Correct except for the reason. APS recommended 1300 seats at the Hamm site. The Board rejected that and approved it for 1000 instead -- and that was based on parent neighborhood pressure. |
Getting back to the new CIP - I'm looking back at when we got into this Career Center mess. Details are all here: https://www.apsva.us/instruction/new-high-school/
It was four years ago - June 2017 - that the School Board voted on the very last minute "hybrid plan" to put some of the 1300 new HS seats at the Ed Center and some at the CC. The documents show that they planned 500-600 seats at Ed Center to open most likely before 2022, and 700-800 new HS at the CC to open by Fall 2022. This was instead of building a 1300 seat HS at Kenmore, the option with the most land and the longest term growth potential. And these new CC seats were supposed to be in addition to the 600 seats already planned for Arlington Tech. So we were supposed to have 1300-1400 CC seats built out by Fall 2022. Instead, we had years of planning commissions trying to figure out how to make this work and how much it would cost. That ended in disaster last spring when the costs where way too high and the neighborhood rejected a school without full facilities, including a pool. So now, APS puts out this very roughly sketched out plan for up to 1800 MS and HS seats at this site by 2026, with no details about what program(s) this would be, how they will fit, what facilities they will have, etc. How are we not right back where we started four years ago? And the poor Arlington Tech students still have no facility improvements, right? If we are going back to the beginning, can we please, pretty please reconsider Kenmore now?? |
Also, just to note, APS is not in any way following the directions given to it by the SB in January: School Board’s Jan. 2021 direction for the Superintendent’s Proposed FY 2022-24 CIP 1. Additional secondary seats as soon as possible and no later than Fall 2024. 2. Additional facility improvements to support the needs of full-time students currently enrolled at the Career Center, while allowing for future expansion. |
Ironically I recall one of the reasons they rejected Kenmore was that it would take too long to get street access to a state maintained road - 50 I guess. |
If we are reviewing history, note the reason the neighborhood was insisting on full features is because up until a week ago, APS would never publicly commit to these not being neighborhood HS seats. So if you live in this neighborhood, APS was saying, hey, we can zone you to this school and you have to go here, even though it may be a very different school from our other comprehensive HSs. But I agree, this whole process is half-baked. |
No, because no neighborhood is going to be okay with being zoned to the lesser school that lacks equivalent facilities, and APS has said they can’t afford to build a full HS. That’s why these are option seats, wherever they are placed. I don’t think it makes sense to move Montessori and Tech and all the CTE programs to a new location. |
Which, I am guessing, they still haven't even started the process for... |
No criticism of the neighborhood intended. Just trying to point out that after a four year, exhaustive process, a successful solution for this property was not determined. And yet, now the CIP is putting all its eggs in this basket again. Could we please consider other choices since we are still at square one? The CC campus already has Arlington Tech, Arlington Community HS, CTE classrooms, Montessori. Can we just spend the minimum we need to give the Arl Tech students a decent campus and focus on how to maximize our MS/HS seats with the budget and properties available to us? The CIP presentation doesn't include costs but it does include a ton of new building and tearing down existing buildings at the CC site (and I thought the CTE classrooms were really expensive and needed to stay where they are?). This cannot be the most cost effective, quickest solution available. But has APS even considered other alternatives? |
Who said anything about moving Arl Tech, CTE, and Montessori? At one point, Kenmore was discussed as an option arts focused high school. |
Snap your fingers and send another 150 kids to Wakefield and 150 kids to W-L and 200 kids to Yorktown so that north Arlington has more middle school seats? |
You could build an option HS there now and then down the road add a pool and what not and turn the whole campus into a 2300 seat HS (once you find a new home for the middle school, i.e. the VHC campus). There is a long term possibility to have a comprehensive 4th high school with adequate land. |
I agree with this, which is why it doesn’t make sense to build option programs there now. Look how “easy” it has been to move those around once they’re entrenched. I think adding capacity to Arl Tech and maybe putting another small MS/HS program, like an arts focus or whatever, makes more sense if we can’t build a comprehensive HS right now. |
Building at the center of the site actually makes this not possible. The only way to get a full size HS field is to make the building be at the south end of the campus. So we are basically committing to options programs forever on this site. There is a CIP work session tonight. Hopefully there are some good questions asked. I agree this all seems rushed and not well planned. |
Most recent PP, we were discussing a full size HS at Kenmore, not CC. Leave CC as an option site, with Montessori at Patrick Henry (no need to tear down and rebuild), Arl Tech at a modified and expanded CC, and maybe some MS Montessori classrooms added in there (the program is small so it wouldn't need much but could free up some seats at Gunmore). Spend the minimum necessary to give the Arl Tech students what they deserve - a nice program with adequate facilities. Build a new building on the Kenmore campus now with the eventual goal of having a 4th comprehensive HS there. I don't think if it was an option arts program now that such a program would need to be relocated down the road. It could just become a program within a neighborhood HS, which we have already. But the CIP calls for expanded secondary capacity by 2024 - we need more MS seats desperately by that year. This plan does not provide for those at all. It's a major shortfall. Someone mentioned earlier that Hamm was supposed to be 1300 seats but was dropped to 1000 at the last minute. That building is still under construction isn't it? Is it too crazy to suggest moving forward with the 1300 seat plan there? I think the architectural drawings were all worked out. I know we would pay more now than we would have before, but we need those seats. |
Here are the slides for tonight's CIP work session: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/C2WTC373E4E7/$file/CIP%20WS%201%20Presentation%20051121.pdf
Cost estimates won't be provided until June 14 - work session #4 (*tentatively*). But the public hearing is scheduled for June 10 and this is supposed to get voted out on June 24. What a joke. The plan for the up to 550 MS seats to be added to the site is that they will be part of Arl Tech and feed into the high school program. They better make it one hell of an awesome building if they want that many people to opt into this. So it doesn't seem they are thinking of moving MS Montessori over, but it's not entirely clear (see slide 7: https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-05-11-FY22-CIP-Staff-Responses-to-SB-Questions_1_16-1.pdf). That program has shrunk from 90 to 37 students, so maybe it will be phased out and the path for Montessori kids will be to feed into Arl Tech. |