Challenge: Can someone explain the Arlington school zoning issues to us w/o being mean?

[Anonymous]

Hello neighbors,
My partner and I are new homeowners in Arlington (near Virginia Square) and are expecting our first kid in a few months. We have been trying to catch up on the school zoning stuff going on, but there's so much anger and anxiety to filter through that it is just overwhelming. Can a helpful neighbor explain in an objective, policy-focused manner:
- The challenges facing APS
- The proposed solutions from APS and their reasoning
- Which stakeholders are angry and why they are angry
- Whether there are counterproposals in the community that are focused on increasing equity? And if so, who is behind those?

If there's an existing resource that lays all that out a link would be much appreciated! If not, super brief overview would be helpful from you folks who are more in the know, no need to write a paper! Many thanks in advance! *crosses fingers that I'm not inadvertently starting another mean thread*

[Anonymous]

I’m going to just focus on asfs area for you. There are three schools located near you— asfs, Long Branch, and Taylor. All are extremely over crowded. Due to a change in enrollment policy change, asfs is projected to be over 150% capacity in the next few years. Because of that they are implementing boundary changes this year.
There is a lot of angst at asfs about these changes. The main issue is that the school is outside its attendance zone, and there is not a clear way to fix that without moving large numbers of people. Due to the old enrollment policy, the school also has a large number of transfers that don’t live anywhere near it’s potential boundary, so there is a lot of questions about whether it’s fair to let those kids stay if it overcrowded the school. To top it off, people blame the school principal for taking a side and some people think she’s racist. The gloves went off last spring, and people went crazy. There are a few potential solutions being floated, and people get mean/hysterical about discussing them mostly due to bad blood from this past spring.
You are currently zoned for Ashlawn, and ideally would move to either long branch or asfs in this boundary change. Both schools will likely be over capacity for the next ten years, and both are good schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello neighbors,
My partner and I are new homeowners in Arlington (near Virginia Square) and are expecting our first kid in a few months. We have been trying to catch up on the school zoning stuff going on, but there's so much anger and anxiety to filter through that it is just overwhelming. Can a helpful neighbor explain in an objective, policy-focused manner:
- The challenges facing APS
- The proposed solutions from APS and their reasoning
- Which stakeholders are angry and why they are angry
- Whether there are counterproposals in the community that are focused on increasing equity? And if so, who is behind those?

If there's an existing resource that lays all that out a link would be much appreciated! If not, super brief overview would be helpful from you folks who are more in the know, no need to write a paper! Many thanks in advance! *crosses fingers that I'm not inadvertently starting another mean thread*

Start here: https://www.apsva.us/elementary-school-boundary-change/

And also reach out to your neighbors to discuss. As you can see from the threads on here, this is not the best place for a rational discussion. Welcome neighbor! Most neighbors with kids in the neighborhood have had a pretty active role in engaging because there is so much going on in VA Square, so just reach out to one of us to talk.

[Anonymous]

APS enrollment has dramatically increased. As a result schools are overcrowded, and they need to open up new schools. However, there is not land to build new schools, and they have to take the sites they can get, even if they are not optimally located in the county to relieve the areas of the most overcrowding.
When they open up new schools they have to draw new boundaries, in order to zone kids to the new school. Change is really hard for people, so most people would prefer things stay the same, and they continue at their old schools, while others go to a new/different school. (Those that live super close to a new school would typically rather go to the new school.)
Currently, the area of the worst overcrowding is in the Northeastern section of the county, rosslyn/courthouse, etc. It used to be that very few kids lived there, and those that did were mostly poor hispanic students. The immersion program was located at Key, which is across from courthouse metro. Anyone who didn't want to go to Key, had the option to go to Science Focus. Science Focus was formerly an option school, which drew kids from the Key district, Taylor district, and Jamestown. 10 or so years ago anyone who wanted to go to Science Focus, could. However as the population grew in the Rosslyn/Courthouse area, the kids from that area who didn't want immersion began filling ASFS and there was no room for anyone to opt in. In the Spring of 2017, in light of this reality, APS declared that ASFS was a neighborhood school, and Key was an option school with no preference for those in the neighborhood.
So at the moment, ASFS is the neighborhood school for the Key school zone- but it is not actually located in the Key school zone. There are tons of kids who live closer to ASFS who are zoned to either Ashlawn or Taylor.
APS suggested looking at the location of option schools, which was primarily about looking at the location of Key, and considering whether they could move the option school program to a different location and allow the Key building to be used as an option school. This caused a huge public outcry both from Key parents (because they like the location of Key) and from any schools that was floated as a possible landing spot for Key.
APS hasn't necessarily proposed solutions yet- but basically what they have said is that they either have to move Key, or draw boundaries that are long finger like boundaries b/c they have schools in the Western part of the county, and population in the East.

[Anonymous]

These were actually helpful, thank you

[Anonymous]

Others have covered most of it, but there is also a racial and economic aspect to it. Southern Arlington tends to be much more LatinX/Hispanic, lower income, and ESL. Some people will blame historic zoning decisions that bundle affordable housing along Columbia Pike. Others will blame the death spiral that is lower rated schools -> lower housing prices -> lower performing students -> even lower rated schools - and on and on forever.

Families who live in areas where the test scores are lower, due to ESL, an achievement gap, or other factors often want to go to an option school because, like charters in DC, they are seen as better. When Reed ES opens and other factors drive moving ES boundaries, some of the option school programs might need to move buildings. Several issues erupt:
1. People who had a “normal” ES curriculum don’t like their neighborhood school suddenly becoming Spanish immersion or Science Focus.
2. Kids who go to option schools from out of bounds (OOB) need to be busses there or driven there.
2a. Locating choice schools in the northern corners of Arlington may create an undue burden on families from South Arlington who may rely on public transportation.
2b. People who bought houses in the “almost McLean” parts of Arlington get really upset about additional cars and busses in their quiet neighborhoods. And no one will say it outright, but when those cars and busses contain brown or poor kids, it’s somehow worse.
3. Arlington is racially and economically segregated. That is a fact. People like walkable neighborhood schools. People who live walking distance from a school they like do not want their kids bussed to a different school. See note above about how people feel about more busses to their current school / increased traffic.

When McKinely was renovated / expanded and Discovery was opened, some kids in the NW corner of Arlington were moved around. Someone on the school board made a mathematical mistake in the projected student numbers and McKinely was over capacity the first year it opened after renovation. That made people mad.

Parents at the overcrowded elementaries are annoyed that there are a few schools in NW that are under capacity when their kid is in a trailer. This animosity really comes out when you ask where to move option schools. There are 3 elementary schools in NW - Tuckahoe, Nottingham and Discovery I believe, who overlap a lot in “walk zone”. Despite lots of options being considered, somehow Nottingham is never discussed as a option school.

[Anonymous]

The other wrinkle is that busing has become a huge budget issue in the recent past, both being able to afford to bus kids and, secondarily, being able to attract bus drivers at current salaries. So APS has undertaken a concerted effort to maximize walkability to save on busing costs. This affects APS's ability to integrate schools (economically, though nothing is without a racial component) and also would seem to make it even more important to reconsider the location of option schools. A school with a large walk zone, for example, probably should be a neighborhood school to make all those kids walkers and minimize the buses needed. APS staff appear to have bungled the first attempt at assessing option school location, by not having done a careful analysis that would stand up to the irate parents (mainly Nottingham) at the school being identified as a potential neighborhood-to-option switch.

Thanks to the PPs on Key/ASFS for the straightforward explanations. I follow school issues closely but don't live in those areas, and have always found those issues confounding simply due to the level of venom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Others have covered most of it, but there is also a racial and economic aspect to it. Southern Arlington tends to be much more LatinX/Hispanic, lower income, and ESL. Some people will blame historic zoning decisions that bundle affordable housing along Columbia Pike. Others will blame the death spiral that is lower rated schools -> lower housing prices -> lower performing students -> even lower rated schools - and on and on forever.

Families who live in areas where the test scores are lower, due to ESL, an achievement gap, or other factors often want to go to an option school because, like charters in DC, they are seen as better. When Reed ES opens and other factors drive moving ES boundaries, some of the option school programs might need to move buildings. Several issues erupt:
1. People who had a “normal” ES curriculum don’t like their neighborhood school suddenly becoming Spanish immersion or Science Focus.
2. Kids who go to option schools from out of bounds (OOB) need to be busses there or driven there.
2a. Locating choice schools in the northern corners of Arlington may create an undue burden on families from South Arlington who may rely on public transportation.
2b. People who bought houses in the “almost McLean” parts of Arlington get really upset about additional cars and busses in their quiet neighborhoods. And no one will say it outright, but when those cars and busses contain brown or poor kids, it’s somehow worse.
3. Arlington is racially and economically segregated. That is a fact. People like walkable neighborhood schools. People who live walking distance from a school they like do not want their kids bussed to a different school. See note above about how people feel about more busses to their current school / increased traffic.

When McKinely was renovated / expanded and Discovery was opened, some kids in the NW corner of Arlington were moved around. Someone on the school board made a mathematical mistake in the projected student numbers and McKinely was over capacity the first year it opened after renovation. That made people mad.

Parents at the overcrowded elementaries are annoyed that there are a few schools in NW that are under capacity when their kid is in a trailer. This animosity really comes out when you ask where to move option schools. There are 3 elementary schools in NW - Tuckahoe, Nottingham and Discovery I believe, who overlap a lot in “walk zone”. Despite lots of options being considered, somehow Nottingham is never discussed as a option school.

This pretty much nails it. The only thing missing is that the weight of political power is in north Arlington, which is much larger and more civically active than the south. Elected officials listen to north Arlington's concerns because that's where th votes are. In the recent past, north Arlington parents have suceessfully pressured the school board to abandon two separate efforts to promote more integrated schools while balancing enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Then there is the high school situation. APS currently has three traditional high schools - Yorktown, Washington-Lee and Wakefield, and one "lottery" middle/high program - HB Woodlawn.

1. The traditional high schools are overcrowded. In some cases, APS built new schools that are shiny, but have less capacity than the schools they replaced.
2. APS stacks the deck in favor of W-L by allowing it to offer both AP and IB, while limiting Yorktown and Wakefield to AP. So there's a brain drain from Yorktown and Wakefield to W-L that some people resent.
3. Because HB Woodlawn is so small, it is literally like "winning the lottery" for your kid to get in. APS spends a lot more per student on those kids than the kids at the other schools, when you factor in the facility costs.
4. Past redistricting decisions have been made based on what's convenient, vs. what might balance the school demographics. So when W-L got most over-crowded first, wealthy kids were moved to Yorktown, which has the fewest poor kids, while poorer kids were moved to Wakefield.
5. To address future overcrowding, APS has presented a range of alternatives, none of which are very appealing and most of which depend upon someone else's kid opting or being forced into a non-traditional program that you probably wouldn't find acceptable for your own kids.

[Anonymous]

There is also a wide reaching boundary change that will impact most of South Arlington because a new elementary school, "Fleet ES", is opening in 2019 right next to Jefferson Middle School. At the same time, the Montessori program currently at Drew Elementary is moving to take over the current Patrick Henry ES building which is down the street from the new school. This will cause a huge shift of boundaries across the south and extending somewhat into the northeast since they want to address the ASFS issue at the same time. And, Long Branch's boundary currently extends across 50 with planning units that are in the walk zone for Fleet. Moving those to Fleet could potentially open up some space to relieve ASFS.

Many families currently zoned for Patrick Henry are under the impression that they were guaranteed that the whole current Henry population would move together to Fleet but that is highly unlikely to happen. So, they are angry about that.

Complicating the moves is that the Reed ES in Westover will open a couple years later which will also cause a boundary shift and APS has a policy that they will not move the same planning unit for a certain number of years so anything touched in this 2019 change will be off the table for the 2022 change.

Adding to the mix is that APS has done a poor job with recent boundary adjustments for middle and high school. The administration/school board tends to give in to the loudest/richest voices in the room. For Middle school, that meant they didn't move as many units as they should in the Stratford MS adjustment, leaving Williamsburg under capacity and Swanson still well over capacity. For high school, units that made sense to move to Wakefield flipped out about staying at W-L (because Wakefield is poorer and browner). So that boundary adjustment didn't do all it could to balance enrollment, leaving W-L still much more crowded than it needs to be and making the economic disparity between the HS's even worse than it was to start with.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, PPs! This is really helpful. I will take PP suggestion to chat about this with our neighbors as we get to know them.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Also there is no money for anything (e.g., buses, a new HS, etc.) and barely any available land. The County Board is disinclined to do much about this situation, because while it is true that most votes are in North Arlington vs. South, it is really true that most votes are older and/or child-free residents. Arlington has (relative to other nearby counties) a low percentage of families with children.

There are also many (including me) who believe that County housing policies cause or at least contribute to certain APS issues, including school segregation and overcrowding.

[Anonymous]

OP, I’m not going to rebut some of the accusations and claims here, because you didn’t want to spark controversy. Just be aware that there are unfounded claims and bias in some of the responses, rather than objectivity, and take opinions with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

Also, "near Virginia Square" could fall into different school zones right now. I'd describe us as "near VA square' because we are in Ashton Heights-- zoned for Long Branch, not Ashlawn. You can find your current assignment in the boundary locator:

http://gis.arlingtonva.us/Html5Viewer/Index.html?configBase=http://gis.arlingtonva.us/Geocortex/Essentials/REST/sites/APS_Attendance_Locator/viewers/APS_School_Boundary_Locator/virtualdirectory/Resources/Config/Default/


It also tells you your planning unit number which you may find useful to know when following the boundary debate as it pans out this Fall.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'd recommend watching (streaming) the school board meetings this fall. There will be a lot of discussion on this, and it will be helpful for you to listen to each school board member (because they differ in opinion on what to do) as well as listen to comments from the community, some of which are likely to be heated (but it will help you understand the different groups and their motives). It's all available online. I usually can't watch it live (7 p.m. is not an easy time for parents of young kids!), but I watch a couple days later when I get the chance. I also read the reactions of people on DCUM to the meetings. I started following this when my child was an infant, so I applaud you for wanting to be involved and informed early on!