High School Overcrowding 2024

[Anonymous]

We are looking to buy our first home and need to be close to downtown for double in person commute.

I read some threads and in ArlNow that high schools will be overcrowded in the coming years, with talk of evening shift classes, remote learning for core classes, and lunch’s at 10am or impossible to get into clubs/sports except for the most obscure ones.

Hasn’t the school board beefed up career center and made an option program which should address that, like a TJ Lite? Is it big enough?

Should we aim for WL over Yorktown, since Yorktown is the most overcrowded of the two right now?

We could afford to go private if we have too, but hoping our DS can just have a normal high school experience at APS. Moving to Fairfax will be hard for commute, so that is our last option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to buy our first home and need to be close to downtown for double in person commute.

I read some threads and in ArlNow that high schools will be overcrowded in the coming years, with talk of evening shift classes, remote learning for core classes, and lunch’s at 10am or impossible to get into clubs/sports except for the most obscure ones.

Hasn’t the school board beefed up career center and made an option program which should address that, like a TJ Lite? Is it big enough?

Should we aim for WL over Yorktown, since Yorktown is the most overcrowded of the two right now?

We could afford to go private if we have too, but hoping our DS can just have a normal high school experience at APS. Moving to Fairfax will be hard for commute, so that is our last option.

Why do you not even mention Wakefield? It offers a "normal high school experience."

[Anonymous]

When does your DC start HS? The CC thing is not certain and won't help much. It's mainly about making Arlington Tech a better program.

What sports does DC do? Some schools may be easier to make teams than other. And some sports are non-cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to buy our first home and need to be close to downtown for double in person commute.

I read some threads and in ArlNow that high schools will be overcrowded in the coming years, with talk of evening shift classes, remote learning for core classes, and lunch’s at 10am or impossible to get into clubs/sports except for the most obscure ones.

Hasn’t the school board beefed up career center and made an option program which should address that, like a TJ Lite? Is it big enough?

Should we aim for WL over Yorktown, since Yorktown is the most overcrowded of the two right now?

We could afford to go private if we have too, but hoping our DS can just have a normal high school experience at APS. Moving to Fairfax will be hard for commute, so that is our last option.

Why do you not even mention Wakefield? It offers a "normal high school experience."

Because right now Wakefield is the MOST overcrowded and projected to increase even more with zoned AH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When does your DC start HS? The CC thing is not certain and won't help much. It's mainly about making Arlington Tech a better program.

What sports does DC do? Some schools may be easier to make teams than other. And some sports are non-cut.

He doesn’t do any die hard sport but would like something like JV basketball or baseball, and probably drama club

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When does your DC start HS? The CC thing is not certain and won't help much. It's mainly about making Arlington Tech a better program.

What sports does DC do? Some schools may be easier to make teams than other. And some sports are non-cut.

I thought CC was adding 800 option seats? What do they do if it doesn’t happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When does your DC start HS? The CC thing is not certain and won't help much. It's mainly about making Arlington Tech a better program.

What sports does DC do? Some schools may be easier to make teams than other. And some sports are non-cut.

He doesn’t do any die hard sport but would like something like JV basketball or baseball, and probably drama club

I only know W-L and Yorktown, and right now, at least, W-L is a better bet. It is much easier to make a sports team at W-L than Yorktown; there is no way your kid will make JV basketball or baseball at YHS unless he has played on a travel team. I'm not sure there are any non-cut sports at Yorktown (maybe cross country?), and the YHS sports parents can be pretty insufferable. Drama is probably just as good at either, although the YHS productions may be flashier due to more available funds. But W-L is adding seats, so it will be getting bigger. If it matters to you, W-L is much more diverse than Yorktown; I would choose W-L for that reason alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When does your DC start HS? The CC thing is not certain and won't help much. It's mainly about making Arlington Tech a better program.

What sports does DC do? Some schools may be easier to make teams than other. And some sports are non-cut.

He doesn’t do any die hard sport but would like something like JV basketball or baseball, and probably drama club

I only know W-L and Yorktown, and right now, at least, W-L is a better bet. It is much easier to make a sports team at W-L than Yorktown; there is no way your kid will make JV basketball or baseball at YHS unless he has played on a travel team. I'm not sure there are any non-cut sports at Yorktown (maybe cross country?), and the YHS sports parents can be pretty insufferable. Drama is probably just as good at either, although the YHS productions may be flashier due to more available funds. But W-L is adding seats, so it will be getting bigger. If it matters to you, W-L is much more diverse than Yorktown; I would choose W-L for that reason alone.

I was all for WL until I saw they were adding 600 seats from converting offices into classrooms? It sounds like they plan to funnel all the excess students to a supersized campus rather than opening a 4th high school.

So is night shift and remote learning just fear mongering, not going to happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When does your DC start HS? The CC thing is not certain and won't help much. It's mainly about making Arlington Tech a better program.

What sports does DC do? Some schools may be easier to make teams than other. And some sports are non-cut.

I thought CC was adding 800 option seats? What do they do if it doesn’t happen?

There is a whole long CIP thread on this, but basically APS revised down its need for HS seats and said the new 600 seats at W&L solve most of the immediate need. They planned to add just 350 more HS seats to CC, and were going to make the rest MS seats, which they decided they need more than HS seats. But the plan they proposed was not affordable (in addition to being stupid), so now back to the drawing board. I think they will end up doing something small for Tech and leaving the rest alone. All our enrollment projections right now suck. APS lost 2000 students to privates/moves in the pandemic, and there are lots of uncertainties.

W&L is going to be 600 kids bigger, which will make getting a JV sport in something like basketball probably impossible. But cross country, swimming, and track are all non-cut. Football is a huge number of kids, so maybe that team is makeable? All the schools have a lot of clubs. I would guess you could do drama or speech anywhere. Maybe even Crew?

[Anonymous]

I think shifts for HS is fear mongering, though Garvey on the County Board supports it. They may provide that as an option, but I think there would be hell to pay if they required it. Some number of kids will probably do Virtual Virginia after this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When does your DC start HS? The CC thing is not certain and won't help much. It's mainly about making Arlington Tech a better program.

What sports does DC do? Some schools may be easier to make teams than other. And some sports are non-cut.

He doesn’t do any die hard sport but would like something like JV basketball or baseball, and probably drama club

I only know W-L and Yorktown, and right now, at least, W-L is a better bet. It is much easier to make a sports team at W-L than Yorktown; there is no way your kid will make JV basketball or baseball at YHS unless he has played on a travel team. I'm not sure there are any non-cut sports at Yorktown (maybe cross country?), and the YHS sports parents can be pretty insufferable. Drama is probably just as good at either, although the YHS productions may be flashier due to more available funds. But W-L is adding seats, so it will be getting bigger. If it matters to you, W-L is much more diverse than Yorktown; I would choose W-L for that reason alone.

I was all for WL until I saw they were adding 600 seats from converting offices into classrooms? It sounds like they plan to funnel all the excess students to a supersized campus rather than opening a 4th high school.

So is night shift and remote learning just fear mongering, not going to happen?

There’s no plan for this, now or even in the 10 year horizon. There is some talk about a permanent virtual option. No idea if they intend some students to be full time virtual, or if they think they’ll make a certain number of courses virtual, freeing up space during the school day.

[Anonymous]

Current projections don't really show us needing a 4th HS right now. All the classes in the pipeline (current K and up) are around 2000-2100 students, that means we need about 8200 HS seats.

That's:
W&L 2700
Wakefield 2100
Yorktown 2100
HB 450
CC 800 (assuming they add 300 or so in the next 4-5 years)
Shriver/Langston/New Directions 100

That's 8250.

So we have enough HS seats, but just barely. It probably would be smart to grow Tech to 800 not 600 to give us a bit more breathing room, but there's not a mad rush to build more than that.

By the same logic, MS seats are also fine. That's 6200 or so MS seats, which is 6 1000K MS + HB. So also fine.

All that said, the boundaries need to be done really well. Because we need to fill all the seats to make it work.

[Anonymous]

APS will never open a 4th HS. They can’t afford it at today’s prices, there’s no where to put it except for a park, and the County Board doesn’t support schools. Garvey ( who needs to be voted out) suggested we don’t need new schools because everyone can go hybrid from now own. Next year WL will be supersized. A campus with 2600 kids built for 1900. Good luck folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current projections don't really show us needing a 4th HS right now. All the classes in the pipeline (current K and up) are around 2000-2100 students, that means we need about 8200 HS seats.

That's:
W&L 2700
Wakefield 2100
Yorktown 2100
HB 450
CC 800 (assuming they add 300 or so in the next 4-5 years)
Shriver/Langston/New Directions 100

That's 8250.

So we have enough HS seats, but just barely. It probably would be smart to grow Tech to 800 not 600 to give us a bit more breathing room, but there's not a mad rush to build more than that.

By the same logic, MS seats are also fine. That's 6200 or so MS seats, which is 6 1000K MS + HB. So also fine.

All that said, the boundaries need to be done really well. Because we need to fill all the seats to make it work.

So the plan to scare a bunch of UMC families to private and Mclean is working?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current projections don't really show us needing a 4th HS right now. All the classes in the pipeline (current K and up) are around 2000-2100 students, that means we need about 8200 HS seats.

That's:
W&L 2700
Wakefield 2100
Yorktown 2100
HB 450
CC 800 (assuming they add 300 or so in the next 4-5 years)
Shriver/Langston/New Directions 100

That's 8250.

So we have enough HS seats, but just barely. It probably would be smart to grow Tech to 800 not 600 to give us a bit more breathing room, but there's not a mad rush to build more than that.

By the same logic, MS seats are also fine. That's 6200 or so MS seats, which is 6 1000K MS + HB. So also fine.

All that said, the boundaries need to be done really well. Because we need to fill all the seats to make it work.

You are using enrollment numbers, not seat capacity numbers. The point is that our current buildings are overcrowded (except for HB).