Another choice school in N Arlington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still think the best solution is to relocate the ATS program to S. Arlington, where it would make so much more of an impact on the student population. (And I say that as a N. Arlington parent-- I agree with the PP above that our kids don't need the ATS program in N. Arlington.) Then turn the ATS building back into a neighborhood school to alleviate the remaining N. Arlington overcrowding and leave Reed alone so they don't need to renovate it again. How does ATS have so much power over APS and the School Board? ATS and HB were wonderful educational experiments in the 80s and 90s when APS had extra capacity to play with, but in today's crisis they just seem like vanity programs.

I think Holly has dirt on many members of the school board and probably has an FBI quality file on the Superintendent but then again, I read a LOT of fiction...

[Anonymous]

The people on my neighborhood who applied to ATS did so b/c they didn't want to deal with boundary changes.

[Anonymous]

Okay, we are a family districted for a high performing elementary school but we applied for the lottery for ATS for our kids. You want the reasons? There are some academic and some social. We were attracted to the traditional teaching style. They don't chase the latest fads for how to teach things. We like the idea of the self-contained classroom with one primary teacher for all subjects. We like the emphasis on academics, behavior, and character. We like the fact that all kids play an instrument and play in either band or orchestra.

Call me someone "trying to be a liberal" but we also like the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. We are minority and so are our kids. We toured the neighborhood school and quickly realized that our kids would be almost the only people who look like them in their classrooms. We also heard nightmarish stories from our neighbors about competition starting early for certain types of clothes, vacations, etc at the neighborhood school. We liked the atmosphere at ATS better.

All in all, as taxpayers we feel we have every right to apply for a double blind lottery school and we'd do it again. I don't care if they move the school but I disagree that only people in lower rated home neighborhoods should have access. The fact that it is a county-wide school is one of its strengths.

The vitriol toward ATS on this board and the divide between north and south Arlington (the smallest county) gets so tedious.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry that the petty problems of my low achieving south Arlington school bore you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Call me someone "trying to be a liberal" but we also like the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. We are minority and so are our kids. We toured the neighborhood school and quickly realized that our kids would be almost the only people who look like them in their classrooms. We also heard nightmarish stories from our neighbors about competition starting early for certain types of clothes, vacations, etc at the neighborhood school. We liked the atmosphere at ATS better.

So you claim to "like" ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, and yet you apparently moved into one of the most wealthy and most white neighbors in North Arlington. And then you were shocked to find out that there weren't many minorities at your local elementary school? Sorry, that doesn't entitle anyone from North Arlington to have access to an alternative choice program (and I am saying that as a North Arlington parent).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Call me someone "trying to be a liberal" but we also like the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. We are minority and so are our kids. We toured the neighborhood school and quickly realized that our kids would be almost the only people who look like them in their classrooms. We also heard nightmarish stories from our neighbors about competition starting early for certain types of clothes, vacations, etc at the neighborhood school. We liked the atmosphere at ATS better.

So you claim to "like" ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, and yet you apparently moved into one of the most wealthy and most white neighbors in North Arlington. And then you were shocked to find out that there weren't many minorities at your local elementary school? Sorry, that doesn't entitle anyone from North Arlington to have access to an alternative choice program (and I am saying that as a North Arlington parent).

She could have solved it by moving into Key/ASF boundary. ASF has the same Socio/racial diversity and you can buy into the zone in N Arl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Call me someone "trying to be a liberal" but we also like the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. We are minority and so are our kids. We toured the neighborhood school and quickly realized that our kids would be almost the only people who look like them in their classrooms. We also heard nightmarish stories from our neighbors about competition starting early for certain types of clothes, vacations, etc at the neighborhood school. We liked the atmosphere at ATS better.

So you claim to "like" ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, and yet you apparently moved into one of the most wealthy and most white neighbors in North Arlington. And then you were shocked to find out that there weren't many minorities at your local elementary school? Sorry, that doesn't entitle anyone from North Arlington to have access to an alternative choice program (and I am saying that as a North Arlington parent).

Actually, we moved into our neighborhood a LONG time ago as newlyweds, well before the prices skyrocketed, well before there was a big differential between N. and S. Arlington, and well before we even thought about having children. It would be pretty expensive now to move and silly just to prove worthiness of ethnic diversity to someone like you. The school is county wide. That means open to everyone in the county. We can disagree about that, and obviously do,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry that the petty problems of my low achieving south Arlington school bore you.

PP here. That's not what I said and I suspect you already know that. I just think that people can't have it both ways. People complain about the differential in quality and the de facto racial segregation in the county, and then turn around and complain about the one school that combines kids from all over the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Call me someone "trying to be a liberal" but we also like the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. We are minority and so are our kids. We toured the neighborhood school and quickly realized that our kids would be almost the only people who look like them in their classrooms. We also heard nightmarish stories from our neighbors about competition starting early for certain types of clothes, vacations, etc at the neighborhood school. We liked the atmosphere at ATS better.

So you claim to "like" ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, and yet you apparently moved into one of the most wealthy and most white neighbors in North Arlington. And then you were shocked to find out that there weren't many minorities at your local elementary school? Sorry, that doesn't entitle anyone from North Arlington to have access to an alternative choice program (and I am saying that as a North Arlington parent).

If you have a problem with someone who lives in a "white" and "wealthy" neighborhood applying to a choice school that she thinks is a better fit for her family, then take it up with APS rather than the poster. APS rules give her every right to enter the lottery for ATS. Why don't you try to persuade APS that wealthy minorities can't enter the lottery because they moved to white neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:13:05
Move ATS south and don't allow kids from high-preforming schools to apply is my proposal. I might not have been clear.

It's a logical solution. ATS will hate it.

No it's not. You can move the building, but if you don't allow kids from higher-performing schools to apply, you're only going to have another low-performing school. It's one of the only ways for parents who live in highly segregated neighborhoods to get their children into a less segregated environment. But, I get it. You have yours and everyone else should "bootstraps!" For you, equality of opportunity is not more important than sticking it to your neighbors whose kids got into ATS.

Not to mention, there are plenty of parents from higher-performing schools who see the benefit in their kids being educated in less homogeneous environments so that they don't grow up in a total bubble and so that maybe the next generation is more comfortable with all of the people who live in the world around them, and not just those who sound, look, dress exactly like them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:not just those who sound, look, dress exactly like them.

Because if ATS is anything, it's a haven for free spirits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not just those who sound, look, dress exactly like them.

Because if ATS is anything, it's a haven for free spirits.

HA!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not just those who sound, look, dress exactly like them.

Because if ATS is anything, it's a haven for free spirits.

HA!!!

Sure, that's what I meant. Tucking in your shirt = all same. But please, continue to deflect from your defense of neighborhood schools. You're not fooling anybody in 2016. We know why you love your "walkable neighborhood school." Same reason your parents did in 1974.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Call me someone "trying to be a liberal" but we also like the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. We are minority and so are our kids. We toured the neighborhood school and quickly realized that our kids would be almost the only people who look like them in their classrooms. We also heard nightmarish stories from our neighbors about competition starting early for certain types of clothes, vacations, etc at the neighborhood school. We liked the atmosphere at ATS better.

So you claim to "like" ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, and yet you apparently moved into one of the most wealthy and most white neighbors in North Arlington. And then you were shocked to find out that there weren't many minorities at your local elementary school? Sorry, that doesn't entitle anyone from North Arlington to have access to an alternative choice program (and I am saying that as a North Arlington parent).

She could have solved it by moving into Key/ASF boundary. ASF has the same Socio/racial diversity and you can buy into the zone in N Arl.

Really? It looks like, combined, ASF is over 70 percent white/Asian. Some diversity.

[Anonymous]

Isn't the make up of the entire county about 70% white? A diverse school can and should reflect the make up of the nation.