Specifically on-topic contributors to the Drew boundary issue only please -
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| I'm the "impossible" PP and I meant it is impossible given the devotion to walkable schools. There is a longstanding tension between walkability and demographic balance. It is my view that the past two years of boundary processes have showed a clear county-wide rejection of prioritizing demographic balance over walkability. It's great that people want to keep advocating for diversity and against fake walkability, and I'll even join you, but it's a losing proposition. What is possible is to do better than the current proposal for some schools, specifically Drew. |
Anonymous
|
It’s not the entire county.
South Arlington is allowed to have different priorities. |
Anonymous
|
Perhaps we should organize a WALK FOR DIVERSE SCHOOLS
South Arlington parents walk together in solidarity of equal Opportunity for all Arlington students. This is the walkablity we cherish. #NOAPSOVER50 Thoughts? |
Anonymous
Ask the Henry parents or the Oakridge parents whether they'd give up on walking to further demographic diversity. Arlington Heights can be bused to Randolph and Arlington Ridge can ride past Oakridge to get to Drew. And we'll send half of Douglas Park to Abingdon, and put Fairlington just over 395 to Drew. Let me know where to show up for the walk and what color t-shirt to wear. I'm sorry to be snarky but the point is there is not widespread support for different priorities when one's own school boundary is at risk. The notable silence on equity issues coming from the Henry/CASE folks is only one example. I think the best way to advocate for Drew, i.e., the purpose of this thread, is to make concrete points about how this proposal is not consistent with APS's own criteria, and to provide alternatives that are consistent with what APS says it looks for. People have tried to get APS and the Board to elevate diversity over other priorities in the past. I'm one of those people. They will not do it because there are too many people on the other side. |
Anonymous
| Yes. APAH and their mouthpiece Mi Vota Cuenta will be all over you if you start a no school over 50 campaign. They will call you racists and say that you are saying you don't want to be at a school with poor people and that the are not smart. Just review the campaign that was waged for distributing affordable housing. APAH and VOICE started a campaign calling UMC in S,Arlington racists. You literally cannot win. Arlington has been entirely turned over to the affordable housing lobby. |
Anonymous
This. Be pragmatic. They aren't going to move anyone who walks onto a bus. That said, there is a lot of wiggle room with the non-walkers. If they use their own stated criteria, Drew would be taking some of the Henry PUs rather than the ones over in Columbia Forest. Then move Alcova and the 53 children they project for Gilliam, all ED, to Fleet. Fleet will be more diverse by doing this than claiming the following PUs which include under 45 ED students, possibly many fewer since the range is 1-9 (could be closer to 25 students): 46120, 46130, 46133, 46132, 46131. Then move the following Coulmbia Forest PUs up to Barcroft: 37101, 37100, 37090, 37080, 37102. |
Anonymous
Off-topic, but, got a link to said campaign? |
Anonymous
I'm not the PP, but I believe he or she was referring to this process back in 2015: https://www.arlnow.com/2015/09/17/new-south-arlington-group-urges-county-board-to-accept-housing-plan/ |
Anonymous
|
Since we are harkening back to The AHMP...
Coalition of Arlingtonians for Responsible Development did try to not antagonize the AH lobby. They were super careful about language and were making clear from the start that they only wanted AH spread out. The AH lobby AND county board members attacked them for their trouble. So... Why would you bother trying to play nice? At some point south Arlington homeowners are going to have to play hard ball.I don’t knownk is how many times south Arlington has to lose before they get the message. Did Arlington Forest GAF about names they were called when they fought to stay out of Wakefield? And let’s be clear, that’s what it was about. It wasn’t about staying at WL, it was about avoiding Wakefield. But go ahead. Play nice. See where it gets you. |
Anonymous
This. I am in South Arlington and used to be super involved in trying to bring down farms rates and increase diversity. I used to go to school board meetings, open office hours etc. I gradually came to the realization that it’s only generally middle to upper middle class people who want this. When you speak to the Latino community they absolutely do not want to be broken up or bused. They take offense to the notion that they have to spread out to improve test scores. The school board is happy to oblige. |
Anonymous
Back to the topic at hand, nobody is actually suggesting this. The Staff has presented a map where it is precisely those communities that are being broken up in order to maintain the current Henry boundary. To your point, in cases where they actually are busing for diversity, like the Arlington Mill neighborhood, those folks are not complaining about being zoned out of their neighborhood for elementary (to Barcroft rather than Carlin Springs) or high school (to W-L). Generally, they don't complain. Unless someone with a petition knocks on their door and tells them people want to throw them out of their current homes and schools. But the families with bright kids are quietly directed to option programs or given transfers so that their kids can have a better chance. It happens, it just stinks that even the teachers who are doing this know what the deal is, and that no kid is better served in a high poverty segregated neighborhood school. |
Anonymous
| Yes. Another former SA crusader here. Gave up. VOICE just summons the S. Arl. Latino lobby by telling them that those advocating for fair housing distribution think their kids are dumb and don't want them around. Seriously. Instead of explaining that their schools are perform poorly and they are stuck in a segregated community with little hope of improvement. Because VOICE is tied up with APAH and the like and they make money off this housing. See the article in Arl Now today about income disparity between S. and N. Arlington. If you tell the SB that you don't want 80% FRL in your school district they will tell you that everyone has a right to walkable schools and that you are racist to suggest that Drew families shouldn't have that. Laughable in this case since they appear to be gerrymandering long fingers to maximize the FRL lunch rate at Drew. But you watch and see. |
Anonymous
| Hey all, just a reminder the questionnaire closes tomorrow. |
Anonymous
This is the problem - nobody should be saying this. Yes, test scores are much lower; but these schools truly, in fact, are not poor quality schools. The maxim "all our schools are good" is technically accurate. The mantra should be instead "all our schools are not equal." Yes, I know first hand because my kids attend one of these "poorly performing schools" and I guarantee you that the quality of their teachers and the school are indeed good -- but their academic experience is not the same as it would be elsewhere. Nobody has a RIGHT to anything but a free public education. There is no RIGHT to a walkable school - not everyone CAN have a walkable school, unless you're going to put a school in every square mile. We, for instance, have a walkable school - but it isn't our neighborhood school and we bus to another one a mile away. AND nobody is even suggesting that Drew families should be bussed anywhere or that they should not walk to the school in their neighborhood. We're talking about the kids outside the walk zone. The minorities who CARE that they are segregated and don't want that for their kids have opted out - see Campbell and immersion, and the Latino parents on the west end who did NOT want their kids to go to WAKEFIELD because they believed W-L provides a more positive environment for their kids. (The accuracy of that perception is a different discussion.) |
Anonymous
It shouldn't be about test scores. The argument needs to stop being about test scores. The point of balanced demographics is equity in resources; equality in opportunities; in LIVING our diversity instead of "honoring" it; in learning to communicate and work with people who are different from you no matter who you are; in being able to offer every student in the system a similar academic experience no matter what school they attend - and easily transition from one school to another if they happen to move or be moved to a different attendance zone. I honestly believe part of the problem is the individual character/community each school develops - whether through its student demographics or an exemplary program. It makes it more difficult for people to be redistricted to another school because it is entirely different in feel, in look, and has its own "unique" traditions and "character." People feel they are losing their community and character of their school and going to a school with less - aside from "lesser academics." I vote we resume the east/west vision Tara Natrass proposed last year or so and make every neighborhood school a STEAM school. Make every school attractive by making them essentially the same, not through gimmicks. |