Another choice school in N Arlington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would like to see a German immersion school.

I took German for 5 years in middle and high school and then some in college. I have traveled extensively through out Europe and never needed it. Most Germans and those who speak German in Switzerland also speak English. And I also studied some French and had a few opportunities to use it while traveling to France a few times. What I really wish I had studied was Spanish.

I think you missed it.

It was either a joke about race or a racist comment.

I"m really hoping someone was trying to be funny. I fear I'm wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they have already decided to make Reed a choice school. A member of FAC was on a pro-neighborhood school facebook page arguing with others about how it should be a choice school. It got a bit heated and there were many posts in the discussion. The FAC member was outed by someone in another post. And she fessed up. That was pretty interesting, to say the least.

Sadly, this does not surprise me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they have already decided to make Reed a choice school. A member of FAC was on a pro-neighborhood school facebook page arguing with others about how it should be a choice school. It got a bit heated and there were many posts in the discussion. The FAC member was outed by someone in another post. And she fessed up. That was pretty interesting, to say the least.

Ugh! I wish I could post anonymously on NextDoor b/c I would hope other people knew this information.

[Anonymous]

Someone posted a letter to our nextdoor site from a school board member who seemed to imply choice school too. He said there weren't enough walkers to go to Reed so you'd be talking about buses no matter what. I honestly think they just don't want to go through yet another round of redistricting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted a letter to our nextdoor site from a school board member who seemed to imply choice school too. He said there weren't enough walkers to go to Reed so you'd be talking about buses no matter what. I honestly think they just don't want to go through yet another round of redistricting.

There would be plenty of walkers for Reed and, then, maybe a few buses instead of busing the entire school (like choice).

[Anonymous]

It's kind of unfortunate for the families living near the Reed school that APS is only willing to convert the building to a school at a time when a choice school makes the most sense. In the long-run, having it as a neighborhood school makes sense and it seems a little short-sighted to look at today's snap-shot. I don't live anywhere near there so I'm not directly impacted, but I can appreciate the frustration. Haven't they been asking to turn that building into a school for a long time, including before the most recent elementary-level redistricting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of unfortunate for the families living near the Reed school that APS is only willing to convert the building to a school at a time when a choice school makes the most sense. In the long-run, having it as a neighborhood school makes sense and it seems a little short-sighted to look at today's snap-shot. I don't live anywhere near there so I'm not directly impacted, but I can appreciate the frustration. Haven't they been asking to turn that building into a school for a long time, including before the most recent elementary-level redistricting?

Yes. That's what's most frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted a letter to our nextdoor site from a school board member who seemed to imply choice school too. He said there weren't enough walkers to go to Reed so you'd be talking about buses no matter what. I honestly think they just don't want to go through yet another round of redistricting.

But really, can you blame them after the way some parents behaved during the last go-round?

[Anonymous]

I am a big fan of neighborhood schools, but the problem now facing APS is that Reed is less than a mile from McKinley--- which is about to open a 240+ seat addition-- and only 2 miles from Ashlawn, which also recently opened a 225 seat addition. If Reed is turned into a 725 student ES to relieve overcrowding, it means that three largest ES buildings in the County (Reed, McK, and Ashlwan) will be situated far in the western section of the county, in a triangle within 1-2 miles of each other. (Look at a map if you don't believe me.) Even with the projected NW Arlington overcrowding, there is no way to fill all three buildings with "neighborhood" kids-- there just aren't that many kids in 22205. People on this board who are throwing out the idea of redrawing boundaries need to take the time to look at the current ES boundary map against the utilization statistics by school and not just the aggregate numbers in the CIP.

If you want to open another "neighborhood" school in an existing building, it makes way more geographic sense to move ATS to Reed and open the ATS building as the neighborhood school to relieve ASF/Key (and maybe Taylor) of some students. It is much closer to where the worst of the NE overcrowding exists. This also relieves Ashlawn's over-crowding, and opens up space at McK for the Nottingham overcrowding once the walkable Ashlawn streets are moved back to Ashlawn. (There are a ton of kids walkable to both ATS and Ashlawn who attend McK now.) If Westover residents wanted a neighborhood ES, they should have fought against the McK addition and argued to put the money towards a Reed reno for the 2016/17 school year. It seems the only way to solve the NE crisis now is a choice school (which I personally hate) or a bunch of costly additions on other existing elementary school buildings so we create a bunch more 680+ student schools. I am sympathetic to what the Westover residents want, but they are just screwed by the NE projection numbers.

But let's not forget that we're all screwed equally when it comes to high school. Unless we want to start fighting over which neighborhood gets claim to which Starbucks for our kids to hang out in all day while they take on-line classes on their laptop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they have already decided to make Reed a choice school. A member of FAC was on a pro-neighborhood school facebook page arguing with others about how it should be a choice school. It got a bit heated and there were many posts in the discussion. The FAC member was outed by someone in another post. And she fessed up. That was pretty interesting, to say the least.

Sadly, this does not surprise me.

It shouldn't surprise you that people have differing opinions, and that they express them freely. It's not like she was disguising her name, and if you don't know who's on FAC, that doesn't mean there was something sinister about her posting on that page. I would guess she saw the link to the page on ArlNow, just like I did, and decided to chime in. There's no "gotcha" here.

[Anonymous]

McK is opening the addition and will still end up over capacity. Ashlawn is still going to be over capacity. Glebe will still be over capacity. I'm sure Tuckahoe will, too. All of those would feed into or see relief from a Westover school. Those families moved to Nottingham would welcome being rejoined with their neighbors at Reed.

Putting a 725 seat school at Reed doesn't make sense, but it could be converted to something the size of Nottingham for not a lot of money and the extra could go to additions where needed.

The Westover residents have been asking for a neighborhood school for years, but some other area gets in with the SB first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McK is opening the addition and will still end up over capacity. Ashlawn is still going to be over capacity. Glebe will still be over capacity. I'm sure Tuckahoe will, too. All of those would feed into or see relief from a Westover school. Those families moved to Nottingham would welcome being rejoined with their neighbors at Reed.

Putting a 725 seat school at Reed doesn't make sense, but it could be converted to something the size of Nottingham for not a lot of money and the extra could go to additions where needed.

The Westover residents have been asking for a neighborhood school for years, but some other area gets in with the SB first.

They are not going to open any more small schools, get it? It's 725 minimum from here on out. That ship has sailed. Now, get over it, and work on making sure our kids can actually have a HS to sit in when the time comes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of unfortunate for the families living near the Reed school that APS is only willing to convert the building to a school at a time when a choice school makes the most sense. In the long-run, having it as a neighborhood school makes sense and it seems a little short-sighted to look at today's snap-shot. I don't live anywhere near there so I'm not directly impacted, but I can appreciate the frustration. Haven't they been asking to turn that building into a school for a long time, including before the most recent elementary-level redistricting?

Yes. That's what's most frustrating.

I feel like it doesn't have to be all or nothing. It doesn't have to be a 725 seat school if that doesn't make sense for the numbers. It doesn't have to be filled with kids from R/B while kids from Westover are all bused out. There has to be a more creative and logical solution.

It also shouldn't be where the bulk of the $$ is being spent right now. The HS issue matters more and, as much as I agree that the Westover families should finally get their neighborhood school, right now, I want to make sure that there will actually be seats at a school when my ES kids get to 9th grade and that the schools aren't so big that the chance of playing a sport or getting into a club are close to none.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McK is opening the addition and will still end up over capacity. Ashlawn is still going to be over capacity. Glebe will still be over capacity. I'm sure Tuckahoe will, too. All of those would feed into or see relief from a Westover school. Those families moved to Nottingham would welcome being rejoined with their neighbors at Reed.

Putting a 725 seat school at Reed doesn't make sense, but it could be converted to something the size of Nottingham for not a lot of money and the extra could go to additions where needed.

The Westover residents have been asking for a neighborhood school for years, but some other area gets in with the SB first.

They are not going to open any more small schools, get it? It's 725 minimum from here on out. That ship has sailed. Now, get over it, and work on making sure our kids can actually have a HS to sit in when the time comes.

Darn it! How did you know I wan't already working on the HS seats? Busted! I spend all my time worrying about a school my kids would never attend anyway. I'm tossing out ideas that don't waste our money on a dumb project.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of unfortunate for the families living near the Reed school that APS is only willing to convert the building to a school at a time when a choice school makes the most sense. In the long-run, having it as a neighborhood school makes sense and it seems a little short-sighted to look at today's snap-shot. I don't live anywhere near there so I'm not directly impacted, but I can appreciate the frustration. Haven't they been asking to turn that building into a school for a long time, including before the most recent elementary-level redistricting?

Yes. That's what's most frustrating.

I feel like it doesn't have to be all or nothing. It doesn't have to be a 725 seat school if that doesn't make sense for the numbers. It doesn't have to be filled with kids from R/B while kids from Westover are all bused out. There has to be a more creative and logical solution.

It also shouldn't be where the bulk of the $$ is being spent right now. The HS issue matters more and, as much as I agree that the Westover families should finally get their neighborhood school, right now, I want to make sure that there will actually be seats at a school when my ES kids get to 9th grade and that the schools aren't so big that the chance of playing a sport or getting into a club are close to none.

I live near Westover and agree with most all of this. It just has not made sense to me that Reed will be used to almost completely eliminate the predicted shortfalls in NE while the Reed adjacent schools are also predicted to be well short in coming years.

I do think the proposals about making Reed into a smaller school now were just aimed at preserving some money to address high school overcrowding. The point was that we can get about 400 seats now by spending little money, or 725 seats in 5 years by spending $60 million.