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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When will APS just rent an office building in Crystal City or Ballston and turn it into Arlington Science High School?  That is all we really can afford.

Did you see this article in the post?

[b]Politics
Lowest US birth rate in 3 decades could pose risk to economy[/b]

[url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lowest-us-birth-rate-in-3-decades-could-pose-risk-to-economy/2018/05/17/9183b4ce-5a0f-11e8-9889-07bcc1327f4b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2ef3f1a253e2[/url][/quote]

Really, tell me how it would work for APS to "just rent an office building." APS can't afford to pay market rent as set by the developers for those buildings so they'd need to find a developer willing to forego the tax breaks they get for the unleased space and give APS a sub-market lease. But even without considering the tax breaks, developers will be very reluctant to do this because such a lease would have to be for at least 20 years (because the renovations required to turn office space into a code-compliant school will probably require bond funding, and bond funding can only be used for projects expected to have at least a 20-year life), and because most developers own more than just that one commercial space, and will be worried about what such a big sub-market lease would do to the market for their other commercial spaces. [/quote]

Didn't a private middle/high school open up in a Ballston office building a few years ago?  Stop wasting APS money on a 4th comprehensive high school.

https://thesycamoreschoolva.org

The Sycamore School is located at
The Arlington Center
Suite 300
4600 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203

5th - 12th grade.

The Sycamore School embraces an [b]urban campus model, where students learn to utilize community resources to augment and enhance their learning experience. Located in the heart of Ballston, we are accessible to metro/public transportation and walking distance to five parks. [/b]

APS schools were a ghost town in the 70/80s.  History will repeat itself.[/quote]

The Sycamore School charges tuition of $23,000 per year, plus another $1k in other fees (and probably expects fundraising contributions as well). If APS got $24k+ per student per year from the county, they would have a lot more options too.[/quote]

And don't forget they can choose their own students, and say on their website their program isn't a good fit for students with "significant behavioral, cognitive or language struggles." So if you're a child with more significant special needs or an ESOL student, you're out of luck there. Must easier to manage a budget when you can exclude the more expensive students.[/quote]

Plus their program is capped at 60 students total for next year, with five classes of around 12 kids each, so don't need to rent much space. And they don't provide transportation. They employee eight people total (plus a dog). And this is only their second year up and running, so who knows if this will even prove feasible in the long run.

So there's our model of what kind of school has found it feasible to rent commercial office space. It doesn't resemble any of the APS schools.[/quote]

I'm sorry, I made a mistake in there. It's actually 60 kids across grades 5 through 10, so more like ten students per grade.[/quote]

APS gets plenty of outside funding and can scale better to lower cost per student.  This would make a great option program with low risk.  Arlington Science High.  Right in or near the old NSF building.

This building would make a great satellite program for W&L.  Move IB or create another great program.  APS should not waste money on things like a 4th football team.  [/quote]

You think APS can just break up its secondary schools into 60-student units and stick them in commercial sites all over the county? Um, sure, okay.[/quote]

Are you a moron?  There are entire empty buildings in Ballston.  [/quote]

Tell me, how much do you think it would cost for APS to lease an entire office building?[/quote]

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