Immersion program may leave gunston

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is going suck for the Swanson-Yorktown kids as more Swanson gets pulled to Williamsburg.

Why would that suck? It’s worse for the Swanson kids who will get pulled Williamsburg, and then go to Washington liberty with a small percentage of peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel a bit blindsided by this. There is already a recommendation before any community engagement? This should be part of any MS boundary process. The Montessori program is also at Gunston. I share the concerns already voiced about how well Gunston has integrated the immersion program into the school. Montessori is a stand alone program so if they need more space it would make more sense to me for that one to move.

Pandemic killed community engagement.

A silver lining of the pandemic! Thank goodness!

Seriously. Community feedback is 90% people upset their kid's school will change. Which makes sense! No one really wants that, and it's the hardest part of the boundary change needs. But. When we bedn to that loud noise, moves that NEED to happen, don't. I think APS relies WAY too much on the loud voices. Maybe 10% of feedback is useful.

They cave to "feedback" and everyone else sits around saying "huh why didn't they do X which makes the most sense?"

We are an Immersion family, and yes having the rising 8th grade class move with SUCK. I completely agree with that. But they will move with their cohort and people they share multiple classes with. We are committed to Immersion and will follow it anywhere they move it. But this move is easy for me because my kids are still in elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel a bit blindsided by this. There is already a recommendation before any community engagement? This should be part of any MS boundary process. The Montessori program is also at Gunston. I share the concerns already voiced about how well Gunston has integrated the immersion program into the school. Montessori is a stand alone program so if they need more space it would make more sense to me for that one to move.

Pandemic killed community engagement.

A silver lining of the pandemic! Thank goodness!

Seriously. Community feedback is 90% people upset their kid's school will change. Which makes sense! No one really wants that, and it's the hardest part of the boundary change needs. But. When we bedn to that loud noise, moves that NEED to happen, don't. I think APS relies WAY too much on the loud voices. Maybe 10% of feedback is useful.

They cave to "feedback" and everyone else sits around saying "huh why didn't they do X which makes the most sense?"

We are an Immersion family, and yes having the rising 8th grade class move with SUCK. I completely agree with that. But they will move with their cohort and people they share multiple classes with. We are committed to Immersion and will follow it anywhere they move it. But this move is easy for me because my kids are still in elementary.

Yes, it would be an easy move for you because your kids are still in elementary.

[Anonymous]

Count me among the immersion families very happy to hear this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Count me among the immersion families very happy to hear this.

We're an immersion family too. Why are you happy to hear this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Count me among the immersion families very happy to hear this.

We're an immersion family too. Why are you happy to hear this?

gunston is a terrible location for most of the county. I’ve heard quite a few families say they won’t have their kids go to middle school program bc of commute (and my kid is still in early elementary! These are parents of kids in his class). We need less attrition to continue to see health and growth of program. What is your reaction?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is going suck for the Swanson-Yorktown kids as more Swanson gets pulled to Williamsburg.

Why would that suck? It’s worse for the Swanson kids who will get pulled Williamsburg, and then go to Washington liberty with a small percentage of peers.

No. Those who get moved to WMS are already in YHS zone. It’s the kids who stay at SMS that will move into YHS knowing even fewer kids than they do now.

[Anonymous]

Moving immersion out of Gunston is a good move. Montessori should move too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel a bit blindsided by this. There is already a recommendation before any community engagement? This should be part of any MS boundary process. The Montessori program is also at Gunston. I share the concerns already voiced about how well Gunston has integrated the immersion program into the school. Montessori is a stand alone program so if they need more space it would make more sense to me for that one to move.

Pandemic killed community engagement.

A silver lining of the pandemic! Thank goodness!

Seriously. Community feedback is 90% people upset their kid's school will change. Which makes sense! No one really wants that, and it's the hardest part of the boundary change needs. But. When we bedn to that loud noise, moves that NEED to happen, don't. I think APS relies WAY too much on the loud voices. Maybe 10% of feedback is useful.

They cave to "feedback" and everyone else sits around saying "huh why didn't they do X which makes the most sense?"

We are an Immersion family, and yes having the rising 8th grade class move with SUCK. I completely agree with that. But they will move with their cohort and people they share multiple classes with. We are committed to Immersion and will follow it anywhere they move it. But this move is easy for me because my kids are still in elementary.

Yes, it would be an easy move for you because your kids are still in elementary.

Ok so what solution can you offer that NEVER results in anyone moving ever?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Count me among the immersion families very happy to hear this.

We're an immersion family too. Why are you happy to hear this?

gunston is a terrible location for most of the county. I’ve heard quite a few families say they won’t have their kids go to middle school program bc of commute (and my kid is still in early elementary! These are parents of kids in his class). We need less attrition to continue to see health and growth of program. What is your reaction?

I agree, we are zoned for Gunston and it’s still a bad location for us (live slightly closer to TJ) this will help with the overcrowding at Gunston. Kenmore is much more centrally located.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Count me among the immersion families very happy to hear this.

We're an immersion family too. Why are you happy to hear this?

gunston is a terrible location for most of the county. I’ve heard quite a few families say they won’t have their kids go to middle school program bc of commute (and my kid is still in early elementary! These are parents of kids in his class). We need less attrition to continue to see health and growth of program. What is your reaction?

I'd like to see solid data on where immersion families live and the reasons they leave before I'm convinced moving to Kenmore will improve the immersion program. I've always been told most of the immersion families live in South Arlington so moving further north doesn't help them and may actually lead to a smaller immersion program if families choose the closer middle school to where they live (Gunston). Looking just at the boundaries for Key and Claremont doesn't tell you where in those boundaries families actually live. For example, if there is nobody from the more northern parts of Arlington who is in the immersion program, getting closer to the geographic center of Arlington doesn't actually make sense. Obviously Kenmore is more convenient for families in central Arlington, but APS should be looking at where families live across the whole program.

It has been a nice thing for the immersion kids to go to middle school with peers who all move together to high school. Non-immersion peers at Kenmore will go to W-L and Yorktown. Only a small piece of the current Kenmore zone goes to Wakefield. Disrupting a cohort that can actually move from MS to HS together seems a shame. And then there is all of the disruption to the program itself. Gunston is used to immersion and how to integrate with it. Kenmore hasn't done this before. It would be very unfortunate if there is a lot of change and disruption for all concerned and it ends up hurting the immersion program because Kenmore is too far north. Again, seeing data on where immersion families live would be useful for the conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Count me among the immersion families very happy to hear this.

We're an immersion family too. Why are you happy to hear this?

gunston is a terrible location for most of the county. I’ve heard quite a few families say they won’t have their kids go to middle school program bc of commute (and my kid is still in early elementary! These are parents of kids in his class). We need less attrition to continue to see health and growth of program. What is your reaction?

I'd like to see solid data on where immersion families live and the reasons they leave before I'm convinced moving to Kenmore will improve the immersion program. I've always been told most of the immersion families live in South Arlington so moving further north doesn't help them and may actually lead to a smaller immersion program if families choose the closer middle school to where they live (Gunston). Looking just at the boundaries for Key and Claremont doesn't tell you where in those boundaries families actually live. For example, if there is nobody from the more northern parts of Arlington who is in the immersion program, getting closer to the geographic center of Arlington doesn't actually make sense. Obviously Kenmore is more convenient for families in central Arlington, but APS should be looking at where families live across the whole program.

It has been a nice thing for the immersion kids to go to middle school with peers who all move together to high school. Non-immersion peers at Kenmore will go to W-L and Yorktown. Only a small piece of the current Kenmore zone goes to Wakefield. Disrupting a cohort that can actually move from MS to HS together seems a shame. And then there is all of the disruption to the program itself. Gunston is used to immersion and how to integrate with it. Kenmore hasn't done this before. It would be very unfortunate if there is a lot of change and disruption for all concerned and it ends up hurting the immersion program because Kenmore is too far north. Again, seeing data on where immersion families live would be useful for the conversation.

You can look at transfer numbers from 2020 (I can't find any later). I am sure it is there somewhere but the website isn't working so well at the moment.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2019-2020_APS-Transfer-Report-All-Parts.pdf

I think it should be a concern that the majority of Kenmore is not going to wind up at wakefield. I don't see how that manages to build the immersion program. Folks will still think it's far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel a bit blindsided by this. There is already a recommendation before any community engagement? This should be part of any MS boundary process. The Montessori program is also at Gunston. I share the concerns already voiced about how well Gunston has integrated the immersion program into the school. Montessori is a stand alone program so if they need more space it would make more sense to me for that one to move.

Pandemic killed community engagement.

A silver lining of the pandemic! Thank goodness!

Seriously. Community feedback is 90% people upset their kid's school will change. Which makes sense! No one really wants that, and it's the hardest part of the boundary change needs. But. When we bedn to that loud noise, moves that NEED to happen, don't. I think APS relies WAY too much on the loud voices. Maybe 10% of feedback is useful.

They cave to "feedback" and everyone else sits around saying "huh why didn't they do X which makes the most sense?"

We are an Immersion family, and yes having the rising 8th grade class move with SUCK. I completely agree with that. But they will move with their cohort and people they share multiple classes with. We are committed to Immersion and will follow it anywhere they move it. But this move is easy for me because my kids are still in elementary.

Yes, it would be an easy move for you because your kids are still in elementary.

Ok so what solution can you offer that NEVER results in anyone moving ever?

I don't think any "solutions" on here can provide APS with anything other than what they are going to do. Sometimes families have to move schools and it just is what it is. We will either move or remove ourselves from the program. What I won't do is make condescending remarks about saying it will "SUCK" but at the same time make it seem okay by saying, "but they will move with their cohort and people they share multiple classes with" and then share that this situation doesn't really make a difference to my family because my kids are not having to move.

[Anonymous]

Is APS using this as a way to hurry along the attrition rate to remove the immersion program at the middle school age?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is APS using this as a way to hurry along the attrition rate to remove the immersion program at the middle school age?

I’ve wondered that too. Last year they reduced the incoming kindergarten classes from 4 to 6 at Claremont. Kindergarten has always been filled in the past when there were 6 classes so there was a plenty of interest in the program. But now that APS reduced the incoming classes they’ve effectively reduced the whole program size.