APS Superintendent High School Overcrowding Plan

[Anonymous]

When will it be necessary to move to shifts and distance learning - 5 years, less or more?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When will it be necessary to move to shifts and distance learning - 5 years, less or more?

Unknown. Part of this depends upon if they can grow Arl. Tech to 600 students. If you have a kid in MS or ES now, pay attention to what's going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone think this ridiculous proposal is just to get leverage to get the CB to do what the schools want?

Of course. It's like when the county announces that if it doesn't raise taxes, it will have to close down the nature center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will it make any difference attending the SB meeting tonight? I have asked my spouse to go. I'll be at home w/ the kids.

Will it show that people are paying attention? Yes. Will it make a difference? I don't know.

If your spouse plans on speaking, the only option is to try to get a paper slip for speaking. I'm not sure how that works, but the deadline for signup was yesterday at 4. The meeting will be broadcast on TV, too, if you want to watch, but can't attend.

Thanks for the heads up. Do you know what channel it is?

Although I've been an Arlington resident for 16 years now, I just learned about this (my oldest is at a local preschool) situation. Most of my co-workers who live in Arlington and have kids who are in elementary school seem either unaware or not very phased by the situation. Some of them say they're zoned for Yorktown, so they don't think they'll be impacted very much. Others like what they've seen so far in their kids' classrooms and think Arlington will somehow figure all this out. My spouse was at first concerned but then looked at the CIP and somehow thinks it won't get to double shifting in the high schools.

The other thing that I wonder about is if they do in fact double shift at all high schools, will that also include HB Woodlawn? Shouldn't they be forced to take in more students as well? It's literally 2 minutes from our house and I understand it's moving out for the much needed MS. But how do you justify spending that much money to build a new student that currently has only 600 or so students (MS+HS) when the rest of APS will be bursting at the seams?

[Anonymous]

12:57 - It's impossible for people to be unaware. APS sends out School Talk about this all the time. Yorktown doesn't offer protection. They will be changing the boundaries and moving more W-L neighborhoods to Yorktown. APS is looking at total numbers of students and will be balancing the overcrowding.


Check your local listing: http://www.apsva.us/page/1895

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone think this ridiculous proposal is just to get leverage to get the CB to do what the schools want?

Of course. It's like when the county announces that if it doesn't raise taxes, it will have to close down the nature center.

I think so, too, but what else can they do? "These are the number of seats we have, these are our projected numbers, we have no land on which to build a new high school. So, assuming these givens, these are our options: run our high schools in shifts and push large numbers of students into distance learning courses. If anyone out there (read: County Board) wants to change any of these givens (such as by finding us some land), then we can come up with different options."

I don't really believe there is anyone, anywhere, in APS who wants to go to staggered shifts for high school. But without land and $$$, there aren't a lot of alternatives.

[Anonymous]

We were talking about staggered shifts and distance learning at dinner last night and my fourth grader said, "This is a really bad idea. I want to go to school with my friends. How will I socialize? Also, if I had school on the computer I would probably play games instead of doing my work."

He's 9 and smarter than the adults in charge.

[Anonymous]

This afternoon ArlNow posted short "why you should vote for me" essays from each of the 4 democratic school board candidates. I thought it was interesting to see the relative importance the candidates seem to place on the capacity issues, and the potential solutions thrown out (or not). Obviously not an in depth discussion of the issues, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:57 - It's impossible for people to be unaware. APS sends out School Talk about this all the time. Yorktown doesn't offer protection. They will be changing the boundaries and moving more W-L neighborhoods to Yorktown. APS is looking at total numbers of students and will be balancing the overcrowding.


Check your local listing: http://www.apsva.us/page/1895

PP here. I agree with you that they should be aware. Since my oldest is yet to enroll in K, we haven't received any notices. I just spoke to 3 Arlington co-workers on Tuesday asking about this very situation. One smugly replied they were zoned for Yorktown. Another said she/he wasn't too worried and gave a totally stupid response (but not going to repeat here otherwise totally will get outed). Third said spouse may have heard more about it and would ask them. I do agree they probably will have to move WL kids to YT if you look at current distributions. This may push us there, which may possibly satisfy my spouse. Although, I like the idea of more diversity at WL (mixed race family here).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This afternoon ArlNow posted short "why you should vote for me" essays from each of the 4 democratic school board candidates. I thought it was interesting to see the relative importance the candidates seem to place on the capacity issues, and the potential solutions thrown out (or not). Obviously not an in depth discussion of the issues, though.

Maybe it's time we all start voting non-democrats.

Signed,
Arlington resident who has voted democrat for more than 25 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This afternoon ArlNow posted short "why you should vote for me" essays from each of the 4 democratic school board candidates. I thought it was interesting to see the relative importance the candidates seem to place on the capacity issues, and the potential solutions thrown out (or not). Obviously not an in depth discussion of the issues, though.

Maybe it's time we all start voting non-democrats.

Signed,
Arlington resident who has voted democrat for more than 25 years.

Are there any non-democratic candidates? I looked around, and what I found on the Arlington County elections site was this:

"School Board candidates do not run as party nominees but may be endorsed by a political party. The Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC) is holding an endorsement caucus May 19 and 21 to select two candidates for endorsement, as there are two seats on the ballot this year. Candidates competing in the caucus are Nancy Van Doren (incumbent), Chaz Crismon, Michael Shea, and Tannia Talento. See the ADCD website for more information.
Any other candidates have until June 14 at 7 pm to qualify for the ballot."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This afternoon ArlNow posted short "why you should vote for me" essays from each of the 4 democratic school board candidates. I thought it was interesting to see the relative importance the candidates seem to place on the capacity issues, and the potential solutions thrown out (or not). Obviously not an in depth discussion of the issues, though.

One of the candidates wrote:

We need more fairness in our school system.
I want to revamp the lottery system so it gives all parents of entering students an equal chance of enrolling at a choice school available to them. The current system favors in-the-know codebreakers.

What does he mean by "codebreakers"?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This afternoon ArlNow posted short "why you should vote for me" essays from each of the 4 democratic school board candidates. I thought it was interesting to see the relative importance the candidates seem to place on the capacity issues, and the potential solutions thrown out (or not). Obviously not an in depth discussion of the issues, though.

One of the candidates wrote:

We need more fairness in our school system.
I want to revamp the lottery system so it gives all parents of entering students an equal chance of enrolling at a choice school available to them. The current system favors in-the-know codebreakers.

What does he mean by "codebreakers"?

Thanks.

That candidate seems to be responding to questions in the comment section on his post, including a question about the "codebreakers" thing. I'm not sure his answers are totally making sense to me, but there you have it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:57 - It's impossible for people to be unaware. APS sends out School Talk about this all the time. Yorktown doesn't offer protection. They will be changing the boundaries and moving more W-L neighborhoods to Yorktown. APS is looking at total numbers of students and will be balancing the overcrowding.


Check your local listing: http://www.apsva.us/page/1895

Will broadcast live on Comcast channel 70 and Verizon FiOS channel 4

[Anonymous]

Ugh. Watching the cip public meeting now and all I have been hearing us blah blah reed this reed that and tcs. What about the high schools?!!