Jamestown and Taylor ES in N Arl

[Anonymous]

We just moved to N Arl and are in the Jamestown district but understand we could apply to go to three other schools. Two of them don't interest us but Taylor sounds a lot like Jamestown except with kids grouped by subject accumen. My daughter will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Is anyone familiar with the differences between the two schools and willing to weigh in on reasons to consider one or the other. Any info would be most appreciated. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You need to visit the Arlington Public Schools website to learn the transfer procedure. You need to take an orientation tour of each school, and you'll need to get an application for transfer signed by the principals if you decide you want Taylor rather than Jamestown.

They're both fine schools, so which one you pick is likely to depend mostly on your gut reaction to the tours.

[Anonymous]

We transferred to Taylor from Science Focus. We love the Principal and Asst Principal at Taylor. We never visited Jamestown b/c it is a bit too far from where we live, but I have heard very good things about both schools, and when I was researching, Jamestown was at the top of my list, along with Taylor and a few others. I don't think you can go wrong with either school. Personally, I'd go with Jamestown since you are already in that zone and it will be more convenient. But maybe meet the adminstrators from both schools and visit them, and then decide.

[Anonymous]

just be careful of taylor and their #'s. all the buzz looks like it caused a major influx in students. i keep hearing more and more about the n arlington schools becoming overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:just be careful of taylor and their #'s. all the buzz looks like it caused a major influx in students. i keep hearing more and more about the n arlington schools becoming overcrowded.

Ditto. I have heard great things about Taylor, but it had to add two additional classes of K this past year - something the county had not anticipated. That may influence your decision as well as if you can even transfer there - I can't imagine they can let every child who wants to go there go if they are that overcrowded. To give another example, I went to the tour at Glebe where my kindergartner will go next year. After years of the school being under-enrolled, they had to add a 4th kindergarten class this past year and are anticipating adding a 5th class this coming school year. The principal said they have already requested a trailer....I don't see this ending anytime soon either - our neighborhood is FILLED with young kids.

[Anonymous]

I wonder though, if having more classes really affects your child if class size is kept the same. I do think it's silly to have Key Immersion and Science Focus (more untraditional schools) located in the Rosslyn/Clarendon corridor where the most dense housing is located. There are so many condo buildings being built over there and surely Taylor cannot take all of those kids whose parents do not want immersion or science focus. I'm not knocking those schools, but there appears to be less demand for them.

Regarding OP's question- I've only heard great things about Taylor from my neighbors who all have several children attending the school. And since I do not live inbounds for Jamestown, I really haven't heard anything about that school.

[Anonymous]

but there appears to be less demand for them.

There is a lot of demand for Science Focus; I think at one point there may even have been limits on how many Key students were allowed to transfer in (I am basing this on something a neighbor said). Key is our neighborhood school, and at our bus stop, there are a lot more ASFS kids than Taylor kids. One bus stop doesn't prove anything, of course, but I think a lot of parents are drawn to ASFS's combination of diversity and high test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder though, if having more classes really affects your child if class size is kept the same. I do think it's silly to have Key Immersion and Science Focus (more untraditional schools) located in the Rosslyn/Clarendon corridor where the most dense housing is located. There are so many condo buildings being built over there and surely Taylor cannot take all of those kids whose parents do not want immersion or science focus. I'm not knocking those schools, but there appears to be less demand for them.

Regarding OP's question- I've only heard great things about Taylor from my neighbors who all have several children attending the school. And since I do not live inbounds for Jamestown, I really haven't heard anything about that school.

I don't think it really affects the actual kindergarten class, but it does affect the facilities when you have to start taking things away to fit all these new classes in. For example, at Glebe they took away the computer lab this year because of their additional K class. The got mobile labs to replace it, but it would not be so easy to replace if it was an art or music room. And actually, I believe they did take away an art room at Taylor this year because they had 2 additional K classes to fit in. What baffles me is how the school board completely has underestimated the number of new students who are coming to these schools...just from looking around in my own neighborhood and how it has changed over the past 3 years since I moved in (older families moving out, younger families moving in), I could see that the schools were going to get more and more crowded. I understand that things cannot be changed quickly when it comes to building/renovating schools, but I would have to think that someone should have seen this coming and tried to do something to prepare rather than just be surprised when all these new kids came along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder though, if having more classes really affects your child if class size is kept the same. I do think it's silly to have Key Immersion and Science Focus (more untraditional schools) located in the Rosslyn/Clarendon corridor where the most dense housing is located. There are so many condo buildings being built over there and surely Taylor cannot take all of those kids whose parents do not want immersion or science focus. I'm not knocking those schools, but there appears to be less demand for them.

Regarding OP's question- I've only heard great things about Taylor from my neighbors who all have several children attending the school. And since I do not live inbounds for Jamestown, I really haven't heard anything about that school.

I don't think it really affects the actual kindergarten class, but it does affect the facilities when you have to start taking things away to fit all these new classes in. For example, at Glebe they took away the computer lab this year because of their additional K class. The got mobile labs to replace it, but it would not be so easy to replace if it was an art or music room. And actually, I believe they did take away an art room at Taylor this year because they had 2 additional K classes to fit in. What baffles me is how the school board completely has underestimated the number of new students who are coming to these schools...just from looking around in my own neighborhood and how it has changed over the past 3 years since I moved in (older families moving out, younger families moving in), I could see that the schools were going to get more and more crowded. I understand that things cannot be changed quickly when it comes to building/renovating schools, but I would have to think that someone should have seen this coming and tried to do something to prepare rather than just be surprised when all these new kids came along.

I guess I'm just wondering where all these kids are coming from? The boundary for Taylor is primarily SFH. The lots here are not allowed to be split any smaller, and I don't think people are dying off any faster than they used to (no offense to the lovely elderly in this neighborhood). So that's why I would have to think the increased enrollment is coming from the Key area or Science Focus, because they are located where all of the new condo buildings are. Also as pp said above regarding Key people going to Science Focus, that makes sense given the location. I think most people prefer the nearby neighborhood school unless, it's unusual like Key or Science Focus. I know someone above said Science Focus is in high demand, which I honestly don't know and that could very well be the case. But my previous post was just a guess as to why Taylor was getting such an unexpected enrollment assuming the boundaries haven't changed, which I don't know either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder though, if having more classes really affects your child if class size is kept the same. I do think it's silly to have Key Immersion and Science Focus (more untraditional schools) located in the Rosslyn/Clarendon corridor where the most dense housing is located. There are so many condo buildings being built over there and surely Taylor cannot take all of those kids whose parents do not want immersion or science focus. I'm not knocking those schools, but there appears to be less demand for them.

Regarding OP's question- I've only heard great things about Taylor from my neighbors who all have several children attending the school. And since I do not live inbounds for Jamestown, I really haven't heard anything about that school.

I don't think it really affects the actual kindergarten class, but it does affect the facilities when you have to start taking things away to fit all these new classes in. For example, at Glebe they took away the computer lab this year because of their additional K class. The got mobile labs to replace it, but it would not be so easy to replace if it was an art or music room. And actually, I believe they did take away an art room at Taylor this year because they had 2 additional K classes to fit in. What baffles me is how the school board completely has underestimated the number of new students who are coming to these schools...just from looking around in my own neighborhood and how it has changed over the past 3 years since I moved in (older families moving out, younger families moving in), I could see that the schools were going to get more and more crowded. I understand that things cannot be changed quickly when it comes to building/renovating schools, but I would have to think that someone should have seen this coming and tried to do something to prepare rather than just be surprised when all these new kids came along.

I guess I'm just wondering where all these kids are coming from? The boundary for Taylor is primarily SFH. The lots here are not allowed to be split any smaller, and I don't think people are dying off any faster than they used to (no offense to the lovely elderly in this neighborhood). So that's why I would have to think the increased enrollment is coming from the Key area or Science Focus, because they are located where all of the new condo buildings are. Also as pp said above regarding Key people going to Science Focus, that makes sense given the location. I think most people prefer the nearby neighborhood school unless, it's unusual like Key or Science Focus. I know someone above said Science Focus is in high demand, which I honestly don't know and that could very well be the case. But my previous post was just a guess as to why Taylor was getting such an unexpected enrollment assuming the boundaries haven't changed, which I don't know either.

I don't know the answer either, but I have a few guesses. First of all, the boundaries for Taylor are HUGE - maybe the largest in N. Arlington, so it definitely pulls from a large area. I know 3 people who have moved to the area in the past couple of years and they all live in different neighborhoods, but they are all zoned for Taylor. I would agree that some are leaving Key because they don't want the bilingual program. That may also be true of Science Focus. But I also think there are just a lot of young families moving in. As I said, I know 3 families who have moved from smaller places in Ballston/Clarendon/DC in the past couple of years and they are all zoned for Taylor. They all replaced older people who had either died or moved away. Two of them moved into big new houses and intend to stay there for many years. On my own street which is the Glebe district, we were only one of two young families there with children when we moved in 3 years ago. Now there are 13 kids on our street! I think the thing with Taylor, too, is it is one of the closest in area in Arlington to DC and it pulls from neighborhoods closest to metro. That appeals to a lot of people who may still want some of that urban feel with the more suburban amenities.

[Anonymous]

Kids in the key/science focus boundary have to "lottery in" to Taylor so I doubt it is those kids making Taylor overcrowded- as someone mentioned, Taylor could limit how many it takes from outside its boundary even if it's part of the team. Science focus is also highly coveted by Taylor kids and there is always a very long list of waitlisted kids. Science focus is the non-language immersion option for kids in the Key boundary. I do think all the schools in the team are very strong and offer different approaches with very strong administrators. You do need to take the tours if you are going to enter the lottery for any of the out-of-bounds/in-team schools.

[Anonymous]

The School Board really needs to redistrict so that the North Arlington student population flows southward where there is capacity available. But that is the LAST thing they want to do. The previous superintendent proposed that, and the Fendley/Raphael/Baird troika went nuts. People don't buy $1.2 million houses so their kids can wind up at Barcroft or TJ.