What do you expect from APS staff (option/neighborhood) on 4/30?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now that the Superintendent's proposed CIP calls for tearing down the Henry building in a few years, shouldn't we be including the Montessori school in this planning process? If not, what are we doing with that program? Montessori to Nottingham?

That could perhaps be an idea!!! Perhaps Nottingham could stay neighborhood, but with a smaller attendance zone, and add Montessori. I know it didn't work out well at Drew, but I think there was a different dynamic there. It is worth exploring. Many Montessori parents have happily traveled to Discovery and Jamestown for a while, and have hoped to get a Montessori spot there, so Nottingham is not further. I'm not sure, but it should be looked at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The asfs principal is perfectly fine with the majority of her school population being sent to different communities. Just saying.

As a future Key parent, you don't speak for me. I want to be able to walk to Key school with my kids, not bus them to a school outside our walk zone. Sounds like the current asfs walk-zone parents want the same thing I do. This would be great if more of us have a walk-able school in the Rosslyn to VA Square area.

But you want Key to stay as an immersion school at the current location, right?

Different poster, I think most of us in Key zone with preschoolers would like to see it as neighborhood. The people who are already enrolled and invested in either Key Immersion or ASFS may feel differently, but for those of us who haven’t started Key as neighborhood is way better.

Figures that the commitment to immersion would be slipping. That’s a shame.

It's not really a shame. There will still be immersion offered. I can totally see that most people prefer a neighborhood school over Spanish immersion. That's how ASFS got completely filled with Key zone kids in the first place. We really don't need to do two Spanish immersion schools. The people that REALLY want it will apply.

[Anonymous]

Without any notice to the community, the staff updated the timeline on the website this evening to say that the questionnaire will be posted sometime next week. Are they competent to do anything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The asfs principal is perfectly fine with the majority of her school population being sent to different communities. Just saying.

The ASFS principal has been there since day 1 of the school’s existence 20+ years ago. She has been at the school when kids from all over Arlington could attend it, to just students in the team boundaries to it being almost exclusively a school for the Key neighborhood. She’s able to understand the long run and what’s best for APS. I’m not claiming that changing ASFS boundaries is a good or bad thing but I am saying she has a much wider perspective of how ASFS has functioned than the current community who may not want to move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The asfs principal is perfectly fine with the majority of her school population being sent to different communities. Just saying.

The ASFS principal has been there since day 1 of the school’s existence 20+ years ago. She has been at the school when kids from all over Arlington could attend it, to just students in the team boundaries to it being almost exclusively a school for the Key neighborhood. She’s able to understand the long run and what’s best for APS. I’m not claiming that changing ASFS boundaries is a good or bad thing but I am saying she has a much wider perspective of how ASFS has functioned than the current community who may not want to move.

I think many in the community are ok with moving. The asfs principal may have created an amazing school, but she has no loyalty to the current student population other than those who pay big money to attend. She will talk for hours about how much she loves the facility she has built, without mentioning anything about the community in it. She values a pile of bricks more than a single of her students. Which maybe if I had worked in the same job 20+ years I would too. It’s not a sign of a good principal though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: We really don't need to do two Spanish immersion schools. The people that REALLY want it will apply.

There are two very large elementary schools which are completely full for Spanish immersion. Nice of you to decide for all of them that half don't really want it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The asfs principal is perfectly fine with the majority of her school population being sent to different communities. Just saying.

As a future Key parent, you don't speak for me. I want to be able to walk to Key school with my kids, not bus them to a school outside our walk zone. Sounds like the current asfs walk-zone parents want the same thing I do. This would be great if more of us have a walk-able school in the Rosslyn to VA Square area.

I think you misread pp. I think that pp was saying that the asfs principal is a bad principal because she obviously has no attachment to her current student population.
I’m assuming you have a rising k that lotteried into key?
Because if you don’t have a rising k, then you should know that unless they change the status quo, you will not have a walkable school. Plain and simple.
And just so you know, there are 11 current kids from the asfs walk zone that go to asfs. Out of 653. Assuming siblings account for some of them, you are talking about 5 or 6 families.
I’m all for people walking to school, but those yellow shirt wearing jerks do not speak for the entire asfs community, and they should not have pretended like they did. And unless you are advocating for key staying where it is, you do not want the same as those people. Because they want a Lilly white school where all the poor kids who had the nerve to live in the key zone and go to their school get sent some place else like Taylor or long branch.

The transfer for rate into ASFS is over 20%, so there are a lot more than just 5 or 6 families that live outside the Key attendance zone that go to ASFS. And, because of the old Team school model, those families could have attended a less diverse school like Taylor or Jamestown. So these accusations that these families obviously want to have a "Lilly white school" are ridiculous. Also, every thread I've seen complaining about ASFS being divided up, etc., says that 90% of the school will now have to go to the "new" neighborhood Key school. Well, if 90% is going to the new school, doesn't that mean all of the current diversity is being preserved at the "new" school? Maybe the staff and principal won't be the same, but the community will be the same, so what is the issue? Are people at ASFS really mad that the principal and staff don't want to uproot everything to move with the "current population"? The same population that will be gone in a few years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The asfs principal is perfectly fine with the majority of her school population being sent to different communities. Just saying.

As a future Key parent, you don't speak for me. I want to be able to walk to Key school with my kids, not bus them to a school outside our walk zone. Sounds like the current asfs walk-zone parents want the same thing I do. This would be great if more of us have a walk-able school in the Rosslyn to VA Square area.

But you want Key to stay as an immersion school at the current location, right?

No, my kids are not in kindergarten yet. When they start attending school, it would be nice to be a neighborhood Key school, not ASFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The asfs principal is perfectly fine with the majority of her school population being sent to different communities. Just saying.

As a future Key parent, you don't speak for me. I want to be able to walk to Key school with my kids, not bus them to a school outside our walk zone. Sounds like the current asfs walk-zone parents want the same thing I do. This would be great if more of us have a walk-able school in the Rosslyn to VA Square area.

I think you misread pp. I think that pp was saying that the asfs principal is a bad principal because she obviously has no attachment to her current student population.
I’m assuming you have a rising k that lotteried into key?
Because if you don’t have a rising k, then you should know that unless they change the status quo, you will not have a walkable school. Plain and simple.
And just so you know, there are 11 current kids from the asfs walk zone that go to asfs. Out of 653. Assuming siblings account for some of them, you are talking about 5 or 6 families.
I’m all for people walking to school, but those yellow shirt wearing jerks do not speak for the entire asfs community, and they should not have pretended like they did. And unless you are advocating for key staying where it is, you do not want the same as those people. Because they want a Lilly white school where all the poor kids who had the nerve to live in the key zone and go to their school get sent some place else like Taylor or long branch.

The transfer for rate into ASFS is over 20%, so there are a lot more than just 5 or 6 families that live outside the Key attendance zone that go to ASFS. And, because of the old Team school model, those families could have attended a less diverse school like Taylor or Jamestown. So these accusations that these families obviously want to have a "Lilly white school" are ridiculous. Also, every thread I've seen complaining about ASFS being divided up, etc., says that 90% of the school will now have to go to the "new" neighborhood Key school. Well, if 90% is going to the new school, doesn't that mean all of the current diversity is being preserved at the "new" school? Maybe the staff and principal won't be the same, but the community will be the same, so what is the issue? Are people at ASFS really mad that the principal and staff don't want to uproot everything to move with the "current population"? The same population that will be gone in a few years?

Yes the transfer rate into asfs is around 13-15% of the school. Most of those people don't live in the walk zone though, or even in the largest possible expanded walk zone. 642 out of 653 kids at asfs are bus eligible-- only eleven children in the current school body live in the walk zone. The 500+ kids that live in key will move to another school presumably.
Instead of the teachers and administrators standing up and saying they care about those children, all they have been saying is how they care about the pile of bricks. I understand they invested into the building, but it was and is hurtful to the current school population that they don't care where any of us go as long as the building stays where iris.
And they have said that they are very happy to take transfers from people who live near the school, but those kids from the key zone are crowding the school and need to be sent elsewhere. They were saying that last year before this began! The kids from key live in apartments and their parents don't speak English well so they are a drain on our school, but it would be great if Lyon village was zoned for the school! what do you think the school will look like at that point. And you should have heard those guys talking about immersion coming there! The horror! But ats would be a great addition to the neighborhood. What do you think the subtext is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The asfs principal is perfectly fine with the majority of her school population being sent to different communities. Just saying.

The ASFS principal has been there since day 1 of the school’s existence 20+ years ago. She has been at the school when kids from all over Arlington could attend it, to just students in the team boundaries to it being almost exclusively a school for the Key neighborhood. She’s able to understand the long run and what’s best for APS. I’m not claiming that changing ASFS boundaries is a good or bad thing but I am saying she has a much wider perspective of how ASFS has functioned than the current community who may not want to move.

I think many in the community are ok with moving. The asfs principal may have created an amazing school, but she has no loyalty to the current student population other than those who pay big money to attend. She will talk for hours about how much she loves the facility she has built, without mentioning anything about the community in it. She values a pile of bricks more than a single of her students. Which maybe if I had worked in the same job 20+ years I would too. It’s not a sign of a good principal though.

So you think the principal should value her current students more than the school as a whole? I’m not sure any principal should do that. I had four children attend ASFS for 16 years and over that time we had many ups and downs with her but I never once felt she needed to be loyal to us, whatever that means. My kids got a fabulous education so I think the principal did her job and went way more than the proverbial extra mile. She absolutely built an amazing school and it was because of the help she had from multiple communities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The asfs principal is perfectly fine with the majority of her school population being sent to different communities. Just saying.

The ASFS principal has been there since day 1 of the school’s existence 20+ years ago. She has been at the school when kids from all over Arlington could attend it, to just students in the team boundaries to it being almost exclusively a school for the Key neighborhood. She’s able to understand the long run and what’s best for APS. I’m not claiming that changing ASFS boundaries is a good or bad thing but I am saying she has a much wider perspective of how ASFS has functioned than the current community who may not want to move.

This is not correct. ASFS could never be attended by kids from all over Arlington.
It was an option school only for 4 elementary schools, including Taylor, Jamestown.
They were called the TEAM schools.
It was never available as a choice for Barcroft, Carlin Springs, Abington, Oakridge, Ashlawn, ... etc.

[Anonymous]

Correct no special science focus for kids from S Arlington. Imagine that... all this hand wringing over change but attacking Henry parents for being upset that Fleet is getting new boundaries instead of being what was promised a new building for the Henry community. None of this outreach when Montessori decision was made, but Henry families south of the puke are chastised for being upset. Sure break up Barcroft if it benefits N Arlington... the Arlington way oropuritizing N Arlington since forever

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The asfs principal is perfectly fine with the majority of her school population being sent to different communities. Just saying.

The ASFS principal has been there since day 1 of the school’s existence 20+ years ago. She has been at the school when kids from all over Arlington could attend it, to just students in the team boundaries to it being almost exclusively a school for the Key neighborhood. She’s able to understand the long run and what’s best for APS. I’m not claiming that changing ASFS boundaries is a good or bad thing but I am saying she has a much wider perspective of how ASFS has functioned than the current community who may not want to move.

This is not correct. ASFS could never be attended by kids from all over Arlington.
It was an option school only for 4 elementary schools, including Taylor, Jamestown.
They were called the TEAM schools.
It was never available as a choice for Barcroft, Carlin Springs, Abington, Oakridge, Ashlawn, ... etc.

I never understand why people talks about things they don’t know with such certainty. ASFS was absolutely available to students outside the team for its first 10 or so years of its existence. Attendance priority first went to those in Key boundary, followed by the team boundaries and if there still was space it was open to the rest of Arlington, but no transportation was provided. I am the PP who was at the school for 16 years and my kids had friends at ASFS from Glebe, Nottingham and Oakridge boundaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: We really don't need to do two Spanish immersion schools. The people that REALLY want it will apply.

There are two very large elementary schools which are completely full for Spanish immersion. Nice of you to decide for all of them that half don't really want it.

Not half, but ~30% - that means I’d suspect ~15% Spanish native and ~15% English native speakers, so ~15% of each group are only there for convenience/proximity or escape from another school. I’m not blaming them, everyone admits that location draws applications. Those numbers are really not that far fetched!

One immersion school, larger than the current ones, should be enough, for the families that really want this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: We really don't need to do two Spanish immersion schools. The people that REALLY want it will apply.

There are two very large elementary schools which are completely full for Spanish immersion. Nice of you to decide for all of them that half don't really want it.

Not half, but ~30% - that means I’d suspect ~15% Spanish native and ~15% English native speakers, so ~15% of each group are only there for convenience/proximity or escape from another school. I’m not blaming them, everyone admits that location draws applications. Those numbers are really not that far fetched!

One immersion school, larger than the current ones, should be enough, for the families that really want this.

I bet they will open a third within the next ten years. It’s a very popular program. The biggest impediment to growing the program is finding qualified teachers.