The demise of McKinley ES (APS)
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Anonymous
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One sad reality that is not getting enough attention is the demise of McK's community.
I know the kids will be fine and we'll have a new community but I also think that there's a solution. Moving an option program to Reed and expanding it will reduce McK's overcrowding while keeping a community intact (well, two of them). Not sure how this played at at other schools but I think we will see the McK student pop drastically change. Most will go to Reed, sure, but McK has weird boundaries. I think some kids will end up at 3 different schools. So they won't even have a strong community of other moved kids. My kids are at McK and will not move to read. No idea where this PU will move but two schools are closer than Reed, so I'm assuming one of them. Does anybody have any hard numbers on the number of current McK kids who will stay within the McK community versus move to another school? Do we know generally which PUs are in danger of moving to a school other than Reed? I think Reed, Ashlawn, Glebe and Tuckahoe. I just tried to figure out how many kids there are in the PUs that i think will move but that interactive map challenges my ability to use it. Here's the map: https://www.apsva.us/facilities-planning/find-your-planning-unit/ |
Anonymous
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Meh. Most are moving to shiny new Reed.
And you do realize that there are a few schools with big possible changes. Why do you only care about McKinley? |
Anonymous
| The only way McKinley wasn't going to be broken up was if Reed was an option school, and apparently Westover made a deal that that won't ever happen. |
Anonymous
| There's going to be a lot of change. It will be ok. Kids are incredibly adaptable, and this county isn't so huge that you'll never see the old community again. |
Anonymous
Yup. It was inevitable in any scenario. Even if they somehow made Reed option over 100 kids would be peeled off McKinley to another school to relieve the overcrowding. |
Anonymous
| Ask Henry parents how far you can get arguing that your community is being torn apart. And the difference between Fleet and Drew was significantly larger than the delta between McKinley and wherever you guys are gonna get moved to. |
Anonymous
| According to a spreadsheet on another thread most kids who don’t end up at Reed will go to Ashlawn. This is probably what will happen to us. |
Anonymous
| If the “kids will be fine,” as you assert, why do you care so much? |
Anonymous
| Poor babies... Reed can't handle the bus traffic with an option school and McKinley can. It is as simple as that. |
Anonymous
| Stop it DH. Most of McK wants to go. The numbers don’t support you. Also, your voting plan is dumb. |
Anonymous
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Many school communities will be affected, not just McKinley. Ashlawn community (my children's school) will change drastically for example. But as PP noted, this was going to happen regardless when Reed opened as a neighborhood school as they shifted boundaries to fill that school. I'm honestly shocked by the level of outrage in the McKinley community, because a huge shakeup is happening there regardless.
Do I wish that there could be a magic solution that didn't change my kids' school population, and yours, and others (and not because I abstractly object to what new students we might get, but because it stinks to think that kids' friend groups are going to be broken up)? Sure. Unfortunately seats are needed and there is no painless way to address school distribution/capacity issues without families getting moved to new schools. And I can't get behind a sentiment that basically amounts to "fix school overcrowding and population problems, just don't affect my family specifically in anything other than a way that enhances my status quo [new building, fewer trailers, less overcrowding]," because doesn't everyone feel that way? My wants and disappointment about the shakeup aren't more important than anyone else who might be affected. |
Anonymous
| You are barking up the wrong tree. There is no deal with Westover. Aps is putting the neighborhood school where it is because that’s where there are more kids. I’m sorry that means Mckinley gets split up, but you just have to move on |
Anonymous
| Any school with weird boundaries will change a lot, OP, in this process. This will happen regardless of whether Reed is option or McK is option. Honestly, moving most of McK to Reed may preserve more of your community than other options. And McK is not the only school with odd boundaries. Ashlawn has odd boundaries, so does Nottingham. |
Anonymous
| Elementary school is 6 years. Lots of people move around at least once during elementary anyhow. You will look back in a few and realize this is not as much of a big deal as everyone is making it out to be, moving to a new school with a lot of the same kids in the same zip code. |
Anonymous
| Do you realize that with 800 kids, someone was always destined to move? The switch to Reed is best case scenario. |