Louise Archer AAP closed to new rising 4th graders???

[Anonymous]

7:26 Maybe I'm reading dashboard wrong. It could still be closed to transfers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7:26 Maybe I'm reading dashboard wrong. It could still be closed to transfers.

Principals often overrule "closed to transfers" status in special cases, including for AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Thank you to the person who responded above. This is not about "entitled parents" and tossing that kind of thing around just lets the discussion sink into the name-calling that is far too common on DCUM AAP discussions.

LA is our school. It's been a great AAP program for us but the school is physically far, far too full. There is no art room; the old art room is a classroom and looks like it will be forever. Someone posted earlier about how there is a trailer sitting right on the blacktop, crowding the playground. Classes are full to bursting. This is an issue of sheer physical facilities -- LA cannot handle more kids, AAP or not.

I don't think anyone would disagree that the school is crowded. What's odd is that they are allowing 3rd graders to enter the Center and not 4th, 5th, or 6th graders, even though it is their assigned Center. And that this was not discussed during the grandfathering discussions last winter. It would be helpful to know how many kids this involves. If it's a handful of kids I can't imagine that will make a huge difference to LA's numbers, as there are likely to be a similar number of 4th, 5th, or 6th graders from the Center who move away or decide to return to their base schools.

A "handful of kids" here and another handful there, and soon the crowding is excessive. Again. I understand the frustration with the lack of transportation, and with feeling blindsided by decisions that don't seem to have been made sufficiently public, but the "handful of kids won't matter" thinking is what ends up making programs overcrowded. "Just make an exception for my kid, or these couple of kids, what does a few kids more matter".....It adds up quickly. Everyone will want their own kids to be part of the excepted "handful."

[Anonymous]

You act as if people from Great Falls are trying to get into Louise Archer. Louise Archer is their AAP school.

[Anonymous]

I think the main problem is the lack of transportation. If the school is over-crowded to the point of bursting (is there a fire marshall in the house?), then the solution needs to include transportation. The option needs to be viable for all students and if tranportation is not provided, itis not viable for all students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the main problem is the lack of transportation. If the school is over-crowded to the point of bursting (is there a fire marshall in the house?), then the solution needs to include transportation. The option needs to be viable for all students and if tranportation is not provided, itis not viable for all students.

+10000

[Anonymous]

I think the frustration lies in that even though last year the school was declared closed to transfers, it was incorrectly assumed that policy would change with the creation of the new center. That policy never changed, but people expected it to.

Because LA grandfathered so many kids, they didn't really accomplish much immediate relief except the rising third graders from Stenwood, WestBriar and Freedom Hill. They did provide long tern relief as each class gets older and a new grade is started at the WestBriar center, but that effect takes time to appreciate.

I feel badly for those who assumed their children would be sent to LA if they were accepted as a 4th or 5th grader into AAP....but I am surprised no one posed that question during the application process, especially given all of the craziness surrounding the issue this year.

Appeal to the AAP office and to the principal for pupil placement? I think the chances of that succeeding really depends on how many students are affected and if they feel they can afford to extend that privilege to others in the same boat, with regards to space over the next few years.

[Anonymous]

Colvin Run is also apparently closed to transfers next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the frustration lies in that even though last year the school was declared closed to transfers, it was incorrectly assumed that policy would change with the creation of the new center. That policy never changed, but people expected it to.

The question of what would happen to the new 4th, 5th, and 6th graders entering Louise Archer was posed to the principal at Stenwood at the PTA meetings last winter when the AAP proposals were discussed and she said that they would placed at Louise Archer, so that was her understanding as well. So it wasn't just assumptions, this is what parents were told. Colvin Run never once came up in any of those discussions as a possibility. All of the talk surrounded Westbriar, Lemon Road and Louise Archer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the frustration lies in that even though last year the school was declared closed to transfers, it was incorrectly assumed that policy would change with the creation of the new center. That policy never changed, but people expected it to.

Because LA grandfathered so many kids, they didn't really accomplish much immediate relief except the rising third graders from Stenwood, WestBriar and Freedom Hill. They did provide long tern relief as each class gets older and a new grade is started at the WestBriar center, but that effect takes time to appreciate.

I feel badly for those who assumed their children would be sent to LA if they were accepted as a 4th or 5th grader into AAP....but I am surprised no one posed that question during the application process, especially given all of the craziness surrounding the issue this year.
Appeal to the AAP office and to the principal for pupil placement? I think the chances of that succeeding really depends on how many students are affected and if they feel they can afford to extend that privilege to others in the same boat, with regards to space over the next few years.

Agreed. This process got a lot of press.

[Anonymous]

And also, why would they decide to grandfather 4th, 5th, and 6th graders when they weren't at Haycock if there wasn't enough room for transfers of children at schools still designated for Louise Archer?

[Anonymous]

Maybe the Town of Vienna will approve another trailer for a year longer. They seem to value their relationship with Vienna Elementary parents especially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Thank you to the person who responded above. This is not about "entitled parents" and tossing that kind of thing around just lets the discussion sink into the name-calling that is far too common on DCUM AAP discussions.

LA is our school. It's been a great AAP program for us but the school is physically far, far too full. There is no art room; the old art room is a classroom and looks like it will be forever. Someone posted earlier about how there is a trailer sitting right on the blacktop, crowding the playground. Classes are full to bursting. This is an issue of sheer physical facilities -- LA cannot handle more kids, AAP or not.

I don't think anyone would disagree that the school is crowded. What's odd is that they are allowing 3rd graders to enter the Center and not 4th, 5th, or 6th graders, even though it is their assigned Center. And that this was not discussed during the grandfathering discussions last winter. It would be helpful to know how many kids this involves. If it's a handful of kids I can't imagine that will make a huge difference to LA's numbers, as there are likely to be a similar number of 4th, 5th, or 6th graders from the Center who move away or decide to return to their base schools.

A "handful of kids" here and another handful there, and soon the crowding is excessive. Again. I understand the frustration with the lack of transportation, and with feeling blindsided by decisions that don't seem to have been made sufficiently public, but the "handful of kids won't matter" thinking is what ends up making programs overcrowded. "Just make an exception for my kid, or these couple of kids, what does a few kids more matter".....It adds up quickly. Everyone will want their own kids to be part of the excepted "handful."

+100 I sympathize too, but this does sum up perfectly how we got into this mess. I truly feel for people on the transportation issue, which doesn't seem fair. But given budgetary constraints I also worry that it just makes it easier for FCPS to argue that's why we need to go to eventual Local Level IV at all base schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the frustration lies in that even though last year the school was declared closed to transfers, it was incorrectly assumed that policy would change with the creation of the new center. That policy never changed, but people expected it to.

Because LA grandfathered so many kids, they didn't really accomplish much immediate relief except the rising third graders from Stenwood, WestBriar and Freedom Hill. They did provide long tern relief as each class gets older and a new grade is started at the WestBriar center, but that effect takes time to appreciate.

I feel badly for those who assumed their children would be sent to LA if they were accepted as a 4th or 5th grader into AAP....but I am surprised no one posed that question during the application process, especially given all of the craziness surrounding the issue this year.

Appeal to the AAP office and to the principal for pupil placement? I think the chances of that succeeding really depends on how many students are affected and if they feel they can afford to extend that privilege to others in the same boat, with regards to space over the next few years.

Exactly. Why would people assume space would magically appear in that school building? How many buses and for how many years do parents expect FCPS to schedule through the same neighborhoods? This attendance area adjustment was not the first time children no longer had Louise Archer as an option. Some one posted about Great Falls not trying to get into Louise Archer. Some areas of Great Falls used to go to Westbriar [Louise Archer for AAP] and were changed to Colvin Run as the base school. If they were AAP they went to Colvin Run 's center even past grade 3.

Everyone got a bus. The problem is Louise Archer and Haycock AAP parents have been unreasonable about grandfathering. If Colvin Run could open as a new center with more than grade 3 then FCPS could have done it again.

[Anonymous]

Did you mean Westbriar? Colvin Run has had an AAP center for some time.