ACPS - George Mason Elementary becoming middle school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They keep saying MacArthur won't have a middle, but the new school opens next year with 800 seats and around 500 in the catchment.

Yeah - MacArthur is currently at 558 kids. Their enrollment continues to go down just like most of the other elementary schools. The loss isn't as dramatic as George Mason's but MacArthur is the superior school academically as are most of the other elementary schools.

I think it makes a lot of sense for the elementary schools with rebuilds to be K-8. It would be insane for GM to only be an elementary school with 300 kids rattling around a school for more than twice that number. For once the SB is moving in the right direction.

Take the pressure off of the middle schools and since they won't build a second high school...maybe move some of the high school population back to the GW building.

Was not my experience, but maybe it depends on your teacher.

I'm on the George Mason side of this and can say without a doubt that MacArthur is superior. I think the departure numbers are pretty strong evidence too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They keep saying MacArthur won't have a middle, but the new school opens next year with 800 seats and around 500 in the catchment.

Yeah - MacArthur is currently at 558 kids. Their enrollment continues to go down just like most of the other elementary schools. The loss isn't as dramatic as George Mason's but MacArthur is the superior school academically as are most of the other elementary schools.

I think it makes a lot of sense for the elementary schools with rebuilds to be K-8. It would be insane for GM to only be an elementary school with 300 kids rattling around a school for more than twice that number. For once the SB is moving in the right direction.

Take the pressure off of the middle schools and since they won't build a second high school...maybe move some of the high school population back to the GW building.

Was not my experience, but maybe it depends on your teacher.

I'm on the George Mason side of this and can say without a doubt that MacArthur is superior. I think the departure numbers are pretty strong evidence too.

It's high ground. It's always the last to be taken. The lowlands were forfeited years ago.

[Anonymous]

Wilson just hates green space doesn't he? Children deserve to have fields to run in and nature to explore and learn from. I can't believe that they think that rooftop playgrounds and turf without grass is the way to go. It's disgusting how much the mayor and the council like to build and pave.

[Anonymous]

The new Macarthur will have a preschool to fill the new extra seats. With Wilson's plans to build giant subsidized apartment buildings in the school zone I'm sure it'll be overcrowded in no time. Also, why can't the plant grass in fields instead of turf!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new Macarthur will have a preschool to fill the new extra seats. With Wilson's plans to build giant subsidized apartment buildings in the school zone I'm sure it'll be overcrowded in no time. Also, why can't the plant grass in fields instead of turf!!

MacArthur currently has 19 kids "enrolled" in pre-k. I'm guessing that it means that 19 kids from the MacArthur district go to the ACPS pre-k. 20 kids doesn't seem like they are going to fill up that giant school.

It's not just Wilson who wants the housing. Hutchings spoke about it positively about housing on school grounds at the Alexandria Housing summit in Jan of 2020. I assume his hand picked replacement agrees. Alderton was outright hostile to parents and the neighbors when it came up previously at GM (although she was against it at Minnie Howard but maybe she plans to send her kids there after their private school). Heck everyone on the last school board sat through multiple meetings about it before it was made public and they pretended not to know. Cindy Anderson and Veronica Nolan tried really hard to deny that they knew this was even a topic even after the videos of them meeting about it in 2019 surfaced.

MacArthur really dodged a bullet on housing- sad that it was so clearly ok with the then MacArthur PTA Prez (later President of PTAC of course) who didn't even put up a fight against adult housing on school grounds.

Looks like it will be the same at George Mason. Parents and the neighborhood don't seem to be paying attention or actually know what's going on or when things are happening. My sense is...they'll just cave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wilson just hates green space doesn't he? Children deserve to have fields to run in and nature to explore and learn from. I can't believe that they think that rooftop playgrounds and turf without grass is the way to go. It's disgusting how much the mayor and the council like to build and pave.

I'm told his eco credentials are a joke among his fellow democratic mayors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new Macarthur will have a preschool to fill the new extra seats. With Wilson's plans to build giant subsidized apartment buildings in the school zone I'm sure it'll be overcrowded in no time. Also, why can't the plant grass in fields instead of turf!!

Meh, they have some public housing down the street and no one seems to have cared about it. Townhouses. they are old but they are there.
They should build more of those and skip doing apartments.

[Anonymous]

What about moving/redistricting the 300 GM kids to the new MacArthur? Then MacArthur will be full.

GM can become another middle school. Barrett is over capacity but Cora Kelly is under-capacity and not far for GM parents if that 300 enrollment increases (highly unlikely since it's one of the worse schools in ACPS according to proficiency scores).

It's time for the city & SB to get creative since space is so limited. It's not like they care what parents think so continuing on their current track of ignoring their constituencies shouldn't be hard. It won't even affect their re-election chances.

Why even limit GM to 130K square feet? Why not make it bigger? I know you can't go up but make a bigger footprint. The playing fields are gone anyway. Why not have playground on the roof like the west end schools? It's inequitable for GM to have playing fields and west end kids have to play on the roof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wilson just hates green space doesn't he? Children deserve to have fields to run in and nature to explore and learn from. I can't believe that they think that rooftop playgrounds and turf without grass is the way to go. It's disgusting how much the mayor and the council like to build and pave.

Did you vote for him?

[Anonymous]

I wonder why the George Mason PTA appears to be clueless as to the current plans and discussions. They must be very trusting of ACPS or simply not interested. Don't they have anyone monitoring the SB discussions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wilson just hates green space doesn't he? Children deserve to have fields to run in and nature to explore and learn from. I can't believe that they think that rooftop playgrounds and turf without grass is the way to go. It's disgusting how much the mayor and the council like to build and pave.

Did you vote for him?

No, I did not. Voted Alison Silverberg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why the George Mason PTA appears to be clueless as to the current plans and discussions. They must be very trusting of ACPS or simply not interested. Don't they have anyone monitoring the SB discussions?

Looks like the current GM PTA President is close with Wilson. Given that he endorsed Wilson citing environmental issues, odd that he'd be ok with Wilson saying how a lot of the green space will be taken up by the new building.

I'm sure everything will be fine.

https://alextimes.com/2021/05/your-views-wilson-the-best-environmental-candidate/

https://alextimes.com/2020/10/council-appoints-lavonda-bonnard-to-traffic-and-parking-board/

[Anonymous]

Looks like the George Mason neighborhood has an ally in their NIMBY-ism: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/01/28/curry-family-opposes-plan-to-add-multi-family-housing-near-atherton-abode/

Everything needs to be on the table. It's been a couple of years since housing at GM was proposed. Wilson, City Council and school board should try again. I hope that the last election emboldened them so they don't need to hedge or hide their views.

A rumor going around town is that the George Mason kids will be moved permanently to MacArthur district and housing will be built at GM. It's a rumor and it would take a lot of work on the george mason deed to make it happen but why not?

George Mason has a tiny population and MacArthur will have the space. Single Family Zoning is soon to be a thing of the past in Alexandria. Everything is aligned. Wilson has a mandate to be bold and the neighborhood supports him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like the George Mason neighborhood has an ally in their NIMBY-ism: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/01/28/curry-family-opposes-plan-to-add-multi-family-housing-near-atherton-abode/

Everything needs to be on the table. It's been a couple of years since housing at GM was proposed. Wilson, City Council and school board should try again. I hope that the last election emboldened them so they don't need to hedge or hide their views.

A rumor going around town is that the George Mason kids will be moved permanently to MacArthur district and housing will be built at GM. It's a rumor and it would take a lot of work on the george mason deed to make it happen but why not?

George Mason has a tiny population and MacArthur will have the space. Single Family Zoning is soon to be a thing of the past in Alexandria. Everything is aligned. Wilson has a mandate to be bold and the neighborhood supports him.

I cannot imagine ACPS has the property to give up George Mason as a school. It makes no sense when you consider that ACPS has converted an office building to be an elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like the George Mason neighborhood has an ally in their NIMBY-ism: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/01/28/curry-family-opposes-plan-to-add-multi-family-housing-near-atherton-abode/

Everything needs to be on the table. It's been a couple of years since housing at GM was proposed. Wilson, City Council and school board should try again. I hope that the last election emboldened them so they don't need to hedge or hide their views.

A rumor going around town is that the George Mason kids will be moved permanently to MacArthur district and housing will be built at GM. It's a rumor and it would take a lot of work on the george mason deed to make it happen but why not?

George Mason has a tiny population and MacArthur will have the space. Single Family Zoning is soon to be a thing of the past in Alexandria. Everything is aligned. Wilson has a mandate to be bold and the neighborhood supports him.

I cannot imagine ACPS has the property to give up George Mason as a school. It makes no sense when you consider that ACPS has converted an office building to be an elementary school.

Agree, that is not happening. These are baseless rumors.