Barcroft elementary/ south Arlington crisis

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is an option now, albeit a bit farther out. Very nice gym and outdoor spaces, too.

Hoffman boston? Isn't it a neighborhood school? Not a choice.

It's under enrolled so opens to all.

Well, cats out of that bag. Of course if your kids are a few years out- I wouldn't count on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is an option now, albeit a bit farther out. Very nice gym and outdoor spaces, too.

Hoffman boston? Isn't it a neighborhood school? Not a choice.

It's under enrolled so opens to all.

Well, cats out of that bag. Of course if your kids are a few years out- I wouldn't count on it.

Our LO is a few years away at least, but that's why its important to look at this now, so we don't have to move!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just build more schools.

Yes! Go down to the garden where the have money growing trees, cut a few of them down, and voila- build more schools. What are you people not understanding about how easy this is?!

It's not that hard. It's about setting priorities, avoiding paralysis by analysis, and realizing that other voices matter besides those of rich people. It is a tiny county, land wise, though, that is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I was about to get all snarky on this comment, until I saw the dramatic improvement in test scores from 2012 to 2014 for Hoffman-Boston. Holy cow! Maybe Coach Murphy was on to something after all by making this a STEM-focused school.

Did Coach Murphy do that? My kids attend Taylor, another school with a STEM focus, and that program was entirely the teachers' doing.

I know that there were community meetings in the fall of 2011 to seek input for a change to Hoffman-Boston's instructional focus. I'm pretty sure I remember a SB meeting where Coach presented the proposal to the school board, but I could be wrong. (I've watched way too many of those meetings on tv in the past few years)

[Anonymous]

They need to move Claremont's spanish immersion to the new TJ site and make Claremont a neighborhood school. That would allow boundary changes to relieve some of the overcrowding at Barcroft and Abingdon. If I can attend the meeting on the 9th, I plan to stand up and suggest that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to move Claremont's spanish immersion to the new TJ site and make Claremont a neighborhood school. That would allow boundary changes to relieve some of the overcrowding at Barcroft and Abingdon. If I can attend the meeting on the 9th, I plan to stand up and suggest that.

I hope these kinds of ideas will do the trick. many were seeing these schools trend up. It would really suck to see back sliding

[Anonymous]

Well, perhaps, but I cannot be the only one suggesting them. Based on what I have read, the school board has already decided the new school will be a neighborhood school, yet before they were considering a spanish immersion school.

More people need to suggest these things.

And i cannot believe anyone fed the troll on this board like they did. Cant you all tell that the person was just bored and being obnoxious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, perhaps, but I cannot be the only one suggesting them. Based on what I have read, the school board has already decided the new school will be a neighborhood school, yet before they were considering a spanish immersion school.

More people need to suggest these things.

And i cannot believe anyone fed the troll on this board like they did. Cant you all tell that the person was just bored and being obnoxious?

I thought the plan at the TJ site was to put a neighborhood school there, move the Henry kids there, move the Montessori program at Drew to Henry, and redistrict some Oakridge kids to Drew to take the pressure off there. (Plus other various boundary adjustments to help shift things around at other schools.) When they were talking about putting a school at the Kenmore site they said it might be a choice school, but at TJ I thought the plan was neighborhood...but also opening up space for a "new" choice school which would be standalone Montessori.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, perhaps, but I cannot be the only one suggesting them. Based on what I have read, the school board has already decided the new school will be a neighborhood school, yet before they were considering a spanish immersion school.

More people need to suggest these things.

And i cannot believe anyone fed the troll on this board like they did. Cant you all tell that the person was just bored and being obnoxious?

I thought the plan at the TJ site was to put a neighborhood school there, move the Henry kids there, move the Montessori program at Drew to Henry, and redistrict some Oakridge kids to Drew to take the pressure off there. (Plus other various boundary adjustments to help shift things around at other schools.) When they were talking about putting a school at the Kenmore site they said it might be a choice school, but at TJ I thought the plan was neighborhood...but also opening up space for a "new" choice school which would be standalone Montessori.

The plan you describe for TJ was just one idea put forth by the Montessori people. That was not "the plan".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, perhaps, but I cannot be the only one suggesting them. Based on what I have read, the school board has already decided the new school will be a neighborhood school, yet before they were considering a spanish immersion school.

More people need to suggest these things.

And i cannot believe anyone fed the troll on this board like they did. Cant you all tell that the person was just bored and being obnoxious?

I thought the plan at the TJ site was to put a neighborhood school there, move the Henry kids there, move the Montessori program at Drew to Henry, and redistrict some Oakridge kids to Drew to take the pressure off there. (Plus other various boundary adjustments to help shift things around at other schools.) When they were talking about putting a school at the Kenmore site they said it might be a choice school, but at TJ I thought the plan was neighborhood...but also opening up space for a "new" choice school which would be standalone Montessori.

The plan you describe for TJ was just one idea put forth by the Montessori people. That was not "the plan".

I thought Montessori supported but did not initiate that idea. The SB is trying to find a solution for the 800 kids at Oakridge--a building at TJ doesn't solve the Oakridge problem unless they shift a lot of other stuff around, and moving a choice program (like Montessori) is a lot easier than changing boundaries for Drew, Hoffman Boston, Abingdon, Henry, and Randolph.

[Anonymous]

So did anyone go last night? learn anything? what happened?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So did anyone go last night? learn anything? what happened?

Yes- small group. Nice people. Good mix of people who live in a wide range of places along the Pike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, perhaps, but I cannot be the only one suggesting them. Based on what I have read, the school board has already decided the new school will be a neighborhood school, yet before they were considering a spanish immersion school.

More people need to suggest these things.

And i cannot believe anyone fed the troll on this board like they did. Cant you all tell that the person was just bored and being obnoxious?

I thought the plan at the TJ site was to put a neighborhood school there, move the Henry kids there, move the Montessori program at Drew to Henry, and redistrict some Oakridge kids to Drew to take the pressure off there. (Plus other various boundary adjustments to help shift things around at other schools.) When they were talking about putting a school at the Kenmore site they said it might be a choice school, but at TJ I thought the plan was neighborhood...but also opening up space for a "new" choice school which would be standalone Montessori.

The plan you describe for TJ was just one idea put forth by the Montessori people. That was not "the plan".

I thought Montessori supported but did not initiate that idea. The SB is trying to find a solution for the 800 kids at Oakridge--a building at TJ doesn't solve the Oakridge problem unless they shift a lot of other stuff around, and moving a choice program (like Montessori) is a lot easier than changing boundaries for Drew, Hoffman Boston, Abingdon, Henry, and Randolph.

This is one of (many) reasons it is so frustrating that approval for the school at the TJ site has been pushed back by the County Board. Chances are, a new school at TJ -whether neighborhood (as is the current plan) or choice - will not, on its own, solve the overcrowding in South Arlington schools. When the School Board and County Board were first considering the school at TJ, the issue was framed as new school versus additions to several existing schools. Both are probably required, or at least a new school plus something else. I hope the County Board doesn't just approve the new school site at TJ and assume that they have solved all of the capacity problems in South Arlington. The same is probably true in North Arlington. Discovery is not going to be enough.

[Anonymous]

Please take a moment to fill out the survey at let the county know you would like to see better distribution of affordable housing. The overcrowding in south Arlington is a problem.
http://www.peakdemocracy.com/portals/105/2622


You can chip in your two cents until tomorrow ( may 31) at midnight.

[Anonymous]

Barcroft AP has resigned and will be announced Monday. Supposedly APS is having a hard time finding someone internal to fill the position because how much of a hot mess the school and principal are. They are even having a retired principal come in a train the current principal, because she is in over her head.