Swanson or Williamsburg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DHMS has not recovered from the covid dip in population. It's a shame since it is such a beautiful new school, with a well-liked admin and faculty. APS may need to revisit boundaries.

Capacity rates:

DH 88%
WMS 79%
SMS 97%
JMS 90%
KMS 92%
GMS 110%

My child is in elementary school so I haven’t started paying attention to middle schools yet. Why is Gunston so overcrowded? We are zoned for where ever Ashlawn goes but considering a move to South Arlington to get more space.

Avoid Gunston at all costs. You’re much better off at TJMS or even Kenmore.

Why? What's worse about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Halls Hill Highview Park if rezoned to Hamm could help with capacity issues short and long term. I think Glebe splits between two or three middle schools currently.

The sections at WMS or at SMS? There were significant issues around these small units when they did the rezoning last time. Pretty much Williamsburg's entire tiny minority population is in these planning units. They did not want to be split off from their peers and pushed around. Equidistant to both Swanson and Hamm IIRC. I may be forgetting the details but this was a major issue raised during the last boundary process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DHMS has not recovered from the covid dip in population. It's a shame since it is such a beautiful new school, with a well-liked admin and faculty. APS may need to revisit boundaries.

Capacity rates:

DH 88%
WMS 79%
SMS 97%
JMS 90%
KMS 92%
GMS 110%

My child is in elementary school so I haven’t started paying attention to middle schools yet. Why is Gunston so overcrowded? We are zoned for where ever Ashlawn goes but considering a move to South Arlington to get more space.

Ashlawn is split pretty evenly between Kenmore and Swanson.

That is true, but the person is asking why Gunston is so overcrowded as opposed to the other middle schools.

One thing that makes no sense is how Nottingham has a portion of kids that goes to Swanson which is approaching overcrowding. Why wouldn’t you just send those kids to Williamsburg with the rest of their peers?

That’s the portion (south of Langston) that previously went to Tuckahoe, but moved to Nottingham when Discovery opened, but always went to Swanson. Pretty sure parents at the time wanted to stay at Swanson. The ones I know very much want to stay zoned for Swanson.

Ah, ok. Might not make sense in the long run.

I’m the PP, and I agree that it won’t make sense in the long run — another round or two of boundary changes and those families will have aged out anyway. Also, a lot of them thought they were going to be re-zoned because they’re walkable to Cardinal, but it didn’t work out that way. I am not even a little bit sorry that my kids are out of elementary so I no longer have a personal stake in the APS Elementary Boundary Wars.

Agreed.

Allowing parents to have input into what they “want“ when it pertains to logistical matters is super problematic for APS. The loudest parents get their way? How is that what’s best for all?

[Anonymous]

I’m an APS parent, and I think the school board should listen less to APS parents. The problem is that it’s a small set of current parents asking the school board to not make proposed changes that would benefit future students. There is no lobby for the future students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Halls Hill Highview Park if rezoned to Hamm could help with capacity issues short and long term. I think Glebe splits between two or three middle schools currently.

The sections at WMS or at SMS? There were significant issues around these small units when they did the rezoning last time. Pretty much Williamsburg's entire tiny minority population is in these planning units. They did not want to be split off from their peers and pushed around. Equidistant to both Swanson and Hamm IIRC. I may be forgetting the details but this was a major issue raised during the last boundary process.

Glebe now splits to Hamm and Swanson. The School Board had proposed to split three the school three ways, and keep Halls Hill/Highview Park at Williamsburg but parents objected because it was unfair to the kids to send small numbers of them to each school. So now Glebe Road is the dividing line. But the School Board messed up its numbers and Hamm is undercrowded. All of Glebe should probably get zoned there. It would be better to keep the kids together and it would balance enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Halls Hill Highview Park if rezoned to Hamm could help with capacity issues short and long term. I think Glebe splits between two or three middle schools currently.

The sections at WMS or at SMS? There were significant issues around these small units when they did the rezoning last time. Pretty much Williamsburg's entire tiny minority population is in these planning units. They did not want to be split off from their peers and pushed around. Equidistant to both Swanson and Hamm IIRC. I may be forgetting the details but this was a major issue raised during the last boundary process.

Glebe now splits to Hamm and Swanson. The School Board had proposed to split three the school three ways, and keep Halls Hill/Highview Park at Williamsburg but parents objected because it was unfair to the kids to send small numbers of them to each school. So now Glebe Road is the dividing line. But the School Board messed up its numbers and Hamm is undercrowded. All of Glebe should probably get zoned there. It would be better to keep the kids together and it would balance enrollment.

Writing on wall is Glebe will go to DHMS. How will that change the numbers? I believe it would all it more like Swanson in demographics and Williamsburg would get less diverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Halls Hill Highview Park if rezoned to Hamm could help with capacity issues short and long term. I think Glebe splits between two or three middle schools currently.

The sections at WMS or at SMS? There were significant issues around these small units when they did the rezoning last time. Pretty much Williamsburg's entire tiny minority population is in these planning units. They did not want to be split off from their peers and pushed around. Equidistant to both Swanson and Hamm IIRC. I may be forgetting the details but this was a major issue raised during the last boundary process.

Glebe now splits to Hamm and Swanson. The School Board had proposed to split three the school three ways, and keep Halls Hill/Highview Park at Williamsburg but parents objected because it was unfair to the kids to send small numbers of them to each school. So now Glebe Road is the dividing line. But the School Board messed up its numbers and Hamm is undercrowded. All of Glebe should probably get zoned there. It would be better to keep the kids together and it would balance enrollment.

Writing on wall is Glebe will go to DHMS. How will that change the numbers? I believe it would all it more like Swanson in demographics and Williamsburg would get less diverse.

Not sure I understand your second sentence, but currently none of Glebe goes to Williamsburg. So shifting all of Glebe to Hamm wouldn't affect Williamsburg's diversity. It would balance enrollment between Hamm and Swanson because currently Swanson is overcrowded and Hamm is under-enrolled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Halls Hill Highview Park if rezoned to Hamm could help with capacity issues short and long term. I think Glebe splits between two or three middle schools currently.

The sections at WMS or at SMS? There were significant issues around these small units when they did the rezoning last time. Pretty much Williamsburg's entire tiny minority population is in these planning units. They did not want to be split off from their peers and pushed around. Equidistant to both Swanson and Hamm IIRC. I may be forgetting the details but this was a major issue raised during the last boundary process.

Glebe now splits to Hamm and Swanson. The School Board had proposed to split three the school three ways, and keep Halls Hill/Highview Park at Williamsburg but parents objected because it was unfair to the kids to send small numbers of them to each school. So now Glebe Road is the dividing line. But the School Board messed up its numbers and Hamm is undercrowded. All of Glebe should probably get zoned there. It would be better to keep the kids together and it would balance enrollment.

Writing on wall is Glebe will go to DHMS. How will that change the numbers? I believe it would all it more like Swanson in demographics and Williamsburg would get less diverse.

Not sure I understand your second sentence, but currently none of Glebe goes to Williamsburg. So shifting all of Glebe to Hamm wouldn't affect Williamsburg's diversity. It would balance enrollment between Hamm and Swanson because currently Swanson is overcrowded and Hamm is under-enrolled.

I don’t think it’s accurate to say Swanson is overcrowded. I don’t think it’s been over capacity since DHMS opened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Halls Hill Highview Park if rezoned to Hamm could help with capacity issues short and long term. I think Glebe splits between two or three middle schools currently.

The sections at WMS or at SMS? There were significant issues around these small units when they did the rezoning last time. Pretty much Williamsburg's entire tiny minority population is in these planning units. They did not want to be split off from their peers and pushed around. Equidistant to both Swanson and Hamm IIRC. I may be forgetting the details but this was a major issue raised during the last boundary process.

Glebe now splits to Hamm and Swanson. The School Board had proposed to split three the school three ways, and keep Halls Hill/Highview Park at Williamsburg but parents objected because it was unfair to the kids to send small numbers of them to each school. So now Glebe Road is the dividing line. But the School Board messed up its numbers and Hamm is undercrowded. All of Glebe should probably get zoned there. It would be better to keep the kids together and it would balance enrollment.

Writing on wall is Glebe will go to DHMS. How will that change the numbers? I believe it would all it more like Swanson in demographics and Williamsburg would get less diverse.

Not sure I understand your second sentence, but currently none of Glebe goes to Williamsburg. So shifting all of Glebe to Hamm wouldn't affect Williamsburg's diversity. It would balance enrollment between Hamm and Swanson because currently Swanson is overcrowded and Hamm is under-enrolled.

I don’t think it’s accurate to say Swanson is overcrowded. I don’t think it’s been over capacity since DHMS opened.

Most recent reporting shows 97% capacity at Swanson. It’s inching closer while Hamm and WMS are much lower.