too new.

Of course they care. Nobody wants to lose "their" neighborhood school - and especially when it is supposed to be "walkable" even though they drive for drop-off and/or pickup anyway.

I like you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They’re just moving them into the old Arl Tech building, I believe. They aren’t being moved off site or to North Arlington, just to a different old building, much to MPSA’s PAC chagrin.

Ah, so this thread is just MPSA PAC propaganda to try to build public sentiment against the current plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Duran confirmed at last SB meeting that MPSA would have to relocate as new careeer center gets built. Will it move to north Arlington and replace a school there or get a new school building in south Arlington? Any place that makes sense other than near the current site?

A new school in south Arlington? Where, and with what money? There is no planned new school for south Arlington.
So, my vote is to move it to one of the significantly under-enrolled north Arlington buildings.

Eventually they will give up part of Virginia Highlands Park for a new elementary school. That's the downstream impact of the county board approving tons of infill density and pretending it doesn't produce more students. The parks near the density where the green space is needed most turn into public facilities.

[Anonymous]

Nottingham, Discovery and Tuckahoe overlap too much. It's going to be one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’re just moving them into the old Arl Tech building, I believe. They aren’t being moved off site or to North Arlington, just to a different old building, much to MPSA’s PAC chagrin.

Ah, so this thread is just MPSA PAC propaganda to try to build public sentiment against the current plan?

The question of what is happening to MPSA in this plan is valid. There's a lot of magical thinking and handwaving associated with the site plan and what to do with Montessori is part of that. The thing is, most of us are sick of option school communities lobbying at the expense of neighborhood schools so we don't really care anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people in NW Arlington care which school MPSA takes over? Assuming it won’t go into Discovery because the building is too new.

Of course they care. Nobody wants to lose "their" neighborhood school - and especially when it is supposed to be "walkable" even though they drive for drop-off and/or pickup anyway.

I was just wondering because it’s not like you’re going from a good school to a bad school.

DP. While all of the schools are under capacity in that area, they are not so under capacity that the surrounding schools can simply absorb all of the students from one without he others becoming wildly overcrowded. From a long-term planning standpoint, it’s not necessarily a good strategy to disrupt NW Arlington if you can avoid it because all of the schools are currently a manageable size so no one there is complaining about overcrowding. This allows APS to ignore one corner of he county in planning future capacity expansions, which makes it a lot easier to spread resources in other areas to give them relief because they can focus on fewer, larger, more efficient projects. If they close a NW school and re-introduce massive overcrowding there (remember, we’re not all that far removed from Nottingham and Tuckahoe being at 140% capacity), those neighborhoods will freak out and APS will have another large contingent demanding their share of a limited resource pool, which means they will have to spread resources further and in a less efficient manner.

APS is much better off if they can figure out a temporary solution for MPSA while conserving resources for a new elementary school in South Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Duran confirmed at last SB meeting that MPSA would have to relocate as new careeer center gets built. Will it move to north Arlington and replace a school there or get a new school building in south Arlington? Any place that makes sense other than near the current site?

If they build a NEW school for a program again there will be pitchforks.

Buh bye Nottingham, you know most of your kids will be private in 4 years anyway.

I look forward to my home value going up even more when my house is walkable to Discovery and MPSA.

Agree but MPSA will have to go to Discovery or Tuckahoe. Easier for Nottingham to take trailers and it is the most walkable neighborhood school.

Discovery has repeatedly been ruled out as a choice school location precisely because it can’t accommodate relocatables or expansion. Not that a choice school is going to happen in any case, but if people are interested in the SB’s thoughts on potential locations, they can revisit the materials from a few years ago. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Nottingham’s ability to take trailers makes it more attractive as a choice school location, especially since overcrowding in the neighborhood isn’t projected at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Duran confirmed at last SB meeting that MPSA would have to relocate as new careeer center gets built. Will it move to north Arlington and replace a school there or get a new school building in south Arlington? Any place that makes sense other than near the current site?

If they build a NEW school for a program again there will be pitchforks.

Buh bye Nottingham, you know most of your kids will be private in 4 years anyway.

I look forward to my home value going up even more when my house is walkable to Discovery and MPSA.

Agree but MPSA will have to go to Discovery or Tuckahoe. Easier for Nottingham to take trailers and it is the most walkable neighborhood school.

Discovery has repeatedly been ruled out as a choice school location precisely because it can’t accommodate relocatables or expansion. Not that a choice school is going to happen in any case, but if people are interested in the SB’s thoughts on potential locations, they can revisit the materials from a few years ago. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Nottingham’s ability to take trailers makes it more attractive as a choice school location, especially since overcrowding in the neighborhood isn’t projected at all.

DP. That is a really stupid calculus. They can easily control the size of an option school, but have little control over neighborhood population growth. Also, APS tried this with Nottingham several years ago and it got shut down because of the 17 different ways that it was demonstrated to be a foolish plan. I mean, they literally refused to do a traffic study in that process because they knew that alone would prove it infeasible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Duran confirmed at last SB meeting that MPSA would have to relocate as new careeer center gets built. Will it move to north Arlington and replace a school there or get a new school building in south Arlington? Any place that makes sense other than near the current site?

If they build a NEW school for a program again there will be pitchforks.

Buh bye Nottingham, you know most of your kids will be private in 4 years anyway.

I look forward to my home value going up even more when my house is walkable to Discovery and MPSA.

Agree but MPSA will have to go to Discovery or Tuckahoe. Easier for Nottingham to take trailers and it is the most walkable neighborhood school.

Discovery has repeatedly been ruled out as a choice school location precisely because it can’t accommodate relocatables or expansion. Not that a choice school is going to happen in any case, but if people are interested in the SB’s thoughts on potential locations, they can revisit the materials from a few years ago. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Nottingham’s ability to take trailers makes it more attractive as a choice school location, especially since overcrowding in the neighborhood isn’t projected at all.

DP. That is a really stupid calculus. They can easily control the size of an option school, but have little control over neighborhood population growth. Also, APS tried this with Nottingham several years ago and it got shut down because of the 17 different ways that it was demonstrated to be a foolish plan. I mean, they literally refused to do a traffic study in that process because they knew that alone would prove it infeasible.

Good point. Why don't they just make Discovery ATS II
(just for fun )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Duran confirmed at last SB meeting that MPSA would have to relocate as new careeer center gets built. Will it move to north Arlington and replace a school there or get a new school building in south Arlington? Any place that makes sense other than near the current site?

If they build a NEW school for a program again there will be pitchforks.

Buh bye Nottingham, you know most of your kids will be private in 4 years anyway.

I look forward to my home value going up even more when my house is walkable to Discovery and MPSA.

Agree but MPSA will have to go to Discovery or Tuckahoe. Easier for Nottingham to take trailers and it is the most walkable neighborhood school.

Discovery has repeatedly been ruled out as a choice school location precisely because it can’t accommodate relocatables or expansion. Not that a choice school is going to happen in any case, but if people are interested in the SB’s thoughts on potential locations, they can revisit the materials from a few years ago. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Nottingham’s ability to take trailers makes it more attractive as a choice school location, especially since overcrowding in the neighborhood isn’t projected at all.

DP. That is a really stupid calculus. They can easily control the size of an option school, but have little control over neighborhood population growth. Also, APS tried this with Nottingham several years ago and it got shut down because of the 17 different ways that it was demonstrated to be a foolish plan. I mean, they literally refused to do a traffic study in that process because they knew that alone would prove it infeasible.

Good point. Why don't they just make Discovery ATS II
(just for fun )

I know you were joking, but if APS wanted to move an option school to that neighborhood, Discovery is the best option. It has the largest capacity of the three buildings so there would be room to grown the program, and they wouldn’t sacrifice the trailer capacity needed to manage future neighborhood population growth. The only reason APS won’t do it is because they know any option school they move to that area would quickly become very predominantly white/affluent, and they don’t like the optics of gifting that in a shiny new building to affluent white families. Putting it in an older building like Tuckahoe or Nottingham helps to neutralize one area of diversity-based criticism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’re just moving them into the old Arl Tech building, I believe. They aren’t being moved off site or to North Arlington, just to a different old building, much to MPSA’s PAC chagrin.

Ah, so this thread is just MPSA PAC propaganda to try to build public sentiment against the current plan?

Probably. They don’t want to remain on the site, especially during construction. They want something better and nicer and purposely built for their super special program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’re just moving them into the old Arl Tech building, I believe. They aren’t being moved off site or to North Arlington, just to a different old building, much to MPSA’s PAC chagrin.

Ah, so this thread is just MPSA PAC propaganda to try to build public sentiment against the current plan?

Probably. They don’t want to remain on the site, especially during construction. They want something better and nicer and purposely built for their super special program.

And even further from the Black kids they were trying to get away from at Drew, apparently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’re just moving them into the old Arl Tech building, I believe. They aren’t being moved off site or to North Arlington, just to a different old building, much to MPSA’s PAC chagrin.

Ah, so this thread is just MPSA PAC propaganda to try to build public sentiment against the current plan?

The question of what is happening to MPSA in this plan is valid. There's a lot of magical thinking and handwaving associated with the site plan and what to do with Montessori is part of that. The thing is, most of us are sick of option school communities lobbying at the expense of neighborhood schools so we don't really care anymore.

Yes this. MPSA just moved into this building a few years ago. The entire ACC site plan is questionable and nothing more questionable than needing another solution for MPSA.

[Anonymous]

The vast majority (roughly 80%) of students at MPSA come from S Arlington schools. APS is short on buses. It would be ridiculously stupid to move it to N Arlington.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2019-2020_APS-Transfer-Report-All-Parts.pdf