ACPS High School Academies

[Anonymous]

If they have the A and B days then it should operate like two completely distinct high schools where the A students and the B students never really mix? (The exceptions could just hop on the shuttle.)

If the A and B days are successful they could then transition the model into two completely distinct high schools without too much controversy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they have the A and B days then it should operate like two completely distinct high schools where the A students and the B students never really mix? (The exceptions could just hop on the shuttle.)

If the A and B days are successful they could then transition the model into two completely distinct high schools without too much controversy?

Two distinct high schools will always be controversial. No politician will bring it up since every year will involve people screeching about racism when one school inevitably has lower scores. A and B days as well as wasting student time on shuttles is a desperate solution to avoid two separate schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they have the A and B days then it should operate like two completely distinct high schools where the A students and the B students never really mix? (The exceptions could just hop on the shuttle.)

If the A and B days are successful they could then transition the model into two completely distinct high schools without too much controversy?

Two distinct high schools will always be controversial. No politician will bring it up since every year will involve people screeching about racism when one school inevitably has lower scores. A and B days as well as wasting student time on shuttles is a desperate solution to avoid two separate schools.

Let's get real. No one, but the old superintendent was screeching about racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will MH still be 9th grade only once the new building opens?

No, it will be 9-12

So, will all kids be shuttling back and forth between the two buildings (that seems like a nightmare) or will things be housed by “academies” in one building or the other?

YES! This is the superintendents plan. They have been discussing it all year at school board meetings. Please speak up and let them know what a stupid plan this is.

+1. You know what my kid needs? He needs to spend an hour each day riding a bus back and forth between two buildings. That isn't disruptive at all.

I can not believe this is where we have landed in Alexandria. They have truly lost sight of the big picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will MH still be 9th grade only once the new building opens?

No, it will be 9-12

So, will all kids be shuttling back and forth between the two buildings (that seems like a nightmare) or will things be housed by “academies” in one building or the other?

YES! This is the superintendents plan. They have been discussing it all year at school board meetings. Please speak up and let them know what a stupid plan this is.

+1. You know what my kid needs? He needs to spend an hour each day riding a bus back and forth between two buildings. That isn't disruptive at all.

I can not believe this is where we have landed in Alexandria. They have truly lost sight of the big picture.

+2. Maddening that anyone in ACPS or on the school board thinks this is a good idea.

[Anonymous]

+1. You know what my kid needs? He needs to spend an hour each day riding a bus back and forth between two buildings. That isn't disruptive at all.

I agree with you that busing between campuses does not make sense. But what is leading you to conclude that it will result in more shuttling time than current? It sounds like they are proposing doing scheduling so that A and B days are at different campuses. I doubt that will work out perfectly in practice, but why would it result in more shuttling than there is now? My son has two classes at King, the rest at Minnie. I don't like that it takes him 15 minutes a day to get shuttled over there, as it cuts into class time, and I definitely think it is a bad system, but it's not an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

+1. You know what my kid needs? He needs to spend an hour each day riding a bus back and forth between two buildings. That isn't disruptive at all.

I agree with you that busing between campuses does not make sense. But what is leading you to conclude that it will result in more shuttling time than current? It sounds like they are proposing doing scheduling so that A and B days are at different campuses. I doubt that will work out perfectly in practice, but why would it result in more shuttling than there is now? My son has two classes at King, the rest at Minnie. I don't like that it takes him 15 minutes a day to get shuttled over there, as it cuts into class time, and I definitely think it is a bad system, but it's not an hour.

I think the question is how often will students have to go back and forth b/w the two campuses? How long will it take to shuttle when there are significantly more students using them?

[Anonymous]

Also, what is the point! Let's ask ourselves, why? Why is the superintendent putting on this theatre about needing the largest high school in Virginia for equity at the expense of the students? Making students learn the layout and rules of two different already very large campuses! Shuttling between them! Forcing them to share resources like there's a scarcity issue! Why? This AB schedule and connected campus is nonsense and is so much more complicated then it needs to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will MH still be 9th grade only once the new building opens?

No, it will be 9-12

So, will all kids be shuttling back and forth between the two buildings (that seems like a nightmare) or will things be housed by “academies” in one building or the other?

YES! This is the superintendents plan. They have been discussing it all year at school board meetings. Please speak up and let them know what a stupid plan this is.

They don't care what you think. Did you vote for any of them? Will you vote for them (or their clones) again? Alexandrians keep voting for people with the exact same views as their predecessors and expect change.

[Anonymous]

All the “solutions” ACPS proposes just create more layers of problems and additional logistics. Their proposals truly defy logic and common sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they have the A and B days then it should operate like two completely distinct high schools where the A students and the B students never really mix? (The exceptions could just hop on the shuttle.)

If the A and B days are successful they could then transition the model into two completely distinct high schools without too much controversy?

Two distinct high schools will always be controversial. No politician will bring it up since every year will involve people screeching about racism when one school inevitably has lower scores. A and B days as well as wasting student time on shuttles is a desperate solution to avoid two separate schools.

Let's get real. No one, but the old superintendent was screeching about racism.

Not true. That's what the majority of the school board said too. One is still on the school board.

And once the old superintendent said it was racism, the wine moms fell in line just like they always do for the Alexandria patriarchy. I watched it in real time at a George Mason PTA meeting. It would have been funny if it wasn't so pathetic. These are the same women who walk around in "I dissent" t-shirts with "resist" signs outside their houses. They objected until they were told their views by Hutchings and Wilson. And then they went around parroting what they'd been told.

These are the past and current school board member (Jacinta Greene who now wants to be on city council) you can thank:

"The Board voted 6-3 in favor of the Connected High School Network instead of constructing a second high school on the field at the T.C. Williams High School Minnie Howard campus.

School Board Chair Cindy Anderson, Vice Chair Veronica Nolan, Ramee Gentry, Jacinta Greene, Margaret Lorber, and Christopher Suarez voted to keep the . School Board Members Michelle Rief, Meagan Alderton, and Heather Thornton were the three dissenting voices. They argued that Alexandria’s expanding population would eventually demand a second high school, and that now is the time to accept the commitment to build."

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info pp! It looks like all of the school board members who wanted one highschool have been voted out except for Jacinda Green, so let's get rid of her and keep her off city council as well!

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that the school board members who voted for one high school - Lorber, Suarz, Anderson, and Nolan - were all replaced by people exactly like them. So don't vote for Ignacio, Booz, Baird etc. if you want change.

[Anonymous]

I don't like shuttling, but at this point is is unclear to me what other option there may be. The new high school is being built with limitations, and it is already significantly under way. If a kid wants to be in STEM academy, but take a theater elective to vary things, there's going to be some shuttling. It was a bad approach, but there's not a realistic option to turn back at this juncture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they have the A and B days then it should operate like two completely distinct high schools where the A students and the B students never really mix? (The exceptions could just hop on the shuttle.)

If the A and B days are successful they could then transition the model into two completely distinct high schools without too much controversy?

Two distinct high schools will always be controversial. No politician will bring it up since every year will involve people screeching about racism when one school inevitably has lower scores. A and B days as well as wasting student time on shuttles is a desperate solution to avoid two separate schools.

+ 1. GW did different schools in one building. Even then it only took a few years for a superior “school” to emerge and every UMC parent pulled out all the stops to get their kid in that “school.”