APS Middle School Boundaries?

[Anonymous]

100 students is amazing.

[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…

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.

The head of Planning and Evaluation was quoted in ARLNow as saying that the drop was due to the verification process specifically. Parents and teachers have known for years that there was a lot of fraud, especially at certain schools. Glad Syphax knows it now, too.

[Anonymous]

Is the 5th grade and 8th grade address verification new? I thought they did that every year. I know they do if for kindergarten (I did it for each kid) and other kids joining APS for the firs time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the 5th grade and 8th grade address verification new? I thought they did that every year. I know they do if for kindergarten (I did it for each kid) and other kids joining APS for the firs time.

They didn't do it when either of my children were in 5th. It's a good time to do it right before MS and HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the 5th grade and 8th grade address verification new? I thought they did that every year. I know they do if for kindergarten (I did it for each kid) and other kids joining APS for the firs time.

They didn't do it when either of my children were in 5th. It's a good time to do it right before MS and HS.

Oh interesting. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100 students is amazing.

100 at one school is amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100 students is amazing.

100 at one school is amazing.

I wonder why they stayed at the school after moving. Location more convenient than the FCPS school? FCPS schools are that terrible?

[Anonymous]

I'll admit my kid is at ATS and I wonder about that sometimes. When my last kid was in 5th, there was no process to confirm residency and that was only a few years ago. Mine is in 5th now and we went through the confirmation process but I haven't seen any numbers.

I wonder what APS-wide numbers are...anybody got mad sloothing skills?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100 students is amazing.

100 at one school is amazing.

I wonder why they stayed at the school after moving. Location more convenient than the FCPS school? FCPS schools are that terrible?

I'm purely speculating, but it could be that if the family moves around a lot they keep the kid(s) at one school for consistency.

[Anonymous]

^^ that's what I think too. My mom moved annually b/c we were poor and she just would not pay the last few months rent and we'd move. I stayed in the same ES and MS. She settled by HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll admit my kid is at ATS and I wonder about that sometimes. When my last kid was in 5th, there was no process to confirm residency and that was only a few years ago. Mine is in 5th now and we went through the confirmation process but I haven't seen any numbers.

I wonder what APS-wide numbers are...anybody got mad sloothing skills?

There is lots of data here, https://www.apsva.us/statistics/enrollment/

This includes the monthly enrollment report which tells the number of students enrolled at the end of each month Sept-June, BUT I haven't found the total capacity for middle schools. The class size report seems to indicate whether each english, math, etc. class is over or under enrolled, but that speaks to the number of teachers allocated as well as school size. So now I'm wondering what the basis is for saying a school is over capacity. I don't doubt schools are, but I can't find the data. Can anyone else share?

[Anonymous]

What’s weird is that Gunston’s enrollment dropped significantly between May and June of last year. When I first looked up the enrollment I didn’t see a big drop bc I was looking at the June 2023 numbers compared to what the ArlNow article reported, and the difference was only one student. I then went back to May and saw the much bigger number. Why would there be a drop btw May and June?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100 students is amazing.

100 at one school is amazing.

And primarily in one grade!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100 students is amazing.

100 at one school is amazing.

That’s over $2m in taxpayer savings for just one school, and enough that we can put yet another costly and inconvenient redistricting process on hold. Given the ES issues, I wonder if it’s worth adding a review in 3rd grade as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the 5th grade and 8th grade address verification new? I thought they did that every year. I know they do if for kindergarten (I did it for each kid) and other kids joining APS for the firs time.

I think (although I am definitely not sure) what was new about last year is that they verified addresses through the county's system. Before I just showed my lease to somebody at my kids' school. I wonder if that process just wasn't very rigorous.