South Arlington and North Arlington Schools

[Anonymous]

Barcroft is at about 70% and will be closer to 90% once Henry is moved and absorbs alcova heights.

There are lots of vacancies east of george Mason too, but glad to hear that the new places are opening at glebe. Now if only the food star development would happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone give me their impressions on the differences between the two candidates for the school board, and direct me to a website with further information?

Reid Goldstein - reidgoldstein.com
He seems to be a pretty good listener. Seemed smart and reasonable. I like him. He's from south Arlington I believe.


B.A. Brooklyn Kinlay- I think she's green party and I know very little about her.

http://vote-va.org/intro.aspx?state=va&id=vakinlayba

I just realized the above link has zero info!

Try this one for Kinlay

http://onyourballot.vote411.org/m/race-detail.do?id=13658459#c13674089

I might vote for Kinlay just to throw a wrench into the mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Barcroft is at about 70% and will be closer to 90% once Henry is moved and absorbs alcova heights.

There are lots of vacancies east of george Mason too, but glad to hear that the new places are opening at glebe. Now if only the food star development would happen.

I think the food star development is still in the works. The developer was asking for public input about green space for it fairly recently.


Now... If Henry moves to the TJ site, and Montessori moves to the old Henry... That will actually leave 2 endangered schools. Drew will likely be failing at that point, and Barcoft will have some huge issues being almost 100% poverty.
I don't even know what to think about that.
I guess I don't care as long as my kid can choice into a better situation.
I guess there will be more space in the Montessori school...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I guess I don't care as long as my kid can choice into a better situation.

Congratulations, you have discovered the new Arlington Way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The trick is really in balancing out the proportions of FARM kids in the schools. Or in any case, getting more into the North by building affordable or mixed income housing on some of the bigger streets up there like North Harrison near the groceries or on Lee (but not feeding into Glebe). All of those schools have less than 10% FARMs kids, and in some cases it's only 2 or 3 percent. Those schools could easily absorb some of these kids and would have the resources to get them the help they need without hurting Larla's education or sending mom and dad in a panic to send her to private school.

There is a lot of research showing that wrap-around services make a big difference in high poverty schools. What if the school board enacted a policy that any school with a FARMs rate above, say 40%, gets extra resources- like social workers, psychologists, afterschool academic programs, etc- and it's funded by increasing the class size at schools with a FARMs rate below 25%. Basically a local Title I policy.

This should incentivize the wealthier area to either support affordable housing in their school districts, to increase the FARMs rate in order to keep their class sizes small, or at least incentivize them to stop putting all the affordable housing in a few school districts that are "out of sight, out of mind" today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I guess I don't care as long as my kid can choice into a better situation.

Congratulations, you have discovered the new Arlington Way.

This is the old Arlington way, too, sadly. Long ago and not far away, when Key became an immersion school, another Arlington parent was inspired to get involved in Arlington politics so that their own precious snowflakes would have options. Just ask Mary Hynes about it some time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/05/19/mary-hynes/8c627395-cbd2-417b-bea0-a957728eb708/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone give me their impressions on the differences between the two candidates for the school board, and direct me to a website with further information?

Reid Goldstein - reidgoldstein.com
He seems to be a pretty good listener. Seemed smart and reasonable. I like him. He's from south Arlington I believe.


B.A. Brooklyn Kinlay- I think she's green party and I know very little about her.

http://vote-va.org/intro.aspx?state=va&id=vakinlayba

Thank you for this and the other link!
I'm the poster who earlier expressed some doubts earlier, but after reading all the information in the links, Reid Goldstein is getting my vote!
I think he is pretty solid, and has good experience.

Kinlay is a realtor... And I'm not sure why she would be qualified to be on the school board...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I guess I don't care as long as my kid can choice into a better situation.

Congratulations, you have discovered the new Arlington Way.

This is the old Arlington way, too, sadly. Long ago and not far away, when Key became an immersion school, another Arlington parent was inspired to get involved in Arlington politics so that their own precious snowflakes would have options. Just ask Mary Hynes about it some time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/05/19/mary-hynes/8c627395-cbd2-417b-bea0-a957728eb708/

So just to be clear, are you criticizing Hynes for pulling her kids from Key back in 1994 and trying to find an alternative?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But it IS clear to me that we can't keep cramming FARMs kids into South Arlington where the percentage of FARMs kids is already, like, 60%. Those schools need a chance to flourish, but they won't if we keep sending them the students that need the most resources. We need to slow our roll in putting in AH on the Pike to give the kids in those schools a real chance and not transform the south into some sort of ghetto.

This is why we need to stop with the increase in AH all together. We can't figure out how to fit the kids we have NOW into the schools.

I guess I'm still enough of a bleeding heart liberal that I want us to help the people who otherwise are going to have nothing but bad choices left to them. We won't be helping poor people if we keep sticking them in the South; it will just become a ghetto. But the schools in the north are great and could easily absorb 100 of these kids amongst them. Look at all the resources they have that are going underutilized, compared to the south! I think the best answer is really to add some mixed housing in the North, to maybe increase the chances of building housing that actual teachers or school staff, police etc. would be able to use while getting some more low income families into the North.

But not everyone needs to live in Arlington!! If this were housing for our teachers, our firefighter, etc., I'd be all for it. Instead, when 60% is for people who don't work here or work illegally, why are we using our tax dollars for this? You don't need to live here if you aren't working here. Why are talking about destroying our parks and overcrowding our schools? I didn't always live in Arlington. I couldn't afford it. I lived somewhere else. I'm not a 1%-er and I don't live in the protected alcove or N-N-Arlington. I'm just part of Arlington that will get squeezed out as we become a county of two classes.

So true!!! It is really hard to fathom WHY this small expensive county would want to build subsidized housing on top of parks (as in public land for public good), and pay the way for families that are coming fresh into the county (or country), most of which will not be working in Arlington, and vow to pay their bills for the next decades, yet almost every school in the county is overcrowded or will be within a few years, and half have challenges already with overwhelming non-English speakers and/or high levels of poverty ....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Barcroft is at about 70% and will be closer to 90% once Henry is moved and absorbs alcova heights.

There are lots of vacancies east of george Mason too, but glad to hear that the new places are opening at glebe. Now if only the food star development would happen.

I think the food star development is still in the works. The developer was asking for public input about green space for it fairly recently.


Now... If Henry moves to the TJ site, and Montessori moves to the old Henry... That will actually leave 2 endangered schools. Drew will likely be failing at that point, and Barcoft will have some huge issues being almost 100% poverty.
I don't even know what to think about that.
I guess I don't care as long as my kid can choice into a better situation.
I guess there will be more space in the Montessori school...

No, Drew will be near empty at that point (currently 3/5 to 4/5 Montessori), and will pull in kids from Oakridge and surrounding areas and have a brand new make up - it will be a completely different Drew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I guess I don't care as long as my kid can choice into a better situation.

Congratulations, you have discovered the new Arlington Way.

This is the old Arlington way, too, sadly. Long ago and not far away, when Key became an immersion school, another Arlington parent was inspired to get involved in Arlington politics so that their own precious snowflakes would have options. Just ask Mary Hynes about it some time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/05/19/mary-hynes/8c627395-cbd2-417b-bea0-a957728eb708/

So just to be clear, are you criticizing Hynes for pulling her kids from Key back in 1994 and trying to find an alternative?

Different poster here- if I may....

I think they are pointing out the mother fucking hypocrisy of finding offense with groups like CARD ( and she has said she is offended by them), that are bringing up the issues of school performance and socioeconomic integration, when she pulled her own children out of APS because they weren't performing and there were too many non English speakers in her kids classes.
I guess since she had to go private, we should all do the same...
Glad to see her go.
Sad to think Katie Cristol will be picking up the torch right behind her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone give me their impressions on the differences between the two candidates for the school board, and direct me to a website with further information?

Reid Goldstein - reidgoldstein.com
He seems to be a pretty good listener. Seemed smart and reasonable. I like him. He's from south Arlington I believe.


B.A. Brooklyn Kinlay- I think she's green party and I know very little about her.

http://vote-va.org/intro.aspx?state=va&id=vakinlayba

I just realized the above link has zero info!

Try this one for Kinlay

http://onyourballot.vote411.org/m/race-detail.do?id=13658459#c13674089

I might vote for Kinlay just to throw a wrench into the mix.

Well, okay. But maybe watch this first before you pull that lever (Civ Fed debate, SB candidates start around 46:35):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3SZZSAg8WY

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Barcroft is at about 70% and will be closer to 90% once Henry is moved and absorbs alcova heights.

There are lots of vacancies east of george Mason too, but glad to hear that the new places are opening at glebe. Now if only the food star development would happen.

I think the food star development is still in the works. The developer was asking for public input about green space for it fairly recently.


Now... If Henry moves to the TJ site, and Montessori moves to the old Henry... That will actually leave 2 endangered schools. Drew will likely be failing at that point, and Barcoft will have some huge issues being almost 100% poverty.
I don't even know what to think about that.
I guess I don't care as long as my kid can choice into a better situation.
I guess there will be more space in the Montessori school...

No, Drew will be near empty at that point (currently 3/5 to 4/5 Montessori), and will pull in kids from Oakridge and surrounding areas and have a brand new make up - it will be a completely different Drew.

Yeah, they are going to tell all the Nauck families currently sending their kids to Hoffman-Boston -- because they consider it (a school that until recently was also a failing school) better than the Drew neighborhood program -- that they can't do that anymore. And then they are going to redo the Oakridge boundaries to pull all the kids from the apartments and old duplexes at Arna Valley into Drew. What will be different is that there will be fewer higher income families and fewer families who stick around for six years. The school will have a bigger percentage of transient renters and lower income families, and anyone with a clue will continue to find a choice program to send their kids to. This plan is totally irresponsible--if the School Board votes to move Montessori, they are voting to create a high-poverty, highly segregated school at Drew. I just can't believe anyone buys this "having a neighborhood school will be better" BS people have been spewing for years, when there is absolutely no plan for making the school better, and all the evidence points to the situation being worse. The elderly neighborhood folks have this vision that there will be a tight knit AA community formed around the school, which just does not reflect the demographics of the area anymore. And the Montessori folks could not care less what happens once they leave. But its politically convenient for both groups to support the fiction that this move is a good thing, and the School Board needs the support to make the rest of this capacity plan work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But it IS clear to me that we can't keep cramming FARMs kids into South Arlington where the percentage of FARMs kids is already, like, 60%. Those schools need a chance to flourish, but they won't if we keep sending them the students that need the most resources. We need to slow our roll in putting in AH on the Pike to give the kids in those schools a real chance and not transform the south into some sort of ghetto.

This is why we need to stop with the increase in AH all together. We can't figure out how to fit the kids we have NOW into the schools.

I guess I'm still enough of a bleeding heart liberal that I want us to help the people who otherwise are going to have nothing but bad choices left to them. We won't be helping poor people if we keep sticking them in the South; it will just become a ghetto. But the schools in the north are great and could easily absorb 100 of these kids amongst them. Look at all the resources they have that are going underutilized, compared to the south! I think the best answer is really to add some mixed housing in the North, to maybe increase the chances of building housing that actual teachers or school staff, police etc. would be able to use while getting some more low income families into the North.

But not everyone needs to live in Arlington!! If this were housing for our teachers, our firefighter, etc., I'd be all for it. Instead, when 60% is for people who don't work here or work illegally, why are we using our tax dollars for this? You don't need to live here if you aren't working here. Why are talking about destroying our parks and overcrowding our schools? I didn't always live in Arlington. I couldn't afford it. I lived somewhere else. I'm not a 1%-er and I don't live in the protected alcove or N-N-Arlington. I'm just part of Arlington that will get squeezed out as we become a county of two classes.

So true!!! It is really hard to fathom WHY this small expensive county would want to build subsidized housing on top of parks (as in public land for public good), and pay the way for families that are coming fresh into the county (or country), most of which will not be working in Arlington, and vow to pay their bills for the next decades, yet almost every school in the county is overcrowded or will be within a few years, and half have challenges already with overwhelming non-English speakers and/or high levels of poverty ....

Makes you think that the County doesn't really care about those of us in the middle of just starting families. There's all this help for low-income families, but not much for the middle. Maybe they could try something to encourage young families to stay? Some days it seems like all Arlington wants is to offset the affluence with a few AHs at the expense of the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Makes you think that the County doesn't really care about those of us in the middle of just starting families. There's all this help for low-income families, but not much for the middle. Maybe they could try something to encourage young families to stay? Some days it seems like all Arlington wants is to offset the affluence with a few AHs at the expense of the rest.

This is a real problem that is developing in Arlington. The CB wants to spend a lot of money on services/housing to low-income families. The really high income families can shoulder the burden w/o much impact. Those of us in the middle are still getting the squeeze, but don't benefit from housing policies and can't afford to pull our kids out of public.