ASFS/Key Swap Off . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now the complaint is that Key’s website isn’t good enough and you don’t approve of the composition of the PTA’s executive board? Who are you people and why are you so obsessed? It’s elementary school and we’re all just trying to get our kids a decent education. Does it make you feel good to just bash the Key program and it’s advocates?

It’s a zero sum game. That’s where we’re at.

Key will take away a neighborhood school...don't you get it? Your option is not more important than my neighborhood school. Especially one that can barely fill the Spanish speaking spots.

Wait, now Key is the one suddenly taking something even though it has resided there for decades?

... as a neighborhood school. It’s not one anymore as of last fall.

It wasn’t entirely a neighborhood school before that time, dunce.

But it was a neighborhood school. Full stop.

Not it is pure option and can go anywhere. I believe it should go to an office building like Baileys Upper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now the complaint is that Key’s website isn’t good enough and you don’t approve of the composition of the PTA’s executive board? Who are you people and why are you so obsessed? It’s elementary school and we’re all just trying to get our kids a decent education. Does it make you feel good to just bash the Key program and it’s advocates?

The point is that you'd have a Spanish website and a more diverse PTA if you moved to south Arlington. When you can't even meet a quota of Spanish speakers, it has consequences, which were pointed out. Move and they'll recede.

Communications are made in both languages. You’re just embarrassing yourself at this point.

DP- no dog in this fight, but the front page of that site is embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

One thing I find hilarious is that the push to make Key all option was made in part by the same forces now arguing that because Key doesn’t have neighborhood preference, the immersion program is too much of a burden on the ASFS/Key boundary and needs to be evicted from the Key building. Just on principle, I understand why the Key community is offended by the framing of the current dilemma as being anything other than an aggressive attempt by a limited group of parents who just can’t stand the immersion program and who want the building for their own. There is no bigger boundary emergency in the ASFS Key zone than anywhere else - boundaries are being redrawn and any imbalance created by rendering Key all option can be alleviated by drawing the boundaries accordingly. And anyone who is advocating for the swap on the grounds that the Key location doesn’t attract enough Spanish speakers is talking out of both sides of their mouths -- the ASFS building is a significantly worse location for the program.

[Anonymous]

I think the issue people have with the key pta and the key advocates isn’t the fact that the website is in English vs Spanish. It’s that they have repeatedly portrayed themselves as a refuge for the Latino population in Courthouse and Clarendon, which now the rich white population is trying to rip away. This is patently false, they know it, yet they keep saying it. That Washington post article was full of falsehoods— heck the photo in the article of a parent walking their child to school was staged. I know that family in real life, and they don’t live near enough to the school to walk. They are nice people, but when you blatantly misrepresent yourself and your community, what you are doing is wrong. It’s bad for the community as a whole when we are presented with “alternative facts”.
As people have pointed out, there are large spanish speaking populations elsewhere in the county. I’m not sure why the compromise someone pointed out at having immersion classrooms throughout the county was such a bad idea. I think the time of pure option schools has passed— we really need to take a good look at what we mean by “equity”. Equity is not an hour long forced bus ride just to attend your neighborhood school. Nor is it having extremely disparate demographics at single schools that in no way mirror our larger county demographics. Montessori and immersion are great, but if we can’t have dedicated schools for options without it severely effecting education at nearby neighborhoods, we can’t afford to keep them. Instead, we should either look to having hub locations (all options at the career center for example), or look at having classrooms with a distinct learning model distributed throughout the county.

[Anonymous]

Options are intended to draw students and families to an under-enrolled school. The Key neighborhood has so many kids that the building is needed as a neighborhood school.

Spanish Immersion parents should be figuring out where the next great location for the school will be - not making their last stand on this unwinnable battle. If that is the ASFS building, Great! If it needs to be in another part of the county closer to a Spanish speaking population - then that would be the answer.

[Anonymous]

Hello? ( taps mic) is thing on?
*clears throat*
CARLIN SPRINGS
Put the school nearby a huge swath of Spanish speakers. Cross your fingers that wealthy white kids will travel.

[Anonymous]

Doesn’t sound like the community Carlin Springs serves is clamoring for an Immersion school. Stop offering it up like a sacrificial lamb to make things more convenient for the UMC. Claremont is already taking up a school in S Arlington 2 miles away. Campbell is right there too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t sound like the community Carlin Springs serves is clamoring for an Immersion school. Stop offering it up like a sacrificial lamb to make things more convenient for the UMC. Claremont is already taking up a school in S Arlington 2 miles away. Campbell is right there too.

Yeah. They’re a pretty quiet bunch. They don’t want too much attention. Wonder why that is? Wonder what could keep that particular community under the radar....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t sound like the community Carlin Springs serves is clamoring for an Immersion school. Stop offering it up like a sacrificial lamb to make things more convenient for the UMC. Claremont is already taking up a school in S Arlington 2 miles away. Campbell is right there too.

You’re right, we shouldn’t try to integrate Carlin Springs, it’s perfect as is and not at all embarrassing to have a school that is almost entirely FARMs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t sound like the community Carlin Springs serves is clamoring for an Immersion school. Stop offering it up like a sacrificial lamb to make things more convenient for the UMC. Claremont is already taking up a school in S Arlington 2 miles away. Campbell is right there too.

You’re right, we shouldn’t try to integrate Carlin Springs, it’s perfect as is and not at all embarrassing to have a school that is almost entirely FARMs.

Well to be fair, MONA likes the current Key location. It really works best for her family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing I find hilarious is that the push to make Key all option was made in part by the same forces now arguing that because Key doesn’t have neighborhood preference, the immersion program is too much of a burden on the ASFS/Key boundary and needs to be evicted from the Key building. Just on principle, I understand why the Key community is offended by the framing of the current dilemma as being anything other than an aggressive attempt by a limited group of parents who just can’t stand the immersion program and who want the building for their own. There is no bigger boundary emergency in the ASFS Key zone than anywhere else - boundaries are being redrawn and any imbalance created by rendering Key all option can be alleviated by drawing the boundaries accordingly. And anyone who is advocating for the swap on the grounds that the Key location doesn’t attract enough Spanish speakers is talking out of both sides of their mouths -- the ASFS building is a significantly worse location for the program.

Yes, the boundary emergency in ASFS far exceeds even the McKinely mess. Current demographics had 2/3 of Key-ASFS going to ASFS 1/3 to Key; now that Key is option, you are likely increasing ASFS by 30% -- so it goes from about 550 to 750 students within the next few years. As well as increasing condos and apartments all the time in the boundary, it's dire. Right now, the only option will be to bus kids west on long bus rides for the majority of students. So boundary redrawn will not solve the issue; more seats are needed in Eastern side of county now that they eliminated a neighborhood school.

Agreed, swapping was pointless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t sound like the community Carlin Springs serves is clamoring for an Immersion school. Stop offering it up like a sacrificial lamb to make things more convenient for the UMC. Claremont is already taking up a school in S Arlington 2 miles away. Campbell is right there too.

Yeah. They’re a pretty quiet bunch. They don’t want too much attention. Wonder why that is? Wonder what could keep that particular community under the radar....

Don’t be an ass. It’s unbecoming.

[Anonymous]

PP, I too know the family in the staged photo, probably better than you. They moved to Rosslyn to be within walking distance of Key for K. They were absolutely within the old boundary. They lived there for two years before they had to move. And, they are native Spanish speakers and not wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, I too know the family in the staged photo, probably better than you. They moved to Rosslyn to be within walking distance of Key for K. They were absolutely within the old boundary. They lived there for two years before they had to move. And, they are native Spanish speakers and not wealthy.

Np here. They WERE in the boundary, they USED to walk to school. Past tense. You admit the photo was staged.
I’m not sure how this helps with the argument that the key community isn’t willfully deceiving people in an effort to get their own way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing I find hilarious is that the push to make Key all option was made in part by the same forces now arguing that because Key doesn’t have neighborhood preference, the immersion program is too much of a burden on the ASFS/Key boundary and needs to be evicted from the Key building. Just on principle, I understand why the Key community is offended by the framing of the current dilemma as being anything other than an aggressive attempt by a limited group of parents who just can’t stand the immersion program and who want the building for their own. There is no bigger boundary emergency in the ASFS Key zone than anywhere else - boundaries are being redrawn and any imbalance created by rendering Key all option can be alleviated by drawing the boundaries accordingly. And anyone who is advocating for the swap on the grounds that the Key location doesn’t attract enough Spanish speakers is talking out of both sides of their mouths -- the ASFS building is a significantly worse location for the program.

I think you don’t know who pushed for Key, and all option schools, to give up neighborhood preferences. Ask around, and I think you might be surprised.