APS Elementary Location Working Group 4/12

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this senseless switch happens, ASF should — nay, must — leave the pricey lab stuff behind for the benefit of the Key students. It’s the morally right thing to do.

Leave the freaking lab there if it makes it better. Who cares?! Rosslyn and Courthouse need those seats at Key. Every argument made by Key supporters to stay at Key is actually an argument for a neighborhood school. It used to be one, but it is not anymore!

Key can’t fit into asfs.

Key is a lottery school. You decrease the class sizes. Done. Don’t have that option with neighborhood schools which is why they need the larger sites.

So it would be County policy to reduce the immersion program?

YMMV but I place higher value on neighborhood schools. Once we know there are sufficient seats to meet the needs of Arlington ngtons neighbrhoods, then we determine if and where there is room to continue lottery programs. This is not the APS of 2005.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this senseless switch happens, ASF should — nay, must — leave the pricey lab stuff behind for the benefit of the Key students. It’s the morally right thing to do.

Honestly the only people talking about that lab are the cherrydale folks who want asfs to stay where it is. That and the asfs principal and let’s not forget the investigation station teacher. Let’s see if I send in any paper towel rolls next time she asks for them!
No one I’ve talked to from the key neighborhood (Courthouse/Clarendon/Rosslyn) gives two shots about the lab. We just want the majority of kids who attend asfs currently to keep attending school together. Like every other neighborhood out there we just want to keep our neighborhood school. It’s just unfortunate since cherrydale decided it was theirs.

This. No one at ASFS was eyeing the key school. But they were disturbed by the immersion and transfers policy change which basically dumped 300 kids who used to go to immersion into the ASFS population.

Except this has yet to materialize. There is no way to know whether the demand from outside the Key zone wiuld force students who might have enrolled in Key as their neighborhood school into ASFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this senseless switch happens, ASF should — nay, must — leave the pricey lab stuff behind for the benefit of the Key students. It’s the morally right thing to do.

Honestly the only people talking about that lab are the cherrydale folks who want asfs to stay where it is. That and the asfs principal and let’s not forget the investigation station teacher. Let’s see if I send in any paper towel rolls next time she asks for them!
No one I’ve talked to from the key neighborhood (Courthouse/Clarendon/Rosslyn) gives two shots about the lab. We just want the majority of kids who attend asfs currently to keep attending school together. Like every other neighborhood out there we just want to keep our neighborhood school. It’s just unfortunate since cherrydale decided it was theirs.

Maybe because about half the kids who’ve lived in Cherrydale for the last 20+ years have attended ASFS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this senseless switch happens, ASF should — nay, must — leave the pricey lab stuff behind for the benefit of the Key students. It’s the morally right thing to do.

Leave the freaking lab there if it makes it better. Who cares?! Rosslyn and Courthouse need those seats at Key. Every argument made by Key supporters to stay at Key is actually an argument for a neighborhood school. It used to be one, but it is not anymore!

Key can’t fit into asfs.

Key is a lottery school. You decrease the class sizes. Done. Don’t have that option with neighborhood schools which is why they need the larger sites.

If this is the goal, why are they thinking of moving Campbell? Staff said it should be a neighborhood school despite it being smaller than any of the option sites. In this case they'd be taking larger buildings and giving them to an option school, while moving the neighborhood students into a smaller, older school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I seriously don't understand the hysteria surrounding moving Key and the claim that it would 'kill' the program b/c it needs to be near spanish speakers.
Even accepting that as true- there are numerous sites in APS that have a larger concentration of Spanish speakers than the Key zone.
Barrett is 50.9% hispanic as compared to Key's 50.4%. So that is effectively the same. HOWEVER- Key has 159 students transfer in who are Hispanic. Barrett is sending 37 students to Key. You gotta think that is at least a portion of the 159 transfers into Key who are hispanic. And what site is literally down the street from Barrett, why that's ATS. And those are both North Arlington 'Eastern" sites- I'm not even getting into the numerous sites in South Arlington that have a higher concentration of hispanic students.

Also without neighborhood preference, would they get priority as Spanish speakers?

they don't get priority as 'neighborhood' spanish speakers- but as a practical matter, the way they have redone the lotteries for the immersion schools, all spanish dominant families get it to whichever school they choose. With 6 kindergartens- so a total of 144 K seats, both schools had less than 72 spanish dominant kids apply- so they are all in. (Not hugely less-I think they were each around 66.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this senseless switch happens, ASF should — nay, must — leave the pricey lab stuff behind for the benefit of the Key students. It’s the morally right thing to do.

Honestly the only people talking about that lab are the cherrydale folks who want asfs to stay where it is. That and the asfs principal and let’s not forget the investigation station teacher. Let’s see if I send in any paper towel rolls next time she asks for them!
No one I’ve talked to from the key neighborhood (Courthouse/Clarendon/Rosslyn) gives two shots about the lab. We just want the majority of kids who attend asfs currently to keep attending school together. Like every other neighborhood out there we just want to keep our neighborhood school. It’s just unfortunate since cherrydale decided it was theirs.

This. No one at ASFS was eyeing the key school. But they were disturbed by the immersion and transfers policy change which basically dumped 300 kids who used to go to immersion into the ASFS population.

Except this has yet to materialize. There is no way to know whether the demand from outside the Key zone wiuld force students who might have enrolled in Key as their neighborhood school into ASFS.

We know it will force some students from to Key zone into another school because they need to draw contiguous boundaries around ASFS that include the walk zone. That adds 200 Taylor kids to ASFS before population growth from the thousands of housing units in the pipeline and people boxed out of Key.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I seriously don't understand the hysteria surrounding moving Key and the claim that it would 'kill' the program b/c it needs to be near spanish speakers.
Even accepting that as true- there are numerous sites in APS that have a larger concentration of Spanish speakers than the Key zone.
Barrett is 50.9% hispanic as compared to Key's 50.4%. So that is effectively the same. HOWEVER- Key has 159 students transfer in who are Hispanic. Barrett is sending 37 students to Key. You gotta think that is at least a portion of the 159 transfers into Key who are hispanic. And what site is literally down the street from Barrett, why that's ATS. And those are both North Arlington 'Eastern" sites- I'm not even getting into the numerous sites in South Arlington that have a higher concentration of hispanic students.

Also without neighborhood preference, would they get priority as Spanish speakers?

they don't get priority as 'neighborhood' spanish speakers- but as a practical matter, the way they have redone the lotteries for the immersion schools, all spanish dominant families get it to whichever school they choose. With 6 kindergartens- so a total of 144 K seats, both schools had less than 72 spanish dominant kids apply- so they are all in. (Not hugely less-I think they were each around 66.)

edited- I didn't mean to say whichever school they choose- I meant to say whichever they are zoned for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, so long as the parent-paid science lab goes with it. If campbell has to move, can it take the parent-paid wetland (and student labor)?

If Nottingham becomes option I’m taking back all of the books I donated to teachers and libraries. I want my brick from the courtyard and I don’t care if someone breaks an ankle on the resulting hole. I want the .5% of each flexible seating chair that was paid for by my PTA donation dollars.

I want to keep my bubble!

C’mon, can we not laugh about anything anymore? I’m not really going to take my brick, I’m going to leave it there to mark my territory. I might even pee on it for good measure.

You white women make me laugh!!

Glad I can provide some comic relief.

Joking aside, isn’t it clear now that Nottingham will not become an option school? The bubble shall remain.

I don’t think it’s a given at all. Staff said at one of the open hours that they think one of Tuckahoe/Nottingham/Discovery needs to be an option school. Just because Nottingham is off the short list doesn’t mean the staff won’t propose it anyway. I can’t speak for all of Nottingham, but a whole lot of us know that we’re probably going to get an option school at one of those sites, and we know that we’re not all staying together when that happens. No matter which school is chosen, the majority of the Nottinham community will end up split between the two remaining schools. This means we have an incentive to fight for the best solution for the entire trio, not just ourselves, because we have to live all of it.

[Anonymous]

So how mad is everyone going to be when they move Immersion to the ATS site, make Key a neighborhood school, and then move ATS into the ASFS building? And ATS gets the lab.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this senseless switch happens, ASF should — nay, must — leave the pricey lab stuff behind for the benefit of the Key students. It’s the morally right thing to do.

Honestly the only people talking about that lab are the cherrydale folks who want asfs to stay where it is. That and the asfs principal and let’s not forget the investigation station teacher. Let’s see if I send in any paper towel rolls next time she asks for them!
No one I’ve talked to from the key neighborhood (Courthouse/Clarendon/Rosslyn) gives two shots about the lab. We just want the majority of kids who attend asfs currently to keep attending school together. Like every other neighborhood out there we just want to keep our neighborhood school. It’s just unfortunate since cherrydale decided it was theirs.

This. No one at ASFS was eyeing the key school. But they were disturbed by the immersion and transfers policy change which basically dumped 300 kids who used to go to immersion into the ASFS population.

Except this has yet to materialize. There is no way to know whether the demand from outside the Key zone wiuld force students who might have enrolled in Key as their neighborhood school into ASFS.

The way the policy is written, Claremont wait list may become a wrinkle here.

Basically, instead of immersion being the default neighborhood school you don’t have to file paperwork to attend (key is default; ASFS was special request but always granted), now the default will be ASFS and parents have to navigate and make the deadline for Immersion lottery.

[Anonymous]

Oh, I am sure the parents who paid for that lab will make it go with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, I am sure the parents who paid for that lab will make it go with them.

Was the lab only built in the past few years, or will every parent whose kids have gone on to middle school come back to claim their piece as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this senseless switch happens, ASF should — nay, must — leave the pricey lab stuff behind for the benefit of the Key students. It’s the morally right thing to do.

Honestly the only people talking about that lab are the cherrydale folks who want asfs to stay where it is. That and the asfs principal and let’s not forget the investigation station teacher. Let’s see if I send in any paper towel rolls next time she asks for them!
No one I’ve talked to from the key neighborhood (Courthouse/Clarendon/Rosslyn) gives two shots about the lab. We just want the majority of kids who attend asfs currently to keep attending school together. Like every other neighborhood out there we just want to keep our neighborhood school. It’s just unfortunate since cherrydale decided it was theirs.

Maybe because about half the kids who’ve lived in Cherrydale for the last 20+ years have attended ASFS?

Maybe that is historically true, but I went through the directory the other day and there were less than fifteen families with addresses in the asfs walk zone. Most kids from that neighborhood don’t attend asfs. I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t, it just seems strange that they are so vocal since they are such a minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this senseless switch happens, ASF should — nay, must — leave the pricey lab stuff behind for the benefit of the Key students. It’s the morally right thing to do.

Honestly the only people talking about that lab are the cherrydale folks who want asfs to stay where it is. That and the asfs principal and let’s not forget the investigation station teacher. Let’s see if I send in any paper towel rolls next time she asks for them!
No one I’ve talked to from the key neighborhood (Courthouse/Clarendon/Rosslyn) gives two shots about the lab. We just want the majority of kids who attend asfs currently to keep attending school together. Like every other neighborhood out there we just want to keep our neighborhood school. It’s just unfortunate since cherrydale decided it was theirs.

This. No one at ASFS was eyeing the key school. But they were disturbed by the immersion and transfers policy change which basically dumped 300 kids who used to go to immersion into the ASFS population.

Except this has yet to materialize. There is no way to know whether the demand from outside the Key zone wiuld force students who might have enrolled in Key as their neighborhood school into ASFS.

The way the policy is written, Claremont wait list may become a wrinkle here.

Basically, instead of immersion being the default neighborhood school you don’t have to file paperwork to attend (key is default; ASFS was special request but always granted), now the default will be ASFS and parents have to navigate and make the deadline for Immersion lottery.

Umm not true. You never had to file paperwork to attend asfs if you lived in the key/asfs zone. You showed them a deed and turned in the registration forms on the Aps site. You could do it the day before school started or in the middle of the year. It wasn’t a transfer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, I am sure the parents who paid for that lab will make it go with them.

The majority of those parents aren’t at the school anymore.