APS Families--Pls email county and school boards by Tues. 5/24!!
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Anonymous
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Arlington Families,
We need your help. Please consider emailing the County and School Boards (contact info below) by Tuesday, May 24th. Thank you. Here is a letter sent to Arlington neighbors. Neighbors, as a member of the DHCA Board of Directors, I have been following the development of the County CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) process and the startling APS capacity issues facing our children when they reach high school. We all know that our kids are in overcrowded elementary schools now, but did you also know that by 2025/26, Arlington County is projected to be 2,775 seats over capacity at the high school level? That's right, we will be an entire high school short by the time our current 1st graders enter high school. Some of you on this list have toddlers, or even are just now pregnant or contemplating children, so this might not be on your radar but it's an issue that is going to affect your children too. The School Board and the County Board are meeting on Tuesday night (5/24) to discuss the Capital Improvement Plan budget for the 2017-2026 period. The CIP is only revisited every two years, so if the County does not allocate money to deal with the high school crisis in this CIP, we'll have to to wait two more years to get that shot again. We all know we can't wait that long, especially at the rate the McKinley addition is taking. There is no money for a 4th high school in the current CIP, nor is there any indication that the County is willing to provide any of the parcels of land that would hold a high school. The County is talking about doing additions to Yorktown and W-L, which only gets them half the seats they need. They would make up the difference through expanded on-line classes and shift-scheduling (which means that your kid could end up attending high school from lunchtime through the early evening if they are on the second shift). PLEASE take a minute to send an email to BOTH the County and School Board before Tuesday to state your support for fully funding the necessary high school seats and providing the land necessary to build a comprehensive high school. School Board members have indicated that their hands will be tied unless the County Board allocates more money (and more bond funding) to deal with the high school issue. I had the opportunity to speak at the School Board's Public Forum last Thursday, which I attended together with Madison Manor Civic Association President Carly Kelly, and believe we must do more. The County hears a lot from people focused on affordable housing and park space, but just isn't hearing enough noise to think this is important so other issues are getting higher priority. Please take a minute or two tonight to help make some noise. school.board@apsva.us and countyboard@arlingtonva.us Please pass this along to everyone you know in Arlington as well. Time is running out to weigh in before decisions are made! |
Anonymous
| Has anyone heard anything more about the VHC land by carlin springs and whether this is a possibility for a HS? |
Anonymous
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Do we know if the only options are either a fourth high school or attending high school in shifts. I don't think so. On the W-L PTA survey I supported the 9th grade academy. Is that still in play?
I agree that the county and the school board need to work together on this issue. |
Anonymous
The draft proposal from the superintendent has a number of smaller fixes including 300 additional seats at Yorktown and Wkaefield, some redistributing and other small improvements. The total seats however is still only 1,200, far shy of the needed amount. |
Anonymous
How does a 9th grade academy solve this? Do we really want all the ninth graders to be at a different site? |
Anonymous
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The CIP does not mention a 9th grade academy in the Superintendent's recommendations (see slides 22-24). Shift scheduling is mentioned on slide 24. A 4th high school does not seem to be anywhere on the table. http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/110/G-2%20Supt%20Proposed%20CIP%20PPT%20Presentation.pdf
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Anonymous
Ninth grade academy offers several benefits IMO. It immediately relieves crowding at all existing high schools. It reduces the amount of boundary redrawing that would be necessary if a new high school were opened (and that process is such a PITA). It can be implemented immediately upon completion of the building, without any of the headaches involved with shifting kids to a new high school; beginning the next fall, all 9th graders would go there. (By contrast, if a whole new high school were built, we would either need to switch kids to a new high school in the middle of their high school experience, or we would have to phase in enrollment, so that the first class to enter the new high school would be all freshmen, leaving the building three quarters empty the first year, then half empty the second year, then a quarter empty, and finally a full functioning high school when the first entering class were 12th graders.) And a 9th grade academy eases neighborhood concerns about traffic, since most kids would be bused in and none of them would be driving. Downsides are that most 9th graders will spend more time traveling to and from school, and some extracurriculars will require students to travel back to their home high schools. However, if the 9th grade academy operated on the same schedule as middle school, there would be plenty if time for kids to take an afternoon bus back to their neighborhood high schools. |
Anonymous
No. According to the PTA's description, it would be an addition onto W-L so the school would be around 2,900 students which used to be the size of the school years ago (details were on the survey form). The survey results showed a lot of support for that idea and also boundary changes. Shift scheduling was the least popular. I don't think anyone will take that idea seriously. |
Anonymous
I read the proposal as being renovating the education center -- which is a separate building -- into a 9th grade academy with its own common spaces. So, that's not the same as an addition to W-L. And the location makes sense since it's in the center of the county. |
Anonymous
| Can someone with kids at WL when it was almost 3000 students tell us what that is like? Isn't harder to make sports teams, etc? When do kids eat lunch? |
Anonymous
| County is going off the rails. |
Anonymous
| The VHC parcel makes great sense as a 4th high school. They could alleviate over crowding and potentially have three high schools with great, diverse student bodies. It would help solve the integration problem we have developed. W-l, Wakefield, and the new school would all be similar to W-l now. Yorktown would most likely remain as is. Which is fine. People are happy with it. |
Anonymous
Please write to the county board about this. Affordable housing wants that land. |
Anonymous
+1,000. The affordable housing advocates are very vocal. Parents need to engage the county emphatically if they want to have an impact. APS doesn't own any parcels of land big enough for a new school. Nor can the go over the 10% debt limit imposed by the county to afford a new school. Without approval. The County Board needs to know that this is aridity for arlingtonians. |
Anonymous
+1,000. The affordable housing advocates are very vocal. Parents need to engage the county emphatically if they want to have an impact. APS doesn't own any parcels of land big enough for a new school. Nor can the go over the 10% debt limit imposed by the county to afford a new school. Without approval. The County Board needs to know that this is aridity for arlingtonians. |