NW APS parents, can we talk?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By 2021 they will likely need all those seats in the NW.

And this is what is driving almost all of the parents that I have talked to. Many areas in the county are growing, but some less so than others. The NW Quadrant continues to see growth in school aged children. Some of it is coming from new development, but a lot is still coming from tear downs and the like. A single point in time excess of a couple hundred seats does not justify a move without full consideration of growth projections, which the staff IS NOT using or even considering in these location decisions.

Agreed. The staff is looking at planned developments, but not considering individual changes in housing stock. Yes, Tuckahoe is getting the Suntrust townhouses, some of which presumably will be purchased by families with elementary-aged children. Over here by Nottingham, I can look out my front window and see four tear-down/rebuilds in various stages just along my block, all of which are already under contract to families with young children. But the staff won't take those children into consideration at all in their planning because each is an individual housing project rather than a multi-unit project.

[Anonymous]

I’m in. I live 10-12min on foot from Ashlawn, McKinley and Reed. I’ll go to the school we’re zoned for.

I don’t care where you put the option school, but if you move my kids to McKinley and put and option at Ashlawn, that’s cool with me. Reed opens when my oldest is in 1st. I am not interested in ATS which is conveniently to me now, but if an option I was interested in went to Ashlawn, I could logisticall handle having 1 kid at Ashlawn and another at McKinley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By 2021 they will likely need all those seats in the NW.

And this is what is driving almost all of the parents that I have talked to. Many areas in the county are growing, but some less so than others. The NW Quadrant continues to see growth in school aged children. Some of it is coming from new development, but a lot is still coming from tear downs and the like. A single point in time excess of a couple hundred seats does not justify a move without full consideration of growth projections, which the staff IS NOT using or even considering in these location decisions.

Agreed. The staff is looking at planned developments, but not considering individual changes in housing stock. Yes, Tuckahoe is getting the Suntrust townhouses, some of which presumably will be purchased by families with elementary-aged children. Over here by Nottingham, I can look out my front window and see four tear-down/rebuilds in various stages just along my block, all of which are already under contract to families with young children. But the staff won't take those children into consideration at all in their planning because each is an individual housing project rather than a multi-unit project.

We should be friends. Two NW parents seems like at different schools. We could fight the good fight together.

[Anonymous]

They shouldn't redraw boundaries until closer to Reed opening. We've seen how projections lead to bad decisions when they are made so far out.

[Anonymous]

I like the idea of pulling preschool out of Jamestown and opening it up as option to fill up to a certain number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They shouldn't redraw boundaries until closer to Reed opening. We've seen how projections lead to bad decisions when they are made so far out.

They are accounting for this, the current timeline includes reviewing enrollment projections again in the Fall of 2020 to see if they need to make any boundary adjustments for the following school year when Reed opens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not from nw Arlington (I live in Rosslyn), but one idea that was floated last spring was the idea of upper and lower elementary schools. I wonder if that might be a possible compromise. Keep the schools where they are, but have tuckahoe be the lower elementary and Nottingham be the upper elementary. Since there are a lot of overlap in the walk zones, this would allow for a lot of parents to walk at least part of the time their kids are in school, and you could have a courtesy bus between the two schools to help with logistics at drop off for people with multiple children. Have one big attendance zone so you’re not creating really creating wierd lines down the county to fill schools that are too close together. You could also have a joint pta so it still feels like a cohesive community.
Just a thought. My understanding is that the schools are within a mile of each other, which is why I think this is feasible.
You could have a similar pairing between Jamestown and discovery. Though maybe it makes more sense for Jamestown to be an option school.

If I wanted to be robbed of the precious 3 years I will have 2 kids at the same school, I would move to Falls Church City.

Also I would love to see that get entrenched and parents to claim that it is somehow better. Then when demographics change in the county again in 10-20 years, the Tuckahoe / Nottingham parents can come cry to DCUM how they are losing their special thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like the idea of pulling preschool out of Jamestown and opening it up as option to fill up to a certain number.

I do, too. It makes no sense to keep it as neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to Arlington and am currently zoned to one of the listed schools. Silly me thought I could send my kids to the neighborhood school 2 blocks to my house. Can someone please explain to me why the option programs are preferable to having kids attend a neighborhood school and allow transfers in from overcrowded schools?

When I moved here, I thought my children would go to the school 4 blocks from my house. Nope, option. We only looked at a map which does not designate such things. THen, we though kids would go to the one 1 mile away. Nope, not the one 1.2 m away, or 1.4. No, our kids are bussed to a school 2 miles away when 5 FIVE are closer.

APS loves to waste money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They shouldn't redraw boundaries until closer to Reed opening. We've seen how projections lead to bad decisions when they are made so far out.

They are accounting for this, the current timeline includes reviewing enrollment projections again in the Fall of 2020 to see if they need to make any boundary adjustments for the following school year when Reed opens.

Do you think APS will bus kids PAST Reed to McK? that little sliver of homes at the furthest point east is thinking that will happen but that's just TOO Illogical, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They shouldn't redraw boundaries until closer to Reed opening. We've seen how projections lead to bad decisions when they are made so far out.

They are accounting for this, the current timeline includes reviewing enrollment projections again in the Fall of 2020 to see if they need to make any boundary adjustments for the following school year when Reed opens.

Do you think APS will bus kids PAST Reed to McK? that little sliver of homes at the furthest point east is thinking that will happen but that's just TOO Illogical, right?

Why would the sliver of homes want to be bused past Reed to McK? Which sliver are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They shouldn't redraw boundaries until closer to Reed opening. We've seen how projections lead to bad decisions when they are made so far out.

They are accounting for this, the current timeline includes reviewing enrollment projections again in the Fall of 2020 to see if they need to make any boundary adjustments for the following school year when Reed opens.

Do you think APS will bus kids PAST Reed to McK? that little sliver of homes at the furthest point east is thinking that will happen but that's just TOO Illogical, right?

Well, look at the Ashlawn boundary or all the high schoolers that go past W-L on the way to Yorktown. It can happen!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to Arlington and am currently zoned to one of the listed schools. Silly me thought I could send my kids to the neighborhood school 2 blocks to my house. Can someone please explain to me why the option programs are preferable to having kids attend a neighborhood school and allow transfers in from overcrowded schools?

When I moved here, I thought my children would go to the school 4 blocks from my house. Nope, option. We only looked at a map which does not designate such things. THen, we though kids would go to the one 1 mile away. Nope, not the one 1.2 m away, or 1.4. No, our kids are bussed to a school 2 miles away when 5 FIVE are closer.

APS loves to waste money

Why didn't you look up the assigned school before you bought/leased? Every real estate listing has a disclaimer about school information and refers people to the school system for specific details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to Arlington and am currently zoned to one of the listed schools. Silly me thought I could send my kids to the neighborhood school 2 blocks to my house. Can someone please explain to me why the option programs are preferable to having kids attend a neighborhood school and allow transfers in from overcrowded schools?

When I moved here, I thought my children would go to the school 4 blocks from my house. Nope, option. We only looked at a map which does not designate such things. THen, we though kids would go to the one 1 mile away. Nope, not the one 1.2 m away, or 1.4. No, our kids are bussed to a school 2 miles away when 5 FIVE are closer.

APS loves to waste money

Where are you, near ATS? The only school that was 100% option with no neighborhood preferences and exclusively lottery was ATS. How long ago did you buy a house? Because it had to be before the interwebs if all you looked at was a map to figure out where your child would enroll in school. And also, your agent must have stunk, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They shouldn't redraw boundaries until closer to Reed opening. We've seen how projections lead to bad decisions when they are made so far out.

Changing neighborhood preference at Key is what is driving this earlier planning.