APS and 4th High school
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Anonymous
| Oh goody Duran is projecting falling enrollment, so 4th high school is DOA. How convenient. |
Anonymous
| Another option is piggyback on Montessori growth and build it into HS. Pedagogy is problem-based and differentiated learning, which is what HB-types want. The site exists: Career Center. The student feeder system exists, including MPSA and Gunston Montessori MS programs now. If ArlTech gets its new building, the old ArlTech building can be renovated and built up vertically to be a Prek-12 Montessori academy. This kills a lot of birds with one stone, including best-use of dollars in capital improvement plan when it comes to long term school construction (MPSA building must get overhauled/torn down anyway this decade as built in 1974). Above all it provides extra HS seat capacity via an option program that we know wil draw students. |
Anonymous
| It’s time for a new high school. |
Anonymous
This is just Montessori advocate propaganda. There aren't that many interested in Montessori, especially at the high school level. Montessori persistently points out that you can't just transfer into a Montessori program mid-way without prior Montessori experience. So what you're really hoping for here is a pre-K-12 Montessori program period. Renovating the CC building for that isn't going to provide another full high school's worth of seats. It has to double or triple or quadruple its K-8 program. And would your Montessori academy have its own full complement of extracurriculars and athletics, so Montessori students don't have to go back to their neighborhood schools like HB and AT do? Or do you think Montessori, HB and AT would be interested in - and willing and able to - combine for their own league? In either scenario, I would hope you are advocating for full athletic fields and facilities with the CC site redevelopment - not just for a Montessori academy. As for your comment that the current MPSA building "must get overhaulted/torn down anyway this decade as built in 1974," it does need to come down; but not because it was built in 1974. We have several buildings that are older than that. |
Anonymous
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There is no demand for a Montessori HS. How big is the middle school program, anyway? I think it’s quite small?
If they are going to make a K12 campus for a program, it should be Immersion. |
Anonymous
| Haha. The Montessori lobby thinks we’re not on to them. This worked when you had Monique. No more. |
Anonymous
I’ve heard it’s only a handful of students. |
Anonymous
I don't think you'll find the numbers for high school there, either. There are only a few hundred(?) in the immersion program at Wakefield. However, it is at least a more likely growable program than Montessori if the location of the program were convenient enough for the north Arlington families who tend to drop out of immersion after elementary school and still very geographically accessible to the majority of native Spanish speakers. |
Anonymous
Opinion? For sure. But propaganda, no. Everything I said is true. It is just an idea if there is genuinely a need for more HS seats. Now, anyone still asserting a 4th HS, that's propaganda. The student population numbers aren't there anymore. The future bond money isn't there anymore. The site isn't there anymore. (And really, stop saying Kenmore like just repeating it will it make come true. That takes major coordination with Fairfax). Any future HS seat additions this generation will go into programs where students opt in, with pros and cons. There is no money, land or demand for more. And to make even that much justifiable you will have to invest in a proven program that can draw students. To the person here who said immersion over Montessori...ha, ha, that's funny - Immersion couldn't even recruit it's necessary 50-50 in recent years in elementary. Montessori has a wait list for the whole prek-8. Honestly, Montessori is fine without a HS, so is Immersion. But as a taxpayer I'm not ready to support a 4th HS and its HUGE costs so some North Arlington families can get a modicum relief in their already-elite local HS. If that's what you're going for, better start supporting something that is plausible, like more program HS seats. |
Anonymous
And as another taxpayer, I'm not willing to squander more money pandering to Montessori. I'm not an immersion person, either; but at least that program can potentially serve a lot more ELL and economically disadvantaged students than Montessori does. And it produces bilingual skills that are more useful than anything Montessori produces - anything montessori produces could be produced in a neighborhood school more easily than bilingualism at this point. A truly great public school system could provide bilingualism for all its students rather than just for some through an optional special program. |
Anonymous
OK. How about another HB type school then? Solves overcrowding. |
Anonymous
Here we go again.  How many times do we have to start a new chain/conversation on creating a 2nd HB?
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Anonymous
How about we talk about making HB high school only |
Anonymous
We've done that, too. But at least it's less of a beaten dead horse aspect of the HB conversation. Personally, I would support that; but you do need to have the capacity at the other middle schools to absorb 270-300 6th-8th graders. Since the students theoretically come from limited seats from each of the elementary schools, it shouldn't be too difficult or imbalanced across middle schools to absorb them. |
Anonymous
I posted a detailed analysis of all middle school capacity and proved there is ample middle school seats to absorb turning HB into high school only. |