APS Elementary Location Working Group 4/12

[Anonymous]

APS has really lost it’s way when the preferences of option families become the sacred cow upon whose altar the needs of neighborhood students must be sacrificed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, NVD is taking the staff to task. Go Nancy!

Should clarify to not create drama, it was specifically about them raising the idea in the CIP update of pulling high school seats from the Ed Center out of the blue. But it was telling them more generally that it is not acceptable to surprise the community with this kind of stuff, it’s not okay to propose changes without sufficient community involvement, it’s not okay to be anything less than fully transparent, and that when they do those kinds of things they introduce a lot of distrust and instability into a time when we’re already facing a lot of instabilit and uncertainty.

And she’s having none of Kanninen’s suggestion that maybe we don’t need to create more secondary seats.

Gotta say, I've never been a big NVD fan, but I really appreciate that she chewed out the staff last night for throwing in an option that came out of nowhere. And for taking Kanninen to task over HS seats. I'm impressed.

[Anonymous]

Gimmie a break.
NVD is taking it personally because the ED center was her thing. She always makes it personal.
I don’t disagree that staff shouldn’t be pulling the rug out, but Let’s not pretend about what motivates NVD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APS has really lost it’s way when the preferences of option families become the sacred cow upon whose altar the needs of neighborhood students must be sacrificed.

I don't disagree with you- but I also don't see this happening? Where do you see the preferences of option families winning over the needs of neighborhood students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So here are raw numbers.
The MAJORITY of ASFS (500+/650) are from the key zone because that was the mainstream curriculum option— it was their neighborhood school. There are 200 transfers into asfs that are mostly from Taylor (the majority of which are not within any form of its walk zone, these kids are being bused in), which is why the school is over capacity. Taylor is only 103% at capacity, whereas asfs is 125%. If the transfers were sent home, the school would be at or under capacity. There are 10 buses to the school.
The majority of kids at the key school are not from the key zone. Only 1/3 to 1/2 of the school lives in the key zone, and even less of that within the walk zone. There are 12 buses to the school.
If you make a boundary around asfs, in order to connect it to the existing key boundary so you have some existing kids still at the school, you have to rezone 300+ kids from Taylor. Someone can check my math, but that’s over half of Taylor. Since the asfs walk zone is small, there will still be 8 buses to the school. And there will still be 12 buses going to key because it’s population won’t change.
If you make key into a neighborhood school, and move an option program to asfs, you have 10 buses going to asfs and significantly fewer buses going to key (I think something like 2-3). It is much more efficient. And you get to preserve the existing key, asfs, and Taylor communities.

This is such an important part of the puzzle. There is no status quo choice for ASFS. If there are no changes in the site for Key, Key Immersion is the only school that experiences any kind of status quo, though they will lose walkers due to the lack of neighborhood preference. At a minimum to create the walk zone for ASFS and connect to Key zone, you need to move the following from Taylor:

Walk zone: PU 23170 - 68 students, PU 23190 - 33 students
Land bridge to Key Zone: PU 23200 - 26 Students, PU 23210 - 50 Students, PU 23211 - 11 Students
Technically could leave to Taylor but people would be really salty about it - PU 23180 - 46 Students

So either 188 bare minimum to connect or 234 to not leave 23180 randomly disconnected. We kick out the transfers from zones other than Key - that's 143 on the latest transfer report. Then add in 188 bare minimum to connect.

Current enrollment 678 less 143 back to home zones plus 188 to connect zone = 723. With 553 permanent seats that leaves the building at 130.74% utilization. Realistically PU 23180 is going to scream until they are added, so that brings us to 723 plus 46 = 769, or 139% utilization. This is before accounting for growth in the school age population in the area or the effect of Key zone losing neighborhood preference to immersion. End result - some of Key Zone gets zoned to Taylor. Naturally it would be the ones furthest from ASFS. The fact that they are 3+ miles from Taylor is irrelevant, there is no where else to go. Either way the current communities at ASFS and Taylor see big changes and we have more bus miles than ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The grief against Cherrydale wanting to have ASFS as its neighborhood school are ridiculous. Almost every single opinion on all of these threads regarding boundary changes are by people who want walk walkable neighborhood schools. Why should some people in the Cherrydale and Virginia Square and parts of Lyon Village neighborhoods not want the same. They live within walking distance of ASFS,not too long ago easily were able to attend it or at least had a chance but are now shut out. Many bought houses when it was still an option for them. They want what the rest of us want.

Clap, Clap Exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grief against Cherrydale wanting to have ASFS as its neighborhood school are ridiculous. Almost every single opinion on all of these threads regarding boundary changes are by people who want walk walkable neighborhood schools. Why should some people in the Cherrydale and Virginia Square and parts of Lyon Village neighborhoods not want the same. They live within walking distance of ASFS,not too long ago easily were able to attend it or at least had a chance but are now shut out. Many bought houses when it was still an option for them. They want what the rest of us want.

Walkable is code for wanting your kids to go to the school that you think you "bought" into.

I agree with others that ASFS should be countywide. There's no reason that any choice school should only be for part of the county. It smacks of this whole North/South thing that DCUM perpetuates.

Racism is always at the route of it in Arlington, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gimme a break.
NVD is taking it personally because the ED center was her thing. She always makes it personal.
I don’t disagree that staff shouldn’t be pulling the rug out, but Let’s not pretend about what motivates NVD.

Thank you. She is a mess, and the people who are cheering her on are the same people who always cheer her on, or, if it's a particularly spectacular flameout, just don't want anyone to talk about it.

Nancy cares about twins and FLES and no one ever criticizing her and hers (she helped find Coach Murphy, and he will never be given the push as long as NVD is on the SB)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grief against Cherrydale wanting to have ASFS as its neighborhood school are ridiculous. Almost every single opinion on all of these threads regarding boundary changes are by people who want walk walkable neighborhood schools. Why should some people in the Cherrydale and Virginia Square and parts of Lyon Village neighborhoods not want the same. They live within walking distance of ASFS,not too long ago easily were able to attend it or at least had a chance but are now shut out. Many bought houses when it was still an option for them. They want what the rest of us want.

Walkable is code for wanting your kids to go to the school that you think you "bought" into.

I agree with others that ASFS should be countywide. There's no reason that any choice school should only be for part of the county. It smacks of this whole North/South thing that DCUM perpetuates.

Racism is always at the route of it in Arlington, right?

DP. The route (50?) and root of it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gimme a break.
NVD is taking it personally because the ED center was her thing. She always makes it personal.
I don’t disagree that staff shouldn’t be pulling the rug out, but Let’s not pretend about what motivates NVD.

Thank you. She is a mess, and the people who are cheering her on are the same people who always cheer her on, or, if it's a particularly spectacular flameout, just don't want anyone to talk about it.

Nancy cares about twins and FLES and no one ever criticizing her and hers (she helped find Coach Murphy, and he will never be given the push as long as NVD is on the SB)

I praised her in an earlier thread and I've never done that before. Regardless of her motivations, I agree with what she said last night and am glad she said it.

But I forgot this is DCUM, so I'm not supposed to take a position that's anything except hate or adoration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gimmie a break.
NVD is taking it personally because the ED center was her thing. She always makes it personal.
I don’t disagree that staff shouldn’t be pulling the rug out, but Let’s not pretend about what motivates NVD.

Exactly. She's mad because it isn't her proposal and she wasn't brought in before staff was directed to investiagte something. She's right about not doing a switcheroo after they've already voted. But I don't think that's why she's upset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grief against Cherrydale wanting to have ASFS as its neighborhood school are ridiculous. Almost every single opinion on all of these threads regarding boundary changes are by people who want walk walkable neighborhood schools. Why should some people in the Cherrydale and Virginia Square and parts of Lyon Village neighborhoods not want the same. They live within walking distance of ASFS,not too long ago easily were able to attend it or at least had a chance but are now shut out. Many bought houses when it was still an option for them. They want what the rest of us want.

Clap, Clap Exactly!

No, you never had a walkable neighborhood school there. Sorry. Before is was ASFS it was Page School with the ATS program. You will get assigned to a neighborhood school, but it may not be in walking distance to your house. Sue your realtor if that's what you were promised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grief against Cherrydale wanting to have ASFS as its neighborhood school are ridiculous. Almost every single opinion on all of these threads regarding boundary changes are by people who want walk walkable neighborhood schools. Why should some people in the Cherrydale and Virginia Square and parts of Lyon Village neighborhoods not want the same. They live within walking distance of ASFS,not too long ago easily were able to attend it or at least had a chance but are now shut out. Many bought houses when it was still an option for them. They want what the rest of us want.

Walkable is code for wanting your kids to go to the school that you think you "bought" into.

I agree with others that ASFS should be countywide. There's no reason that any choice school should only be for part of the county. It smacks of this whole North/South thing that DCUM perpetuates.

It's not code. With the exception of a few lottery schools, the APS system is based on neighborhood schools. Although no one is ever promised that they won't be rezoned elsewhere, it is not an unreasonable expectation of people who have bought in Arlington over the last 50yrs that their child will be attending the school that is probably closest to their home. Might still mean a bus ride, but the closest.

Right now APS is working from presumptions that option schools still have a place in Arlington, and that any hint of putting them where there is space but that is more difficult to access by lower SES families is problematic. That certainly rules out options. Put them where there's actually space in NW, and you're too far from poor people. Put all choice in S Arl and you're taking away poor people's access to neighborhood schools. Put the lottery schools in the largest elementary schools and hope that enough families will want to lottery in when the smaller neighborhood schools are filled, and you're presuming that lottery schools should take precedence over neighborhood communities.

This process is so whacked right now.

In the case of ASFS, that is an unreasonable expectation. You aren't losing your walkable neighborhood school. It has not been a neighborhood school for decades now. So if they aim to make neighborhood schools MORE walkable, it makes prefect sense to make Key the neighborhood school because they have had a neighborhood boundary (so the expectation already exists), and because the population of school-aged children is denser there. Because of the nature of Chereydale's exclusionary zoning, it's never going to have as high a density of students. Never. So it's a good candidate for an option program. Also, it has had a program of some sort for many, many years now, and there has not been an expectation from the nearest neighbors that their children would be guaranteed to attend. This is going to be less upsetting than "taking" another community's long-standing neighborhood school. Also, if your first priority is wanting your kids to walk to school, you can always apply to the lottery for whatever program may be located at ASFS.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why those living in the current Key zone "have" to swap with ASFS to maintain their community (which seems spread out with folks who transferred in from Taylor and Jamestown under the old Team model)? If they both became neighborhood schools, a majority would still go to the new "Key" and could walk. ASFS could easily fill those seats with folks from Taylor and Glebe (which is going to have to be slightly adjusted since they have over 100% walkers), plus there is a new apartment complex going along Kirkwood where the old Sport and Health used to be that would bring more walkers to ASFS. Or keep the schools where they are and keep Lyons Village at ASFS and just move the Rosslyn kids (who don't want to go/don't lottery into Key) and the few kids who live in Clarendon to Long Branch? If you're in Rosslyn, it's easy to jump on 50 to get to Long Branch (and the Clarendon folks are just as close to Long Branch as Key or ASFS).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grief against Cherrydale wanting to have ASFS as its neighborhood school are ridiculous. Almost every single opinion on all of these threads regarding boundary changes are by people who want walk walkable neighborhood schools. Why should some people in the Cherrydale and Virginia Square and parts of Lyon Village neighborhoods not want the same. They live within walking distance of ASFS,not too long ago easily were able to attend it or at least had a chance but are now shut out. Many bought houses when it was still an option for them. They want what the rest of us want.

Walkable is code for wanting your kids to go to the school that you think you "bought" into.

I agree with others that ASFS should be countywide. There's no reason that any choice school should only be for part of the county. It smacks of this whole North/South thing that DCUM perpetuates.

It's not code. With the exception of a few lottery schools, the APS system is based on neighborhood schools. Although no one is ever promised that they won't be rezoned elsewhere, it is not an unreasonable expectation of people who have bought in Arlington over the last 50yrs that their child will be attending the school that is probably closest to their home. Might still mean a bus ride, but the closest.

Right now APS is working from presumptions that option schools still have a place in Arlington, and that any hint of putting them where there is space but that is more difficult to access by lower SES families is problematic. That certainly rules out options. Put them where there's actually space in NW, and you're too far from poor people. Put all choice in S Arl and you're taking away poor people's access to neighborhood schools. Put the lottery schools in the largest elementary schools and hope that enough families will want to lottery in when the smaller neighborhood schools are filled, and you're presuming that lottery schools should take precedence over neighborhood communities.

This process is so whacked right now.

In the case of ASFS, that is an unreasonable expectation. You aren't losing your walkable neighborhood school. It has not been a neighborhood school for decades now. So if they aim to make neighborhood schools MORE walkable, it makes prefect sense to make Key the neighborhood school because they have had a neighborhood boundary (so the expectation already exists), and because the population of school-aged children is denser there. Because of the nature of Chereydale's exclusionary zoning, it's never going to have as high a density of students. Never. So it's a good candidate for an option program. Also, it has had a program of some sort for many, many years now, and there has not been an expectation from the nearest neighbors that their children would be guaranteed to attend. This is going to be less upsetting than "taking" another community's long-standing neighborhood school. Also, if your first priority is wanting your kids to walk to school, you can always apply to the lottery for whatever program may be located at ASFS.

BS. It takes me about 1 minute to count 41 kids within 3 blocks of my house in Cherrydale and ASFS who were zoned for Taylor but attended ASFS in the past decade. It may not have been our official neighborhood school but it might as well have been.