APS - is Duran discriminating?

[Anonymous]

If Duran and the SB don't figure out a solid plan to get the kids back in school, I predict more lawsuits in the future. This threat of waiting until kids are vaccinated will fuel the fire of parents getting even more aggressive. Duran needs to start putting our kids' health and education first. It's his damn job.

At the very least, why are we funding schools when our kids are not being properly educated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Duran and the SB don't figure out a solid plan to get the kids back in school, I predict more lawsuits in the future. This threat of waiting until kids are vaccinated will fuel the fire of parents getting even more aggressive. Duran needs to start putting our kids' health and education first. It's his damn job.

At the very least, why are we funding schools when our kids are not being properly educated?

He is not waiting until kids are vaccinated. He has never said that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya’ll are nuts. First you try tried to bootstrap arguments about poor and disadvantaged communities to get schools Open Now. When that didn’t work fast enough for you, now YOU’RE the ones discriminated against. I hope it’s just one person behind these posts but I fear it’s the lot of you. There’s a raging pandemic, remember!

I really hate these FEW loud mouth a$$holes. They make the rest of us look bad and they are privileged idiots. What I also hate about APS is they listen to the loudmouthaholeswhoareprivlegedidiots when the majority thinks another way.

APE can say all it wants but many parents who picked hybrid would not send their kids back now, or in Feb b/c the rates are too high in ARL right now FFS>

Idiots.

I look at the APE Twitter stuff. Today, it’s a slide about suicide risk assessments, which have gone down. The caption is something like, the teachers can’t see the kids, and so they’re not referring them. This is the travesty, right?

How much do you want to get if it was the other way around, they’d post it and be like, look! Suicide risk assessments are up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya’ll are nuts. First you try tried to bootstrap arguments about poor and disadvantaged communities to get schools Open Now. When that didn’t work fast enough for you, now YOU’RE the ones discriminated against. I hope it’s just one person behind these posts but I fear it’s the lot of you. There’s a raging pandemic, remember!

I really hate these FEW loud mouth a$$holes. They make the rest of us look bad and they are privileged idiots. What I also hate about APS is they listen to the loudmouthaholeswhoareprivlegedidiots when the majority thinks another way.

APE can say all it wants but many parents who picked hybrid would not send their kids back now, or in Feb b/c the rates are too high in ARL right now FFS>

Idiots.

I look at the APE Twitter stuff. Today, it’s a slide about suicide risk assessments, which have gone down. The caption is something like, the teachers can’t see the kids, and so they’re not referring them. This is the travesty, right?

How much do you want to get if it was the other way around, they’d post it and be like, look! Suicide risk assessments are up.

I mean, “want to bet”? Listen, I know some APE people from my neighborhood. They’re nice people. Well, one is crazy, but anyway- I know they’re frustrated. I know one gets that the metrics are bad, but worries that when they aren’t, there’s no plan. THAT I get. But I wish they’d separate themselves from the crazy ones. Duran is discriminating? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya’ll are nuts. First you try tried to bootstrap arguments about poor and disadvantaged communities to get schools Open Now. When that didn’t work fast enough for you, now YOU’RE the ones discriminated against. I hope it’s just one person behind these posts but I fear it’s the lot of you. There’s a raging pandemic, remember!

I really hate these FEW loud mouth a$$holes. They make the rest of us look bad and they are privileged idiots. What I also hate about APS is they listen to the loudmouthaholeswhoareprivlegedidiots when the majority thinks another way.

APE can say all it wants but many parents who picked hybrid would not send their kids back now, or in Feb b/c the rates are too high in ARL right now FFS>

Idiots.

I look at the APE Twitter stuff. Today, it’s a slide about suicide risk assessments, which have gone down. The caption is something like, the teachers can’t see the kids, and so they’re not referring them. This is the travesty, right?

How much do you want to get if it was the other way around, they’d post it and be like, look! Suicide risk assessments are up.

I mean, “want to bet”? Listen, I know some APE people from my neighborhood. They’re nice people. Well, one is crazy, but anyway- I know they’re frustrated. I know one gets that the metrics are bad, but worries that when they aren’t, there’s no plan. THAT I get. But I wish they’d separate themselves from the crazy ones. Duran is discriminating? Really?

And all of the nasty stuff about teachers. Really ugly.

[Anonymous]

At the end of the day if it is discrimination there is no protective class legal safe guard for middle upper class vs. poor. My middle upper class child with IEP on the other had is protected under ADA, and if he dose bot recognize that he could face legal ramifications. If he does not believe it he should pay attention to Maryland Gov message to his schools, which was open by March 1st or face legal ramifications. Ths VA Gov needs to step it up to, the state holds vircurios liability should there be big lawsuit on lack of access to a free and equitable education to special needs children regardless of their economic status. Duran allowed some special needs back,but hardly enough to avoid lega action
The excuses are running out now that Biden is putting funding in place for schools and vaccine has arrived.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It amazes me how parents complain about overcrowding, but want these same overcrowded schools to open. Where do they think the kids are going to space out? Do you think the 600+ student body elementary schools, or any middle and HS have the space to spread out?

Where are you going to get the buses from? In the summer they showed how there weren't enough buses and hours to get the kids to school, even with hybrid. And, while many said their kids would walk or they’d do drop off, bussing is required. It’s part of the whole free and accessible concept.

Finally, perhaps many of the ‘stay online’ parents have found a resource that allows their kids to attend school and they can go to work- be it a pod where families take turns hosting, or a child care facility that offers DL time. To move to a hybrid would likely create challenges to many families if there isn’t after care, or buses aren’t available to take to programs.

This whole school year sucks. It sucks for everyone. Every kid is getting less than they would in a classroom. Every parent is becoming burnt out by the stress and demand of home, work, and school. But let’s makes this about the unfair burden the poor folk of Arlington are putting on everyone because of ‘equity’.

I sure hope you are not a teacher. The attack on parents that simply care about their kids' mental health and education is pathetic. My family moved to Arlington specifically because of the "top notch" public school system. APS is showing it's true colors and is anything but that.

PP here... nope not a teacher. Parent of a kid in an overcrowded school who has sat through countless re-zoning school board meetings. Who has listened to parents say ‘but my school is already near capacity.’ Who has watched as many of the parents who want schools to reopen don’t want the kids being school in temporary classrooms brought to their schools. I watched another near capacity school have ‘walk your kids to school days’ to show they didn’t need buses and shouldn’t be re-zoned.

It’s not an attack in parents. It’s a reality that APS lacks foresight to adequately plan for population increases and migration. (Like the potential housing boom in Crystal and Pentagon City with no ES nearby). They can’t find appropriate space and resources for all of our kids in a non-pandemic, how will they do so now? Sure it has great schools. It’s why we live here. But it also has management and oversight issues. They’ve never hidden their true colors, especially if you’re in one of the schools with a low Great Schools ‘ranking’.

The School Board is an unchecked system. And they bully people into paying for their lack of planning and oversight. ‘If you don’t pass this bond we’re going to cut theses programs for your kids instead of readjusting our overinflated budget with what should be low priority construction’. Disagree? Look at the state of some ES that have trailers and the like. Then look at their Syphax building. And they listen to the loudest voices in the room (see myriad re-zoning meetings).

All that said, we love our schools. We love our teachers. We think schools should reopen. But it shouldn’t be because the loudest voices in the room bullied APS into doing so. And if all APS schools cannot be reopened at the same levels, then should any?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It amazes me how parents complain about overcrowding, but want these same overcrowded schools to open. Where do they think the kids are going to space out? Do you think the 600+ student body elementary schools, or any middle and HS have the space to spread out?

Where are you going to get the buses from? In the summer they showed how there weren't enough buses and hours to get the kids to school, even with hybrid. And, while many said their kids would walk or they’d do drop off, bussing is required. It’s part of the whole free and accessible concept.

Finally, perhaps many of the ‘stay online’ parents have found a resource that allows their kids to attend school and they can go to work- be it a pod where families take turns hosting, or a child care facility that offers DL time. To move to a hybrid would likely create challenges to many families if there isn’t after care, or buses aren’t available to take to programs.

This whole school year sucks. It sucks for everyone. Every kid is getting less than they would in a classroom. Every parent is becoming burnt out by the stress and demand of home, work, and school. But let’s makes this about the unfair burden the poor folk of Arlington are putting on everyone because of ‘equity’.

I sure hope you are not a teacher. The attack on parents that simply care about their kids' mental health and education is pathetic. My family moved to Arlington specifically because of the "top notch" public school system. APS is showing it's true colors and is anything but that.

PP here... nope not a teacher. Parent of a kid in an overcrowded school who has sat through countless re-zoning school board meetings. Who has listened to parents say ‘but my school is already near capacity.’ Who has watched as many of the parents who want schools to reopen don’t want the kids being school in temporary classrooms brought to their schools. I watched another near capacity school have ‘walk your kids to school days’ to show they didn’t need buses and shouldn’t be re-zoned.

It’s not an attack in parents. It’s a reality that APS lacks foresight to adequately plan for population increases and migration. (Like the potential housing boom in Crystal and Pentagon City with no ES nearby). They can’t find appropriate space and resources for all of our kids in a non-pandemic, how will they do so now? Sure it has great schools. It’s why we live here. But it also has management and oversight issues. They’ve never hidden their true colors, especially if you’re in one of the schools with a low Great Schools ‘ranking’.

The School Board is an unchecked system. And they bully people into paying for their lack of planning and oversight. ‘If you don’t pass this bond we’re going to cut theses programs for your kids instead of readjusting our overinflated budget with what should be low priority construction’. Disagree? Look at the state of some ES that have trailers and the like. Then look at their Syphax building. And they listen to the loudest voices in the room (see myriad re-zoning meetings).

All that said, we love our schools. We love our teachers. We think schools should reopen. But it shouldn’t be because the loudest voices in the room bullied APS into doing so. And if all APS schools cannot be reopened at the same levels, then should any?

I've been wondering if APS needs 2 Superintendents. It's too big of a school system for the way the SB works now. Or at the very least, a professional consulting firm specializing in complex school systems, if one exists. Either way, what we have now is not working, and not what our tax dollars should demand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the end of the day if it is discrimination there is no protective class legal safe guard for middle upper class vs. poor. My middle upper class child with IEP on the other had is protected under ADA, and if he dose bot recognize that he could face legal ramifications. If he does not believe it he should pay attention to Maryland Gov message to his schools, which was open by March 1st or face legal ramifications. Ths VA Gov needs to step it up to, the state holds vircurios liability should there be big lawsuit on lack of access to a free and equitable education to special needs children regardless of their economic status. Duran allowed some special needs back,but hardly enough to avoid lega action
The excuses are running out now that Biden is putting funding in place for schools and vaccine has arrived.

Hogan doesn’t have nearly the level of community transmission that we do. Except- Montgomery and PG, that border us. As vaccines roll out, numbers will go down, and schools will reopen. There are no excuses, it will happen when metrics are reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the end of the day if it is discrimination there is no protective class legal safe guard for middle upper class vs. poor. My middle upper class child with IEP on the other had is protected under ADA, and if he dose bot recognize that he could face legal ramifications. If he does not believe it he should pay attention to Maryland Gov message to his schools, which was open by March 1st or face legal ramifications. Ths VA Gov needs to step it up to, the state holds vircurios liability should there be big lawsuit on lack of access to a free and equitable education to special needs children regardless of their economic status. Duran allowed some special needs back,but hardly enough to avoid lega action
The excuses are running out now that Biden is putting funding in place for schools and vaccine has arrived.

Hogan doesn’t have nearly the level of community transmission that we do. Except- Montgomery and PG, that border us. As vaccines roll out, numbers will go down, and schools will reopen. There are no excuses, it will happen when metrics are reasonable.

And Baltimore! Baltimore is pretty bad...

[Anonymous]

What the heck are you all talking about? We start phase 2 early next month! It looks like the reopening train is moving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the end of the day if it is discrimination there is no protective class legal safe guard for middle upper class vs. poor. My middle upper class child with IEP on the other had is protected under ADA, and if he dose bot recognize that he could face legal ramifications. If he does not believe it he should pay attention to Maryland Gov message to his schools, which was open by March 1st or face legal ramifications. Ths VA Gov needs to step it up to, the state holds vircurios liability should there be big lawsuit on lack of access to a free and equitable education to special needs children regardless of their economic status. Duran allowed some special needs back,but hardly enough to avoid lega action
The excuses are running out now that Biden is putting funding in place for schools and vaccine has arrived.

I thought special needs had returned to school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the end of the day if it is discrimination there is no protective class legal safe guard for middle upper class vs. poor. My middle upper class child with IEP on the other had is protected under ADA, and if he dose bot recognize that he could face legal ramifications. If he does not believe it he should pay attention to Maryland Gov message to his schools, which was open by March 1st or face legal ramifications. Ths VA Gov needs to step it up to, the state holds vircurios liability should there be big lawsuit on lack of access to a free and equitable education to special needs children regardless of their economic status. Duran allowed some special needs back,but hardly enough to avoid lega action
The excuses are running out now that Biden is putting funding in place for schools and vaccine has arrived.

An IEP? For like ADHD or autism? You are sure making the SN crowd look bad.

[Anonymous]

Is it really the case that the majority of South Arlington parents want to stay virtual? I keep seeing people saying that on this website, but I've never seen that data coming from APS. I think people are making that assumption because most of the APE parents are from North Arlington. However, most of the parents who are most vocal about staying virtual are from North Arlington too.

[Anonymous]

The north is disproportionately hybrid. Upwards of 70%. The south was more 50/50 or 45/55 with a few outliers at 30/70 favoring DL. But for sure, the obnoxious loud mouths embarrassing themselves yelling (virtually and at SB meetings) at teachers and others are almost all N Arl folks.