Alexandria schools - why so bad?!

[Anonymous]

And of course they're just poor children of color so why do we care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 miles in Alexandria right now with our horrible traffic could mean a 30-40 minute commute for kids. That's ridiculous. Last week I went from Alexandria Hospital to the 1000 block of King Street at 3:10 pm. Took me 49 minutes. And we want high school kids to do that?

Kids manage to get to TCW from all over the City now - some by DASH bus and some by bike. I imagine they can get to new campuses as well, especially when the City improves DASH bus service as promised.

And of course driving down King Street in Old Town is particularly slow.

The difference is once kids arrive T.C. now, they are in the school for the day. A satellite campus with multiple locations means kids have to be bused to multiple locations depends on the area of study.
I agree with one of pp, convert Minnie Howard to a middle school, convert Hammond to a high school, and build the third high school somewhere northeast of the city where all the new developments are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2 miles in Alexandria right now with our horrible traffic could mean a 30-40 minute commute for kids. That's ridiculous. Last week I went from Alexandria Hospital to the 1000 block of King Street at 3:10 pm. Took me 49 minutes. And we want high school kids to do that?

Thank you. Someone who gets it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 miles in Alexandria right now with our horrible traffic could mean a 30-40 minute commute for kids. That's ridiculous. Last week I went from Alexandria Hospital to the 1000 block of King Street at 3:10 pm. Took me 49 minutes. And we want high school kids to do that?

Kids manage to get to TCW from all over the City now - some by DASH bus and some by bike. I imagine they can get to new campuses as well, especially when the City improves DASH bus service as promised.

And of course driving down King Street in Old Town is particularly slow.

The difference is once kids arrive T.C. now, they are in the school for the day. A satellite campus with multiple locations means kids have to be bused to multiple locations depends on the area of study.
I agree with one of pp, convert Minnie Howard to a middle school, convert Hammond to a high school, and build the third high school somewhere northeast of the city where all the new developments are.

I assume either they will break up the schedule so they are on different campuses on different days, or they will move at off peak times. Fact is no streets in Alexandria are regularly backed up off peak (though I am sure someone will chime in with an anecdote of an off peak backup)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And of course they're just poor children of color so why do we care.

I am guessing a lot of the people calling for multiple comprehensive high schools actually want to avoid concentrations of children of color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 miles in Alexandria right now with our horrible traffic could mean a 30-40 minute commute for kids. That's ridiculous. Last week I went from Alexandria Hospital to the 1000 block of King Street at 3:10 pm. Took me 49 minutes. And we want high school kids to do that?

Thank you. Someone who gets it.

You need to talk to the Parking and Transportation Board as well as City Council because the proposal to change Seminary from 4 lanes to 2 lanes will make that traffic even worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 miles in Alexandria right now with our horrible traffic could mean a 30-40 minute commute for kids. That's ridiculous. Last week I went from Alexandria Hospital to the 1000 block of King Street at 3:10 pm. Took me 49 minutes. And we want high school kids to do that?

Thank you. Someone who gets it.

You need to talk to the Parking and Transportation Board as well as City Council because the proposal to change Seminary from 4 lanes to 2 lanes will make that traffic even worse.

x1000

[Anonymous]

Getting back to the topic at hand..."There’s a Difference Between a ‘Good’ School and Choosing Whiteness and Wealth" https://educationpost.org/theres-a-difference-between-a-good-school-and-choosing-whiteness-and-wealth/?fbclid=IwAR1X2rsB8DHDTbP2mh4t_WSY1zJXmigQaRgCtPkByt57a4ViV-toOU4fB_Y

[Anonymous]

Traffic matters as a discussion point when you're talking about needing kids to be able to get to their classes. In fact, it probably is the most valid point to be considered given that ACPS is talking about setting up satellite campuses to serve kids who the most marginalized and vulnerable in the system. Exactly how are these kids going to get to their school if they miss the school bus? Chances are that a kid who is taking a vocational curriculum is the type of kid who is least likely to have additional resources to get to school. ACPS can put its head in the sand or ACPS can make good plans that will support the children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 miles in Alexandria right now with our horrible traffic could mean a 30-40 minute commute for kids. That's ridiculous. Last week I went from Alexandria Hospital to the 1000 block of King Street at 3:10 pm. Took me 49 minutes. And we want high school kids to do that?

Thank you. Someone who gets it.

You need to talk to the Parking and Transportation Board as well as City Council because the proposal to change Seminary from 4 lanes to 2 lanes will make that traffic even worse.

x1000

Yes. This is a major sticking point. My sense is that no one cares as long as they can "save $60 million" on the swing space they were going to renovate for MacArthur. It's going to be terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Getting back to the topic at hand..."There’s a Difference Between a ‘Good’ School and Choosing Whiteness and Wealth" https://educationpost.org/theres-a-difference-between-a-good-school-and-choosing-whiteness-and-wealth/?fbclid=IwAR1X2rsB8DHDTbP2mh4t_WSY1zJXmigQaRgCtPkByt57a4ViV-toOU4fB_Y

We are discussing bad decisions and potential bad decisions about relocating students. That is part of the "topic at hand," as it causes people to lose faith in the decision-makers and in the system and thus ask questions like, "why so bad?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 miles in Alexandria right now with our horrible traffic could mean a 30-40 minute commute for kids. That's ridiculous. Last week I went from Alexandria Hospital to the 1000 block of King Street at 3:10 pm. Took me 49 minutes. And we want high school kids to do that?

Thank you. Someone who gets it.

You need to talk to the Parking and Transportation Board as well as City Council because the proposal to change Seminary from 4 lanes to 2 lanes will make that traffic even worse.

x1000

Yes. This is a major sticking point. My sense is that no one cares as long as they can "save $60 million" on the swing space they were going to renovate for MacArthur. It's going to be terrible.

The bike lobby is nuts! The majority of the Seminary Hill residents do care and have pushed back, as the bike lobby though this idea (like all their others) would be rubber stamped and quickly approved. I think an alternative is to keep 4 lanes but make all of them more narrow, widen the sidewalk, add a bike lane. I am not sure how all those are possible and making the lanes more narrow is a mistake. I live in Rosemont, and ever since the city made the King Street lanes more narrow, to accommodate a bike lane that bikers RARELY use, the traffic goes slower most of the time but the amount of traffic has only increased (instead of the traffic diet theory that people going slower would frustrate some and force drivers to pick an alternative route and thus a diet or decrease in overall traffic would occur). I cannot barely leave my neighborhood after 2:45pm on weekdays. The traffic is horrific and stays that way until about 7:30pm. I cannot imagine busing kids from TC or Mnnie Howard or Hammond to other campuses, especially going east.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And of course they're just poor children of color so why do we care.

I am guessing a lot of the people calling for multiple comprehensive high schools actually want to avoid concentrations of children of color.

It's not about avoiding children of color. It's about not putting your kids in a school with 40-50% of the kids living in poverty, which comes to the school as low expectations, poor nutrition, acting out, etc. It has nothing to do with race and ethnicity, but it absolutely does have to do with the learning environment. But by all means, send your kids to a school full of kids with discipline problems, who don't get enough to eat, and whose parents don't value learning. I'm sure they'll do a world of good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 miles in Alexandria right now with our horrible traffic could mean a 30-40 minute commute for kids. That's ridiculous. Last week I went from Alexandria Hospital to the 1000 block of King Street at 3:10 pm. Took me 49 minutes. And we want high school kids to do that?

Thank you. Someone who gets it.

You need to talk to the Parking and Transportation Board as well as City Council because the proposal to change Seminary from 4 lanes to 2 lanes will make that traffic even worse.

x1000

Yes. This is a major sticking point. My sense is that no one cares as long as they can "save $60 million" on the swing space they were going to renovate for MacArthur. It's going to be terrible.

The bike lobby is nuts! The majority of the Seminary Hill residents do care and have pushed back, as the bike lobby though this idea (like all their others) would be rubber stamped and quickly approved. I think an alternative is to keep 4 lanes but make all of them more narrow, widen the sidewalk, add a bike lane. I am not sure how all those are possible and making the lanes more narrow is a mistake. I live in Rosemont, and ever since the city made the King Street lanes more narrow, to accommodate a bike lane that bikers RARELY use, the traffic goes slower most of the time but the amount of traffic has only increased (instead of the traffic diet theory that people going slower would frustrate some and force drivers to pick an alternative route and thus a diet or decrease in overall traffic would occur). I cannot barely leave my neighborhood after 2:45pm on weekdays. The traffic is horrific and stays that way until about 7:30pm. I cannot imagine busing kids from TC or Mnnie Howard or Hammond to other campuses, especially going east.

People use the bike lanes on King Street all the time, especially to get to and from the Metro during rush hour.

I can't imagine who would use the bike lanes on Seminary to commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 miles in Alexandria right now with our horrible traffic could mean a 30-40 minute commute for kids. That's ridiculous. Last week I went from Alexandria Hospital to the 1000 block of King Street at 3:10 pm. Took me 49 minutes. And we want high school kids to do that?

Thank you. Someone who gets it.

You need to talk to the Parking and Transportation Board as well as City Council because the proposal to change Seminary from 4 lanes to 2 lanes will make that traffic even worse.

x1000

Yes. This is a major sticking point. My sense is that no one cares as long as they can "save $60 million" on the swing space they were going to renovate for MacArthur. It's going to be terrible.

The bike lobby is nuts! The majority of the Seminary Hill residents do care and have pushed back, as the bike lobby though this idea (like all their others) would be rubber stamped and quickly approved. I think an alternative is to keep 4 lanes but make all of them more narrow, widen the sidewalk, add a bike lane. I am not sure how all those are possible and making the lanes more narrow is a mistake. I live in Rosemont, and ever since the city made the King Street lanes more narrow, to accommodate a bike lane that bikers RARELY use, the traffic goes slower most of the time but the amount of traffic has only increased (instead of the traffic diet theory that people going slower would frustrate some and force drivers to pick an alternative route and thus a diet or decrease in overall traffic would occur). I cannot barely leave my neighborhood after 2:45pm on weekdays. The traffic is horrific and stays that way until about 7:30pm. I cannot imagine busing kids from TC or Mnnie Howard or Hammond to other campuses, especially going east.

People use the bike lanes on King Street all the time, especially to get to and from the Metro during rush hour.

I can't imagine who would use the bike lanes on Seminary to commute.

Also, part of the reason traffic is so bad on King is because people are not allowed to make the left onto Rosemont or Cedar between 7 and 9 AM 4 and 6 PM. Allow people to take a left into your neighborhood and there will be fewer cars on King. There should also be a four-way stop at King and Rosemont, because idiots block the box like they're being paid to do it.