APS middle school boundary process

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of two kids in North Arlington who may be affected by this, I cannot think of worse news than “your kids are being bussed to Kenmore.” We will leave if that happens.

As a parent of a North Arlington child who is a voluntary transfer to Kenmore from Williamsburg, I think you are completely nuts. Class sizes are small, there are enough seats in the lunch room, and I heard multiple times this year at BTS night how the 6th grade class is so nice / kind / caring to one another. My child is doing well academically and the block scheduling has been a nice way to adjust to middle school. The tide is shifting.

I love you! I hope you send an email to the School Board. I also hope you might speak at the School Board meeting!

The people who are balking at going probably have never even been to Kenmore. They just know there are more brown people and are freaking out.

You don’t know those people or their motivations. Again, I’ll leave this here:

The straw man fallacy involves misrepresenting an opponent’s position to make it easier to refute. Straw man arguments often oversimplify opposing views or disregard inconvenient points in favor of points that are easy to argue against.

Then how do you explain posts like the one at 9:08:

Anonymous wrote:The people who are complaining the most are the ones who have managed through hard work to buy a house away from SA low performing schools, but who fell a little short of being able to buy North enough in Arlington to completely escape FARMS. These families feel like they had gotten over the wall but the SB is trying to drag them back down. I understand. I would be livid if this was happening to my children- sacrificed so that the SB can feel better about itself.

It does seem to be a pretty simple issue that they have. You can say "low performing schools" or you can say "schools with a lot of poors" or you can say "schools with brown kids" but it is all the same thing in the end, and a lot of people are dead set against sending their kids to them. They spend tons of money to live a mile or two north in a different boundary and then fight to keep that boundary. How is the issue more complex than not wanting to go to school with poor kids?

No actually it isn't the same thing. I posted fifteen pages ago that I couldn't care less what color or SES status the kids in my child's school are. I do care about performance. I wouldn't voluntarily send my kids to a lower performing school in lily white rural Virginia either. Don't kid yourself, if the diversity boundaries were drawn and reached up to the McLean border, or wherever your $1M plus home is, would you mind? Would you put your kid on a bus to a lower performing school regardless of its racial or SES makeup? Some parents do, and good for them. I choose to want my kids to attend the higher performing neighborhood school that they can walk to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of two kids in North Arlington who may be affected by this, I cannot think of worse news than “your kids are being bussed to Kenmore.” We will leave if that happens.

As a parent of a North Arlington child who is a voluntary transfer to Kenmore from Williamsburg, I think you are completely nuts. Class sizes are small, there are enough seats in the lunch room, and I heard multiple times this year at BTS night how the 6th grade class is so nice / kind / caring to one another. My child is doing well academically and the block scheduling has been a nice way to adjust to middle school. The tide is shifting.

I love you! I hope you send an email to the School Board. I also hope you might speak at the School Board meeting!

The people who are balking at going probably have never even been to Kenmore. They just know there are more brown people and are freaking out.

You don’t know those people or their motivations. Again, I’ll leave this here:

The straw man fallacy involves misrepresenting an opponent’s position to make it easier to refute. Straw man arguments often oversimplify opposing views or disregard inconvenient points in favor of points that are easy to argue against.

Then how do you explain posts like the one at 9:08:

Anonymous wrote:The people who are complaining the most are the ones who have managed through hard work to buy a house away from SA low performing schools, but who fell a little short of being able to buy North enough in Arlington to completely escape FARMS. These families feel like they had gotten over the wall but the SB is trying to drag them back down. I understand. I would be livid if this was happening to my children- sacrificed so that the SB can feel better about itself.

It does seem to be a pretty simple issue that they have. You can say "low performing schools" or you can say "schools with a lot of poors" or you can say "schools with brown kids" but it is all the same thing in the end, and a lot of people are dead set against sending their kids to them. They spend tons of money to live a mile or two north in a different boundary and then fight to keep that boundary. How is the issue more complex than not wanting to go to school with poor kids?

No actually it isn't the same thing. I posted fifteen pages ago that I couldn't care less what color or SES status the kids in my child's school are. I do care about performance. I wouldn't voluntarily send my kids to a lower performing school in lily white rural Virginia either. Don't kid yourself, if the diversity boundaries were drawn and reached up to the McLean border, or wherever your $1M plus home is, would you mind? Would you put your kid on a bus to a lower performing school regardless of its racial or SES makeup? Some parents do, and good for them. I choose to want my kids to attend the higher performing neighborhood school that they can walk to.

So, do you believe that there is better teaching happening at some schools then? What is it that makes them "higher performing?" Please explain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The walk to Kenmore is along the W&OD and Four Mile Run Trail, is 1.5mi, and 31min. More than three times as long. And it's along a trail that isn't exactly known as safe in the dark. Would you let your 11yr old girl walk that alone in the dark? I'm guessing not, so no, we aren't in denial. We are very much aware of the impact of such a move.

Wait, I thought there were going to be throngs of displaced kids making this particular burdensome walk? So isn't this really a problem of a couple of friendless kids dealing with the fallout of living in an unfriendly neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Wait, I thought there were going to be throngs of displaced kids making this particular burdensome walk? So isn't this really a problem of a couple of friendless kids dealing with the fallout of living in an unfriendly neighborhood?

Your writing style outs you. You have posted incessantly on this thread with your faux clever rants. Talking about headlamps, walking shoes, making fun of people who are unhappy that they may not be able to attend a school that literally touches their planning unit. It is obvious to everyone who you are, where you live, and what your motivations are. It is sad. And yes, I fully expect that you will post yet another response that you think is clever, because people like you have to have the last word. Sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Put another way, people are saying its OK with them that kids two miles away go to schools where more than 50% of the kids are in poverty, as long as their kids get to sleep 30 minutes later each morning.

I’m just going to leave this here:

The straw man fallacy involves misrepresenting an opponent’s position to make it easier to refute. Straw man arguments often oversimplify opposing views or disregard inconvenient points in favor of points that are easy to argue against.

I'd argue that those likening the current proposals to "busing" are doing the same.

Unless you're putting forward another proposal that doesn't result in Kenmore going over 50% fr/l, the (possibly unintended) consequence of arguing strictly for proximity and arguing against the specific blended diversity option APS put forward could be Kenmore's fr/l rate increasing to over 50% (not to mention Jefferson and Gunston's rates going up, too). I also have to infer that you believe Kenmore is already too high in terms of fr/l, so what's another 7% point bump up? It's a lost cause in your mind, so it doens't matter if it's 45% fr/l or 100%. Increasing the fr/l rate may not be the reason that you're fighting being moved, but it will be the result. At the very least you accept the outcome of a susbstantially higher fr/l rate at Kenmore as the price of your children getting more sleep/keeping your "neighborhood" intact, walkabililty, or whatever.

I'm sure not every Trump voter was an outright bigot. However, they ignored all of his race baiting and unseemly personal and campaign relationships, not to mention his vast faults and shortcomings as a candidate, in order to get that ACA repeal/tax cut/supreme court nominee. I don't think they are all racists, but they certainly enabled and emboldened those who are racists in order to achieve their other goal(s).

In summary, intentions matter far less than outcomes.

I do not have a dog in the current fight, but laying all of that at the feet of a small number of parents, as if the concentrated poverty in areas of the county is their problem to fix, is b&llsh!t.

And so is doing nothing.

Petitioning the only group that can fix the root of the problem- THE COUNTY BOARD- and voting against those who exacerbate the problem are not “doing nothing.”

That's funny. I don't seem to remember a group of north Arlington parents petitioning the county board to create more diversity of housing options in their neighborhoods. So strange that. I mean, you should absolutely do this, but right now we're talking about what the School Board can and can't do. They can and ARE changing boundaries. And you're saying they should NOT use their power to promote diversity while creating those new boundaries. I disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of two kids in North Arlington who may be affected by this, I cannot think of worse news than “your kids are being bussed to Kenmore.” We will leave if that happens.

As a parent of a North Arlington child who is a voluntary transfer to Kenmore from Williamsburg, I think you are completely nuts. Class sizes are small, there are enough seats in the lunch room, and I heard multiple times this year at BTS night how the 6th grade class is so nice / kind / caring to one another. My child is doing well academically and the block scheduling has been a nice way to adjust to middle school. The tide is shifting.

I love you! I hope you send an email to the School Board. I also hope you might speak at the School Board meeting!

The people who are balking at going probably have never even been to Kenmore. They just know there are more brown people and are freaking out.

You don’t know those people or their motivations. Again, I’ll leave this here:

The straw man fallacy involves misrepresenting an opponent’s position to make it easier to refute. Straw man arguments often oversimplify opposing views or disregard inconvenient points in favor of points that are easy to argue against.

Then how do you explain posts like the one at 9:08:

Anonymous wrote:The people who are complaining the most are the ones who have managed through hard work to buy a house away from SA low performing schools, but who fell a little short of being able to buy North enough in Arlington to completely escape FARMS. These families feel like they had gotten over the wall but the SB is trying to drag them back down. I understand. I would be livid if this was happening to my children- sacrificed so that the SB can feel better about itself.

It does seem to be a pretty simple issue that they have. You can say "low performing schools" or you can say "schools with a lot of poors" or you can say "schools with brown kids" but it is all the same thing in the end, and a lot of people are dead set against sending their kids to them. They spend tons of money to live a mile or two north in a different boundary and then fight to keep that boundary. How is the issue more complex than not wanting to go to school with poor kids?

Are you racist for not wanting to live in a dangerous neighborhood? You can say “dangerous neighborhood” or “neighborhood with a lot of poors” or “neighborhood with brown people.”

It is NOT all the same in the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Put another way, people are saying its OK with them that kids two miles away go to schools where more than 50% of the kids are in poverty, as long as their kids get to sleep 30 minutes later each morning.

I’m just going to leave this here:

The straw man fallacy involves misrepresenting an opponent’s position to make it easier to refute. Straw man arguments often oversimplify opposing views or disregard inconvenient points in favor of points that are easy to argue against.

I'd argue that those likening the current proposals to "busing" are doing the same.

Unless you're putting forward another proposal that doesn't result in Kenmore going over 50% fr/l, the (possibly unintended) consequence of arguing strictly for proximity and arguing against the specific blended diversity option APS put forward could be Kenmore's fr/l rate increasing to over 50% (not to mention Jefferson and Gunston's rates going up, too). I also have to infer that you believe Kenmore is already too high in terms of fr/l, so what's another 7% point bump up? It's a lost cause in your mind, so it doens't matter if it's 45% fr/l or 100%. Increasing the fr/l rate may not be the reason that you're fighting being moved, but it will be the result. At the very least you accept the outcome of a susbstantially higher fr/l rate at Kenmore as the price of your children getting more sleep/keeping your "neighborhood" intact, walkabililty, or whatever.

I'm sure not every Trump voter was an outright bigot. However, they ignored all of his race baiting and unseemly personal and campaign relationships, not to mention his vast faults and shortcomings as a candidate, in order to get that ACA repeal/tax cut/supreme court nominee. I don't think they are all racists, but they certainly enabled and emboldened those who are racists in order to achieve their other goal(s).

In summary, intentions matter far less than outcomes.

I do not have a dog in the current fight, but laying all of that at the feet of a small number of parents, as if the concentrated poverty in areas of the county is their problem to fix, is b&llsh!t.

And so is doing nothing.

Petitioning the only group that can fix the root of the problem- THE COUNTY BOARD- and voting against those who exacerbate the problem are not “doing nothing.”

That's funny. I don't seem to remember a group of north Arlington parents petitioning the county board to create more diversity of housing options in their neighborhoods. So strange that. I mean, you should absolutely do this, but right now we're talking about what the School Board can and can't do. They can and ARE changing boundaries. And you're saying they should NOT use their power to promote diversity while creating those new boundaries. I disagree.

No one mentioned “a group of north Arlington parents”, so no wonder you don’t remember it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like every Swanson poster is less than 1/2 mile away across i66. Come on people, how many houses are really 1/2 mile away across I66 - 100 maybe 150? So maybe 50 kids that might have to sacrifice and go to Kenmore? Probably more kids in Buckingham who are bused to Swanson that are less than 1/2 mile away from TJ. Let's move on...and get these kids some headlamps so they can start marching under 50.

Exactly. This cry of breaking up neighborhood schools ignored the fact that 66 is between them and their precious Swanson.
And also apparently the trail that allows Madison manor to easily walk to Swanson becomes scary and dangerous if you cross Wilson Blvd.

Please write to the school board. They will get away with their nonsense argument if nobody speaks up.

[Anonymous]

The wheels are coming off this strange, circling the drain school system. And no one seems to have a clue what to do about it.

[Anonymous]

With the new Reed school in Westover, McKinley will basically be neighborhoods south of i66.. McKinley kids will transition sooner or later to Kenmore so this is a perfect time to do it.

[Anonymous]

I think this thread is full of righteous South Arlington parents thrilled at the prospect of kids to the north forced into their less stellar schools (payback).

Those unaffected by these proposed boundary changes (except the byproduct of rising test scores at their zoned middle schools) should STFU!

[Anonymous]

That is right...Reed will ease the overcrowding at McKinley and they won't suffer easing the transition to Kenmore. That is what I call a Win-Win.

[Anonymous]

Yup...Reed pretty much puts a nail in this coffin. McKinley families south of I66 enjoy Kenmore.

[Anonymous]

Really, really glad we moved to Fairfax County when we saw the APS writing on the wall (around the time APS was bragging about Discovery ES, yet had no good plans for the obvious overcrowding it would soon be facing at the MS/HS levels).

I will take a few additional kids in my kids' classes in exchange for getting away from a poorly managed school system with low academic expectations and way too many parents constantly bickering about being zoned for schools north or south of Route 50.

[Anonymous]

"Doesn't look like anything to me." Just pretend those nice bridges across i66 aren't even there. This will help smooth the Kenmore transition.