Let’s Talk APS High Schools: 4th one or no?

[Anonymous]

Can someone explain why in the world APS is letting single neighborhoods stop them from building a 4th high school (Glen Carlin)?

How they can do anything other than put 600 high school seats at the Ed Center?

How anyone with half a brain would think they could fill 1/3 of Arlington Tech (still not sure what that is) with kids from Yorktown?

And when someone is going to remember O’Grady campaigned on supporting a 4th comprehensive high school?

[Anonymous]

No one cares about 4th high school until elementary boundaries are done. You’re barking up the wrong tree.

[Anonymous]

NP here and I care about the high school bc shocker my kid is older and high school influences property values as well.

I have been trying to follow the new proposals but they all seem terrible. My vote is a 4th comprehensive high school with the tech thing as a magnet and end the “career center” as is, just offer some vo tech classes in all high schools and adult ed can go to a vacant office space somewhere in Rosslyn or Ballston.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here and I care about the high school bc shocker my kid is older and high school influences property values as well.

I have been trying to follow the new proposals but they all seem terrible. My vote is a 4th comprehensive high school with the tech thing as a magnet and end the “career center” as is, just offer some vo tech classes in all high schools and adult ed can go to a vacant office space somewhere in Rosslyn or Ballston.

Should have been clear this was needed 5-10 years ago. It’s probably too late now to salvage the HS experience for current ES/MS students in APS.

[Anonymous]

If you have kids in 4th through 6th, so should know by know that the SB has decided to write them off as a lost cause. You will never have enough seats, regardless of school level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have kids in 4th through 6th, so should know by know that the SB has decided to write them off as a lost cause. You will never have enough seats, regardless of school level.

Unless you are in the Discovery/Williamsburg neighborhood

[Anonymous]

They need to build it now. The County's population is not going to go down and land isn't going to become any more available in the future.

[Anonymous]

I just don't see the need to spend tens of millions of dollars to build a 4th comprehensive high school. Yes we need seats, but no - we don't need an entire campus. People who say "just turn Kenmore into a high school," but ok - where do all those middle school seats go? 6th-8th graders need a dedicated building and curriculum, whereas you can be a bit more flexible with high school students.

I like the idea of expanding on the current course: smaller programs spread out in various centers around the County. It's more nimble, and those seats can alleviate overcrowding just as well as ball fields and tennis courts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have kids in 4th through 6th, so should know by know that the SB has decided to write them off as a lost cause. You will never have enough seats, regardless of school level.

+1

Just like they wrote off the current middle schoolers at Swanson and Williamsburg a few years ago. The SB ignores what is obvious to most of us and reacts to crises instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just don't see the need to spend tens of millions of dollars to build a 4th comprehensive high school. Yes we need seats, but no - we don't need an entire campus. People who say "just turn Kenmore into a high school," but ok - where do all those middle school seats go? 6th-8th graders need a dedicated building and curriculum, whereas you can be a bit more flexible with high school students.

I like the idea of expanding on the current course: smaller programs spread out in various centers around the County. It's more nimble, and those seats can alleviate overcrowding just as well as ball fields and tennis courts.

Smaller programs are not going to be enough and will take too much build up time to actually relieve capacity at the big HS's. You need to figure out what programs would be appealing, try to get enough kids to take a shot at be in a pilot class, work on building good word of mouth, etc. Then need a minimum of 4 years to you can demonstrate that those kids who took a chance on the program get into sufficiently competitive colleges. Look at Arlington Tech and the crap people here say about it. Most Arlington parents are extremely risk averse when it comes to their HS kids. They want a clear path that looks just like what they expect HS to look like.

And, even if you can get enough kids to sign up for these smaller programs, you still have issues of overcrowding at the main schools for sports/extracurriculars since kids in "programs" have to be allowed to go there to participate. Take that option away and you make it even harder for anyone to opt for a small program.

I fully support building a 4th HS -- should have been at Kenmore but Career Center is fine if that's where there is the will to do it. It would also be good for Arlington Tech to be a magnet program within the bigger HS because then those students would have full sports/extracurriculars right there instead of adding to demand at the other 3 schools. Move Montessori somewhere else - it's a lot easier to find space for an ES building.

My main concern with everything going on at the CC is that they may end up limiting access to the CC programs for kids outside of Arlington Tech while all this is being figured out. My DD (now in 7th grade) has been wanting to do the animal science program at the CC since she took their enrichment classes in ES. But, she also wants to do marching band so that rules out going to AT to guarantee access to animal science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just don't see the need to spend tens of millions of dollars to build a 4th comprehensive high school. Yes we need seats, but no - we don't need an entire campus. People who say "just turn Kenmore into a high school," but ok - where do all those middle school seats go? 6th-8th graders need a dedicated building and curriculum, whereas you can be a bit more flexible with high school students.

I like the idea of expanding on the current course: smaller programs spread out in various centers around the County. It's more nimble, and those seats can alleviate overcrowding just as well as ball fields and tennis courts.

Those smaller programs are much more expensive to run. We don't have the money for the HB that we have. We can't build more like it. We need efficiency and that means one additional comprehensive high school.

Put the Kenmore middle school site at the Career Center of VHC site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just don't see the need to spend tens of millions of dollars to build a 4th comprehensive high school. Yes we need seats, but no - we don't need an entire campus. People who say "just turn Kenmore into a high school," but ok - where do all those middle school seats go? 6th-8th graders need a dedicated building and curriculum, whereas you can be a bit more flexible with high school students.

I like the idea of expanding on the current course: smaller programs spread out in various centers around the County. It's more nimble, and those seats can alleviate overcrowding just as well as ball fields and tennis courts.

The problem with this is that options/programs are just that. If you don't have enough people who want those options, then we're kind of screwed. They are betting that we will, but I just don't know how many families are willing to gamble their child's HS experience like that. Arlington isn't exactly known for its laid back parents who take a wait-and-see approach. They want the ES option programs and HB because they are known and proven quantities. Not sure whether the new HS programs they are envisioning will have that same draw. I like the idea of being more flexible with HS students, in theory. I think the fear is that is the "option" won't fill and then they'll have to draw a neighborhood boundary, forcing kids into a school that was never meant to be a full service HS.

[Anonymous]

Reduce HB to middle school, keep it in the building it is in, create a 4th comprehensive high school on the career center site.

I know people love HB and it is a cool and great option but things change. Let the current kids in high school graduate. 8th graders go to their current home school next year. And if that can't be an option, then just expand the boundaries for every single high school a bit more to spread out the overload at all three schools.

[Anonymous]

Putting a 4th comprehensive high school at the career center site will DOOM WAKEFIELD. A huge percentage of the UMC that give Wakefield any diversity at all will be siphoned off to the new school's boundary. This will leave Wakefield to have a very high percentage of kids from low income families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Putting a 4th comprehensive high school at the career center site will DOOM WAKEFIELD. A huge percentage of the UMC that give Wakefield any diversity at all will be siphoned off to the new school's boundary. This will leave Wakefield to have a very high percentage of kids from low income families.

What if it were at the Kenmore site? Any better for Wakefield?