Reply to APS: Elementary Walk Zone surveys out

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Look at the current boundary map:

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ESZones_Letter_2017_Revised2-1.pdf

The Reed walk zone is going to draw primarily from McKinley and Tuckahoe, with a little bit of Nottingham and maybe Glebe. Reed is being constructed to hold 725 students. McKinley is overcrowded by ~120 students this year, so it can afford to shed a few kids to Reed (plus McKinley's boundaries can also easily push into Ashlawn to create capacity relief there). Glebe is overcrowded too. But Tuckahoe and Nottingham are basically at capacity this year-- I think under/over by less than 20 kids if you look at the APS data. So when you move the walkable Tuckahoe PUs out to Reed, it leaves the Tuckahoe school building severely under-enrolled, while doing nothing about the overcrowding on the east side of the county. (Fleet will take care of most of S Arl's issues, but it isn't large enough to also take care of crowding in NE Arlington.) And since the Tuckahoe building is at the very edge of the county, you can't really draw a bigger walk zone in any other direction to pick up more kids.

As a backdrop to all of this, APS (and the county as a whole) is facing an extremely difficult budget year. The Washington Post did a whole story about it last week (google it). So APS is looking to minimize busing costs so they can spend more of their operational budget on staff salaries instead. If you have a school building like Reed in a highly walkable area, then it makes sense for it to be used as a neighborhood school. In contrast, if you have a school in a location like Tuckahoe or ATS-- bounded my major roads that are unsafe for elementary students to cross-- then you are going to be busing students to those locations anyway so use those spots for the choice schools. That's the entire point of this elementary school walk zone effort-- figure out how to minimize busing costs to the fullest extent possible, because our County is running out of money unless we increase property taxes. And during yesterday's County Board meeting, the Board voted not to advertise a property tax increase for 2019-- which means APS is going to have to operate with more kids and less money per kid for at least two years.

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Fleet is going to pull in current Long Branch students and current Henry students who are not walkers will be rezoned to Drew. All to reduce busing costs. You need not move two option programs around, which is an expense, to ensure that boundaries in the east aren't shifted. Swap Key and ASFS. Reed pulls in Glebe, Fleet pulls in Long Branch, Jamestown pulls in some Taylor, problem solved. [/quote]

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