APS Elementary Location Working Group 4/12

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The County ties itself into knots with its catering to rich n Arlington folks, its empty talk about egalitarianism, and it’s odd fetishization of option schools. Just effing carve out neighborhood zones, keep one big immersion option and call it a day.

Yes. Nobody has considered yet keeping only one Spanish immersion school; Claremont.
Making Key and ASFS neighborhood.
My prediction would be that the neighborhoods would happily enroll in their neighborhoods!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is all about moving Key Immersion to make neighborhood seats. If it wasn't already option it would have been immediately ruled out by the corner of the county criteria applied to Jamestown, Tuckahoe, and Abingdon since there is no where else reasonably close to send Rosslyn and Courthouse. It wasn't an issue before because technically Key was a neighborhood school. The preferences of immigrant populations only comes into play because the program doesn't exist without Spanish speakers.

And what happens if the Spanish speakers at those schools (immigrant or otherwise) decide they just want to go to school close to home and opt to withdraw from the immersion program? What happens then? Does APS have a wildly under-enrolled immersion program?

I don't think they can assume Spanish speakers will continue if they move it up to ATS or one of the NW schools. Those can be hard to reach by public transit.

If people are only going because of the location, does the program need to exist?

That's a very valid question. And one the SB is not considering, which is ridiculous.

My prediction is that the majority of Spanish speakers in the Key walk zone would happily enroll in a neighborhood Key.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no credible reason for moving Key.

Other than every criteria for a neighborhood school developed by the board thus far in the process? The only reason not to have that building as neighborhood is inertia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no credible reason for moving Key.

Other than every criteria for a neighborhood school developed by the board thus far in the process? The only reason not to have that building as neighborhood is inertia.

Whose neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is all about moving Key Immersion to make neighborhood seats. If it wasn't already option it would have been immediately ruled out by the corner of the county criteria applied to Jamestown, Tuckahoe, and Abingdon since there is no where else reasonably close to send Rosslyn and Courthouse. It wasn't an issue before because technically Key was a neighborhood school. The preferences of immigrant populations only comes into play because the program doesn't exist without Spanish speakers.

And what happens if the Spanish speakers at those schools (immigrant or otherwise) decide they just want to go to school close to home and opt to withdraw from the immersion program? What happens then? Does APS have a wildly under-enrolled immersion program?

I don't think they can assume Spanish speakers will continue if they move it up to ATS or one of the NW schools. Those can be hard to reach by public transit.

If people are only going because of the location, does the program need to exist?

That's a very valid question. And one the SB is not considering, which is ridiculous.

My prediction is that the majority of Spanish speakers in the Key walk zone would happily enroll in a neighborhood Key.


Wouldn’t the neighborhood Key be the moved ASFS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no credible reason for moving Key.

Other than every criteria for a neighborhood school developed by the board thus far in the process? The only reason not to have that building as neighborhood is inertia.

Whose neighborhood?

Key zone as currently drawn, for the most part.

[Anonymous]

If key ends up being under enrolled, I am sure that the families on the Claremont waitlist will happily fill those seats. Plenty of south Arlington parents want immersion and can’t get into Claremont.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The County ties itself into knots with its catering to rich n Arlington folks, its empty talk about egalitarianism, and it’s odd fetishization of option schools. Just effing carve out neighborhood zones, keep one big immersion option and call it a day.

Yes. Nobody has considered yet keeping only one Spanish immersion school; Claremont.
Making Key and ASFS neighborhood.
My prediction would be that the neighborhoods would happily enroll in their neighborhoods!

Between Claremont and Key there were 461 applications for 288 Kindergarten spots. That means that with our current immersion schools- there is a waitlist of nearly 200 for a kindergarten spot in immersion. Why on earth would you propose taking it down to one school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is all about moving Key Immersion to make neighborhood seats. If it wasn't already option it would have been immediately ruled out by the corner of the county criteria applied to Jamestown, Tuckahoe, and Abingdon since there is no where else reasonably close to send Rosslyn and Courthouse. It wasn't an issue before because technically Key was a neighborhood school. The preferences of immigrant populations only comes into play because the program doesn't exist without Spanish speakers.

And what happens if the Spanish speakers at those schools (immigrant or otherwise) decide they just want to go to school close to home and opt to withdraw from the immersion program? What happens then? Does APS have a wildly under-enrolled immersion program?

I don't think they can assume Spanish speakers will continue if they move it up to ATS or one of the NW schools. Those can be hard to reach by public transit.

If people are only going because of the location, does the program need to exist?

That's a very valid question. And one the SB is not considering, which is ridiculous.

My prediction is that the majority of Spanish speakers in the Key walk zone would happily enroll in a neighborhood Key.

Wouldn’t the neighborhood Key be the moved ASFS?

If it’s a one to one switch with ASFS, yes. If they do a chain switch the new Key would get the staff from whatever school switched to option in the NW

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The County ties itself into knots with its catering to rich n Arlington folks, its empty talk about egalitarianism, and it’s odd fetishization of option schools. Just effing carve out neighborhood zones, keep one big immersion option and call it a day.

Yes. Nobody has considered yet keeping only one Spanish immersion school; Claremont.
Making Key and ASFS neighborhood.
My prediction would be that the neighborhoods would happily enroll in their neighborhoods!

Between Claremont and Key there were 461 applications for 288 Kindergarten spots. That means that with our current immersion schools- there is a waitlist of nearly 200 for a kindergarten spot in immersion. Why on earth would you propose taking it down to one school.

Two questions that don’t have answers: how many are pure proximity applications and how many are families applying to multiple options hoping to get in at least one?

[Anonymous]

Just chiming to remind everyone that S Arlington needs overcrowding relief too... seems like people are conveniently forgetting that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The County ties itself into knots with its catering to rich n Arlington folks, its empty talk about egalitarianism, and it’s odd fetishization of option schools. Just effing carve out neighborhood zones, keep one big immersion option and call it a day.

Yes. Nobody has considered yet keeping only one Spanish immersion school; Claremont.
Making Key and ASFS neighborhood.
My prediction would be that the neighborhoods would happily enroll in their neighborhoods!

Between Claremont and Key there were 461 applications for 288 Kindergarten spots. That means that with our current immersion schools- there is a waitlist of nearly 200 for a kindergarten spot in immersion. Why on earth would you propose taking it down to one school.

Two questions that don’t have answers: how many are pure proximity applications and how many are families applying to multiple options hoping to get in at least one?

They will hopefully have more data on this soon since the ALL lotteries are centralized and electronic for the first time. Also, new this year, if you apply for multiple lotteries and your name gets pulled for one, you are dropped out of the running for the others and off any future waitlists. I think this will also make it more clear the number of families looking to avoid a neighborhood school with any available program vs. families that truly believe in the model that they are applying. In theory anyway!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just chiming to remind everyone that S Arlington needs overcrowding relief too... seems like people are conveniently forgetting that!

People talk about what they know. What option program locations do you think would help with S Arlington overcrowding? My understanding is the “good” schools are over enrolled and a few less desireable schools have capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just chiming to remind everyone that S Arlington needs overcrowding relief too... seems like people are conveniently forgetting that!

You're getting Fleet in a year and a half, simmer down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no credible reason for moving Key.

Other than every criteria for a neighborhood school developed by the board thus far in the process? The only reason not to have that building as neighborhood is inertia.

The board didn’t create those criteria, the staff did. The board has sent them back to redo it with more considerations.