Reply to APS More Seats for More Students - Community Forum on Capacity

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I didn't attend, either.  But I can promise you that whatever solution they come up with will solve elementary crowding at the expense of crowding in the upper grades (which will be the exact same kids struggling with crowding now since kids get older every year), and take so long that the bubble will have moved on from elementary.

I know, I am not being helpful, but snarky.  At least I didn't make a dig at the perennial north v south Arlington debate.
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Actually, this forum has moved on to the MIDDLE school level.  That is what the Board is now concentrating on.  They even have thrown out the idea of building a new middle school at W-L where the APS administrative buildings are...[/quote]

Did you attend the forum?  If what you say is true, and the focus is on the middle school level, it seems that APS will focus on non-capital options to address elementary school overcrowding.  The list of non-capital options to address capacity are all over the place - more relocatables, creating team-schools, increasing class size, moving programs, year-round schools, changing admissions/transfer policies.  [b]I know that Claremont's Montessori program will be transferred to Hoffman-Boston which is an under-enrolled school starting next fall and those families are devastated. [/b] I live in southeast Arlington and have a child who will start K in 2015.  We would love to have the guaranteed Claremont Immersion option that my current neighborhood school has now but who knows?  I hate this uncertainty but I guess I'll find out soon enough...
[url]http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/110/F-1%20CIP%20Framework_01_23_14.pdf[/url][/quote]

Honestly, if they can address the elementary capacity issues through these mechanisms (relocatables, schedule changes, choice programs) that would be better than building a new school. Arlington has very limited land to build on, so we should save it for the facilities we really need (which may be a middle school or a high school), and making each elementary school bigger might be more cost-effective--it would certainly be more cost effective to add 100 kids to five schools (which would require additional classroom teachers but no additional administrators or anything) than to add a new 500-student school (with full complement of administrative staff, specials teachers, lunchroom workers and custodians, etc.). Adding on to existing school buildings would also help more kids attend a school in their neighborhood, without shifting a bunch of boundaries. [/quote]

Looking for clarification on this - they will be moving the entire Claremont student body to Hoffman-Boston starting next September? (I know I am restating exactly what you have said, but I live in a guarantee neighborhood, and haven't heard anything about it.) 
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NP.  I was at the K info session at Claremont this week.  They are moving the Pre-K Montessori classes to Hoffman-Boston in the fall.  The rest of the school is staying put.  There was no mention of the whole school moving at some point.[/quote]

THANK YOU! I read it wrong - I thought it was the immersion program that was moving. (Thank goodness, b/c we purchased in a [b]priority neighborhood[/b] just for the immersion program.)[/quote]

I hate to say this but everything is on the table now to alleviate overcrowding including admissions policy changes and boundary changes (for ES) for county-wide schools.  Claremont's school brochure even states this.  Who knows if the priority neighborhoods will remain the same at the end of this process.  I say this as someone else who lives in a priority neighborhood for Claremont and wants my child to go there.  I'm hoping the guaranteed admission schools remain the same!
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