South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Is there any indication of how much of Oakridge will be redistributed to the new Drew? And I haven't heard Hoffman-Boston mentioned much, is it assumed its boundary/enrollment will remain someone static? I realize it's sort of hemmed in by the highway, Country Club and the Cemetery. In hindsight, this was a pretty awful location to build an elementary school.

Hoffmans location is tied to the history of racial segregation in Arlington County. My guess is that Oakridge will only give up arna valley and it's affordable housing to Drew, even though it's all walkable to Oakridge and in no way walkable to Drew. Oakridge will resemble a north Arlington elementary demographically and drew will look like carlin springs. The portio of Douglas park currently zoned for Henry is already organizing to fight being moved to Drew, it's on the civic Adam website.

They can't send the kids who live within a 1-2 mile to Oakridge past kids who live almost a mile away to Drew, while keeping the kids at the outer edge of the walkzone at Oakridge. So the only way they can draw a boundary that takes kids out of Oakridge and into Drew is moving the PU's west of Gunston. Douglas Park can do what ever it wants, but I would think the neighborhood CA wouldn't be representing all the members of the CA by taking a position on which PU's belong in which school boundaries. Did you take a neighborhood vote?

There are no pickups for Oakridge west of gunston. The whole of long branch creek and arna valley, save a tiny corner, is within the current Oakridge walk zone. It's all literally a cakewalk away. But it will almost surely get moved to Drew, even though it's not walkable there.

I don't live in Douglas park but you can see the civic assn website for yourself. The latest post encourages residents current living in the Henry zone to lobby APS to be sent to fleet, and gives advice on how to so. I would guess nobody on the civic assn sends their kids to Randolph.

If the focus is on actual walkability, why would those units be moved to Drew? And certain SB members and affordable housing advocates insist that low-income families need to be in their neighborhoods and their communities cannot be torn apart; that they need to go to the school they live closest to......

Oakridge keeps touting how much they value their "diversity." But we'll see how important it is when the more affluent people are "in danger" of being moved to Drew and the low-income families stay at Oakridge. Then it will be how the wealthy deserve to stay because they spent a lot of money to be in the Oakridge zone and their property values will drop.

OMG, look at a map. The closest places to Oakridge are in the Arlington Ridge CA, and those are also the wealthiest. So no, they aren't going to put the kids who live within a few blocks of Oakridge on a bus to Drew. The Oakridge PUs closest to Drew are among the least affluent currently zoned to Oakrdige, and they are the ones who are likely to be moved. Because of proximity, and because somebody has to be moved out of Oakridge before it's 900 students. They may move some of the Oakridge PU's that are adjacent to Hoffman-Boston, too. Again, because proximity and because they need to even out enrollment since the new school for Pentagon City isn't going to be built for ten years, if ever.

I did, the actual walk zone map. Arl ridge is nearby, but No, but most of aurora highlands and all of crystal city already get bussed to Oakridge. The cost saving thing would be to change where the current busses go off wont happen in a million years. Instead they'll create new bus routes to take kids who walk a whole 3/4 of a mile to Drew because their parents won't whine as loud as others would.

Also worth noting that Douglas Park is the largest civic association in Arlington and is pretty geographically spread out and densely populated. It's natural that there are factions. It's only a small part of the neighborhood that's currently zoned to Henry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any indication of how much of Oakridge will be redistributed to the new Drew? And I haven't heard Hoffman-Boston mentioned much, is it assumed its boundary/enrollment will remain someone static? I realize it's sort of hemmed in by the highway, Country Club and the Cemetery. In hindsight, this was a pretty awful location to build an elementary school.

Hoffmans location is tied to the history of racial segregation in Arlington County. My guess is that Oakridge will only give up arna valley and it's affordable housing to Drew, even though it's all walkable to Oakridge and in no way walkable to Drew. Oakridge will resemble a north Arlington elementary demographically and drew will look like carlin springs. The portio of Douglas park currently zoned for Henry is already organizing to fight being moved to Drew, it's on the civic Adam website.

They can't send the kids who live within a 1-2 mile to Oakridge past kids who live almost a mile away to Drew, while keeping the kids at the outer edge of the walkzone at Oakridge. So the only way they can draw a boundary that takes kids out of Oakridge and into Drew is moving the PU's west of Gunston. Douglas Park can do what ever it wants, but I would think the neighborhood CA wouldn't be representing all the members of the CA by taking a position on which PU's belong in which school boundaries. Did you take a neighborhood vote?

Randolph is the in Douglas Park neighborhood . Wouldn’t it make sense for that civic Association to keep all the neighborhood together? And isn’t part of the neighborhood zoned Hoffman Boston?

Randolph is a 100 percent walkable school right now. Likely none of the units currently zoned to Randolph will move, so Randolph families are less worried. The minority of residents with kids at Patrick Henry want to move to Fleet. They are upset and so more vocal.

-DP resident

At a recent meeting, there was a Douglas Park parent and they asked something along the lines of: So if my kid can walk to Henry (Fleet), we can still go there? The APS folks explained that this might not be the case, and that this was the first of six steps to realign schools. That said, the large contingent of Oakridge parents there were concerned about being rezoned to Drew or Hoffman-Boston, and expressed the same sentiment: if we are willing to walk to Oakridge, can we stay? APS folks and another parent quickly pointed out that claiming you can "walk" to a place just to stay, then driving your kids and clogging up the roads defeated the whole purpose of this. It seems just as likely that Drew and probably Hoffman-Boston would get an influx of UMC families from both Oakridge and Henry. That would make both "better" in some people's eyes, but it's a leap of faith.

This is ridiculous. It's an 8 (minimum) block walk and you have to cross Columbia Pike first. Anyone CAN walk anywhere. But that doesn't mean you are in a school's "effective" walk zone. It also doesn't mean you will definitely be moved. If you live in DP you are not in the effective walk zone to Fleet (not sure about Hoffman Boston). But if you are in the effective walk zone to Randolph, you will likely be moved there.

APS made it very clear that it's priority in this round is to find ways to rely less on buses. They are having a hard time retaining drivers and finding places to park buses at night. It's easier to hire more crossing guards and easier to install hawk lights. But the key is that the county wants people to actually use these means to get to schools. Not just say they will and then drive all their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just saw a post on Arlington Education Matters that the school board approved Kimberley Graves who is the current principal at Hoffman-Boston to be the new principal at Drew. I think this could be good for Drew. From what I have heard she was really instrumental in helping making Hoffman-Boston a strong school. Hopefully she can do the same for Drew.

Yes - I think this really positive news. Though, I'm reluctant to credit or blame a single administrator with test performance, I've heard she is a really engaged principal, and I do think principals set the tone and culture.

FWIW, hoffmans farms rate has dropped 15 percentage points since 2012, and demographically the school has become whiter and more Asian. Almost a quarter of the students are Asian; only science focus has a higher percentage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just saw a post on Arlington Education Matters that the school board approved Kimberley Graves who is the current principal at Hoffman-Boston to be the new principal at Drew. I think this could be good for Drew. From what I have heard she was really instrumental in helping making Hoffman-Boston a strong school. Hopefully she can do the same for Drew.

Yes - I think this really positive news. Though, I'm reluctant to credit or blame a single administrator with test performance, I've heard she is a really engaged principal, and I do think principals set the tone and culture.

FWIW, hoffmans farms rate has dropped 15 percentage points since 2012, and demographically the school has become whiter and more Asian. Almost a quarter of the students are Asian; only science focus has a higher percentage.

Interestingly, there is a large Mongolian population in the neighborhoods zoned to Hoffman Boston. They may make up part of the Asian percentage. Have heard it's a great school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just saw a post on Arlington Education Matters that the school board approved Kimberley Graves who is the current principal at Hoffman-Boston to be the new principal at Drew. I think this could be good for Drew. From what I have heard she was really instrumental in helping making Hoffman-Boston a strong school. Hopefully she can do the same for Drew.

Yes - I think this really positive news. Though, I'm reluctant to credit or blame a single administrator with test performance, I've heard she is a really engaged principal, and I do think principals set the tone and culture.

FWIW, hoffmans farms rate has dropped 15 percentage points since 2012, and demographically the school has become whiter and more Asian. Almost a quarter of the students are Asian; only science focus has a higher percentage.

Interestingly, there is a large Mongolian population in the neighborhoods zoned to Hoffman Boston. They may make up part of the Asian percentage. Have heard it's a great school.

Me too. I've read a couple wapo stories about arlington's Mongolian community. Appatently the literacy rate in Mongolia is nearly 100%, and a lot of value is placed on education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just saw a post on Arlington Education Matters that the school board approved Kimberley Graves who is the current principal at Hoffman-Boston to be the new principal at Drew. I think this could be good for Drew. From what I have heard she was really instrumental in helping making Hoffman-Boston a strong school. Hopefully she can do the same for Drew.

Yes - I think this really positive news. Though, I'm reluctant to credit or blame a single administrator with test performance, I've heard she is a really engaged principal, and I do think principals set the tone and culture.

FWIW, hoffmans farms rate has dropped 15 percentage points since 2012, and demographically the school has become whiter and more Asian. Almost a quarter of the students are Asian; only science focus has a higher percentage.

Interestingly, there is a large Mongolian population in the neighborhoods zoned to Hoffman Boston. They may make up part of the Asian percentage. Have heard it's a great school.

Me too. I've read a couple wapo stories about arlington's Mongolian community. Appatently the literacy rate in Mongolia is nearly 100%, and a lot of value is placed on education.

Yes, that’s correct, it’s nearly 99% and equal for men and women. The large Mongolian influx into Arlington is pretty recent, right? I’m not sure what caused it - a great country on paper. I know that the demographics of Hoffman- Boston were completely different in 2010, and the school was in bad shape years ago. They (almost?) lost accreditation at that time. Now they are doing very well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just saw a post on Arlington Education Matters that the school board approved Kimberley Graves who is the current principal at Hoffman-Boston to be the new principal at Drew. I think this could be good for Drew. From what I have heard she was really instrumental in helping making Hoffman-Boston a strong school. Hopefully she can do the same for Drew.

Yes - I think this really positive news. Though, I'm reluctant to credit or blame a single administrator with test performance, I've heard she is a really engaged principal, and I do think principals set the tone and culture.

FWIW, hoffmans farms rate has dropped 15 percentage points since 2012, and demographically the school has become whiter and more Asian. Almost a quarter of the students are Asian; only science focus has a higher percentage.

Interestingly, there is a large Mongolian population in the neighborhoods zoned to Hoffman Boston. They may make up part of the Asian percentage. Have heard it's a great school.

My kids go there and almost every Asian I've met has been Mongolian. Many seem to be recent immigrants, as they don't speak English well, but the school does a great job translating all the announcements into Mongolian and there is a Mongolian interpreter on staff. I'm really sad Ms. Graves is leaving - she is fantastic! I only hope we get another good principal next year. But we've also been really happy with all the teachers we've had, so I think the school will continue to flourish.

[Anonymous]

There is a big difference between the immigrants at HB and western end of the pike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a big difference between the immigrants at HB and western end of the pike.

Well, for starters, they could afford to fly halfway around the world to get here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a big difference between the immigrants at HB and western end of the pike.

Actually, immigration patterns seem to be changing across South Arlington. More Africans and Middle Eastern students on the mid and western Pike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a big difference between the immigrants at HB and western end of the pike.

Actually, immigration patterns seem to be changing across South Arlington. More Africans and Middle Eastern students on the mid and western Pike.

Trading one under educated population, for another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a big difference between the immigrants at HB and western end of the pike.

Actually, immigration patterns seem to be changing across South Arlington. More Africans and Middle Eastern students on the mid and western Pike.

Trading one under educated population, for another.

Donald, you are clearly the uneducated person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a big difference between the immigrants at HB and western end of the pike.

Actually, immigration patterns seem to be changing across South Arlington. More Africans and Middle Eastern students on the mid and western Pike.

Trading one under educated population, for another.

Donald, you are clearly the uneducated person.

Sorry, but you aren’t entitled to alternate facts, even if they aren’t pleasant.

[Anonymous]

The literacy rate for women in Ethiopia is 28%.
Not good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The literacy rate for women in Ethiopia is 28%.
Not good.

PP here, mine was the plane ticket mention. Generally, the farther away one emigrates from, the more educated or resourced they are. Ethiopian immigrants aren't really any different in terms of education than the us population. Anyway, that community has been in Arlington for decades, longer than the recent influx of refugees from the Midwest, myself included, lol. Lots of immigrants come to this area for the same reason I did! Education and jobs. Can't fault them for that.