APS: New High School forum tonight 7-9 pm at Yorktown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My problem with map is it takes us from walkers at Yorktown to a long bus ride to the new school (after our planning unit was already screwed into McK.) But we have to decide as a county what the priorities are. Is it neighborhood schools? Is it diversity at the expense of all else? I'm not sure anymore.

I think the bolded is an overstatement. How about "a reasonably level playing field even if some kids have to take a bus" -- and I would say "take a bus instead of walking," but I don't think we can say that unless we somehow eliminate parent dropoffs and kids driving to school.

I'd be willing to say that while busing should be a consideration, we shouldn't be worried about bus rides of less than half an hour? 20 minutes? Because high school walkers can be walking about that long, depending on whether they stride or amble (and I like that they walk, but we're juggling a lot of factors, so maybe the walk to school can't be the way your kid gets exercise).

That may be true but I'm going out on a limb to say you don't live in one of those planning units, already screwed over in the elementary school redistricting.

Right. The Westover/adjacent folks have been really screwed over and that map just continues kicking them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'd be willing to say that while busing should be a consideration, we shouldn't be worried about bus rides of less than half an hour? 20 minutes? Because high school walkers can be walking about that long, depending on whether they stride or amble (and I like that they walk, but we're juggling a lot of factors, so maybe the walk to school can't be the way your kid gets exercise).

That may be true but I'm going out on a limb to say you don't live in one of those planning units, already screwed over in the elementary school redistricting.

Are you proposing that we try to create fairness by making sure that everyone gets screwed at some point?

The elementary school redistricting fiasco (assuming we're talking about the fiasco in which APS had to hire a consultant because evidently no one APS staff can either count or listen to citizens who can), I think a constructive response is to be sure we're working with correct long-term and short-term data.

[Anonymous]

Can I just say I feel like this is now a much more thoughtful and productive conversation than we were having 15 pages ago when most participants were Ra Ra Kenmore High and didn't seem to care if in actuality it would be high-FARMS?

[Anonymous]

We all have to come together to work on boundaries that will make sense. I am in Yorktown and would be happy to be rezoned. (I think the affluence at Yorktown has led to problems with drugs and bullying.)

We also must push the School and County Boards to fund a great school! I saw an article where County Board is going to spend $70 million on the Long Bridge pool. Why not add a great pool at Kenmore? Pooling funds would make so much sense!

[Anonymous]

Looking at that map, I don't see a big problem from the Kenmore diversity problem. Currently the western pike is zoned WL and balanced out by the other WL PUs. Eyeballing it is obviously rough justice, but seems like the former Yorktown PUs could serve the same purpose. I would be concerned about Wakefield losing the green area between the Pike and 50 though. It also takes away from the current diversity balance at WL. Not clear to me whether parents would really care about that or not.

While I feel for the McKinley families based on what I have read on this board, I do not see how having an overcrowded elementary experience has anything to do with not being able to walk to HS. No one, including APS, owes families some sort of cosmic balancing act to right all prior and unrelated wrongs. I get that walkability would be nice, but it can't be a must-have when already many families aren't close enough to do so.

[Anonymous]

seriously WL folks, time to think positivie thoughts re: Ed Ctr and work to make it less unbearable to you or your children. nothing dramatic is going to happen - redrawing boundaries, new HS, fight CB for land, etc., none of that. it just doesn't work that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:seriously WL folks, time to think positivie thoughts re: Ed Ctr and work to make it less unbearable to you or your children. nothing dramatic is going to happen - redrawing boundaries, new HS, fight CB for land, etc., none of that. it just doesn't work that way.

Plopping 4000 kids into one school is pretty dramatic.

[Anonymous]

How about:



Doesn't seem to be any great way to geographically distribute kids. Maybe a choice school would make more sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Doesn't seem to be any great way to geographically distribute kids. Maybe a choice school would make more sense.

How about giving up the fetish of contiguous planning units?

Also, the revised map puts Arlington Ridge at W-L, right? That seems like a pretty affluent area -- not what W-L needs.

[Anonymous]

you don't need to look too far to know the Kenmore diversity - it currently is 49% Hispanic. anyway you slice the 'new' boundary that is not going to change by much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Doesn't seem to be any great way to geographically distribute kids. Maybe a choice school would make more sense.

How about giving up the fetish of contiguous planning units?

Also, the revised map puts Arlington Ridge at W-L, right? That seems like a pretty affluent area -- not what W-L needs.

Yeah - I could do it all day.

I wish I had all of the PU data to play around with it. There has to be some GIS software they can use to optimize the boundaries...

[Anonymous]

I think many of you aren't really seeing how the Kenmore map could be drawn to help all schools.

Buckingham would stay at WL

The West Pike would ( and some parts currently WF) would go to Kenmore


All of the south would stay at Wakefield. You guys are super concerned with that green area currently zoned WF going to WL. That's Arlington mill, right? It would help WF to put those units into WL- not hurt it.

Yes, a big chunk of YT's current zone would have to be redrawn to Kenmore. People who are close enough to walk would have to ride a bus to Kenmore.

That's the only way it works. It would actually make Wakefield less poor not more.
Yes, Kenmore would be difficult to balance.
It would take many homes being zoned to it...


God forbid we have all the shitty and ridiculously bad planning on the west Pike effect the good homeowners of 22207.
Maybe we'll actually be able to put the brakes on the crazy train of affordable housing over there.
If you guys want this school, you need to raise your stakes too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Doesn't seem to be any great way to geographically distribute kids. Maybe a choice school would make more sense.

How about giving up the fetish of contiguous planning units?

Also, the revised map puts Arlington Ridge at W-L, right? That seems like a pretty affluent area -- not what W-L needs.

What? No. Arlington ridge is no where near the boundary of WL. You people really have no clue about south Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:you don't need to look too far to know the Kenmore diversity - it currently is 49% Hispanic. anyway you slice the 'new' boundary that is not going to change by much.

Assuming that all those students go to Craftsman High School, you'd still be adding 400 at the start. If a lot of them are not receiving free/reduced meals (which is the kind of diversity I'd focus on), you could move the needle pretty far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think many of you aren't really seeing how the Kenmore map could be drawn to help all schools.

Buckingham would stay at WL

The West Pike would ( and some parts currently WF) would go to Kenmore


All of the south would stay at Wakefield. You guys are super concerned with that green area currently zoned WF going to WL. That's Arlington mill, right? It would help WF to put those units into WL- not hurt it.

Yes, a big chunk of YT's current zone would have to be redrawn to Kenmore. People who are close enough to walk would have to ride a bus to Kenmore.

That's the only way it works. It would actually make Wakefield less poor not more.
Yes, Kenmore would be difficult to balance.
It would take many homes being zoned to it...


God forbid we have all the shitty and ridiculously bad planning on the west Pike effect the good homeowners of 22207.
Maybe we'll actually be able to put the brakes on the crazy train of affordable housing over there.
If you guys want this school, you need to raise your stakes too.

Arlington Mill is zoned WL already, I believe. WF doesn't have the high-density AH all the way west on the Pike. (One of the recent redistricting proposals was to move some of those units to WF, which I and others advocated against.) The green areas north of the Pike zoned WF are mostly SFHs and fairly diverse on any measure. Others can correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I remember from when they had the PDF of planning unit demographics available. Wish I had saved that.