APS Fall boundary questionnaire

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bigger issue is the MS/HS. APS has been notorious for not taking into account housing that is in the process of coming online. They don't connect with the county well on what's 2-5yrs downstream.

We are a McKinley family, so I can only give an example from here, although I'm sure there are plenty of others county-wide. When the Fisher House affordable housing was being renovated APS was refusing to plan for space for kids that they knew would be moving in 2yrs later. They used only data based on children currently in the planning units, even as they knew a certain number of family-sized apartments were being built.

APS is asking us to do the hard work for them. If you know there is a site that a developer is in the process of purchasing and it isn't on their spreadsheet, give them that data. The Febrey Lothrop property is another good example. Within 5yrs there could be dozens of SFH homes on that lot. It needs to be in the back of their heads that those children will need to go to school somewhere, likely Ashlawn or Cardinal.

Look around your community and if you think they've missed something, get it in front of them.

Just to piggyback on this point, if you’re concerned about school capacity, the biggest thing will change the population density of the County is the zoning change that will be coming at the end of the Missing Middle Study. County staff would like to change single family home zoning to allow other types of units. The issue is that the schools already can’t handle the students that will be coming here in the next 5-10 years even without zoning changes. This is the latest opportunity to share feedback with County staff. I also recommend emailing the County Board if you have concerns because once the County Staff makes a recommendation to the County Board at the end of the study, it’s unlikely the Board will make any major changes. It will be too late for meaningful feedback at that point.

https://housing.arlingtonva.us/missingmiddle/

I may be misunderstanding your post, but it sounds to me like you're saying the answer is to stop an effort to make more housing affordable to families that are in the missing middle. Wouldn't a better and more inclusive alternative be more schools? Larger schools? Why is the answer that I should move out of a community I've been a part of for over a decade if I want to buy a home that doesn't stretch my budget?

No, I’m not saying that! I am saying that the school capacity issue needs to be considered at the same time as the zoning change. It’s only my opinion that the issue deserves to be looked at holistically, rather than as merely a housing issue, since the schools are already strained.

If you disagree and think the housing can be handled without consideration of school capacity, you would be welcome to provide that feedback.

Ok, I agree it makes sense to consider school capacity and zoning together, but is the zoning board going to care unless they have purview over schools. Which part of Arlington county government has purview over both the schools and zoning? I think that person (or board) is the one who needs to be contacted.

There is no such person which is part of the reason schools are such a clusterf*%k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d make Claremont a neighborhood school and move immersion to Drew. Immersion is a draw for many Fairlington/Shirlington families.

Making Drew an option school isn’t politically viable right now. It was mostly option Montessori until a few years ago and there was a big push to make it a neighborhood school to right the wrong done generations ago via bussing. Making it option again would be insensitive/racist/inequitable/etc and would be a whole cluster.

I understand that the community was wary of the Montessori program siphoning resources away from the neighborhood program.

I also get that it’s easy to quickly defend any changes to Drew as racist or harmful, but meanwhile APS is steadily building a new map of segregation and inequity. Drew can’t sit at 80% occupied while other APS schools become over crowded, especially schools with high FARMs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d make Claremont a neighborhood school and move immersion to Drew. Immersion is a draw for many Fairlington/Shirlington families.

Making Drew an option school isn’t politically viable right now. It was mostly option Montessori until a few years ago and there was a big push to make it a neighborhood school to right the wrong done generations ago via bussing. Making it option again would be insensitive/racist/inequitable/etc and would be a whole cluster.

I understand that the community was wary of the Montessori program siphoning resources away from the neighborhood program.

I also get that it’s easy to quickly defend any changes to Drew as racist or harmful, but meanwhile APS is steadily building a new map of segregation and inequity. Drew can’t sit at 80% occupied while other APS schools become over crowded, especially schools with high FARMs.

The Green Valley old timers would say to just redraw the lines and fill it up... and they wouldn’t be wrong. There is an overcrowded school zone bordering a school zone that has empty seats. The answer is very straightforward. As for the overall segregation, that’s inevitable as long as we have neighborhood schools and the county board keeps approving 300+ unit CAFs in the same handful of places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d make Claremont a neighborhood school and move immersion to Drew. Immersion is a draw for many Fairlington/Shirlington families.

Making Drew an option school isn’t politically viable right now. It was mostly option Montessori until a few years ago and there was a big push to make it a neighborhood school to right the wrong done generations ago via bussing. Making it option again would be insensitive/racist/inequitable/etc and would be a whole cluster.

I understand that the community was wary of the Montessori program siphoning resources away from the neighborhood program.

I also get that it’s easy to quickly defend any changes to Drew as racist or harmful, but meanwhile APS is steadily building a new map of segregation and inequity. Drew can’t sit at 80% occupied while other APS schools become over crowded, especially schools with high FARMs.

Problem is, the old time Drew community would be happy to have its own segregated school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d make Claremont a neighborhood school and move immersion to Drew. Immersion is a draw for many Fairlington/Shirlington families.

Making Drew an option school isn’t politically viable right now. It was mostly option Montessori until a few years ago and there was a big push to make it a neighborhood school to right the wrong done generations ago via bussing. Making it option again would be insensitive/racist/inequitable/etc and would be a whole cluster.

I understand that the community was wary of the Montessori program siphoning resources away from the neighborhood program.

I also get that it’s easy to quickly defend any changes to Drew as racist or harmful, but meanwhile APS is steadily building a new map of segregation and inequity. Drew can’t sit at 80% occupied while other APS schools become over crowded, especially schools with high FARMs.

The Green Valley old timers would say to just redraw the lines and fill it up... and they wouldn’t be wrong. There is an overcrowded school zone bordering a school zone that has empty seats. The answer is very straightforward. As for the overall segregation, that’s inevitable as long as we have neighborhood schools and the county board keeps approving 300+ unit CAFs in the same handful of places.

We can't accept the inevitability of segregated neighborhoods and schools. It's unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d make Claremont a neighborhood school and move immersion to Drew. Immersion is a draw for many Fairlington/Shirlington families.

Making Drew an option school isn’t politically viable right now. It was mostly option Montessori until a few years ago and there was a big push to make it a neighborhood school to right the wrong done generations ago via bussing. Making it option again would be insensitive/racist/inequitable/etc and would be a whole cluster.

I understand that the community was wary of the Montessori program siphoning resources away from the neighborhood program.

I also get that it’s easy to quickly defend any changes to Drew as racist or harmful, but meanwhile APS is steadily building a new map of segregation and inequity. Drew can’t sit at 80% occupied while other APS schools become over crowded, especially schools with high FARMs.

The Green Valley old timers would say to just redraw the lines and fill it up... and they wouldn’t be wrong. There is an overcrowded school zone bordering a school zone that has empty seats. The answer is very straightforward. As for the overall segregation, that’s inevitable as long as we have neighborhood schools and the county board keeps approving 300+ unit CAFs in the same handful of places.

We can't accept the inevitability of segregated neighborhoods and schools. It's unacceptable.

Perhaps you enjoy banging your head against the wall. I do not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d make Claremont a neighborhood school and move immersion to Drew. Immersion is a draw for many Fairlington/Shirlington families.

Making Drew an option school isn’t politically viable right now. It was mostly option Montessori until a few years ago and there was a big push to make it a neighborhood school to right the wrong done generations ago via bussing. Making it option again would be insensitive/racist/inequitable/etc and would be a whole cluster.

I understand that the community was wary of the Montessori program siphoning resources away from the neighborhood program.

I also get that it’s easy to quickly defend any changes to Drew as racist or harmful, but meanwhile APS is steadily building a new map of segregation and inequity. Drew can’t sit at 80% occupied while other APS schools become over crowded, especially schools with high FARMs.

Exactly this. And why APS didn't do it last time is a mystery. They also left Fleet underfilled, but it makes more sense to move Abingdon students to Drew because you can fill Fleet from lots of directions, and there are not a lot of ways to fill Drew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d make Claremont a neighborhood school and move immersion to Drew. Immersion is a draw for many Fairlington/Shirlington families.

Making Drew an option school isn’t politically viable right now. It was mostly option Montessori until a few years ago and there was a big push to make it a neighborhood school to right the wrong done generations ago via bussing. Making it option again would be insensitive/racist/inequitable/etc and would be a whole cluster.

I understand that the community was wary of the Montessori program siphoning resources away from the neighborhood program.

I also get that it’s easy to quickly defend any changes to Drew as racist or harmful, but meanwhile APS is steadily building a new map of segregation and inequity. Drew can’t sit at 80% occupied while other APS schools become over crowded, especially schools with high FARMs.

Exactly this. And why APS didn't do it last time is a mystery. They also left Fleet underfilled, but it makes more sense to move Abingdon students to Drew because you can fill Fleet from lots of directions, and there are not a lot of ways to fill Drew.

IMO it was sensible to leave Fleet under-filled. First, they needed to (should have) fill Drew. Second, the population in the Fleet boundary would continue to grow; so it would have been irresponsible to completely fill a 750 seat school on day one just to be overcrowded by year 2 or 3 or even 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was very foolish to let Amazon in without forcing them to pat for a new school.

^ pay

It's worse than that - Amazon DID pay $340MM to Arlington, just for affordable housing and not schools. Which just goes to show how much more powerful the affordable housing/developer lobby is with the county board while they ignore parents and APS. We'll never improve with this lack of collaboration between the county and APS.

And since affordable housing has the highest student generation factor, along with students who might be more likely to need additional supports, it’s criminal that the County doesn’t consider public education concurrent with that type of development. We are in a situation of zero accountability because ACDC get to pick our elected officials from school board on up, so this won’t be changing.

[Anonymous]

So what’s the answer just let Drew fail and continue segregation and redlining?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what’s the answer just let Drew fail and continue segregation and redlining?

Drew just can't get a break. Their amazing, charismatic principal who's been instilling a lot of enthusiasm and optimism about Drew within the community just got a promotion and will no longer be the principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what’s the answer just let Drew fail and continue segregation and redlining?

Did you have a suggestion? We’re all ears.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what’s the answer just let Drew fail and continue segregation and redlining?

Drew just can't get a break. Their amazing, charismatic principal who's been instilling a lot of enthusiasm and optimism about Drew within the community just got a promotion and will no longer be the principal.

Such bad timing! She needed to be there at least 3- 5 years to help get Drew off to a great start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d make Claremont a neighborhood school and move immersion to Drew. Immersion is a draw for many Fairlington/Shirlington families.

Making Drew an option school isn’t politically viable right now. It was mostly option Montessori until a few years ago and there was a big push to make it a neighborhood school to right the wrong done generations ago via bussing. Making it option again would be insensitive/racist/inequitable/etc and would be a whole cluster.

I understand that the community was wary of the Montessori program siphoning resources away from the neighborhood program.

I also get that it’s easy to quickly defend any changes to Drew as racist or harmful, but meanwhile APS is steadily building a new map of segregation and inequity. Drew can’t sit at 80% occupied while other APS schools become over crowded, especially schools with high FARMs.

The Green Valley old timers would say to just redraw the lines and fill it up... and they wouldn’t be wrong. There is an overcrowded school zone bordering a school zone that has empty seats. The answer is very straightforward. As for the overall segregation, that’s inevitable as long as we have neighborhood schools and the county board keeps approving 300+ unit CAFs in the same handful of places.

Maybe the point about creating segregation will resonate with the county board. I just don’t think they care about schools, but maybe they care about perpetuating segregation (or rather they could me motivated to stop perpetuating segregation).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d make Claremont a neighborhood school and move immersion to Drew. Immersion is a draw for many Fairlington/Shirlington families.

Making Drew an option school isn’t politically viable right now. It was mostly option Montessori until a few years ago and there was a big push to make it a neighborhood school to right the wrong done generations ago via bussing. Making it option again would be insensitive/racist/inequitable/etc and would be a whole cluster.

I understand that the community was wary of the Montessori program siphoning resources away from the neighborhood program.

I also get that it’s easy to quickly defend any changes to Drew as racist or harmful, but meanwhile APS is steadily building a new map of segregation and inequity. Drew can’t sit at 80% occupied while other APS schools become over crowded, especially schools with high FARMs.

The Green Valley old timers would say to just redraw the lines and fill it up... and they wouldn’t be wrong. There is an overcrowded school zone bordering a school zone that has empty seats. The answer is very straightforward. As for the overall segregation, that’s inevitable as long as we have neighborhood schools and the county board keeps approving 300+ unit CAFs in the same handful of places.

Maybe the point about creating segregation will resonate with the county board. I just don’t think they care about schools, but maybe they care about perpetuating segregation (or rather they could me motivated to stop perpetuating segregation).

I’m a DP, but as best as I can figure out, it’s easiest for the County and developers to approve or redevelop CAFs in certain places, and so they continue to approve buildings for those places only. Then the problem perpetuates itself. The segregation problem is most pronounced in 22207, but the County and others like to lecture the rest of us about how we aren’t being “inclusive” enough if we question this pattern. I think they know and don’t care.