Reply to Challenge: Can someone explain the Arlington school zoning issues to us w/o being mean?

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Reply to "Challenge: Can someone explain the Arlington school zoning issues to us w/o being mean? "

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[quote=Anonymous]APS enrollment has dramatically increased.  As a result schools are overcrowded, and they need to open up new schools.  However, there is not land to build new schools, and they have to take the sites they can get, even if they are not optimally located in the county to relieve the areas of the most overcrowding.
When they open up new schools they have to draw new boundaries, in order to zone kids to the new school.   Change is really hard for people, so most people would prefer things stay the same, and they continue at their old schools, while others go to a new/different school.  (Those that live super close to a new school would typically rather go to the new school.)
Currently, the area of the worst overcrowding is in the Northeastern section of the county, rosslyn/courthouse, etc.  It used to be that very few kids lived there, and those that did were mostly poor hispanic students.   The immersion program was located at Key, which is across from courthouse metro.  Anyone who didn't want to go to Key, had the option to go to Science Focus.  Science Focus was formerly an option school, which drew kids from the Key district, Taylor district, and Jamestown.  10 or so years ago anyone who wanted to go to Science Focus, could.  However as the population grew in the Rosslyn/Courthouse area, the kids from that area who didn't want immersion began filling ASFS and there was no room for anyone to opt in.  In the Spring of 2017, in light of this reality, APS declared that ASFS was a neighborhood school, and Key was an option school with no preference for those in the neighborhood.   
So at the moment, ASFS is the neighborhood school for the Key school zone- but it is not actually located in the Key school zone.  There are tons of kids who live closer to ASFS who are zoned to either Ashlawn or Taylor.  
APS suggested looking at the location of option schools, which was primarily about looking at the location of Key, and considering whether they could move the option school program to a different location and allow the Key building to be used as an option school.   This caused a huge public outcry both from Key parents (because they like the location of Key) and from any schools that was floated as a possible landing spot for Key.  
APS hasn't necessarily proposed solutions yet- but basically what they have said is that they either have to move Key, or draw boundaries that are long finger like boundaries b/c they have schools in the Western part of the county, and population in the East.[/quote]

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