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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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Voluntary transfers are not an adequate solution when a school like Williamsburg - at 80% capacity - is allowed to decide that it only wants to take 10 transfers. Swanson is still left overcrowded and Williamsburg only made a symbolic gesture in taking a few extra kids. Why does APS allow this? So the richest middle school in the county is also the least crowded by a long shot? We are a Glebe family and, due to the voluntary transfers, what would be about a 50/50 split between Hamm and Swanson ends up being probably a 80/20 split with several kids left disappointed and on the wait list for transferring to Hamm. Just let them all transfer or none of them - or better yet, switch the PUs to Hamm so that some kids aren’t left behind.[/quote]

What do you mean by richest?  You do understand that APS doesn’t give any extra money to the schools when it accepts transfers. They don’t get to hire any more teachers or any additional staff. Schools are told how much money they have and then the school makes a decision about transfers. If APS really wanted to use transfers to help it would have to give schools money based on number of students after transfers are factored in. Please learn how things work before spouting off about how schools don’t take 20% more students. [/quote]
I assume they meant richest as in that’s where the wealthiest people in the county live. Speaking of not spouting off when you don’t understand how things work,  if they accepted more student, they would hire more teachers. That’s been a complaint at Williamsburg, classes are quite large because they don’t have enough students for an additional team or more sections.[/quote]

That’s not terribly accurate. What is true is that Williamsburg is no longer zoned to neighborhoods with more affordable housing types.

And yes, the large class sizes have been a serious problem there. The building is also quite old and in need of a complete rebuild (along with TJ).[/quote]

And Swanson and Gunston.

Middle schools across the board except Hamm and Kenmore are in rough shape.[/quote]

Swanson could definitely use a renovation but as a designated historic building, the front lawn and the facade can’t be altered.

Hopefully the boundaries and building renovation/rebuild pipeline gets figured out soon. All the APS focus has been on option programs it seems. Montessori, Tech, etc., and not the neighborhood schools. [/quote]

Uh, the focus was never on options in recent decades, and then in the last four years it suddenly had to be. The Career Center had to be finalized to meet HS seat planning that was delayed from a decade before. That also meant addressing Montessori, which is in one of the worst buildings. Meanwhile, APS like many other school districts put long range Capital improvement planning on hold during pandemic. Now it has restarted. I agree the MS (where my kid is now) need to be addressed, but they will. [/quote]

The only reason APS got a new building was that the community wanted to kick HB out of its very old building to put a neighborhood middle school there. That wasn't the original plan. The new building was supposed to be for a new neighborhood middle school, but parents didn't like that plan and wanted the HB building/plot. So HB had to move. Then after HB got a new building on that plot that no one else wanted, the revisionist history is that APS focused on options as expense of neighborhood. But really it was the other way around. [/quote]

It's a little funny that APS has signaled their intention to move some of the people in the neighborhoods close to/north of Hamm to Williamsburg to make room for people in the R-B corridor at Hamm. We just keep going in circles. [/quote]

That is so DOA. They are moving Immersion to WMS. [/quote]Jeeze, Taylor parents are persistent.  That idea has only appeared here, touted by a few disgruntled Taylor parents, with absolutely no traction within APS admin.  There are about a million other better solves than that harebrained idea.[/quote]

DP. No skin in this game. What's wrong with moving Immersion to WMS? WMS is underenrolled. Last I heard Gunston was over. [/quote]
It's on the opposite end of the county from the majority of the Hispanic population, so would involve significant busing and would prevent parent engagement by many of the Hispanic parents.  There is not a large existing Hispanic community at WMS so it would not be considered a welcoming community.  The school does not have a significant existing Hispanic community, so there are insufficient resources to support an immersion program, e.g., Spanish language library books, bilingual guidance counselors and administrators.  There is no significant synergy with existing ESL services where teachers can service students in immersion and receiving ESL services, given the very limited number of other Spanish language ESL students at WMS.  [/quote]

Isn’t it 50/50, so like half the kids aren’t Spanish speaking so being near Hispanic populations is hardly a deal breaker

They can move the library books for heaven’s sake.  You probably need one bilingual counselor.

WMS won’t be “welcoming”?? You are just making stuff up here. [/quote]
Accommodating the native Spanish speaking part of the program is essential and a main focus.  The program doesn't work if it doesn't have a significant portion of native speakers.

By MS all of kids speak Spanish, including the non-native speakers, and they all likely benefit from being at a MS with clubs and teams where there are many other kids who speak Spanish so they can practice speaking in a non academic setting too

You can't just move the Spanish language books, as they're also used by other students at Gunston, which has a large Hispanic population.

And yes, perception of the WMS community would have a huge effect on native Spanish speaking families staying in the program.  [/quote]

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