Reply to Let’s Talk APS High Schools: 4th one or no?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I just don't see the need to spend tens of millions of dollars  to build a 4th comprehensive high school. Yes we need seats, but no - we don't need an entire campus. People who say "just turn Kenmore into a high school," but ok - where do all those middle school seats go? 6th-8th graders need a dedicated building and curriculum, whereas you can be a bit more flexible with high school students.

I like the idea of expanding on the current course: smaller programs spread out in various centers around the County. It's more nimble, and those seats can alleviate overcrowding just as well as ball fields and tennis courts. [/quote]

Small programs everywhere means all those students still need to go back to neighborhood schools, or go somewhere to come together with all the other program schools, for extracurriculars and amenities.  We can't keep sending hundreds and hundreds of students back to the existing already-overburdened fields and courts and such.  Students who have to go back to a neighborhood school for marching band are getting shafted.  They don't go to school with those kids; but they see them only in band and have to give-up time at their own school and classes in order to do so (for an example).  Much more efficient and effective to build a larger campus - whether of all the little programs or a comprehensive high school - and give them at least most of the amenities on site.  A lot less traveling around, bussing around, and wasting students' time traveling around the County for the basic things Yorktown, WL and Wakefield students get to take for granted.

The Kenmore site is amply big enough to house both a middle school and high school.  If you can talk about cramming 3000 high school students on 12 acres at the Career Center site, you can certainly fit 3,000 on well over 30 acres at Kenmore.  If you can legitimately talk about renovating and adding on to the existing Career Center building and making it work, you can certainly work with the existing middle school building and make a 6-12 campus work whether in one building or two.  Where is it carved that 6-8 graders "need a dedicated building and curriculum"?  Did somebody forget to tell HB Woodlawn that?  Or Lake Braddock (or is it Robinson?) that is 7-12, operating 7-8 with its own administration and cordoned off within the 7-12 campus?

Kenmore campus is bigger than Wakefield's and they were considering building another elementary school on that campus (and new elementaries are now almost as large as our middle schools and require more outdoor space, apparently).  Traffic issues come with any site.  SB just doesn't have the courage to do what they are elected to do:  make decisions in the interest of the school system.  Glencarlyn has scared them off with their tails between their legs twice. They deserve to have their biggest fear realized and lose their precious W-L when they are redistricted to Wakefield with a new high school at the Career Center instead.

A high school at the Career Center site can be a fabulous institution.  But Kenmore offers the "easier" vision with what people in Arlington are more comfortable with - the sprawling campus rather than the urban institution.  And boundaries would be much simpler and more flexible as needed to balance enrollment over time.  And wouldn't make Wakefield 80% FRL like a "Career Center High School" will -- but, nobody gives a r's a-- about that.

Smaller programs do not provide the guarantees of enrollment control evenly across schools like boundaries do.  All of the high schools are crowded; so we need to address overall capacity and be able to balance enrollment through boundaries.  Projections show more than enough overcrowding to fill a full-sized high school.  That's the most efficient way to deal with the problem, even if it is expensive.  [/quote]

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