Would looming N. Arlington school boundary changes prevent you from moving there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The district is proposing an East/West division of the county for assignment to option schools for immersion and IB while county-wide schools remain for Campbell, ATS, Montessori. That would mean some families in N. Arlington that want immersion would have to send their kids to Claremont in S. Arlington (rather than current option of Key in N. Arlington) and actually share classrooms with more poor and/or brown-skinned children.

Key is already about 50-50 Hispanic kids and non-Hispanic kids. That's on purpose, to try to have half the kids be primary-language Spanish and half the kids primary-language English, for true dual immersion. Parents who send kids to Key aren't trying to avoid having their kids in classrooms with poorer and/or Hispanic kids. Some parents (though certainly not all) who send kids to ASFS from the Key zone are trying to avoid that, I know from conversations we had before sending our kid to Key. Changing this zone to Claremont instead of Key won't affect that (though I don't have a big problem with sending this zone to Claremont as part of an all-over East-West realignment, other than the fact that Key is far closer to us and therefore more convenient).

I thought Key was more like 35 percent non-Hispanic. Not sure.

51.9% Hispanic. http://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Civil-Rights-Table-1-2016-11-30-web.pdf

[Anonymous]

Yes - it would and it did. I can deal with slightly larger classroom sizes in exchange for knowing that my kids will be able to attend a traditional high school. Not a "choice" school, not a school that has 4,000 students, and not a school where the School Board has decided to concentrate poverty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no space for the kids in the system. I wouldn't move in.

Yes. Please listen to this. Please.

It is truly disturbing how many posters and/or how many different threads have written that the APS is not doing what needs to be done to solve its problems--growing student population, limited school size/footprint, overcapacity, overcrowding.... It's hard to tell from the threads if this is a shortcoming of the voters, the Co Government, or what, but it truly seems APS is really failing. Since March 1, 2017 there are the following threads:
1) http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/632851.page

2) http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/628233.page

3) http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/629694.page

4) http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/623564.page

Even some threads that start pretty innocously seem to reach this conclusion as the discussion unfolds:
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/628051.page

I have just become very skeptical it's a county that has a solution in its sights and is addressing its problems based on the many, many links and citations in these numerous threads.

How many different posters are represented on these various threads? Is this the same people posting over and over or are these truly unique users? If the second, it is disturbing.

[Anonymous]

They don't seem like the same poster. Different styles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no space for the kids in the system. I wouldn't move in.

Yes. Please listen to this. Please.

It is truly disturbing how many posters and/or how many different threads have written that the APS is not doing what needs to be done to solve its problems--growing student population, limited school size/footprint, overcapacity, overcrowding.... It's hard to tell from the threads if this is a shortcoming of the voters, the Co Government, or what, but it truly seems APS is really failing. Since March 1, 2017 there are the following threads:
1) http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/632851.page

2) http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/628233.page

3) http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/629694.page

4) http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/623564.page

Even some threads that start pretty innocously seem to reach this conclusion as the discussion unfolds:
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/628051.page

I have just become very skeptical it's a county that has a solution in its sights and is addressing its problems based on the many, many links and citations in these numerous threads.

How many different posters are represented on these various threads? Is this the same people posting over and over or are these truly unique users? If the second, it is disturbing.

I don't know how many, but they are definitely not all unique posters. I posted multiple times on various APS threads, and recognized other repeat customers as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at yorktown's ratings it has plummeted. This is really going to cause another major negative shift down and make north Arlington undesirable.

Neighborhood and commute will always be desirable. People will (are) switch to private. If you can afford 1.5 - 2.0 new build, you can afford private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are sticking with Arlington. We are just about to enter the APS school system with our first entering K this fall. There are definitely some problems with the school board, but overall, I'm confident my kids will get a great education in APS. There are too many parents actively invested in their kids education in Arlington County for that not to happen.

I enjoy the urban feel of Arlington compared to the outer suburbs. Close to DC and diversity. All those contribute to my satisfaction

There have been lots of actively involved APS parents for many years, and they haven't been able to keep APS from dragging its heels to address the high school overcrowding or making boundary changes that increase rather than mitigates the de facto segregation in the county.

Actually, lol those actively involved parents generated a wave of truly beautiful school renovations that failed to add a seat to capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You may not realize this, but there are already large N. Arlington neighborhoods where Claremont is already the only choice for immersion. We would have liked it, but couldn't make the commuting or bus schedule work. It has nothing to do with sharing schools with "brown people" and snide comments about that on this board get very old.

and those north arlington families- e.g. districted to Tuckahoe, Nottingham, Mckinley- have been effectively shut out of immersion for the last several years b/c Claremont fills with guaranteed admits from siblings and neighborhood. Families do get admitted to Key off the Claremont waiting list- but they get no bus service.

If you want a differentiated education, maybe you should have to pay for it? What I hear you saying is that all the free goodies have a waiting list - and you are surprised by this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are sticking with Arlington. We are just about to enter the APS school system with our first entering K this fall. There are definitely some problems with the school board, but overall, I'm confident my kids will get a great education in APS. There are too many parents actively invested in their kids education in Arlington County for that not to happen.

I enjoy the urban feel of Arlington compared to the outer suburbs. Close to DC and diversity. All those contribute to my satisfaction

There have been lots of actively involved APS parents for many years, and they haven't been able to keep APS from dragging its heels to address the high school overcrowding or making boundary changes that increase rather than mitigates the de facto segregation in the county.

Actually, lol those actively involved parents generated a wave of truly beautiful school renovations that failed to add a seat to capacity.

And shitloads of debt, too! Don't forget that the County took out:

$138,830,000 in bond debt for AND another $98,850,000 (only some for schools) in 2016 (https://budget.arlingtonva.us/bond-referenda/); $42,620,000 in bond debt in 2012; $102,888,000 in bond debt in 2010; $99,425,000 in bond debt in 2008; $33,712,000 in bond debt in 2006; $78,128,000 in bond debt in 2004.

Most of the bond debt Arlington County has issued has a 20-year lifespan....

And yet county officials seem unable to resolve overcrowding and continue to spend 49% of the county revenues on non-school related expenditures...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look at yorktown's ratings it has plummeted. This is really going to cause another major negative shift down and make north Arlington undesirable.

Neighborhood and commute will always be desirable. People will (are) switch to private. If you can afford 1.5 - 2.0 new build, you can afford private.

Too bad the average home sale in the Yorktown district is more like $925K than $1.5 million, and it's not especially convenient to get to good privates other than Potomac from North Arlington. Guess it's good news for O'Connell.

[Anonymous]

Good thing we both make enough to send our kids to private schools. We don't deal with overcrowding or a lot of these other issues, plus they get a solid morality based education.

We lived in Arlington and moved out. But APS wasn't an option for us regardless

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yorktown used to be in the top 5 highschools in Virginia , it's now number 13 and below Marshall and Herndon which is full of esol, Sad.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia/rankings

I'll take the few points difference in exchange for not having to endure a horrendous commute from Herndon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yorktown used to be in the top 5 highschools in Virginia , it's now number 13 and below Marshall and Herndon which is full of esol, Sad.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia/rankings

I'll take the few points difference in exchange for not having to endure a horrendous commute from Herndon.

It's not a few, it's terrifying how low Yorktown is falling

[Anonymous]

For the poster who noted that key is only 35% non hispanic. Oh my, you are assuming all hispanic kids are poor. And, you are assuming all hispanic kids are "brown." Many of the "hispanic" kids are from wealthier families and look very white. Only one parent may be hispanic too. Don't assume all hispanics are dark brown poor kids. They are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yorktown used to be in the top 5 highschools in Virginia , it's now number 13 and below Marshall and Herndon which is full of esol, Sad.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia/rankings

I'll take the few points difference in exchange for not having to endure a horrendous commute from Herndon.

It's not a few, it's terrifying how low Yorktown is falling

Find a new obsession.