ASFS/Key Swap Off . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now there will only be immersion in the western part of Arlington? If we commute into DC from courthouse I will have to go past Carlin Springs or at least George Mason to get to school events?

No one knows, but right now the wind appears to be blowing that way.

[Anonymous]

I get that there are more ideal locations to house the immersion program, but I don’t buy this narrative that Key is a horrible location. It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than many alternatives. My bet, based upon how difficult moving immersion out of Key is likely to be (finding another school that can absorb the change is a lot easier said than done; there was a much earlier thread explaining the complications associated with moving to Carlin Springs or ATS), and the likely expense of drastically shaking things up, they will defer any relocation until the following boundary process. It sounds like a long time to wait, but the immersion program has been in the Key building for several decades and the world won’t come to an end of it stays there a little longer while APS figures out s clearer long-term vision for its immersion program. That’s just my two cents. Should be interesting to revisit these threads when all is said and done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do we get rid of 60-80% FRL neighborhood schools? I think most folks would love to do this if you know how. Bussing children all over the county is not an option, however.

And that's the problem. Folks are all for solving the problem - without using any solutions to solve the problem.
We ALREADY bus children all over the County for option programs - and probably more inefficiently than busing them for neighborhood schools would be because of the ridiculous bus pick-ups for very small #s of children from some areas opting into programs.

So, you eliminate high FRL schools in various ways:
1) you can do it in one fell swoop by changing to an all-choice system (Cambridge model); or
2) with various other tools - note the plurality there, toolSSS - including busing children who are being bused to their neighborhood school now to a different assigned neighborhood school; eliminating geographical preferences for options schools was one piece the Board actually implemented; locate option schools in/near areas of concentrated low-income families so that they are more easily accessible and families more likely to apply; stop fighting weirdly-shaped boundaries and drop the idiotic "contiguity" principle; and push the County to stop adding CAF's in areas of schools that already have a high FRL% and push them TO build CAFs in areas with schools with low FRL%s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do we get rid of 60-80% FRL neighborhood schools? I think most folks would love to do this if you know how. Bussing children all over the county is not an option, however.

1) Housing

.....

11) Make Claremont neighborhood.

If anyone can fill in #1-10 with other than "housing" LMK. This is the best I've been able to come up with.

I think that horse has been beaten and yes agree that solves things but APS is not any position to control that and the County doesn't care about school problems. That's long been the case.

And it has been long the case that the community just resigns itself to the status quo instead of rioting and pressuring the County to do otherwise -- because half the County WANTS the status quo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO both immersion programs should move, Claremont to Carlin Springs and Key to ATS. Carlin Springs and ATS both have small walk zones, and then Claremont could help break up the Pike/Mason intersection of concentrated CAFs.

There are virtually no spanish speakers around ATS. And then you still need to find a site for ATS.

ATS is not a good site for Immersion because it needs to grow and ATS is a tiny school. Unless they are actually going to create 3 immersion ES.
What does make sense is ATS becomes a neighborhood school and Barrett becomes Immersion. There is a spanish speaking population near here.

This is just another example of Arlington community member's rationale to fit what they want.
Barrett is significantly more walkable than ATS. If a lot of walkers don't want immersion, you'll be busing them to ATS.
Immersion does not "need" to grow - it "wants" to grow. Don't give me the waitlist argument as proof it needs to grow. Get rid of 60-80% FRL neighborhood schools, and you won't "need" immersion to grow.

Call it whatever you'd like but it is not a good site for immersion. hello, please look at demographics https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Spanish-at-Home-by-PU-wBoundaries.pdf and ding, ding BARRETT

DING DING, do you realize how close Barrett is to ATS site? We're supposed to be BALANCING boundary principles and not just picking the one principle that most supports our own personal preference. Neighborhood schools should have fewer buses - the option schools should have more than neighborhood schools; otherwise, it's not really a neighborhood school, is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do we get rid of 60-80% FRL neighborhood schools? I think most folks would love to do this if you know how. Bussing children all over the county is not an option, however.

1) Housing

.....

11) Make Claremont neighborhood.

If anyone can fill in #1-10 with other than "housing" LMK. This is the best I've been able to come up with.

I think that horse has been beaten and yes agree that solves things but APS is not any position to control that and the County doesn't care about school problems. That's long been the case.

APS can control starting at #11 and it should. Option schools only help diversify the option schools. They further segregate the neighborhood schools.

Not if they put them in neighborhoods that can’t ever have “balanced” demographics due to previously built housing. There is NO WAY they can get balance at some schools, not even if every option school child returned, because the neighborhood zones aren’t balanced. You can’t realistically expect parents to “choose” that. There is always choice for families of more means. Always. Not great, but it’s true. And there aren’t enough of us who make a choice outside of our comfort zone, without some kind of incentive. Either recognize that or prepare to see even more disparate school populations. If diversity is the priority, then move or leave the option programs in the zones that cannot be balanced through common sense boundaries. Shuttering them will not have the result you think.

Options in the unbalanced neighborhoods condemn the remaining children to 80+% low income, like Carlin Springs (option to Campbell or Claremont) and like Drew was/is projected to be (option to Montessori or Hoffman-Boston). It's not acceptable for a public school system to do that on purpose. You can't make UMC parents stick with their neighborhood school, I agree, but you can avoid giving them an out that comes on the backs of the other children in the same school zone.

Do you know how many non-low income kids live in the zones you mentioned? Not enough to make a dent. The only MC neighborhood assigned to Carlin Springs is tiny, and doesn’t have that many kids. From the walk zone review I think there were 50, K-5. You think sending just those 50 kids will make for a balanced school? Let’s wait and see what the demographics of Drew wind up being. I am not encouraged.

I live in one of those zones so, yes, I know. These demographics don't have to be set in stone. If the enrollment projections from last night are encouraging for any reason, it's the idea that kids are moving in. They literally can't all cram into the neighborhoods with "good" schools and it's hard to turn down that short South Arlington commute. It's too late for my kids to attend a balanced elementary school, but it isn't too late for a future K-5 generation to come along behind them.

Your point above is also another reason to make Carlin Springs option, btw.

But if all Arlington allows built in south Arlington are CAFs and some small luxury condos, there isn't going to be opportunity for these MC and up folks to live in S Arl. And those who do, can still apply to option schools or go to private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now there will only be immersion in the western part of Arlington? If we commute into DC from courthouse I will have to go past Carlin Springs or at least George Mason to get to school events?

Wouldn't you, more accurately, have to drive out another 5 - 7 minutes rather than go past?
C'mon, people. It's just events - they don't happen daily. If you're driving your kid every day, then maybe you should consider using the school bus even if it is a longer ride than you'd like; or explore other scheduling options; or forget immersion for your child if it just isn't convenient enough for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now there will only be immersion in the western part of Arlington? If we commute into DC from courthouse I will have to go past Carlin Springs or at least George Mason to get to school events?

Wouldn't you, more accurately, have to drive out another 5 - 7 minutes rather than go past?
C'mon, people. It's just events - they don't happen daily. If you're driving your kid every day, then maybe you should consider using the school bus even if it is a longer ride than you'd like; or explore other scheduling options; or forget immersion for your child if it just isn't convenient enough for you.

Car free diet...the western part of Arlington isn't as easy to get to especially for those of us who live near Rosslyn.

[Anonymous]

so if they are not swapping ASFS/Key, and they are reassessing elementary boundaries, does that mean that the ASFS boundaries may change? Or not, because it remains an option school that does not have a boundary? Obviously it is oddly situated since it does not serve its immediate neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Immersion to ATS is what would make sense.

[Anonymous]

With the dire enrollment forecast, it's time to invade the rec centers (Dawson Terrace and Madison I'm looking at you) and convert to schools. Surely the old people can be accommodated somewhere else that doesn't have the requirements/restraints that a school does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do we get rid of 60-80% FRL neighborhood schools? I think most folks would love to do this if you know how. Bussing children all over the county is not an option, however.

And that's the problem. Folks are all for solving the problem - without using any solutions to solve the problem.
We ALREADY bus children all over the County for option programs - and probably more inefficiently than busing them for neighborhood schools would be because of the ridiculous bus pick-ups for very small #s of children from some areas opting into programs.

So, you eliminate high FRL schools in various ways:
1) you can do it in one fell swoop by changing to an all-choice system (Cambridge model); or
2) with various other tools - note the plurality there, toolSSS - including busing children who are being bused to their neighborhood school now to a different assigned neighborhood school; eliminating geographical preferences for options schools was one piece the Board actually implemented; locate option schools in/near areas of concentrated low-income families so that they are more easily accessible and families more likely to apply; stop fighting weirdly-shaped boundaries and drop the idiotic "contiguity" principle; and push the County to stop adding CAF's in areas of schools that already have a high FRL% and push them TO build CAFs in areas with schools with low FRL%s.

To whoever wrote this comment, will you please run for School Board on this platform? You will have to primary Reid but he is beatable. Many of us will back you. This is the thinking APS needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now there will only be immersion in the western part of Arlington? If we commute into DC from courthouse I will have to go past Carlin Springs or at least George Mason to get to school events?

Wouldn't you, more accurately, have to drive out another 5 - 7 minutes rather than go past?
C'mon, people. It's just events - they don't happen daily. If you're driving your kid every day, then maybe you should consider using the school bus even if it is a longer ride than you'd like; or explore other scheduling options; or forget immersion for your child if it just isn't convenient enough for you.

Car free diet...the western part of Arlington isn't as easy to get to especially for those of us who live near Rosslyn.

Well then you get to decide whether to maintain your car free diet or your kid in immersion. We all routinely make these kinds of choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so if they are not swapping ASFS/Key, and they are reassessing elementary boundaries, does that mean that the ASFS boundaries may change? Or not, because it [b]remains an option school that does not have a boundary? Obviously it is oddly situated since it does not serve its immediate neighborhood.

[/b

ASFS is not and has never been an option school without boundaries, although in its early years demand was low enough that students from all over the county could attend, albeit without bus service.

My guess its boundaries will change to become a neighborhood school along the orange line and will include, among others, planning units within its walk zone and some Lyon Village planning units that currently are zoned for Taylor

[Anonymous]

Yes. I agree. Either you can bear the inconvenience of an long drive to school events or to extended day as the price you play for the choice program that you value, or you can put your kid in his or her neighborhood school. You are not entitled to have a countywide choice program located near your home. Get over yourself.