Possible new Alexandria City high school boundaries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the single public high school in the City of Alexandria is a really unique benefit to all of the students -- unlike other municipalities in the region, we don't have the housing costs in different areas driving socio-economic segregation in the high school, and that benefits everyone. So to the degree there is still time to influence any decision, I plan to advocate with my elected representatives that Minnie Howard be rebuilt to be 9/10 (rather than just grade 9, as it is now) and the current King Street campus -- walking distance from Minnie Howard -- be used for 11/12. I've found that it's fairly easy to have an influence on these processes in the City so long as you're paying attention. Everything gets posted on the website, including meeting agendas and dates and times for the schools capital planning task force currently underway, and most meetings are open to the public.

Pp, do you not realize Alexandria City does indeed have this? If the local Alexandria City private schools as well as DC private schools didn't exist as a conduit away from ACPS (St Stevens St Agnes and Bishop Breton as well as DC privates), all these potential students would attend ACPS.

ACPS would benefit greatly with these now attending private students! In fact, that is part of ACPS's problem!

Sadly, it's not true ACPS doesn't reflect housing costs in different areas of the City. It would be great if the City and ACPS actually got real with just your point. It's been decades with nothing done.

I've seen neighbors getting priced out of the various private schools in Alexandria City. So there is some truth to this post, but there is also a growing cohort of high-income residents who are moving back to TCW. Ten years ago, when the private schools were still under $20K per year, it was a more feasible choice, but the local non-Catholic private schools are almost double that cost now, making privates less attainable (google 'the barbell effect' and you'll see the issue that prep school administrators have been concerned about, but not solved, in recent years).

For anyone who wants to be involved in the decisionmaking on schools in Alexandria, here's the link to the current Joint City-Schools Facility Investment Task Force webpage. All meetings are open to the public: https://www.alexandriava.gov/planning/info/default.aspx?id=97580
The earlier poster who said that the City is starting to examine the School Board's recommendations more critically is correct. Hence, this task force.

Sure there is. LOL.

Have you seen the latest SOL scores? Scores for white students are still below those of Wakefield in several categories. Especially math. They are terrible at teaching math.

http://wtop.com/education/2017/08/2017-sols-best-worst-northern-va-school-systems/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the single public high school in the City of Alexandria is a really unique benefit to all of the students -- unlike other municipalities in the region, we don't have the housing costs in different areas driving socio-economic segregation in the high school, and that benefits everyone. So to the degree there is still time to influence any decision, I plan to advocate with my elected representatives that Minnie Howard be rebuilt to be 9/10 (rather than just grade 9, as it is now) and the current King Street campus -- walking distance from Minnie Howard -- be used for 11/12. I've found that it's fairly easy to have an influence on these processes in the City so long as you're paying attention. Everything gets posted on the website, including meeting agendas and dates and times for the schools capital planning task force currently underway, and most meetings are open to the public.

Pp, do you not realize Alexandria City does indeed have this? If the local Alexandria City private schools as well as DC private schools didn't exist as a conduit away from ACPS (St Stevens St Agnes and Bishop Breton as well as DC privates), all these potential students would attend ACPS.

ACPS would benefit greatly with these now attending private students! In fact, that is part of ACPS's problem!

Sadly, it's not true ACPS doesn't reflect housing costs in different areas of the City. It would be great if the City and ACPS actually got real with just your point. It's been decades with nothing done.

I've seen neighbors getting priced out of the various private schools in Alexandria City. So there is some truth to this post, but there is also a growing cohort of high-income residents who are moving back to TCW. Ten years ago, when the private schools were still under $20K per year, it was a more feasible choice, but the local non-Catholic private schools are almost double that cost now, making privates less attainable (google 'the barbell effect' and you'll see the issue that prep school administrators have been concerned about, but not solved, in recent years).

For anyone who wants to be involved in the decisionmaking on schools in Alexandria, here's the link to the current Joint City-Schools Facility Investment Task Force webpage. All meetings are open to the public: https://www.alexandriava.gov/planning/info/default.aspx?id=97580
The earlier poster who said that the City is starting to examine the School Board's recommendations more critically is correct. Hence, this task force.

Sure there is. LOL.

Have you seen the latest SOL scores? Scores for white students are still below those of Wakefield in several categories. Especially math. They are terrible at teaching math.

http://wtop.com/education/2017/08/2017-sols-best-worst-northern-va-school-systems/

Not so sure this is a fair criticism, taken in toto. I'm a PP on this thread. I think that many if not most ACPS families are distressed by the school board - more distressed by the school board than by the schools themselves. Overall, TC exhibits some good and even very good academic, social, and co-curricular features (one reason why most parents do not favor the school board's plan to split TC). For a good ten years, numbers have been going up, if you count all students and not merely the self-identified ac-track college-bound students, who weren't doing badly and have not materially improved, but that's largely OK. Math is an issue, but not a uniform issue. The top 15 or 20% of the students are still getting into solid colleges, although the immediate-past Supt and the last TC principal produced clearly worse results than the prior Sept and TC principal (perhaps one reason why the Suit and TC principal were not begged to stay?). Most parents seem at least not unhappy, and a motivated, capable TC student can do well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the single public high school in the City of Alexandria is a really unique benefit to all of the students -- unlike other municipalities in the region, we don't have the housing costs in different areas driving socio-economic segregation in the high school, and that benefits everyone. So to the degree there is still time to influence any decision, I plan to advocate with my elected representatives that Minnie Howard be rebuilt to be 9/10 (rather than just grade 9, as it is now) and the current King Street campus -- walking distance from Minnie Howard -- be used for 11/12. I've found that it's fairly easy to have an influence on these processes in the City so long as you're paying attention. Everything gets posted on the website, including meeting agendas and dates and times for the schools capital planning task force currently underway, and most meetings are open to the public.

Pp, do you not realize Alexandria City does indeed have this? If the local Alexandria City private schools as well as DC private schools didn't exist as a conduit away from ACPS (St Stevens St Agnes and Bishop Breton as well as DC privates), all these potential students would attend ACPS.

ACPS would benefit greatly with these now attending private students! In fact, that is part of ACPS's problem!

Sadly, it's not true ACPS doesn't reflect housing costs in different areas of the City. It would be great if the City and ACPS actually got real with just your point. It's been decades with nothing done.

I've seen neighbors getting priced out of the various private schools in Alexandria City. So there is some truth to this post, but there is also a growing cohort of high-income residents who are moving back to TCW. Ten years ago, when the private schools were still under $20K per year, it was a more feasible choice, but the local non-Catholic private schools are almost double that cost now, making privates less attainable (google 'the barbell effect' and you'll see the issue that prep school administrators have been concerned about, but not solved, in recent years).

For anyone who wants to be involved in the decisionmaking on schools in Alexandria, here's the link to the current Joint City-Schools Facility Investment Task Force webpage. All meetings are open to the public: https://www.alexandriava.gov/planning/info/default.aspx?id=97580
The earlier poster who said that the City is starting to examine the School Board's recommendations more critically is correct. Hence, this task force.

Sure there is. LOL.

Have you seen the latest SOL scores? Scores for white students are still below those of Wakefield in several categories. Especially math. They are terrible at teaching math.

http://wtop.com/education/2017/08/2017-sols-best-worst-northern-va-school-systems/

Not so sure this is a fair criticism, taken in toto. I'm a PP on this thread. I think that many if not most ACPS families are distressed by the school board - more distressed by the school board than by the schools themselves. Overall, TC exhibits some good and even very good academic, social, and co-curricular features (one reason why most parents do not favor the school board's plan to split TC). For a good ten years, numbers have been going up, if you count all students and not merely the self-identified ac-track college-bound students, who weren't doing badly and have not materially improved, but that's largely OK. Math is an issue, but not a uniform issue. The top 15 or 20% of the students are still getting into solid colleges, although the immediate-past Supt and the last TC principal produced clearly worse results than the prior Sept and TC principal (perhaps one reason why the Suit and TC principal were not begged to stay?). Most parents seem at least not unhappy, and a motivated, capable TC student can do well.

I think this is the more accurate way to look at it. SOL averages and "Great Schools" rankings and such matter more to parents before their children are actually in the school. Once they're in the high school, what they learn and how they do as individuals matters far more. And there are plenty of individual students at TCW who are learning the material (even math, as AP scores will indicate) doing well and getting into excellent colleges, despite the School Board's dysfunction. It is true that many families opt out of ACPS either by moving to Fairfax or Arlington or Loudoun before middle school or by staying in Alexandria and choosing private school. But my family is high-income, with elite university diplomas, and we have been very happy with TCW for our children, both academically and socially.