MPSA - new school or move to north Arlington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The existing CC building has to be renovated after the new HS is built. That will cost tens of millions of dollars. $40? $50? APS is not talking about that yet.

MPSA is going to be torn down. You could leave it on the site during construction, then renno, then move it to the old building. But that takes at least 5 years, and it also means the construction for the new building will be much harder and stupider, because they will spend $1 million building MPSA a new play area they plan to destroy, and they will build a half field instead of a full field, and the bus loop won't be optimized, etc.

They absolutely should move MPSA north now. It doesn't matter where, we have the seats, use them. Make the construction make more sense now.

Then in 5 years when you are renovating the old building, we will know what we need it for. It may be another neighborhood school in S Arlington, where they are building new multi-story family buildings at a crazy pace. Or if north Arlington has some magical growth they could move MPSA back at that point.

That's what makes the most sense.

I don't know what MPSA actually wants.

APS had proposals that said the expansion of the Career Center would be around $170-200 million for what they want.

This has all been very hard to follow. But APS is spending $170-200 million on a brand new building. The existing building will be left on the site, and needs to be renovated for some other purpose when CC moves out. That cost is probably $40-60 million IN ADDITION TO the $170-200 million for the new building. Plus whatever it costs to tear down MPSA, which won't be much.

But again, if we are tearing MPSA down anyhow, and we have 500 empty ES seats now (which we do) we should just move MPSA now and figure out later on what to do with the old CC space. I don't think MPSA has to go there, and by that time, we may need a new ES in SA.

Nope. We don’t need to spend any more $$ right now. They can sit tight in the building we just spent a couple million on for another 5 years or so. It’s not like they’re tearing it down now. It’s years away. Also, this is in the same walk zone as Fleet so this isn’t where we might need a new ES in South Arlington.

Why would it cost money to move them? We just need to do boundary adjustments, and then we basically have an empty ES in North Arlington, right? If we keep them onsite during construction, we dump another million into that site to move the MPSA playground which we now know is going to get torn down in a few years. Plus, keeping them means we build the bus lane and small field now, and then later on we tear that all up and do it again with the full site. So much wasted $.

And yes, it's close to Fleet, but have you seen the housing plans on Columbia Pike? There are 4-5 new multi-story buildings being built within blocks of there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The existing CC building has to be renovated after the new HS is built. That will cost tens of millions of dollars. $40? $50? APS is not talking about that yet.

MPSA is going to be torn down. You could leave it on the site during construction, then renno, then move it to the old building. But that takes at least 5 years, and it also means the construction for the new building will be much harder and stupider, because they will spend $1 million building MPSA a new play area they plan to destroy, and they will build a half field instead of a full field, and the bus loop won't be optimized, etc.

They absolutely should move MPSA north now. It doesn't matter where, we have the seats, use them. Make the construction make more sense now.

Then in 5 years when you are renovating the old building, we will know what we need it for. It may be another neighborhood school in S Arlington, where they are building new multi-story family buildings at a crazy pace. Or if north Arlington has some magical growth they could move MPSA back at that point.

That's what makes the most sense.

I don't know what MPSA actually wants.

APS had proposals that said the expansion of the Career Center would be around $170-200 million for what they want.

In all the proposals MPSA is left on site while a new HS is built. MPSA just wants out now and they don’t want to wait for however long for a new building. They shouldn’t ever have been moved out of Drew to begin with.

Supposedly the Drew community wanted their own school, not to share it with Montessori

It was absolutely right to separate Montessori and the neighborhood program. The neighborhood program wasn't getting its due resources and all of those students were very poorly served. There are different bell schedules for classes and the two approaches are fundamentally different. Whether Montessori program should have been moved or the whole school converted to Montessori is a point that can be debated; but separating the two was the right thing to do. And yes, Nauck (Green Valley) wanted its own neighborhood school going back to the days of busing them to Page (now Jamestown?).

I thought Page became ASFS?

Could be - I couldn't remember which school exactly. Just knew it was NE arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The existing CC building has to be renovated after the new HS is built. That will cost tens of millions of dollars. $40? $50? APS is not talking about that yet.

MPSA is going to be torn down. You could leave it on the site during construction, then renno, then move it to the old building. But that takes at least 5 years, and it also means the construction for the new building will be much harder and stupider, because they will spend $1 million building MPSA a new play area they plan to destroy, and they will build a half field instead of a full field, and the bus loop won't be optimized, etc.

They absolutely should move MPSA north now. It doesn't matter where, we have the seats, use them. Make the construction make more sense now.

Then in 5 years when you are renovating the old building, we will know what we need it for. It may be another neighborhood school in S Arlington, where they are building new multi-story family buildings at a crazy pace. Or if north Arlington has some magical growth they could move MPSA back at that point.

That's what makes the most sense.

I don't know what MPSA actually wants.

APS had proposals that said the expansion of the Career Center would be around $170-200 million for what they want.

This has all been very hard to follow. But APS is spending $170-200 million on a brand new building. The existing building will be left on the site, and needs to be renovated for some other purpose when CC moves out. That cost is probably $40-60 million IN ADDITION TO the $170-200 million for the new building. Plus whatever it costs to tear down MPSA, which won't be much.

But again, if we are tearing MPSA down anyhow, and we have 500 empty ES seats now (which we do) we should just move MPSA now and figure out later on what to do with the old CC space. I don't think MPSA has to go there, and by that time, we may need a new ES in SA.

Nope. We don’t need to spend any more $$ right now. They can sit tight in the building we just spent a couple million on for another 5 years or so. It’s not like they’re tearing it down now. It’s years away. Also, this is in the same walk zone as Fleet so this isn’t where we might need a new ES in South Arlington.

NP CC site is not a good site for any elementary school. Not because it is in the walk zone of another school, rather because the CC site needs to be devoted to the high school programs. As far as multiple schools in same or overlapping walk zones, options for new school locations are dwindling and more walk zones are going to overlap as we build more schools. People are just going to have to accept being assigned to schools that may not be the one they want to go to. Too bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The existing CC building has to be renovated after the new HS is built. That will cost tens of millions of dollars. $40? $50? APS is not talking about that yet.

MPSA is going to be torn down. You could leave it on the site during construction, then renno, then move it to the old building. But that takes at least 5 years, and it also means the construction for the new building will be much harder and stupider, because they will spend $1 million building MPSA a new play area they plan to destroy, and they will build a half field instead of a full field, and the bus loop won't be optimized, etc.

They absolutely should move MPSA north now. It doesn't matter where, we have the seats, use them. Make the construction make more sense now.

Then in 5 years when you are renovating the old building, we will know what we need it for. It may be another neighborhood school in S Arlington, where they are building new multi-story family buildings at a crazy pace. Or if north Arlington has some magical growth they could move MPSA back at that point.

That's what makes the most sense.

I don't know what MPSA actually wants.

APS had proposals that said the expansion of the Career Center would be around $170-200 million for what they want.

This has all been very hard to follow. But APS is spending $170-200 million on a brand new building. The existing building will be left on the site, and needs to be renovated for some other purpose when CC moves out. That cost is probably $40-60 million IN ADDITION TO the $170-200 million for the new building. Plus whatever it costs to tear down MPSA, which won't be much.

But again, if we are tearing MPSA down anyhow, and we have 500 empty ES seats now (which we do) we should just move MPSA now and figure out later on what to do with the old CC space. I don't think MPSA has to go there, and by that time, we may need a new ES in SA.

Nope. We don’t need to spend any more $$ right now. They can sit tight in the building we just spent a couple million on for another 5 years or so. It’s not like they’re tearing it down now. It’s years away. Also, this is in the same walk zone as Fleet so this isn’t where we might need a new ES in South Arlington.

Why would it cost money to move them? We just need to do boundary adjustments, and then we basically have an empty ES in North Arlington, right? If we keep them onsite during construction, we dump another million into that site to move the MPSA playground which we now know is going to get torn down in a few years. Plus, keeping them means we build the bus lane and small field now, and then later on we tear that all up and do it again with the full site. So much wasted $.

And yes, it's close to Fleet, but have you seen the housing plans on Columbia Pike? There are 4-5 new multi-story buildings being built within blocks of there.

+1
This phased approach to the CC and MPSA ultimately costs FAR more money because of the temporary construction pieces that will be re-done a few years later. Ridiculous. They just need the numbers to be lower so they can justify moving forward, rather than comprehensively planning and redeveloping the site thoughtfully like they should. Of course, Arlington in general isn't keen on comprehensive planning and thoughtful development.

[Anonymous]

McK had 800 kids before ATS moved in. ATS has only 650 kids. Why not add it to that campus? How big is MPSA...If it's too big ATS could go back to 3 classes per grade and then MPSA could have 3 classes per grade so 6 classes per grade like old Mck. It'll work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The existing CC building has to be renovated after the new HS is built. That will cost tens of millions of dollars. $40? $50? APS is not talking about that yet.

MPSA is going to be torn down. You could leave it on the site during construction, then renno, then move it to the old building. But that takes at least 5 years, and it also means the construction for the new building will be much harder and stupider, because they will spend $1 million building MPSA a new play area they plan to destroy, and they will build a half field instead of a full field, and the bus loop won't be optimized, etc.

They absolutely should move MPSA north now. It doesn't matter where, we have the seats, use them. Make the construction make more sense now.

Then in 5 years when you are renovating the old building, we will know what we need it for. It may be another neighborhood school in S Arlington, where they are building new multi-story family buildings at a crazy pace. Or if north Arlington has some magical growth they could move MPSA back at that point.

That's what makes the most sense.

I don't know what MPSA actually wants.

APS had proposals that said the expansion of the Career Center would be around $170-200 million for what they want.

This has all been very hard to follow. But APS is spending $170-200 million on a brand new building. The existing building will be left on the site, and needs to be renovated for some other purpose when CC moves out. That cost is probably $40-60 million IN ADDITION TO the $170-200 million for the new building. Plus whatever it costs to tear down MPSA, which won't be much.

But again, if we are tearing MPSA down anyhow, and we have 500 empty ES seats now (which we do) we should just move MPSA now and figure out later on what to do with the old CC space. I don't think MPSA has to go there, and by that time, we may need a new ES in SA.

Nope. We don’t need to spend any more $$ right now. They can sit tight in the building we just spent a couple million on for another 5 years or so. It’s not like they’re tearing it down now. It’s years away. Also, this is in the same walk zone as Fleet so this isn’t where we might need a new ES in South Arlington.

Why would it cost money to move them? We just need to do boundary adjustments, and then we basically have an empty ES in North Arlington, right? If we keep them onsite during construction, we dump another million into that site to move the MPSA playground which we now know is going to get torn down in a few years. Plus, keeping them means we build the bus lane and small field now, and then later on we tear that all up and do it again with the full site. So much wasted $.

And yes, it's close to Fleet, but have you seen the housing plans on Columbia Pike? There are 4-5 new multi-story buildings being built within blocks of there.

this is delusional - that's only true if you treat "N Arlington" as one blob, and not realize that there are multiple ES there. the "empty seats" are scattered, so you'd have to really distort boundaries to make it work, and you'd end up with overcrowding somewhere anyway just due to geography.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The existing CC building has to be renovated after the new HS is built. That will cost tens of millions of dollars. $40? $50? APS is not talking about that yet.

MPSA is going to be torn down. You could leave it on the site during construction, then renno, then move it to the old building. But that takes at least 5 years, and it also means the construction for the new building will be much harder and stupider, because they will spend $1 million building MPSA a new play area they plan to destroy, and they will build a half field instead of a full field, and the bus loop won't be optimized, etc.

They absolutely should move MPSA north now. It doesn't matter where, we have the seats, use them. Make the construction make more sense now.

Then in 5 years when you are renovating the old building, we will know what we need it for. It may be another neighborhood school in S Arlington, where they are building new multi-story family buildings at a crazy pace. Or if north Arlington has some magical growth they could move MPSA back at that point.

That's what makes the most sense.

I don't know what MPSA actually wants.

APS had proposals that said the expansion of the Career Center would be around $170-200 million for what they want.

This has all been very hard to follow. But APS is spending $170-200 million on a brand new building. The existing building will be left on the site, and needs to be renovated for some other purpose when CC moves out. That cost is probably $40-60 million IN ADDITION TO the $170-200 million for the new building. Plus whatever it costs to tear down MPSA, which won't be much.

But again, if we are tearing MPSA down anyhow, and we have 500 empty ES seats now (which we do) we should just move MPSA now and figure out later on what to do with the old CC space. I don't think MPSA has to go there, and by that time, we may need a new ES in SA.

Nope. We don’t need to spend any more $$ right now. They can sit tight in the building we just spent a couple million on for another 5 years or so. It’s not like they’re tearing it down now. It’s years away. Also, this is in the same walk zone as Fleet so this isn’t where we might need a new ES in South Arlington.

Why would it cost money to move them? We just need to do boundary adjustments, and then we basically have an empty ES in North Arlington, right? If we keep them onsite during construction, we dump another million into that site to move the MPSA playground which we now know is going to get torn down in a few years. Plus, keeping them means we build the bus lane and small field now, and then later on we tear that all up and do it again with the full site. So much wasted $.

And yes, it's close to Fleet, but have you seen the housing plans on Columbia Pike? There are 4-5 new multi-story buildings being built within blocks of there.

this is delusional - that's only true if you treat "N Arlington" as one blob, and not realize that there are multiple ES there. the "empty seats" are scattered, so you'd have to really distort boundaries to make it work, and you'd end up with overcrowding somewhere anyway just due to geography.

Distort boundaries? There is no difference between north Arlington elementary schools and those schools are all about a mile apart. Really. No one cares about the tiny differences among these schools or their boundaries except for a small group of parents for a few years while their kids are there. Move the boundaries and in two years no one will care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The existing CC building has to be renovated after the new HS is built. That will cost tens of millions of dollars. $40? $50? APS is not talking about that yet.

MPSA is going to be torn down. You could leave it on the site during construction, then renno, then move it to the old building. But that takes at least 5 years, and it also means the construction for the new building will be much harder and stupider, because they will spend $1 million building MPSA a new play area they plan to destroy, and they will build a half field instead of a full field, and the bus loop won't be optimized, etc.

They absolutely should move MPSA north now. It doesn't matter where, we have the seats, use them. Make the construction make more sense now.

Then in 5 years when you are renovating the old building, we will know what we need it for. It may be another neighborhood school in S Arlington, where they are building new multi-story family buildings at a crazy pace. Or if north Arlington has some magical growth they could move MPSA back at that point.

That's what makes the most sense.

I don't know what MPSA actually wants.

APS had proposals that said the expansion of the Career Center would be around $170-200 million for what they want.

This has all been very hard to follow. But APS is spending $170-200 million on a brand new building. The existing building will be left on the site, and needs to be renovated for some other purpose when CC moves out. That cost is probably $40-60 million IN ADDITION TO the $170-200 million for the new building. Plus whatever it costs to tear down MPSA, which won't be much.

But again, if we are tearing MPSA down anyhow, and we have 500 empty ES seats now (which we do) we should just move MPSA now and figure out later on what to do with the old CC space. I don't think MPSA has to go there, and by that time, we may need a new ES in SA.

Nope. We don’t need to spend any more $$ right now. They can sit tight in the building we just spent a couple million on for another 5 years or so. It’s not like they’re tearing it down now. It’s years away. Also, this is in the same walk zone as Fleet so this isn’t where we might need a new ES in South Arlington.

NP CC site is not a good site for any elementary school. Not because it is in the walk zone of another school, rather because the CC site needs to be devoted to the high school programs. As far as multiple schools in same or overlapping walk zones, options for new school locations are dwindling and more walk zones are going to overlap as we build more schools. People are just going to have to accept being assigned to schools that may not be the one they want to go to. Too bad.

If they don't move MPSA now, they almost certainly will spend the $50 million to turn that building into MPSA later on. Just FYI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The existing CC building has to be renovated after the new HS is built. That will cost tens of millions of dollars. $40? $50? APS is not talking about that yet.

MPSA is going to be torn down. You could leave it on the site during construction, then renno, then move it to the old building. But that takes at least 5 years, and it also means the construction for the new building will be much harder and stupider, because they will spend $1 million building MPSA a new play area they plan to destroy, and they will build a half field instead of a full field, and the bus loop won't be optimized, etc.

They absolutely should move MPSA north now. It doesn't matter where, we have the seats, use them. Make the construction make more sense now.

Then in 5 years when you are renovating the old building, we will know what we need it for. It may be another neighborhood school in S Arlington, where they are building new multi-story family buildings at a crazy pace. Or if north Arlington has some magical growth they could move MPSA back at that point.

That's what makes the most sense.

I don't know what MPSA actually wants.

APS had proposals that said the expansion of the Career Center would be around $170-200 million for what they want.

This has all been very hard to follow. But APS is spending $170-200 million on a brand new building. The existing building will be left on the site, and needs to be renovated for some other purpose when CC moves out. That cost is probably $40-60 million IN ADDITION TO the $170-200 million for the new building. Plus whatever it costs to tear down MPSA, which won't be much.

But again, if we are tearing MPSA down anyhow, and we have 500 empty ES seats now (which we do) we should just move MPSA now and figure out later on what to do with the old CC space. I don't think MPSA has to go there, and by that time, we may need a new ES in SA.

Nope. We don’t need to spend any more $$ right now. They can sit tight in the building we just spent a couple million on for another 5 years or so. It’s not like they’re tearing it down now. It’s years away. Also, this is in the same walk zone as Fleet so this isn’t where we might need a new ES in South Arlington.

Why would it cost money to move them? We just need to do boundary adjustments, and then we basically have an empty ES in North Arlington, right? If we keep them onsite during construction, we dump another million into that site to move the MPSA playground which we now know is going to get torn down in a few years. Plus, keeping them means we build the bus lane and small field now, and then later on we tear that all up and do it again with the full site. So much wasted $.

And yes, it's close to Fleet, but have you seen the housing plans on Columbia Pike? There are 4-5 new multi-story buildings being built within blocks of there.

this is delusional - that's only true if you treat "N Arlington" as one blob, and not realize that there are multiple ES there. the "empty seats" are scattered, so you'd have to really distort boundaries to make it work, and you'd end up with overcrowding somewhere anyway just due to geography.

Distort boundaries? There is no difference between north Arlington elementary schools and those schools are all about a mile apart. Really. No one cares about the tiny differences among these schools or their boundaries except for a small group of parents for a few years while their kids are there. Move the boundaries and in two years no one will care.

+1. Arlington is too small to really "distort" any boundaries. The last process I followed, which was painful, the upshot is that no community is happy to be moved, and there are no perfect solutions. But across a handful of schools in N Arlington that are reasonably close to one another we have the equivalent of 500 seats. So why not do the shuffle and move MPSA now? I agree we will otherwise just burn a bunch more dead money on this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McK had 800 kids before ATS moved in. ATS has only 650 kids. Why not add it to that campus? How big is MPSA...If it's too big ATS could go back to 3 classes per grade and then MPSA could have 3 classes per grade so 6 classes per grade like old Mck. It'll work.

IMO, if there aren't enough in the program to fill its own school, maybe we should reconsider continuing the program.
Scatter them all back to their neighborhood middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McK had 800 kids before ATS moved in. ATS has only 650 kids. Why not add it to that campus? How big is MPSA...If it's too big ATS could go back to 3 classes per grade and then MPSA could have 3 classes per grade so 6 classes per grade like old Mck. It'll work.

IMO, if there aren't enough in the program to fill its own school, maybe we should reconsider continuing the program.
Scatter them all back to their neighborhood middle schools.

PP here - sorry, I was focused on the middle school program. Nevertheless, Montessori has an incompatible bell schedule with regular elementary schools. They should not be in the same building at the same time. Just pick the most under-enrolled school in NA, stick MPSA there, and redraw boundaries. Don't invite input, don't coddle concerns of disruption and irreparable harm to kids being torn away from each other, don't cater to parental outcries. Just do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McK had 800 kids before ATS moved in. ATS has only 650 kids. Why not add it to that campus? How big is MPSA...If it's too big ATS could go back to 3 classes per grade and then MPSA could have 3 classes per grade so 6 classes per grade like old Mck. It'll work.

IMO, if there aren't enough in the program to fill its own school, maybe we should reconsider continuing the program.
Scatter them all back to their neighborhood middle schools.

Well ATS has a long enough wait list to have two full schools of 800 each. Not sure that's true of MPSA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McK had 800 kids before ATS moved in. ATS has only 650 kids. Why not add it to that campus? How big is MPSA...If it's too big ATS could go back to 3 classes per grade and then MPSA could have 3 classes per grade so 6 classes per grade like old Mck. It'll work.

IMO, if there aren't enough in the program to fill its own school, maybe we should reconsider continuing the program.
Scatter them all back to their neighborhood middle schools.

PP here - sorry, I was focused on the middle school program. Nevertheless, Montessori has an incompatible bell schedule with regular elementary schools. They should not be in the same building at the same time. Just pick the most under-enrolled school in NA, stick MPSA there, and redraw boundaries. Don't invite input, don't coddle concerns of disruption and irreparable harm to kids being torn away from each other, don't cater to parental outcries. Just do it.

or get rid of it! It's bs. Maria M. made the program to each people with severe learning disabilities to get jobs in the real word. Not teach neurotypical kids. lemmings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McK had 800 kids before ATS moved in. ATS has only 650 kids. Why not add it to that campus? How big is MPSA...If it's too big ATS could go back to 3 classes per grade and then MPSA could have 3 classes per grade so 6 classes per grade like old Mck. It'll work.

IMO, if there aren't enough in the program to fill its own school, maybe we should reconsider continuing the program.
Scatter them all back to their neighborhood middle schools.

PP here - sorry, I was focused on the middle school program. Nevertheless, Montessori has an incompatible bell schedule with regular elementary schools. They should not be in the same building at the same time. Just pick the most under-enrolled school in NA, stick MPSA there, and redraw boundaries. Don't invite input, don't coddle concerns of disruption and irreparable harm to kids being torn away from each other, don't cater to parental outcries. Just do it.

or get rid of it! It's bs. Maria M. made the program to each people with severe learning disabilities to get jobs in the real word. Not teach neurotypical kids. lemmings.

Not just the spelling of the word world is wrong with this statement. It is just completely incorrect

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The existing CC building has to be renovated after the new HS is built. That will cost tens of millions of dollars. $40? $50? APS is not talking about that yet.

MPSA is going to be torn down. You could leave it on the site during construction, then renno, then move it to the old building. But that takes at least 5 years, and it also means the construction for the new building will be much harder and stupider, because they will spend $1 million building MPSA a new play area they plan to destroy, and they will build a half field instead of a full field, and the bus loop won't be optimized, etc.

They absolutely should move MPSA north now. It doesn't matter where, we have the seats, use them. Make the construction make more sense now.

Then in 5 years when you are renovating the old building, we will know what we need it for. It may be another neighborhood school in S Arlington, where they are building new multi-story family buildings at a crazy pace. Or if north Arlington has some magical growth they could move MPSA back at that point.

That's what makes the most sense.

I don't know what MPSA actually wants.

APS had proposals that said the expansion of the Career Center would be around $170-200 million for what they want.

This has all been very hard to follow. But APS is spending $170-200 million on a brand new building. The existing building will be left on the site, and needs to be renovated for some other purpose when CC moves out. That cost is probably $40-60 million IN ADDITION TO the $170-200 million for the new building. Plus whatever it costs to tear down MPSA, which won't be much.

But again, if we are tearing MPSA down anyhow, and we have 500 empty ES seats now (which we do) we should just move MPSA now and figure out later on what to do with the old CC space. I don't think MPSA has to go there, and by that time, we may need a new ES in SA.

Nope. We don’t need to spend any more $$ right now. They can sit tight in the building we just spent a couple million on for another 5 years or so. It’s not like they’re tearing it down now. It’s years away. Also, this is in the same walk zone as Fleet so this isn’t where we might need a new ES in South Arlington.

Why would it cost money to move them? We just need to do boundary adjustments, and then we basically have an empty ES in North Arlington, right? If we keep them onsite during construction, we dump another million into that site to move the MPSA playground which we now know is going to get torn down in a few years. Plus, keeping them means we build the bus lane and small field now, and then later on we tear that all up and do it again with the full site. So much wasted $.

And yes, it's close to Fleet, but have you seen the housing plans on Columbia Pike? There are 4-5 new multi-story buildings being built within blocks of there.

this is delusional - that's only true if you treat "N Arlington" as one blob, and not realize that there are multiple ES there. the "empty seats" are scattered, so you'd have to really distort boundaries to make it work, and you'd end up with overcrowding somewhere anyway just due to geography.

Distort boundaries? There is no difference between north Arlington elementary schools and those schools are all about a mile apart. Really. No one cares about the tiny differences among these schools or their boundaries except for a small group of parents for a few years while their kids are there. Move the boundaries and in two years no one will care.

DP. Okay, so you haven’t actually looked at NA schools, boundaries, walk zones, etc., and aren’t actually debating in good faith on this , if you did, you would know that moving an option school to NW Arlington would require pushing kids currently in the walk zones for the schools that would remain out of those schools, creating hundreds of kids that would need to be bused and increasing the number of buses we would need to accomplish that. Transportation costs would skyrocket.