APS Middle School Boundaries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

So non-HB schools are authoritarian, ruthless serfdom? Like if you have one pathway for the Democratic and caring, what does that say about what you’re leaving behind?

It was a feeble and inept attempt by the principal of HB to describe its "pathway." I don't think Syphax academic staff even bothered to write it, probably because they're clueless but also because nobody seems to be able to define HB's unique instructional program. I think the SB suggested eliminating that phrase for the exact reason people here are saying. Personally, I think if you can't justify your program with a meaningful description of what it is, there's no real need for the program.

HB program description (old): kids struggling in traditional school environment because of dyslexia or other mild LD, high interest in arts or theater or writing, and likes pot

HB program description (now): private school classroom size available to a select few lottery winners

The overcrowding in middle and high schools also prompted this new found interest in the small school with capped enrollment that defines small size as part of its “program”

[Anonymous]

If you can’t describe your pathway in away that distinguishes it from other schools, perhaps it’s not a pathway. Or a viable model for a school. Time to let HB go. It doesn’t have a pedagogy or a subject matter focus. It’s just a small school. At least use the place for something substantive. Like an arts magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

Agree. It’s a palace and boy would I love to lottery in there someday. But it’s fundamentally wrong to have a facility like that- particularly sited amongst affordable housing- that stands in such stark difference to what’s available to the rest of the county. These fancy option programs need to go unless the neighborhood schools are all just as good.

It's not really a "palace." Have you been inside? I mean it looks kinda snazzy on the outside, but inside it's just classrooms, a tiny cafeteria that can't even fit the whole school, a tiny gym, and a small black box theater and a regular auditorium. It's just a school with lockers and desks and so on. The floors are concrete. It has no parking and no field. It's nice but it's not any nicer than YHS, Wakefield, W-L, Kenmore or Hamm. It is nicer than WMS and Swanson, I'll grant you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

Agree. It’s a palace and boy would I love to lottery in there someday. But it’s fundamentally wrong to have a facility like that- particularly sited amongst affordable housing- that stands in such stark difference to what’s available to the rest of the county. These fancy option programs need to go unless the neighborhood schools are all just as good.

It's not really a "palace." Have you been inside? I mean it looks kinda snazzy on the outside, but inside it's just classrooms, a tiny cafeteria that can't even fit the whole school, a tiny gym, and a small black box theater and a regular auditorium. It's just a school with lockers and desks and so on. The floors are concrete. It has no parking and no field. It's nice but it's not any nicer than YHS, Wakefield, W-L, Kenmore or Hamm. It is nicer than WMS and Swanson, I'll grant you.

No school's cafeteria can fit the whole school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

Agree. It’s a palace and boy would I love to lottery in there someday. But it’s fundamentally wrong to have a facility like that- particularly sited amongst affordable housing- that stands in such stark difference to what’s available to the rest of the county. These fancy option programs need to go unless the neighborhood schools are all just as good.

It's not really a "palace." Have you been inside? I mean it looks kinda snazzy on the outside, but inside it's just classrooms, a tiny cafeteria that can't even fit the whole school, a tiny gym, and a small black box theater and a regular auditorium. It's just a school with lockers and desks and so on. The floors are concrete. It has no parking and no field. It's nice but it's not any nicer than YHS, Wakefield, W-L, Kenmore or Hamm. It is nicer than WMS and Swanson, I'll grant you.

At least it cost as much as a palace.

I know I know, they were happy in their old building on the largest middle school lot. They could have stayed there if they had just allowed a parallel middle school to operate in that space (like Immersion for example).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HB needs to go. This pathways program should be the impetus. It doesn’t enroll enough students to be anything but an unfair lottery indulgence AND “democratic caring community” is not a thing. The rest of the county should get together and demand that it be shut down and used for a real need.

So non-HB schools are authoritarian, ruthless serfdom? Like if you have one pathway for the Democratic and caring, what does that say about what you’re leaving behind?

It was a feeble and inept attempt by the principal of HB to describe its "pathway." I don't think Syphax academic staff even bothered to write it, probably because they're clueless but also because nobody seems to be able to define HB's unique instructional program. I think the SB suggested eliminating that phrase for the exact reason people here are saying. Personally, I think if you can't justify your program with a meaningful description of what it is, there's no real need for the program.

HB program description (old): kids struggling in traditional school environment because of dyslexia or other mild LD, high interest in arts or theater or writing, and likes pot

HB program description (now): private school classroom size available to a select few lottery winners[/quote]

...and their siblings

There's no sibling preference in the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Sorry if someone already posted this, but apparently the middle schools are no longer overcrowded?
“ “As of last week at each middle school, only one school exceeds capacity: Gunston has two students beyond its design capacity,” Dept. of Planning and Evaluation Executive Director Lisa Stengle told the board on Tuesday. “Every middle school fits right now. So the urgency that we had to change middle school boundaries may not be as urgent as it was when we started this process.””

https://www.arlnow.com/2023/09/28/aps-to-pause-middle-school-boundary-process-for-one-year/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if someone already posted this, but apparently the middle schools are no longer overcrowded?
“ “As of last week at each middle school, only one school exceeds capacity: Gunston has two students beyond its design capacity,” Dept. of Planning and Evaluation Executive Director Lisa Stengle told the board on Tuesday. “Every middle school fits right now. So the urgency that we had to change middle school boundaries may not be as urgent as it was when we started this process.””

https://www.arlnow.com/2023/09/28/aps-to-pause-middle-school-boundary-process-for-one-year/

I was just coming here to post this!!!

What on earth? They were saying how massively overcrowded Gunston was, and now we find out that it’s only “2” students over capacity?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if someone already posted this, but apparently the middle schools are no longer overcrowded?
“ “As of last week at each middle school, only one school exceeds capacity: Gunston has two students beyond its design capacity,” Dept. of Planning and Evaluation Executive Director Lisa Stengle told the board on Tuesday. “Every middle school fits right now. So the urgency that we had to change middle school boundaries may not be as urgent as it was when we started this process.””

https://www.arlnow.com/2023/09/28/aps-to-pause-middle-school-boundary-process-for-one-year/

I was just coming here to post this!!!

What on earth? They were saying how massively overcrowded Gunston was, and now we find out that it’s only “2” students over capacity?!?

The article specifically said that this was due to the address verification process! They found almost 100 kids at Gunston who really didn't live in the zone/district! Crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if someone already posted this, but apparently the middle schools are no longer overcrowded?
“ “As of last week at each middle school, only one school exceeds capacity: Gunston has two students beyond its design capacity,” Dept. of Planning and Evaluation Executive Director Lisa Stengle told the board on Tuesday. “Every middle school fits right now. So the urgency that we had to change middle school boundaries may not be as urgent as it was when we started this process.””

https://www.arlnow.com/2023/09/28/aps-to-pause-middle-school-boundary-process-for-one-year/

I was just coming here to post this!!!

What on earth? They were saying how massively overcrowded Gunston was, and now we find out that it’s only “2” students over capacity?!?

The article specifically said that this was due to the address verification process! They found almost 100 kids at Gunston who really didn't live in the zone/district! Crazy.

They only checked the incoming 6th graders…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if someone already posted this, but apparently the middle schools are no longer overcrowded?
“ “As of last week at each middle school, only one school exceeds capacity: Gunston has two students beyond its design capacity,” Dept. of Planning and Evaluation Executive Director Lisa Stengle told the board on Tuesday. “Every middle school fits right now. So the urgency that we had to change middle school boundaries may not be as urgent as it was when we started this process.””

https://www.arlnow.com/2023/09/28/aps-to-pause-middle-school-boundary-process-for-one-year/

I was just coming here to post this!!!

What on earth? They were saying how massively overcrowded Gunston was, and now we find out that it’s only “2” students over capacity?!?

The article specifically said that this was due to the address verification process! They found almost 100 kids at Gunston who really didn't live in the zone/district! Crazy.

They only checked the incoming 6th graders…

Sure, but if they continue to check annually at 5th and 8th, the others will be caught at some point. And maybe it will prevent future fraud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if someone already posted this, but apparently the middle schools are no longer overcrowded?
“ “As of last week at each middle school, only one school exceeds capacity: Gunston has two students beyond its design capacity,” Dept. of Planning and Evaluation Executive Director Lisa Stengle told the board on Tuesday. “Every middle school fits right now. So the urgency that we had to change middle school boundaries may not be as urgent as it was when we started this process.””

https://www.arlnow.com/2023/09/28/aps-to-pause-middle-school-boundary-process-for-one-year/

I was just coming here to post this!!!

What on earth? They were saying how massively overcrowded Gunston was, and now we find out that it’s only “2” students over capacity?!?

The article specifically said that this was due to the address verification process! They found almost 100 kids at Gunston who really didn't live in the zone/district! Crazy.

They only checked the incoming 6th graders…

Sure, but if they continue to check annually at 5th and 8th, the others will be caught at some point. And maybe it will prevent future fraud.

They also check anyone when they enter into kindergarten and anyone new to the school system in any year because they have to show proof of which school to go to. So it’s crazy to think that 100 kids were caught by this process at just one school…. meaning they once lived in Arlington and had to move or they used a relative’s address originally…. Cotton ball mom was a different story, she was using her aunts address, which was in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if someone already posted this, but apparently the middle schools are no longer overcrowded?
“ “As of last week at each middle school, only one school exceeds capacity: Gunston has two students beyond its design capacity,” Dept. of Planning and Evaluation Executive Director Lisa Stengle told the board on Tuesday. “Every middle school fits right now. So the urgency that we had to change middle school boundaries may not be as urgent as it was when we started this process.””

https://www.arlnow.com/2023/09/28/aps-to-pause-middle-school-boundary-process-for-one-year/

I was just coming here to post this!!!

What on earth? They were saying how massively overcrowded Gunston was, and now we find out that it’s only “2” students over capacity?!?

The article specifically said that this was due to the address verification process! They found almost 100 kids at Gunston who really didn't live in the zone/district! Crazy.

They only checked the incoming 6th graders…

Sure, but if they continue to check annually at 5th and 8th, the others will be caught at some point. And maybe it will prevent future fraud.

I meant I wonder how many others there are in 7th or 8th grade that will be leaving soon.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if there have been significant drops in enrollment at any of the other middle schools as well? That September enrollment report will be pretty interesting once it comes out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if someone already posted this, but apparently the middle schools are no longer overcrowded?
“ “As of last week at each middle school, only one school exceeds capacity: Gunston has two students beyond its design capacity,” Dept. of Planning and Evaluation Executive Director Lisa Stengle told the board on Tuesday. “Every middle school fits right now. So the urgency that we had to change middle school boundaries may not be as urgent as it was when we started this process.””

https://www.arlnow.com/2023/09/28/aps-to-pause-middle-school-boundary-process-for-one-year/

I was just coming here to post this!!!

What on earth? They were saying how massively overcrowded Gunston was, and now we find out that it’s only “2” students over capacity?!?

The article specifically said that this was due to the address verification process! They found almost 100 kids at Gunston who really didn't live in the zone/district! Crazy.

They only checked the incoming 6th graders…

Plus their siblings…

I wonder if the 100 student drop was all/mostly because of address verification. I find that hard to believe, but it would be interesting to see the data.