What do you expect from APS staff (option/neighborhood) on 4/30?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens at Campbell. There is a huge VPI class and between that class and siblings there are few spaces left in the lottery.

Interesting, I hadn't realized that was the case at Campbell. I'm a believer in making preschool more available to low and middle income families. It's the source of achievement gaps- these gaps everyone is concerned about are large and evident by kindergarten and so it's preschool that matters. Kids who don't go really do get to elementary school far behind peers who did go. Pretty much all well-off kids in Arlington go to preschool, mostly private ones because there's no room at aps ones. I'm ok with that. My kid does, I happily pay the equivalent of a second mortgage because I value education.

That said, making option schools unavailable to UMC families like mine is eventually going to have consequences. It's not going to "force" me to send my kid to a neighborhood school that is great at teaching English and study skills to 1st gen immigrants but lacks resources to challenge other kinds of kids in other ways, and has no PTA. Families like mine will just move if they see no pathway to a diverse elementary school with at least average test scores and parent involvement. And that will just lead to increased segregation.

They're not trying to make option schools unavailable to you. My heavens, the privilege. You CAN move, that's the difference. Also, by trying to re-locate the option schools to certain neighborhoods, they ARE suggesting the only way to get more balance is through choice, because doing it by force doesn't seem to be working and people like you DO move, and you take your time and money with you and that leaves some schools, and the children who have NO CHOICE about where they live, at a distinct disadvantage.

PP here. Um, yeah, whether directly or indirectly, they are trying to make option schools unavailable or less attractive to UMC through enrollment caps and relocation. I completely support the use of option schools to integrate schools. I think they should be expanded, not shrunken or capped. Im UMC but not by north Arlington standards. I'm not so privileged I can up and move to north Arlington and I wouldn't want to anyway. I live in SA and I won't be shamed by cries of "privilege!" for wanting my kid to have a shot attending a school with engaging instructional models and a diverse (actually diverse) student body. At least I, unlike some school board member's an APS administrators,daddy administrators, actually live among the populations whose interests they purport to represent.

[Anonymous]

Years ago, a SB member said Drew needed to have Montessori pulled out to attract more families to the school. He said a lot of highly invested parents transferred out and it made it hard for Drew to form a community. His thought was that if the school was all neighborhood, more invested parents would stay and the school would see academic improvements. It looks like we are about to put that theory to the test.

[Anonymous]

Agreed. The suggestion that if you live in S Arlington you must accept the status quo is tiresome. Moving to N Arlington isn’t the solution. The all AP schools are good schools is a sales pitch. Reality is until the schools improve the MC and UMC will choice out, move, or go private. Gladice and Lisa said that line to me and it was like they were trying to convince themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Years ago, a SB member said Drew needed to have Montessori pulled out to attract more families to the school. He said a lot of highly invested parents transferred out and it made it hard for Drew to form a community. His thought was that if the school was all neighborhood, more invested parents would stay and the school would see academic improvements. It looks like we are about to put that theory to the test.

A lot will depend on the Drew farms rate when the boundaries are redrawn. Parents are going to look at that number very, very closely. And probably not much else. APS really need to do their very best to keep it at about 50%, which is the average for south Arlington as a whole.You can tell from other elementaries that once the farms rate goes much above 50%, the middle and upper middle class families take that as their cue to leave and then you end up with a carlin springs, Barcroft, or Randolph.

[Anonymous]

What is UMC...I see it on this thread but DK what it is. TY

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is UMC...I see it on this thread but DK what it is. TY

Upper Middle Class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens at Campbell. There is a huge VPI class and between that class and siblings there are few spaces left in the lottery.

Interesting, I hadn't realized that was the case at Campbell. I'm a believer in making preschool more available to low and middle income families. It's the source of achievement gaps- these gaps everyone is concerned about are large and evident by kindergarten and so it's preschool that matters. Kids who don't go really do get to elementary school far behind peers who did go. Pretty much all well-off kids in Arlington go to preschool, mostly private ones because there's no room at aps ones. I'm ok with that. My kid does, I happily pay the equivalent of a second mortgage because I value education.

That said, making option schools unavailable to UMC families like mine is eventually going to have consequences. It's not going to "force" me to send my kid to a neighborhood school that is great at teaching English and study skills to 1st gen immigrants but lacks resources to challenge other kinds of kids in other ways, and has no PTA. Families like mine will just move if they see no pathway to a diverse elementary school with at least average test scores and parent involvement. And that will just lead to increased segregation.

They're not trying to make option schools unavailable to you. My heavens, the privilege. You CAN move, that's the difference. Also, by trying to re-locate the option schools to certain neighborhoods, they ARE suggesting the only way to get more balance is through choice, because doing it by force doesn't seem to be working and people like you DO move, and you take your time and money with you and that leaves some schools, and the children who have NO CHOICE about where they live, at a distinct disadvantage.

PP here. Um, yeah, whether directly or indirectly, they are trying to make option schools unavailable or less attractive to UMC through enrollment caps and relocation. I completely support the use of option schools to integrate schools. I think they should be expanded, not shrunken or capped. Im UMC but not by north Arlington standards. I'm not so privileged I can up and move to north Arlington and I wouldn't want to anyway. I live in SA and I won't be shamed by cries of "privilege!" for wanting my kid to have a shot attending a school with engaging instructional models and a diverse (actually diverse) student body. At least I, unlike some school board member's an APS administrators,daddy administrators, actually live among the populations whose interests they purport to represent.

They are not being shrunken. Montessori seems like a very temporary thing as they transition to a new independent building. If history is any indication, they will let in the siblings. And when they are in their own space, I think they will take more applicants.

The option schools are capped, because there isn't any school that can hold all the current demand. We haven't built any that big yet. They are simply saying that they will need to flex with trailers, because the larger schools should be for neighborhood seats. That makes sense to me, since the majority of kids are attending plain neighborhood schools. I don't think they can or will flex option schools to max capacity. That seems like a worst-case contingency plan and not what they are aiming for. And setting aside seats for disadvantaged kids is a MUST, because when they don't do that, the option programs become increasingly wealthy and less ethnically diverse. Look at HB, or even ATS before they added an additional VPI class.

Anyway, I am not suggesting parents have to accept status quo. I am saying here we are, and they seem to be actually acknowledging the reality of the situation in South Arlington and there are parents who are going to fight it because they think this is about creating capacity for North Arlington and crapping on South Arlington yet again. IT IS NOT. I think they are betting, and I think they are right, that a lot of North Arlington families are NOT going to either follow programs that move S, or apply to ones that are S, and that alone will free up seats for South Arlington students in option schools. For some areas, they cannot draw boundaries that will allow for diverse schools, so they are considering making them option schools. This is what most highly segregated jurisdictions around the country have been doing to desegregate public schools.

Or we can just do nothing and keep having the same fights over and over again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years ago, a SB member said Drew needed to have Montessori pulled out to attract more families to the school. He said a lot of highly invested parents transferred out and it made it hard for Drew to form a community. His thought was that if the school was all neighborhood, more invested parents would stay and the school would see academic improvements. It looks like we are about to put that theory to the test.

A lot will depend on the Drew farms rate when the boundaries are redrawn. Parents are going to look at that number very, very closely. And probably not much else. APS really need to do their very best to keep it at about 50%, which is the average for south Arlington as a whole.You can tell from other elementaries that once the farms rate goes much above 50%, the middle and upper middle class families take that as their cue to leave and then you end up with a carlin springs, Barcroft, or Randolph.

50% is too high. They can do much better than that. Doesn't mean they will; but they can. If you really want people excited about Drew, you need to stay well below 40%. People aren't going to want to send their kids to another Title I school, especially one with the academic performance history of Drew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years ago, a SB member said Drew needed to have Montessori pulled out to attract more families to the school. He said a lot of highly invested parents transferred out and it made it hard for Drew to form a community. His thought was that if the school was all neighborhood, more invested parents would stay and the school would see academic improvements. It looks like we are about to put that theory to the test.

A lot will depend on the Drew farms rate when the boundaries are redrawn. Parents are going to look at that number very, very closely. And probably not much else. APS really need to do their very best to keep it at about 50%, which is the average for south Arlington as a whole.You can tell from other elementaries that once the farms rate goes much above 50%, the middle and upper middle class families take that as their cue to leave and then you end up with a carlin springs, Barcroft, or Randolph.

50% is too high. They can do much better than that. Doesn't mean they will; but they can. If you really want people excited about Drew, you need to stay well below 40%. People aren't going to want to send their kids to another Title I school, especially one with the academic performance history of Drew.

The system as a whole is at 31%, that doesn't leave a lot of leeway to keep everyone below 40% without crazy busing, the result of which will be a lot of UMC people going to private or moving to Fairfax to avoid putting their elementary-aged kids on hour or longer bus rides, driving up the system-wide average even further.

[Anonymous]

Discouraging north Arlington parents from sending their kids south isn’t going to create diverse schools that are balanced. There are not enough UMC families in s Arlington to do that. The option schools will just have high farms rates too. Claremont and key are already nicely balanced, at around 40% farms each. That doesn’t mean the schools don’t need more Spanish speakers, but being a Spanish speaker doesn’t mean you are poor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Discouraging north Arlington parents from sending their kids south isn’t going to create diverse schools that are balanced. There are not enough UMC families in s Arlington to do that. The option schools will just have high farms rates too. Claremont and key are already nicely balanced, at around 40% farms each. That doesn’t mean the schools don’t need more Spanish speakers, but being a Spanish speaker doesn’t mean you are poor!

Turning a school that is 80% fr/ to one that is 50-60% is a positive. It's not possible to make every school at or below 40%, without moving MANY more kids around. Perfect should not be the enemy of good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Discouraging north Arlington parents from sending their kids south isn’t going to create diverse schools that are balanced. There are not enough UMC families in s Arlington to do that. The option schools will just have high farms rates too. Claremont and key are already nicely balanced, at around 40% farms each. That doesn’t mean the schools don’t need more Spanish speakers, but being a Spanish speaker doesn’t mean you are poor!

Turning a school that is 80% fr/ to one that is 50-60% is a positive. It's not possible to make every school at or below 40%, without moving MANY more kids around. Perfect should not be the enemy of good.

But SOUTH Arlington nutters won't settle for compromises.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Discouraging north Arlington parents from sending their kids south isn’t going to create diverse schools that are balanced. There are not enough UMC families in s Arlington to do that. The option schools will just have high farms rates too. Claremont and key are already nicely balanced, at around 40% farms each. That doesn’t mean the schools don’t need more Spanish speakers, but being a Spanish speaker doesn’t mean you are poor!

Turning a school that is 80% fr/ to one that is 50-60% is a positive. It's not possible to make every school at or below 40%, without moving MANY more kids around. Perfect should not be the enemy of good.

But SOUTH Arlington nutters won't settle for compromises.

Is there anyone in this process so far who has seemed especially amenable to compromise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Discouraging north Arlington parents from sending their kids south isn’t going to create diverse schools that are balanced. There are not enough UMC families in s Arlington to do that. The option schools will just have high farms rates too. Claremont and key are already nicely balanced, at around 40% farms each. That doesn’t mean the schools don’t need more Spanish speakers, but being a Spanish speaker doesn’t mean you are poor!

Turning a school that is 80% fr/ to one that is 50-60% is a positive. It's not possible to make every school at or below 40%, without moving MANY more kids around. Perfect should not be the enemy of good.

But SOUTH Arlington nutters won't settle for compromises.

Is there anyone in this process so far who has seemed especially amenable to compromise?

All of the families who have NOT been pushing an agenda with the SB at office hours or calling their neighbors names. Many of those people are OK with a variety of outcomes. Ask around - if you ever take a break from pushing your own agenda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Discouraging north Arlington parents from sending their kids south isn’t going to create diverse schools that are balanced. There are not enough UMC families in s Arlington to do that. The option schools will just have high farms rates too. Claremont and key are already nicely balanced, at around 40% farms each. That doesn’t mean the schools don’t need more Spanish speakers, but being a Spanish speaker doesn’t mean you are poor!

Turning a school that is 80% fr/ to one that is 50-60% is a positive. It's not possible to make every school at or below 40%, without moving MANY more kids around. Perfect should not be the enemy of good.

But SOUTH Arlington nutters won't settle for compromises.

Is there anyone in this process so far who has seemed especially amenable to compromise?

All of the families who have NOT been pushing an agenda with the SB at office hours or calling their neighbors names. Many of those people are OK with a variety of outcomes. Ask around - if you ever take a break from pushing your own agenda.

The people who aren't showing up aren't showing up because they expect to be largely unaffected by all of this. Which option families haven't been speaking up, and which neighborhood schools that may be shuttered to make way for an option program haven't been showing up?