Reply to Have you toured an Arlington school lately? Provide feedback for those who are moving to the area.

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Reply to "Have you toured an Arlington school lately? Provide feedback for those who are moving to the area."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP- You are a dedicated parent!  ...did you go on private tours at each school, or on the currently held larger tours?  Did you consider any of the countywide schools like Arlington Traditional, Campbell, Drew, ... to possibly fit your needs (just a thought?)?
... and was it not difficult to get a sense of the PTAs from the tours or Internet ?  What do you recommend when looking at that aspect if a school? Thanks![/quote]

OP here.  We did not visit countywide schools because 1) I like certainty.  There are already too many variables related to moving and I don't want whether or not DS gets into a certain school to be one of them.  And 2) we have two children with two completely different needs and we want them to go to the same school. We also want to establish playdates (something we don't currently do because of our location) and it would be great if the kid next door went to the same school.

We did private tours.  I was amazed how much time each principal and staff devoted to us.  We contacted them more than a week in advance to set up appointments and at almost every school, the tour was given by the principal personally.  Also, since we are concerned about spec ed, each arranged for us to meet the spec ed staff.

PTA minutes for most schools are available online.  So I asked questions based on what I had read in the minutes.  Also, most schools actually brought up the PTA before I started asking questions.  At several of the schools, we encountered parent volunteers- decorating, reading with students, etc, so I asked them what made the school special.  My intent was to determine what the PTA provides to the school (lots of fundraising but does it help the students and/or teachers), how parent volunteers are perceived and to assess the level of pride parents, teachers and students have with respect to the school.  If parents, teachers, students respect the school and are willing to work together, they can overcome many financial/resource challenges.  That's what we've learned from our current situation- we moved our DS from a high achieving school to a Title 1 school with an amazing staff and it has made all the difference.[/quote]

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