APS Closing Nottingham

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious that Nottingham should be shut down. Less than 400 kids? Give me a break. Unless there us another school with even fewer kids it just makes sense.

Fewer than 400 kids !!! I remember when the community was up in arms about leaving drew so underenrolled after MPSA left. Drew is now larger than Nottingham.

But the housing policies that filled up Drew don’t apply to Nottingham. Unless the community is asking the county to build a CAF up in that neighborhood to fill up the school. One building would do it.

I remember a few years ago Jamestown was so under enrolled that they had to fill it with pre school and sped programs. Is that still the case? Maybe Nott isn’t really the lowest enrollment if you compare the number of neighborhood kids across schools, and don’t take into account the other programs that don’t have to be in any particular place.

And why did APS fill up Jamestown with these other programs instead of closing it, but now wants to close Nott? Nott isn’t that underenrolled. APS could move some of the programs out of the overcrowded schools and get it right back up to 100.

But look at how fast a Nottingham parent is to point to Jamestown or some other elementary school as an alternative chopping block head to get them out of their problem. They do this every cycle, did it with McKinley a few times and Taylor or Tuckahoe when they didn’t want to take in excess kids and pointed them towards other schools instead. You guys are the worst.

You understand that most of the current Nottingham parents weren’t there during the last round of this, right? Time moves in only one direction - kids get older and graduate to middle and high schools.

And yet the neighborhood attitudes remain the same.

It seems the only thing that seems to stay the same are the nonsensical attitudes lacking any basis in reality towards Nottingham families. I don’t get why people have so much animosity.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious that Nottingham should be shut down. Less than 400 kids? Give me a break. Unless there us another school with even fewer kids it just makes sense.

Fewer than 400 kids !!! I remember when the community was up in arms about leaving drew so underenrolled after MPSA left. Drew is now larger than Nottingham.

But the housing policies that filled up Drew don’t apply to Nottingham. Unless the community is asking the county to build a CAF up in that neighborhood to fill up the school. One building would do it.

I remember a few years ago Jamestown was so under enrolled that they had to fill it with pre school and sped programs. Is that still the case? Maybe Nott isn’t really the lowest enrollment if you compare the number of neighborhood kids across schools, and don’t take into account the other programs that don’t have to be in any particular place.

And why did APS fill up Jamestown with these other programs instead of closing it, but now wants to close Nott? Nott isn’t that underenrolled. APS could move some of the programs out of the overcrowded schools and get it right back up to 100.

But look at how fast a Nottingham parent is to point to Jamestown or some other elementary school as an alternative chopping block head to get them out of their problem. They do this every cycle, did it with McKinley a few times and Taylor or Tuckahoe when they didn’t want to take in excess kids and pointed them towards other schools instead. You guys are the worst.

Simmer down. Sheesh. I'm not even a Nottingham parent. It's downright weird how quick some of you are to cast stones at Nottingham. I raised the example of how APS filled up Jamestown with programs to use as an example for how they can use Nottingham.

I don't think they should shut down Jamestown or any elementary school. Given the growth and overcrowding in some parts of the county, they should keep all elem schools open, and adjust boundaries and move programs to balance enrollment. It's a ridiculously bad use of resources to close an elem school in North Arlington and build a new one in the South, when we can reallocate existing resources. Maybe this means moving an option school up North, or at least redoing boundaries and moving some of the countywide programs into the North where there's more capacity.

Moving an option school North -- into Nottingham -- isn't much different than what APS is proposing, and seems to be less of a need to APS right now than having a swing space to relocate another school to temporarily while renovations are accomplished. Not sure why you're okay with moving an option school north into Nottingham's space but not with the current APS plan -- which doesn't even close the local Nottingham elementary forever as moving an option school into it would, just stick a pin in the decision for a while while numbers worked themselves out.

By the way, moving an option school north was proposed 5-10 years ago and guess which school APS wanted to convert? Nottingham. But Nottingham said no it just wouldn't work and that's how McKinley got converted into an option school. Something tells me Nottingham parents wouldn't suddenly find your plan acceptable now that it's Round 2, but what do I know?

I'm not trying to appeal to the Nottingham parents. I'm taking a system wide view, pointing out that it doesn't make sense for the system as a whole to close one elem school and build another new one. Far better to move students around and use our existing resources, and find another option, like a community center, for the swing space.

Can you explain why you think it's better to close an elem school AND build a brand new one as opposed to using what we have?

I think this is a false choice since it's not actually what APS is proposing to do here. APS is proposing to close Nottingham TEMPORARILY and use it as a swing space for other kids while their local school gets necessary repairs that they can't accomplish over the summer break. Your plan isn't solving that problem.

I don't have a huge problem with reallocating the school numbers to balance out the schools more, unless it means that kids in the south are going to have significantly longer bus rides on a long term basis just so folks in the north can keep all of their schools. The North sure wouldn't stand for their kids getting bussed to southern schools for super long bus rides, if it came to that, but you seem to be saying that it's okay for southern kids to sit on busses for longer periods every day. That's not really equity. If 60% of the schools are in the north but 60% of the kids are in the south, it's not exactly fair to the kids in the south to make them travel longer just for school access, if you get me. But in a pinch and as a SHORT TERM solution, I'm okay with it and maybe it's the best APS can do on a temporary basis -- similar to my attitude towards using Nottingham as a short term solution for renovations.

It isn’t a temporary closure. It’s a permanent closure to convert it to swing space. Don’t try to pretend this is only for a year or two.

[Anonymous]

Nah, if those 100+ kids came back from private, you bet aps would reopen that sucker in a minute. If they need the seats! If they don’t need the seats, why not use it as a swing space and then close it? If you only need two sites to serve your area kids, you don’t keep three cites open and spend all those resources because it’s Nottingham. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious that Nottingham should be shut down. Less than 400 kids? Give me a break. Unless there us another school with even fewer kids it just makes sense.

Fewer than 400 kids !!! I remember when the community was up in arms about leaving drew so underenrolled after MPSA left. Drew is now larger than Nottingham.

But the housing policies that filled up Drew don’t apply to Nottingham. Unless the community is asking the county to build a CAF up in that neighborhood to fill up the school. One building would do it.

I remember a few years ago Jamestown was so under enrolled that they had to fill it with pre school and sped programs. Is that still the case? Maybe Nott isn’t really the lowest enrollment if you compare the number of neighborhood kids across schools, and don’t take into account the other programs that don’t have to be in any particular place.

And why did APS fill up Jamestown with these other programs instead of closing it, but now wants to close Nott? Nott isn’t that underenrolled. APS could move some of the programs out of the overcrowded schools and get it right back up to 100.

But look at how fast a Nottingham parent is to point to Jamestown or some other elementary school as an alternative chopping block head to get them out of their problem. They do this every cycle, did it with McKinley a few times and Taylor or Tuckahoe when they didn’t want to take in excess kids and pointed them towards other schools instead. You guys are the worst.

They don't want more buses that come from being used as swing space; yet it's fine to to add buses to move the programs out of crowded schools from other parts of the county. NES folks need to come up with an agreed argument and stick to it.

You don't see the difference between adding 1-2 programs to a mostly walking school vs switching a 90% walking school to a 100% driving school?

As swing space, the 100% driving school would be mainly buses and probably not much more individual cars for pick-ups and such as you have as a neighborhood program. And probably a lot less independent drivers on those rainy or cold days when all those walkers don't actually walk. So, differences; but overall, not a tremendous increase in danger, no. As an option program, there would still be those same buses and maybe more drivers depending on the program and where most of the students come from.

Nevertheless, the other issue is the constant - or frequent - relocation of those programs. Instructional consistency is needed for special programs, too; and it isn't right to keep moving those around like second-class citizens. Sure, parents may only be involved in a preK program for a year or so; but the teachers also have to move with the program, schools have to re-arrange to accommodate, admin has to adapt, etc. personally, I think every single elementary school should have pre-K classrooms and all Montessori preK should be with Montessori (if we have to keep Montessori).

And you base this conclusion that it would be mainly buses on what? I completely disagree. With longer bus rides, more parents would likely drive and there would be a lot more individual cars in the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious that Nottingham should be shut down. Less than 400 kids? Give me a break. Unless there us another school with even fewer kids it just makes sense.

Fewer than 400 kids !!! I remember when the community was up in arms about leaving drew so underenrolled after MPSA left. Drew is now larger than Nottingham.

But the housing policies that filled up Drew don’t apply to Nottingham. Unless the community is asking the county to build a CAF up in that neighborhood to fill up the school. One building would do it.

I remember a few years ago Jamestown was so under enrolled that they had to fill it with pre school and sped programs. Is that still the case? Maybe Nott isn’t really the lowest enrollment if you compare the number of neighborhood kids across schools, and don’t take into account the other programs that don’t have to be in any particular place.

And why did APS fill up Jamestown with these other programs instead of closing it, but now wants to close Nott? Nott isn’t that underenrolled. APS could move some of the programs out of the overcrowded schools and get it right back up to 100.

But look at how fast a Nottingham parent is to point to Jamestown or some other elementary school as an alternative chopping block head to get them out of their problem. They do this every cycle, did it with McKinley a few times and Taylor or Tuckahoe when they didn’t want to take in excess kids and pointed them towards other schools instead. You guys are the worst.

You understand that most of the current Nottingham parents weren’t there during the last round of this, right? Time moves in only one direction - kids get older and graduate to middle and high schools.

And yet the neighborhood attitudes remain the same.

It seems the only thing that seems to stay the same are the nonsensical attitudes lacking any basis in reality towards Nottingham families. I don’t get why people have so much animosity.

It's really concerning how much animosity people have towards nottingham. let's keep in mind we're talking about young children here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nah, if those 100+ kids came back from private, you bet aps would reopen that sucker in a minute. If they need the seats! If they don’t need the seats, why not use it as a swing space and then close it? If you only need two sites to serve your area kids, you don’t keep three cites open and spend all those resources because it’s Nottingham. Sorry.

Well first, if the system as a whole was under capacity, then yes, it would make sense to close a school. But that's not the case here. There are school in APS that are over capacity and some that are a little under. The right answer is to rip off the bandaid and do the big boundary redraw that was deferred last year to balance once and for all with boundaries that make sense.

And second, it's pretty disruptive to close a school, redo all the boundaries, then re-eopen the school and redo all the boundaries, not to mention start a new school up from scratch again with new admin, etc.

[Anonymous]

Nottingham families have been the very worst of all families at all schools during multiple different rezoning efforts. They have upset a lot of people. It’s hard to unwind that. No one likes them. Especially not the APS planning folks. They had enough of them after the last two rounds.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the idea of having a school they can move kids into to renovate another. Many of the schools are in desperate need of renovations which are impossible to complete when kids are in the building.

OMG- how much more are they going to pay me as a teacher

1 to move all my stuff to the holding school and back and
2 to pay for the EZPASS on 66 and 495 that just added to my commute?

I know none of this really matters to anyone be me and my family, I’m aware my needs are small. Just know that whenever the school move happens, it sounds like a great year to transfer to FCPS!!!!

Sounds like FCPS might be a better fit?

That’s what she said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nottingham families have been the very worst of all families at all schools during multiple different rezoning efforts. They have upset a lot of people. It’s hard to unwind that. No one likes them. Especially not the APS planning folks. They had enough of them after the last two rounds.

Well you sound lovely yourself.

[Anonymous]

Why isn't the Madison Community Center on the list for a swing space?

Used to be a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nottingham families have been the very worst of all families at all schools during multiple different rezoning efforts. They have upset a lot of people. It’s hard to unwind that. No one likes them. Especially not the APS planning folks. They had enough of them after the last two rounds.

Well you sound lovely yourself.

Just stating the facts for those who may now know the history on this. Nottingham families that have gone before you have unfortunately left a lot of animosity in their wake due to their nastiness and their lack of understanding or even an attempt at understanding the needs of others in this county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nottingham families have been the very worst of all families at all schools during multiple different rezoning efforts. They have upset a lot of people. It’s hard to unwind that. No one likes them. Especially not the APS planning folks. They had enough of them after the last two rounds.

Well you sound lovely yourself.

Just stating the facts for those who may now know the history on this. Nottingham families that have gone before you have unfortunately left a lot of animosity in their wake due to their nastiness and their lack of understanding or even an attempt at understanding the needs of others in this county.

Their needs are they don’t want their local school closed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nottingham families have been the very worst of all families at all schools during multiple different rezoning efforts. They have upset a lot of people. It’s hard to unwind that. No one likes them. Especially not the APS planning folks. They had enough of them after the last two rounds.

Well you sound lovely yourself.

Just stating the facts for those who may now know the history on this. Nottingham families that have gone before you have unfortunately left a lot of animosity in their wake due to their nastiness and their lack of understanding or even an attempt at understanding the needs of others in this county.

You must be fun at dinner parties. Hold a grudge much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nottingham families have been the very worst of all families at all schools during multiple different rezoning efforts. They have upset a lot of people. It’s hard to unwind that. No one likes them. Especially not the APS planning folks. They had enough of them after the last two rounds.

Well you sound lovely yourself.

Just stating the facts for those who may now know the history on this. Nottingham families that have gone before you have unfortunately left a lot of animosity in their wake due to their nastiness and their lack of understanding or even an attempt at understanding the needs of others in this county.

You must be fun at dinner parties. Hold a grudge much?

If only it were just one person . . . Unfortunately, it’s large chunks of the active folks in several communities. Because they attended the countywide meetings and heard it directly from the sources. Sounds much like there will be much of the same this time around. Invoking your home values and your “connections” and pointing at others. Some things don’t change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nottingham families have been the very worst of all families at all schools during multiple different rezoning efforts. They have upset a lot of people. It’s hard to unwind that. No one likes them. Especially not the APS planning folks. They had enough of them after the last two rounds.

Well you sound lovely yourself.

Just stating the facts for those who may now know the history on this. Nottingham families that have gone before you have unfortunately left a lot of animosity in their wake due to their nastiness and their lack of understanding or even an attempt at understanding the needs of others in this county.

I see APS planning staff have found the conversation.