Arlington School Board candidates
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ChenLing
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We spend about 20% more than our neighbors. About half of that is debt service -- we pay out the bonds used for CIP using our operating funds. For FY25 we'll be paying $67.3 million, which is close to our statutory maximum. The other 10% is actually rather odd -- adjusted for student population, we have similar class sizes, student-teacher ratios, number of schools, and transportation costs. I thought that our teachers were more tenured (and so are higher on the step scale), but since we pay our teachers less, it actually almost exactly evens out. The "the board doesn't understand why we pay more" is a quote from a current board member.
I encourage you to visit my website: https://chen4arlington.org 
If you have a more specific question, I'd be happy to answer it in this forum.
I'll answer this question in two parts -- one for criteria and one about planning. You can read the current APS policy here: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/AZ2V3D5FA2B8/$file/B-2.1%20Boundaries.pdf. They don't follow this policy. There are planning units that get split off from most of their peers when going from elementary to middle, and split off again from their peers when they move again to high school. There are those (in the current MS boundary proposal) who can see their current MS from their house but will now be bussed to a school further away. It's possible that this actually makes sense, but that is not communicated to the community. What I want to see is clearer criteria -- how are conflicts between different considerations resolved, what it means to be "small groups of students", etc. And I want to see the different proposals that are considered, and how each proposal is measured against the published criteria. As a parent, if you're doing something that affects my child, I want to know that the decision was actually well thought out and defensible. For planning, it really gets intermingled with how APS does planning factors (e.g., you have this many students so you get 2.2 Music teachers and 1.8 counselors). Because you can't hire fractional people (most of the time), principals do swaps. They get 2 music teachers, 1 counselor, and can get another special ed teacher that they desperately need. What should happen is a Monte Carlo simulation of possible future enrollments to determine two things: (1) thresholds where we can't serve the student population properly without adding additional staff -- i.e., there is a 70% chance that we'll have X students which will require Y classes which will in turn require an addition set of PE/Music/Art teachers, and (2) optimal configurations which will be the least likely to require future boundary changes. |
ChenLing
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I'm sorry it rubbed you the wrong way. It's the trade off of trying to be succinct. I believe I can bring a unique skill set that will help how APS makes and communicates decisions. I'm also someone who will always listen -- even to criticism and to those that compare me to Biden's predecessor. |
ChenLing
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Fortunately the GA passed a bill that adds some money back to schools. Unfortunately, the state budget is only ~13% of our revenue. For FY24, Virginia is the 44th state in terms of how well it funds public education. If it was merely average, we would have a budget surplus. The budget is unlikely to drastically change while Youngkin is governor. The county is supposed to fund 80% of our revenue -- by State policy, so when they say "we're raising teacher salaries by 3%", they expect Arlington County to pay for 80% of that. Unfortunately, the County only pays about ~75% of our budget. We have a revenue sharing agreement with the County -- we get 46.8% of tax receipts. We're one of two NoVA school systems that do this -- others do a need-based budget and negotiate with their counties every year (Falls Church City does a hybrid). When times are good, this is good for APS -- we have enough money. When times are bad (2007/8 recession, loss of commercial tax revenue post-Covid), not so much. I encourage everyone to email countyboard@arlingtonva.us and speak up on fully funding our schools. I know I harp on the 20% more we pay per student compared to our neighbors. Half of that is because we pay debt service on school bonds using our operating budget. Neighbors like Alexandria and Montgomery County do not (CIP budgets and bond payments are part of the county budget and not the school). I'm working on identifying the other half. The reason is that when the School Board goes to the County Board and asks for more money, the response is often to point out how we already pay more per student and can APS please be more efficient first please. |
ChenLing
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The school board sets policy, and hires and manages the superintendent. The school board can direct the superintendent. The school board can take a vote on any action by the superintendent and on any policy. The school board provides oversight and accountability to the school system, to make sure that it serves the best interests of the students and teachers. The school board cannot insert themselves into staff operations. For example, take this question from Priddy https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/D3GV4V7CE247/$file/25-02%20Replace%20MacBook%20Air%20with%20Chromebooks.pdf asking about what the cost/benefit would be to switching from Macbook Airs with Chromebooks, as suggested by some people as a cost-saving measure. The answer from the Assistant Superintendent for Information Services is just...wrong. We currently pay $779/Macbook Air (which is a great price), and we get ~$125 of it back when the student graduates and returns the laptop, with a true cost of $654/student. That's fine. They then state that a "comparable" Chromebook would cost $759 per student. For comparison, Fairfax uses Chromebooks for I believe middle school and above. They pay $279 per Chromebook. The link in the response itself (Wirecutter's Best Chromebook) says the "best" Chromebook is currently retails at Best Buy for....$499. That's without bulk or educational discounts. They talk about transition costs which is fair. Then they say how they get free cloud storage with Macbooks but not for Chromebooks. This is not true. In addition, Microsoft 365 (the A1 tier) is free for schools and students, which also includes free cloud storage. School Board members can continue to ask questions and keep the Superintendent and his office accountable. |
Anonymous
Dang. You just earned my vote. |
Anonymous
Appreciate you answering each question specifically - and in this forum, rather than just referring to your website. I hope you will consider the idea that the APS boundary policy itself is a problem and consider, if starting from a blank slate with no policy, how APS can most effectively balance enrollment across schools and provide classroom environments and experiences as comparable as possible across the system. Similarly, if our schools are not going to be comparable across the system (ie demographics and level of student needs), please think about what planning factors would actually give the schools in most need the teacher resources they need to serve their students and most effectively close (narrow as much as possible) gaps. |
Anonymous
Yes, yes, yes - thank you. Even TJHSST - the top public high school in the country - uses Chromebooks. |
Anonymous
| When your first instinct is to assume an asst superintendent is wrong and you have the right answer, that's inexperience. |
ChenLing
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You're welcome!
Yes -- we haven't had a full realignment of boundaries for a while. Apparently there was one in the 70's and another in the 90's, and we've been making only small adjustments since. I can't speak to whether there has been evaluations that were not public, or if a larger realignment would produce something better. It needs a careful look though -- if nothing else because we're currently on a financially unsustainable path, and a one time realignment may provide structural savings.
Yes -- planning factors should be more based on need (this school has a reading gap, so should be allocated more reading coaches/interventionalists). That being said, I understand why planning factors exist but the concept is so crazy. If we were to give a school 0.5 more reading coaches, then unless they can find someone good who's willing to work as a 0.5 FTE it just doesn't work. What principals do is "oh I happen to have a teacher who's willing to go from working 0.8 to 0.5, and I get beg for another 0.2 from contingency funds, so I can actually hire a reading coach which I really need". Instead, I think APS has been using planning factors so slowly reduce staff ("you get 2.2 PE/Art/Music teachers now instead of 2.7"), and making each school scramble to figure it out. I would also encourage everyone to contact countyboard@arlingtonva.us to ask for more funding for APS -- one that's more aligned with actual need. |
Anonymous
When your first instinct is "'comparable laptop' is an odd way of phrasing that', and your second instinct is to actually look at prices and policies on things like cloud storage, and your third instinct is to look at what other school systems are doing, and your fourth instinct is to put all that together It's pretty reasonable to apply Occam's razor and conclude that the Assistant superintendent is either a) ignorant of the actual prices, policies, and values of competing products, or b) using deliberately veiled language to prevent an unfavorable comparison. HOWEVER, if someone lays out that thinking for you, and YOUR first instinct is to compress all of that detail into a simple narrative of "you're making assumptions!", perhaps it is you who should be asking why defending APS in the face of actual evidence is your first instinct. |
Anonymous
+1 And there are citizen commissions that go into this stuff in a ton of detail—boundaries (FAC), line item spending (BAC). You have a chance to work with staff and learn all the ins and outs of the policies—so that the committees can advise the board. Then you run for the board. Or you go to every school board meeting and work session for a whole year before you run, like Noah Simon did. You don’t take one of five board seats to do the on-the-job learning, you’ll be wasting everyone’s time. Everyone on the FAC is smart and a fast learner, but it still takes two years to get how the CIP works. And we have no idea if you can effectively work with others on school issues if you haven’t been involved in PTA leadership or other committees. |
Anonymous
You can’t speak to whether there were evaluations that “weren’t public”? Dude, you just keep showing your total ignorance about how school boards work and what they do. |
Anonymous
We don’t buy laptops from Best Buy. They are purchased/leased with special educational use warranties and anticipated repair/replacement expenses built into the price. The assistant superintendent participated in the procurement, evaluated bids, and negotiated service level agreements with the vendor. But sure, you probably know more about it. |
Anonymous
exactly, it's either naive or arrogant to show up and think you have all the answers and can fix APS when you just don't know what you don't know, |
Anonymous
new poster to this thread....I get what each side is saying here, but at some point the results are the results. APS is staring into a mild budget deficit this year that grows significantly in future years. At what point do you stop being deferential to a system that isn't coming forward with any solutions? In that environment, I think it's fine to have someone ask some potentially basic questions even if only to jolt peoples thinking. And the candidate isn't even coming at it from a "I want to tear everything down rawr" angle that you see some people advocate for. |