Are you voting yes or no on the APS school bond?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can Arlington place a 4th High School (if not Kenmore or the old hospital complex)... isn't THAT the issue?

No, the issue is that they CAN place a 4th high school at Kenmore but WON'T.

The County hired transportation consultants that said it won’t work. And the neighbors said no way. So those are the groups you would need to convince.

Why do the neighbors get to vote? Seriously? And why is traffic so extra super bad around Kenmore? I call BS on the whole thing.

Do you regularly drive around Kenmore? Carlin Springs is a logjam. The only entrance to the school is off S. 2nd Street and it's a cluster generally.
Because it's on the Fairfax line, you need to involve them in making road changes. And Route 50 is governed by VDOT.

Deal with government long enough (especially Arlington county) and you realize that there is are two types of "no" answers. There is "No, [because it literally can't be done]", and "no, [because it would require more effort on my part than I am willing to exert]". If the decision gets made to move forward with that site, and political figures are actually exert their will and back up their functionaries, each issue you described is surmountable. But it's a question of priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can Arlington place a 4th High School (if not Kenmore or the old hospital complex)... isn't THAT the issue?

No, the issue is that they CAN place a 4th high school at Kenmore but WON'T.

The County hired transportation consultants that said it won’t work. And the neighbors said no way. So those are the groups you would need to convince.

Why do the neighbors get to vote? Seriously? And why is traffic so extra super bad around Kenmore? I call BS on the whole thing.

Do you regularly drive around Kenmore? Carlin Springs is a logjam. The only entrance to the school is off S. 2nd Street and it's a cluster generally.
Because it's on the Fairfax line, you need to involve them in making road changes. And Route 50 is governed by VDOT.

So you do the work that needs to be done to get it done. So what that it has to involve FxCo and VDOT? APS always said it would "take too long" because of that and they needed additional capacity for schools "now." Well, they just keep squandering away even more time by not even beginning the effort to make it work.

Agreed. yes it would take longer because of the route 50/FFX issue, but if they started years ago, maybe they would be close to done now. Or parallel process and work both on Kenmore and other locations. Instead of just throwing up your hands and saying "this is too hard."

[Anonymous]

I typically vote yes in all the bond issues, but I'm voting No on this one. The Career Center plan is a mess, and outrageously expensive for a program which struggles to get enough students. We need a real high school, not this.

[Anonymous]

I'm confused. Vote no because we don't need the career center project? What happens next? Seems like short-sighted thinking. You don't magically get a fourth high school by refusing to fund the career center, which is a part-time and full-time high school and gets expanded with the bond funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused. Vote no because we don't need the career center project? What happens next? Seems like short-sighted thinking. You don't magically get a fourth high school by refusing to fund the career center, which is a part-time and full-time high school and gets expanded with the bond funding.

Exactly. I wanted a fourth high school too but it's not going to happen. Voting down the career center project isn't going to help things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can Arlington place a 4th High School (if not Kenmore or the old hospital complex)... isn't THAT the issue?

No, the issue is that they CAN place a 4th high school at Kenmore but WON'T.

The County hired transportation consultants that said it won’t work. And the neighbors said no way. So those are the groups you would need to convince.

Why do the neighbors get to vote? Seriously? And why is traffic so extra super bad around Kenmore? I call BS on the whole thing.

Do you regularly drive around Kenmore? Carlin Springs is a logjam. The only entrance to the school is off S. 2nd Street and it's a cluster generally.
Because it's on the Fairfax line, you need to involve them in making road changes. And Route 50 is governed by VDOT.

So you do the work that needs to be done to get it done. So what that it has to involve FxCo and VDOT? APS always said it would "take too long" because of that and they needed additional capacity for schools "now." Well, they just keep squandering away even more time by not even beginning the effort to make it work.

DP. Fairfax has already said no to this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused. Vote no because we don't need the career center project? What happens next? Seems like short-sighted thinking. You don't magically get a fourth high school by refusing to fund the career center, which is a part-time and full-time high school and gets expanded with the bond funding.

+1. Voting no on bond funding is not going to get you a 4th high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can Arlington place a 4th High School (if not Kenmore or the old hospital complex)... isn't THAT the issue?

No, the issue is that they CAN place a 4th high school at Kenmore but WON'T.

The County hired transportation consultants that said it won’t work. And the neighbors said no way. So those are the groups you would need to convince.

Why do the neighbors get to vote? Seriously? And why is traffic so extra super bad around Kenmore? I call BS on the whole thing.

Do you regularly drive around Kenmore? Carlin Springs is a logjam. The only entrance to the school is off S. 2nd Street and it's a cluster generally.
Because it's on the Fairfax line, you need to involve them in making road changes. And Route 50 is governed by VDOT.

So you do the work that needs to be done to get it done. So what that it has to involve FxCo and VDOT? APS always said it would "take too long" because of that and they needed additional capacity for schools "now." Well, they just keep squandering away even more time by not even beginning the effort to make it work.

DP. Fairfax has already said no to this.

Then they pressure Fairfax or come up with another way to do it orr another location. Throwing up your hands isn't an option.

[Anonymous]

Actually, if they had to go back to scratch on CC, they could renovate the existing building to meet the current need in a way that does not preclude a 4th HS there at a later date. If we do this now, we spend all our money for the foreseeable future and there is no other site. But I do feel really bad for all the CC kids, who have gotten screwed over repeatedly due to APS' poor planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually, if they had to go back to scratch on CC, they could renovate the existing building to meet the current need in a way that does not preclude a 4th HS there at a later date. If we do this now, we spend all our money for the foreseeable future and there is no other site. But I do feel really bad for all the CC kids, who have gotten screwed over repeatedly due to APS' poor planning.

So you feel bad for the Career Center students but not bad enough to support their new building because you want to save money for a building for your kids. Hmm...

[Anonymous]

I used to vote yes on all bond requests, until the school board started doing some ridiculous things with equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4th HS actually was possible at CC, but only if you used the whole campus, which they said was impossible. Now, in a shocking twist (NOT!), they are planning to tear down all the other buildings on the site but also still not building in a way to allow for 4th HS. APS can't plan to save its life.

They just need to come up with a plan and stick to it.

I am voting no but it won't matter bc the masses will simply click Yes. And then complain for y ears to come over underfunded everything and they should pay teachers more but they can't bc they have no money, and so on and so forth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can Arlington place a 4th High School (if not Kenmore or the old hospital complex)... isn't THAT the issue?

No, the issue is that they CAN place a 4th high school at Kenmore but WON'T.

The County hired transportation consultants that said it won’t work. And the neighbors said no way. So those are the groups you would need to convince.

Why do the neighbors get to vote? Seriously? And why is traffic so extra super bad around Kenmore? I call BS on the whole thing.

Do you regularly drive around Kenmore? Carlin Springs is a logjam. The only entrance to the school is off S. 2nd Street and it's a cluster generally.
Because it's on the Fairfax line, you need to involve them in making road changes. And Route 50 is governed by VDOT.

So you do the work that needs to be done to get it done. So what that it has to involve FxCo and VDOT? APS always said it would "take too long" because of that and they needed additional capacity for schools "now." Well, they just keep squandering away even more time by not even beginning the effort to make it work.

DP. Fairfax has already said no to this.

And what are they objecting to? I'm still unclear on why we need Fairfax's permission. Why can't we improve access to the site via 50 and Carlin Springs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4th HS actually was possible at CC, but only if you used the whole campus, which they said was impossible. Now, in a shocking twist (NOT!), they are planning to tear down all the other buildings on the site but also still not building in a way to allow for 4th HS. APS can't plan to save its life.

They just need to come up with a plan and stick to it.

I am voting no but it won't matter bc the masses will simply click Yes. And then complain for y ears to come over underfunded everything and they should pay teachers more but they can't bc they have no money, and so on and so forth

teacher compensation does not come out of the bond. Neither does most of the other stuff. Bonds pay for capital improvements, not instruction or staffing or transportation or curriculum or training....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4th HS actually was possible at CC, but only if you used the whole campus, which they said was impossible. Now, in a shocking twist (NOT!), they are planning to tear down all the other buildings on the site but also still not building in a way to allow for 4th HS. APS can't plan to save its life.

They just need to come up with a plan and stick to it.

I am voting no but it won't matter bc the masses will simply click Yes. And then complain for y ears to come over underfunded everything and they should pay teachers more but they can't bc they have no money, and so on and so forth

teacher compensation does not come out of the bond. Neither does most of the other stuff. Bonds pay for capital improvements, not instruction or staffing or transportation or curriculum or training....

But debt service has to be paid on the bond. And that competes with teacher pay and all the other things. Once we take out the bond, we have to pay for the debt service. So either we cut other things or we pay more taxes. But there’s no free lunch.