Arlington Science Focus -- Admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right now, buy into or at least rent in the KEY district. That gives you guaranteed admissions. They are supposedly some slots (if Key doesn't fill the grade) for Taylor or Jamestown, but those are like unicorns. Watch out, though. The SB might be making a lot of changes to that area.

The boundary for ASFS is about to be radically changed -- there is No way to know if you will be in bound (currently living near it is not in boundary for example).

There is a possibility that Key and ASFS will swap campuses since Key is becoming a pure lottery immersion, and then ASFS will be in boundary. Or they will redraw boundaries and some key parts will go elsewhere and some Taylor parts go to ASFS.

Buy a neighborhood you like, in a house you like near a few schools you are ok with. There are guarantees now. And watch the high school changes coming -- they could be disruptive.

While this may very well happen, it would somewhat surprise me considering how much money the ASFS PTA and parents have invested in the building and its outdoor space over the years for various science-related teaching tools, including raising at least $150,000 less than two years ago for the science lab called investigation station. Not saying Key, if the schools swap buildings, wouldn't benefit from all of this but it seems kind of crazy for ASFS to leave it all behind and have to start all over again without it.

I'm a former long time ASFS parent - do not move to a home just for this school. Not worth it.

Well, it is equipment in a publuc school, so it would be nice if others could have an opportunity to benefit from it. But I highly doubt this switch will happen. Both schools must probably feel like they are having the rug pulled out from under them.

Well, the school board should have done something years ago. You can't have two "choice" programs that are essentially neighborhood schools, and give both to the same neighborhood in perpetuity. That's just bad policy. I understand why they did it this way at first, when conditions were such that anyone could enroll just about anywhere due to low enrollment. But to let it go this long was just kicking the can down the road and leaving it to others to deal with.

I don't think the schools are going to swap places. But there will have to be boundary adjustments (there would be anyway when the new school comes online).

The key/asfs zone wasn't supposed to have boundary changes. It's fine that they want to establish a walk zone and redistribute kids because of the policy change, but we shouldn't try to spin this as something that was well planned. If aps had been thinking straight, they wouldn't have located a niche program like immersion at the only elementary school located with neighborhood bounds to begin with. It would have been easier to have either originally placed the immersion program at the asfs building or drawn the key/asfs boundaries to include the neighborhood around asfs. Now twenty years later they are like "oh this isn't really fair", and it's like no shit really?

Calling ASFS a neighborhood school except that it sits in the middle of another school's boundaries and the kids who are within walking distance cannot attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right now, buy into or at least rent in the KEY district. That gives you guaranteed admissions. They are supposedly some slots (if Key doesn't fill the grade) for Taylor or Jamestown, but those are like unicorns. Watch out, though. The SB might be making a lot of changes to that area.

The boundary for ASFS is about to be radically changed -- there is No way to know if you will be in bound (currently living near it is not in boundary for example).

There is a possibility that Key and ASFS will swap campuses since Key is becoming a pure lottery immersion, and then ASFS will be in boundary. Or they will redraw boundaries and some key parts will go elsewhere and some Taylor parts go to ASFS.

Buy a neighborhood you like, in a house you like near a few schools you are ok with. There are guarantees now. And watch the high school changes coming -- they could be disruptive.

While this may very well happen, it would somewhat surprise me considering how much money the ASFS PTA and parents have invested in the building and its outdoor space over the years for various science-related teaching tools, including raising at least $150,000 less than two years ago for the science lab called investigation station. Not saying Key, if the schools swap buildings, wouldn't benefit from all of this but it seems kind of crazy for ASFS to leave it all behind and have to start all over again without it.

I'm a former long time ASFS parent - do not move to a home just for this school. Not worth it.

This is just one parent's wishful thinking. They're not swapping buildings.

Not true-- it was brought up at a pta meeting as one of the options being considered. Since it's considered a neighborhood school now, moving it to a building in the actual neighborhood it's supposed to be serving makes sense. Especially since key is a larger building and could better accommodate the increased capacity of the neighborhood. Since the immersion program is an option program they could limit the size to fit within the asfs building.
There is also more space at key to grow as the number of kids in the neighborhood grows. The main thing is that the school would lose the science labs and outdoor space/gardens that have been added to help supplement the curriculum. There's a trade off because if they redraw the lines you lose a lot of the diversity that makes the school a great environment.

The only people who consider ASFS a neighborhood school are the people in the Key/ASFS boundaries who don't want to attend Key and hope that they don't lose their automatic admission to ASFS.

APS considers it a team school with priority based first on Key/ASFS zone families who don't want Key, then Taylor and Jamestown and then ultimately the rest of the county - even if in practical application only Key/ASFS families are now admitted. This is how the team used to work and students from all over the county attended ASFS.

And the rest of the county probably considers it very unfair - a choice school for which they aren't even able to enter the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right now, buy into or at least rent in the KEY district. That gives you guaranteed admissions. They are supposedly some slots (if Key doesn't fill the grade) for Taylor or Jamestown, but those are like unicorns. Watch out, though. The SB might be making a lot of changes to that area.

The boundary for ASFS is about to be radically changed -- there is No way to know if you will be in bound (currently living near it is not in boundary for example).

There is a possibility that Key and ASFS will swap campuses since Key is becoming a pure lottery immersion, and then ASFS will be in boundary. Or they will redraw boundaries and some key parts will go elsewhere and some Taylor parts go to ASFS.

Buy a neighborhood you like, in a house you like near a few schools you are ok with. There are guarantees now. And watch the high school changes coming -- they could be disruptive.

While this may very well happen, it would somewhat surprise me considering how much money the ASFS PTA and parents have invested in the building and its outdoor space over the years for various science-related teaching tools, including raising at least $150,000 less than two years ago for the science lab called investigation station. Not saying Key, if the schools swap buildings, wouldn't benefit from all of this but it seems kind of crazy for ASFS to leave it all behind and have to start all over again without it.

I'm a former long time ASFS parent - do not move to a home just for this school. Not worth it.

Well, it is equipment in a publuc school, so it would be nice if others could have an opportunity to benefit from it. But I highly doubt this switch will happen. Both schools must probably feel like they are having the rug pulled out from under them.

Well, the school board should have done something years ago. You can't have two "choice" programs that are essentially neighborhood schools, and give both to the same neighborhood in perpetuity. That's just bad policy. I understand why they did it this way at first, when conditions were such that anyone could enroll just about anywhere due to low enrollment. But to let it go this long was just kicking the can down the road and leaving it to others to deal with.

I don't think the schools are going to swap places. But there will have to be boundary adjustments (there would be anyway when the new school comes online).

The key/asfs zone wasn't supposed to have boundary changes. It's fine that they want to establish a walk zone and redistribute kids because of the policy change, but we shouldn't try to spin this as something that was well planned. If aps had been thinking straight, they wouldn't have located a niche program like immersion at the only elementary school located with neighborhood bounds to begin with. It would have been easier to have either originally placed the immersion program at the asfs building or drawn the key/asfs boundaries to include the neighborhood around asfs. Now twenty years later they are like "oh this isn't really fair", and it's like no shit really?

What's not fair? I have a very hard time seeing how Key will even reach 30 percent English speakers under the new proposal.

Just because YOU bought in-bounds to Key so you could go to ASFS does not mean that there isn't countywide demand for Immersion at Key. I get it, you see no value in it. Guess what? A lot of families in other parts of Arlington disagree and will be more than happy to take a spot at Key.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
APS considers it a team school with priority based first on Key/ASFS zone families who don't want Key, then Taylor and Jamestown and then ultimately the rest of the county - even if in practical application only Key/ASFS families are now admitted. This is how the team used to work and students from all over the county attended ASFS.

And the rest of the county probably considers it very unfair - a choice school for which they aren't even able to enter the lottery.

APS is planning to turn almost every school into a STEM school, plus a smidgen of arts filtered for their benefit to STEM. So ASFS will be even less special than it already is.

Give it to Cherrydale! (And I live in LV, but my neighborhood doesn't blind me to stupidity or unfairness)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right now, buy into or at least rent in the KEY district. That gives you guaranteed admissions. They are supposedly some slots (if Key doesn't fill the grade) for Taylor or Jamestown, but those are like unicorns. Watch out, though. The SB might be making a lot of changes to that area.

The boundary for ASFS is about to be radically changed -- there is No way to know if you will be in bound (currently living near it is not in boundary for example).

There is a possibility that Key and ASFS will swap campuses since Key is becoming a pure lottery immersion, and then ASFS will be in boundary. Or they will redraw boundaries and some key parts will go elsewhere and some Taylor parts go to ASFS.

Buy a neighborhood you like, in a house you like near a few schools you are ok with. There are guarantees now. And watch the high school changes coming -- they could be disruptive.

While this may very well happen, it would somewhat surprise me considering how much money the ASFS PTA and parents have invested in the building and its outdoor space over the years for various science-related teaching tools, including raising at least $150,000 less than two years ago for the science lab called investigation station. Not saying Key, if the schools swap buildings, wouldn't benefit from all of this but it seems kind of crazy for ASFS to leave it all behind and have to start all over again without it.

I'm a former long time ASFS parent - do not move to a home just for this school. Not worth it.

This is just one parent's wishful thinking. They're not swapping buildings.

Not true-- it was brought up at a pta meeting as one of the options being considered. Since it's considered a neighborhood school now, moving it to a building in the actual neighborhood it's supposed to be serving makes sense. Especially since key is a larger building and could better accommodate the increased capacity of the neighborhood. Since the immersion program is an option program they could limit the size to fit within the asfs building.
There is also more space at key to grow as the number of kids in the neighborhood grows. The main thing is that the school would lose the science labs and outdoor space/gardens that have been added to help supplement the curriculum. There's a trade off because if they redraw the lines you lose a lot of the diversity that makes the school a great environment.

The only people who consider ASFS a neighborhood school are the people in the Key/ASFS boundaries who don't want to attend Key and hope that they don't lose their automatic admission to ASFS.

APS considers it a team school with priority based first on Key/ASFS zone families who don't want Key, then Taylor and Jamestown and then ultimately the rest of the county - even if in practical application only Key/ASFS families are now admitted. This is how the team used to work and students from all over the county attended ASFS.

And the rest of the county probably considers it very unfair - a choice school for which they aren't even able to enter the lottery.

So I think what will happen, reading between the lines, is that as an official neighborhood school, an ASFS boundary will have to be drawn. Key students will be assigned to a neighborhood school, but it might not be ASFS, as a walk/bus zone boundary will be drawn around ASFS (maybe some Key zone would be considered "bus" zone to ASFS, but probably not all of it. I don't know exactly what the new boundaries will look like, and I get that people don't like change, but this has to happen. It's long overdue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
So I think what will happen, reading between the lines, is that as an official neighborhood school, an ASFS boundary will have to be drawn. Key students will be assigned to a neighborhood school, but it might not be ASFS, as a walk/bus zone boundary will be drawn around ASFS (maybe some Key zone would be considered "bus" zone to ASFS, but probably not all of it. I don't know exactly what the new boundaries will look like, and I get that people don't like change, but this has to happen. It's long overdue.

I don't think the boundary would look that different. For most of the Key boundary, ASFS is the closest neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So I think what will happen, reading between the lines, is that as an official neighborhood school, an ASFS boundary will have to be drawn. Key students will be assigned to a neighborhood school, but it might not be ASFS, as a walk/bus zone boundary will be drawn around ASFS (maybe some Key zone would be considered "bus" zone to ASFS, but probably not all of it. I don't know exactly what the new boundaries will look like, and I get that people don't like change, but this has to happen. It's long overdue.

I don't think the boundary would look that different. For most of the Key boundary, ASFS is the closest neighborhood school.

Okay, but they also have to make a boundary that takes into account the number of students living within the boundary. So even if Key is closest for many, some may not get pulled into the new boundary because it would result in excessive crowding. I don't have access to the planning unit level data, so I am just guessing here. If a new walk zone around ASFS pulls a lot of kids from Taylor, they won't be able to keep all the Key students at ASFS, too, even if they are closer to ASFS than any other existing school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a new walk zone around ASFS pulls a lot of kids from Taylor, they won't be able to keep all the Key students at ASFS, too, even if they are closer to ASFS than any other existing school.

I'm guessing very few LV parents are going to let their kids walk to ASFS because they don't want them crossing Kirkwood. Once kids are on a bus, why not send the bus to Taylor rather than ASFS? Taylor is already the neighborhood school for kids in the western part of LV (as in the part closest to ASFS).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Make ASFS the neighborhood school for Cherrydale instead of putting those kids on a bus. Make Taylor the neighborhood school for Lyon Village. A lot of LV families will decide to send their kids to Key just to have a geographically convenient school, the way Ashlawn and McKinley-zoned families apply to ATS not because they are in love with the program but because dropoff is on the way to work.

THIS!! Key (for my family) is super convenient for drop-off/pick-up than the Taylor which is a rather far distance (plus, opposite to my commuting direction) from where we live (zoned for Taylor but closer to Key).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Make ASFS the neighborhood school for Cherrydale instead of putting those kids on a bus. Make Taylor the neighborhood school for Lyon Village. A lot of LV families will decide to send their kids to Key just to have a geographically convenient school, the way Ashlawn and McKinley-zoned families apply to ATS not because they are in love with the program but because dropoff is on the way to work.

THIS!! Key (for my family) is super convenient for drop-off/pick-up than the Taylor which is a rather far distance (plus, opposite to my commuting direction) from where we live (zoned for Taylor but closer to Key).

Except most families don't want immersion. Most just want a regular neighborhood school.

With so many kids concentrated right there (from Rosslyn to Clarendon) it makes the most sense to make the Key building a neighborhood school to minimize busing.

[Anonymous]

That's tough. I agree. From the drop-off/pick-up perspective, Key wins for sure right now (for us). If Key and ASFS swap building and the current Key becomes ASFS, that is tough choice. I like both immersion idea and regular neighborhood school idea.

[Anonymous]

I live in Rosslyn and just want to send my kids to a regular neighborhood school. Key would absolutely be the best location for us, but I don't want immersion. If they officially declare ASFS to be the neighborhood school that it effectively is, I agree that the homes immediately surrounding the school should be rezoned into it. That just makes sense. I'm not sure where that leaves us in Rosslyn. Do we get shipped up to Taylor? Is there room in ASFS after rezoning? There are too many kids and too few seats, but I suppose that essentially a county-wide problem at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Make ASFS the neighborhood school for Cherrydale instead of putting those kids on a bus. Make Taylor the neighborhood school for Lyon Village. A lot of LV families will decide to send their kids to Key just to have a geographically convenient school, the way Ashlawn and McKinley-zoned families apply to ATS not because they are in love with the program but because dropoff is on the way to work.

THIS!! Key (for my family) is super convenient for drop-off/pick-up than the Taylor which is a rather far distance (plus, opposite to my commuting direction) from where we live (zoned for Taylor but closer to Key).

Except most families don't want immersion. Most just want a regular neighborhood school.

With so many kids concentrated right there (from Rosslyn to Clarendon) it makes the most sense to make the Key building a neighborhood school to minimize busing.

Okay, but what if the kids who are concentrated from Rosslyn to Clarendon would prefer Immersion to neighborhood school? I mean, not to be crass, but I think the reason Key even became an Immersion school in the first place was because of the high number of Latino students in the vicinity. If those students are still there in large enough numbers, I don't think it makes sense to move the Immersions program further away from them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Make ASFS the neighborhood school for Cherrydale instead of putting those kids on a bus. Make Taylor the neighborhood school for Lyon Village. A lot of LV families will decide to send their kids to Key just to have a geographically convenient school, the way Ashlawn and McKinley-zoned families apply to ATS not because they are in love with the program but because dropoff is on the way to work.

THIS!! Key (for my family) is super convenient for drop-off/pick-up than the Taylor which is a rather far distance (plus, opposite to my commuting direction) from where we live (zoned for Taylor but closer to Key).

Except most families don't want immersion. Most just want a regular neighborhood school.

With so many kids concentrated right there (from Rosslyn to Clarendon) it makes the most sense to make the Key building a neighborhood school to minimize busing.

Okay, but what if the kids who are concentrated from Rosslyn to Clarendon would prefer Immersion to neighborhood school? I mean, not to be crass, but I think the reason Key even became an Immersion school in the first place was because of the high number of Latino students in the vicinity. If those students are still there in large enough numbers, I don't think it makes sense to move the Immersions program further away from them.

Agreed on this. Plus the lower-income parents (who statistically include more of the Latino parents) are much more likely to need to use public transportation due to lack of a car, so Key's location near the Metro is helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Make ASFS the neighborhood school for Cherrydale instead of putting those kids on a bus. Make Taylor the neighborhood school for Lyon Village. A lot of LV families will decide to send their kids to Key just to have a geographically convenient school, the way Ashlawn and McKinley-zoned families apply to ATS not because they are in love with the program but because dropoff is on the way to work.

THIS!! Key (for my family) is super convenient for drop-off/pick-up than the Taylor which is a rather far distance (plus, opposite to my commuting direction) from where we live (zoned for Taylor but closer to Key).

Except most families don't want immersion. Most just want a regular neighborhood school.

With so many kids concentrated right there (from Rosslyn to Clarendon) it makes the most sense to make the Key building a neighborhood school to minimize busing.

Okay, but what if the kids who are concentrated from Rosslyn to Clarendon would prefer Immersion to neighborhood school? I mean, not to be crass, but I think the reason Key even became an Immersion school in the first place was because of the high number of Latino students in the vicinity. If those students are still there in large enough numbers, I don't think it makes sense to move the Immersions program further away from them.

I think the demographics have changed significantly since then. If you look at the transfers report for the most recent school year, it's showing 343 students at Key who identify as Hispanic, 159 of whom are transfers. That leaves 184 in zone Hispanic students (page 22 as marked in corner of page on this doc: http://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Transfer-Report-2016-17.pdf). Compare that to the 510 students at ASFS from Key zone (page 9 of same doc, all ethinicities) who have a demonstrated interest in choosing a de facto neighborhood school over an immersion school. Additionally, once Key is all lottery, the Hispanic students in the current Key zone aren't guaranteed admission there anymore anyway. I also ignored the 96 inbound non-Hispanic students at Key in my analysis above, since they are also losing preference.

Anyway, that's what I can figure out on the latest demographics. Once they start changing lines, these numbers wiggle around since they aren't at the planning unit level. This may not be enough reason in itself to move a program, but I don't think the concentration of Hispanic students in Key Zone is a compelling argument to keep it there vs somewhere else, either.