APS elementary planning initiative called off

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Arlington got rid of option schools, a lot of parents would leave certain neighborhoods. Sorry, but it is true. I live in SA in a neighborhood surrounded by title I schools. Most parents try for an option school. Many of them get in, or at least used to. If they don't, they leave. Schools has been one of the largest drivers of home sales and non-renewal of rental leases. In the 8 years I have lived here, it has been the primary driver and I know of over a dozen who made a decision to leave because of schools.

For families moving in, they already have their kids in option schools.

People will move, driving down real estate values and making south arlington SFH neighborhoods more affordable. So, if that is the goal, eliminating option schools will do it.

When’s that happening? Cause I don’t know if you noticed, but neighborhoods zoned to the worst elementary schools were selling older homes for over 800K this past spring.

People with kids already in option schools are the buyers for these houses.

Prove it.

I am such a person. if my preschooler gets into an option school I will leave my small SA townhouse and buy in DP or alcova. Great neighborhoods, interesting houses, way cheaper than NA, more down to earth. Only problem is the segregated neighborhood elementary schools. If my kid gets into an option, there is no downside. It has been my plan for awhile.

And then pat yourself on the back for your progressive virtue.

F that. Pay themselves on the back for being smart with their money and stretching their housing budget.

It's always amusing to watch north Arlington parents assume the moral high ground. SA parents are supposed to send their kids to crappy schools an not talk about it or push for options. We too could be pure, if only we had the money to buy an $$$ house in NA. Then we could stay silent, and seem virtuous, like we weren't be self interested. That's the thing that irks NA naysayers the most: they understand that many of the things that SA parents want- integrated schools, more options, ANYTHING to disrupt high poverty schools, is not just good for the goose, it's good for the gander.

+1. We bought where we could afford.

Anybody want to share a perspective of living in a lower SES neighborhood and sending kids to an option school? Do they make friends nearby, is it just positive all around? What about the transition to Middle/High School? I am just trying to understand any potential downsides of getting into an option school and living in a lower income area.

It depends a lot of where you live and which school you go to. For a kid from Carlin Springs, for example, there’s a big difference between going to Campbell and going to ATS.

[Anonymous]

I’ve heard that at the start of middle school ATS kids can get a little frozen out at Jefferson and a Gunston but eventually people get over it. It seems like it’s not such a big issue at Kenmore, probably because there are more former ATS kids there.

[Anonymous]

I would worry more about ATS kids not knowing anyone from Williamsburg. Almost nobody from the Williamsburg feeders sends their kids to ATS. My daughter and I literally know of only two kids from her cohort who will be going there. Tons of kids going to Swanson, kenmore and Jefferson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would worry more about ATS kids not knowing anyone from Williamsburg. Almost nobody from the Williamsburg feeders sends their kids to ATS. My daughter and I literally know of only two kids from her cohort who will be going there. Tons of kids going to Swanson, kenmore and Jefferson.

PP didn’t ask about kids from wealthy North Arlington neighborhoods do in middle school, she asked about how kids from lower income neighborhoods do. Try to keep up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would worry more about ATS kids not knowing anyone from Williamsburg. Almost nobody from the Williamsburg feeders sends their kids to ATS. My daughter and I literally know of only two kids from her cohort who will be going there. Tons of kids going to Swanson, kenmore and Jefferson.

PP didn’t ask about kids from wealthy North Arlington neighborhoods do in middle school, she asked about how kids from lower income neighborhoods do. Try to keep up.

It sounds like if you live next to the Poors but send your kids to school with UMC kids will they develop poor habits from nearby friends?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would worry more about ATS kids not knowing anyone from Williamsburg. Almost nobody from the Williamsburg feeders sends their kids to ATS. My daughter and I literally know of only two kids from her cohort who will be going there. Tons of kids going to Swanson, kenmore and Jefferson.

PP didn’t ask about kids from wealthy North Arlington neighborhoods do in middle school, she asked about how kids from lower income neighborhoods do. Try to keep up.

It sounds like if you live next to the Poors but send your kids to school with UMC kids will they develop poor habits from nearby friends?

It’s time to put the bottle down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard that at the start of middle school ATS kids can get a little frozen out at Jefferson and a Gunston but eventually people get over it. It seems like it’s not such a big issue at Kenmore, probably because there are more former ATS kids there.

What does that mean, ATS kids can get frozen out at Jefferson? My son's best friend at Jefferson went to ATS. Our experience is that a lot of the ATS people go to HB; so a lot of the ATS kids my kids know don't go to our neighborhood Jefferson school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard that at the start of middle school ATS kids can get a little frozen out at Jefferson and a Gunston but eventually people get over it. It seems like it’s not such a big issue at Kenmore, probably because there are more former ATS kids there.

What does that mean, ATS kids can get frozen out at Jefferson? My son's best friend at Jefferson went to ATS. Our experience is that a lot of the ATS people go to HB; so a lot of the ATS kids my kids know don't go to our neighborhood Jefferson school.

Well that was a whole bunch of word salad.

[Anonymous]

Frozen out? What are you teaching your kids. Say hello make friends. Where a kid comes from doesn’t matter... oh wait does it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frozen out? What are you teaching your kids. Say hello make friends. Where a kid comes from doesn’t matter... oh wait does it?

Plenty of low income families understand that where you come from matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frozen out? What are you teaching your kids. Say hello make friends. Where a kid comes from doesn’t matter... oh wait does it?

Plenty of low income families understand that where you come from matters.

Especially when "where you come from" is the place you went to get away from them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frozen out? What are you teaching your kids. Say hello make friends. Where a kid comes from doesn’t matter... oh wait does it?

I think PP was just pointing out that there are fewer ATS kids at Jefferson and Gunston than the other schools mentioned. Jefferson and Gunston are probably harder to "break into" socially, because so many of the kids DO attend neighborhood elementaries (Henry/Long Branch or Oakridge/Abingdon, plus the Immersion kids at Gunston stick to themselves), so friend groups are already established from ES. It has nothing to do with where a kids lives or where they come from, it's simply who they already know. I bet the kids coming into those schools from option schools are eventually welcomed into a group by a neighbor or kid they know from sports. As a parent of an option school kid, we go out of our way to have child play sports and do camps with either neighborhood kids or friend groups outside of school so that the kid is better accustomed to breaking into new groups/making new friends. It's a life skill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The misinformation on this site about ASFS is appalling.

No one who isn’t currently at ASFS joined the PTA and voted in the recent election. Two people who live in the neighborhood who would like to eventually attend the school came to one meeting where no election was held.


However, at the meeting where elections were held, the attendance record reached an all time high with new members/attendees who currently attend ASFS but had never come to a previous meeting. They showed up with copies of the same email (probably from the same PP accusing neighborhood people of being racist for wanting to walk to school) telling them who to vote for/vote out. Once the vote was over (and before the results were announced), they all left.

If anything, all these posts about ASFS support the need for APS and the SB to redrawn boundaries around ASFS sooner rather than later so that we can all be spared any further threads on the issue.

I’m an out going officer of the asfs pta so I feel like I should correct the misinformation being spread here.
At the first pta meeting elections were supposed to be held, there were at least fifteen adults who do not have kids at the school present. I know this based off of the sign in sheet. This was the first meeting I had seen this, but it’s possible that they’ve been coming for a while. At that first meeting, there were a number of people making comments that are inconsistent with asfs community values. For example, I saw someone make fun of a parent asking a question in broken English. I don’t know if that person is a member of our community or not, but behavior like that is appalling and not welcome at our school.
At the second pta meeting where we voted, I saw at least three adults who do not have children at the school. I recognize one from the televised school board meetings and I talked to other two.
A large number of people did leave right after the vote, but that was due to Ramadan and the provided child care ending. Early is also relative: they left at 7:30 or later, which many with small kids might consider late for a weeknight.
I agree people who are not current members of the community have a right to join and contribute, but I have not seen any of them outside of these two meetings. If this is the new normal, we need to be more stringent about running background checks on volunteers. I would hate for someone to use this as a way to gain access for more nefarious reasons like child abuse or school violence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The misinformation on this site about ASFS is appalling.

No one who isn’t currently at ASFS joined the PTA and voted in the recent election. Two people who live in the neighborhood who would like to eventually attend the school came to one meeting where no election was held.


However, at the meeting where elections were held, the attendance record reached an all time high with new members/attendees who currently attend ASFS but had never come to a previous meeting. They showed up with copies of the same email (probably from the same PP accusing neighborhood people of being racist for wanting to walk to school) telling them who to vote for/vote out. Once the vote was over (and before the results were announced), they all left.

If anything, all these posts about ASFS support the need for APS and the SB to redrawn boundaries around ASFS sooner rather than later so that we can all be spared any further threads on the issue.

I’m an out going officer of the asfs pta so I feel like I should correct the misinformation being spread here.
At the first pta meeting elections were supposed to be held, there were at least fifteen adults who do not have kids at the school present. I know this based off of the sign in sheet. This was the first meeting I had seen this, but it’s possible that they’ve been coming for a while. At that first meeting, there were a number of people making comments that are inconsistent with asfs community values. For example, I saw someone make fun of a parent asking a question in broken English. I don’t know if that person is a member of our community or not, but behavior like that is appalling and not welcome at our school.
At the second pta meeting where we voted, I saw at least three adults who do not have children at the school. I recognize one from the televised school board meetings and I talked to other two.
A large number of people did leave right after the vote, but that was due to Ramadan and the provided child care ending. Early is also relative: they left at 7:30 or later, which many with small kids might consider late for a weeknight.
I agree people who are not current members of the community have a right to join and contribute, but I have not seen any of them outside of these two meetings. If this is the new normal, we need to be more stringent about running background checks on volunteers. I would hate for someone to use this as a way to gain access for more nefarious reasons like child abuse or school violence.

Are you seriously trying to associate Cherrydale parents attending ASFS PTA meetings with child abuse and school shootings? WTF is wrong with you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The misinformation on this site about ASFS is appalling.

No one who isn’t currently at ASFS joined the PTA and voted in the recent election. Two people who live in the neighborhood who would like to eventually attend the school came to one meeting where no election was held.


However, at the meeting where elections were held, the attendance record reached an all time high with new members/attendees who currently attend ASFS but had never come to a previous meeting. They showed up with copies of the same email (probably from the same PP accusing neighborhood people of being racist for wanting to walk to school) telling them who to vote for/vote out. Once the vote was over (and before the results were announced), they all left.

If anything, all these posts about ASFS support the need for APS and the SB to redrawn boundaries around ASFS sooner rather than later so that we can all be spared any further threads on the issue.

I’m an out going officer of the asfs pta so I feel like I should correct the misinformation being spread here.
At the first pta meeting elections were supposed to be held, there were at least fifteen adults who do not have kids at the school present. I know this based off of the sign in sheet. This was the first meeting I had seen this, but it’s possible that they’ve been coming for a while. At that first meeting, there were a number of people making comments that are inconsistent with asfs community values. For example, I saw someone make fun of a parent asking a question in broken English. I don’t know if that person is a member of our community or not, but behavior like that is appalling and not welcome at our school.
At the second pta meeting where we voted, I saw at least three adults who do not have children at the school. I recognize one from the televised school board meetings and I talked to other two.
A large number of people did leave right after the vote, but that was due to Ramadan and the provided child care ending. Early is also relative: they left at 7:30 or later, which many with small kids might consider late for a weeknight.
I agree people who are not current members of the community have a right to join and contribute, but I have not seen any of them outside of these two meetings. If this is the new normal, we need to be more stringent about running background checks on volunteers. I would hate for someone to use this as a way to gain access for more nefarious reasons like child abuse or school violence.

Are you seriously trying to associate Cherrydale parents attending ASFS PTA meetings with child abuse and school shootings? WTF is wrong with you?

Pp here and of course I am not. I’ve been at the school for a long time, and I have no issue with establishing a walk zone or adding a traffic light or crossing guard at kirkwood so the walk zone can be expanded. I do have an issue with inviting strangers into our schools.
I am saying that as a county we should be careful about encouraging people who are not current parents to be actively involved in our schools. I welcome any support the community wants to give and if people are joining because they want to contribute time and resources I welcome that. Aps has a volunteer vetting process. If the new normal is that large numbers of volunteers for our ptas are going to be people who do not have kids at the community (which from earlier threads it is), then we need to be more stringent about making sure we follow the established process for vetting. I don’t like the idea of someone with no connection to the school regularly shelving books in the library if we haven’t verified it’s not a known sex offender.