Glebe vs McKinley Elementary?

[Anonymous]

We are looking to get a house, and we have identified two homes, but each has a different in-boundary school - Glebe and McKinley. We've read excellent reviews on McKinley, and Glebe has positive reviews too. McKinley appears to score higher than Glebe, but we like Glebe because it introduces Spanish to kids which is a big plus for us. Can anyone share their experiences of their kids in either school?

[Anonymous]

Thought all Arlington neighborhood elementaries were introducing Spanish now. But I can't keep up with the daily changes and musings of this most peculiar school system.

[Anonymous]

All the schools introduce Spanish.

McKinley is dealing with a ridiculous level of overcrowding right now. For that alone, I'd lean toward Glebe.

[Anonymous]

Both great schools, but Glebe has more space for students and actually has a field.

[Anonymous]

To give better clarity of the McKinley overcrowding - The county has created a mess at McKinley in terms of number of seats vs. number of butts. The SB added capacity at McKinley, but used an incorrect methodology when adding planning units to the school during the redistricting process. It undercounted butts that were going to McKinley. Now the trailers will need to stay at the school, which apparently are taking up field space - so there is no field to play on, and there is no adjacent park. I think there is a playground, but it is small. The county is not interested in correcting the issue. I believe they do not want to correct it anytime soon, because the county wants a choice elementary school at Westover's Reed school which will open in 2021, I think (although the SB will indicate the decision is not made, yada yada). That, and the opening of the Stratford, and elementary in S. Arlington would be the prime opportunity to redistrict everything in Arlington and correct past issues.

[Anonymous]

Also consider the middle and high school you believe you will be attending. If you are walking distance to the current HB school, you will probably get to go to a fabulous new school for MS. However, you may be districted to W-L, which has its own Over-crowded issues (which could be alleviated if the SB decides to build a new neighborhood HS on the Kenmore site). Or you could be districted to Yorktown (which is also overcrowded due to yet another number mistake by Chadwick and company). This could also be corrected with a neighborhood HS at Kenmore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thought all Arlington neighborhood elementaries were introducing Spanish now. But I can't keep up with the daily changes and musings of this most peculiar school system.

They all have "FLES" (Foreign Language for Elementary Students), which in Arlington is Spanish.

Most schools will face boundary changes. APS claimed when they rezoned elementaries in No. Arlington in 2015 and supposedly Discovery elementary was sufficient to address the overcapacity problems. That seems unlikely given that the APS Board overode the assumptions of the demographer they hired (to downplay the number of incoming students.) I suspect there will be more rezoning, as is already is obvious at McKinley. APS can model all it wants on paper, but at the end of the day the population is here and is enrolling its students.

I'd rethink twice about buying in Arlington for the schools at all. If you're moving for the location, that cannot change. But the school system is overflooded with kids and the county has looked the other way instead of addressing these problems.

[Anonymous]

Buy in FFx. Stay away from Arlington

[Anonymous]

The overcrowding problem has existed in some schools for a decade, and has been looming. Past School Board did not address it for a long time - and when it began to see the problem, did not address it sufficiently. They continue to undercount, make mistakes and I guess hope the problem will go away. Now it is a crisis. However, the current SB does not seem to be attack the problem. Yet, we keep electing incompetence. We will stay for commute reasons.

[Anonymous]

We are at Glebe and love it - great school with a definite sense of community. The PTA is very active and we've been particularly impressed with the after school enrichment opportunities that are offered.

[Anonymous]

I would select Glebe because it's less crowded. wish we could afford to buy a house in Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at Glebe and love it - great school with a definite sense of community. The PTA is very active and we've been particularly impressed with the after school enrichment opportunities that are offered.

We're also at Glebe and have been very happy there. And, I'm on the enrichment committee so the PP's post makes me very happy!

We have friends who were moved from Glebe to McKinley this year and they said while the academics are good, there is just not the sense of community that they found at Glebe. Now this may have changed as the year has gone on, but that was a comment from them. She also said that she missed the field Glebe has for after school play - many kids (and their parents) hang out after school. It's a great space for the kids to burn energy, and many parents sit and talk at that time as well.

[Anonymous]

We're at McKinley and can't compare to anything else. Generally we are very happy. DD's teachers have been great. We have found it to be a good community. PTA has lots of opportunities for parents who work and who SAH to be involved if you want to build your connection. We like the friends that DD has made.

The big downside is the overcrowding. It limits space in enrichment classes, extended day, extracurriculars like the plays, and of course the field space. The new art rooms are amazing The principal is very engaged, but also very defensive of APS's decisions, spouting the line that all will be fine, although I suppose he doesn't have much of a choice since they are his bosses.

[Anonymous]

Even when the SB "fixes" the McK mess, it will still be a bigger school. The addition brought McK's capacity to 684. I think Glebe is under 600 with no plans to expand (at least as of today).

We're at McK and really like the principal and staff. However, I've heard wonderful things about Glebe and it actually seems more like the kind of school we thought we were getting when we bought into the McK district 10+ years ago. McK has started to feel much more impersonal as it has grown in size. It is just hard to know everyone when you have 5 to 6 classes per grade.

The gifted teacher at Glebe is supposed to be amazing too if that's a factor for you-- I think she won a statewide award last year, if I remember correctly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The gifted teacher at Glebe is supposed to be amazing too if that's a factor for you-- I think she won a statewide award last year, if I remember correctly.

Both schools have only 1 gifted teacher. You can imagine the impact of that.