class action against APS what are our options?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't your real beef against the county, for continuing to put affordable housing in areas where there is already a lot of low-market-rate housing? Because I think that's the real problem here.

If enough middle class families are moved as a block to a "lower achieving" school, in theory it should become a higher performing school, right?

+1

+2

Don't put this all on the school board.

Correct. APS staff, allegedly, are the ones making these proposals.

Yep, and we all know it's the APS staff who set housing policy and decide where the AH will go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't your real beef against the county, for continuing to put affordable housing in areas where there is already a lot of low-market-rate housing? Because I think that's the real problem here.

If enough middle class families are moved as a block to a "lower achieving" school, in theory it should become a higher performing school, right?

+1

+2

Don't put this all on the school board.

But knee-jerk reactions are so much easier than actually educating yourself.

STFU. The APS school board - and staff - don't make decisions about affordable housing. Period. OThey have a bit of flexibilbilty but are extremely limited just based on how the population is distributed throughout the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:File as many complaints as you can as soon as you can. Contact the NAACP. Contact Moriah Balingit at the Washington Post. Make noise. And look for a Civil Rights attorney who may take this case on pro bono.

You have no case.

Well then you have nothing to be worried about, do you? Know what? Law suits and the threat of law suits get things done, regardless of merit. Why do you think the county stopped pursuing distribution of AH? A law suit, that was without merit and which the county ultimately won, but which wasted 12 million of their dollars.

So you're advocating filing a suit that you know is frivolous? I hope you end up paying fees for APS after someone forwards this thread to Arlington lawyers.

I'm not the OP, and I don't actually think it's without merit. In particular, the number of SWD is curiously higher at the higher poverty schools. Maybe someone should look into that. And capacity is being pushed higher at the higher poverty schools, while the wealthiest school is left under capacity for some nebulous program that may or may not materialize, and most assuredly won't result in greater diversity.

You do realize, I assume, that under the revised Option A, Jefferson and Kenmore are both initially less crowded than Williamsburg, and that by 2022, Williamsburg is still at 97% capacity, right? Yes, it's lower than the other schools, but it's not like Williamsburg is going to be sitting there with more space than they know what to do with, 97% probably still means a trainer or two. Let's keep a little perspective on the actual figures here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:File as many complaints as you can as soon as you can. Contact the NAACP. Contact Moriah Balingit at the Washington Post. Make noise. And look for a Civil Rights attorney who may take this case on pro bono.

You have no case.

Well then you have nothing to be worried about, do you? Know what? Law suits and the threat of law suits get things done, regardless of merit. Why do you think the county stopped pursuing distribution of AH? A law suit, that was without merit and which the county ultimately won, but which wasted 12 million of their dollars.

So you're advocating filing a suit that you know is frivolous? I hope you end up paying fees for APS after someone forwards this thread to Arlington lawyers.

I'm not the OP, and I don't actually think it's without merit. In particular, the number of SWD is curiously higher at the higher poverty schools. Maybe someone should look into that. And capacity is being pushed higher at the higher poverty schools, while the wealthiest school is left under capacity for some nebulous program that may or may not materialize, and most assuredly won't result in greater diversity.

Why in the world is that suspicious to you? Raising a child with disabilities is expensive, housing is one of the biggest line items in most people's budgets, and so when you need to shift money around to pay for increased healthcare expenses, moving to a less expensive neighborhood is a no-brainer.

Transfers, that's why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:File as many complaints as you can as soon as you can. Contact the NAACP. Contact Moriah Balingit at the Washington Post. Make noise. And look for a Civil Rights attorney who may take this case on pro bono.

You have no case.

Well then you have nothing to be worried about, do you? Know what? Law suits and the threat of law suits get things done, regardless of merit. Why do you think the county stopped pursuing distribution of AH? A law suit, that was without merit and which the county ultimately won, but which wasted 12 million of their dollars.

So you're advocating filing a suit that you know is frivolous? I hope you end up paying fees for APS after someone forwards this thread to Arlington lawyers.

I'm not the OP, and I don't actually think it's without merit. In particular, the number of SWD is curiously higher at the higher poverty schools. Maybe someone should look into that. And capacity is being pushed higher at the higher poverty schools, while the wealthiest school is left under capacity for some nebulous program that may or may not materialize, and most assuredly won't result in greater diversity.

Why in the world is that suspicious to you? Raising a child with disabilities is expensive, housing is one of the biggest line items in most people's budgets, and so when you need to shift money around to pay for increased healthcare expenses, moving to a less expensive neighborhood is a no-brainer.

Transfers, that's why.

What about transfers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't your real beef against the county, for continuing to put affordable housing in areas where there is already a lot of low-market-rate housing? Because I think that's the real problem here.

If enough middle class families are moved as a block to a "lower achieving" school, in theory it should become a higher performing school, right?

+1

+2

Don't put this all on the school board.

But knee-jerk reactions are so much easier than actually educating yourself.

STFU. The APS school board - and staff - don't make decisions about affordable housing. Period. OThey have a bit of flexibilbilty but are extremely limited just based on how the population is distributed throughout the county.

So now that everyone must be able to walk to their closest school, the neighborhoods that are zoned in such a way that their schools aren't as likely to become overcrowded due to lower density of housing/higher housing costs are just going to be able to remain under capacity in perpetuity. Sounds equitable to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't your real beef against the county, for continuing to put affordable housing in areas where there is already a lot of low-market-rate housing? Because I think that's the real problem here.

If enough middle class families are moved as a block to a "lower achieving" school, in theory it should become a higher performing school, right?

+1

+2

Don't put this all on the school board.

But knee-jerk reactions are so much easier than actually educating yourself.

STFU. The APS school board - and staff - don't make decisions about affordable housing. Period. OThey have a bit of flexibilbilty but are extremely limited just based on how the population is distributed throughout the county.

So now that everyone must be able to walk to their closest school, the neighborhoods that are zoned in such a way that their schools aren't as likely to become overcrowded due to lower density of housing/higher housing costs are just going to be able to remain under capacity in perpetuity. Sounds equitable to me.

Everyone except you wants to be near their school. Not sure why that's hard for you to understand. The people have talked, you should listen.

-two of my kids are at one of the most crowded ESs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't your real beef against the county, for continuing to put affordable housing in areas where there is already a lot of low-market-rate housing? Because I think that's the real problem here.

If enough middle class families are moved as a block to a "lower achieving" school, in theory it should become a higher performing school, right?

+1

+2

Don't put this all on the school board.

But knee-jerk reactions are so much easier than actually educating yourself.

STFU. The APS school board - and staff - don't make decisions about affordable housing. Period. OThey have a bit of flexibilbilty but are extremely limited just based on how the population is distributed throughout the county.

So now that everyone must be able to walk to their closest school, the neighborhoods that are zoned in such a way that their schools aren't as likely to become overcrowded due to lower density of housing/higher housing costs are just going to be able to remain under capacity in perpetuity. Sounds equitable to me.

Everyone except you wants to be near their school. Not sure why that's hard for you to understand. The people have talked, you should listen.

-two of my kids are at one of the most crowded ESs

Yeah, all 400 responses to Engage. That clearly represents EVERYONE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So now that everyone must be able to walk to their closest school, the neighborhoods that are zoned in such a way that their schools aren't as likely to become overcrowded due to lower density of housing/higher housing costs are just going to be able to remain under capacity in perpetuity. Sounds equitable to me.

Proximity has always been a primary factor in school assignments. That isn’t new.

And planning for a program at WB to draw students from across the county is no more harebrained than gerrymandering boundaries or extensive busing schemes. There’s no “in perpetuity” here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop scheming to WASTE our taxpayer dollars and redirect your efforts to getting involved in the schools, supporting non-established candidates, etc.

Unless you are actually expending energy and time (and hopefully donate money) to help low income students in your community, your are a HYPOCRITE!

The low income kids are purposefully not in my neighborhood. The plan to send my kid to their school is the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the big flaw with your plan: The premise of your argument would be that the county is disadvantaging minority students against their will in order to preserve/increase segregation. In so many of the options to give more balanced diversity between the schools, though, it was the minority groups who would have been moved to achieve that diversity who protested the move and wanted to stay in the closer school (for instance, the families in Hall's Hill and the Williamsburg island who didn't want to be bused to Williamsburg rather than going to the closer school with their ES classmates just to make Williamsburg more diverse). So not only would you probably not get those families on board with your lawsuit (since prevailing would mean them having to do something they have very explicitly stated they do not want to do), but it would completely undermine your case that APS offered a more balanced option and the people who supposedly would benefit most from it rejected it in favor of a less balanced option.

But what APS capitulated to was the demands of higher SES families --- so the high school boundaries didn't move Arlington Forest families to Wakefield, and the MS boundaries didn't move Swanson families to Kenmore.

See if they take Lyon Village families out of ASFS. I'm betting no. They don't upset the potential campaign contributors.

So you want to tell the people in the Williamsburg island, who specifically asked to go to Stratford instead because in some cases kids would have had to walk further to their WB bus stop than to Stratford itself, that they can't have that, that they need to be bused to Williamsburg so that diversity will be better at Williamsburg. And you want to tell the community in Hall's Hill that their kids can't go to MS with their ES friends, they instead have to get onto a bus to provide the token minority population in Williamsburg, even though they specifically said they didn't want that. And you want to move Swanson families to Kenmore and then Williamsburg families to Swanson, so that Williamsburg becomes more diverse while Swanson ends up as non-diverse as Williamsburg is current projected to be, but with no excess capacity available for transfers.

I'm curious, in all of this, where are you? Where are your kids slated to go under the revised Option A, and where would you ideally like them to go, and which PUs should be moved in or out of that school to get the demographics you want? How many of the families you're supposedly trying to protect would be forced into something they don't want just so you can get what you do want?

At this point private. The demographics of the overcrowding do not match with our plans. I'm not a Fairfax fan but its not hard to reach a better school district and leave Arlington to the 20 somethings .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So now that everyone must be able to walk to their closest school, the neighborhoods that are zoned in such a way that their schools aren't as likely to become overcrowded due to lower density of housing/higher housing costs are just going to be able to remain under capacity in perpetuity. Sounds equitable to me.

Proximity has always been a primary factor in school assignments. That isn’t new.

And planning for a program at WB to draw students from across the county is no more harebrained than gerrymandering boundaries or extensive busing schemes. There’s no “in perpetuity” here.

That's the problem their is one group that can walk and is being forced elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So now that everyone must be able to walk to their closest school, the neighborhoods that are zoned in such a way that their schools aren't as likely to become overcrowded due to lower density of housing/higher housing costs are just going to be able to remain under capacity in perpetuity. Sounds equitable to me.

Proximity has always been a primary factor in school assignments. That isn’t new.

And planning for a program at WB to draw students from across the county is no more harebrained than gerrymandering boundaries or extensive busing schemes. There’s no “in perpetuity” here.

That's the problem their is one group that can walk and is being forced elsewhere.

Where? In Option A? No, there's not.

I'm really sick of hearing about some people being "forced" elsewhere. Yeah, that's what happens in a boundary reassignment. And sometimes, it will be you and other times not. And because we didn't build the schools in perfect locations, you may have to be moved to a school that isn't the exact closest one, in order to balance enrollment and other community concerns.

[Anonymous]

itle VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance. All federal agencies that provide grants of assistance are required to enforce Title VI. The U.S. Department of Education gives grants of financial assistance to schools and colleges and to certain other entities, including vocational rehabilitation programs.

Examples of discrimination covered by Title VI include racial harassment, school segregation, and denial of language services to English learners. A fuller list of Title VI issues OCR addresses appears here. The U.S. Department of Education Title VI regulation (Code of Federal Regulations at 34 CFR 100) is enforced by the Department's Office for Civil Rights.

The Title VI regulation prohibits retaliation for filing an OCR complaint or for advocacy for a right protected by Title VI. Title VI also prohibits employment discrimination, but the protection against employment discrimination under Title VI is limited. As a result, most complaints OCR receives raising race, color, or national-origin discrimination in employment are referred to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

For more information on Education and Title VI please click here.

Links to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its implementing regulations:

42 U.S.C. 2000d ; 78 Stat. 252 (USCode.house.gov)
34 CFR Part 100 and the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the big flaw with your plan: The premise of your argument would be that the county is disadvantaging minority students against their will in order to preserve/increase segregation. In so many of the options to give more balanced diversity between the schools, though, it was the minority groups who would have been moved to achieve that diversity who protested the move and wanted to stay in the closer school (for instance, the families in Hall's Hill and the Williamsburg island who didn't want to be bused to Williamsburg rather than going to the closer school with their ES classmates just to make Williamsburg more diverse). So not only would you probably not get those families on board with your lawsuit (since prevailing would mean them having to do something they have very explicitly stated they do not want to do), but it would completely undermine your case that APS offered a more balanced option and the people who supposedly would benefit most from it rejected it in favor of a less balanced option.

But what APS capitulated to was the demands of higher SES families --- so the high school boundaries didn't move Arlington Forest families to Wakefield, and the MS boundaries didn't move Swanson families to Kenmore.

See if they take Lyon Village families out of ASFS. I'm betting no. They don't upset the potential campaign contributors.

So you want to tell the people in the Williamsburg island, who specifically asked to go to Stratford instead because in some cases kids would have had to walk further to their WB bus stop than to Stratford itself, that they can't have that, that they need to be bused to Williamsburg so that diversity will be better at Williamsburg. And you want to tell the community in Hall's Hill that their kids can't go to MS with their ES friends, they instead have to get onto a bus to provide the token minority population in Williamsburg, even though they specifically said they didn't want that. And you want to move Swanson families to Kenmore and then Williamsburg families to Swanson, so that Williamsburg becomes more diverse while Swanson ends up as non-diverse as Williamsburg is current projected to be, but with no excess capacity available for transfers.

I'm curious, in all of this, where are you? Where are your kids slated to go under the revised Option A, and where would you ideally like them to go, and which PUs should be moved in or out of that school to get the demographics you want? How many of the families you're supposedly trying to protect would be forced into something they don't want just so you can get what you do want?

At this point private. The demographics of the overcrowding do not match with our plans. I'm not a Fairfax fan but its not hard to reach a better school district and leave Arlington to the 20 somethings .

Ah, white savior.