APS Elementary Location Working Group 4/12

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS made a mistake building Discovery. Now, they have to fix it.

At the time they built Discovery, Nottingham and Tuckahoe were both over 140% capacity. Opening Discovery brought that area to just barely under capacity, and two years later Nottingham is already over capacity again with Tuckahoe and Discovery each being only a couple of students under capacity.

So you are saying there are no seats to spare and all schools should be neighborhood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS made a mistake building Discovery. Now, they have to fix it.

At the time they built Discovery, Nottingham and Tuckahoe were both over 140% capacity. Opening Discovery brought that area to just barely under capacity, and two years later Nottingham is already over capacity again with Tuckahoe and Discovery each being only a couple of students under capacity.

So you are saying there are no seats to spare and all schools should be neighborhood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm afraid to say either Campbell or ATS is moving to the NW. It's silly since there is no demand n there. No transfers to options in the NW virtually. But APS seems dead set on it anyway. Because. Reed.

Access to Campbell has long been limited to S. Arlington families. We live in N.A. I would have loved it for my nature/science loving DD but it wasn't an option.

Is it limited? The transfer report shows about a dozen transfers to Campbell from n.a. Elementaries. Is t it actually a case of low demand from north Arlington, for reasons of commute and perceived school quality in comparison to neighborhood schools like Taylor, Nottingham, Tuckahoe, etc?

Up until last year, only students from South Arlington could lottery into Campbell. The only way students from North Arlington could go to Campbell is if they attended Montessori pre-k at Campbell while living in South Arlington and then later moved to North Arlington, got a neighborhood transfer if Campbell was under capacity (but then they needed to provide their own transportation), or if they got sibling preference due to an older sibling at the school.

Yes, we applied to Campbell two years ago from N. Arlington. The registrar told us we had no chance because any child from S. Arlington who applied (at any time, well after the lottery for K took place) would bump our child down the list, because the N. Arlington pool of applicants was always kept separately and would always come after every S. Arlington applicant, even if they applied a year later. Needless to say, our child has never been offered a spot. It'll be interesting to see how many applications there are from N. Arlington this year, now that it is county-wide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm afraid to say either Campbell or ATS is moving to the NW. It's silly since there is no demand n there. No transfers to options in the NW virtually. But APS seems dead set on it anyway. Because. Reed.

Access to Campbell has long been limited to S. Arlington families. We live in N.A. I would have loved it for my nature/science loving DD but it wasn't an option.

Is it limited? The transfer report shows about a dozen transfers to Campbell from n.a. Elementaries. Is t it actually a case of low demand from north Arlington, for reasons of commute and perceived school quality in comparison to neighborhood schools like Taylor, Nottingham, Tuckahoe, etc?

Up until last year, only students from South Arlington could lottery into Campbell. The only way students from North Arlington could go to Campbell is if they attended Montessori pre-k at Campbell while living in South Arlington and then later moved to North Arlington, got a neighborhood transfer if Campbell was under capacity (but then they needed to provide their own transportation), or if they got sibling preference due to an older sibling at the school.

Yes, we applied to Campbell two years ago from N. Arlington. The registrar told us we had no chance because any child from S. Arlington who applied (at any time, well after the lottery for K took place) would bump our child down the list, because the N. Arlington pool of applicants was always kept separately and would always come after every S. Arlington applicant, even if they applied a year later. Needless to say, our child has never been offered a spot. It'll be interesting to see how many applications there are from N. Arlington this year, now that it is county-wide.

This was true 5 years ago too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm afraid to say either Campbell or ATS is moving to the NW. It's silly since there is no demand n there. No transfers to options in the NW virtually. But APS seems dead set on it anyway. Because. Reed.

Access to Campbell has long been limited to S. Arlington families. We live in N.A. I would have loved it for my nature/science loving DD but it wasn't an option.

Is it limited? The transfer report shows about a dozen transfers to Campbell from n.a. Elementaries. Is t it actually a case of low demand from north Arlington, for reasons of commute and perceived school quality in comparison to neighborhood schools like Taylor, Nottingham, Tuckahoe, etc?

Up until last year, only students from South Arlington could lottery into Campbell. The only way students from North Arlington could go to Campbell is if they attended Montessori pre-k at Campbell while living in South Arlington and then later moved to North Arlington, got a neighborhood transfer if Campbell was under capacity (but then they needed to provide their own transportation), or if they got sibling preference due to an older sibling at the school.

Yes, we applied to Campbell two years ago from N. Arlington. The registrar told us we had no chance because any child from S. Arlington who applied (at any time, well after the lottery for K took place) would bump our child down the list, because the N. Arlington pool of applicants was always kept separately and would always come after every S. Arlington applicant, even if they applied a year later. Needless to say, our child has never been offered a spot. It'll be interesting to see how many applications there are from N. Arlington this year, now that it is county-wide.

This was true 5 years ago too.

What was the policy rationale for that south Arlington preference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm afraid to say either Campbell or ATS is moving to the NW. It's silly since there is no demand n there. No transfers to options in the NW virtually. But APS seems dead set on it anyway. Because. Reed.

Access to Campbell has long been limited to S. Arlington families. We live in N.A. I would have loved it for my nature/science loving DD but it wasn't an option.

Is it limited? The transfer report shows about a dozen transfers to Campbell from n.a. Elementaries. Is t it actually a case of low demand from north Arlington, for reasons of commute and perceived school quality in comparison to neighborhood schools like Taylor, Nottingham, Tuckahoe, etc?

Up until last year, only students from South Arlington could lottery into Campbell. The only way students from North Arlington could go to Campbell is if they attended Montessori pre-k at Campbell while living in South Arlington and then later moved to North Arlington, got a neighborhood transfer if Campbell was under capacity (but then they needed to provide their own transportation), or if they got sibling preference due to an older sibling at the school.

Yes, we applied to Campbell two years ago from N. Arlington. The registrar told us we had no chance because any child from S. Arlington who applied (at any time, well after the lottery for K took place) would bump our child down the list, because the N. Arlington pool of applicants was always kept separately and would always come after every S. Arlington applicant, even if they applied a year later. Needless to say, our child has never been offered a spot. It'll be interesting to see how many applications there are from N. Arlington this year, now that it is county-wide.

This was true 5 years ago too.

What was the policy rationale for that south Arlington preference?

I think it was probably the same team school concept that brought us the Key/ASFS mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm afraid to say either Campbell or ATS is moving to the NW. It's silly since there is no demand n there. No transfers to options in the NW virtually. But APS seems dead set on it anyway. Because. Reed.

Access to Campbell has long been limited to S. Arlington families. We live in N.A. I would have loved it for my nature/science loving DD but it wasn't an option.

Is it limited? The transfer report shows about a dozen transfers to Campbell from n.a. Elementaries. Is t it actually a case of low demand from north Arlington, for reasons of commute and perceived school quality in comparison to neighborhood schools like Taylor, Nottingham, Tuckahoe, etc?

Up until last year, only students from South Arlington could lottery into Campbell. The only way students from North Arlington could go to Campbell is if they attended Montessori pre-k at Campbell while living in South Arlington and then later moved to North Arlington, got a neighborhood transfer if Campbell was under capacity (but then they needed to provide their own transportation), or if they got sibling preference due to an older sibling at the school.

Yes, we applied to Campbell two years ago from N. Arlington. The registrar told us we had no chance because any child from S. Arlington who applied (at any time, well after the lottery for K took place) would bump our child down the list, because the N. Arlington pool of applicants was always kept separately and would always come after every S. Arlington applicant, even if they applied a year later. Needless to say, our child has never been offered a spot. It'll be interesting to see how many applications there are from N. Arlington this year, now that it is county-wide.

This was true 5 years ago too.

What was the policy rationale for that south Arlington preference?

I think it was probably the same team school concept that brought us the Key/ASFS mess.

Yes, this. Team/neighborhood/area schools used to be a big thing in APS back when the system was smaller, there was more capacity and it was easier for families to transfer if they wanted. As things got more crowded and some teams were essentially shut down because there was no room for transfers anywhere, APS gradually moved away from this model to a county-wide model.

[Anonymous]

Poor planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The notion that the county would force an immersion school with a high-ish FARMS rate to move locations boggles my mind. What a repulsive thing to do. Key is a great community. Why should they be forced to move to a smaller, less accessible building? Seriously. If this is true, what are these pro-move people thinking?

A few interesting facts about Key:
- 390 kids (of 743) - more than half - transferred in - as in they are not in the immediate neighborhood.
- They have transfers from EVERY Arlington elementary.
- Guessing quite a few of the transfers are Spanish speakers.
- 37 from Barrett. 43 Glebe. 35 Henry. 92 Long Branch.

Looks to me like moving this great program more centrally would be if great benefit to these families and would make it easier to attract even more Spanish speakers. And no, it is not repulsive. It is common sense. Move Key to ATS or somewhere more central.

That's not every elementary in Arlington. And any from Oakridge, Abingdon, Carlin Springs, Randolph, Barcroft would be only because they were on the waitlist for Claremont and shifted to Key. Guessing a lot of those transfers are English-speakers, too. And I venture to guess more of them are English speakers than native Spanish speakers. Besides, immersion is supposed to be 50/50 Spanish-dominant/English-dominant. So, what is your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The notion that the county would force an immersion school with a high-ish FARMS rate to move locations boggles my mind. What a repulsive thing to do. Key is a great community. Why should they be forced to move to a smaller, less accessible building? Seriously. If this is true, what are these pro-move people thinking?

A few interesting facts about Key:
- 390 kids (of 743) - more than half - transferred in - as in they are not in the immediate neighborhood.
- They have transfers from EVERY Arlington elementary.
- Guessing quite a few of the transfers are Spanish speakers.
- 37 from Barrett. 43 Glebe. 35 Henry. 92 Long Branch.

Looks to me like moving this great program more centrally would be if great benefit to these families and would make it easier to attract even more Spanish speakers. And no, it is not repulsive. It is common sense. Move Key to ATS or somewhere more central.

That's not every elementary in Arlington. And any from Oakridge, Abingdon, Carlin Springs, Randolph, Barcroft would be only because they were on the waitlist for Claremont and shifted to Key. Guessing a lot of those transfers are English-speakers, too. And I venture to guess more of them are English speakers than native Spanish speakers. Besides, immersion is supposed to be 50/50 Spanish-dominant/English-dominant. So, what is your point?

We don't have to guess what the demographics are of the transfers, it's all in the transfer report: https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Transfer-Report-2016-17.pdf

The point is that if the school was already over half transfers before the change in the transfer policy, the program is not actually intrinsically tied to the neighborhood. Therefore, it could also thrive somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Serious questions here from a Nottingam parent who gets the implications of these questions for our own school but is going to ask anyway (because I’ve been reading this thread all along and still don’t feel like I have a handle on the answers):

1. For those who want Key to remain at its current location, what is APS supposed to do for neighborhood students in its area, especially considering that fewer of them will be able to Key than have attended previously? Do you expect ASFS to stay outside of its zone while students immediately around it go elsewhere? Will the planning units around Key get zoned for other schools? How do you expect to see that division occur?

2. For those who want a Key/ASFS swap, I’d ask essentially the same question - where do you expect all of the students around ASFS to go? What will those boundaries look like?

For all of the debate and advocacy around these ideas, I’m having a hard time envisioning how it would work in practice to keep the immersion program at either location while stil providing the necessary neighborhood seats, but maybe there’s something I’m overlooking. I know people will be inclined to take these questions as a springboard for other positions only tangentially related, but I’d appreciate it if I could get some serious and direct answers to these questions from people who hold these positions before that happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The notion that the county would force an immersion school with a high-ish FARMS rate to move locations boggles my mind. What a repulsive thing to do. Key is a great community. Why should they be forced to move to a smaller, less accessible building? Seriously. If this is true, what are these pro-move people thinking?

A few interesting facts about Key:
- 390 kids (of 743) - more than half - transferred in - as in they are not in the immediate neighborhood.
- They have transfers from EVERY Arlington elementary.
- Guessing quite a few of the transfers are Spanish speakers.
- 37 from Barrett. 43 Glebe. 35 Henry. 92 Long Branch.

Looks to me like moving this great program more centrally would be if great benefit to these families and would make it easier to attract even more Spanish speakers. And no, it is not repulsive. It is common sense. Move Key to ATS or somewhere more central.

That's not every elementary in Arlington. And any from Oakridge, Abingdon, Carlin Springs, Randolph, Barcroft would be only because they were on the waitlist for Claremont and shifted to Key. Guessing a lot of those transfers are English-speakers, too. And I venture to guess more of them are English speakers than native Spanish speakers. Besides, immersion is supposed to be 50/50 Spanish-dominant/English-dominant. So, what is your point?

Page 5 of the Transfer report. I only listed the biggest transfers in. The point is that it is. It true that moving Key is the end of the world. It may make the school more convenient for other Spanish speakers already transferring in and attract new families who don’t want to go all the way into Rosalyn.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Transfer-Report-2016-17.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious questions here from a Nottingam parent who gets the implications of these questions for our own school but is going to ask anyway (because I’ve been reading this thread all along and still don’t feel like I have a handle on the answers):

1. For those who want Key to remain at its current location, what is APS supposed to do for neighborhood students in its area, especially considering that fewer of them will be able to Key than have attended previously? Do you expect ASFS to stay outside of its zone while students immediately around it go elsewhere? Will the planning units around Key get zoned for other schools? How do you expect to see that division occur?

2. For those who want a Key/ASFS swap, I’d ask essentially the same question - where do you expect all of the students around ASFS to go? What will those boundaries look like?

For all of the debate and advocacy around these ideas, I’m having a hard time envisioning how it would work in practice to keep the immersion program at either location while stil providing the necessary neighborhood seats, but maybe there’s something I’m overlooking. I know people will be inclined to take these questions as a springboard for other positions only tangentially related, but I’d appreciate it if I could get some serious and direct answers to these questions from people who hold these positions before that happens.

These are really questions you should be addressing to the school board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious questions here from a Nottingam parent who gets the implications of these questions for our own school but is going to ask anyway (because I’ve been reading this thread all along and still don’t feel like I have a handle on the answers):

1. For those who want Key to remain at its current location, what is APS supposed to do for neighborhood students in its area, especially considering that fewer of them will be able to Key than have attended previously? Do you expect ASFS to stay outside of its zone while students immediately around it go elsewhere? Will the planning units around Key get zoned for other schools? How do you expect to see that division occur?

2. For those who want a Key/ASFS swap, I’d ask essentially the same question - where do you expect all of the students around ASFS to go? What will those boundaries look like?

For all of the debate and advocacy around these ideas, I’m having a hard time envisioning how it would work in practice to keep the immersion program at either location while stil providing the necessary neighborhood seats, but maybe there’s something I’m overlooking. I know people will be inclined to take these questions as a springboard for other positions only tangentially related, but I’d appreciate it if I could get some serious and direct answers to these questions from people who hold these positions before that happens.

These are really questions you should be addressing to the school board.

Why? The SB has not yet made a determination on this either way, but maybe they don’t see it either. Right now I’m talking to the parents who are advocating for these outcomes, how do they see it actually working? How are you going to convince me to sign your petition? To support your side when I go to office hours or send an email to the staff/SB?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious questions here from a Nottingam parent who gets the implications of these questions for our own school but is going to ask anyway (because I’ve been reading this thread all along and still don’t feel like I have a handle on the answers):

1. For those who want Key to remain at its current location, what is APS supposed to do for neighborhood students in its area, especially considering that fewer of them will be able to Key than have attended previously? Do you expect ASFS to stay outside of its zone while students immediately around it go elsewhere? Will the planning units around Key get zoned for other schools? How do you expect to see that division occur?

2. For those who want a Key/ASFS swap, I’d ask essentially the same question - where do you expect all of the students around ASFS to go? What will those boundaries look like?

For all of the debate and advocacy around these ideas, I’m having a hard time envisioning how it would work in practice to keep the immersion program at either location while stil providing the necessary neighborhood seats, but maybe there’s something I’m overlooking. I know people will be inclined to take these questions as a springboard for other positions only tangentially related, but I’d appreciate it if I could get some serious and direct answers to these questions from people who hold these positions before that happens.

These are really questions you should be addressing to the school board.

Why? The SB has not yet made a determination on this either way, but maybe they don’t see it either. Right now I’m talking to the parents who are advocating for these outcomes, how do they see it actually working? How are you going to convince me to sign your petition? To support your side when I go to office hours or send an email to the staff/SB?[/quote

Who, outside of this thread, and, outside of this thread, some parents concerned about rumors, is discussing these changes? I have seen no explanation from the school board. The only tangible concern I recall reading about was an online petition from over a year ago from a ASFS parent who indicated concern about Key becoming an option school and ASFS potentially having to take in hundreds of new students.