South Arlington and North Arlington Schools

[Anonymous]

Ok - and if I may get back to the topic of this very informative and generally collaborative and friendly minded thread; our SCHOOLS:

Is there a school board seat up for election, too? I've seen advertisement. Who can enlighten me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok - and if I may get back to the topic of this very informative and generally collaborative and friendly minded thread; our SCHOOLS:

Is there a school board seat up for election, too? I've seen advertisement. Who can enlighten me?

There is really just one school board candidate who is the dem party nominee. There is no real competition in that race.

It's the county board race that's more important because of the effect of housing policy on schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to read some of the threads about ASFS if you're contending that it's a special program that the rest of us are being unfairly deprived of. The immersion programs have a lottery etc., but could stand to establish a third school to accomodate growing demand. Are you saying everyone in the north has an automatic in to these programs and everyone in south arlington is edged out??? If you look at the school by school transfer reports, I'm pretty sure that's not the case with most if not all of the choice schools. I thought the bigger complaint and what has inspired so much debate is the concentrated high-density housing on the Pike (and proposed in the future for the Pike) that disproportionately overwhelms south arlington schools. That is a valid and serious complaint and one that, as others have noted, goes to housing policy and establishing better coordination between the county and APS to insure that we've got adequate infrastructure in place. It's not a schools issue in the first instance. Getting into the nuanced differences between schools like ASFS and the rest of the elementary schools is kind of silly and not how the bigger problems will be solved. I also think you're more likely to get county-wide support for addressing the real problems by not leading with criticism of how great everyone in north arlington has it and how unfair it is that they've got schools like ASFS. That alienates people who would otherwise be on board to really address these questions because they think you're complaining about trivial distinctions between schools. Find the common ground, which is capacity and nurturing and expanding rather than dismantling special programs, and start there. Just a suggestion.

This is wise; to find the common ground, North and South.

One main issue is overcrowding - it is getting really bad at many schools - and will get so much worse within just a few years, and the total lack of foresight on the SB and CB part, not only in regards to the numbers, but mainly in regards to spending.
The spending inconsistency is maddening. There are more than subtle differences between schools. They shouldn't be overspending on one project and then making frantic cuts on the next one.

Another main issue is, of course, the housing policy - for all of Arlington, because as it has been pointed out, while some schools will be immediately and directly affected and overwhelmed, this will be felt in all of Arlington, because of the amounts of tax money it will drain to entertain these programs... And a host of other issues (perhaps reversal of desire for many to move close in etc.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok - and if I may get back to the topic of this very informative and generally collaborative and friendly minded thread; our SCHOOLS:

Is there a school board seat up for election, too? I've seen advertisement. Who can enlighten me?

There is really just one school board candidate who is the dem party nominee. There is no real competition in that race.

It's the county board race that's more important because of the effect of housing policy on schools.

Ugh, really? I might be unfair here, but I'm not having the best first impression. Out of touch with school kids best describes it.
Hopefully that's not true. How disappointing.

[Anonymous]

I like Reid Goldstein. I think he'll do a fine job on the school board.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Living options at $500k in north arlington? Not with 2 kids.

Seriously. That poster needs to stfu. They don't have a clue... And yes - they are the reason the older generation hates all of us.

It's called a small apartment. You can tell me to stfu, but it's exactly what we did on a modest budget. I'm a parent with kids in aps, two of them, in fact. We made huge housing compromises. I know exactly what I'm talking about. You may not consider that a reasonable compromise or option and that's your choice. Not sure why the older generation would hate me for doing that.

Everyone else hates you because you're a sanctimonious ass.

Speak for yourself. PP is totally right that you can make sacrifices on living space to get a better school. Why so much hate for her because she did -- is she wrecking your story that it's not possible?

Because people have made sacrifices to live even in south Arlington. It's shockingly out of touch and entitled to not realize that. That includes all of the single parents, and hard working immigrants that are desperately trying to make a better life for their kids. I'm sure there is a very small percentage of people living south of 50 , around the pike, that opted for new construction and square footage. it's likely smaller than the people you see on these threads gloating over "'buying into"' science focus and now discovery.
Parents make the best choice they can wih the resources they've got. This thread has basically turned into a forum about APS and CB policy. The county as a whole has taken a bit of a laissez faire approach to planning in regards to affordable housing, density, and schools. It's a good thing that there are more well educated, middle class voices rising up from other parts of the county. It's necessary to point out disparities in allotted resources - from all sides. Certainly when you concentrate poverty and English language learners, you are creating an even more expensive school to educate. These decisions ( or lack there of) effect us all.
It's wonderful that pp had the means to live in north Arlington. It's terribly out of touch to assume with just a bit of adjustment everyone else could do the same. It's astounding to hear a north Arlington apt referred to as a sacrifice. I would have loved to afford that. We rented an apt in south arl...
Imagining you made a superior real estate decision doesn't add to this conversation. It's a distraction. There is a forum for that. Please take those remarks there.

Wow. It looks like someone struck a nerve. I think the post about making compromises assumed the ability to own a home in the $500k range. I don't think that poster suggested that someone without some means could do it, or was so "out of touch" to think that everyone can just move to N. Arlington. She's probably assuming that someone who has the time and inclination to have this fight on DCUM probably falls into the category of someone with at least some resources. And if she's wrong then it's just another person wrong on the internet. And that's ok. There are a lot of posters who complain that they bought a nice house in a nice neighborhood in S. Arlington, only to be surprised that the schools don't measure up to their N. Arlington counterparts. Presumably that was her audience.

Well, I think a lot of posters on here have been talking about those children in our community who would stand to benefit most from socioeconomically integrated schools and neighborhoods, and those are not children of families who can afford to buy a home in the $500,000 range. Also, you can't get into my neighborhood here in the South for that amount unless you're looking at a total tear down, not even a town home in that range.

Lastly, I am of the opinion that public education should be equitable. You should not be able to buy your child's way into a special program through your ability to afford a certain neighborhood, nor should any child be relegated to school that struggles to meet the minimum standards and struggles to raise PTA funds to provide enrichment activities and field trips, because your family cannot. If you want the ability to "buy" a better school, you have the freedom to do so at a private school.

LOL umm ok, the issue is not that you dope. There are minimum standards that all public schools should meet, and even the lowest one's meet that. If you want something that exceeds the standard you go to a richer area. Not that hard, ECON 101

...ummm property tax is the same on 500,000 no matter where you live in Arlington.

but the prices in north arlington are 40% more hence they pay more!

Two seperate dwellings each appraised at 500,000 pay the same amount in taxes.

LOL you don't get it but that's cool

Lol - no you don't get it ! I'm a NP. If I pay 12K and you pay 12K property tax we are paying equal amounts into the same pot, it doesn't matter if I'm in a penthouse in Rosslyn or Crystal City, ok?

You are making an ASSUMPTION that the person who purchased on a "lesser land value" got more "bang for their buck" as in space or amenities.
And is thus "less deserving" because they "sacrificed less".
But this is a false assumption and completely moronic.

There are people in North and South Arlington who sacrificed nothing, because they inherited their land, or bought decades ago. Are they less deserving? There is someone in South Arlington who bought at the top of the real estate bubble who sits in the exact same size and age house as another person in North Arlington who bought in a different year, AND they are paying the exact same property taxes to the same county every year....
How is one person more deserving than another??
If you think that your kid is more deserving, because you are paying xyz thousand per year living in a nice condo, vs. someone else paying the SAME in another part of the county, that could be a condo bought at a different time, or a SFH, or whatever....
You should be ashamed of yourself. You don't know, how these other people got to be where they are, and what they may or may not have sacrificed, or why they live in a certain neighborhood in Arlington. We are all sharing the resources in this small county, and we are all paying a ton to be here, one way or another.

Life isn't fair, you end up paying more for a premium product.

[Anonymous]

^^^ in addition to one vote for Mike McMenamin. I vote we ignore the unhelpful, and seemingly ignorant troll. Let's all just hope they aren't even an Arlingtonian shall we?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like Reid Goldstein. I think he'll do a fine job on the school board.

I am inclined to write in Greg Greeley, who I think would be a better SB member but, as I understand it, can't run because as a government employee, he can't seek the endorsement of a political party.

It's going to be Reid Goldstein and he is going to bow to whatever Murphy tells him to bow to. I think part of the swearing-in for school board candidates is having your spine removed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like Reid Goldstein. I think he'll do a fine job on the school board.

I am inclined to write in Greg Greeley, who I think would be a better SB member but, as I understand it, can't run because as a government employee, he can't seek the endorsement of a political party.

It's going to be Reid Goldstein and he is going to bow to whatever Murphy tells him to bow to. I think part of the swearing-in for school board candidates is having your spine removed.

Ya think? He seems pretty experienced a level headed. What makes you think he is spineless? Genuinely curious. I've met him and I got a good vibe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like Reid Goldstein. I think he'll do a fine job on the school board.

I am inclined to write in Greg Greeley, who I think would be a better SB member but, as I understand it, can't run because as a government employee, he can't seek the endorsement of a political party.

It's going to be Reid Goldstein and he is going to bow to whatever Murphy tells him to bow to. I think part of the swearing-in for school board candidates is having your spine removed.

Ive heard from those who served with him on various committees that he speaks his mind when he disagrees on an issue. He will not easily acquiesce to the superintendent. He's a solid candidate in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I understand, what makes it a science focus school is they do an extra 30 minutes of integrating science concepts into the week. Why not work with your assigned school to incorporate more science into the ordinary curriculum. Boom. You've got a science focus school.

My school has 22 languages spoken, and illiterate parents. The school is FOCUSED on getting kids up to level. Don't get me wrong, they are good kids and the parents really want a good education for their kids. They just don't know what that looks like. The school is doing an amazing job with the what they have been tasked. Just giving you an idea of how different these worlds are.

This is my old fear. I live in a neighborhood near an area where many languages are spoken. I worry that when its time for school, that the school will be more focused on teaching ESL than the rest of the curriculum. There doesn't seem to be a way to determine how the school will serve non-ESL students until we enroll, but the neighbors have been pretty positive, so it can't be all bad.

[Anonymous]

08:58 - my children go to a school with very few ESL students. The school typically clusters them in one or two classrooms so that they can make the best of their resources. If your school has the opposite demographics, I would expect that the same will happen, but the cluster will be students who don't need ESL support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I understand, what makes it a science focus school is they do an extra 30 minutes of integrating science concepts into the week. Why not work with your assigned school to incorporate more science into the ordinary curriculum. Boom. You've got a science focus school.

My school has 22 languages spoken, and illiterate parents. The school is FOCUSED on getting kids up to level. Don't get me wrong, they are good kids and the parents really want a good education for their kids. They just don't know what that looks like. The school is doing an amazing job with the what they have been tasked. Just giving you an idea of how different these worlds are.

This is my old fear. I live in a neighborhood near an area where many languages are spoken. I worry that when its time for school, that the school will be more focused on teaching ESL than the rest of the curriculum. There doesn't seem to be a way to determine how the school will serve non-ESL students until we enroll, but the neighbors have been pretty positive, so it can't be all bad.

Tower of babel, you ain't gonna learn shit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like Reid Goldstein. I think he'll do a fine job on the school board.

Ive heard from those who served with him on various committees that he speaks his mind when he disagrees on an issue. He will not easily acquiesce to the superintendent. He's a solid candidate in my opinion.

I'll be digging this thread up in a year or so.

SB is frequently a stepping stone to the CB and beyond; I suspect that members of the SB are disinclined to or discouraged from making waves, which would imply criticism of their fellow Democrats who made the original decisions. I would be delighted to hear RG speak up against Murphy. I am not holding my breath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to read some of the threads about ASFS if you're contending that it's a special program that the rest of us are being unfairly deprived of. The immersion programs have a lottery etc., but could stand to establish a third school to accomodate growing demand. Are you saying everyone in the north has an automatic in to these programs and everyone in south arlington is edged out??? If you look at the school by school transfer reports, I'm pretty sure that's not the case with most if not all of the choice schools. I thought the bigger complaint and what has inspired so much debate is the concentrated high-density housing on the Pike (and proposed in the future for the Pike) that disproportionately overwhelms south arlington schools. That is a valid and serious complaint and one that, as others have noted, goes to housing policy and establishing better coordination between the county and APS to insure that we've got adequate infrastructure in place. It's not a schools issue in the first instance. Getting into the nuanced differences between schools like ASFS and the rest of the elementary schools is kind of silly and not how the bigger problems will be solved. I also think you're more likely to get county-wide support for addressing the real problems by not leading with criticism of how great everyone in north arlington has it and how unfair it is that they've got schools like ASFS. That alienates people who would otherwise be on board to really address these questions because they think you're complaining about trivial distinctions between schools. Find the common ground, which is capacity and nurturing and expanding rather than dismantling special programs, and start there. Just a suggestion.

I should have been more clear. No I am not saying this, at all. What I am saying is that many choice schools are no longer options at all, because of the tiered lottery system currently in place. "Area" choice schools have supplanted countywide choice schools. This means that some neighborhoods have preference over others, and given the capacity crisis in both N and S Arlington, many lotteries are not open to students living outside the preferred boundary. The only true countywide choice elementary is ATS.

And I am saying that this policy is contributing to socioeconomic segregation rather than becoming part of the solution. Whether these programmatic distinctions are actually better is kind of irrelevant to the argument I am making, which is that these programs are PERCEIVED as better by many parents of means, and could be a way to attract more high SES families into lower SES schools, instead of doing what they are doing now, which is allowing the highest SES families to purchase their place in these schools, to the exclusion of lower SES families. I am not making a value judgement about whether ASF, or any other choice school, is the best fit for all children, or even that they do offer superior educational experiences.

I bring this up as someone raised in a neighboring jurisdiction that has many magnet school options at the elementary level. I think choices are great, and welcome more. We don't really have choices right now. We have the illusion of choices.

Of course I would like to see housing policy that naturally lead to more diverse schools, but I don't think it has be one or the other. Neither will be easy to accomplish.