South Arlington and North Arlington Schools

[Anonymous]

I think Henry should be expanded into a larger school and the Career Center and the library renovated. The Pike library is ridiculous, compared to the libraries in North Arlington. The schools definitely need help. Look at how well Hoffman-Boston is doing now. Maybe that will spread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dorsey is from south arlington and his kids are or went to south arlington schools.

Cristol is totally fine with concentrating all the affordable housing on the pike. She also thinks it is perfectly fine to have schools with 70% farms. She does not think SOL scores mean much because each student is different and arlington has great teachers.

How do I know? I asked her at a meeting. There is. I question and her answer to me was very clear. She may try to soften it now that people like me have challenged her position. She talks the talk, but when asked specific questions she would not change the lack of diversity in our schools. She is very close to Mary Hynes and advised the board on what questions t ask the school board in that ridiculous affordablehousing housing plan. The questions were written to support the plan. Period.

If you want to continue shoving the poorer people in arlington in south Arlington, vote Cristol. If you don't, vote McMenamin and Dorsey.

Amen. Please spread the word to your neighbors. Ask for a lawn sign. I know many of us don't like to be outwardly political, but these issues are important. We can make a positive change in the direction the schools are headed. We can have a board that will get serious about our office vacancy rates. Has anyone body else had more than a few neighborhood water main breaks in the last few years? We can renew our infrastructure.
Please please please engage other parents you know. We all love this county and it can be a wonderful place. Let's not let it slip away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dorsey has kids in the schools? Good - he won't be inclined to ignore this stuff,

He's got my vote!!!

McMeniman always had it.

Where does Dorsey have his kids in school??

ATS for the older one. Younger child is in preschool.

My hild is in 4th grade at ATS and I've never seen him there. Pretty sure his kid isn't there. I've been involved in PTA stuff and we have mutual friends from college and I've never crossed paths with him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dorsey has kids in the schools? Good - he won't be inclined to ignore this stuff,

He's got my vote!!!

McMeniman always had it.

Where does Dorsey have his kids in school??

ATS for the older one. Younger child is in preschool.

My hild is in 4th grade at ATS and I've never seen him there. Pretty sure his kid isn't there. I've been involved in PTA stuff and we have mutual friends from college and I've never crossed paths with him.

Even if he is - so what? Either people will be irritated that he left a 9 school and took a spot at ATS from someone at a 4 school, or he choiced his kid out of a crappy neighborhood school. Kind of a no win situation for him if his kid is there, and it really doesn't matter.
He is at least willing to listen to reason and sees the school situation in responsible terms.

Cristol is over there living with wizards and unicorns... And sol's don't mean anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dorsey has kids in the schools? Good - he won't be inclined to ignore this stuff,

He's got my vote!!!

McMeniman always had it.

Where does Dorsey have his kids in school??

ATS for the older one. Younger child is in preschool.

My hild is in 4th grade at ATS and I've never seen him there. Pretty sure his kid isn't there. I've been involved in PTA stuff and we have mutual friends from college and I've never crossed paths with him.

Even if he is - so what? Either people will be irritated that he left a 9 school and took a spot at ATS from someone at a 4 school, or he choiced his kid out of a crappy neighborhood school. Kind of a no win situation for him if his kid is there, and it really doesn't matter.
He is at least willing to listen to reason and sees the school situation in responsible terms.

Cristol is over there living with wizards and unicorns... And sol's don't mean anything.

PP here -- I completely agree with you. I'm voting for Dorsey. Just hate when the conversation on anything substantive gets hijacked to bash ATS. Thought this might devolve into that. Glad it hasn't thus far, especially as a South Arlington resident with an overcrowded neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dorsey has kids in the schools? Good - he won't be inclined to ignore this stuff,

He's got my vote!!!

McMeniman always had it.

Where does Dorsey have his kids in school??

ATS for the older one. Younger child is in preschool.

My hild is in 4th grade at ATS and I've never seen him there. Pretty sure his kid isn't there. I've been involved in PTA stuff and we have mutual friends from college and I've never crossed paths with him.

Even if he is - so what? Either people will be irritated that he left a 9 school and took a spot at ATS from someone at a 4 school, or he choiced his kid out of a crappy neighborhood school. Kind of a no win situation for him if his kid is there, and it really doesn't matter.
He is at least willing to listen to reason and sees the school situation in responsible terms.

Cristol is over there living with wizards and unicorns... And sol's don't mean anything.

PP here -- I completely agree with you. I'm voting for Dorsey. Just hate when the conversation on anything substantive gets hijacked to bash ATS. Thought this might devolve into that. Glad it hasn't thus far, especially as a South Arlington resident with an overcrowded neighborhood school.

Yes. I don't blame him for sending his daughter there. Like many of us in S. Arlington, his daughter is zoned for a school that has a pretty low score. I would send my kids to ATS in a heartbeat if we got a spot. I'm not flipping out and ready to move because we didn't, but I would be lying if I said I wouldn't take a spot at ATS.

Also, because he or his wife had to attend school tours in order to even enter the lottery, I would assume he has familiarity with at least a couple schools in S Arlington, and he or his wife probably did some research before making their choice, so they have to know more than any of the other candidates about schools down here. For that reason alone, I think he has his finger on the pulse, and is acutely aware of the crowding and performance issues. Plus, the fact that his kid is going to a school with so many kids from N Arlington, too, means he is probably hearing a lot of concerns directly from N Arlington families. I feel like if you're a parent anywhere in Arlington, he is the candidate for you. He gets it, because he's living it.

[Anonymous]

You guys!!!

Sol test scores don't mean anything because every child is different and special.
Unless they score surprisingly well- like the minority students at carlin springs this year. Then they count.
Unless you are talking about lower scores at Barcroft - then they don't - because that is to be expected because poor kids don't test well.
Unless you are talking about Jamestown - because their scores are a great indicator of the incredible education your child will receive in APS....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dorsey has kids in the schools? Good - he won't be inclined to ignore this stuff,

He's got my vote!!!

McMeniman always had it.

Where does Dorsey have his kids in school??

ATS for the older one. Younger child is in preschool.

My hild is in 4th grade at ATS and I've never seen him there. Pretty sure his kid isn't there. I've been involved in PTA stuff and we have mutual friends from college and I've never crossed paths with him.

PP here - my bad, he does have a child at ATS - 2 years behind mine. I think he's zoned for Abingdon or Randolph.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dorsey has kids in the schools? Good - he won't be inclined to ignore this stuff,

He's got my vote!!!

McMeniman always had it.

Where does Dorsey have his kids in school??

ATS for the older one. Younger child is in preschool.

My hild is in 4th grade at ATS and I've never seen him there. Pretty sure his kid isn't there. I've been involved in PTA stuff and we have mutual friends from college and I've never crossed paths with him.

PP here - my bad, he does have a child at ATS - 2 years behind mine. I think he's zoned for Abingdon or Randolph.

Great! So, he took one look at his neighborhood school and was like, "
Oh Hell No!"
I'd prefer that, than someone who doesn't have a kid in the schools telling me how great everything is and that if I have an issue, I should take it up with the principal.
You know - because the principal can control 80% farm rates, and majority esol students who go home to illiterate parents.

[Anonymous]

It's not that the education isn't equal, in the sense that the facilities and the resources and the quality of the teachers is the same in all schools across Arlington. What's different is--what the teachers have to spend time in class focusing on, what kinds of opportunities the kids have (funding for after school activities, parent support for various clubs, etc.), what the general tenor of the school is. My kids go to schools in south Arlington and the stuff that we get from the schools and the stuff the parents talk about is different from north Arlington schools. We get flyers about sending in food for backpacks for kids who would otherwise go hungry on the weekends. Other schools send home flyers about enrichment activities and academic competitions. The focus at our middle school seems to be on getting kids to pass and stay in school through high school graduation--it emphasizes "career" readiness as much as "college" readiness. If I have a kid who I want to go to college, he is missing out somewhat by not being immersed in a culture where college is the expectation. We just don't hear about certain opportunities, because the teachers and the other parents don't know about them or don't focus on them. If the schools were less segregated economically, you wouldn't have this kind of divide, but the board is unwilling to implement more choice schools or drastically redraw the boundaries to get this kind of change.

Anonymous wrote:10:48 gets it. Have had kids in schools north & south. Speaking only for my middle class kids (And my family was not afraid of the 50% ++ FARMS school that we attended for 5 years), the difference in the learning environment & opportunities in class & out are night & day. It's a shame that VOICE & Mary Hynes don't want to pursue that for less affluent kids. They will at least get adequate schools though. And that seems To be all the VOICE advocates in S. Arl want.

I think you two are right on the money.
It is NOT that the schools themselves or the teachers are different at all, it is the environment, the feel of the school, expectations, and activities offered through the PTA ....
And that stems solely from an unequal and disproportionate socioeconomic distribution at the respective schools.
IF there was a more even distribution, I think it would lift all the schools, without causing any negatives in the highest SES schools.

I would be interested in more concrete examples from the PP who had kids in schools in different (neighborhood?) schools in Arlington! And I'd like to hear from that PP, if your experiences were in elementary school, vs. middle and high school (if applicable). Thanks!

Regardless, overcrowding is a serious issue in ALL of Arlington, at every school level, and any "Affordable Housing plan" that aims to add thousands and thousands of new kids that need assistance into the county is unconscionable at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It's not that the education isn't equal, in the sense that the facilities and the resources and the quality of the teachers is the same in all schools across Arlington. What's different is--what the teachers have to spend time in class focusing on, what kinds of opportunities the kids have (funding for after school activities, parent support for various clubs, etc.), what the general tenor of the school is. My kids go to schools in south Arlington and the stuff that we get from the schools and the stuff the parents talk about is different from north Arlington schools. We get flyers about sending in food for backpacks for kids who would otherwise go hungry on the weekends. Other schools send home flyers about enrichment activities and academic competitions. The focus at our middle school seems to be on getting kids to pass and stay in school through high school graduation--it emphasizes "career" readiness as much as "college" readiness. If I have a kid who I want to go to college, he is missing out somewhat by not being immersed in a culture where college is the expectation. We just don't hear about certain opportunities, because the teachers and the other parents don't know about them or don't focus on them. If the schools were less segregated economically, you wouldn't have this kind of divide, but the board is unwilling to implement more choice schools or drastically redraw the boundaries to get this kind of change.

Anonymous wrote:10:48 gets it. Have had kids in schools north & south. Speaking only for my middle class kids (And my family was not afraid of the 50% ++ FARMS school that we attended for 5 years), the difference in the learning environment & opportunities in class & out are night & day. It's a shame that VOICE & Mary Hynes don't want to pursue that for less affluent kids. They will at least get adequate schools though. And that seems To be all the VOICE advocates in S. Arl want.

I think you two are right on the money.
It is NOT that the schools themselves or the teachers are different at all, it is the environment, the feel of the school, expectations, and activities offered through the PTA ....
And that stems solely from an unequal and disproportionate socioeconomic distribution at the respective schools.
IF there was a more even distribution, I think it would lift all the schools, without causing any negatives in the highest SES schools.

I would be interested in more concrete examples from the PP who had kids in schools in different (neighborhood?) schools in Arlington! And I'd like to hear from that PP, if your experiences were in elementary school, vs. middle and high school (if applicable). Thanks!

Regardless, overcrowding is a serious issue in ALL of Arlington, at every school level, and any "Affordable Housing plan" that aims to add thousands and thousands of new kids that need assistance into the county is unconscionable at this point.

Thank you for compiling the above posts. Agree with all of the above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's not that the education isn't equal, in the sense that the facilities and the resources and the quality of the teachers is the same in all schools across Arlington. What's different is--what the teachers have to spend time in class focusing on, what kinds of opportunities the kids have (funding for after school activities, parent support for various clubs, etc.), what the general tenor of the school is. My kids go to schools in south Arlington and the stuff that we get from the schools and the stuff the parents talk about is different from north Arlington schools. We get flyers about sending in food for backpacks for kids who would otherwise go hungry on the weekends. Other schools send home flyers about enrichment activities and academic competitions. The focus at our middle school seems to be on getting kids to pass and stay in school through high school graduation--it emphasizes "career" readiness as much as "college" readiness. If I have a kid who I want to go to college, he is missing out somewhat by not being immersed in a culture where college is the expectation. We just don't hear about certain opportunities, because the teachers and the other parents don't know about them or don't focus on them. If the schools were less segregated economically, you wouldn't have this kind of divide, but the board is unwilling to implement more choice schools or drastically redraw the boundaries to get this kind of change.

Anonymous wrote:10:48 gets it. Have had kids in schools north & south. Speaking only for my middle class kids (And my family was not afraid of the 50% ++ FARMS school that we attended for 5 years), the difference in the learning environment & opportunities in class & out are night & day. It's a shame that VOICE & Mary Hynes don't want to pursue that for less affluent kids. They will at least get adequate schools though. And that seems To be all the VOICE advocates in S. Arl want.

I think you two are right on the money.
It is NOT that the schools themselves or the teachers are different at all, it is the environment, the feel of the school, expectations, and activities offered through the PTA ....
And that stems solely from an unequal and disproportionate socioeconomic distribution at the respective schools.
IF there was a more even distribution, I think it would lift all the schools, without causing any negatives in the highest SES schools.

I would be interested in more concrete examples from the PP who had kids in schools in different (neighborhood?) schools in Arlington! And I'd like to hear from that PP, if your experiences were in elementary school, vs. middle and high school (if applicable). Thanks!

Regardless, overcrowding is a serious issue in ALL of Arlington, at every school level, and any "Affordable Housing plan" that aims to add thousands and thousands of new kids that need assistance into the county is unconscionable at this point.

Thank you for compiling the above posts. Agree with all of the above.

+1 and another vote for Dorsey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It's not that the education isn't equal, in the sense that the facilities and the resources and the quality of the teachers is the same in all schools across Arlington. What's different is--what the teachers have to spend time in class focusing on, what kinds of opportunities the kids have (funding for after school activities, parent support for various clubs, etc.), what the general tenor of the school is. My kids go to schools in south Arlington and the stuff that we get from the schools and the stuff the parents talk about is different from north Arlington schools. We get flyers about sending in food for backpacks for kids who would otherwise go hungry on the weekends. Other schools send home flyers about enrichment activities and academic competitions. The focus at our middle school seems to be on getting kids to pass and stay in school through high school graduation--it emphasizes "career" readiness as much as "college" readiness. If I have a kid who I want to go to college, he is missing out somewhat by not being immersed in a culture where college is the expectation. We just don't hear about certain opportunities, because the teachers and the other parents don't know about them or don't focus on them. If the schools were less segregated economically, you wouldn't have this kind of divide, but the board is unwilling to implement more choice schools or drastically redraw the boundaries to get this kind of change.

Anonymous wrote:10:48 gets it. Have had kids in schools north & south. Speaking only for my middle class kids (And my family was not afraid of the 50% ++ FARMS school that we attended for 5 years), the difference in the learning environment & opportunities in class & out are night & day. It's a shame that VOICE & Mary Hynes don't want to pursue that for less affluent kids. They will at least get adequate schools though. And that seems To be all the VOICE advocates in S. Arl want.

I think you two are right on the money.
It is NOT that the schools themselves or the teachers are different at all, it is the environment, the feel of the school, expectations, and activities offered through the PTA ....
And that stems solely from an unequal and disproportionate socioeconomic distribution at the respective schools.
IF there was a more even distribution, I think it would lift all the schools, without causing any negatives in the highest SES schools.

I would be interested in more concrete examples from the PP who had kids in schools in different (neighborhood?) schools in Arlington! And I'd like to hear from that PP, if your experiences were in elementary school, vs. middle and high school (if applicable). Thanks!

Regardless, overcrowding is a serious issue in ALL of Arlington, at every school level, and any "Affordable Housing plan" that aims to add thousands and thousands of new kids that need assistance into the county is unconscionable at this point.

Not wanting to start a fight, but if these kids are already in the DC region or are predictably going to be here, they need someplace to live, don't they? I have kids in Arlington schools and the overcrowding and poverty concentration concern me, but at a fundamental human level I find it very hard to just slam the door shut and say there's no room for anyone else. How is it any different than Europe squabbling over whether to allow refugees across their borders? Nobody really has enough room, do they? Schools matter, but so does basic human dignity, right?

[Anonymous]

23:05. Appreciate your altruistic heart and I share it. But, at some point it goes took far. This isn't just a matter of basic human dignity and the refugee crisis inEurope. We are not talking about housing homeless kids. And housing families in neighborhoods with high street crime isn't so nice. Neither is sending their kids to grossly overcrowded schools where the overwhelming majority of kids are poor too. And the teachers are overwhelmed and little PTA support.




if you are willing to directly sacrifice the education of your kids and the value of your home, great. I am sick of it. I have a friend who just moved from south to north arlington. She cannot believe the differences in the school learning environment .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:23:05. Appreciate your altruistic heart and I share it. But, at some point it goes took far. This isn't just a matter of basic human dignity and the refugee crisis inEurope. We are not talking about housing homeless kids. And housing families in neighborhoods with high street crime isn't so nice. Neither is sending their kids to grossly overcrowded schools where the overwhelming majority of kids are poor too. And the teachers are overwhelmed and little PTA support.




if you are willing to directly sacrifice the education of your kids and the value of your home, great. I am sick of it. I have a friend who just moved from south to north arlington. She cannot believe the differences in the school learning environment .

I agree with 23:05 on not shutting the kids or those who need assistance out, but I think there needs to be more resources. I don't want to see my kid's education compromised, but with what's happening, that's not even the case. South Arlington needs a lot more money and resources if the County wants to continue putting so many people and children with extra educational needs here. Will there be a separate school track for those children who need less help and might be bored while the other kids are getting help? Or will there be universal preschool for South Arlington zip codes to level the field? I know that two thirds of the preschool slots are for families who make $86K or less, but universal preschool could really benefit everyone and maybe the South will start look like the North performance wise, when the kids from less wealthy families have the same leg up the rest of us can afford/stretch our wallets for.