Really, you think a parent who, for instance, doesn't have a car and has to rely on public transportation would rather send their kid to a school an hour by public transportation rather than the one within walking distance or less than 20 minutes by public bus? I'm sure they'd be falling all over themselves to do that every day for their kids who go to extended day, even more so if those kids currrently are watched after before/after school by a grandparent or other relative who is comfortable with a 15-minute walk but would be too anxious about an hour bus ride requiring two transfers. |
First, N.A. families did not "put the kibosh" on the location review, that was suspended because the staff didn't have the bandwidth to move that process through properly while also dealing with all of the revisions of the CIP. Odds are they're going to at least try to reopen it before Reed opens, they've made that very clear. Second, moving around option schools is only helpful to a very limited portion of the population, and helps them at the expense of those left behind. We've seen that in spades in S.A. already, where UMC families disproportionately opt out of their neighborhood schools for option programs and neighborhood transfers, leaving their neighborhood schools with even higher FARMS and ESOL percentages. Even with moving the schools around and taking other steps to make them more accessible, there is every reason to believe this trend will continue, even if to a lesser degree. |
You are talking about my neighbors, who have cars, and aren’t afraid of bus stops. We don’t know what those families would choose because we don’t offer them choices. We imagine road blocks for them and offer no solutions. |
You are not neighbors with all of South Arlington. I assure you, there are plenty of South Arlington parents who do not have cars because they cannot afford the expense and have chosen to live near mass transit instead. |
Again, never offering them a choice. Never showing them what their children don’t receive. |
Nice deflection. No one said you had to move, it's just gross when UMC white people in South Arlington use their poor brown neighbors as props to advocate for what they want, calling racist anyone who disagrees with them because "Oh, the poor brown children," conveniently ignoring the fact that, when actually asked instead of presuming, those parents don't want the things the UMC white families are asking for in their name. Ya know... I would have agreed with that... until I went online and actually looked at Discovery elementary school. Oh my! I promise you. If you took your cleaning lady on a tour of Discovery elementary school and asked her if she could have the choice between Discovery and Randolph, I promise you, she would love love love to have the opportunity to send her children there. Of course thats not what they are asked. North Arlington liberals like to ask the good familes of Barcroft Apartments questions like this: Are you happy with your school? Do you want to be ripped away from your community? Do you want to be a minority in a school full of people who aren’t like you? Are you scared that you might be deported if you leave your enclave? Are you concerned wealthy students will treat your kids poorly? Yeah. They aren’t putting up much of a fuss. They are APS’ favorite demographic. They don’t know what they don’t know. Really, you think a parent who, for instance, doesn't have a car and has to rely on public transportation would rather send their kid to a school an hour by public transportation rather than the one within walking distance or less than 20 minutes by public bus? I'm sure they'd be falling all over themselves to do that every day for their kids who go to extended day, even more so if those kids currrently are watched after before/after school by a grandparent or other relative who is comfortable with a 15-minute walk but would be too anxious about an hour bus ride requiring two transfers. I don't think that's what the poster is saying. I read it as, given a choice between a new, shiny, bright, well-designed, well-equipped, fully-operational facility and a run-down, dingy, worn, leaking facility, the parent would love to send their kid to the prettier, shinier, newer, decked-out, spirit-lifting building. The PP is exactly on target. As a parent at one of these "browner" schools, I assure you firsthand that parents in these schools are just as clueless about what these $80-200K PTAs do with their resources to support and enhance their students' academic experiences and opportunities as many parents at those wealthy schools are about the real disparities in opportunities at the lowest-income schools. When parents in these poorer south arlington schools hear what well-funded PTAs in other schools use their funds for, they are surprised if not shocked. When you work your butts off volunteering at your kids' school and see that your kids are getting a good education, you don't realize how much "gooder" it can be....until you see it. |
Which schools have $200k PTA budgets? |
Randolph's PTA apparently just approved approximately $3,200 to buy Kindles for the K and 1 classrooms, so it doesn't seem like they're totally broke. |
Not the poster you're responding to; but I'd like to see: an end to planning units hiding behind "walkability" and crying that we can't have weirdly shaped attendance zones; an end to neighborhoods objecting to any and all proposals that move the needle in the right direction toward more SED across the system; an end to SB members capitulating to advocacy from the above; yes, relocating choice programs in ways that can break-up the highest concentrations of FRL students, even if it doesn't increase SED at the northernmost schools; yes, sharing PTA money and resources - CCPTA has a very easy resource to do just that through donations to its CPCI grant fund; but schools can partner-up or better yet team-up and conduct PTA activities together and share proceeds and other resources; teachers who receive training funded by PTAs to conduct presentations and subsequent training to teachers at other schools whose PTAs can't afford to send them to special training; implement seat set-asides for ED students in all choice programs; strong public awareness and public education efforts to recruit students from communities less likely to take advantage of choice programs; sure, bus kids beyond route 50; implement and coordinate ART bus routes that facilitate students' and families' abilities to get to schools farther from their home, especially high school kids who would then be even more able to participate in a choice system; teachers conduct P-T conferences in neighborhood community centers or individual homes so there's no issue about them not having transportation and therefore not able to attend; and acknowledgement from the SB and CB that, even though all schools may be good, they are not equally good and do not afford equal levels of opportunities or academic experiences. Is that a start? |
Really? Because they were able to make one $3,200 purchase that means they are just fine? Did you not for one second ask yourself, "what are they NOT funding in order to make such a significant technological purchase?" or "Why are they making a technology purchase like that? Shouldn't APS be providing technology?" or "why did they determine that use of funds to be so necessary that they committed such a significant chunk of their limited budget to it?" Do you know what effort it took for them to raise that money in order to have it to spend on one project? While Discovery is raising $40K to provide shade on their playground? or other schools can raise tens of thousands of dollars with one fundraiser and then conduct multiple fundraisers? Really?!?!? |
APS provides iPads at that level, why do they also need Kindles? Can't they use the Kindle app on the iPads? |
Nottingham. At least I know it has in the past. Jamestown? The less willing a PTA is to share their budget, the more likely that budget approaches $200K |
On the bolded, we're at an north Arlington elem. that briefly partnered with a south Arlington elem a number of years ago. We did a couple of joint fundraising events where both PTAs were supposed to help plan and execute the event and then would share the proceeds. In practice, what ended up happening was our school did the bulk of the advance planning (not because the other school wasn't welcome, but people either didn't volunteer or signed up but then didn't actually participate), and provided almost all of the day-of volunteers as well because almost no one from the other school signed up (despite lots of families from the school showing up to participate). Our volunteers were livid, they were okay doing most of the advance planning themselves because different resources/availability, but they were really angry to see so many people clearly available during the event but unwilling to do any of the work to make it happen. They felt really disrespected by the other school and refused to continue to plan these events, so we had to stop partnering. The CCPTA has been a much better way for us to share resources because it avoids the whole dynamic of direct sharing, comparing contributions, resentment, etc. It's just a line item in the budget that no one questions. |
I can't seem to find how much Title 1 funding schools get. Anyone have a link? |
Overall the north elementaries are actually a lot more open about their finances to the public than the south elementaries, but sometimes you have to dig through meeting minutes to find it. From what I can see of actuals (as opposed to budgets), Jamestown's revenues for 2016-17 looks to have been about $140k. Nottingham's for the same year were about $130k. |