APS Elementary Planning Mtg at Swanson - Option 1 in, Option 2 out, McKinley Moms out of contro

[Anonymous]

I have no kids, but I have lived in the area for 30 and attended K-12 at a nearby district.


Can someone give me a brief rundown of what is going on with relocating/redistricting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a McKinley parent, but I really don't understand why McKinley was picked over Tuckahoe. Many Tuckahoe students would be rezoned to Reed anyway. Tuckahoe would fit into Reed better, and any overflow would go into under capacity Nottingham and Discovery. Tuckahoe has less walkers so less walkers would be turned into bus riders. Plus, who cares if they can't expand option schools there - they are option schools whose capacity can be controlled! While I completely agree some of the Save McKinley folks are going off the rails, they have raised valid points, especially about APS's flawed assumptions and data analysis. The problem is that they are being aggressive and undermining their own valid arguments.

Agreed

McKinley is (somewhat) more accessible to the rest of the County for an option school than Tuckahoe.

Only for people who drive their own cars ....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no kids, but I have lived in the area for 30 and attended K-12 at a nearby district.


Can someone give me a brief rundown of what is going on with relocating/redistricting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no kids, but I have lived in the area for 30 and attended K-12 at a nearby district.


Can someone give me a brief rundown of what is going on with relocating/redistricting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a McKinley parent, but I really don't understand why McKinley was picked over Tuckahoe. Many Tuckahoe students would be rezoned to Reed anyway. Tuckahoe would fit into Reed better, and any overflow would go into under capacity Nottingham and Discovery. Tuckahoe has less walkers so less walkers would be turned into bus riders. Plus, who cares if they can't expand option schools there - they are option schools whose capacity can be controlled! While I completely agree some of the Save McKinley folks are going off the rails, they have raised valid points, especially about APS's flawed assumptions and data analysis. The problem is that they are being aggressive and undermining their own valid arguments.

Agreed

McKinley is (somewhat) more accessible to the rest of the County for an option school than Tuckahoe.

Only for people who drive their own cars ....

You need to stop targeting Tuckahoe. It is exempt from being an option school because it is in a 'corner' of the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a McKinley parent, but I really don't understand why McKinley was picked over Tuckahoe. Many Tuckahoe students would be rezoned to Reed anyway. Tuckahoe would fit into Reed better, and any overflow would go into under capacity Nottingham and Discovery. Tuckahoe has less walkers so less walkers would be turned into bus riders. Plus, who cares if they can't expand option schools there - they are option schools whose capacity can be controlled! While I completely agree some of the Save McKinley folks are going off the rails, they have raised valid points, especially about APS's flawed assumptions and data analysis. The problem is that they are being aggressive and undermining their own valid arguments.

Agreed

McKinley is (somewhat) more accessible to the rest of the County for an option school than Tuckahoe.

Only for people who drive their own cars ....

You need to stop targeting Tuckahoe. It is exempt from being an option school because it is in a 'corner' of the county.

The Tuckahoe Bear has spoken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a McKinley parent, but I really don't understand why McKinley was picked over Tuckahoe. Many Tuckahoe students would be rezoned to Reed anyway. Tuckahoe would fit into Reed better, and any overflow would go into under capacity Nottingham and Discovery. Tuckahoe has less walkers so less walkers would be turned into bus riders. Plus, who cares if they can't expand option schools there - they are option schools whose capacity can be controlled! While I completely agree some of the Save McKinley folks are going off the rails, they have raised valid points, especially about APS's flawed assumptions and data analysis. The problem is that they are being aggressive and undermining their own valid arguments.

Agreed

McKinley is (somewhat) more accessible to the rest of the County for an option school than Tuckahoe.

Only for people who drive their own cars ....

You need to stop targeting Tuckahoe. It is exempt from being an option school because it is in a 'corner' of the county.

That's not true at all. They all get bus services so corner or not kids will get to these schools just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a McKinley parent, but I really don't understand why McKinley was picked over Tuckahoe. Many Tuckahoe students would be rezoned to Reed anyway. Tuckahoe would fit into Reed better, and any overflow would go into under capacity Nottingham and Discovery. Tuckahoe has less walkers so less walkers would be turned into bus riders. Plus, who cares if they can't expand option schools there - they are option schools whose capacity can be controlled! While I completely agree some of the Save McKinley folks are going off the rails, they have raised valid points, especially about APS's flawed assumptions and data analysis. The problem is that they are being aggressive and undermining their own valid arguments.

Agreed

McKinley is (somewhat) more accessible to the rest of the County for an option school than Tuckahoe.

Only for people who drive their own cars ....

Which almost all of them do. The stats on families that actually use public transportation make the argument against Tuckahoe moot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no kids, but I have lived in the area for 30 and attended K-12 at a nearby district.


Can someone give me a brief rundown of what is going on with relocating/redistricting

Interesting. SO why is this debate so heated? Are people worried about their kids losing friends or possibly meeting some new ones of color? Lowering of academic expectations? Overcrowding?


One thing I do know (at least when I graduated in the mid 2000's). Our immediate area had Langley, Mclean, Madison, George Mason, WL, Woodson, and Yorktown providing education up to, if not exceeding the standard of the local private schools (O'Connell, Potomac, PVI). I realize I am ignoring the under preforming Jeb Stuart/Justice, Falls Church and maybe to a lesser extent Marshall. Although, I have heard Marshall is in much better shape than it was 15 years ago. I know families have different beliefs and traditions, but purely on an academic standing, it felt like a I knew many kids who's parents wasted 30k a year in these private schools. There were a few interestingly drawn boundaries back then that Im not sure still exist. The most interesting was just Southwest of the City of Falls Church where you have a little neighborhood called Westwood Park. It made no sense to send these kids to Mclean when Marshall, Falls Church, Stuart/Justice and even Mason ( I know different school district) were much closer.

Is there concern that these new plans may diminish the exceptional public school system Arlington, and most of Northern Virginia has?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a McKinley parent, but I really don't understand why McKinley was picked over Tuckahoe. Many Tuckahoe students would be rezoned to Reed anyway. Tuckahoe would fit into Reed better, and any overflow would go into under capacity Nottingham and Discovery. Tuckahoe has less walkers so less walkers would be turned into bus riders. Plus, who cares if they can't expand option schools there - they are option schools whose capacity can be controlled! While I completely agree some of the Save McKinley folks are going off the rails, they have raised valid points, especially about APS's flawed assumptions and data analysis. The problem is that they are being aggressive and undermining their own valid arguments.

Agreed

Plus there's this nonsense about how there are so few walkers now... but 40 percent COULD be walkers. Um, OK...if they could be...why aren't they?!

Because 1) they currently are bus riders to Nottingham and 2) they need a crossing guard for the others that APS transportation has said is in the works.

[Anonymous]

They can’t fill Reed, McKinley and Ashlawn with neighborhood kids. That’s why one of them has to go. tuckahoe doesn’t get you there. Neither does Nottingham. They are too small. ATS doesn’t get to have its teeny tiny exclusive school. It’s not HB and arguing to keep it small is absurd and being led primarily by ATS parents for their kids’ convenience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no kids, but I have lived in the area for 30 and attended K-12 at a nearby district.


Can someone give me a brief rundown of what is going on with relocating/redistricting

Interesting. SO why is this debate so heated? Are people worried about their kids losing friends or possibly meeting some new ones of color? Lowering of academic expectations? Overcrowding?


One thing I do know (at least when I graduated in the mid 2000's). Our immediate area had Langley, Mclean, Madison, George Mason, WL, Woodson, and Yorktown providing education up to, if not exceeding the standard of the local private schools (O'Connell, Potomac, PVI). I realize I am ignoring the under preforming Jeb Stuart/Justice, Falls Church and maybe to a lesser extent Marshall. Although, I have heard Marshall is in much better shape than it was 15 years ago. I know families have different beliefs and traditions, but purely on an academic standing, it felt like a I knew many kids who's parents wasted 30k a year in these private schools. There were a few interestingly drawn boundaries back then that Im not sure still exist. The most interesting was just Southwest of the City of Falls Church where you have a little neighborhood called Westwood Park. It made no sense to send these kids to Mclean when Marshall, Falls Church, Stuart/Justice and even Mason ( I know different school district) were much closer.

Is there concern that these new plans may diminish the exceptional public school system Arlington, and most of Northern Virginia has?

It seems like there is actually a lot of support for the proposal. It's just that current Key families who don't want to move are going absolutely ballistic about the idea of moving, pretending they speak for all underprivileged children and spinning it as an attempt to kill the program. Completely ignoring that they are no longer located near a large concentration of Spanish speakers and can't fill their Spanish-dominant 50% and a move would, hopefully, make it more appealing. In addition, the current McKinley families who are walkable to McKinley but would likely not be moving w/ most of the school to Reed are losing their minds about the "injustice" of it. McKinley has (rightly) complained for years about their overcrowding. It seems the McKinley families who will shift to Reed are happy, others not so much. So, basically, it's all about self-interest from a relatively small number of people who will be somewhat inconvenienced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no kids, but I have lived in the area for 30 and attended K-12 at a nearby district.


Can someone give me a brief rundown of what is going on with relocating/redistricting

Interesting. SO why is this debate so heated? Are people worried about their kids losing friends or possibly meeting some new ones of color? Lowering of academic expectations? Overcrowding?


One thing I do know (at least when I graduated in the mid 2000's). Our immediate area had Langley, Mclean, Madison, George Mason, WL, Woodson, and Yorktown providing education up to, if not exceeding the standard of the local private schools (O'Connell, Potomac, PVI). I realize I am ignoring the under preforming Jeb Stuart/Justice, Falls Church and maybe to a lesser extent Marshall. Although, I have heard Marshall is in much better shape than it was 15 years ago. I know families have different beliefs and traditions, but purely on an academic standing, it felt like a I knew many kids who's parents wasted 30k a year in these private schools. There were a few interestingly drawn boundaries back then that Im not sure still exist. The most interesting was just Southwest of the City of Falls Church where you have a little neighborhood called Westwood Park. It made no sense to send these kids to Mclean when Marshall, Falls Church, Stuart/Justice and even Mason ( I know different school district) were much closer.

Is there concern that these new plans may diminish the exceptional public school system Arlington, and most of Northern Virginia has?

TBH, only parts of arlington and Fairfax school districts are “exceptional”. The places you admittedly ignore are just as numerous and probably more so that the cloistered, high performing high schools you name. Those places are exceptional because they all have very low FRL rates, and their SOL scores reflect not quality of instruction but family income of the student bossy. It’s the same across the country.

All that said, it has little to do with this debate, which is mostly about UMC north Arlingtonians fighting for whatever plan is most convenient to them personally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no kids, but I have lived in the area for 30 and attended K-12 at a nearby district.


Can someone give me a brief rundown of what is going on with relocating/redistricting

Interesting. SO why is this debate so heated? Are people worried about their kids losing friends or possibly meeting some new ones of color? Lowering of academic expectations? Overcrowding?


One thing I do know (at least when I graduated in the mid 2000's). Our immediate area had Langley, Mclean, Madison, George Mason, WL, Woodson, and Yorktown providing education up to, if not exceeding the standard of the local private schools (O'Connell, Potomac, PVI). I realize I am ignoring the under preforming Jeb Stuart/Justice, Falls Church and maybe to a lesser extent Marshall. Although, I have heard Marshall is in much better shape than it was 15 years ago. I know families have different beliefs and traditions, but purely on an academic standing, it felt like a I knew many kids who's parents wasted 30k a year in these private schools. There were a few interestingly drawn boundaries back then that Im not sure still exist. The most interesting was just Southwest of the City of Falls Church where you have a little neighborhood called Westwood Park. It made no sense to send these kids to Mclean when Marshall, Falls Church, Stuart/Justice and even Mason ( I know different school district) were much closer.

Is there concern that these new plans may diminish the exceptional public school system Arlington, and most of Northern Virginia has?

TBH, only parts of arlington and Fairfax school districts are “exceptional”. The places you admittedly ignore are just as numerous and probably more so that the cloistered, high performing high schools you name. Those places are exceptional because they all have very low FRL rates, and their SOL scores reflect not quality of instruction but family income of the student bossy. It’s the same across the country.

All that said, it has little to do with this debate, which is mostly about UMC north Arlingtonians fighting for whatever plan is most convenient to them personally.

Many NA parents support the plan and are NOT fighting it. Even it’s if not “convenient“ to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no kids, but I have lived in the area for 30 and attended K-12 at a nearby district.


Can someone give me a brief rundown of what is going on with relocating/redistricting

Interesting. SO why is this debate so heated? Are people worried about their kids losing friends or possibly meeting some new ones of color? Lowering of academic expectations? Overcrowding?


One thing I do know (at least when I graduated in the mid 2000's). Our immediate area had Langley, Mclean, Madison, George Mason, WL, Woodson, and Yorktown providing education up to, if not exceeding the standard of the local private schools (O'Connell, Potomac, PVI). I realize I am ignoring the under preforming Jeb Stuart/Justice, Falls Church and maybe to a lesser extent Marshall. Although, I have heard Marshall is in much better shape than it was 15 years ago. I know families have different beliefs and traditions, but purely on an academic standing, it felt like a I knew many kids who's parents wasted 30k a year in these private schools. There were a few interestingly drawn boundaries back then that Im not sure still exist. The most interesting was just Southwest of the City of Falls Church where you have a little neighborhood called Westwood Park. It made no sense to send these kids to Mclean when Marshall, Falls Church, Stuart/Justice and even Mason ( I know different school district) were much closer.

Is there concern that these new plans may diminish the exceptional public school system Arlington, and most of Northern Virginia has?

It seems like there is actually a lot of support for the proposal. It's just that current Key families who don't want to move are going absolutely ballistic about the idea of moving, pretending they speak for all underprivileged children and spinning it as an attempt to kill the program. Completely ignoring that they are no longer located near a large concentration of Spanish speakers and can't fill their Spanish-dominant 50% and a move would, hopefully, make it more appealing. In addition, the current McKinley families who are walkable to McKinley but would likely not be moving w/ most of the school to Reed are losing their minds about the "injustice" of it. McKinley has (rightly) complained for years about their overcrowding. It seems the McKinley families who will shift to Reed are happy, others not so much. So, basically, it's all about self-interest from a relatively small number of people who will be somewhat inconvenienced.

It's actually only 2 crazy staff members from Key leading some wild narrative who if they worked at any other school would promptly be told to STFU -- pretty amazing.