APS Superintendent High School Overcrowding Plan
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Anonymous
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Murphy unveiled his Capital Improvement Plan to the school board last week. His proposal to deal with high school overcrowding through 2020 (when there is an estimated deficit of 1,260 high school seats) includes adding space for 300 more students at both Yorktown and Wakefield, redrawing boundaries beginning in fall of 2017 for incoming freshmen and adding 600 new seats to the career center for the brand new county-wide Arlington Tech program. By 2025 there will be an estimated 2,775 deficit of high school seats. His proposed options to deal with overcrowding after 2020 include (but are not limited to) adopting alternative scheduling such as mutli-track year round school and double shifts at the high schools and constructing additions to the 3 existing high schools so that their capacity is increased to anywhere between 2,600 and 3,000 students.
Does anyone think 600 students will attend Arlington Tech by 2020? The incoming class this fall is only around 40 students. Yes, I know it is the first year of the program but still, will it grow from 40 to 600 in 4 years? Would the school board really adopt double shifts or multi-track year round school? The survey that the W-L PTA took shows that parents and teachers are very much against alternative scheduling. Does HB Woodlawn stay immune from what the rest of the schools have to deal with? What does this do to APS' reputation? All you APS parents with children still in elementary school who think high school is a million years from now, pay attention. |
Anonymous
| Yeah I have a big problem with this. What we seem to need is basically another high school, but they are dong a new elementary school instead. Not that we don't need that too, but high school definitely got shafted in this plan. |
Anonymous
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Here's the presentation: http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/110/G-2%20Supt%20Proposed%20CIP%20PPT%20Presentation.pdf
I don't understand this recommended option at all. He's suggesting they only fund 53% of the seats total and only 43% at the HS level. I hope this will get the community out on May 19th to demand that APS planners/the school board do better! Also, how did Reed become the location of the school if APS claims Ballston/Rosslyn needs the seats? I watched the last meeting on Periscope and an audience member asked John Chadwick what locations were being considered for the N. Arl ES. He said that APS would form a working group like they did in S. Arl. What happened there? |
Anonymous
| It sounds awful to me. We moved to Arlington for the more personal touch, not so our kids could attend high school factories with 2600-3000 students. The plans for Arlington Tech also make no sense. Is it supposed to be like TJ or is it just a plan to segregate kids on the non-college track? |
Anonymous
Arlington Tech is not supposed to be a TJ. Appears to be both vocational and college prep, though no AP or IB will be offered. |
Anonymous
Hmm. Sign me up (not). |
Anonymous
| And why are the costs for Reed so high? Wasn't it built to be easily converted into an ES? |
Anonymous
I think blurring the line between vocational and college prep makes sense, but I can't imagine a college-bound student who's going to be OK with no AP classes. Is that really the plan? |
Anonymous
Not a 725 seat school! If they make it a "choice" school, they will need to much more room for busses. That costs a lot more. Also, I think previous studies showed it would need a parking structure. |
Anonymous
Yes, that really is the plan, according to the website. They propose that Arlington Tech students can get college credit through dual enrollment, presummably with NOVA, or through CTE classes. |
Anonymous
Sounds positively Trumpish...."it's going to be so great you won't be able to believe it" |
Anonymous
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How real are these projected numbers? I know FCPS can be wildly wrong when predicting short-term and long-term numbers. Is APS really going to have that many additional high school students in just a couple years?
If those are real, reliable numbers, then just build the fourth high school. Expensive, yes, but needed. |
Anonymous
But the parking structure is estimated at $3.5 million, which is a lot of money for sure, but not a big percentage of what they're planning to spend. Please no more choice schools in NArl.
Please enroll at our untested but inconvenient school! |
Anonymous
HS numbers are much more accurate than ES numbers because they are counting kids already in the system. Most incoming classes at the ES and MS level are far larger than the outgoing classes (3 5th grade classes vs. 6 K classes, for example). |
Anonymous
The numbers seem pretty real to me and perhaps even too conservative. Last year's W-L graduating class had around 425 students. This year's W-L freshman class was projected to be 611 students. AS of March 2016, the freshman class at W-L is 681 students. Just look at Swanson and Williamsburg - next year the entire 7th grade at Swanson and the entire 8th grade at Williamsburg will be in trailers. |