Let’s Talk APS High Schools: 4th one or no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as the CC facility has access to amenities it needs, I'm okay with it not being on site. It's a short ride to TJ, Wakefield, Barcroft Rec, Arlington Mill, or Walter Reed. We need to use some of these resources.

My kids will go to this school. I would rather there be some workarounds in place while we wait for the amenities, because I don't think it will happen all at once.

Sorry, but my kids would also have to go to this school too and there's no way I agree with "waiting" for amenities that will never come. After APS builds the office-building style HS and forces kids to go there, they will be on to the next crisis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as the CC facility has access to amenities it needs, I'm okay with it not being on site. It's a short ride to TJ, Wakefield, Barcroft Rec, Arlington Mill, or Walter Reed. We need to use some of these resources.

My kids will go to this school. I would rather there be some workarounds in place while we wait for the amenities, because I don't think it will happen all at once.

Sorry, but my kids would also have to go to this school too and there's no way I agree with "waiting" for amenities that will never come. After APS builds the office-building style HS and forces kids to go there, they will be on to the next crisis.

It's funny and sad to me how some people are conditioned to accept less, right off the bat, every time. HB and Reed parents certainly didn't, and good on them for fighting for their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as the CC facility has access to amenities it needs, I'm okay with it not being on site. It's a short ride to TJ, Wakefield, Barcroft Rec, Arlington Mill, or Walter Reed. We need to use some of these resources.

My kids will go to this school. I would rather there be some workarounds in place while we wait for the amenities, because I don't think it will happen all at once.

Sorry, but my kids would also have to go to this school too and there's no way I agree with "waiting" for amenities that will never come. After APS builds the office-building style HS and forces kids to go there, they will be on to the next crisis.

It's funny and sad to me how some people are conditioned to accept less, right off the bat, every time. HB and Reed parents certainly didn't, and good on them for fighting for their kids.

It’s the default south Arlington position. Every time. Our kids aren’t worth as much. That’s how we act.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as the CC facility has access to amenities it needs, I'm okay with it not being on site. It's a short ride to TJ, Wakefield, Barcroft Rec, Arlington Mill, or Walter Reed. We need to use some of these resources.

My kids will go to this school. I would rather there be some workarounds in place while we wait for the amenities, because I don't think it will happen all at once.

Sorry, but my kids would also have to go to this school too and there's no way I agree with "waiting" for amenities that will never come. After APS builds the office-building style HS and forces kids to go there, they will be on to the next crisis.

It's funny and sad to me how some people are conditioned to accept less, right off the bat, every time. HB and Reed parents certainly didn't, and good on them for fighting for their kids.

It’s the default south Arlington position. Every time. Our kids aren’t worth as much. That’s how we act.

It's because that's all that ever is offered.

Anyway, I think we'd be zoned for this school, not sure depending how the boundary shakes out. It should absolutely be a precondition that the boundary not cut off the entire SE quadrant or there will be no possible way to balance fr/l between CC and Wakefiled, and certainly not with W-L. If you can assure that, I think you'd get more advocates for the full 4th HS. There is no way anyone in the Abingdon/Claremont boundary is going to get on board with you if you're going to leave them as the only UMC neighborhood zoned to Wakefield (with possibly Glencarlyn).

[Anonymous]

SES lottery for all schools. Done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SES lottery for all schools. Done.

Get real dude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not realistic to change Ytown through boundary. I’m in south Arlington and even I understand that.
Fight for a better spread of AH if that’s your goal.
A new hs at CC could help shoulder some of the burden off Wakefield in a meaningful way. Even if it’s 10% reduction of Wakefield farms.
That would be significant.
Quit being ungrateful West Pike residents.

We're mid-Pike, so I don't know where we'd wind up, CC I think but who knows. Even so, I am opposed to the idea of taking the entire SE portion of the county to a school at the CC. That will not amount to a 10% reduction in fr/lfor Wakefield, because the school will be back-filled with all the kids in the Arlington Mill neighborhood currently zoned to W-L. And if you take all of SE to the CC, there won't be enough UMC neighborhoods in the SW left zoned to Wakefiled to balance the student who would be added. As long as you don't take the CC boundary all the way down to 395, there can still be contiguous CC and Wakefiled boundaries that may not be 100% balanced, but that don't push Wakefield to be even more highly segregated. Can we at least agree on that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not realistic to change Ytown through boundary. I’m in south Arlington and even I understand that.
Fight for a better spread of AH if that’s your goal.
A new hs at CC could help shoulder some of the burden off Wakefield in a meaningful way. Even if it’s 10% reduction of Wakefield farms.
That would be significant.
Quit being ungrateful West Pike residents.

We're mid-Pike, so I don't know where we'd wind up, CC I think but who knows. Even so, I am opposed to the idea of taking the entire SE portion of the county to a school at the CC. That will not amount to a 10% reduction in fr/lfor Wakefield, because the school will be back-filled with all the kids in the Arlington Mill neighborhood currently zoned to W-L. And if you take all of SE to the CC, there won't be enough UMC neighborhoods in the SW left zoned to Wakefiled to balance the student who would be added. As long as you don't take the CC boundary all the way down to 395, there can still be contiguous CC and Wakefiled boundaries that may not be 100% balanced, but that don't push Wakefield to be even more highly segregated. Can we at least agree on that?

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Walk_Zones_Version31.pdf

The map is the last slide. If you're within 1 mile of the CC, your chances are good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not realistic to change Ytown through boundary. I’m in south Arlington and even I understand that.
Fight for a better spread of AH if that’s your goal.
A new hs at CC could help shoulder some of the burden off Wakefield in a meaningful way. Even if it’s 10% reduction of Wakefield farms.
That would be significant.
Quit being ungrateful West Pike residents.

We're mid-Pike, so I don't know where we'd wind up, CC I think but who knows. Even so, I am opposed to the idea of taking the entire SE portion of the county to a school at the CC. That will not amount to a 10% reduction in fr/lfor Wakefield, because the school will be back-filled with all the kids in the Arlington Mill neighborhood currently zoned to W-L. And if you take all of SE to the CC, there won't be enough UMC neighborhoods in the SW left zoned to Wakefiled to balance the student who would be added. As long as you don't take the CC boundary all the way down to 395, there can still be contiguous CC and Wakefiled boundaries that may not be 100% balanced, but that don't push Wakefield to be even more highly segregated. Can we at least agree on that?

Yes, I agree. I think the boundaries should be drawn as to cut South Arlington more north-south rather than east-west. If we could split the FARMS rates at CC and Wakefield to be less than 40% each, I think it would definitely be a win-win for both schools and a big win for South Arlington. The boundary for CC won't go down as far as Arlington Ridge/Aurora Highlands/Virginia Highlands anyway. There are going to be plenty of kids in Penrose/Arlington Heights/Columbia Heights to fill the 800 neighborhood seats. Remember that 600 seats will be county wide Arlington Tech, 150 county-wide specialty programs (HILT/PEP/Young Parents), and 300 county wide CTE seats. As a proud Patrick Henry parent, I'm not trying to engineer our boundary to keep out disadvantaged kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as the CC facility has access to amenities it needs, I'm okay with it not being on site. It's a short ride to TJ, Wakefield, Barcroft Rec, Arlington Mill, or Walter Reed. We need to use some of these resources.

My kids will go to this school. I would rather there be some workarounds in place while we wait for the amenities, because I don't think it will happen all at once.

Sorry, but my kids would also have to go to this school too and there's no way I agree with "waiting" for amenities that will never come. After APS builds the office-building style HS and forces kids to go there, they will be on to the next crisis.

It's funny and sad to me how some people are conditioned to accept less, right off the bat, every time. HB and Reed parents certainly didn't, and good on them for fighting for their kids.

I agree completely, this applies to many people in S. A., like the PP who suggested APS pay for high school students "swimming in outdoor apartment pools on the Pike when the weather is good enough".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not realistic to change Ytown through boundary. I’m in south Arlington and even I understand that.
Fight for a better spread of AH if that’s your goal.
A new hs at CC could help shoulder some of the burden off Wakefield in a meaningful way. Even if it’s 10% reduction of Wakefield farms.
That would be significant.
Quit being ungrateful West Pike residents.

We're mid-Pike, so I don't know where we'd wind up, CC I think but who knows. Even so, I am opposed to the idea of taking the entire SE portion of the county to a school at the CC. That will not amount to a 10% reduction in fr/lfor Wakefield, because the school will be back-filled with all the kids in the Arlington Mill neighborhood currently zoned to W-L. And if you take all of SE to the CC, there won't be enough UMC neighborhoods in the SW left zoned to Wakefiled to balance the student who would be added. As long as you don't take the CC boundary all the way down to 395, there can still be contiguous CC and Wakefiled boundaries that may not be 100% balanced, but that don't push Wakefield to be even more highly segregated. Can we at least agree on that?

Without looking at a map right now, and knowing the demographics, of each street, I'm saying that sounds like a good direction to tackle it. There are definitely ways to get it done, that can benefit all.

But I would suggest, that you don't all get bogged down in the exact boundary of the school, just yet. If you don't support the creation of a 4th high school with the same amenities, you will have a self fulfilling prophecy of a school nobody wants to go to, because it's "lesser", because you didn't fight for it to be the same in the first place. We will have an overcrowding disaster, bad, poor schools, and millions of money wasted. We all loose. NOT A GOOD PLAN.

It is truly in everyone's interest that the 4th high school is a school you would be thrilled to send your kids to (not just "ok with"). Then you balance the attendance zone with Wakefield, also a great building with all the amenities and bells and whistles, and preferably with W-L, or all the high schools, depending what the population/density/diversity/proximity, etc. measures looks like at that point.

If you don't fight the first fight, you'll never see the next one, because you have already conceded, that we were not worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as the CC facility has access to amenities it needs, I'm okay with it not being on site. It's a short ride to TJ, Wakefield, Barcroft Rec, Arlington Mill, or Walter Reed. We need to use some of these resources.

My kids will go to this school. I would rather there be some workarounds in place while we wait for the amenities, because I don't think it will happen all at once.

Sorry, but my kids would also have to go to this school too and there's no way I agree with "waiting" for amenities that will never come. After APS builds the office-building style HS and forces kids to go there, they will be on to the next crisis.

It's funny and sad to me how some people are conditioned to accept less, right off the bat, every time. HB and Reed parents certainly didn't, and good on them for fighting for their kids.

I agree completely, this applies to many people in S. A., like the PP who suggested APS pay for high school students "swimming in outdoor apartment pools on the Pike when the weather is good enough".

Well, that's the kind of suggestions you get when you want to build a 4,000 student school on the smallest parcel of land because "we can't touch the north Arlington schools". We're already in a defeatist attitude. We're all telling ourselves we're being pragmatic, when we've already lost, because we have less to work with and refuse to as the rest of the county to give up its precious space to balance the load across 4 campuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, that's the kind of suggestions you get when you want to build a 4,000 student school on the smallest parcel of land because "we can't touch the north Arlington schools". We're already in a defeatist attitude. We're all telling ourselves we're being pragmatic, when we've already lost, because we have less to work with and refuse to as the rest of the county to give up its precious space to balance the load across 4 campuses.

I've spent significant time on both Yorktown and W-L campuses. Both have very little additional space to give. Maybe some, but not much. Remember also, the more kids per school the fewer resources to go around in terms of extracurricular opportunities.

The right space is Kenmore, but Tannia Talento and the Glen Carlyn neighborhood have shut that down. It's the largest APS parcel in the area, and it's being blocked by special interests. Not all loud and NIMBY parents are in north Arlington.

[Anonymous]

In addition to being premature this whole boundary discussion is just silly. TJ Middle School is projected to be at 45% economically disadvantaged and Kenmore at 50% with Gunston somewhere in the 30s in the next 2 years. If you took those boundaries, use roughly the same line between Wakefield and the Career Center and be careful about how you split the Gunston boundary between the 2 you would get 2 schools with roughly equal populations. Problem solved. Even if none of the TJ and Kenmore feeder neighborhoods north of 50 get forced to go to school in the south its still proportional. Even in the "rich" South Arlington neighborhoods there are so many affordable housing complexes and low market rate complexes (that are now "historical" and can therefore never be torn down) that the narrative that Wakefield would be all poor and Career Center all UMC is just patently false.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, that's the kind of suggestions you get when you want to build a 4,000 student school on the smallest parcel of land because "we can't touch the north Arlington schools". We're already in a defeatist attitude. We're all telling ourselves we're being pragmatic, when we've already lost, because we have less to work with and refuse to as the rest of the county to give up its precious space to balance the load across 4 campuses.

I've spent significant time on both Yorktown and W-L campuses. Both have very little additional space to give. Maybe some, but not much. Remember also, the more kids per school the fewer resources to go around in terms of extracurricular opportunities.

The right space is Kenmore, but Tannia Talento and the Glen Carlyn neighborhood have shut that down. It's the largest APS parcel in the area, and it's being blocked by special interests. Not all loud and NIMBY parents are in north Arlington.

I took a moment and went and looked at the Google maps of all the campuses again. There is no easy answer. I don't want any kids to lose access to outdoor space. That's why I can't wrap my mind around the CC site. I thought it would just be 2,500 kids, which was a lot. Now I see in the slides that the numbers are 4,100. Just like you said, the more kids the less opportunities. So we'll put the most kids on the smallest site. There's an old article about Robinson in Fairfax and how kids didn't even try out for teams because the competition was so steep. How will that work at a school with even more kids and less space?

Even with Glen Carlyn opposing it, wouldn't it be cheaper to build it there? What would happen? Would Glen Carlyn kids refuse to go there?

What if the county rents some of that empty office space that we all hear about? NSF in Ballston or somewhere in Pentagon City, and turn the CC site into a library along Columbia Pike (where the EDC is) and turn the rest of the land into sports fields and a pool*? You could spread kids from all schools across all facilities for maximum use (I read somewhere the pools are actually underutilized, even though somewhere, W-L and Yorktown can't spare any space). Here a shuttle bus company and run routes, like colleges do.

*I promise this not some crazy Columbia Pike end game to get a pool. This is just a resident spitballing. Not a resource sucking attempt at getting rid of students and just building a pool. I know if read this, that is what I would think.